In this fun and packed episode, we dive into everything Disney — from planning your trip to Disneyland or Disney World, to discovering the hidden gems most visitors miss! Our special guest, Robert Graham, a Disney aficionado, shares insider tips on the best times to go, how to make the most of your visit, and even reveals the secret spots where celebrities like to hang out when they’re at the parks.
Whether you’re a first-time visitor or a Disney superfan, you won’t want to miss these expert insights to make your East or West Coast Disney adventure unforgettable!
instagram.com/whatsgoodwithjohn_joyce
facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561504850955
whatsgoodwithjohnandjoyce.transistor.fm
directlinemediaproductions.com/professional-podcast-production
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Am I saying.
Okay, who I am?
Or you see Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck.
What's good with Johnny?
Voice is sponsored by Woodwinds Weddingand Special Events Venue in Branford,
Connecticut, and Silvio's awardwinning Italian sauces,
which you can buy anytime onlineat silvio's.
(00:21):
Sauces.com.
That's silvio's sauces.com.
Hello, how are you?
We've you know whatare you a little bit silly here Disney.
Welcome to Disney.We're having so much fun.
But I'm going to take a lot of heatfor this one at the gym you know.
Oh my gosh.
I have to right here. Safe.
Well, welcome to another editionof What's Good for John Enjoys.
I'm John Cadillac Seville from iHeartRadiowith my co-host Joyce,
(00:43):
alias Mickey and Minnie Mouse today,and we brought back a guest
that we had earlier.
So much fun.
Here'sa digital company does so well with that.
But he also likes to go to Disney.
And who does? Oh.That is an understatement.
Yeah.I mean, how many times a year does he go?
Well, hey, listen,he'll tell you more about that.
But if anybody knowsanything about Disney even
(01:05):
maybe the most is WaltDisney knew himself.
Could it be up in that? Right.
This gentleman does.
Robert Graham,welcome back to what's Good, John.
And I'm always happy to hear back.Yeah. Oh.
Is it a bad time?
Tell you,I know nothing about this. Oh, no.
I just like wearing a hat.
Schultz and Hogan's hero.I don't know nothing.
Nothing to tell you. I'm like. Because.
(01:26):
Yeah, one of the questions.
Like, I go 3 to 4 times a year.
Okay, so total amount that you've been,what would you say.
Well, the event is different from,you know, my
my son who's 14 has been there 42 times.
42 times.
I've done probably close to 60. Wow.
You've been there 60.
Times in those 60 times eitherDisneyland or Disney World.
(01:49):
And there's always something newto see every time.
Correct. Wow.
Because I'm, I'm into like the foodsat the restaurant.
Yeah, there are still things that I havenot done or scenery and really,
believe it or not. Wow.
And which ones do you go to?
More when.
I go to Disneyland. More.
Okay. In California.
(02:09):
That was a difference. When I grew up,
it was Disney World because it's easy.
It's part of the reason why I go, like,I went my parents
2 or 3 times as, like an eight yearold and as, like a 12 year old.
And I absolutely just fell in lovewith the whole.
And you're still an eight yearold, and. I'm still you.
And I go there.
You there is a part of methat's still a little kid.
And must feel good.
(02:30):
I like, get there.
It's my happy place.
It's like I like walking in it.
Feel the weight of the world,just kind of melt away.
And your wifeand your son feels the same way.
Oh, yeah.
Wait, did were you going there firstbefore you met your wife?
Oh, 100%. Yeah. What?
My parents.
And then Disneylandis kind of a different story.
Like, I went to Disneyland twice with.
(02:52):
Once with my parentsand one with the former company.
But both times it wasI would only rode, like, two rides.
One of them was it was the openingwe got there and it just happened.
That Splash Mountain was openall. First time I was Splash Mountain.
And I waited 5.5 hours in line.
Really? Yeah.
And, that was the whole day at Disney I.
And I loved that ride. Was it worth it?
(03:13):
It was worth it. Yeah.
And the next timeI was doing, I used to do,
training videos for Chuck E cheese.
That's another whole the whole story.
I used to work with a Chuck E cheese.You were a manager or.
Yeah, I was a manager.
I did training.Yeah, a little side sizing.
And I, we were filming training videos,
and then justthis script was all messed up, and the.
(03:34):
My boss handed me a whole bunch of cashand told me to take the camera guy
and the audio guy and the other person
recording to go to Disneylandwas right down the street,
but we only had three hours,so we just ran into Disney,
did like literally two ridesand came back in and recorded.
But you were hooked.
I was hooked, and then
(03:55):
we started going to Disneylandand I'm really big into history.
I'm really big into Walt.
Like, I, I consume the books.
I do the podcasts.
And you have a bookright over there. A book.
I have a Disney book right here. Sure.And show that on the camera there.
That's one of the one of the many,one of the many.
Reasons guys and loved Disney,the wonderful world of Disney.
I remember watching that on TVall the time on Sunday nights.
(04:17):
It's just a wonderful world of Disney,right?
Yeah, that was part of our viewinggrow and growing up.
Yeah, that was part ofit was was a master at marketing,
you know, Disney the theme park.
He kind of interject with the wonderful
old Disneykind of interjected it into that. Right.
Because that'show the show kind of started.
He always gave up like updateson the building of Disneyland.
And it wasn't a smooth ride.
In the beginning, everybody thingsall Walt Disney was successful overnight.
(04:39):
No, no, no.He had a very, very long road like.
And that's one of the things I likeabout the history of it.
Like he had many failures before,before he really hit it.
What is that true with most things,Robert?
Most people fail there.
Well, if you're going to fall, fallforward. Correct. That's my thing.
Wait.
Did WaltDisney have failures in other businesses?
Were tryingto. Get was doing like animation.
(05:01):
So his first animation studiobasically went bad.
Guy has no creativity.
Remember they said that about him?He said no creativity.
Then he had he had a charactercalled Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Yes.
That basically got stolen from him.
Like he went to negotiate a contract.
And the person said, well,I own the character.
I've already called, and I've gottenlike 80% of your staff to come on
(05:22):
and animate this, and I'm not paying youanything because I'm doing this myself.
And then the story is that he leftNew York by train.
This is like in the 30s.
And he basically during that train ride,he came up with Mickey Mouse
and started again.
Like, I think a lot of peoplewould have just given up at that point.
But he started he.
Just came up with the name to.
(05:42):
He came up. Yeah.
Because he was supposed to beMortimer Mouse, I think.
And then like, tone was a dumb, dumb idea.
It doesn't have the same ring.
And, so then he changed itand then, you know,
he was basically the first personof the sound cartoon,
and then he became the first personto do an animated movie, Snow White, like,
so nobody ever thought you can watcha whole movie that's animated, right?
(06:03):
And then he was kind of the first personto do what's called a theme park.
You know, there was amusement parks,but he was the first person
to do all this theming and make it intokind of an immersive place.
And then everybody started copying himafter that.
You think he'd be really astounded byhow big Disney is in 2025?
I think he would be.
I think he would be, but he was alwayswhatever the newest thing was,
(06:27):
he was always going out.
And yeah, I got the pleasure of last timeI was, we went to California
like about a month ago, and,I was looking online on social media
and the the last remaining Imagineerthat had to do with, Disneyland.
His name is Bob Iger.
He's in his 90s, and he was doing a talk,
(06:48):
two miles away from Disneyand at a library.
Man, you can you can do a meet and greetand you can listen to him talk.
You know, he he was actually thefirst person to do a steel roller coaster.
Steel. Roller coaster.
And he taught himself because he wasoriginally kind of a car designer.
So he taught himself trigonometry
in order to build the Matterhorn,which is an indoor.
