Imagine our surprise when we discovered that Disney World could get even more magical with the addition of new culinary treasures and an adorable baby elephant named Cora! Alongside my co-host and better half, Karen, we're excited to share the details of our latest escapade. We'll take you through the bustling streets of Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party, introduce you to the flavors that tantalized our palates at three new restaurants, and even share our spirited experience at Jollywood Nights. Plus, we'll give you a sneak peek into the reimagined Little Mermaid show stirring up waves of anticipation at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
As technology weaves its way into the fabric of theme park entertainment, we discuss the looming presence of Dronios in Orlando, speculating on the spellbinding possibilities for upcoming drone shows amidst the Central Florida weather. We also ponder over the recent tremors in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and offer insights into the Disney Vacation Club's latest developments. And if that's not enough, we'll whisk you away to a delectable tour of Indian cuisine, where every naan, chutney, and tandoori chicken poutine tells a story of tradition meeting innovation.
Wrapping up our Disney dining diary, we chat about the unexpected delights at a French-themed restaurant and the sumptuous breakfast buffet at Cape May. With Karen's keen eye for character interactions and my knack for finding the perfect omelet, we've gathered tips and takeaways to enhance your own Disney food journey. So, prepare your taste buds and your imagination, as we bring you tales, tips, and a touch of Disney magic to sprinkle on your day.
Imagine our surprise when we discovered that Disney World could get even more magical with the addition of new culinary treasures and an adorable baby elephant named Cora! Alongside my co-host and better half, Karen, we're excited to share the details of our latest escapade. We'll take you through the bustling streets of Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party, introduce you to the flavors that tantalized our palates at three new restaurants, and even share our spirited experience at Jollywood Nights. Plus, we'll give you a sneak peek into the reimagined Little Mermaid show stirring up waves of anticipation at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
As technology weaves its way into the fabric of theme park entertainment, we discuss the looming presence of Dronios in Orlando, speculating on the spellbinding possibilities for upcoming drone shows amidst the Central Florida weather. We also ponder over the recent tremors in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and offer insights into the Disney Vacation Club's latest developments. And if that's not enough, we'll whisk you away to a delectable tour of Indian cuisine, where every naan, chutney, and tandoori chicken poutine tells a story of tradition meeting innovation.
Wrapping up our Disney dining diary, we chat about the unexpected delights at a French-themed restaurant and the sumptuous breakfast buffet at Cape May. With Karen's keen eye for character interactions and my knack for finding the perfect omelet, we've gathered tips and takeaways to enhance your own Disney food journey. So, prepare your taste buds and your imagination, as we bring you tales, tips, and a touch of Disney magic to sprinkle on your day.
We had a busy time at Walt Disney World this weekend with lots of firsts. We visited three new restaurants, eat chef's de France and Cape May Cafe. We went to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party and Jollywood Nights and we won a day without entering the park or even Disney Springs. There are new births at Animal Kingdom, new shows coming to Hollywood Studios and an interesting new business coming to Orlando. It's episode 172 of the Mickey File Podcast.
Speaker 2:Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Mickey File Podcast. I'm Scott, and with me is my lovely wife Karen. Hello everybody, freshly back from Disney World.
Speaker 1:Yes, and first I want to apologize for my voice. This is the best voice I've had all weekend, so it was pretty rough on Sunday, for sure.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, for show, for show.
Speaker 1:For show for show. So, yes, we're freshly back. We literally got back I don't know four hours ago.
Speaker 2:No, like two thirty. Okay, yeah, we did a lot. First two nights. A lot of new stuff first two days. Yes, Friday, Saturday, Saturday it rained all day. It was miserable it was, but, but it was nice in the room. It was great At the glass door open onto the balcony and it was nice as hard as it did rain.
Speaker 1:I know, and we managed to get back to the room Saturday morning before it really got bad, which was good.
Speaker 2:It did. Yeah, yeah, we got back, I don't know noon whatever time.
Speaker 1:And it was just kind of starting to drizzle and rain, so yeah, and then it rained, and rained, and rained and rained Until Sunday Mm.
Speaker 2:Hmm, yeah, we did a lot of firsts we did, so it was cool.
Speaker 1:It was very cool.
Speaker 2:Today's the 19th when we're recording.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:It's six days, five days until Santa comes.
