November 21, 2024 • 36 mins
In this episode of the Adventures of a Disney Dad podcast, we recap the recent experiences at Walt Disney World's Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and Jollywood Nights.
The episode covers highlights and recommendations for both events, including character meet and greets, entertainment, food options, and crowds. We provide our feedback and tips on how to strategize for both parties to maximize your experience.
00:00 Introduction and Catching Up
00:59 Christmas Spirit and Decorations
01:35 Disney Ride Memories
04:28 Jollywood Nights Review
06:31 Character Meet and Greets
13:10 Rides, Merch, and More
19:00 Jollywood Nights Review Continued
19:35 Entertainment and Dining Options
21:35 Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party
24:53 Character Meet and Greets
30:04 Parades and Shows
33:44 Food and Snacks
36:55 Final Thoughts and Recommendations
38:55 Podcast Wrap-Up
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of theadventures of a Disney dad podcast.
Chip and I are back and I am freshoff of a Walt Disney world trip.
Just got back from the firstMickey's very Merry Christmas party.
The first Jollywood nights, andwe're going to talk all about it.
Chip, before we jump intoeverything, how's everything going?
How's life treating you?
I feel like the people want amasculine tigers football update.
(00:24):
Are we going to have a second year?
But as podcast high schoolfootball state champions, I
mean, we potentially could we'reright now we, we, we, we have the
regional finals, um, this week.
And then if we win, we'llgo to semis and then state.
So it's been pretty busy.
Um, I'm coaching my son's basketball team.
So I've got that going on.
(00:44):
And then my oldest daughter'splaying basketball.
So it's a crazy time in theRobinson household, but,
uh, yeah, we're doing well.
We're we've, we've cruisedso far through region.
So region final Friday and.
We'll go from there.
All right.
I love to hear it.
And tell Kelly, Chip'swife, is Christmas obsessed.
Oh yeah.
I've never put up lightsbefore Thanksgiving.
(01:07):
And if you're listening or watching onYouTube, you can see I have a Christmas
tree lit up behind me in my office.
I got the lights on the house.
It was 60 degrees outside this weekend.
So when I got back from Disney,I put the Christmas lights up.
We're in the spirit.
You know, the, the Christmas parties,they, they get you, they get you
feeling some kind of way chip.
A hundred percent.
Um, I, I haven't, I Ihaven't started that.
(01:29):
She's got some of this stuffout, but I'm, I'm the inflatables
and all the Disney stuff.
It hasn't gone up yet, but, we'll, I will.
And,
and we're, we're gonna get a littleinto the Christmas spirit for this
episode, but I, I, there's one questionthat somebody asked me the other
day that I want to ask you, chip.
'cause I want to getyour feedback on this.
Yeah.
And I, I just thought itwas a really fun question.
If there was, if there's one ride.
(01:50):
Walt Disney World that you couldgo back and ride for the first time
again, whether by yourself or withyour family, what ride would you pick?
Ooh, that's a, that's a deep question.
It gets you in your feels.
Doesn't it?
That's a deep question.
I, I probably go.
I probably lean towards either,uh, big thunder or people mover.
(02:17):
Those are my two kids.
Those are my kids favorites.
So they were upset.
I'm not wearing my people mover hat.
It's at school.
Cause I was showing it offto a couple of my friends.
So they were upset.
Like, why aren't you wearing that?
And I was like, ah, it's at school guys.
So I'll bring it home.
Hey, you, you still got a good oneon the, for me, um, I, I thought a
lot about this cause it is a reallydeep question and you know, like
(02:38):
you go back to your own personalmemories of vacationing at Disney.
And then you go back to like whenyou started going to your family and
it like that question kind of hits.
Right.
Yeah.
And I started to think like it wouldprobably be for me the first time I
wrote slinky dog dash with my kids.
Yeah.
And I remember it was like the first timewe went post COVID because that was the
(03:03):
first time we got to go with my kids.
And I just remember like we hadbeen through so much crap, right?
Like, like everybody hadbeen through so much crap.
My son was in the NICU atthe beginning of COVID.
Like it felt like sucha, um, a monumental.
Like vacation, and I took apicture of my daughter and I in the
(03:23):
queue, like right ready to get on.
And I was like, you know, finallywe're getting on this trip.
And it was like, I just wanted to rememberthat moment, not even on the ride, but
just being in line for the first timewith her, you know, like you'll never
be able to replicate that feeling again.
And as much as I get that feeling fromwriting the people mover every single
(03:44):
time on myself, it's, it just hits.
And I just let those fun questions.
So you know
what, like, honestly, the more Ithought about it, the answers fireworks,
it's watching happily ever after,
but I'll give you that.
That's cheating, but I'll give you that.
But that wasn't my initial thought, butI like the more you thought about, like,
I remember the first time we watchedhappily ever after was with my dad.
(04:07):
Holding one of my kids andyeah, but I get with you.
Yeah.
It's pain getting all in the field.
See the little sentimentalon this, this day.
So if you're listening, let us know, andI'll probably post this on social media.
Let us know what youwould re go back and redo.
If you could redo it for the first time.
I think that's a really fun question.
(04:28):
Uh, but let, let's, let's jumpinto the Christmas parties and
I want to talk like this may be.
This may be a little differenttonight than I anticipated it going
because I'm a Christmas party guy.
Okay.
I love the Christmas party.
I'm a huge fan of it.
We, my family, we go to the Halloweenparty every year, but the Christmas party
(04:49):
the last two years I've gone without them.
I've gone by myself.
And what shocked me the most, Chip,is how much I enjoy Jollywood nights.
So like for everybody, like I wastexting with Matt over, over the
last week and I didn't ask for muchdetail cause I knew it was going to
come into this, but it was all right.
What are your thoughts?
Cause you hadn't been to Jollywood nights.
(05:11):
What are your thoughts?
And you were like, Oh man, it was awesome.
So, you know, last year thereviews were, it was terrible.
And that's what I was going to say.
The reviews were terrible.
So I'm guessing they've improved or theyfigured it out what they needed to do.
Right.
Cause you read the first one.
Not, not only that, but like, so,so going into it, my expectations
were so low because not only wasJollywood nights last year, just.
(05:34):
Pretty much everybody agreed.
It was really bad though.
There wasn't enough to do forall the people that were there.
And so there were lines foreverything, food, drinks,
entertainment, rides, characters,the whole thing had lines everywhere.
And I think that wasthe general consensus.
So that's not me sayingthat I didn't go last year.
Particularly like, becausepeople said it wasn't worth it.
(05:57):
And, um, I just didn'twant to bother with it.
Um, and, but on top of that, we had areally bad experience doing an after
hours event at Hollywood studios withour friends, Lauren and your wife and,
um, Athena and, and like the reasonwe thought it was so bad was because.
There wasn't enough to do, andit was only 50 percent capacity.
(06:20):
Like, the lines were so long, therewasn't a whole lot going on, the
characters were just kind of meh.
And so, I went into Jollywood Nights,I'm like, Man, this, this, I, I,
I have low expectations for this.
And, Chip, it, it really,it knocked my socks off.
Number one, they, they didwell with the characters.
The characters, for the mostpart, had pretty short lines.
(06:42):
They were all, like, 10 to 20 minutes orso, some shorter, but they had good ones.
They have max dresses, power line,which is one of my favorites.
They had Santa stitch.
They had blue and KingLouie from tailspin.
Um, who else did they have?
The, the typical Mickey and Minnie.
Was Santa
Duffy.
I
(07:02):
was gonna say Duffy was out, right?
Yep.
Scrooge McDuck was onethat I don't typically see.
They had Lotso and Bo Peep,who I had never seen before.
Well, Lotso, I think it was one thatlike my kids would love to see Lotso.
The
one that I was really excited aboutwas the Mandalorian and Grogu.
And normally if you, if you listen to theshow or you've been to Disney or you're
(07:24):
a Star Wars fan, any of those things,when you go into Galaxy's Edge during
the day, there are no character meets.
Yes.
In the sense of being able to wait inline and get a picture with them Sometimes
chewbacca's back there like on this trip.
He was back next to the millennium falcon,but there's no photo fast photopass
photographer It's not like there's a sign.
There's just people queuing up and he'sthere um, so there's no guarantee that
(07:48):
that's going to happen, but like whenkylo ren or the first order troopers or
Uh rey the mandalorian and grogu went outwhenever they're out walking around for
v morandi You You, you can't, you're notguaranteed to get a picture with them.
