Disney Mania: Stay at Swan and Tiana Makes a Splash!

Scott and Lindsay are back to recap their latest drip to DISNEY WORLD with the family.

*This podcast is All Disney. Nothing reality or Challenge related. But.a great way to spend your Christma! 

Among topics covered are whether it's a good idea to stay at the Marriott owned Swan or Dolphin on property and whether Tiana's Bayou Adventure lives up to the iconic Splash Mountain it replaced! All this a lot more from two self-identifying Disney Adults who can't wait to get back to the Most Magical Place on Earth! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:19):
What's up, Challenge Maniacs? What's up? Survivor maniacs? What's up
Trader maniacs? Guess what? Scott Lindsay are here to talk
about something else that is near and dear to our hearts,
something else we are maniacs for. You may have heard
this podcast before. Nope, it's not Challenge Mania, it's not
Trader Mania, it's not Survivor mania. This is no. It

(00:42):
was called bb fever. Actually it's called bb fever because.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Like baby fever, like we love babies.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
But you cut off my big intro here, clarifying that
this Disney the next iteration of Disney Mania. Guys, we've
had such a clustered year. We're finally getting around to
covering our recent Disney trip, just in time for our
next one. That's right, that's how big of Disney maniacs
we are. We already have our next trip planned. We'll

(01:12):
get into that, but before we do, we got to
talk about this last trip we took.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Remember when we were like, look, going.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Every few years, like every two years, like Max, right,
And here we are planning year after year Disney trips
with three kids.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
See, I don't I don't mind it as much as
as much as you do. I I'm down here, I'm
down to go as as often as possible.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
So sure, in an ideal world, I agree. We're not
those people that are, like Disney is so strict, Like, yeah,
it's a lot, it's a lot. It's not like a
relaxing vacation. But I still like love every second of it,
you know, I'm not. It appeals to people I can
only handle this every year.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
It appeals to people like us. You often have like
a go go, go, plan, plan plan attitude about every
type of vacation. I don't mind it as much with
this and what also, uh, this place has obviously that
you don't love as much. Is like you know, swag
and mouths and this and that. No, well yeah, and
you know.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
In general, I will say, like movies, I don't like crowds.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
I love movies and IP and things like that and
characters and stuffies and buying stuff for our kids. So
it's like a combination. I P like I no, no,
I I P like intellectual property.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
I'm joking.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Joke is to say, can you hey, Scott, can can
you spell? I cut?

Speaker 1 (02:43):
I see up? Yeah, I remember. It's so funny these
these like old adages or a little playground jokes that
I remember doing when I was a kid. He is
now like learning them, and I forget what's the other
one he does about like if you're an idiot, say
this or whatever.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Well oh yeah, well he does like knock knock, who's
there interrupting?

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Cow interrupting? Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I'm waiting
for him to learn the waynes world one, which is
sphincter says what what exactly? And what's so funny is
I remember being a kid and having no idea what
that was, having to have it explained to me, And

(03:25):
then I'm like, oh, so I'm going to like go
through life hearing about sphincters all the time. That's obviously
like a term, and no, it like only exists in
that one line, like well, I'm just saying, you know
what I mean. It's just you try to add into her, well,
so you want you have ever heard my you ever
heard my? Douche theory that like so so like douche,

(03:46):
douchebag and douche as like a name and an insult
has superseded the usage of like the actual douchebag. The
functional thing and and occasionally you will see the words
written on like a French soap or something, or it's
like the translation for what a shampoo is or whatever,
and your brain immediately goes to douche, like that guy

(04:08):
in class you hate. And so it's just funny that
it's like the you know, the the reference of the
of the term has now the.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
The craziest turn that this is what we are discussing
on a disney Mania podcast.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Hey well, i'll tell you get in as much of
a wonderful place as it is, there are a few
douchebags there. Here's what we're going to talk about. We're
going to talk about our recent trip. So one of
the fun things we like to do is we like
to stay at different properties. But as Lindsay mentioned, we've
been going pretty often these days. So unlike some of
our trips where recently we went to the Polynesian which

(04:43):
is very fun but obviously very expensive, and our next
trip may have a little bit of beach club involved,
which again could be pretty pricey, we decided to do resorts. Yeah,
and what we decided so one thing, and this is
kind of something to let people know if you are
Marriott loyalists like I am and like we are. There

(05:03):
are actually a few Marriott hotels that are not only
on property but also come with like the Disney perks. Right.
So sadly, if you stay off property and if you're
going like the cost efficient way of like, oh, I'm
gonna stay at the like Courtyard Marriott, you know, three
miles away, or even like the you know whatever, the
Hilton of this that whatever. The way they kind of
try to get you to not stay at those places

(05:25):
is you don't get the early entry. You know, they're
probably a little bit farther. There's not like direct shuttles,
although some of them do have third party shuttles and
things like that. You know, they're not on the Skyliner line,
et cetera, et cetera. Though all that being said, there
are three Marriott own properties used to be too, but
they just had a third, the Swan, the Dolphin and
the now Swan Reserve that are not only like on

(05:48):
property and very close to specifically Epcot, but the boardwalk
and things like that. But staying there does afford you
the luxury of all the early entry and things like that.
They have a lot of great restaurants, the theming isn't
as Disney, you know what I mean, Like they're not
like Disney themed, although I would say that like from
the outside, they still look cool, like the like the

(06:09):
cool like huge dolphin structures and sculptures and stuff like.
It is cool. It's right on the water. There's boats
that pull up water taxi, et cetera. So it does
feel like Disney Ish, even if not like full on
themed out like the Beach Club or like the Polynesian
or or what have you.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Right, So that's my main issue with it is Disney
is about the theming. I mean, it's about the magic
touches and all of that, but I think so much
of it is about the theming. And you know again
it's you know, it's a free stay. I got it.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yeah, well, okay, it's not gonna necessarily be a free
stay for everyone. But so the perks of being able
to stay at a Marriott own property are as follows. Right,
So yes, if you do have a massive amount of points,
you could potentially get a not free stay, but pay
for a stay with points. If you have like free
night rewards or something, you could potentially use those to

(07:06):
chip away at a stay. If you're just like working
towards status and you want to get like credit for
your nights working towards something. Whereas like you only go
to Disney once a year every few years, so like
like you're not gonna like stay at the beach club
enough to where like you become like number one beach
club guy, right, Whereas like if you stay at a
Marriott own property, those five nights at the Dolphin get

(07:28):
tacked onto your next six nights at the Fairfield in
in Cleveland, and so on and so on and so on.
I always recommend if you can picking like a hotel
like chain or conglomerate. Marriyout's great because they own everything
from West End to Sheridan to Courtyard to Fairfield all
the way up to Ritz Carlton and Saint Regis and
things like that. So they absorbed SPG and a few

(07:48):
other things, and so they own such a wide variety
of hotels that chances are in every single city or
market you can find a bonvoy hotel, which is like
the Marriott reward system. So I recommend doing that because
if you travel a lot, you're working to different statuses
that come with different perks and things like that. Like
I say, at so many hotels, I have such good
status that, for instance, when I show up at a
hotel at ten in the morning and I go to
the front desk and say, hey, I'm here early, and