Speaker 1:Santa's already come for us, babe.
Speaker 2:He did yes. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Santa's been here. He's actually made a couple trips, yeah.
Speaker 2:But it's like officially Christmas week it is, it is. But yeah, we had a good weekend trip. We did a lot of first things for us that we'll talk about we will, including one that was pretty early on in the process for EAT. I think it'd been open.
Speaker 1:Maybe two weeks. Yeah, not quite. Yeah, it opened like the fourth, I think.
Speaker 2:Something like that, I think.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So it was a fun trip. That's all we got for the startup stuff today. Okay. So let's do news.
Speaker 1:All right. For the first time in seven years, an African elephant calf has been born at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The delivery of the baby girl named Cora she arrived on Thursday, december 13th. It was carefully planned through the Association of Zoo and Aquarium Species Survival Plan, which helps ensure the responsible breeding of endangered animals and managed care. Cora is currently backstage at Disney's Animal Kingdom bonding with her mother, nadira. Yeah sure.
Speaker 2:I'll go with that yeah.
Speaker 1:While Cora is Nadira's first calf, this birth is extra special because Nadira herself was born at Disney's Animal Kingdom in 2005, making Cora the first second-generation calf to be born in the park.
Speaker 2:That's very cool.
Speaker 1:That is very cool.
Speaker 2:So she's going to get to meet her grandmother, donna, and an aunt, stella, and it said that Luna, which is Nadira's sister, was there to guide and comfort her through the birth.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so sweet.
Speaker 2:So the whole family's there.
Speaker 1:I know. So I'm not sure if people know, but elephants' pregnancies are about 22 months.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they did it through natural breeding in early 2022, and then she was born on the 14th.
Speaker 1:Very cool. 13th 13th.
Speaker 2:yep, you know, this whole press release from Disney does not say who the father was. I mean, it's natural, is the father not there?
Speaker 1:Or maybe they don't know which one.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure they keep the three males separate from the herd.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:I'm sure they have a pretty good idea who knocked her up. Yeah, probably.
Speaker 1:Anyway, very, very cool. Yeah, she's very cute. She's super cute. I saw the pictures of her and she's walking around kind of like oh, I'm a newborn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I bet.
Speaker 1:When you're born that weighs like I don't know 300 pounds.
Speaker 2:I don't know. It doesn't say that's weird.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but she's very cute Little fuzzies on her face, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean she looks like a little elephant so I know, very cool, but it's smaller and he's cute. So another baby? Yeah, I don't know who the last one was then, or if it's even still there. Both the males are older than seven, right? So I don't know, yeah, they've had a lot of births recently.
Speaker 1:They have, which shows that they're doing a good job, kind of keeping you know.
Speaker 2:That's what they're there for, right Exactly.
Speaker 1:Exactly, but you know, the staff is there, they're being well taken care of, which is wonderful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wonder how long they wait to bring an elephant out.
Speaker 1:I don't know, so I guess we'll have to look that up.
Speaker 2:We'll find out sooner or later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Okay, a reimagined stage show inspired by Walt Disney Animation Studios, the Little Mermaid, will replace Voyage of the Little Mermaid at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Disney says the new show will be inspired by the animated film.
Speaker 2:They're reporting that, in addition to Kiss the Girl, featured songs will include Part of your World and Poor, unfortunate Souls, and they got to do Under the Sea right. And then that's all four songs and it's all good from there. Right. Basically, so I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:Yes, and hopefully they're not going to let you know. They're going to warn you if you're going to get wet.
Speaker 2:If the rumors that I have heard are true, that maybe there is a mold problem in the building and that's why it's been closed for so long, maybe they will avoid getting you wet Right From here on out? Yes, which would be nice, because that was what I did not like about that show. Correct, I'm actually okay if they keep the puppets. The first time I saw it I was like this is kind of weird. Yeah, but seeing how good they do the puppets at Nemo Right and, honestly, how good they do the puppets at the Nightmare Before Christmas, the puppet at the Nightmare Before Christmas sing along, I'm okay if they keep doing that. Yes, it was kind of cool.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was very cool, so I agree. The company that does the drone show at Disneyland Paris has opened a new location in Orlando, citing proximity to theme parks. Dronos currently offers drone shows for various parks in the southeastern United States, including Dollywood. Universal has stated that Epic Universe will have drone technology and there is a rumor that drones will be used in the new Lagoon show at Universal Studios Orlando.