And in fact, like a lot of thetimes the Mandalorian is nail,
like he is
in character and he willnot take a picture with you.
(08:10):
Um, like he, I've seen him like pushpeople away when they've started
to touch him, like when he doesn't,he basically needs to call you up.
To take a photo.
He lets you stand nextto him and that's it.
And he talks to you.
He'll talk to you.
But yeah, he does a lotof interaction for sure.
But he's not, he's, he's not a photo guy.
Yeah.
Um, so I thought that it was reallycool that they had an actual character
(08:33):
meet where you got to go up andget in line and get your picture
with the Mandalorian and Grogu.
That's not something thatyou've seen at any other event.
And honestly, honestly, like the onlydisappointing part of the character
aspect of this event was that thereweren't more characters in Galaxy's Edge.
Yeah.
And there were more StarWars characters, right?
Like they have BB 8 there.
(08:54):
They have Darth Vader.
They have Kylo Ren.
They have Rey.
Like, there, there's more opportunitythere, um, to make more of Galaxy's Edge.
And I was also a little bit surprisedthat when you look at the, the
guide map when you arrive, right?
And it's available on oursite at adventureswithdisney.
com if you want to take a look.
(09:14):
They've got the characters listedand it says friends from Toy Story.
You don't know who it's goingto be until you get there.
And when you get there, youknow, they make it seem like
there's more than one plural.
There's not, it's either Lotso or Bo Peep.
Is there a possibility that in thefuture, like they've given themselves
flexibility at future party nightsto have different characters?
(09:36):
Absolutely.
But my guess is that thisis going to stay consistent.
Well, I was really surprised.
There's no Woody, no Jesse, no Buzz.
Where were they at?
Um, where'd they meet at
right by the bathrooms, rightacross from alien swirling saucers.
So not even in the normal spot whereyou meet, um, Woody and Jesse in the
(09:56):
spot where you meet buzz was, um,Donald and Daisy goofy and Pluto as,
um, two separate character meets.
So it was, it was great.
I thought that the.
Um, speaking of characters, the, the Pixarplace dance party for kids was fantastic
and that included, um, sadness, whichwas really cool because you don't see it
(10:20):
normally see her Mike Wazowski, Frozone,um, and then, and Nimod was back there.
Um, there, there's just some of thecharacters that you don't normally
see and they're dancing and there's aDJ and they're doing things that you
wouldn't necessarily normally, you know,see them do, which was a lot of fun.
And I think it made for like a lot of.
Viral social moments.
(10:41):
Um, so I think from acharacter perspective, it
was really impressive to me.
The, there are, there are twotips that I would give people.
Um, number one is like, try todo, uh, care, like characters with
longer lines, like the surprising.
Longest line was Phineas and Ferb.
I don't understand the obsessionwith Phineas and Ferb, but they
(11:02):
had the longest line for sure.
It's probably, it's probably the, they'remore unique than probably sadness.
Like I don't think I'veever seen Phineas and Ferb.
I've no, I know they used to.
Be out in front of magickingdom, but they're not anymore.
Yeah.
They're, they're definitely on the rareside of a character, character meets.
So I, I, I get that.
(11:23):
But like at the same time, I'venever, I've never watched that show.
So yeah,
it's kind
of, it's just not for me.
It's
kind of our, the youngergeneration from us.
So, I've seen a couple of them.
I know we are too old, but bears watchedit a couple of times, but yeah, it's
kind of that, that whatever, I don't knowwhat gen we are, but at the one below us.
(11:43):
Yeah.
And so like, it was surprisingto see that as the longest line,
but the other big thing is.
When you see the list and there aremultiple characters listed, you're not
going to get both and you don't knowwhen you're going to get which one.
So I had a moment where I wentup to meet Pinocchio, right?
Cause my kids were actually watchingPinocchio while I was at the party.
(12:04):
So I thought it'd be fun togo up selfie with Pinocchio.
I was the last person that got cut offbefore they switched to Jiminy Cricket.
And you don't know, like you can ask thepeople that are there, like, When Lotso
is coming out, if you see that Bo Peep'sthere, but you know, it's, it's hard to
plan your night around these specificcharacters because you don't know which
(12:27):
one of those is going to be out there.
So I would keep that in mind,like Jose, um, and Panchito.
You don't get both of them.
It's one or the other.
So I think, um, to methat was interesting.
And like Clarice and Scrooge McDuck,nobody wants to meet Clarice,
right?
So, you know, you don't know whenyou're going to get Scrooge McDuck.
(12:47):
There's no time listed.
There's no way to see on the app.
You have to basically walkover there and find out.
And then there's also like some, youknow, hit quote, hidden characters.
that are not listed like Dr.
Strange was walking around,um, which was cool to see.
So I think there's more opportunityfor that, but I think overall at this
party, they did that really, really well.
(13:10):
The ride wait times, aside fromSleeky Dog Dash, we're all pretty low.
Sleeky Dog Dash was
like 30 to 50 minutes.
The majority of the night.
Wasn't it down?
Yeah, it was, it was down for a while.
I like, and I wasn't trying to write it,so it didn't make a huge difference to me.
Um, but you know, it,it, it is what it is.
(13:33):
Yeah.
The, um, merch I thought was pretty good.
I ended up buying like a t shirt.
I wanted to buy more, but,um, they only have merch in
one store in Muppet courtyard.
So you have to walk back there andget in line there and it's, but it's,
it's well done and, um, you can getin and out before the party starts.
(13:54):
So like, if you go in at four o'clock,you can get into the merch shop before.
The party actually starts at 7 30.
Is it, is it, is it in the building?
That's not really a nothing else.
Like it's that right, right betweenpizza Rizzo and then the Muppet show.
The
building that's neverused that in the back.
It's got like paint splatters on it.
Yeah.
(14:15):
That's a
great, great idea though.
If you're going to do it,might as well do it there.
And that's also where they put likethe slo mo photo experience, the
photo op, which a lot of people did.
Which was really cool, butit had a decent line too.
Like I'm sure that'll probably softenup, but those, those photo experiences
I think are going to be pretty popular.
Um, it could have been more thanI was there when a lot of the
(14:37):
influencers and YouTubers were there,so they wanted to do those things.
But it was a pretty cool slow mophoto experience that, um, I didn't
do it because the line was toolong, but I've seen people do it.
And it was, uh, it was
pretty nice.
Did you do any of the, like thetip top lounge or, um, that, that
experience, that, that kind of stuff.
So I walked into the tip top club afterwe rode Tower of Terror and it's like.
(15:03):
It's cool.
And, but it's not, it'snot anything special.
It's just an area where you come outof the store at tower of terror, right
there, that like little plaza area wherethe coffee, um, card is, they've got
like a place where you can get drinksthere and a band and people dancing and
stuff, so that's the quote tip top club.
(15:25):
I really thought that the, they did a lotof like new banners and, um, things like
that for the tower of terror, like tomake it look like, It was jazzed up, which
was nice, but it wasn't something thatlike, I wasn't there drinking alcohol.
I think, you know, if, if you'reinto that and you're there as
adults and you want to go and get adrink, it's a great spot to do that.
(15:47):
Um, and hang out and listen to themusic, but Tower of Terror was a walk on.
So like we rode that, you know, thatwas, I thought that was a lot of fun.
Um, and then we, we definitely checkedit out, but it's not anything that I
think you play in your night around.
And I kind of felt that way aboutthe majority of the stuff, like
the new skate show, Glisten.
(16:09):
It was cool.
Um, but I'm not like planningmy night around making sure I
have an opportunity to watch it.
Where was that at?
Right in front of the Chinese theater.
They set up a big skating rink there.
And so you could, you couldstay there and watch that.
And you could watch like thefireworks projection show.
Um, all in that same spot
(16:30):
and
it was, it was cool, but like, it'sone of those things where you're
not, it's not like the parade at theChristmas party or the Halloween party
at magic kingdom where you're planningyour night around making sure that
you get to see one of those things.
To me, it's like, if youfind an opportunity and you
want to check it out, do it.
But it's not something youhave to plan your night around.
(16:52):
The one thing I will tell peopleyou should plan your night
around is the what's this show.
It was
fantastic.
It was fantastic.
Where's that at?
Is that on the, it's
in the frozen singalong andit's the same kind of show.
So it is a singalong.
You're watching parts of themovie, but I don't want to,
(17:14):
like there's spoilers here, so.
Fast forward 30 seconds, if youdon't want to see it, there's
like parts where Jack comes out.
Right.