(08:10):
in fact, I don't even wait till the desk, I
start texting them by the app, like when I land,
or I give the heads up the day before. When
I get there, they don't like like chuckle at me
and say sorry, check in is at four, or like
give you that canned like just to let you know.
We'll make the note, but we can't promise anything, and
blah blah, no they will if they have it. Check
me in at ten am. I can check out all

(08:30):
of my rooms at four pm. So like, you go
to some of these hotels and it sucks because like
you know, your flight's not till six forty five, but
you got to be out of the room by eleven,
and when you ask for late checkout, to tell you
to fuck off, they will let you chack do late
checkout at Marriott hotels. Now, I will say, I forget
how they handled it at Disney. But sometimes there are
a few exceptions. Disney might be one of them where

(08:51):
they might not honor some of those perks, like they
might not give you the full four pm checkout at
like at Disney. Yeah yeah, but but.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
It Disney perks, like you still got the early access.
You know, it's it's as if you're staying out a
Disney hotel.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Well, I would say that the most thing that's the
most Disney other than yes, obviously the early.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Entry still have the transportation. Although yes, you know it's
not the most convenient for some of the parks, like
you know, if you're going to stay at the Dolphin,
Swan or the Reserve, like getting to Magic Kingdom is
a bit of a hassle, but then the trade off is,
like you can't win them all. Like you're super close
to Epcot and you're super close to Hollywood Studios. You

(09:30):
get to take the boat to Hollywood Studios or Epcot,
which we love doing.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
You walk toot, you get to.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Walk to Epcot. That I mean, that's hard to be
being able to walk to I.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Think that more or less when it comes to the
Disney hotels, since exactly since the park is, since the
property is so big, whatever hotel you choose is ideally
going to be perfect for one to two to maybe
three parks and then probably shitty and not even shitty,
just like a longer bus ride or you have to
transfer or two times or something from like two parts.

(10:02):
So like you might stay on the monorail path and
you're really close to Magic Kingdom, but you got to
take a long bus to Animal Kingdom or whatever. Animal
Kingdom Lodge, ironically, which is as close as you're gonna
get to Animal Kingdom, is still a bus ride to
Animal Kingdom. So the Epcot ones, so for instance, there's
ones where you can just take the skyliner to Epcot
and things like that, and then there's the ones that
are on the boardwalk, which I consider the Swan and

(10:23):
Dolphin to be sort of an offshoot of the boardwalk.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Are on the boardwalk.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, so those are boardwalk. Beach Club. Beach Club is boardwalk.
I believe there is a boardwalk. Hotel is boardwalk. Yeah, yeah,
And so all these you can literally walk to Epcot
and then you can water taxi to Hollywood Studios and

(10:48):
then Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom are the two you're
gonna kind of have to take a bus to two
or whatever. So anyway, so we stayed at the so
to be quite honest, the reason we stayed at the reserve,
we stayed the Swan Reserve, which is the newest one
and the smallest one. It's because it was the only
one left, so by the time we booked it was
well I wouldn't I don't know, so that's what we'll say.
So it's definitely the newest. So it's the newest. It's

(11:10):
the newest. It has the few because it's the smallest,
it has the fewest restaurants and things like that. But
you're so close to the other Swan and Dolphin that
I would consider all those restaurants to be like, you know,
at your disposal as well. But I believe the reserve
only has like one maybe two restaurants. And the pool
there was good, but I believe we liked the other
one better, right, was that it or we kind of

(11:31):
had to like?

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, the pool again, it's like more of an adult
pool at the reserve. It's it's I think it's sort
of like I would describe it as like if I
were adults going and I don't care about Disney theming,
you know, that's like the nice swanky or hotel. It
has a very like adult only pool vibe there. I mean,

(11:53):
it was fine and it wasn't adult only, but there's
no there's no bells and whistles to the pool, you know.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
So so the one, because we did go to one
that had like a cool water slide and stuff that
was like the Dolphin Pool, yeah, or the Swan Pool
or something like that. We also ate at a couple
of restaurants over in one of the larger hotels, the
Swan and the Dolphin, which is the one that was
closest to it must have been the Swan, right because
the reserve is probably close to the Swans. Okay, so
the Swan. The Swan had a pretty cool Italian restaurant

(12:21):
that like, when we sat down, we were like, this
is amazing. The like antipasa that they give you for free,
was like a plate of salami, which for our salami
guzzling daughter Winnie, was like heaven. And we like had
like five of them, and we sat down and we
were like, oh, this is perfect, this is great. And
then the food took so long that our kids started
getting antsy, and by the end of it we were
like why do we do this? But that being said,
I would still recommend that Italian restaurant. The food was good.

(12:44):
It's nothing again, crazy, there's.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
No Italian restaurant. Are you talking about about the steakhouse?

Speaker 1 (12:48):
No, we went to a dinner at an Italian restaurant
at the Swan and they played plated us a complimentary
plate of salami, of which we got several and then
by the end of it we were like mad that
we were there for so long.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah. Why, But like also like why would we think
to like sit down with three kids at Disney World.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Part of the reason is so you can podcast about
it and tell friends and things like that, and because
that's kind of the point, right Also, but yes, it
can be absolutely painful going out with three kids of
varying ages when they're overtired and want nothing to do
with it and the food and that's when you feel
like every second that the food is taking long, you know.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
I mean there's a difference. Like there's one thing to
do that at, like you know, wood Ease Barbecue Round,
like you know, like our character breakfast, like a place
that is like meant for kids, and to like try
to do that at like a fancy restaurant like or
a steakhouse at one of the resorts.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
You know sure. I mean I wouldn't. I wouldn't necessarily
cause people. So this place is called ill Molino, and
I would recommend it. It's a change good. Yeah, there's
a chain ash. Yes, there's no like Disney kind of
theming and whatnot. But I thought for being a close
to the hotel restaurant, I thought it was good. And
then I think there.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Should be a role if you're a restaurant at Disney World,
like you cannot take more than thirty minutes to bring
food to the table.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah. In their defense, it was like eight o'clock and
we were like the only people with kids there and
there was like a conference, even.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
More reason to get us out of there quickly.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
So there was a place called Kimonos that we went
to a couple of times. I think one day we
went there with just Rock and it.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
Was so nice. A little sushi restaurant in the in
the Swan. Yeah, and it's nothing crazy, but it was
like just such an easy thing when we were staying there,
like late at night, to stop in and get a
few roles quickly before going to bed.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
So overall, what I'll say about the experience of staying
at the Swan slash Dolphin is and you can you know,
read read through the tea leaves that we enjoyed it
in a practical way so much that we are in
fact going and staying there again. So we are we
are we are going to for our next trip split
the difference and spend half of our at this time

(15:00):
the Dolphin, so not the reserve of the Dolphin. This
next trip we were able to book. They had the options,
so I believe we went probably with the cheapest or
something because they kind of feel like they're all the same,
and so we're gonna try the Dolphin. But that should
that should kind of.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
Explain the price was right for us because of the
points situation, and the location is great for us because
we do do Epcot and we do do Hollywood Studios
every time we do all the parks, so you know,
you can't beat that convenience. We like being on the boardwalk.
It's fine. It's a good hotel, like in a vacuum.
It's a good hotel. If it's not anywhere else, I'd

(15:36):
be like, great hotel. It just lacks the theming, like
none of the restaurants. There's no character breakfast, you know,
there's no like exciting restaurants there. But the pool is good.
The kids, like you got to drag my kids away
from the water slides. It's always a good sign. So,
you know, great, great pool, lots of options for pools. Now,