Speaker 2:And obviously they have already a connection to Disney parks. So, it makes sense, right? I mean, look their line. The drone asos press release was that Florida just made sense because we have drone shows all over the southeastern United States and it's central. Yeah, it is, but you didn't pick Orlando because of Dollywood, right, right? So Orlando because there's.
Speaker 1:Universal Disney and. Seaworld.
Speaker 2:Yep, so it's their second. They're doing one here and one in Abu Dhabi, I think. Okay. So opening offices, so that's cool. Yeah, I mean I would like to see a drone show here, yeah, like the one in Paris is sick.
Speaker 1:The one in Paris is insane, just insane. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:And we didn't get to see the drone show when they actually did it at Disney Springs back five or six years ago, because it rained that night and they couldn't go. Now that's a problem in central Florida, right, like more often than not in the summer. It may not be able to work, right, but and it wouldn't have worked this weekend, yeah, that's for sure. But more maybe they've changed the thing and they can fly in the rain now.
Speaker 2:I don't know, yeah, maybe the one we had at Temple Terrace. Our little thing was pretty cool, it was.
Speaker 1:I think they did a really good job. So I just think it's, I just think the drone thing is just really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure it is.
Speaker 1:Right. Disney Cruise Line announces change to onboard kids clubs. Oceaners Club and Oceaners Lab are now ages three to 10.
Speaker 2:That actually is the same.
Speaker 1:Okay, the edge, or edge, is now 11 to 14. That's a change. Yep. And Vibe is now 14 to 17.
Speaker 2:Which is not a change either.
Speaker 1:Right. Basically, the 11 and 12 year olds could choose either ocean, air or edge, so now they have to go into edge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it was like three to 12 and then 11 to 14 or whatever.
Speaker 1:Right which, but I think it's better. They need to be in their age group. Yeah right, so yeah, and that started effective, I think this week. I think December 21st is when that starts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's what it said.
Speaker 1:Right. Disney Marvel has parted with Jonathan Majors after he was found guilty of harassment and assault against his ex-girlfriend.
Speaker 2:So Majors was in Loki season two, where he played Victor Timely and he who remains and Kang he was. He appeared as Kang slash, kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantum Mania. He was supposed to be the big dad for this series, this whatever they call it phase of Marvel, and now he's gone and apparently Marvel is started in house, referring to, instead of Avengers, the Kang dynasty it's now going to be they're now just calling it Avengers five. So we're going to see. Yeah, so I read a couple interesting little articles related today from like screen rantcom and variety and stuff, and the one that screen rant was like why don't you just get rid of the whole Kang thing? Because you've already set up secret invasion and Kang's kind of tied up. You've already had him beaten like basically three times between the movie, between the movie and the two seasons of Loki. So Loki grabbed all the you know wires or timeline branches or whatever and ended it all. And so let's just be done with it and go a different route. So we'll see. Yep.
Speaker 2:But regardless there is a they're going to have to reassess. I guess let's say so. He lost a bunch of jobs in a couple months yes.
Speaker 1:A bunch of jobs. Don't put your hands on her. Exactly.
Speaker 2:They ain't that hard, nope. Dbc news. Really, all that's going on is the blue ribbon corn dog stand is still not open and not really even being worked on.
Speaker 2:Yeah as far as you could see, right, whatever that cake house or whatever it's called at the boardwalk. I don't know what they've done there like not much since they started tearing it down. Right, so that's been pushed back to sometime in 2024. The corn dog stand is sometime now in 2024. Right, so those are not advancing quickly. And Disney has announced price increases for the three currently active selling resorts. Villas at Disneyland hotel is going to go up to $239 per point from the current $230 a point. Okay. And then Riviera and Elani are going from 217 to 225 a point. Both of those, right, I don't know how big a deal that is, because then they turn around and like, give you every kind of offer in the world to take money off and get you to buy them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I guess if you're, you know you raise it $9 and you're still giving $10 off a point. It's still $10 off a point. They're just getting $9 more. But right, right, anyway. So those have gone up. No word yet on when all the other ones will go up, but I'm sure that's coming to.