And there's parts where OogieBoogie comes out and Oogie Boogie
comes out and sings a song like inconstant, like it's Oogie Boogie.
And so that's like a live portionthat you don't get from like
(17:35):
the frozen show in that sense.
Um, and it's, it's really well done.
Cause you don't seeOogie Boogie outside of.
You know, the, the Halloweenparty parade and shows there.
So I, I thought that that was really cool.
I was really impressed with that.
I thought like my kids wouldhave a blast going to that show.
And I, so I think that that'ssomething that's like a must do.
(17:58):
The snacks and the foodwas kind of disappointing.
I smashed some tachos
cause
that's what we do on this show.
Like, We eat lunchbox, but, um, thestuff that we tried, like, I mean, there
was nothing that really comes to mindthat is, you know, they're right home
about, they have the droid and lightsaberopportunities like to build those is
(18:23):
open, which I think is a great experience.
These are all things that whenwe went during after hours, none
of that stuff was available.
So there's a lot, there'sa lot of cool stuff to do.
And I'm sure you guys have seen,and I'm sure our listeners have
seen, the next like month or soat Disney is going to be nuts.
Absolutely nuts.
(18:44):
Premiere Pass is selling out.
It's going to be crowded.
And like, if so, if you don'tget an opportunity to do Savi's
workshop to build the lightsaber,like do it, do it at the party.
It's a fun experience.
It doesn't take that long.
And it's
going to take a huge part of your
night.
Yeah.
Um, so overall, like, JollywoodNights to me is an A plus.
(19:05):
It's not, um, I've had a lot of gueststhat have asked me about it lately.
The way that I would make the decisionis if you have a family that's going.
If your kids are into charactersand they want to do some rides,
this is a perfect event for them.
Yeah, that's what I was going to,that was my, my, my question is like,
what's, is there an age you think?
(19:25):
Or is it just character based?
I, to me, it's, it's just more ifthey're into characters and you
want the opportunity to ride a ride.
Rides with shorter lines.
This is it because, um, like, uh, youknow, we also did the, um, the show with
Kermit and Miss Piggy and that was, thatwas cool, but it's also not something
(19:47):
that like, I'm like, you have to do that.
Like it's a must.
Did you, to
me, the entertainment was justkind of like, if you've got kids.
I wouldn't base yourdecision based on that.
Did you walk into a Brown Derby at all?
Were they doing that again this year?
They were doing it.
I did not do it, but the, um, the,like all the reviews were great,
(20:07):
but it does take a while waskind of the feedback that I saw.
That
was the big thing last year isit took, took a little while.
Like, cause what is it?
You get, you drink, you, they have uniquedrinks in there and and they bring out
lots of entrees.
So like you're there for like amultiple course opportunity, like
smaller plates kind of thing.
Um, and that, that I think that's theother thing, like if you're going with
(20:32):
adults, like a date night or even justgoing with a group of adult friends, go
in and being able to have a drink and eatand kind of leisurely go through maybe
one or two characters, one or two shows.
One or two rides.
It's perfect.
That's basically what I did, right?
I did a couple rides.
I did, we did Smuggler'sRun, Rise, Tower of Terror.
(20:56):
We did, I did almost all the characters.
And I also got to see mostof, almost all the shows.
Nice.
So there, there wasn't anythingthat I felt like I missed.
Now, I was moving a lot faster than, youknow, You know, a typical party would,
I think, because I was trying to getcontent and all that stuff at the site.
(21:16):
Um, but overall to me, I wasreally, really impressed by it.
It's still not something that Iwould pick over Mickey, Mickey's very
America's party though, which was
that's exactly what Iwas going to lead to.
So you, you did both opening night.
Uh, obviously they're both.
I think we're both sold outor at least close to it.
Um, what were your initial thoughts onMickey's not so, uh, or not, not so scary,
(21:40):
Mickey's very merry Christmas party.
So it was awesome as I expected.
The Mickey's Mickey's veryMerry Christmas party.
I think it reaffirmed, um, a lot ofwhat we know historically, right.
During the day of the day of theparty, the lines were incredibly short.
I mean, like very, very, very short.
The park was completely empty andthat was great from the get go.
(22:05):
Jack and Sally, the linewas like two hours long.
That's crazy.
It's, it's pretty much, youknow, consistent year to year.
Um, the most impressive thing thatstuck out to me was the meet and greet
with Santa for kids is phenomenal.
They have a craft table set up andthis is back by Storybrooke Circus.
(22:26):
Okay.
Um, they have craft tables set upwhere while you're waiting in line,
your kids can go and sit and writeletters to Santa, which is so cute.
I mean, I just think it's,it's just a, Nice opportunity
the way that they've done it.
You can get some candyand stuff there too.
Um, the other characters that likeblew me away that did not have really
(22:47):
long lines were Anna and Elsa, which isthe only, this is the only opportunity
to meet them at Magic Kingdom.
And they're in their winter,you know, outfits, not the same
outfits that you see at Epcot.
And then Belle at Enchanted Tales withBelle, she's in her Christmas gown and
has A Christmas tree in the cottage.
(23:08):
And I just think like,
is there a Christmas movie?
Like, don't they have aChristmas episode or something?
Yeah, they do.
Uh, they do have a Christmas movie andit was, I just thought that that meet
and greet in particular, like those twowere really, really well done and they're
unique and to me they're like, they wouldbe up there in priority is similarly.
(23:30):
Um, to what I was mentioning about,uh, Jollywood nights, if you see
the character meets where it says.
These people or these people,or there's kind of a group, you
should expect that it's either or.
So it was like Snow White orAurora, not both at the same time.
And the downside to that is like, youdon't know when they're going to be
(23:53):
out there and when they're switching.
So if you want to get one of them,you just don't know when you're going
to be able to get that opportunity.
And like at Magic Kingdom, it'sreally hard to sneak up on a
character meet and get in a shortline because it's so crowded, right?
Like there's so many people walking by.
(24:14):
And as soon as there's a shortline, a flock of people go there.
Right.
And, and I, I think that that was,was a bit, um, surprising to me.
The one that was the shot, the shockingone that had the longest wait, I
don't think, I don't think it was evershorter than two hours was the meet
and greet at Pete's silly side show.
(24:36):
And it was because of Scrooge McDuck.
It was Minnie mouse, Daisy duck,Donald duck, and Scrooge McDuck.
It was, it was never shorterthan like two hours long.
I mean, I went back there.
Multiple times to try and do it, nevercould get it and um, and it surprised
(24:57):
me because at Jollywood Nights, the linefor Scrooge McDuck was like non existent.
So, I didn't, and I attribute part ofthat like, to be the meeting Minnie
Mouse and, You know, things like that.
But it was, it was a, it was aweird experience in that sense.
The merch at the Christmasparty wasn't as good this year.
(25:18):
I thought it was kind of weak andyou sent me a couple of pictures.
it
was great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was, there was only one area to buy it.
It was very, like, very simple.
Um, I'm, I'm not interms of tips for guests.
The biggest thing that I've beentelling people is the fireworks
show is not like everything.
(25:41):
You need to see
okay.
I'm a happily ever after guy.
And so like, to me, the fireworksshow is a good opportunity to
get a bunch of other stuff done.
So I went in to meet Jack and Sally.
There was a five minute waitduring the fireworks show.
Then there was no wayat all to meet Mickey.
(26:01):
So like, but those are things thatwe've known in the past, right?
Like those are, that,that applied last year.
I figured it would.
So I did it again this year andthat was absolutely the case.
So there's a good opportunity.
If you want to ride some rides, youwant to get on Tron, you want to get on.
Tiana's bioadventure.
We Tiana's bioadventure was a walk on.
Yeah.
(26:21):
I saw that.
He's yeah, that was nuts.
Basically in the, in the span of thefireworks, we were able to meet Jack
and Sally, Mickey, then get all theway over to Tiana's bioadventure.
Walk on it and then walk on to BigThunder Mountain, all in the span of
like the 25 minutes of the fireworks.
That's crazy.
So like there's, yeah, there's agood opportunity to get stuff done.
(26:43):
Um, the Disney junior danceparty for kids, I think is a huge
opportunity and it's a lot of fun.
They also had, um, another dance partyon the stage where Stitch normally
is, where they had a DJ playing.
Who was, that was great.
What were the characters at Disney jr.
Do you remember?
So it was Fancy Nancy, Timone,Vampirina, and Doc McStuffins.
(27:07):
So the same ones you normallysee at Hollywood studios.
Yeah, good.
And, uh, but they weren'tall there at the same time.