(07:08):
Teach yourself trigonometry. I don't know,
no. And he went on
after Disney, went on to create all kindsof, you know, he the L.A.
Olympics, he did these flying saucers.
They came down.
These people. Brilliant.
They're all visionaries.
They're visionaries.
Yeah, especially Walt Disney.
Okay, so take me through me, novice, then.
(07:29):
But yeah, I've never been to Disney.You've never.
We have to change that. It's.
No, it's because, you know,I mean, I had these little kids young.
I was always working and then I have justdeal with disabilities at home.
So there's never been a timewhere I could say
we can all go together because it is.
It can be costly.
Correct?
(07:49):
It can.
And and, but I'm going to figure this out.
I want to take a little sad.That's not a sad story.
My dad always wanted to go to Disneyand take us to Disney,
but he never got therebecause he had a business.
He was always, you know, when you ownyour own business, it's up, it's down.
And he owned a gas station.
He worked hard.
And when he when he died fairly youngand I did the eulogy,
(08:13):
I said, dad, I will go to Disney for you.
I am going.
So now it's like, okay,I really have got to get there.
So I want to know to other peoplewho may not have gone yet or whatever,
I'm going to start at the one coursein Florida because it's closer.
That's easier.
And what do I need to know?
(08:33):
Like I look online,it's like, well, you can prepay this.
And now, right.Well you call me and then I walk okay.
Like I do, you know, like I do.
I'm actually a Disney travelagent on the side.
Like it's not somethingI publicize a lot other than right now.
But when I do select people, I'll helpplan the trip because I've,
I kind of know.
All like the viewers of,what's good with John. And.
(08:55):
Yeah, they help you out, although they cancontact me like, Oh that's fabulous.
No, no, I enjoy doing that too.
It's like kind of a side thing. It'snot my main.
Not my main gig.
You know? It's say it's me. Yeah.
I was listening to, you know,Sirius Radio was listening to Andy Cohen,
who is taking his kids for the first time.
He was asking for callers to tell him,and they were calling
(09:18):
in with advice as far as the strollers,because he didn't.
Know. Oh, yeah. There, you got it.
You got to be kind of organized and.
All right, my thing is like,especially the Florida like my,
my big word of advice isand some people don't like it
because they're on vacationis that you get there before park open.
You make sure you're like at the gates20 to 30 minutes beforehand
(09:38):
before they open the gate.What time do the gate?
So that's usually eight, sometimes 730.
That's not so bad.
I noticed for you the way my.
My actual pattern
is, I and I do this all the time,especially for Florida when it's hot.
I do opening to about 12 1230.
I grab a lunch back to the hotel for 4.5hours.
Susan,what did you mean the opening? 12 1230.
(10:00):
Oh, I get that open, you know,because when.
You, you get there, when it opensearly, I.
Try to get there like 20 minutesbefore they open doors. Due to. Hot.
Because when you
when they open the gates, there's,you know, probably 10,000 people there,
but they get dispersed all over the parkand they head for 1000 people.
Wait.
Yeah, but it in the morningyou'll get you'll get a good hour,
that there's a lot of attractions.
(10:21):
You'll just be able to walk right onbecause the people gravitate towards
like 2 or 3 attraction.
It's so spaced out to what.
Are the 2 or 3that they tend to gravitate. To.
And either go to Space Mountain,
they go to Tiana's, which is a new ride,or they go to Seven Dwarfs Mine train.
At Disneyland is whatwhat kind of a ride is. That?
That Splash Mountain they converted it to?
Oh, I didn't know that because it'sSplash Mountain. I've done that.
Yeah, since it's the newest thing.
(10:41):
Like they those people gravitate to that.
But then every other ride is open.
I want to go to the haunted house.
Well, that's usually open like just easyto get on in the beginning.
And I stay to like 12.
And then I go get lunchand then back to the hotel to pool, nap.
What? What would I stay away from?
Since we are all adultsnow, I don't have like little kids
(11:02):
wanting to go on certain rideslike the teacup or something.
So like when you. Wanted to do you.
I mean, teacups and all that.
As I get older, spinning rides are not my.
Yeah, I don't like spinning.They're not my friend.
Yeah.
So, like, roller coasters never did.
Yeah. So, like, I love roller coasters.
But though my wife won't go upsideno upside down coasters, I,
(11:25):
but I always gravitate, you know,
we get there, and I always wantedto, like, hey,
I should tapehow my family navigates the park.
Because we get a lot doneand we take time off, and then
usually we do, like, sit down dinner,and then we're back to the park.
And so. Close. That didn't happenovernight. That's years and years ago.
(11:45):
Oh, yeah. Right.
So you could actually doa whole instructional video.
Oh, 100%. I always wanted to do that.
I was want to sit down and be like,this is what I do. Yes.
This is how I would navigate and each
each I'm a different Disney Worldis completely different to Disneyland.
They are they are two unique.
So tell us how,
Same a lot of the same rides.
Disneyland rides are actually inthe most part one, they're the same ride.
(12:09):
They're actually better.
Disneyland.At Disneyland, they. California.
Even though that's the older. One.It's the older one.
But because it's a local park
and they need the local people to come inmore often, that they have a tendency.
Update those rides first.
Wow. So Pirates of the Caribbeanis like ten minutes longer.
Peter Panthere is is is has more audio visuals.
(12:31):
The Thunder Mount has more audio visuals.Now they're catching up in Florida.
Now they're refurbishing Thunder Mountainto be more like the one in Disneyland.
You would thinkthey want to be consistent.
Yeah.
No, they they do Disneyland first
and then it kind of gets rolled outto Disney World.
About the is the food also different?
I always the food in Disneyland
is a lot betterbecause once again it's a locals park.
So Disney World'smore of like once in a lifetime trip.
(12:52):
People are coming there once,maybe every 2 or 3 years.
Disneyland.Some of those people come in every week.
Like I have a very good friend out there.
He has a season pass.
He's there at least once a week,if not week.
So does he go there to eat? He goes there.
You treat the park differentlywhen you're like a season pass holder.
It's more of old school,kind of like a mall.
You're going there
(13:12):
to like walk around and catch theyou know, they always say there's vibes.
Both parks have vibes,but Disneyland is very laid back. And,
and that's one of the reason I likeeither going to either both of them.
I like watch people have fun.
So there is a general overall.
If you have seen a bunch of peoplehaving fun, just good vibes going on.
So like,you know, people in California navigate
(13:35):
the park, they might only do one rideor do no rides.
Maybe they'll just walk around the park,catch the fireworks show,
grab a bite to eat, have dinner,and they'll they'll hit it for three hours
because they're going to be backnext week.
So the fabric in the community.
Yeah, it's it's
the both parks have a very different feel.
The in summer,I definitely prefer Disneyland
(13:55):
because it's usually 80 degrees,no humidity where Florida
can get very humid and the storms come in.
You know, it's kind of a joke.
Yeah.
Two, 3:00 in the afternoonis going to pour it, pause for 15 minutes.
Yeah.Everything clears up. Then it clears up.
So how
I navigateeach of those parks is different.
I do some of the same stuff likemy absolute favorite thing in the world
(14:18):
is going to dinner.
They sit down dinnerand then going back to the park
like 7 or 8:00 at nightand see how much I can get done,
during that time.
So. And are there fireworks every day?
Fireworks place in California?
Sometimes if the wind is not,because there's like the Santa
Ana winds that come off the desertif it's not cooperating.
(14:41):
And I never knew thisand I would see it all the time I see it.
You would see a white balloon go up.
You'd be standing aroundwaiting for the fireworks.
You see a white balloon going in the air.
And I would always think like, oh,some kid lost his right balloon.
How sad. They release a balloon.