(15:58):
it was we didn't end up getting to do like
the Swan and Dolphin are famous for those swanen Dolphin boats,
the little paddle boats that are shaped like, yes, it
was too windy and they don't too windy, they wouldn't
let people out, not that I'm sure we would have
done it, but so we didn't get to experience that
signature thing there.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
I will admit I don't really care about that.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
So they had a little playground which was cute on
the sand, right, like, yeah there was some there's some. Yeah,
it was definitely kid friendly. I love I just love
the boardwalk at night. I love walking around the boardwalk,
like you catch random things like you know, the hotels
like playing the movie out on the boardwalk on the screen,
or people to sit out and there's live music and

(16:42):
you know, there's lots of treats on the boardwalk and
the weather is nice that time year, and it's just
always such a lovely way to get home at night
instead of like being on a long crowded bus, we
have to fold your stroller.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah, So overall, I would say, and like this next trip,
we're kind of splitting the difference. So we're like we're
going back to the beach club for a few days,
and then we're also going to then move hotels, switch
to the Dolphin, which we don't love switching hotels. But
if you're only doing it once and you have a
lengthy stay and they will move your stuff for.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
You, yeah, I will say that makes it a lot easier.
It is like you in the morning before you go
to the park, you leave your stuff at the bell
service and you tell them that you're, you know, moving hotels,
and by the time you get back from the park
that night, your luggage will be at your new hotel.
But you still have to Like now, as a mom
of three, like the packing and unpacking is tedious. It's obnoxious,

(17:32):
and I am not looking forward to that part because
like I used to like live out of a suitcase
when I travel, and like that was fine, but now
that there's so many people, I really love the idea
of of being able to Yeah, yeah, I'm I mean, oh,
here's my one. Can I say this is like such
a minor thing. Can I say my biggest complaint.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
About the didn't go ahead?

Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, it's one reserve. Yeah, not a lot of toury
space to put our stuff. And maybe that's just because
again we're a family of five now and we're running
out of drawers. But for a room that big, I
was very disappointed that there was not more space to
put our clothes.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah that's gonna, I mean, vary from room to room
and just be annoying. Like I actually find in general,
like places having less and less, fewer and fewer cabinets.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Me too many drawers. Just give me too many drawers.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
So what I'll say is is like, yeah, in a
perfect world, you would stay at the same place for
the entirety every day. No longer do I feel the
need to. I mean, there was a couple of times
we did, like I think we did one trip where
it was like we did half beach Club, half Animal Kingdom. Whatever. Yeah,
the only reason we're doing the move this time is
the beach Club, which, although we were able to get

(18:47):
some sort of a discounted rate from what it usually is,
it is still an exorbitant fee, and so to stay
there for like an entire trip of eight days is
a little bit astronomical. So that's the reason we're doing
it this time. But I would say if you can
stay at one place old time, probably best just to
be able to you know, leave your stuff out, not
have to repack, not have to move whatever. They're doing
multiple properties for the sake of just seeing multiple properties,

(19:09):
I wouldn't recommend, but I would obviously recommend what we're doing,
which is, hey, if you want to see a really
nice deluxe resort, but you don't have the funds to
be able to do it for the entirety of your trip,
you know, do you know more of an economy resort
for the other half, or do a merriyapp property whatever.
And I'll say that with these they they are so
like well located that it makes up for the theming

(19:31):
thing to me. So so to me like the fact that, yes,
when you're in your hotel, is Mickey Mouse running around?

Speaker 2 (19:36):
No?

Speaker 1 (19:36):
You know, is the swan outside dressed like goofy?

Speaker 2 (19:39):
No?

Speaker 1 (19:40):
Is there a character breakfast at the hotel? No? But
since you're like a hop and a skip from the
boardwalk and you kind of get that boardwalk feel. You
can walk to Epcot, you can like stay the whole
time and stay there like I just love like you
stay for the fireworks and then just like walk home whatever,
whereas like you don't have like another hour of transpo
on the way home. It just like makes you want
to extend the night and then the water taxi to

(20:02):
Hollywood Studios and you really do feel like you're in
a way like they are extremely well located. So that
makes up for the marry out of it all and
the not Disney problem at all in my opinion, because
some of the will be honest, some of the cooler
hotels are just not very well located.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
Like people like like there's people who love the monorail.
They want to be located on the monorail. Or like
they go to Magic Kingdom most of like more than
not the other parks, so they want to be close
to Magic Kingdom, or you know, there are some people
that love the Skyliner the Skyliner, you know, so I

(20:43):
think it just depends on your preference. We're two people
who like we're always gonna get you know, like we
love Epcot, we love but some people skip like we
love Hollywood studios, and some people skip and and so
for us it makes sense. And I like being like
able to walk, like we're New Yorkers, right like I

(21:03):
love the option of not having to get in a
car or bus, Like I love to be able to
just walk somewhere.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
Well, let me be honest, like the get the car
the bus is secondary to the folding of the stroller
and the packing of the stroller. And that is really
the bane of my existence. Where some of them are
not got some of them are nice. Some of them
are nice, and the lady just put it on, especially
if it's not that crowded.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
It's nice. Like it's it's I get it. It's the rules.
It's their job. They're supposed to implement the rules. Like
I don't. I'm not mad like you sometimes like take
it personally. I'm like, I don't think it personally. This
person doesn't want to like break the rules of their
job for us right.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Now, Like yeah, well I get it.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
But it is hard, especially like you know, like we're
so organized in the morning, like we have everything in
like a few bags and the and then like by
the end of the day, like you've accumulated water. Models
are everywhere, like sweatshirts and layers and like you know,
dirty dipe, like everything is just like all over the
stroller and everywhere that it is so hard at the
end of the day, especially to like how to we

(22:00):
fit every We gotta fit everything bag. We bought stuff here,
gonna fit it in this bag so that I can
carry it while holding a baby, like our baby is
not walking yet, Like I have to hold the baby
and like make sure I have the hand of like
my two other kids and we holding a bag and
your folding the strol. It is not fun. That part
is not fun.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
Of course, by the way, I'm just thinking out loud,
it's tomorrow, because tomorrow we're not going to Disney, but
we are going to Florida Miami. Is this our first
time traveling with this new stroller.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yes, we have a travel bag.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
We do okay, good, okay, Well, And the thing is
we always have these big we always have these big,
gaudy strollers, and we constantly have bags on bags on bags,
and like the folding of it is just like super
not easy. And then we have kids we have to
hold physically hold while holding this stroll. Ian So anyway,
so yeah, so anytime you can avoid a bus. Love that.
So you know, that's a another selling point of the U.

(22:51):
The ones were any of them? Yeah yeah, what about
let's talk about the restaurant we went to for Brock's birthday.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yeah, so it was Brock's birthday. Your family came, which
was nice for those first few days. They live in
Tampa area, so that so they drove over. They stayed
over one night, I believe, and it was we celebrated
Brock's birthday that first day. We wanted to try the
new restaurant that we were really excited, The Cake Bake Shop,
which is on the boardwalk, so again it was walkable.