Like when I walked in.
They weren't all doingthe dance party at once.
It was like Timon and Doc McStuffins,I think, at the time I walked in there.
But it was, it was pretty cool.
And to me, the, the, like the mostimportant thing is seeing the parade.
(27:30):
Yeah.
And it's, it's great.
It's
the
best part.
And as, as much as everybody, likeall, like people like us now, obviously
the, the Christmas day parade isn'tfilmed on Christmas day, spoiler alert.
It was filmed last week because Isaw it pretty much the whole thing,
but it's the same parade, correct.
In terms of characters, they mightadd a different one here or there,
(27:52):
but it's pretty much the same.
It's the exact same.
The Christmas Day parade is the exactsame parade that they do at night.
And in fact, um, the one whenthey filmed it, cause I was there
during the filming, they filmed iton, um, the Saturday and Sunday.
And you, so you got to see it, butit was that and Christmas day are
the only times at magic kingdom.
(28:13):
You can see that parade during the day.
Otherwise it's normally likewe call it paywalled, right?
Like you have to buy a ticketto the Christmas party to
be able to see that parade.
So, and, and, and it's, It's worth it.
Like that parade, Santa is in it.
Sometimes Mrs.
Claus is in it.
Not always.
Um, but you get the full array ofDisney characters and to me it's a,
(28:39):
it's a step below the booty you paradejust because the booty parade is so
special, but it's, it's better than anyother parade at magic kingdom for sure.
And I think that it's more important foryou to see that than it is for you to see
the, certainly the fireworks, the othershows that are on like the stage shows,
(29:00):
like to me, you could hit or miss those.
Like they're, they're not.
It's not like the Sanderson sistersat the Halloween party where you're
like, you have to watch that showbecause that show is awesome.
It's, it's okay.
Is it Elsa lighting the castle?
They still do that?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like that's, that's, that's one of them.
My brother saw that last year andhe saw it before, right before they,
(29:21):
they kicked him out for the party.
And he said that was theperfect for his daughter.
His daughter loves seeing that.
Um, so that might, that would bethe one I would suggest going to
is go see Elsa light the castle.
Um, just because my, mydaughters would love it.
My son, I think Bear would even like,he's like, that's pretty, be pretty cool.
But, um, I kind of agree with you though.
Yeah, they, they do like the mostmerriest celebration and the frozen
(29:45):
holiday surprise are the namesof the two shows that they do.
And they only do the frozenholiday surprise once at 815.
And then they do the Mickey's mostmerriest celebration four different times.
So there's, there's ample timesto like catch those shows.
But like the easiest thing to dois to get your spot for the parade
(30:06):
somewhere close to the castlebecause the first parade's at 8 30.
If you're going to do the first parade,which is going to be more crowded.
Um, but the frozen holidaysurprise is at 8 15.
So it's right before the parade starts.
So you can kind of knock outtwo things in the same spot.
Um, but I'm a big fan of doing theparade at 11 PM when it's, less crowded,
(30:29):
people are doing more rides because thenwhen it's really crowded and people are
watching the first parade at 8 30 withall the like little tiny kids that have
to leave and go to bed, you can geta lot more done throughout the parks.
Um, so I, I thought likeall of that was great.
Did
they have the snow going?
They had the snow going.
I felt like it was less this year.
(30:51):
Um, but you know, the one thing I'llsay to about this, And they, they had
like the, the cookie stops with the hotchocolate and egg nog and all that stuff.
That stuff's free for anybody that,you know, has never been before.
You know, the food offeringswere like, just mad to me.
(31:11):
There was nothing that like caught my,like, I'll, I'll give you the, the four
examples that they have as like thehighlights in the, um, the park map.
Right.
I appreciate it.
The gingerbread milkshake, whichI've heard is fantastic, but I'm
not a gingerbread guy, but I'veheard that that is very, very good.
But the next one is the Szechuancauliflower, which is spicy
(31:35):
breaded cauliflower tossedin such Szechuan soy glaze.
And I know I'm pronouncing that wrong.
I apologize.
Glass noodles, greenonions, and crispy garlic.
Not for me.
It's
basically
fried cauliflower.
Yeah, it's like, it'slike cauliflower wings.
Yeah.
Yeah, not, not, I mean,that's just not for me.
Um, that's not to say they aren'tgreat, but it like, doesn't make me
(31:56):
like, I need to go get that, right?
That
doesn't also scream holiday to me.
It doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't.
And then chocolate eggnog, eggnogtart, I heard was really good.
I heard the beignets were really good.
Um, my brother in law, I think triedone of the eggnog tarts, if I remember
correctly, and thought it was pretty good.
But then the, the Cosmic Rays holidayTurkey burger, which is a Turkey burger
(32:20):
topped with traditional stuffing,provolone, cranberry chutney, and a
brioche bun, and I'm just like, man, yeah.
I mean, if you like Thanksgivingfood, that's right up Chip's alley.
But for me, that's not like, I'mlike, Oh my gosh, I gotta, you
know, I gotta go check that out.
So overall, like.
To me, it wasn't likea food centric event.
(32:42):
It was the same thing we were talkingabout with, uh, Jollywood nights.
Like pick one or two of the shows orparades that you really want to hit.
Pick a couple of characters that youreally want to hit and a couple of
rides that you really want to hit.
And with how busy it's going to be,I think the rides are going to be an
even bigger opportunity this year.
Then they were in the past.
(33:04):
Riding Tron or riding a Tronat night is always better, but
riding Tron, seven doors, minetrade and Tiana's bio adventure.
Like if you knock all three of those out,that's a pretty darn successful night.
Yeah.
Right.
Like to me, to me, like, andthis, this is exactly what I did.
And I think it would be the ideal nightfor the majority of my clients and the
(33:26):
majority of people planning a vacation.
You meet Anna and Elsa, you meetJack and Sally, you meet Mickey.
Yeah.
You watch the parade, whichevertime you want to go, you knock
out Tron, seven doors, minetrain and Tiana's bioadventure.
You get a snack or two andyou try and meet Santa.
(33:47):
And I think that's like,you've hit a great, great
time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I had a few other opportunitieswhere like I popped into
bell and she had no weight.
You know, things like that.
And it's an awesome,it's an awesome party.
And we didn't even stay the whole time.
Get your steps in.
You 100 percent get your steps in.
(34:08):
That's for sure.
That's for sure.
No, that's awesome.
I appreciate you.
You giving us an update and a lastquestion and we'll wrap it, wrap it up.
As if you're taking your family right now.
Which one
of the halloween orchristmas or jollywood or
jollywood is very merryjollywood or mickey's very merry
Mickey's very merry for my kids for surebecause And and and I say that because
(34:33):
like my kids at hollywood studios We'reblessed, don't get me wrong, we go
frequently enough that they don't careabout the rides at a party as much.
I think that they would love theopportunity, like, because my kids love
Tower of Terror, to just go on thatover and over and over and over again.
Like they would, and they woulddo it, they would literally spend
(34:54):
the entire party time just goingTower of Terror over and over.
Um, but there, there's, They'rejust not as into characters.
And I think like the, like powerline maxhits for me, but wouldn't hit for my kids.
Right.
The Mandalorian would.
Um, but I, I just think thatlike, unless you're there for
(35:17):
drinks and entertainment and food.
Or rides or characters, like it'snot, it's not as big of a thing, but
I think that at the Mickey's MerryMerry Christmas party for kids,
there's just a lot more entertainmentopportunities that that'll hit for them.
Like the parade will be a hit,whether or not you think the same
about the fireworks and the show,the parade will be a hit 100%.
(35:41):
Um, so, and Jack andSally is a different draw.
My kids would love to meet Jack and Sally.
See, mine wouldn't.
Mine don't care.
So yeah, it's interesting.
Yeah, it's the same.
It's the same kind of point.
Um, now, I would have a much hardertime deciding between going to a
Halloween party with my kids and goingto a Christmas party with my kids.
(36:03):
See, I wouldn't have a hard problem.
My wife would say, Alright,this is where we're going.
We're going to the Christmas party.
And we're going to enjoy it.
But that's awesome because mytree, my tree's been up for,
I don't know, a long time.
Almost a month now.
That's going to wrap it upfor this week on the podcast.
We're really looking forward to gettingback in a groove now that we're back,
um, from the Christmas parties and doinglife stuff and chips in the playoffs.
(36:26):
Hopefully we're going to be reportinga state title here soon, but, uh, you
can definitely catch us on social media.
If you have questions, we loveanswering listener questions.