Speaker 1:yeah, I'm sure that's down the pike Right.
Speaker 2:And then pretty soon here they're going to drop. Hey, start buying the cabins for a little disresort.
Speaker 1:I know. So I really just want to see the point things for them. That's what I want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1:I mean they have the new point things out, but yet they haven't put them out for the, for the cabins. So which means they're then they're going to have to redo the point calendar to account for those.
Speaker 2:Just to add them on there, right? Doesn't change anything. That's published. You just have to add on that. Oh, by the way, these are 8,000 points a night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, gotta help now.
Speaker 2:I do not think they should be any more than a two bedroom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause they only hold. It's only six people.
Speaker 2:And the and transportation is an issue compared to the other DVC resorts, right? Right, because you're gonna have to get on a bus or rent a golf cart or bring your own golf cart, I guess, right, to get around. You know it's not. There's not a lot at that place that's within walking distance, and and they don't offer, and certainly not, transportation to the other parks. You know, if you're going to Epcot, it involves two forms of transportation or Hollywood studios or animal kingdom or Disney Springs. Magic kingdom really is two forms of transportation. You've got to get to the dock and get on a boat, right? So I don't think you can.
Speaker 2:I'm excited about it, I think there's a cool premium for being out in the woods, but, the same token, it is a little inconvenient if you don't have a car, right? So? And I still wouldn't drive to Magic Kingdom, which means I still got to get to the boat. So anyway, it'll be interesting to see what they do with it. Yep, it's all the news I got. It's all I got. So we almost went out of our way this weekend to do things we hadn't done before, like that was first. Priority when we were making ADRs was where haven't we been? Right.
Speaker 2:So it started off on Friday when we got there at about I don't know 11, 30.
Speaker 1:11, 30-ish yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, and we went to eat by Manit Chouarin I don't know exactly how to say your last name, because I don't watch cooking shows- yeah, I just know where it's going. I know she's a big thing in cooking shows.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just know her by Manit, that's all I know.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we went to eat at Eat. It was not at all what I expected. No, it doesn't mean it was bad, it wasn't what I expected, right. So, first of all, I mean the building itself is cool. It's right next to the Crispin Shop in Disney Springs. Yes, by the way, if you put in Eat by Manit Chouarin to your GPS, it is going to take you to the dead other side of Disney Springs. Yeah, just saying so, it's by the Crispin Shop. We went right there. You can't mobile order. Correct Didn't matter, because Very quick, it was very empty and we walked right in and right to the register. We were the only people ordering food, correct. So the same setup as like Deluxe Burger you go in and you order at the counter, you pay, they give you an electric coaster and you go sit at your table and they bring you the food when it's ready.
Speaker 1:Right, which I think is really cool.
Speaker 2:Me too. Yeah, I like that. I don't have to stand around, you know, or listen to somebody yell my number. Right. And there was a lot of seating, plenty of seating.
Speaker 1:Yeah, plenty of seating.
Speaker 2:One thing that was a little weird. So we sat in the like sunroom part right, which was clearly like an add-on to the original building. I don't know if it was, I can't remember what was there, I can't either, so I don't know if it was added on for this restaurant or before this restaurant or what, but it was a little bit weird because where we were sitting under my chair the floor slanted. Yeah, like you could tell it was for drainage because it used to be outside Right. That was a little weird, but not anything to worry about. It just was a little weird that I was sitting on a little bit of a slant. So we got three foods and two drinks. Correct, actually, in a non-alcoholic diet, coke, yes, so they have. First of all, they have bottled beverages, water, sodas. They had beer and wine, you know, in the can and whatever. Right.
Speaker 2:They had Highly and the Eat, eat, ipa. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Eat citra.
Speaker 2:I pale. Yeah, the eat citra pale ale. There you go. Those are both on tap. And then they had some boozy slushies and the premixed stuff out of a dispenser Right, think you got one of those.
Speaker 1:I did, but then they also had fountain drinks too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, then they also had the fountain for soft drinks, right, so that was cool. What drink did you get?
Speaker 1:I got. Basically it was a boozy lemonade, like a frozen lemonade, vodka lemonade.
Speaker 2:Right, 12 bucks. You're typical like probably 12 ounce solo cup. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was probably no. I think it was a little bit closer to 16. It was a good size.