(23:22):
They've heard really good things and it I it. It delivered.
I really really liked it. It's called the Cake Bake Shop.
It's I would I would say, it's uh, you know,
it started off it's a restaurant that already existed somewhere else.
They brought it to Disney. It's very I don't know
that it was like the place for brox birthday. I

(23:43):
would say it's like a great place to celebrate a
little girl's birthday. But whatever, we had fun Brock at
a great time. It's very like tea like Alice's teacup
kind of place. You know, it feels like fancy tea
bake shop and and you know, everything was white, and
they have this character. I think it's a dragon that

(24:04):
like came and sparkled fairy dust on rocks. Dessert for
his birthday. You can buy it, of course. Obviously, the
cakes are like the reason to go there. They're the
main They're the the you know, they're they are the
main star of this place. There's lots of different cake
slices that you can get. We tried a few, and

(24:26):
we had a big party, so we got to try
a few of them. They were all fabulous. Food was good,
food was decent. We were like a little annoyed. I
will say it's hard. It's a hard place with a
big party. It's not set up in a way that
can really accommodate big parties unfortunately. So we were like
at first, they put us at like two separate tables

(24:47):
and I'm I'm not Karen. I was like, this isn't
gonna work. This is like my son's birthday party. You
assured me. They were like, oh yeah, they'll be right
next to each other. They were like across the aisle
from each other, Like we were not communicating with each
other during that dinner, so I kept at them. Finally
they like they're like, well, we just don't have any
and I was like, well that was part of our
reservation and we're supposed to. So eventually they like you know,

(25:11):
moved them and they're like, well, you can't move you
now because you've already been sat. And I was like,
well you're going to so I got stuff done, and
so they like moved them to like the table at
least next to us and not across the aisle from us.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
So I find this place to be better.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
That's my one thing, is like not not the best
place for huge parties.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Huge parties or really kids minus the little you know,
yes they have the dragon thing whenever. But I just
find that like like when you.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
Have kids, I think it's good for kids.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
Yeah. I so maybe you don't have this, but I
have like.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
The internal anxiety.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
Sure, well you call it severe anxiety. I think it's
just regular like you know, can sense what you know,
when when the kids are being kind of rambunctious or
messy or this that whatever. It's like the the kind
of like whether it's guilt or or or whatever when
you're on a plane or in a restaurant and whatnot.
And as you mentioned, it doesn't stand out as much
or affect you as much when you're at Woodies, round up, barbecue,

(26:09):
whatever and places that are used to it. If you're
at you know, Texas roadhouse or whatever, it's like, okay, fine,
there's peanuts on the ground. Who cares about a kid yelling?
This place is like very pristine and like made with
glass and white, as you said, And so it stuck
out to me like kind of a sore thumb. It's
like feels like it's a lot of people celebrating anniversaries
and on dates and things, and so I don't know
if it's the best place to bring small tea.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
Give us a great place for like if you have
like two girls, like if you have like a nine
year old girl, you know, a seven and a nine
year old girl, like this is your spot. I think
I think it's precious.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
It's like yeah, sure, seven and nine, Sure, I would
say yes, okay if your kids are at the age.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
Where serendipity or like Alice's teacup to me. If you
get those New York references yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
Well, I will say just in general, regardless of gender
or age whatever, like every kid has their bad moments
and times or they're overtired things, and sometimes those times
are different because you've been out all day or vice versa,
or it's early in the morning or whatever. And so
I'll just say, superseding all that, if your kids are
like well behaved, go to this place, great, you know.
And then on top of that, yes, if you have

(27:13):
two girls and their age appropriate and this and that,
I just think rolling the dice, which to us we
are always doing. We like never know what you're over
going to get doctor Jekyl or mister Brock or whatever,
and so like rolling the dice, you never know something perfect.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
I don't know about yours, Scott, but my kids are perfect.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Hey, well you have the doctor jekyls and I have
the mister Brock sometimes, I guess, because you know, sometimes
you go and whatever you're overtired, or you overshot when
you're supposed to eat or whatever, or they're just not
in the mood or you haven't presented them with enough
tiles or enough things to distract them, and so all that,
and also it obviously the restaurant and the decor plays

(27:51):
a part in this, and then also the nature of
the people in there. Right, So at Disney World, you're
dealing with a lot of fellow families and things, and
you got you get a lot of sympathetic looks from
like fellow dads and parents and things, even the older
ones who like don't even have kids anymore, but they
remember that, so they don't really care that like your
kid is jumping on them on the bus or maybe
you rolled up to their foot with your stroller. They

(28:12):
all get it. But then at some places you're dealing
with like you know, an influencer and her boyfriend or something,
or you're dealing with like you know, uh, you know,
a couple in their fifties on their anniversary date. This
feels like the place where you're gonna run into maybe
more of them. So sometimes a lot of my inner
anxiety about how the kids are acting or how we're
acting collectively is more me reading the room, like we've

(28:33):
all been on a plane, and when the when the
baby starts crying, whether it's yours or someone else's, you
hear that guy who just like like openly scoffs right
like that, Well, of course and once you're that, once
you're a parent who has been the person I.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Didn't maybe a parent to hate that guy.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Okay, I'm just saying it's even you even get it
even more. But my point is these people are probably
single people have never had kids, have never like had
to have a whether it's a kid or an animal
or something like that make noise that they cannot prevent,
and then they have to sit there and just kind
of take it while other people scoff at them. But
like there's people who still do that, like they feel
like their scoff is somehow helping or is going to

(29:11):
make the parent like work harder to make the kids
stop crying or whatever.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
And that's with kids, is what you're saying.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
And look, the point of going to Disney as often
as we're going and with kids that are like just
naturally a little bit older, et cetera. Although we keep
having kids, so we keep starting at square one and whatnot.
But either way, like is that yes, occasionally, you know,
eventually we're going to hit the right age and time
and restaurant combination, you know, and so we'll have good
visits and bad visits and whatnot. I I thought that

(29:43):
one between the large party of it all, which I
would say large parties in Disney in general are pretty
hard because of the reservation system, because of how busy
things are, and because just in general, I would just
not recommend it if possible. Now, if you have a
huge family or you're meeting friends and what, it's delightful
to be able to like you know, join and have
dinner and stuff like that. That being said, it can

(30:04):
definitely be harder to accomplish, and you could definitely show
up to a place and think that you called a
million times that they're going to give you a big table,
and when you get there they have you sitting separately.
So I mean, look, I think we should try it again.
I'm down. I mean I'm also like again, I'm always
going to be down to try places again that are
like very convenient to where we're staying. Yeah, so like
we're staying on two boardwalk properties Beach Club and Dolphin

(30:26):
and like, so it'll be like, yeah, advantageous to eat
at those neighboring places, whether we've been before or not.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
So talk about one place we're really excited to try
coming up is the Barrel and Beak, the new Pirate
themed I guess, you know, I thought it was more
of a restaurant. I guess it's it's more of a lounge,
a lounge, a bar, so like an Oga's cantina in
Hollywood Studios.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah, it's not quite what they have in La, which
apparently they have like a full restaurant by Pirates in
La similar to how they have the Mexican restaurant that
you kind of drive by with the three cup of
euros in Caught. But yes, there is a new Pirates
of the Caribbean themed eatery slash lounge. Maybe there's apps,
I don't know, And yeah, that will be cool to try.