So.
Make sure you hit the inbox or hitus in the comments, DMs, email,
all the links to get a quote.
If you'd like to support the podcast,um, and help me book your next, you
know, Walt Disney world, Disney cruiseline, universal Orlando vacation.
(36:49):
Love to do all those things.
It's free, completely free to you.
A link to get a quote or inthe show notes and otherwise,
uh, we'll see you next week.
We'll see you when we see you.
Welcome back to another episode of theadventures of a Disney dad podcast.
Chip and I are back and I am freshoff of a Walt Disney world trip.
Just got back from the firstMickey's very Merry Christmas party.
The first Jollywood nights, andwe're going to talk all about it.
Chip, before we jump intoeverything, how's everything going?
How's life treating you?
I feel like the people want amasculine tigers football update.
(00:24):
Are we going to have a second year?
But as podcast high schoolfootball state champions, I
mean, we potentially could we'reright now we, we, we, we have the
regional finals, um, this week.
And then if we win, we'llgo to semis and then state.
So it's been pretty busy.
Um, I'm coaching my son's basketball team.
So I've got that going on.
(00:44):
And then my oldest daughter'splaying basketball.
So it's a crazy time in theRobinson household, but,
uh, yeah, we're doing well.
We're we've, we've cruisedso far through region.
So region final Friday and.
We'll go from there.
All right.
I love to hear it.
And tell Kelly, Chip'swife, is Christmas obsessed.
Oh yeah.
I've never put up lightsbefore Thanksgiving.
(01:07):
And if you're listening or watching onYouTube, you can see I have a Christmas
tree lit up behind me in my office.
I got the lights on the house.
It was 60 degrees outside this weekend.
So when I got back from Disney,I put the Christmas lights up.
We're in the spirit.
You know, the, the Christmas parties,they, they get you, they get you
feeling some kind of way chip.
A hundred percent.
Um, I, I haven't, I Ihaven't started that.
(01:29):
She's got some of this stuffout, but I'm, I'm the inflatables
and all the Disney stuff.
It hasn't gone up yet, but, we'll, I will.
And,
and we're, we're gonna get a littleinto the Christmas spirit for this
episode, but I, I, there's one questionthat somebody asked me the other
day that I want to ask you, chip.
'cause I want to getyour feedback on this.
Yeah.
And I, I just thought itwas a really fun question.
If there was, if there's one ride.
(01:50):
Walt Disney World that you couldgo back and ride for the first time
again, whether by yourself or withyour family, what ride would you pick?
Ooh, that's a, that's a deep question.
It gets you in your feels.
Doesn't it?
That's a deep question.
I, I probably go.
I probably lean towards either,uh, big thunder or people mover.
(02:17):
Those are my two kids.
Those are my kids favorites.
So they were upset.
I'm not wearing my people mover hat.
It's at school.
Cause I was showing it offto a couple of my friends.
So they were upset.
Like, why aren't you wearing that?
And I was like, ah, it's at school guys.
So I'll bring it home.
Hey, you, you still got a good oneon the, for me, um, I, I thought a
lot about this cause it is a reallydeep question and you know, like
(02:38):
you go back to your own personalmemories of vacationing at Disney.
And then you go back to like whenyou started going to your family and
it like that question kind of hits.
Right.
Yeah.
And I started to think like it wouldprobably be for me the first time I
wrote slinky dog dash with my kids.
Yeah.
And I remember it was like the first timewe went post COVID because that was the
(03:03):
first time we got to go with my kids.
And I just remember like we hadbeen through so much crap, right?
Like, like everybody hadbeen through so much crap.
My son was in the NICU atthe beginning of COVID.
Like it felt like sucha, um, a monumental.
Like vacation, and I took apicture of my daughter and I in the
(03:23):
queue, like right ready to get on.
And I was like, you know, finallywe're getting on this trip.
And it was like, I just wanted to rememberthat moment, not even on the ride, but
just being in line for the first timewith her, you know, like you'll never
be able to replicate that feeling again.
And as much as I get that feeling fromwriting the people mover every single
(03:44):
time on myself, it's, it just hits.
And I just let those fun questions.
So you know
what, like, honestly, the more Ithought about it, the answers fireworks,
it's watching happily ever after,
but I'll give you that.
That's cheating, but I'll give you that.
But that wasn't my initial thought, butI like the more you thought about, like,
I remember the first time we watchedhappily ever after was with my dad.
(04:07):
Holding one of my kids andyeah, but I get with you.
Yeah.
It's pain getting all in the field.
See the little sentimentalon this, this day.
So if you're listening, let us know, andI'll probably post this on social media.
Let us know what youwould re go back and redo.
If you could redo it for the first time.
I think that's a really fun question.
(04:28):
Uh, but let, let's, let's jumpinto the Christmas parties and
I want to talk like this may be.
This may be a little differenttonight than I anticipated it going
because I'm a Christmas party guy.
Okay.
I love the Christmas party.
I'm a huge fan of it.
We, my family, we go to the Halloweenparty every year, but the Christmas party
(04:49):
the last two years I've gone without them.
I've gone by myself.
And what shocked me the most, Chip,is how much I enjoy Jollywood nights.
So like for everybody, like I wastexting with Matt over, over the
last week and I didn't ask for muchdetail cause I knew it was going to
come into this, but it was all right.
What are your thoughts?
Cause you hadn't been to Jollywood nights.
(05:11):
What are your thoughts?
And you were like, Oh man, it was awesome.
So, you know, last year thereviews were, it was terrible.
And that's what I was going to say.
The reviews were terrible.
So I'm guessing they've improved or theyfigured it out what they needed to do.
Right.
Cause you read the first one.
Not, not only that, but like, so,so going into it, my expectations
were so low because not only wasJollywood nights last year, just.
(05:34):
Pretty much everybody agreed.
It was really bad though.
There wasn't enough to do forall the people that were there.
And so there were lines foreverything, food, drinks,
entertainment, rides, characters,the whole thing had lines everywhere.
And I think that wasthe general consensus.
So that's not me sayingthat I didn't go last year.
Particularly like, becausepeople said it wasn't worth it.
(05:57):
And, um, I just didn'twant to bother with it.
Um, and, but on top of that, we had areally bad experience doing an after
hours event at Hollywood studios withour friends, Lauren and your wife and,
um, Athena and, and like the reasonwe thought it was so bad was because.
There wasn't enough to do, andit was only 50 percent capacity.
(06:20):
Like, the lines were so long, therewasn't a whole lot going on, the
characters were just kind of meh.
And so, I went into Jollywood Nights,I'm like, Man, this, this, I, I,
I have low expectations for this.
And, Chip, it, it really,it knocked my socks off.
Number one, they, they didwell with the characters.
The characters, for the mostpart, had pretty short lines.
(06:42):
They were all, like, 10 to 20 minutes orso, some shorter, but they had good ones.
They have max dresses, power line,which is one of my favorites.
They had Santa stitch.
They had blue and KingLouie from tailspin.
Um, who else did they have?
The, the typical Mickey and Minnie.
Was Santa
Duffy.
I
(07:02):
was gonna say Duffy was out, right?
Yep.
Scrooge McDuck was onethat I don't typically see.
They had Lotso and Bo Peep,who I had never seen before.
Well, Lotso, I think it was one thatlike my kids would love to see Lotso.
The
one that I was really excited aboutwas the Mandalorian and Grogu.
And normally if you, if you listen to theshow or you've been to Disney or you're
(07:24):
a Star Wars fan, any of those things,when you go into Galaxy's Edge during
the day, there are no character meets.
Yes.
In the sense of being able to wait inline and get a picture with them Sometimes
chewbacca's back there like on this trip.
He was back next to the millennium falcon,but there's no photo fast photopass
photographer It's not like there's a sign.
There's just people queuing up and he'sthere um, so there's no guarantee that
(07:48):
that's going to happen, but like whenkylo ren or the first order troopers or
Uh rey the mandalorian and grogu went outwhenever they're out walking around for
v morandi You You, you can't, you're notguaranteed to get a picture with them.
And in fact, like a lot of thetimes the Mandalorian is nail,
like he is
in character and he willnot take a picture with you.
(08:10):
Um, like he, I've seen him like pushpeople away when they've started
to touch him, like when he doesn't,he basically needs to call you up.
To take a photo.
He lets you stand nextto him and that's it.
And he talks to you.
He'll talk to you.
But yeah, he does a lotof interaction for sure.
But he's not, he's, he's not a photo guy.
Yeah.