And if itif it exits the park in ten minutes,
if you know the balloongets out of the park in that time,
(15:02):
the winds are too strongand the fireworks are off.
But they don't need to do that in Florida.
They don't need to do that in Florida. No.
And then but there's other there's likenow at Disney Land, there's basically
four nighttime shows going on all withinbasically 15 minutes of each other.
So there's fireworks and there's a parade.
And then there is,
in this, they have they
in Disney Land,they build Galaxy's Edge, a Star Wars area
(15:26):
behind Disneyland, whereas Disney World,it's in a different park,
but you can go catch the same fireworksin Star Wars, in Galaxy's Edge
that have their own projectionsand our own theme to the same fireworks.
So it's like a separate show.
Like so it is, it is Disneyland,and night is like,
there's just so much goingon, so many people running around.
(15:47):
It's just a feast for the senses,isn't it?
Oh, yeah.
Can it be overload? Sometimes, sometimes.
That's why I like leaving the parkbetween like, 12 and four.
Because that's the typicallythe busiest, right?
The busiest time.
Okay. The sun's the highest.
It's it's really busy.
Like, I like kind ofgoing back to the hotel, relaxing.
To chill out.
Then the nighttime in eitherany of those parks and my favorite
(16:09):
the the lighting, the shows.
Remembermy wife and I went down to Orlando.
We just loved it at nightto walk it around.
I just the vibe, the vibe.
I love getting ready for the fireworks.
Your choice. You've got to get there.We've been there, I.
Will, I will.
It's so much so let's sayJoyce wins the lottery and I could stay
and I could stay at the best hotel inside.
(16:32):
Inside which Disney World or Disneyland?
Disney World.
C, Disney World.
I'd have two choices for you.
Like I would do the contemporary.
Which is one of my favorites.
Because it's the one right next to park.
You can walk to the, to the park with
and if you get a theme park room,you can watch fireworks from your balcony.
(16:52):
And my other favorite hotel,which I'm going to next week for a quick
trip, is Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Oh, okay.
Yes, because you can stand on
your back porchand you can see giraffes and gazelles and.
Oh, wow.
And I've,
I've sometimes I've sat in the back porchand you can see the fireworks
in the distance from the parks,and I'm watching giraffes walk around.
But aren't these inside Disney?
(17:13):
They are too.
The animal kingdom has a whole separatearea where they do a safari.
So then I don't have to wait for the parkto open because I'm already inside.
Animal Kingdom lodges.They built it. So there they have.
It has its own safari and there's ownanimals that are running around.
So, you know, I would love that.
Yeah it is. Oh.
Wouldn't that be great?
But I love the whole idea what you say.
Just relaxing on your porch.You have a. Drink. Correct.
(17:34):
You know. Right. And you're just watching.
Morning coffee is Animal Kingdommorning coffee is like morning.
Coffee.My favorite part of a whole vacation.
Or when I'm, like, chilling.
I love the morning walk, but.
You can't get a better viewof having morning coffee.
And there's giraffes.Yeah, walking by you while.
No, it's that loaded, like with children.
Is it noisy?
You think so?
Animal Kingdom is kind of spread outand I don't.
The all
(17:55):
the rooms are pretty much built soundproofbecause they realize that, smart.
But, you know, like, I always say thatthe kids are the kind of the best part.
They're running around and having fun.Yeah.
Can you live vicariously through them?Like everybody?
I like the vibes of everybody.Just having fun. Like going into parks.
I've seen everybody having a good time.
Like I feed off of that. It's just like.
It's like even when I'm at the beach,a lot of people get annoyed by the kids.
(18:15):
I don't.
Yeah, no, that doesn't bother me.
No, I like I love.
That they run by and they get. To seebecause I've done it a lot.
Like I love the first timeI brought my my kid to Disney.
Like that's.
Oh yeah. Absolutely.
We've had some
you know, it's almost some of the stuff
like it's a stagelike I can't even believe like
yeah, we had one where,we went to a Halloween party
(18:36):
and he wanted to go do a thing where theythey make you up like a pirate.
So he was basically captain Jack Sparrow.
And as we're walking throughAdventureland, the captain Jack Sparrow
costume character,there are the real captain Jack Sparrow.
Johnny Depp.
Johnny.
Depp noticed him and then had,they had, like a mermaid poster pictures.
(18:57):
He was asking.
He was my son was probably like. 4 or 5.
I never forget thatfor the rest of your life.
And then the follow up with it,they had a parade after that,
and that same character was on a floatand he,
like, pointed and called my son outand dipped his pirate hat to on school.
He and he was like, I got on camera.
And it's like,that was absolutely amazing.
Shannon. You could do that.
You could have that role.You would love that.
And I would, I would.
People being on a float waving.
(19:19):
Or just.
Yeah, it's just. Doing.
That.
You know,I always have super happy times there.
And you know,and I go so often it's, it's, it's, it's.
Just and I remember people saying it'sso clean.
Cool.
Like they do a very good job. I do.
They do an awesome job at that.
You know, I, I always think it spoils mefor when I go to other theme
parks and I'm like, ooh, I don't likethe garbage cans overflowing or.
(19:42):
Not a. Disney.
Yeah, Disney.
Disney is also spoiledfirework shows for me.
So there's two things I want to ask.
So one is you had sabers.
What is it?
Lasers built the Star Wars.
Oh. The lightsaber lights.
So I went, when Galaxy's Edgefirst opened me,
my business partner,when there's, like, a trip
and he got a lightsaber built, and you'reallowed one guest to it, and it's.
(20:05):
And it's a whole experience.
Like, they make it like that.
You're a Jedi and you're doing a thing.
And. And I was like, wow,this is really amazing.
And it's kind of pricey.
But I made it a thing,like I wanted to hold off,
and I wanted it to do it with my fatherand my son.
Like, all three of us would go buildlightsabers together.
(20:27):
Father and son do it. Yeah.
So we went and we.
I had scheduleand just kind of by accident,
I scheduledone of the last builds of the night.
It was like 9:00 at night,and it could not have gone better.
Like, we went in and we built ourlightsabers and my dad turned to me.
He's like, this is one of the mostamazing things. Like he was.
My dad was so happy building a lightsaber,and he was my son was all over the top.
(20:51):
And then we came out.
Fireworks were going off.
Wow. And then we're watching the fireworksand a photographer came up to us
and you said, hey, you guys
would you guys like to get some pictureswith your lightsabers?
Like.
And the fireworks had endedand the park was emptying out.
So we walked around Galaxy's Edge andjust, you know, we're not paying for this.
Just photographerspent like 20 minutes with us.
(21:11):
We got photosin front of Millennium Falcon.
My mom had a lightsaber.
I got all these pictures of my mom.
My mom with a lightsaber. It's almost.
It was choreographed to my son's.With love.
Yeah. And my, my my dad was like.
That was one of the most amazing things.
Like, yeah, I've ever. Done.
Is it an all about memories?
Oh, yeah.
The one, the one funny thing
I took there's a in Animal Kingdom,there's a recall flight, a passage like.
(21:35):
So you're flying on a banshee from avatar,
and it is probably one of the mostamazing rides I've ever been on.
And I couldn'twait to get my parents on it.
And so we are on the right.
We we get off.
My dad loves avatar,but my mom turns to me and she goes,
that was the most amazing experienceof my entire life.
And I said, giving birth to meand my brother
(21:57):
when they were younger, looking for.
Their mom. This is it for you.
This is it. This letterthat really like she laugh. But,
you know, seeing
like, my mom have like, a childlikelook on her face.
Like, I brought her on test track
and she probably shouldn'thave gone on a test track.
Let's just. Try.
It's, like a you're racing a car,but at the end of it,
(22:18):
it goes on in this trackat, like, 65 miles.