Speaker 2:Okay, maybe it was. The pale ale was 12 ounce. It was good. I don't particularly I don't like IPAs, as I've made clear, but as far as IPAs go, that one was good Right. So I've had a lot of highlight because it's made here in town and Right.
Speaker 1:If you could, you try something else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a friend is a part owner and Mm-hmm, so I've had a lot of that. It was honestly better than the highlight. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that was a win. Mm-hmm, they're not making it there. Somebody makes it for them, whoever. It is Right, but it was very good. We got the eat bread service with pimento whipped paneer Mm-hmm. Buttered non, garlic, non, pimento whipped paneer, cheese masala, vegetable sticks, indian pickle, coriander, honey and chutneys. So, looking at the rest of the menu, I believe that what we got was a tamarind chutney, a mint chutney and, I don't know, maybe the date chutney, because those are the three chutneys I see in other places on the menu, right? So I think the date chutney was good. Uh-huh, the honey was good. The honey was awesome. Yes, I mean it was like just honey with tamarind sprinkled in there or whatever, right, but it was really good. The garlic non was the same as the buttered non, but it actually had like diced garlic, like that you can buy it in jar, right, like brushed onto it, mm-hmm. So they were both. They were both really good, yeah, and they were non. You know, the Indian pickle. All the chutneys were very good, mm-hmm, I was very happy with the whole setup.
Speaker 2:On the bread service Mm-hmm, it was 18 bucks, right, was it better than sonnets? Probably not, but it was good. Yeah, here was. Here are two things actually. Okay that I have a problem with. All right, so masala vegetable sticks Mm-hmm, I don't know what masala is. I don't know what masala is, so I looked it up. According to Wikipedia, it's a spice. The vegetable sticks were celery carrots, right, and there was radishes and there was some radishes Right.
Speaker 2:There weren't any spice on them, they were just raw carrots and celery, by the way, I can't get enough of those ever, so totally down with it. And they were really good dipped in several of the dips and sauces. Yes, the pimento whipped paneer cheese. Maybe I don't like paneer cheese. This was not my dad's pimento cheese spread Right, like it had a lot of cheese Right and Like it had a different texture and, honestly, not a whole lot of flavor. So I was chatting with our friend John Self and he sent me his review and his suggestion in his review I think it may have been on pirates and princesses, but I may be wrong about where it was Okay Was to put the pimento cheese on and then dip it in one of those sauces too. Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:So anyway.
Speaker 1:Right, and I don't eat pimento cheese, so I didn't even have it.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I don't want to say it wasn't great, but it was not the pimento cheese you get if you grew up in the South, right, how about that?
Speaker 1:Right, that's probably a good description.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was good. Right, they had this was under shareables. They also had a tandoori chicken poutine for $14. There was a lot.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:In that a lot more than it looked like. Yes, chut masala fries. Now, they definitely had seasoning on them. Oh, very much so. Yes, tandoori chicken, white cheddar, curds, rich tomato butter sauce that was delicious, it was delicious.
Speaker 1:And it even tasted good reheated.
Speaker 2:And, by the way, the fries that were like on the outside and didn't have any of the sauce or anything on it were great. Yes, crispy, well-seasoned, great.
Speaker 1:So it wasn't just, they threw just any French fries in there.
Speaker 2:They actually yeah, yeah, no Right, the fries were good and you can get the masala fries as an add-on for four bucks, right, totally would be worth it.
Speaker 1:If it was the size of that, it would totally be worth it, Even if they're not Right.
Speaker 2:They just they were really good French fries.
Speaker 1:And the chicken had a delicious flavor to it.
Speaker 2:Very good. Yeah, the whole thing was very tandoori, but you know that's, you kind of know that because it's tandoori chicken poutine, right, that was my favorite thing that we had.
Speaker 1:I was just gonna say the same thing. Out of the three, that was the winner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, then they also have DIY Pani Puri, which is some semolina puffs, garbanzas, beans, potatoes, tamarind chutney and mint cilantro water. We did not get those. No, the walking tacos we didn't get. I saw them. That name is a lie. There is no way you could eat those in one. Oh, they were way too stuffed with stuff, gotcha, but they looked very good.