Um, so I thought that it was reallycool that they had an actual character
(08:33):
meet where you got to go up andget in line and get your picture
with the Mandalorian and Grogu.
That's not something thatyou've seen at any other event.
And honestly, honestly, like the onlydisappointing part of the character
aspect of this event was that thereweren't more characters in Galaxy's Edge.
Yeah.
And there were more StarWars characters, right?
Like they have BB 8 there.
(08:54):
They have Darth Vader.
They have Kylo Ren.
They have Rey.
Like, there, there's more opportunitythere, um, to make more of Galaxy's Edge.
And I was also a little bit surprisedthat when you look at the, the
guide map when you arrive, right?
And it's available on oursite at adventureswithdisney.
com if you want to take a look.
(09:14):
They've got the characters listedand it says friends from Toy Story.
You don't know who it's goingto be until you get there.
And when you get there, youknow, they make it seem like
there's more than one plural.
There's not, it's either Lotso or Bo Peep.
Is there a possibility that in thefuture, like they've given themselves
flexibility at future party nightsto have different characters?
(09:36):
Absolutely.
But my guess is that thisis going to stay consistent.
Well, I was really surprised.
There's no Woody, no Jesse, no Buzz.
Where were they at?
Um, where'd they meet at
right by the bathrooms, rightacross from alien swirling saucers.
So not even in the normal spot whereyou meet, um, Woody and Jesse in the
(09:56):
spot where you meet buzz was, um,Donald and Daisy goofy and Pluto as,
um, two separate character meets.
So it was, it was great.
I thought that the.
Um, speaking of characters, the, the Pixarplace dance party for kids was fantastic
and that included, um, sadness, whichwas really cool because you don't see it
(10:20):
normally see her Mike Wazowski, Frozone,um, and then, and Nimod was back there.
Um, there, there's just some of thecharacters that you don't normally
see and they're dancing and there's aDJ and they're doing things that you
wouldn't necessarily normally, you know,see them do, which was a lot of fun.
And I think it made for like a lot of.
Viral social moments.
(10:41):
Um, so I think from acharacter perspective, it
was really impressive to me.
The, there are, there are twotips that I would give people.
Um, number one is like, try todo, uh, care, like characters with
longer lines, like the surprising.
Longest line was Phineas and Ferb.
I don't understand the obsessionwith Phineas and Ferb, but they
(11:02):
had the longest line for sure.
It's probably, it's probably the, they'remore unique than probably sadness.
Like I don't think I'veever seen Phineas and Ferb.
I've no, I know they used to.
Be out in front of magickingdom, but they're not anymore.
Yeah.
They're, they're definitely on the rareside of a character, character meets.
So I, I, I get that.
(11:23):
But like at the same time, I'venever, I've never watched that show.
So yeah,
it's kind
of, it's just not for me.
It's
kind of our, the youngergeneration from us.
So, I've seen a couple of them.
I know we are too old, but bears watchedit a couple of times, but yeah, it's
kind of that, that whatever, I don't knowwhat gen we are, but at the one below us.
(11:43):
Yeah.
And so like, it was surprisingto see that as the longest line,
but the other big thing is.
When you see the list and there aremultiple characters listed, you're not
going to get both and you don't knowwhen you're going to get which one.
So I had a moment where I wentup to meet Pinocchio, right?
Cause my kids were actually watchingPinocchio while I was at the party.
(12:04):
So I thought it'd be fun togo up selfie with Pinocchio.
I was the last person that got cut offbefore they switched to Jiminy Cricket.
And you don't know, like you can ask thepeople that are there, like, When Lotso
is coming out, if you see that Bo Peep'sthere, but you know, it's, it's hard to
plan your night around these specificcharacters because you don't know which
(12:27):
one of those is going to be out there.
So I would keep that in mind,like Jose, um, and Panchito.
You don't get both of them.
It's one or the other.
So I think, um, to methat was interesting.
And like Clarice and Scrooge McDuck,nobody wants to meet Clarice,
right?
So, you know, you don't know whenyou're going to get Scrooge McDuck.
(12:47):
There's no time listed.
There's no way to see on the app.
You have to basically walkover there and find out.
And then there's also like some, youknow, hit quote, hidden characters.
that are not listed like Dr.
Strange was walking around,um, which was cool to see.
So I think there's more opportunityfor that, but I think overall at this
party, they did that really, really well.
(13:10):
The ride wait times, aside fromSleeky Dog Dash, we're all pretty low.
Sleeky Dog Dash was
like 30 to 50 minutes.
The majority of the night.
Wasn't it down?
Yeah, it was, it was down for a while.
I like, and I wasn't trying to write it,so it didn't make a huge difference to me.
Um, but you know, it,it, it is what it is.
(13:33):
Yeah.
The, um, merch I thought was pretty good.
I ended up buying like a t shirt.
I wanted to buy more, but,um, they only have merch in
one store in Muppet courtyard.
So you have to walk back there andget in line there and it's, but it's,
it's well done and, um, you can getin and out before the party starts.
(13:54):
So like, if you go in at four o'clock,you can get into the merch shop before.
The party actually starts at 7 30.
Is it, is it, is it in the building?
That's not really a nothing else.
Like it's that right, right betweenpizza Rizzo and then the Muppet show.
The
building that's neverused that in the back.
It's got like paint splatters on it.
Yeah.
(14:15):
That's a
great, great idea though.
If you're going to do it,might as well do it there.
And that's also where they put likethe slo mo photo experience, the
photo op, which a lot of people did.
Which was really cool, butit had a decent line too.
Like I'm sure that'll probably softenup, but those, those photo experiences
I think are going to be pretty popular.
Um, it could have been more thanI was there when a lot of the
(14:37):
influencers and YouTubers were there,so they wanted to do those things.
But it was a pretty cool slow mophoto experience that, um, I didn't
do it because the line was toolong, but I've seen people do it.
And it was, uh, it was
pretty nice.
Did you do any of the, like thetip top lounge or, um, that, that
experience, that, that kind of stuff.
So I walked into the tip top club afterwe rode Tower of Terror and it's like.
(15:03):
It's cool.
And, but it's not, it'snot anything special.
It's just an area where you come outof the store at tower of terror, right
there, that like little plaza area wherethe coffee, um, card is, they've got
like a place where you can get drinksthere and a band and people dancing and
stuff, so that's the quote tip top club.
(15:25):
I really thought that the, they did a lotof like new banners and, um, things like
that for the tower of terror, like tomake it look like, It was jazzed up, which
was nice, but it wasn't something thatlike, I wasn't there drinking alcohol.
I think, you know, if, if you'reinto that and you're there as
adults and you want to go and get adrink, it's a great spot to do that.
(15:47):
Um, and hang out and listen to themusic, but Tower of Terror was a walk on.
So like we rode that, you know, thatwas, I thought that was a lot of fun.
Um, and then we, we definitely checkedit out, but it's not anything that I
think you play in your night around.
And I kind of felt that way aboutthe majority of the stuff, like
the new skate show, Glisten.
(16:09):
It was cool.
Um, but I'm not like planningmy night around making sure I
have an opportunity to watch it.
Where was that at?
Right in front of the Chinese theater.
They set up a big skating rink there.
And so you could, you couldstay there and watch that.
And you could watch like thefireworks projection show.
Um, all in that same spot
(16:30):
and
it was, it was cool, but like, it'sone of those things where you're
not, it's not like the parade at theChristmas party or the Halloween party
at magic kingdom where you're planningyour night around making sure that
you get to see one of those things.
To me, it's like, if youfind an opportunity and you
want to check it out, do it.
But it's not something youhave to plan your night around.
(16:52):
The one thing I will tell peopleyou should plan your night
around is the what's this show.
It was
fantastic.
It was fantastic.
Where's that at?
Is that on the, it's
in the frozen singalong andit's the same kind of show.
So it is a singalong.
You're watching parts of themovie, but I don't want to,
(17:14):
like there's spoilers here, so.
Fast forward 30 seconds, if youdon't want to see it, there's
like parts where Jack comes out.
Right.
And there's parts where OogieBoogie comes out and Oogie Boogie
comes out and sings a song like inconstant, like it's Oogie Boogie.
And so that's like a live portionthat you don't get from like
(17:35):
the frozen show in that sense.
Um, and it's, it's really well done.
Cause you don't seeOogie Boogie outside of.
You know, the, the Halloweenparty parade and shows there.
So I, I thought that that was really cool.
I was really impressed with that.
I thought like my kids wouldhave a blast going to that show.