Yeah, I went on.
We get off.My mom had this look at her face.
Like her hair was just.
Yeah, hair was all over the place.
She goes,that might have been too much, but.
Okay.
Now Joyce is going downfor the first time.
Orlando makes it easier in Florida.
What does,you know, first time planning the trip?
Just the. First time.
Yeah, you have to. You know,you call me first. Of course.
(22:39):
You put your planning in like you,you know, you decide what hotel each hotel
has its own vibe.
Like there's when I talk to peopleabout which hotel I kind of give them one
I think would fit thembecause they and they vary in price, too.
And they're all great.
Like I've stated,almost all the hotels down there,
and I, there's partsthat I love of each hotel, but it.
Would be the first one you would go toin your initial visit. Which one?
(23:00):
My initial one.
That's that's not very expensive
and I think is one of the nicerhotels is Coronado Springs. Or.
Coronado. Oh, Coronado. Springs.
And on the tower partthey have a restaurant there called Toledo
and is one of the most amazing restaurantsI've ever been to.
Okay, speaking of restaurants, though,we do have to speak about
because you mentionedto us off camera once that,
(23:25):
there's a place you
ate up,but not a lot of people know about it.
Are you talking about club 33?
Club 33. Three.
So club 33 is a membersonly club with inside of Disneyland,
like so you can't get in thereunless you are a member.
There's only about 1200 members.
There's a lot of famous.
100 members.
(23:45):
Where for both parks have a club. 30.
They just opened a club 33 in, in Disney.
Oh they did.
Yeah, Disney World too,
but the one in, Disneyland is the iconicone that's been around forever.
So there's about 1200 membersthere. There's a waitlist.
It costs. A lot.
Like I've heard they say, it's between 40
and 80,000 a year to belong. Oh.
(24:08):
You do get benefits from thatlike you do get some stuff for that.
But if you might be able to afford that.When I went that little.
Yeah, I do believe you can't.
You can't go to that restaurant.
Like I couldn't just walkand make a reservation.
You have to be invited by a member.
So you can be a guest.
You can be a guest of a member,but they have to invite you.
So I was lucky enough.
I have my very good friend Dan, who'slike, one of my best friends in the world.
(24:33):
He contacts me.
He happened to be working for a memberand said he invited me to club 33.
Would you like to go?
Oh, I said one. That's a dumb question.
You know,I have to ask. You get course. The.
Because it's one of the things thatI never thought I was going to ever do,
because it's one of those thingsthat you have to be invited in.
I don't know any members out there.
So, we got invited.
(24:53):
There are rules and regulations.
There's a dress code.
You cannotyou can take pictures of your food.
You can take pictures of your partyor with
you can take pictures of the decor,but you can't take pictures of
because there's obviously famous peoplethere.
Privacy. So it's inside the park.
So, you know, we got we got dressed up,we get really, really dressed up
and just weird walking throughan amusement park, like super dressed.
(25:16):
And you go to a doorand you ring a special doorbell,
and you come in and there's a courtyard.
Does it have a name on the door?
It there's a little 33 logo and that's it.
And most time just people taking picturesin front of it because, you know.
So you can do. That.You can do. That. Okay.
But you can't take photos inside.
Inside the location. Only of your food.
Would there be any, did you see anybodythat we would recognize?
(25:37):
I did not see any famous peoplethat night.
Really? No.
I did have an absolutely amazingexperience.
Like,the dining is just one of those things
where there's basically somebody standingbehind each member of the table and.
It's like.
Hey, if you get up to go to the bathroom,your napkins folded again,
or if you're water, if you tooka sip of water, it's being filled again.
(25:58):
I would take a job just doing thatjust to get you on the 30th.
Yeah, I.
Can you find me a rich friend?
Yeah.
I had a, I had a blue cheesecrusted filet mignon. Oh.
Oh, now. You're talking already.Oh, you're talking.
Oh you're talking.
Yeah.
And we had timed itso that there's a show called fantastic.
That's right out the on the balcony.
And there's fireworks right after that.
(26:18):
So as part of our dinner,we got to get up and from the balcony,
see both these shows. Oh,
I'm just.
Salivating.
And I still likeit was one of the most amazing dinners.
Like, I never thought I would do it
with love to do it again,but the chances are like that.
Yeah, but you did it once.
I did it once and it was.
And wait, was your wife with you?Wife was with me.
My child was with.
(26:38):
Oh, yeah, he got to do it.
My friend Dan was there.
His wife was there.
Did you get to order off of menu or. They.
There's a whole menu.
They have a whole, like,specialty drink menu.
I had a phenomenal dessertI think was some amazing cheesecake.
And just I was the whole day,I was just like, I can't pay my bills.
I can't believe I'm going to do this.
And even afterwards, I'm like,I can't believe I did that.
(27:00):
I can't believe I did that.
Whereas we're getting towardthe end of the, of our episode here.
Rob, can you can you throw some othermaybe tidbits in that people
may not know about Disney,that they're kind of like, whoa,
I didn't realize thata little behind the scenes.
Well, you can add both parksor special tours at Disney World.
There's a touryou can go under Disney World's.
A hundred year. Old it is built onthat is called utility doors.
(27:21):
It's built on a system of tunnelsbecause when Walt built Disneyland,
he didn't have that, you know, being ableto do that, and he didn't like going to.
The Vatican and going underneath in.
A minute.
I thought, in Florida, you can't even havea basement because of the water.
Like, they they actually took thethey built an artificial lake
and they took all that dirt.
They piled it up.
And then they built the tunnel system
because they didn't want likeif you were a character
(27:41):
or you were working in Frontierlanddressed as a cowboy,
they don't want you walkingthrough another area to go see.
Makes sense.
So you can do this wholewe did a whole tour of underground
where it's like there isthere is like cafeterias.
There's the wherethe all the costumes are.
There's people walking aroundgetting to different areas,
and there's all these secret entrancesthat are in plain sight.
(28:01):
And now that, you know, I know these,like, look around and see these,
these are.
These arebut you just can't use those tunnels yet.
So yeah. No, you can't use them.
You have to do what you are like in inDisneyland, you can do a tour
or well, actually had an apartmentbuilt above the firehouse
and you can actually go upand see his apartment.
And I kept it the way it waswhen he was there.
(28:23):
Wow, wow.
It was like etched in time. Very cool.
It was it was great.
And by the way, thosewho are listening to us maybe on I know
iHeart and other platforms, pleasego to YouTube so you could see your ears.
Yes, yes.
If they're listening to the they'remissing out on a whole experience of.
Yoursbecause you've got that magical blue hat.
I love that.
(28:43):
And I mean the Wizards hat.Yeah. Wizards hat.
Yeah, yeah. And this was given to me.
Patti also has ears like thisa few years ago
because Patti had never been there before.
And we told somebody at one of the stores,we'd never been to Disney.
So new, never been to Disney,
and went right behind the counterand both gave us yours for free.
Yeah, you'll get this.
Magical. Yeah.
We had onewhere my son lost his autograph book
(29:03):
and the person goes, hold on a second.
And they wentand got another autographed book
and then brought them over to characterto sign it.
From when I go, I'm telling everybody,I've never been here before that, but.
And thank you to your wife, Paula,for letting me borrow your.
Nose, our pride and. Joy.
I know very good care,but my hair was very clean.
Paula. Well, Robert,thank you so much for coming back.
We thank. You.
I appreciate all of you.
(29:24):
Because without you,we don't have a podcast.
You just please tell a friendabout us. Spread the word.
What's good with John and Joyce?Good news.
You're good news podcast.You're safe place to land.
Check it out on all the major streamingplatforms.