(31:10):
Our kids definitely like the Pirates stuff. When he is
always asking to see the video of the.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
She's scared of it. She loved it, but she's scared.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
Of it a little. She liked the guy, she liked
the Captain jacksp.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
Like, I think she might even like back out in
this time and I'm a little worried.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
Backed No, I don't think. So, Okay, we'll see. So
that's new. So that's the other thing about going as
often as we do is like you know, we get excited,
and that's the thing if you're not one of these people,
then you probably don't need to go that often because
you can just go every few years and whatever's there
is there, and whatever it's not it is not. You know,
we like watching the Disney Food blog videos. We are

(31:59):
if you want to use the term Disney adults, I
guess which. First of all, if you're somebody who hates
Disney adults, you should not be thirty minutes into a
podcast Disney. But but like so we you know, we
liked the reading about the announcements of new worlds and
new rides or you know, alterations and things like that.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
So yeah, even almost like time, I'm like, oh, should
we have waited like three months to go?

Speaker 1 (32:19):
So all right, And that's the thing is you're always
going to undershoot something, overshoot something. You know. There's constantly think.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
Like we're gonna be We're gonna be there for the
new Animal Kingdom, right, you know, like in the tree
it used to be bugs Life and now it's going
to be as Utopia. So so we will get to
experience that. But like the rest of the Animal Kingdom
like complete makeover with the new the Dinah Land is
be gone and nothing will be there.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Yeah, but that's a lengthy resident that's a lengthy renovation.
So like, for instance, we were able to go on
Bugs Life, I believe last March, and then now are
going to then a year later be able to go
on Zutopia, So like that's how long that rides.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Like that where I was like it was like the
Dinosaur Ride, the Bugs Life Ride, and the and the
Muppets three D show where I was like where I
knew it would be the last time I ever experienced them.
And for someone like me who grew up in South Florida,
like spent so much time at Disney, that was really
that was very like overwhelming for me to be like

(33:23):
this is the last time I'm going to sit in
this spot and like experience this magic was hard for me.
And I do care about the nostalgia element, so like
going to see the Muppets three D at Hollywood Studios
is one of my favorite things to do when we're there,
Like I just love it because of how many memories
it brings up. And I you know, like that's hard

(33:46):
for me, Like I don't I'm I love Monsters inc.
That was like my favorite animated, my favorite Pixar movie
growing up and and I'm really excited for that, but
still like I'm not willing to part with those things
that I love.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
Well, so yeah, the one I would say of those
I didn't really care about Dinosaur and I U.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah, you skipped Dinosaur the last few times only every
when Brock was younger, Like, the only way I was
able to get him to ride it was like to
spoil it for him. I knew that would help. So
I was like, look, we're gonna like, you're gonna be scared,
like we're gonna be like around all these dinosaurs. But
guess what, I shouldn't tell you this, but like at
the end, there was this friendly dinosaur who's our friend.
He's so nice and he comes and he saves us,

(34:27):
but like she don't tell anyone, and so like him
knowing that is what I was able to convince him
to go on the ride when he was very young,
like three, so but so he really enjoyed that ride
and that. So yeah, so it's hard to say goodbye
to those things when you have those connections to them
for yourself or for experiencing them with your kids. But yeah,

(34:49):
I'm excited to like experience whatever and I'm really excited
to see the new things the strip. I'm excited to
see the Zutopia ride. Like our kids are into Utopia
right now, so.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
That's it's not a ride, it's the show. It's the
it's like show.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
An interactive show. Right, it's a four D show almost
like a ride. And and the Encanto section that is
coming to Animal Kingdom, like that's one of Winny's favorite movies.
So that's exciting too.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
Well, we've talked about it, I think on the podcast
before about how like they so they seem to be
upping it a little bit recently of like the turnaround
of like someone's gotten the memo that like we need
to start like kind of upping the the footprint, the
footprint of the IP of the last fifteen twenty years
where you know, obviously, yes, we have the Frozen ride. Cool,

(35:33):
we had the Ratituey ride, which they just took the
three D out of which I'm a fan of because
I hate three D.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Just oh, that should be interesting experiences next time we
skipp through attitude of this trip, right, like we were
like Frozen or ratitue Let's do Frozen again.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
This is really that impressed by Ratatue and so we
didn't even we didn't even tempt it.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
So the Muppet the Show is no longer. However, they
are currently converting Aerosmith Rock and Roller Coaster into a
Muppets Rock and Roller Coaster that will be done by
the summer. But we're gonna miss it, so we'll be
able to go on that. But we did last trip,
get to go for the last time on the Muppets
three D. I will say, it's like, look, you do
build up a nostalgia for these things, it does become

(36:15):
a little dated in that this this is like, look,
the three D still works okay, but it's like it
is made with like nineteen ninety three technology or whatever.
It is, maybe even earlier. And at a certain point,
if you're not gonna update it, I get maybe you know,
replacing it now. They're replacing it now with like a
Monster's Ink World, which again I'm all four, like, I
think it's like too little too late with that stuff though,
like like Monsters Inc. Should have had a world in two.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Thousand, not have the Monsters Inc. Like two like Monsters
at Work a few years ago of mindy kayalaying right now.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
Yeah, I don't know any kids that were, like, you know,
waking up every morning asking to watch Monsters at Work
on Disney Plus. Like I think, like you know, the
Monsters Inc. Wave was in the two thousands, right, And granted,
obviously these these movies and shows hopefully like never die
and you can watch them a million times, that's great.
But my point is, like I I think they need
to and they're starting to get it with Zutopia a
little bit based on the second one, but like the

(37:04):
first one came out ten years ago, right, they're just
now making the Zutopia the Bugs Life into Zutopia. No
offense to Bugs Life, but Bugs Life came out twenty
five years ago and was never even really that beloved then, right,
So to me, this Zutopia show should have been in
there by twenty twenty. That now when Zutopia two came out, boom,

(37:24):
we already have the ride now, so it's time to like,
well with Zutopia two. And I think there's hopefully someday
gonna be a Utopia World, which I think they already
have in Japan or China or something like that. But like,
I just saw Zutopia too, the movie, and I'm like,
I'm like, so this movie looks like it's taking place
in a Disney world, like so many of the worlds
they go to in Zutopia too, like feel like Disney parks,

(37:44):
like feel like I can already see them recreating those
And I don't know if they did the designers have
that in mind or vice versa. But like in Canto,
sure by the time that gets built, Okay, maybe that's
only a few years later. Great. My point is they're
condensing the turnaround time, which is good because like something
I always felt was like weird about the Disney parks
that and and universal kind of as well. There's just

(38:07):
stuff where it's like stuff like stays around for too
long and then like doesn't doesn't pop up quickly enough.
Where stuff is like somehow always outdated, right, you have
stuff that's like yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Well, like are you saying, like you know, like thing
like the Winnie the Pooh Ride, is it like outdated,
Like no.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
But the Winnie the Pooh Ride is new. My point
is the Winnie the Pooh Ride, which which is smart
to add because Winnie the Pooh is timeless. Ip the
Winni the Pooh Ride did not existing.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
Is whether it's timeless or not. You're saying that like
you you don't know, but like, so, so point, just
do something like right away when it comes out, or
something that's timeless.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
No, no, well, so again, it doesn't necessarily need to
be right away. But my point is, like, so, so
here's my thing. So, the Winnie the Pooh Ride and
the Little Mermaid Ride are two great examples, right, those
are old school dark style rides, just like Peter Pan, right,
except Peter Pan was made in like nineteen fifty five, right,
And in my maybe I'm wrong, not a great ride,
I don't have it in front of me, but I'm
pretty sure that Winnie the Pooh and Little Mmaid were