Speaker 2:The other thing we got was the build your own bowl for $18. Right, so the bowl includes pickled red cabbage, Indian pico de gallo and masala chickpea pearls. Choose your base, your kabob and your sauce. Right, so your base could be cumin, basmati rice, turmeric rice, cauliflower or fresh salad grains. We got the basmati rice. Yes, it probably would have been good on any of those. I think you're correct. Pick your kabob.
Speaker 2:Your options were tandoori chicken, paneer, tikka, basil, cilantro, shrimp or masala roasted cauliflower. We got the chicken and then the sauces. They have tikka, which is an aromatic buttery tomato sauce, so basically the same thing that we're on the. It was the same thing that was on the poutine. They told us, like, don't get that, because you're just duplicating what you already got. They had saag, which is a rich, earthy spinach sauce, moily, golden coconut curry sauce, korma, cashew saffron sauce or boomer Buna, a classic Indian curry sauce. So they told us, if you want something spicy, get the Buna, which we did, and it was not spicy, no Like at all At all. So now I wish we'd have gotten the moily, because the golden coconut curry sauce, because that coconut meatball bowl at Captain Cooks is really good Now I'm picturing it would have tasted more like that and I wish I'd gotten that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I mean part of it is we didn't know we're going off of their suggestions.
Speaker 2:Right, if I'm being honest, we got the Buna, which was supposed to be the spicy one, and it was kind of bland it was very bland.
Speaker 1:We actually ended up adding the chalula sauce. Well, it actually, once we added the chalula, it actually tasted a lot better.
Speaker 2:It did. Yeah, it wasn't bad.
Speaker 1:It just didn't have a spice, didn't have much flavor to it, you know you picture Indian food being like super hot spicy. Right or very flavorful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, none of this was super spicy. The bowl was not super flavorable. No, that is obviously because we picked the wrong sauce, right, but I'm not going to say I'm not going to try it again, I'm just going to try it with a different sauce, probably not moily Right so so they were in there. Maybe the cashew saffron sauce.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm thinking that one may have had a better flavor too. Yeah, none of it was bad, right, and when they came out and served it to us it was in a heavy duty, cardboard-y type bowl.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like that cardboard, that's like styrofoam. Yeah. You know, Right, and all of them have lids. The nun was on like the size of a medium pizza tray, right, and they had lids for everything that snapped right on.
Speaker 1:Right, and they went and got the lids for us. They refilled your drink for you.
Speaker 2:You had a server and they were very Attentive, yes and very I don't want to say adamant Very clear if you got up to go get a refill or something that they were there to do it. Right. So that was cool. Yes, everybody there was super nice, super duper friendly Staff was great. Yes, I'm not going to run back there, I have to be honest. So I told you when we were sitting there it was like an Indian fuzzy taco. Yes, right, so like high ceilings with like all the pipes exposed in the air ducts.
Speaker 2:So, it's a little loud in there. Concrete floors, you know which was fine. I mean, that's the look you're going for. And there's a lot of restaurants that look like that, right, for example, fuzzies tacos, right, so you know, yeah, so let's see the other one, the taco place.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I know which one you're talking about. I can't think of what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't either. Anyway, there's a lot of places like that, so that's a feature, not a bug. I liked the decor Like it was. You know, it was Indian-ish decorations on the walls and hanging from the ceilings and all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but nothing overly, no, like Just small things, like I barely noticed them. Let's put it that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, but it very easily. First thing when you walk in the door is the merchandise. It just reminded me of Fuzzy Stakas, because the one here by our house. That's, you walk in and here's the T-shirts and the cups and the koozies, and that's how this was. And then you go over to the register and you order and pay and wait for your food to come up. Yeah, it's exactly how Fuzzy's set up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was, it absolutely was. And a family can go in there and eat for less than a hundred bucks anyway and get a ton of food Like the portions were not skimpy.
Speaker 1:We took all of it back to the room.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we didn't finish any part of it, which I mean we got too much, but we were there trying stuff, so I enjoyed it. I'm not gonna hurry back because it wasn't anything particularly special, right, other than the name to me, but it was good. It was not the best Indian food I've had.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:But it was very good for price, for nothing on the menu is more than $18. Right and it was very quick and there's only a couple of things on the menu that are $18, literally two the bread service and the bowl.