And Robert, once again thank you. Enjoy.
So it's always a pleasure. Oh, I loved it.
I love being here with Robert.
We'll put your information on both showshow to reach you and,
(29:47):
And what else was I going to sayI don't know.
Yeah. Hey. Why?
You. Know, you see.
Bless you and your family.
Thank you so much. Bye. Till next time.
Am I saying.
Okay, who I am?
Or you see Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck.
What's good with Johnny?
Voice is sponsored by Woodwinds Weddingand Special Events Venue in Branford,
Connecticut, and Silvio's awardwinning Italian sauces,
which you can buy anytime onlineat silvio's.
(00:21):
Sauces.com.
That's silvio's sauces.com.
Hello, how are you?
We've you know whatare you a little bit silly here Disney.
Welcome to Disney.We're having so much fun.
But I'm going to take a lot of heatfor this one at the gym you know.
Oh my gosh.
I have to right here. Safe.
Well, welcome to another editionof What's Good for John Enjoys.
I'm John Cadillac Seville from iHeartRadiowith my co-host Joyce,
(00:43):
alias Mickey and Minnie Mouse today,and we brought back a guest
that we had earlier.
So much fun.
Here'sa digital company does so well with that.
But he also likes to go to Disney.
And who does? Oh.That is an understatement.
Yeah.I mean, how many times a year does he go?
Well, hey, listen,he'll tell you more about that.
But if anybody knowsanything about Disney even
(01:05):
maybe the most is WaltDisney knew himself.
Could it be up in that? Right.
This gentleman does.
Robert Graham,welcome back to what's Good, John.
And I'm always happy to hear back.Yeah. Oh.
Is it a bad time?
Tell you,I know nothing about this. Oh, no.
I just like wearing a hat.
Schultz and Hogan's hero.I don't know nothing.
Nothing to tell you. I'm like. Because.
(01:26):
Yeah, one of the questions.
Like, I go 3 to 4 times a year.
Okay, so total amount that you've been,what would you say.
Well, the event is different from,you know, my
my son who's 14 has been there 42 times.
42 times.
I've done probably close to 60. Wow.
You've been there 60.
Times in those 60 times eitherDisneyland or Disney World.
(01:49):
And there's always something newto see every time.
Correct. Wow.
Because I'm, I'm into like the foodsat the restaurant.
Yeah, there are still things that I havenot done or scenery and really,
believe it or not. Wow.
And which ones do you go to?
More when.
I go to Disneyland. More.
Okay. In California.
(02:09):
That was a difference. When I grew up,
it was Disney World because it's easy.
It's part of the reason why I go, like,I went my parents
2 or 3 times as, like an eight yearold and as, like a 12 year old.
And I absolutely just fell in lovewith the whole.
And you're still an eight yearold, and. I'm still you.
And I go there.
You there is a part of methat's still a little kid.
And must feel good.
(02:30):
I like, get there.
It's my happy place.
It's like I like walking in it.
Feel the weight of the world,just kind of melt away.
And your wifeand your son feels the same way.
Oh, yeah.
Wait, did were you going there firstbefore you met your wife?
Oh, 100%. Yeah. What?
My parents.
And then Disneylandis kind of a different story.
Like, I went to Disneyland twice with.
(02:52):
Once with my parentsand one with the former company.
But both times it wasI would only rode, like, two rides.
One of them was it was the openingwe got there and it just happened.
That Splash Mountain was openall. First time I was Splash Mountain.
And I waited 5.5 hours in line.
Really? Yeah.
And, that was the whole day at Disney I.
And I loved that ride. Was it worth it?
(03:13):
It was worth it. Yeah.
And the next timeI was doing, I used to do,
training videos for Chuck E cheese.
That's another whole the whole story.
I used to work with a Chuck E cheese.You were a manager or.
Yeah, I was a manager.
I did training.Yeah, a little side sizing.
And I, we were filming training videos,
and then justthis script was all messed up, and the.
(03:34):
My boss handed me a whole bunch of cashand told me to take the camera guy
and the audio guy and the other person
recording to go to Disneylandwas right down the street,
but we only had three hours,so we just ran into Disney,
did like literally two ridesand came back in and recorded.
But you were hooked.
I was hooked, and then
(03:55):
we started going to Disneylandand I'm really big into history.
I'm really big into Walt.
Like, I, I consume the books.
I do the podcasts.
And you have a bookright over there. A book.
I have a Disney book right here. Sure.And show that on the camera there.
That's one of the one of the many,one of the many.
Reasons guys and loved Disney,the wonderful world of Disney.
I remember watching that on TVall the time on Sunday nights.
(04:17):
It's just a wonderful world of Disney,right?
Yeah, that was part of our viewinggrow and growing up.
Yeah, that was part ofit was was a master at marketing,
you know, Disney the theme park.
He kind of interject with the wonderful
old Disneykind of interjected it into that. Right.
Because that'show the show kind of started.
He always gave up like updateson the building of Disneyland.
And it wasn't a smooth ride.
In the beginning, everybody thingsall Walt Disney was successful overnight.
(04:39):
No, no, no.He had a very, very long road like.
And that's one of the things I likeabout the history of it.
Like he had many failures before,before he really hit it.
What is that true with most things,Robert?
Most people fail there.
Well, if you're going to fall, fallforward. Correct. That's my thing.
Wait.
Did WaltDisney have failures in other businesses?
Were tryingto. Get was doing like animation.
(05:01):
So his first animation studiobasically went bad.
Guy has no creativity.
Remember they said that about him?He said no creativity.
Then he had he had a charactercalled Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Yes.
That basically got stolen from him.
Like he went to negotiate a contract.
And the person said, well,I own the character.
I've already called, and I've gottenlike 80% of your staff to come on
(05:22):
and animate this, and I'm not paying youanything because I'm doing this myself.
And then the story is that he leftNew York by train.
This is like in the 30s.
And he basically during that train ride,he came up with Mickey Mouse
and started again.
Like, I think a lot of peoplewould have just given up at that point.
But he started he.
Just came up with the name to.
(05:42):
He came up. Yeah.
Because he was supposed to beMortimer Mouse, I think.
And then like, tone was a dumb, dumb idea.
It doesn't have the same ring.
And, so then he changed itand then, you know,
he was basically the first personof the sound cartoon,
and then he became the first personto do an animated movie, Snow White, like,
so nobody ever thought you can watcha whole movie that's animated, right?
(06:03):
And then he was kind of the first personto do what's called a theme park.
You know, there was amusement parks,but he was the first person
to do all this theming and make it intokind of an immersive place.
And then everybody started copying himafter that.
You think he'd be really astounded byhow big Disney is in 2025?
I think he would be.
I think he would be, but he was alwayswhatever the newest thing was,
(06:27):
he was always going out.
And yeah, I got the pleasure of last timeI was, we went to California
like about a month ago, and,I was looking online on social media
and the the last remaining Imagineerthat had to do with, Disneyland.
His name is Bob Iger.
He's in his 90s, and he was doing a talk,
(06:48):
two miles away from Disneyand at a library.
Man, you can you can do a meet and greetand you can listen to him talk.
You know, he he was actually thefirst person to do a steel roller coaster.
Steel. Roller coaster.
And he taught himself because he wasoriginally kind of a car designer.
So he taught himself trigonometry
in order to build the Matterhorn,which is an indoor.
(07:08):
Teach yourself trigonometry. I don't know,
no. And he went on
after Disney, went on to create all kindsof, you know, he the L.A.
Olympics, he did these flying saucers.
They came down.
These people. Brilliant.
They're all visionaries.
They're visionaries.
Yeah, especially Walt Disney.
Okay, so take me through me, novice, then.