And I, so I think that that'ssomething that's like a must do.
(17:58):
The snacks and the foodwas kind of disappointing.
I smashed some tachos
cause
that's what we do on this show.
Like, We eat lunchbox, but, um, thestuff that we tried, like, I mean, there
was nothing that really comes to mindthat is, you know, they're right home
about, they have the droid and lightsaberopportunities like to build those is
(18:23):
open, which I think is a great experience.
These are all things that whenwe went during after hours, none
of that stuff was available.
So there's a lot, there'sa lot of cool stuff to do.
And I'm sure you guys have seen,and I'm sure our listeners have
seen, the next like month or soat Disney is going to be nuts.
Absolutely nuts.
(18:44):
Premiere Pass is selling out.
It's going to be crowded.
And like, if so, if you don'tget an opportunity to do Savi's
workshop to build the lightsaber,like do it, do it at the party.
It's a fun experience.
It doesn't take that long.
And it's
going to take a huge part of your
night.
Yeah.
Um, so overall, like, JollywoodNights to me is an A plus.
(19:05):
It's not, um, I've had a lot of gueststhat have asked me about it lately.
The way that I would make the decisionis if you have a family that's going.
If your kids are into charactersand they want to do some rides,
this is a perfect event for them.
Yeah, that's what I was going to,that was my, my, my question is like,
what's, is there an age you think?
(19:25):
Or is it just character based?
I, to me, it's, it's just more ifthey're into characters and you
want the opportunity to ride a ride.
Rides with shorter lines.
This is it because, um, like, uh, youknow, we also did the, um, the show with
Kermit and Miss Piggy and that was, thatwas cool, but it's also not something
(19:47):
that like, I'm like, you have to do that.
Like it's a must.
Did you, to
me, the entertainment was justkind of like, if you've got kids.
I wouldn't base yourdecision based on that.
Did you walk into a Brown Derby at all?
Were they doing that again this year?
They were doing it.
I did not do it, but the, um, the,like all the reviews were great,
(20:07):
but it does take a while waskind of the feedback that I saw.
That
was the big thing last year isit took, took a little while.
Like, cause what is it?
You get, you drink, you, they have uniquedrinks in there and and they bring out
lots of entrees.
So like you're there for like amultiple course opportunity, like
smaller plates kind of thing.
Um, and that, that I think that's theother thing, like if you're going with
(20:32):
adults, like a date night or even justgoing with a group of adult friends, go
in and being able to have a drink and eatand kind of leisurely go through maybe
one or two characters, one or two shows.
One or two rides.
It's perfect.
That's basically what I did, right?
I did a couple rides.
I did, we did Smuggler'sRun, Rise, Tower of Terror.
(20:56):
We did, I did almost all the characters.
And I also got to see mostof, almost all the shows.
Nice.
So there, there wasn't anythingthat I felt like I missed.
Now, I was moving a lot faster than, youknow, You know, a typical party would,
I think, because I was trying to getcontent and all that stuff at the site.
(21:16):
Um, but overall to me, I wasreally, really impressed by it.
It's still not something that Iwould pick over Mickey, Mickey's very
America's party though, which was
that's exactly what Iwas going to lead to.
So you, you did both opening night.
Uh, obviously they're both.
I think we're both sold outor at least close to it.
Um, what were your initial thoughts onMickey's not so, uh, or not, not so scary,
(21:40):
Mickey's very merry Christmas party.
So it was awesome as I expected.
The Mickey's Mickey's veryMerry Christmas party.
I think it reaffirmed, um, a lot ofwhat we know historically, right.
During the day of the day of theparty, the lines were incredibly short.
I mean, like very, very, very short.
The park was completely empty andthat was great from the get go.
(22:05):
Jack and Sally, the linewas like two hours long.
That's crazy.
It's, it's pretty much, youknow, consistent year to year.
Um, the most impressive thing thatstuck out to me was the meet and greet
with Santa for kids is phenomenal.
They have a craft table set up andthis is back by Storybrooke Circus.
(22:26):
Okay.
Um, they have craft tables set upwhere while you're waiting in line,
your kids can go and sit and writeletters to Santa, which is so cute.
I mean, I just think it's,it's just a, Nice opportunity
the way that they've done it.
You can get some candyand stuff there too.
Um, the other characters that likeblew me away that did not have really
(22:47):
long lines were Anna and Elsa, which isthe only, this is the only opportunity
to meet them at Magic Kingdom.
And they're in their winter,you know, outfits, not the same
outfits that you see at Epcot.
And then Belle at Enchanted Tales withBelle, she's in her Christmas gown and
has A Christmas tree in the cottage.
(23:08):
And I just think like,
is there a Christmas movie?
Like, don't they have aChristmas episode or something?
Yeah, they do.
Uh, they do have a Christmas movie andit was, I just thought that that meet
and greet in particular, like those twowere really, really well done and they're
unique and to me they're like, they wouldbe up there in priority is similarly.
(23:30):
Um, to what I was mentioning about,uh, Jollywood nights, if you see
the character meets where it says.
These people or these people,or there's kind of a group, you
should expect that it's either or.
So it was like Snow White orAurora, not both at the same time.
And the downside to that is like, youdon't know when they're going to be
(23:53):
out there and when they're switching.
So if you want to get one of them,you just don't know when you're going
to be able to get that opportunity.
And like at Magic Kingdom, it'sreally hard to sneak up on a
character meet and get in a shortline because it's so crowded, right?
Like there's so many people walking by.
(24:14):
And as soon as there's a shortline, a flock of people go there.
Right.
And, and I, I think that that was,was a bit, um, surprising to me.
The one that was the shot, the shockingone that had the longest wait, I
don't think, I don't think it was evershorter than two hours was the meet
and greet at Pete's silly side show.
(24:36):
And it was because of Scrooge McDuck.
It was Minnie mouse, Daisy duck,Donald duck, and Scrooge McDuck.
It was, it was never shorterthan like two hours long.
I mean, I went back there.
Multiple times to try and do it, nevercould get it and um, and it surprised
(24:57):
me because at Jollywood Nights, the linefor Scrooge McDuck was like non existent.
So, I didn't, and I attribute part ofthat like, to be the meeting Minnie
Mouse and, You know, things like that.
But it was, it was a, it was aweird experience in that sense.
The merch at the Christmasparty wasn't as good this year.
(25:18):
I thought it was kind of weak andyou sent me a couple of pictures.
it
was great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was, there was only one area to buy it.
It was very, like, very simple.
Um, I'm, I'm not interms of tips for guests.
The biggest thing that I've beentelling people is the fireworks
show is not like everything.
(25:41):
You need to see
okay.
I'm a happily ever after guy.
And so like, to me, the fireworksshow is a good opportunity to
get a bunch of other stuff done.
So I went in to meet Jack and Sally.
There was a five minute waitduring the fireworks show.
Then there was no wayat all to meet Mickey.
(26:01):
So like, but those are things thatwe've known in the past, right?
Like those are, that,that applied last year.
I figured it would.
So I did it again this year andthat was absolutely the case.
So there's a good opportunity.
If you want to ride some rides, youwant to get on Tron, you want to get on.
Tiana's bioadventure.
We Tiana's bioadventure was a walk on.
Yeah.
(26:21):
I saw that.
He's yeah, that was nuts.
Basically in the, in the span of thefireworks, we were able to meet Jack
and Sally, Mickey, then get all theway over to Tiana's bioadventure.
Walk on it and then walk on to BigThunder Mountain, all in the span of
like the 25 minutes of the fireworks.
That's crazy.
So like there's, yeah, there's agood opportunity to get stuff done.
(26:43):
Um, the Disney junior danceparty for kids, I think is a huge
opportunity and it's a lot of fun.
They also had, um, another dance partyon the stage where Stitch normally
is, where they had a DJ playing.
Who was, that was great.
What were the characters at Disney jr.
Do you remember?
So it was Fancy Nancy, Timone,Vampirina, and Doc McStuffins.
(27:07):
So the same ones you normallysee at Hollywood studios.
Yeah, good.
And, uh, but they weren'tall there at the same time.
Like when I walked in.
They weren't all doingthe dance party at once.
It was like Timon and Doc McStuffins,I think, at the time I walked in there.
But it was, it was pretty cool.
And to me, the, the, like the mostimportant thing is seeing the parade.
(27:30):
Yeah.
And it's, it's great.
It's
the
best part.
And as, as much as everybody, likeall, like people like us now, obviously
the, the Christmas day parade isn'tfilmed on Christmas day, spoiler alert.