(39:08):
made in the last twenty years, right, because they did
feel newer, but they have that dark ride. They're very
kind of like, you know, there's no big drop or
anything and nothing crazy. Okay, here's another one. And I
know that there was like societal and social what sort
of pressures that got them to finally reboot Splash Mountain
and turn it into Tiana's Adventure. But like here's my point, right,

(39:32):
like great choice. Fine, the ride is cool. I think
it's even better. It's cool now that there's like an
actual movie we can watch in conjunction with it, whereas
before it was just like tied to some weird we
didn't even know what it was tied to. Turned out
it was some racist movie from the forties whatever. So,
like that being said, my point is this twenty years
too late on Tiana. Tiana is not no offense like
that movie. I mean, if it even had a moment,

(39:54):
certainly it's passed right. And so now I think the
ride is probably breathing new life into the movie Lee
and vice versa. Sure, But like my point is, I
think and I guess the reason they wouldn't have done
it back in two thousand and five or ten even
is that there would have been an uproar because Splash
Mountain as a ride was so beloved. But like, like
do that then, Like I like, I know you loft

(40:15):
three Cabarros, I would have I would make three Cabriarros
a Coco ride. Now do it now when or do
it four years ago?

Speaker 2 (40:24):
Coco is very much the biggest.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
Because here's my thing is like in five years they're
going to do that and it will seem sillier that
I don't know if there's a Coco sequel coming out,
maybe there is, I forget, but like, my point is, like,
do it when the movie has its momentum and has
its place, like in the world. And I get that
these things take time, they need to be designed, they
need to be whatever. I know, you can't just snap
your fingers and create a ride. But my point is, like,

(40:47):
I'm not talking about creating a new rou ride from scratch.
I'm talking about like doing a new overlay of an
already existing ride, which is why they were able to
turn the Norway ride into the the Pot. So I
love that the Splash Mountain Reservation renovation into Tiana's was
actually not that long.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
But let's talk about the Tiana Our experience with the
Tiana's ride, so Brockett, we got. We were really excited
at this last trip to ride this ride because obviously
it was a beloved is my favorite ride at Disney
previous to the renovation. We were so excited to to
get to experience it again after it had been, you know,
under renovation the last few times we had gone. It

(41:26):
was Brock's first time getting to ride it. He was
tall enough. The other kids weren't, obviously, and so we
got to ride it. We did, you know, our Genie
plus got to ride it, and he loved it. But
he loves a lot of rides and he loves you know,
sometimes it's like my kids love like you know, the
the goofy uh, the storm the this uh uh barn

(41:51):
Barnes Stopper, what is it called the like they love Barnstormer,
like they love the carousel, like they love everything. And
so Brock and I were at Epcot and I went
to like go talk to a cast member about like

(42:11):
a thing that had happened accidentally on my app and
you know, she helped us out. And Brock's being his
like his his doctor his I guess his doctor deckel side.
He's being his like cute at self, very charming, and
the woman's talking to him, and you know, he mentions
that he came to Disney for his birthday this year,

(42:31):
and she says, what's your favorite ride? And I said,
and I just like in my head, I knew exactly
why she was asking. And I am just praying to
God that he does not answer like the teacups or
like you know, Mickey's Philharmonic or something that has no
weight or whatever and my kid.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
You know, just for those listening. She knows that they're
going to hook him up, but the person has a
flat out set it. Brock has one chance to answer
any right, I have never been.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
Prouder of my son. He picks the ride with like
one of the long with the longest wait that he
could possibly pick. He says, Tiana's, and the woman says, well,
check your app I've just given you a one free
you know, skip the line basically one lightning lane to
Tiana's tomorrow to use it any time you want, and
you should be in the Disney World. Pixie dusted he,

(43:25):
Pixie dusted him, and I was so relieved that he
picked that one that because we weren't gonna do we
we did two days at We've never done this before.
We usually do one day at each. We did two
days at Magic Kingdom this last time. So it was
okay if, like you know, we did Tiana's one day
and we didn't get to it the next time, like
we had accepted that that was how it was going
to be. We weren't going to get to ride all

(43:45):
of our favorite rides both days. The point of it
was to be able to like spread it out and
do things on different days. But because he was smart
enough to say that and charming enough to be asked, uh,
we got that and we were able to go on
Tiana's both times.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
Well, and also that means that means Brock went on
it four times.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Because yes, because he went, we did a pants swap
because there are other two kids were too too little,
so someone had to stay. But we were like, well,
we want to experience it with Brock, so they let
us each go on with him. Well, I mean it's
basically four times. It's him who gets.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
To go essentially once for free, because we are paying
for us to each go on. So it's not it's
not like you're getting You're not getting a free adult right,
You're paying because you have to for paying for the
lightning lane. You're paying for the lightning lane for us
both to go on it. But so we don't have
to ride alone, he gets to come with us both times. Yeah,
so that's kind of the hack there. So yeah, so

(44:39):
then he got to go four times basically, So ironically
with Brock is a doubly cool overlay for him because
although I'm not gonna lie, he's not the biggest I
mean not to say he doesn't like it, but you know,
he's not like super into uh you know, Tiana and
Princess and the Frog. And I'll be honest, anyone who's
claiming their kids are I'm gonna call bullshit. But that

(45:00):
being said, he is a big New Orleans guy, having
spent more time in New Orleans than most people because
that is where he filmed the Mayfair Witches Show and
he had to go down with you a total of
three times, once for costume fitting, once for shooting, and
then once for reshoots. And every single time you guys
went and got Beignet's and things like that. So the
fact that benyet New Orleans cooking the vibe, the jazz,

(45:24):
et cetera. There's a there's a place that sells Beignet's
by the ride, Like that's cool. He gets all that
kind of iconography, even if he hasn't watched the movie
forty times. And I will say, for those of you
guys who were Splash Mountain purists or whatever, it's the
exact same ride. Yeah, I would argue, in my opinion
it's better because again, I like the idea of a

(45:45):
ride having some sort of relationship to a thing that
we can watch with our kids before, after, or during,
et cetera. And I never liked, Like, I don't care
what anyone says. I never like like Splash Mountain was
cool because of the ride, and yeah, the song is
catchy and this and that whatever, but like you didn't
know where the fuck Brier Rabbit was from, Like you
had no idea, Like those were just the dudes from
the Splash Mountain. It just exists.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
I didn't really care, though.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
And you didn't care because you didn't know that you
could or should care. My point is that it goes
back to my point is that like it could also
have been a cool ride that also was attached to
an iconic movie. It just never was. So now that
it is, I think it's better Personally. I know a
lot of people are gonna, you know it, especially if
you have like the old picture frames off you on
Splash Mountain. It's not whatever. But I think it's cool.