(07:29):
But yeah, I've never been to Disney.You've never.
We have to change that. It's.
No, it's because, you know,I mean, I had these little kids young.
I was always working and then I have justdeal with disabilities at home.
So there's never been a timewhere I could say
we can all go together because it is.
It can be costly.
Correct?
(07:49):
It can.
And and, but I'm going to figure this out.
I want to take a little sad.That's not a sad story.
My dad always wanted to go to Disneyand take us to Disney,
but he never got therebecause he had a business.
He was always, you know, when you ownyour own business, it's up, it's down.
And he owned a gas station.
He worked hard.
And when he when he died fairly youngand I did the eulogy,
(08:13):
I said, dad, I will go to Disney for you.
I am going.
So now it's like, okay,I really have got to get there.
So I want to know to other peoplewho may not have gone yet or whatever,
I'm going to start at the one coursein Florida because it's closer.
That's easier.
And what do I need to know?
(08:33):
Like I look online,it's like, well, you can prepay this.
And now, right.Well you call me and then I walk okay.
Like I do, you know, like I do.
I'm actually a Disney travelagent on the side.
Like it's not somethingI publicize a lot other than right now.
But when I do select people, I'll helpplan the trip because I've,
I kind of know.
All like the viewers of,what's good with John. And.
(08:55):
Yeah, they help you out, although they cancontact me like, Oh that's fabulous.
No, no, I enjoy doing that too.
It's like kind of a side thing. It'snot my main.
Not my main gig.
You know? It's say it's me. Yeah.
I was listening to, you know,Sirius Radio was listening to Andy Cohen,
who is taking his kids for the first time.
He was asking for callers to tell him,and they were calling
(09:18):
in with advice as far as the strollers,because he didn't.
Know. Oh, yeah. There, you got it.
You got to be kind of organized and.
All right, my thing is like,especially the Florida like my,
my big word of advice isand some people don't like it
because they're on vacationis that you get there before park open.
You make sure you're like at the gates20 to 30 minutes beforehand
(09:38):
before they open the gate.What time do the gate?
So that's usually eight, sometimes 730.
That's not so bad.
I noticed for you the way my.
My actual pattern
is, I and I do this all the time,especially for Florida when it's hot.
I do opening to about 12 1230.
I grab a lunch back to the hotel for 4.5hours.
Susan,what did you mean the opening? 12 1230.
(10:00):
Oh, I get that open, you know,because when.
You, you get there, when it opensearly, I.
Try to get there like 20 minutesbefore they open doors. Due to. Hot.
Because when you
when they open the gates, there's,you know, probably 10,000 people there,
but they get dispersed all over the parkand they head for 1000 people.
Wait.
Yeah, but it in the morningyou'll get you'll get a good hour,
that there's a lot of attractions.
(10:21):
You'll just be able to walk right onbecause the people gravitate towards
like 2 or 3 attraction.
It's so spaced out to what.
Are the 2 or 3that they tend to gravitate. To.
And either go to Space Mountain,
they go to Tiana's, which is a new ride,or they go to Seven Dwarfs Mine train.
At Disneyland is whatwhat kind of a ride is. That?
That Splash Mountain they converted it to?
Oh, I didn't know that because it'sSplash Mountain. I've done that.
Yeah, since it's the newest thing.
(10:41):
Like they those people gravitate to that.
But then every other ride is open.
I want to go to the haunted house.
Well, that's usually open like just easyto get on in the beginning.
And I stay to like 12.
And then I go get lunchand then back to the hotel to pool, nap.
What? What would I stay away from?
Since we are all adultsnow, I don't have like little kids
(11:02):
wanting to go on certain rideslike the teacup or something.
So like when you. Wanted to do you.
I mean, teacups and all that.
As I get older, spinning rides are not my.
Yeah, I don't like spinning.They're not my friend.
Yeah.
So, like, roller coasters never did.
Yeah. So, like, I love roller coasters.
But though my wife won't go upsideno upside down coasters, I,
(11:25):
but I always gravitate, you know,
we get there, and I always wantedto, like, hey,
I should tapehow my family navigates the park.
Because we get a lot doneand we take time off, and then
usually we do, like, sit down dinner,and then we're back to the park.
And so. Close. That didn't happenovernight. That's years and years ago.
(11:45):
Oh, yeah. Right.
So you could actually doa whole instructional video.
Oh, 100%. I always wanted to do that.
I was want to sit down and be like,this is what I do. Yes.
This is how I would navigate and each
each I'm a different Disney Worldis completely different to Disneyland.
They are they are two unique.
So tell us how,
Same a lot of the same rides.
Disneyland rides are actually inthe most part one, they're the same ride.
(12:09):
They're actually better.
Disneyland.At Disneyland, they. California.
Even though that's the older. One.It's the older one.
But because it's a local park
and they need the local people to come inmore often, that they have a tendency.
Update those rides first.
Wow. So Pirates of the Caribbeanis like ten minutes longer.
Peter Panthere is is is has more audio visuals.
(12:31):
The Thunder Mount has more audio visuals.Now they're catching up in Florida.
Now they're refurbishing Thunder Mountainto be more like the one in Disneyland.
You would thinkthey want to be consistent.
Yeah.
No, they they do Disneyland first
and then it kind of gets rolled outto Disney World.
About the is the food also different?
I always the food in Disneyland
is a lot betterbecause once again it's a locals park.
So Disney World'smore of like once in a lifetime trip.
(12:52):
People are coming there once,maybe every 2 or 3 years.
Disneyland.Some of those people come in every week.
Like I have a very good friend out there.
He has a season pass.
He's there at least once a week,if not week.
So does he go there to eat? He goes there.
You treat the park differentlywhen you're like a season pass holder.
It's more of old school,kind of like a mall.
You're going there
(13:12):
to like walk around and catch theyou know, they always say there's vibes.
Both parks have vibes,but Disneyland is very laid back. And,
and that's one of the reason I likeeither going to either both of them.
I like watch people have fun.
So there is a general overall.
If you have seen a bunch of peoplehaving fun, just good vibes going on.
So like,you know, people in California navigate
(13:35):
the park, they might only do one rideor do no rides.
Maybe they'll just walk around the park,catch the fireworks show,
grab a bite to eat, have dinner,and they'll they'll hit it for three hours
because they're going to be backnext week.
So the fabric in the community.
Yeah, it's it's
the both parks have a very different feel.
The in summer,I definitely prefer Disneyland
(13:55):
because it's usually 80 degrees,no humidity where Florida
can get very humid and the storms come in.
You know, it's kind of a joke.
Yeah.
Two, 3:00 in the afternoonis going to pour it, pause for 15 minutes.
Yeah.Everything clears up. Then it clears up.
So how
I navigateeach of those parks is different.
I do some of the same stuff likemy absolute favorite thing in the world
(14:18):
is going to dinner.
They sit down dinnerand then going back to the park
like 7 or 8:00 at nightand see how much I can get done,
during that time.
So. And are there fireworks every day?
Fireworks place in California?
Sometimes if the wind is not,because there's like the Santa
Ana winds that come off the desertif it's not cooperating.
(14:41):
And I never knew thisand I would see it all the time I see it.
You would see a white balloon go up.
You'd be standing aroundwaiting for the fireworks.
You see a white balloon going in the air.
And I would always think like, oh,some kid lost his right balloon.
How sad. They release a balloon.
And if itif it exits the park in ten minutes,
if you know the balloongets out of the park in that time,
(15:02):
the winds are too strongand the fireworks are off.
But they don't need to do that in Florida.
They don't need to do that in Florida. No.
And then but there's other there's likenow at Disney Land, there's basically
four nighttime shows going on all withinbasically 15 minutes of each other.