It was filmed last week because Isaw it pretty much the whole thing,
but it's the same parade, correct.
In terms of characters, they mightadd a different one here or there,
(27:52):
but it's pretty much the same.
It's the exact same.
The Christmas Day parade is the exactsame parade that they do at night.
And in fact, um, the one whenthey filmed it, cause I was there
during the filming, they filmed iton, um, the Saturday and Sunday.
And you, so you got to see it, butit was that and Christmas day are
the only times at magic kingdom.
(28:13):
You can see that parade during the day.
Otherwise it's normally likewe call it paywalled, right?
Like you have to buy a ticketto the Christmas party to
be able to see that parade.
So, and, and, and it's, It's worth it.
Like that parade, Santa is in it.
Sometimes Mrs.
Claus is in it.
Not always.
Um, but you get the full array ofDisney characters and to me it's a,
(28:39):
it's a step below the booty you paradejust because the booty parade is so
special, but it's, it's better than anyother parade at magic kingdom for sure.
And I think that it's more important foryou to see that than it is for you to see
the, certainly the fireworks, the othershows that are on like the stage shows,
(29:00):
like to me, you could hit or miss those.
Like they're, they're not.
It's not like the Sanderson sistersat the Halloween party where you're
like, you have to watch that showbecause that show is awesome.
It's, it's okay.
Is it Elsa lighting the castle?
They still do that?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like that's, that's, that's one of them.
My brother saw that last year andhe saw it before, right before they,
(29:21):
they kicked him out for the party.
And he said that was theperfect for his daughter.
His daughter loves seeing that.
Um, so that might, that would bethe one I would suggest going to
is go see Elsa light the castle.
Um, just because my, mydaughters would love it.
My son, I think Bear would even like,he's like, that's pretty, be pretty cool.
But, um, I kind of agree with you though.
Yeah, they, they do like the mostmerriest celebration and the frozen
(29:45):
holiday surprise are the namesof the two shows that they do.
And they only do the frozenholiday surprise once at 815.
And then they do the Mickey's mostmerriest celebration four different times.
So there's, there's ample timesto like catch those shows.
But like the easiest thing to dois to get your spot for the parade
(30:06):
somewhere close to the castlebecause the first parade's at 8 30.
If you're going to do the first parade,which is going to be more crowded.
Um, but the frozen holidaysurprise is at 8 15.
So it's right before the parade starts.
So you can kind of knock outtwo things in the same spot.
Um, but I'm a big fan of doing theparade at 11 PM when it's, less crowded,
(30:29):
people are doing more rides because thenwhen it's really crowded and people are
watching the first parade at 8 30 withall the like little tiny kids that have
to leave and go to bed, you can geta lot more done throughout the parks.
Um, so I, I thought likeall of that was great.
Did
they have the snow going?
They had the snow going.
I felt like it was less this year.
(30:51):
Um, but you know, the one thing I'llsay to about this, And they, they had
like the, the cookie stops with the hotchocolate and egg nog and all that stuff.
That stuff's free for anybody that,you know, has never been before.
You know, the food offeringswere like, just mad to me.
(31:11):
There was nothing that like caught my,like, I'll, I'll give you the, the four
examples that they have as like thehighlights in the, um, the park map.
Right.
I appreciate it.
The gingerbread milkshake, whichI've heard is fantastic, but I'm
not a gingerbread guy, but I'veheard that that is very, very good.
But the next one is the Szechuancauliflower, which is spicy
(31:35):
breaded cauliflower tossedin such Szechuan soy glaze.
And I know I'm pronouncing that wrong.
I apologize.
Glass noodles, greenonions, and crispy garlic.
Not for me.
It's
basically
fried cauliflower.
Yeah, it's like, it'slike cauliflower wings.
Yeah.
Yeah, not, not, I mean,that's just not for me.
Um, that's not to say they aren'tgreat, but it like, doesn't make me
(31:56):
like, I need to go get that, right?
That
doesn't also scream holiday to me.
It doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't.
And then chocolate eggnog, eggnogtart, I heard was really good.
I heard the beignets were really good.
Um, my brother in law, I think triedone of the eggnog tarts, if I remember
correctly, and thought it was pretty good.
But then the, the Cosmic Rays holidayTurkey burger, which is a Turkey burger
(32:20):
topped with traditional stuffing,provolone, cranberry chutney, and a
brioche bun, and I'm just like, man, yeah.
I mean, if you like Thanksgivingfood, that's right up Chip's alley.
But for me, that's not like, I'mlike, Oh my gosh, I gotta, you
know, I gotta go check that out.
So overall, like.
To me, it wasn't likea food centric event.
(32:42):
It was the same thing we were talkingabout with, uh, Jollywood nights.
Like pick one or two of the shows orparades that you really want to hit.
Pick a couple of characters that youreally want to hit and a couple of
rides that you really want to hit.
And with how busy it's going to be,I think the rides are going to be an
even bigger opportunity this year.
Then they were in the past.
(33:04):
Riding Tron or riding a Tronat night is always better, but
riding Tron, seven doors, minetrade and Tiana's bio adventure.
Like if you knock all three of those out,that's a pretty darn successful night.
Yeah.
Right.
Like to me, to me, like, andthis, this is exactly what I did.
And I think it would be the ideal nightfor the majority of my clients and the
(33:26):
majority of people planning a vacation.
You meet Anna and Elsa, you meetJack and Sally, you meet Mickey.
Yeah.
You watch the parade, whichevertime you want to go, you knock
out Tron, seven doors, minetrain and Tiana's bioadventure.
You get a snack or two andyou try and meet Santa.
(33:47):
And I think that's like,you've hit a great, great
time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I had a few other opportunitieswhere like I popped into
bell and she had no weight.
You know, things like that.
And it's an awesome,it's an awesome party.
And we didn't even stay the whole time.
Get your steps in.
You 100 percent get your steps in.
(34:08):
That's for sure.
That's for sure.
No, that's awesome.
I appreciate you.
You giving us an update and a lastquestion and we'll wrap it, wrap it up.
As if you're taking your family right now.
Which one
of the halloween orchristmas or jollywood or
jollywood is very merryjollywood or mickey's very merry
Mickey's very merry for my kids for surebecause And and and I say that because
(34:33):
like my kids at hollywood studios We'reblessed, don't get me wrong, we go
frequently enough that they don't careabout the rides at a party as much.
I think that they would love theopportunity, like, because my kids love
Tower of Terror, to just go on thatover and over and over and over again.
Like they would, and they woulddo it, they would literally spend
(34:54):
the entire party time just goingTower of Terror over and over.
Um, but there, there's, They'rejust not as into characters.
And I think like the, like powerline maxhits for me, but wouldn't hit for my kids.
Right.
The Mandalorian would.
Um, but I, I just think thatlike, unless you're there for
(35:17):
drinks and entertainment and food.
Or rides or characters, like it'snot, it's not as big of a thing, but
I think that at the Mickey's MerryMerry Christmas party for kids,
there's just a lot more entertainmentopportunities that that'll hit for them.
Like the parade will be a hit,whether or not you think the same
about the fireworks and the show,the parade will be a hit 100%.
(35:41):
Um, so, and Jack andSally is a different draw.
My kids would love to meet Jack and Sally.
See, mine wouldn't.
Mine don't care.
So yeah, it's interesting.
Yeah, it's the same.
It's the same kind of point.
Um, now, I would have a much hardertime deciding between going to a
Halloween party with my kids and goingto a Christmas party with my kids.
(36:03):
See, I wouldn't have a hard problem.
My wife would say, Alright,this is where we're going.
We're going to the Christmas party.
And we're going to enjoy it.
But that's awesome because mytree, my tree's been up for,
I don't know, a long time.
Almost a month now.
That's going to wrap it upfor this week on the podcast.
We're really looking forward to gettingback in a groove now that we're back,
um, from the Christmas parties and doinglife stuff and chips in the playoffs.
(36:26):
Hopefully we're going to be reportinga state title here soon, but, uh, you
can definitely catch us on social media.
If you have questions, we loveanswering listener questions.
So.
Make sure you hit the inbox or hitus in the comments, DMs, email,
all the links to get a quote.
If you'd like to support the podcast,um, and help me book your next, you
know, Walt Disney world, Disney cruiseline, universal Orlando vacation.
(36:49):
Love to do all those things.
It's free, completely free to you.
A link to get a quote or inthe show notes and otherwise,
uh, we'll see you next week.
We'll see you when we see you.
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