Speaker 1:Right, but if you're in a hurry, trying to get food to take back to the room or sit down and eat before you go, do something, it was very quick, very, very quick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and very good. It's a cool place for Disney Springs.
Speaker 1:Yes. So, I would agree with that.
Speaker 2:Happy it's there. We left there, went, got into our room, got settled and we had a dinner reservation at Chef's de France, which we had never been to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think we got that day, didn't we?
Speaker 2:I think we got it the day before. Okay, we did. We had started looking at what the weather was gonna be on Saturday, which changed our Jollywood nights plan and changed our knowing what the weather was gonna be. Even if they did Phantasmic, I was not gonna sit there in the rain to watch it, right? So we canceled our Phantasmic dining plan or dining package and booked Chef de France on Friday instead.
Speaker 1:Right and moved our Jollywood nights from.
Speaker 2:Saturday to Monday, Monday right. So we yeah, we went to Chef's de France, right, that was a fun experience. Our server was really good, he was very good. Simba with a Y With a Y, he was super good, super friendly, really nice guy. Everybody there was actually pretty nice.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And we had a reputation of the French half.
Speaker 1:but Well, I also think we got there before because we had like a.
Speaker 2:We did have a fairly early 5, 5.30 reservation Right. I don't know why we haven't been there before.
Speaker 1:Well, we keep talking about it. But then I didn't really. I looked at the individual entrees and then I forgot that there was a price fixed menu.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And when you look at the price fixed menu you're like you can't not do that. If one of the four items are the entrees you want, you're insane not to do the price fix.
Speaker 2:You got appetizer entrees, dessert glass of wine or a non-alcoholic beverage, right, you couldn't meet it for 60.
Speaker 1:65.95, I think, is what it is. Yeah. Yeah, 65.95.
Speaker 2:So not all of the entrees are available. Right, what was available is, or what is available is, the filet of salmon, the macaroni and cheese, the ratatouille, the chicken and the beef bourguinon. So we both ended up with the beef bourguinon. Yep. Wow, is that good. Jauh delicious.
Speaker 2:So it comes listed. As with linguine. The server recommended the mashed potatoes, which were amazing. Yeah, I just had this thing. I wanted pasta that night, right, and you haven't been eating pasta. So I got the linguine. I actually ate all of the linguine and only half of the beef. Bourguinon, Right, it's so bad. I wanted pasta and it wasn't.
Speaker 1:there was nothing on the pasta like butter, like that was it, and I maybe not even butter, and I only ate half of mine, the whole meal. So well, part of it is because the appetizer that we both got we both got the French onion soup Right.
Speaker 2:Which was huge and heavy with the bread and cheese.
Speaker 1:Yeah, plus, it had started getting very cold and windy, so we were happy to have the French onion soup to warm us up.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure. Yeah, very good, I very much enjoyed. Chefs de France.
Speaker 1:Yes, I would not disagree about going back there again.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, I wouldn't hesitate to go back.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So that was a really good meal. The beef bourguinon was just perfect.
Speaker 1:It was perfect.
Speaker 2:Yes, the one thing I would say in consistency has been something that we have talked a lot about lately your French onion soup was, like, too hot to eat and mine was not cold, but definitely not hot.
Speaker 1:And mine did not have as much cheese on the top as yours did.
Speaker 2:Which should be the other way around. The cheese should have kept the heat in, right, but I don't know. Mine was sitting under a heat lamp and yours was fresh out of the pot, apparently.
Speaker 1:Right. So one of the things we decided to do, when we because we got the bottle, got a glass of wine, we both got the Cabernet we said okay, let's go ahead and try it, see if we because came with it. Then we saw that that so that's one thing.
Speaker 2:So when I said it comes with a glass of wine, it was either a Chardonnay or the Cabernet Sauvignon by George de Beauf. De Beauf, either one of those. They had a whole bunch of other ones Right, of other wines, right and the. It's funny they did not have prices on their online menu. I guess maybe the wine prices change all the time.
Speaker 1:Right but.
Speaker 2:But they did have that George de Beauf, whatever his name is, le Vin's des chefs, le Vin des chefs Under by the bottle or by the glass, if you pay for it. They have Chardonnay, pinot Noir, merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Right, and it was a little of the Pinot.