So there's fireworks and there's a parade.
And then there is,
in this, they have they
in Disney Land,they build Galaxy's Edge, a Star Wars area
(15:26):
behind Disneyland, whereas Disney World,it's in a different park,
but you can go catch the same fireworksin Star Wars, in Galaxy's Edge
that have their own projectionsand our own theme to the same fireworks.
So it's like a separate show.
Like so it is, it is Disneyland,and night is like,
there's just so much goingon, so many people running around.
(15:47):
It's just a feast for the senses,isn't it?
Oh, yeah.
Can it be overload? Sometimes, sometimes.
That's why I like leaving the parkbetween like, 12 and four.
Because that's the typicallythe busiest, right?
The busiest time.
Okay. The sun's the highest.
It's it's really busy.
Like, I like kind ofgoing back to the hotel, relaxing.
To chill out.
Then the nighttime in eitherany of those parks and my favorite
(16:09):
the the lighting, the shows.
Remembermy wife and I went down to Orlando.
We just loved it at nightto walk it around.
I just the vibe, the vibe.
I love getting ready for the fireworks.
Your choice. You've got to get there.We've been there, I.
Will, I will.
It's so much so let's sayJoyce wins the lottery and I could stay
and I could stay at the best hotel inside.
(16:32):
Inside which Disney World or Disneyland?
Disney World.
C, Disney World.
I'd have two choices for you.
Like I would do the contemporary.
Which is one of my favorites.
Because it's the one right next to park.
You can walk to the, to the park with
and if you get a theme park room,you can watch fireworks from your balcony.
(16:52):
And my other favorite hotel,which I'm going to next week for a quick
trip, is Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Oh, okay.
Yes, because you can stand on
your back porchand you can see giraffes and gazelles and.
Oh, wow.
And I've,
I've sometimes I've sat in the back porchand you can see the fireworks
in the distance from the parks,and I'm watching giraffes walk around.
But aren't these inside Disney?
(17:13):
They are too.
The animal kingdom has a whole separatearea where they do a safari.
So then I don't have to wait for the parkto open because I'm already inside.
Animal Kingdom lodges.They built it. So there they have.
It has its own safari and there's ownanimals that are running around.
So, you know, I would love that.
Yeah it is. Oh.
Wouldn't that be great?
But I love the whole idea what you say.
Just relaxing on your porch.You have a. Drink. Correct.
(17:34):
You know. Right. And you're just watching.
Morning coffee is Animal Kingdommorning coffee is like morning.
Coffee.My favorite part of a whole vacation.
Or when I'm, like, chilling.
I love the morning walk, but.
You can't get a better viewof having morning coffee.
And there's giraffes.Yeah, walking by you while.
No, it's that loaded, like with children.
Is it noisy?
You think so?
Animal Kingdom is kind of spread outand I don't.
The all
(17:55):
the rooms are pretty much built soundproofbecause they realize that, smart.
But, you know, like, I always say thatthe kids are the kind of the best part.
They're running around and having fun.Yeah.
Can you live vicariously through them?Like everybody?
I like the vibes of everybody.Just having fun. Like going into parks.
I've seen everybody having a good time.
Like I feed off of that. It's just like.
It's like even when I'm at the beach,a lot of people get annoyed by the kids.
(18:15):
I don't.
Yeah, no, that doesn't bother me.
No, I like I love.
That they run by and they get. To seebecause I've done it a lot.
Like I love the first timeI brought my my kid to Disney.
Like that's.
Oh yeah. Absolutely.
We've had some
you know, it's almost some of the stuff
like it's a stagelike I can't even believe like
yeah, we had one where,we went to a Halloween party
(18:36):
and he wanted to go do a thing where theythey make you up like a pirate.
So he was basically captain Jack Sparrow.
And as we're walking throughAdventureland, the captain Jack Sparrow
costume character,there are the real captain Jack Sparrow.
Johnny Depp.
Johnny.
Depp noticed him and then had,they had, like a mermaid poster pictures.
(18:57):
He was asking.
He was my son was probably like. 4 or 5.
I never forget thatfor the rest of your life.
And then the follow up with it,they had a parade after that,
and that same character was on a floatand he,
like, pointed and called my son outand dipped his pirate hat to on school.
He and he was like, I got on camera.
And it's like,that was absolutely amazing.
Shannon. You could do that.
You could have that role.You would love that.
And I would, I would.
People being on a float waving.
(19:19):
Or just.
Yeah, it's just. Doing.
That.
You know,I always have super happy times there.
And you know,and I go so often it's, it's, it's, it's.
Just and I remember people saying it'sso clean.
Cool.
Like they do a very good job. I do.
They do an awesome job at that.
You know, I, I always think it spoils mefor when I go to other theme
parks and I'm like, ooh, I don't likethe garbage cans overflowing or.
(19:42):
Not a. Disney.
Yeah, Disney.
Disney is also spoiledfirework shows for me.
So there's two things I want to ask.
So one is you had sabers.
What is it?
Lasers built the Star Wars.
Oh. The lightsaber lights.
So I went, when Galaxy's Edgefirst opened me,
my business partner,when there's, like, a trip
and he got a lightsaber built, and you'reallowed one guest to it, and it's.
(20:05):
And it's a whole experience.
Like, they make it like that.
You're a Jedi and you're doing a thing.
And. And I was like, wow,this is really amazing.
And it's kind of pricey.
But I made it a thing,like I wanted to hold off,
and I wanted it to do it with my fatherand my son.
Like, all three of us would go buildlightsabers together.
(20:27):
Father and son do it. Yeah.
So we went and we.
I had scheduleand just kind of by accident,
I scheduledone of the last builds of the night.
It was like 9:00 at night,and it could not have gone better.
Like, we went in and we built ourlightsabers and my dad turned to me.
He's like, this is one of the mostamazing things. Like he was.
My dad was so happy building a lightsaber,and he was my son was all over the top.
(20:51):
And then we came out.
Fireworks were going off.
Wow. And then we're watching the fireworksand a photographer came up to us
and you said, hey, you guys
would you guys like to get some pictureswith your lightsabers?
Like.
And the fireworks had endedand the park was emptying out.
So we walked around Galaxy's Edge andjust, you know, we're not paying for this.
Just photographerspent like 20 minutes with us.
(21:11):
We got photosin front of Millennium Falcon.
My mom had a lightsaber.
I got all these pictures of my mom.
My mom with a lightsaber. It's almost.
It was choreographed to my son's.With love.
Yeah. And my, my my dad was like.
That was one of the most amazing things.
Like, yeah, I've ever. Done.
Is it an all about memories?
Oh, yeah.
The one, the one funny thing
I took there's a in Animal Kingdom,there's a recall flight, a passage like.
(21:35):
So you're flying on a banshee from avatar,
and it is probably one of the mostamazing rides I've ever been on.
And I couldn'twait to get my parents on it.
And so we are on the right.
We we get off.
My dad loves avatar,but my mom turns to me and she goes,
that was the most amazing experienceof my entire life.
And I said, giving birth to meand my brother
(21:57):
when they were younger, looking for.
Their mom. This is it for you.
This is it. This letterthat really like she laugh. But,
you know, seeing
like, my mom have like, a childlikelook on her face.
Like, I brought her on test track
and she probably shouldn'thave gone on a test track.
Let's just. Try.
It's, like a you're racing a car,but at the end of it,
(22:18):
it goes on in this trackat, like, 65 miles.
Yeah, I went on.
We get off.My mom had this look at her face.
Like her hair was just.
Yeah, hair was all over the place.
She goes,that might have been too much, but.
Okay.
Now Joyce is going downfor the first time.
Orlando makes it easier in Florida.
What does,you know, first time planning the trip?