(46:30):
So I think they could do that with a couple
other ones, Like, for instance, here's my opinion. I find
it's I think it's actually a better ride as well.
It's not as bumpy, but I find like seven Dwarves
my train. Since that has existed, I don't need to
go on Big Thunder Mountain at all. Big Thunder Mountain
to me is just ip Liss Dwarves mind Train. Dwarves
Mind Train is the same thing. It's like, you know,

(46:50):
pseudo pseudo fast roller coaster that's not really scary at all,
but it's fun, it gets your heart rate up whatever.
And then now you get you get a you know,
high hoe, and you get the Dwarves, and you get
snow white, you get a little bit of ip you
know what I mean. Like that to me is what
was missing from from Big Thunder Mountain. So to me
now it's like, you know, but like you could turn
Big Thunder Mountain into a car's ride or into a

(47:12):
I don't know, fill in the blank ride. I can't
even in front of me, but like, you know, there's
something and that's why, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
Like just don't make sense that they like like the
racetrack absolutely should be a car's ride like that. It
doesn't make sense.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Just redo that and make every car, just redo every
car in that thing and make it look like Mader
and fucking lightning and queak and how hard would that be?

Speaker 2 (47:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (47:33):
You know, and and don't get me wrong, they are
doing this stuff, so like I forget and like and
a lot of this stuff exists in Disneyland or in
foreign countries and things like that. So if you want
to get like kind of a preview of what might
be coming to like disney World or even Disneyland, like
look at what they have in like Japan and and
and yeah, and China and things like that, and euro Disney.

Speaker 2 (47:52):
They were almost sad when like, you know, something on
the Instagram comes. Yeah, it's like some amazing thing that's
being built a Disney and I like look a little
closer and it's like in Disney Shanghai.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
Yeah. That kind of happens to me with like food,
like you know, you know, my Instagram like knows like
I live in New York, so I get a lot
of that stuff. But then occasionally it's like I travel,
there'll be like a delay where like I'll see some
awesome place and it'll be like it's in Atlanta and
I'm like okay, cool, And like same thing with Disney.
It's like you will see like a really cool announcement
for some like New World that sounds great, and it's like, yeah,
it's in China, but so so so I would say

(48:26):
thumbs up all around for Tiana's new Uh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
It's fabulous, it's great.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
I'm so glad that it's I bought the picture frame. Y.
I bought some of Mama's Hot sauce that we.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
And the I will say, how was Mama's Hot Sauce?
I don't think I tried that.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
I think it was like the next hot sauce we went.
I go through a lot of hot sauce, so it's
I even realize that I'm sure you had it. It
was probably on our table for a period and you
probably had it.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
I'm gonna throw Scott. This is the part of the
podcast where I throw Scott under the bus and say
that for years, Scott is I have to try at
Hollywood Studios, the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant. Gotta try it.
It's like number one on my list. So excited. I
have had zero interest and ever going to this restaurant
when I was a kid, when I was an adult,

(49:14):
when I had kids, no interest whatsoever. Yeah, finally, this
was the time Scott insisted, I want to bring my
whole family.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Well, but caveat. There's a caveat. Derby, there's a caveat
Can I say that the reason this is the time
we went is specifically because, as you mentioned, we have
my parents and nephews and whatnot in tow brother, et cetera,
and so we had a very large party and Hollywood
Studios is a hard place to get a reservation in general,
let alone for a large party. A lot of the

(49:42):
places are sort of just like not possible. You're not
getting the car place with a huge party. I remember
Woodies was not available, and so the fact that it
was available, and we found out why when we went
right it was available for a large party at the
time of one.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
The seeming is like old Hollywood.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Which I like, which I like, it's got like the
car tunes of celebrities whatever. I will say that this
place was recommended to me by Disney adults who do
not have kids, uh, the Matt Cardona's of the world.
And I will say that under that pretense, I still
would go to this place and probably enjoy it. And
it's a and for Disney, you gotta remember, you gotta
put things through the Disney filter of like is this

(50:19):
a restaurant you would love?

Speaker 4 (50:20):
Who's in New York City, probably not. Is this a
restaurant you would love who's in New York City?

Speaker 1 (50:33):
Probably not? But at Disney World, to me, it's it's
slightly elevated food.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
Everyone raves about, like the cobb salad there, right, I
think that's what I got.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
I got it too. It was pretty good.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
I thought it's fine. It was just like but there's
nothing like interesting there for the kids to look.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
At, like it's not a good place for kids.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
That's what I love about Disney restaurants is like in
New York City, i hate going out to eat with
my kids because I'm just so nervous about what other
people are thinking, and you know the mess they're making
and how much noise they're making. And I'd love to
go to Disney restaurants because there's like stuff to entertain
them that's not like putting an iPad in front of
their faces. And this place didn't have any of it.

(51:10):
The service was so slow, the food was totally mediocre.
Never need to do it again? Do you need to
do it again?

Speaker 1 (51:19):
No? But I would like I would. I would do it,
especially if I was there with I don't know that
I'll ever.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
Be no other reservation, but like I would. I wouldn't.
There are so many other places that I would rather
take my family to eat.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
And I'll put it to you this way. If I
were wound up for whatever reason, the Hollywood Studios was
just like a group of guys or something, and we
need a place to have dinner, I would go there
for dinner, you know, like it's it because again I think, so.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
What was so good or so special?

Speaker 1 (51:48):
Well, didn't you hear me promise by saying.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
The menu is super? That's the other thing. The menu
is so small.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
I found it to be as far as food goes,
like the food I found to be because again, you're
looking for two different types of things at Disney World, right,
You're looking for the theming and experience and is a
kid friendly and blah blah blah, is it interesting? Is
it fun? And then is the food quality? And like
food quality, you're already going into it thinking, like, again,
I've talked about this when we talk about other places

(52:14):
that I find to be eventually overrated. If you hear
about them talked about enough and then you start to
think of you start to compare them with like actual restaurants,
because your brain has heard that the noodles at o'hana
are so good that you start thinking of them like
they would be like a place people waited online for
to get them in New York City, And that's just
not what they are. They're good for being at a
restaurant in a resort in Disworld. You know, that's it,

(52:36):
And if you go there a lot, you crave the
taste of them because it's very specific, the same way
that like everyone had their favorite thing at the cafeteria
at their school, right, And that's how I feel about
brown Derby is that I can at least see that
in the scheme of Disney World, if you were looking
for a slightly elevated meal within the confines of Hollywood studios,
it's probably like the best quality caliber meal you could

(52:58):
have if you're not looking to like with Vamporina or
eat a in a car in the uh in the
car place, whatever it's called. So but all that being said,
I get that that does not supersede how inconvenient it
is to go there with a bunch of kids.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
So yeah, I just didn't find anything special about it,
and I actually found it like really limiting and mediocre.
So but I let you try it.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
So let's talk about something else we did for the
first time, because it's a relatively new ride, which is
at Epcot, which is the Guardians of the Galaxy Adventure.
We talked Brock into doing this. He was absolutely pittrified. Uh,
he like wouldn't talk for like twenty minutes afterwards. I'd
like buy him a rocket Raccoon doll to butter them up.
We differ on this. You like to like, it wasn't

(53:46):
this trip. No, we didn't do that one.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
That was the trip before.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
Oh okay, well whatever fresh in my mind, which so
do we not go on it this time?