Just the. First time.
Yeah, you have to. You know,you call me first. Of course.
(22:39):
You put your planning in like you,you know, you decide what hotel each hotel
has its own vibe.
Like there's when I talk to peopleabout which hotel I kind of give them one
I think would fit thembecause they and they vary in price, too.
And they're all great.
Like I've stated,almost all the hotels down there,
and I, there's partsthat I love of each hotel, but it.
Would be the first one you would go toin your initial visit. Which one?
(23:00):
My initial one.
That's that's not very expensive
and I think is one of the nicerhotels is Coronado Springs. Or.
Coronado. Oh, Coronado. Springs.
And on the tower partthey have a restaurant there called Toledo
and is one of the most amazing restaurantsI've ever been to.
Okay, speaking of restaurants, though,we do have to speak about
because you mentionedto us off camera once that,
(23:25):
there's a place you
ate up,but not a lot of people know about it.
Are you talking about club 33?
Club 33. Three.
So club 33 is a membersonly club with inside of Disneyland,
like so you can't get in thereunless you are a member.
There's only about 1200 members.
There's a lot of famous.
100 members.
(23:45):
Where for both parks have a club. 30.
They just opened a club 33 in, in Disney.
Oh they did.
Yeah, Disney World too,
but the one in, Disneyland is the iconicone that's been around forever.
So there's about 1200 membersthere. There's a waitlist.
It costs. A lot.
Like I've heard they say, it's between 40
and 80,000 a year to belong. Oh.
(24:08):
You do get benefits from thatlike you do get some stuff for that.
But if you might be able to afford that.When I went that little.
Yeah, I do believe you can't.
You can't go to that restaurant.
Like I couldn't just walkand make a reservation.
You have to be invited by a member.
So you can be a guest.
You can be a guest of a member,but they have to invite you.
So I was lucky enough.
I have my very good friend Dan, who'slike, one of my best friends in the world.
(24:33):
He contacts me.
He happened to be working for a memberand said he invited me to club 33.
Would you like to go?
Oh, I said one. That's a dumb question.
You know,I have to ask. You get course. The.
Because it's one of the things thatI never thought I was going to ever do,
because it's one of those thingsthat you have to be invited in.
I don't know any members out there.
So, we got invited.
(24:53):
There are rules and regulations.
There's a dress code.
You cannotyou can take pictures of your food.
You can take pictures of your partyor with
you can take pictures of the decor,but you can't take pictures of
because there's obviously famous peoplethere.
Privacy. So it's inside the park.
So, you know, we got we got dressed up,we get really, really dressed up
and just weird walking throughan amusement park, like super dressed.
(25:16):
And you go to a doorand you ring a special doorbell,
and you come in and there's a courtyard.
Does it have a name on the door?
It there's a little 33 logo and that's it.
And most time just people taking picturesin front of it because, you know.
So you can do. That.You can do. That. Okay.
But you can't take photos inside.
Inside the location. Only of your food.
Would there be any, did you see anybodythat we would recognize?
(25:37):
I did not see any famous peoplethat night.
Really? No.
I did have an absolutely amazingexperience.
Like,the dining is just one of those things
where there's basically somebody standingbehind each member of the table and.
It's like.
Hey, if you get up to go to the bathroom,your napkins folded again,
or if you're water, if you tooka sip of water, it's being filled again.
(25:58):
I would take a job just doing thatjust to get you on the 30th.
Yeah, I.
Can you find me a rich friend?
Yeah.
I had a, I had a blue cheesecrusted filet mignon. Oh.
Oh, now. You're talking already.Oh, you're talking.
Oh you're talking.
Yeah.
And we had timed itso that there's a show called fantastic.
That's right out the on the balcony.
And there's fireworks right after that.
(26:18):
So as part of our dinner,we got to get up and from the balcony,
see both these shows. Oh,
I'm just.
Salivating.
And I still likeit was one of the most amazing dinners.
Like, I never thought I would do it
with love to do it again,but the chances are like that.
Yeah, but you did it once.
I did it once and it was.
And wait, was your wife with you?Wife was with me.
My child was with.
(26:38):
Oh, yeah, he got to do it.
My friend Dan was there.
His wife was there.
Did you get to order off of menu or. They.
There's a whole menu.
They have a whole, like,specialty drink menu.
I had a phenomenal dessertI think was some amazing cheesecake.
And just I was the whole day,I was just like, I can't pay my bills.
I can't believe I'm going to do this.
And even afterwards, I'm like,I can't believe I did that.
(27:00):
I can't believe I did that.
Whereas we're getting towardthe end of the, of our episode here.
Rob, can you can you throw some othermaybe tidbits in that people
may not know about Disney,that they're kind of like, whoa,
I didn't realize thata little behind the scenes.
Well, you can add both parksor special tours at Disney World.
There's a touryou can go under Disney World's.
A hundred year. Old it is built onthat is called utility doors.
(27:21):
It's built on a system of tunnelsbecause when Walt built Disneyland,
he didn't have that, you know, being ableto do that, and he didn't like going to.
The Vatican and going underneath in.
A minute.
I thought, in Florida, you can't even havea basement because of the water.
Like, they they actually took thethey built an artificial lake
and they took all that dirt.
They piled it up.
And then they built the tunnel system
because they didn't want likeif you were a character
(27:41):
or you were working in Frontierlanddressed as a cowboy,
they don't want you walkingthrough another area to go see.
Makes sense.
So you can do this wholewe did a whole tour of underground
where it's like there isthere is like cafeterias.
There's the wherethe all the costumes are.
There's people walking aroundgetting to different areas,
and there's all these secret entrancesthat are in plain sight.
(28:01):
And now that, you know, I know these,like, look around and see these,
these are.
These arebut you just can't use those tunnels yet.
So yeah. No, you can't use them.
You have to do what you are like in inDisneyland, you can do a tour
or well, actually had an apartmentbuilt above the firehouse
and you can actually go upand see his apartment.
And I kept it the way it waswhen he was there.
(28:23):
Wow, wow.
It was like etched in time. Very cool.
It was it was great.
And by the way, thosewho are listening to us maybe on I know
iHeart and other platforms, pleasego to YouTube so you could see your ears.
Yes, yes.
If they're listening to the they'remissing out on a whole experience of.
Yoursbecause you've got that magical blue hat.
I love that.
(28:43):
And I mean the Wizards hat.Yeah. Wizards hat.
Yeah, yeah. And this was given to me.
Patti also has ears like thisa few years ago
because Patti had never been there before.
And we told somebody at one of the stores,we'd never been to Disney.
So new, never been to Disney,
and went right behind the counterand both gave us yours for free.
Yeah, you'll get this.
Magical. Yeah.
We had onewhere my son lost his autograph book
(29:03):
and the person goes, hold on a second.
And they wentand got another autographed book
and then brought them over to characterto sign it.
From when I go, I'm telling everybody,I've never been here before that, but.
And thank you to your wife, Paula,for letting me borrow your.
Nose, our pride and. Joy.
I know very good care,but my hair was very clean.
Paula. Well, Robert,thank you so much for coming back.
We thank. You.
I appreciate all of you.
(29:24):
Because without you,we don't have a podcast.
You just please tell a friendabout us. Spread the word.
What's good with John and Joyce?Good news.
You're good news podcast.You're safe place to land.
Check it out on all the major streamingplatforms.
And Robert, once again thank you. Enjoy.
So it's always a pleasure. Oh, I loved it.
I love being here with Robert.
We'll put your information on both showshow to reach you and,
(29:47):
And what else was I going to sayI don't know.
Yeah. Hey. Why?
You. Know, you see.
Bless you and your family.
Thank you so much. Bye. Till next time.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.