Speaker 2 (53:55):
We didn't go on it. We skipped it.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
We just punted on it.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Yeah, we were like, we did it, same thing with
same thing with U Tron Tron.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
I knew we did the time.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
It was the same thing. They had both been opened
the time before. We did it the time before, and
then this time we were both like, we did it.
I don't need to be nauseated again. We have our
kids and they're not.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
So it is the only new thing we tried. Tiana's
by Your Adventure as far.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
As and I guess you could say, and the cake
bake Shop, and well, no, No, I know we tried.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
I know we tried different restaurants and things, but I'm
saying ride wise was Tiana's the only new ride that
we tried.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
I think, so yeah. Oh you know what we did
though that we had never done with kids, and we've
always skipped it well the people oh Bell. Oh yeah,
there are a few we did that like have been there,
but we had just always skipped out on. One was
the Bell and Tanted Tales of Bell, which isn't a ride,

(54:59):
it's like a little show, interactive show. This is the
best bracket, like the whole trip, and talking to me
about how he wants to do more acting roles. He
wishes that he books more acting roles. So we get
to this Enchanted Tales of Bell thing. They choose Brock
to be the beast in this little show, which is
I'm like, oh, this is gonna be so cute. I'm
gonna get the best pictures and videos, and Rack's like, yeah,

(55:22):
I don't need it. I don't need it. And I'm like,
what I don't understand, Like you've been talking for days
about how you wish that someone gave you more opportunities
to act, and he's like yeah, like on TV shows,
it's a snob. I was so disappointed I didn't get
those pictures. But that's a really cool hidden experience at
Magic Kingdom. I think a lot of people don't do.

(55:45):
But it's so nice if you have kids that age
who like it's a way to meet a character, right,
you get to have your moment with Belle. And then
the other thing that we usually skip, which I'm never
skipping again, is the People Mover and Magic Kingdom. We
did that with the kids and it was one of
our everyone's favorite things. Was such a nice way at

(56:06):
the end of the day. The line's never that long,
and it was like relaxing you you get to go
through all these other rides.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
Yeah, I didn't realize that you kind of like go
into other rides.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
Yeah, like behind the scenes at Space Mountain basically like.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
I don't know, and does it move you? So here's
the thing. I always thought the People Mover was kind
of like a transportation thing, and people were like getting
kind of cute by saying, oh, I like going on
it for fun. You know, it is a ride. It
just takes.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
That's what I wonder if it's been updated over the
years and it used to be more of that and
now it's like added a little bit more substance to it.
But either way, I thought it was such a fun
way to end the night.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
Both of those things are at Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom
has I'll be honest, like you're you're always trying to
like extend the night and do like every little thing
and stuff like every nook and cranny, every little ride.
Like there's there's parts of Magic Kingdom like I don't
even necessarily need to go in like that, like kind
of like a Dumbo area that's very kind of circus
like decorated the things that we always end up in
in our you know ninth inning of like you know,

(57:07):
you're trying to drag it out and they have to
do like the second buzz light your ride, and then
we did the people Mover, and this is where you're
just grasping it like every last minute and trying to
like extend, extend extent. And so for that, I would say, sure,
like Carousel of Progress, we go on that thing, and like,
but the Bell thing, I would say is one of
the more like under advertised, underappreciated experiences. I think it's

(57:29):
because it's like not technically a ride, but like it
does have like ride vibes and that like it has
like a beginning, middle end, it had You're like inside,
it's kind of like a little bit of a story.
It's interactive. They pick some people to participate and then
it's and then it's a meet greet with bell So
it's so it's it's a it's a it's like it
kind of it's almost like a a character meet and greet,
but with more of a purpose where you're not just

(57:50):
like waiting on along line. It's inside. I would say,
if it's hot, you get out of the You get
out of the heat. And it's kind of by where
Beast Castle is be our guests, which I'm kind of
like completely over as a restaurant, So I would say
skip that because Beasts doesn't even come over and give
you the time of day. But punt on that and
go do the bells, the enchanted tales.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
And while around magic king them. I just want to
also give a shout out that the Crystal Palace continues
to be one of my favorite dining experiences. We did
it again this time. Oh yeah, it's just like those
Troo waffles in the morning. Did we do it twice
this time?

Speaker 1 (58:24):
No, we did it and then we've just done it
the last.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
Week we debated. We debate, No, we were debating. We'rely
did we do it for breakfast one day and lunch
the next time I go to Magic Kingdom? But we
didn't ultimately do that.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
Here's what's great about character dining. It's Winnie the Pood's characters.
You don't get anywhere else unless I do think there
is like a Winny of the Pooh me agreed, but there's
usually a line and achea. So it's four characters get
You get Winnie the Pooh, you get Piglet, you get Tigger,
you get E or they come to you if you
time it right. It really like lines up well with
the amount of time you'd spend there. Anyway, sometimes you
like miss that first one just by a little bit.
You end up like sitting there waiting for E or

(58:55):
for twenty minutes. By the end of it, you look
like fucking e or. But anyway, other than that, the
food food, it's a buffet and the food is like good.
It's like a diverse amount of breakfast food, like in
addition to the stuff that you would like always have.
They have like fried chicken, and then they have like,
like you said, those chure of waffles, which are basically
waffles covered in cinnamon that are really good. And so
that coupled with the it's a great way to like

(59:16):
start off a magic Kingdom day in my opinion. So
I highly recommend.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
That Yeah, continues to deliver love that we'll do that
again and and look like we did a lot of
the same things. We tried new things. We had a
five month old baby, which makes it you know, you're
always a little bit nervous, Like I'm breastfeeding, Like I'll
always remember like breastfeeding sitting on the ground of like

(59:41):
on this like uh uneven ground outside of Pirates of
the Caribbean while you guys go on the ride and
I'm feeding like a five month old while like people
are lining up around me to like meet Jack Sparrow.
It's an experience, uh, and it's chaotic, but Disney is
always magic in my mind. And we had a great,
great tip.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Yeah, so so great that we're going back in a
few months, so we will have more to report on.
We will be doing this Utopia for the first time.
We'll be back at the Beach Club for the first
time since I think they've finished those reservations. We'll see
how that goes. Back at Beach Club with Winnie for
the first time. It's the only time we went there.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
And yeah, that they're all done. Those renovations are done.
So since the Beach Club Pool renovations, excited to having it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
And although we are definitely brushing up on our Disney
food blogs and trying to find things to do, if
you are a Disney Maniac and you know anything we
should check out anything that's recently been added, or do
you feel like we might not know about any inside
stuff or things that have been auted recently, please let
us know. She's at Lindsay the Otter on all platforms.
I'm at Scott I Jeger on Instagram at Shota Vieger
on Twitter. You can also email Challenge Mania Podcast at

(01:00:55):
gmail dot com and let us know thoughts about trips
you have coming up, questions, anything like that, uh and uh.
We will be back with more Disney Mania in the
new year. So have a great holiday, Merry Christmas, Happy Honica.
Hopefully many Disney gifts in your in your wrapped goods
over there or in your stockings.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
Yeah, when he got some cute new Disney Barretts.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
And I got her a little Pluto doll. She's big Pluto,
biggest Pluto gown the biz. And I got her nick
Wild Funko.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
She loves and he isn't. Her suitcase doesn't it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
Her suitcase from Target.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
Is a disneycase she loves. Like when Scott travels all
the time for his trips, he comes from of the suitcase.
All what he wants to do is like roll the
suitcase or in her living room. And so now she
has her own mini Disney Princess one.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
There you go. Thanks everyone, have a great week and
have a great holiday and New Year.

Speaker 5 (01:01:49):
By whatever to Ado or a reading Bodi.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
The Challenge Mania Shop is open. Head over to Challenge
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