Speaker 1:Right, and it was $41.95.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was cheap, Like you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I asked him. I said can you just bring me a taste of the Pinot? Okay, and he did.
Speaker 2:I'm like yep we'll get the bottle it was good.
Speaker 1:It was good enough. Yeah, we managed to drink the bottle.
Speaker 2:They didn't have a lot of, like crazy expensive wines. No, not what I expected for France, right, you know. But it was good, it was a fun little dinner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then the dessert you got the creme brulee.
Speaker 2:Creme brulee. That was delicious.
Speaker 1:And I got the chocolate tort without the ice cream.
Speaker 2:Right, which was which looked delicious, delicious. So that was all around a win I don't really have. And I mean, you know what, like the soup, my soup was not as hot as yours. It was the perfect temperature to eat it.
Speaker 1:Right, it took me longer to eat mine.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So it's not a complaint. It's just one of those things again, consistency. But I was very happy with that meal. I mean, we got out of there for significantly less than going to a lot of other places.
Speaker 1:Right, and we brought, and we brought takeout, we brought leftovers back too.
Speaker 2:You know it's weird. Like decor wise the place is pretty fancy, but like everybody in there was in T-shirts and Right. You know park attire and the menu was done a piece of paper as your placement. I don't know if that's some French thing, but that was a little weird. Yeah, made me feel like I was at, like you know, master Pizza or something, but Like I kept looking for the crayons.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I kept looking for the crayons. That's funny.
Speaker 2:But it was just I don't know, I don't even want to say weird, it was just different and unexpected. Yeah, but the restaurant again was not what I expected, but it was excellent.
Speaker 1:Yes, and when we left there was a ton of people trying to get in. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there were. Yeah, I think those people did not have reservations. In fact, I know one of them didn't because I even said to her I'm like man, this place is available all the time. Just go look right now for a reservation. There may be one.
Speaker 1:Right. But, anyway, there we go. Mm-hmm, it was very good, we enjoyed that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the next morning we got up, another first for us, which may be embarrassing, yeah, we went to Cape May for breakfast and characters, yes, and this place surprised me in a good way. It did. The crepes were excellent.
Speaker 1:Crepes were excellent. They had the ham, the they had a omelet station.
Speaker 2:They had an omelet station, yeah, which was a welcome surprise.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did not expect that at all.
Speaker 2:No, I was very happy with Cape May's breakfast. It was better than I expected it to be. I expected the typical Disney buffet breakfast with characters, right, which is the and I don't think it was. I don't think it was better than that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Like even the. It sounds silly, but even the bacon and the sausage just didn't taste like a typical Disney character breakfast.
Speaker 2:Does that make sense? Yeah, right, and we saw. We had Minnie and Goofy. No Minnie, minnie twice. Minnie came by twice Right In the time we were there, and we weren't there particularly long.
Speaker 1:No, but we took our time.
Speaker 2:We were probably there an hour, but yeah, it felt like the characters were coming around pretty fast, yeah, but not rushing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the interaction with Goofy he was, goofy was pretty cool, he was pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I dug Goofy, he was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I don't remember what it cost. It wasn't that much, it actually. I believe we talked about the fact that it was pretty cheap for okay 47 per adult.
Speaker 1:Which being that it had Including the gratuity.
Speaker 2:Oh, no plus tax and gratuity. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it had the beach, the beach buns. We actually brought those home Cause you know, I learned a long time ago he brings ziploc baggies. We never touched them, so I put them all in a ziploc baggie and we still haven't eaten them.
Speaker 2:If you look at the menu online, it doesn't do it justice. No, not at all. It's just oatmeal and grits, cheddar, biscuits and gravy, omelette and carving station. But it was really good for the price.
Speaker 1:And the fruit was incredibly fresh. There was somebody there with the ham carving station and the ham had a really good flavor to it.
Speaker 2:The scrambled eggs on the buffet had a really good flavor to them, like they were good scrambled eggs. They weren't watery Like you get a lot of times on a buffet Right. They were well, well done, like literally well done, yeah, and then the omelette was fantastic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the one thing that we even commented that the omelettes were in. What was it? The coffee, like coffee dispensers. Remember the?
Speaker 2:eggs. Well, they had the eggs. Yeah, we're in like coffee pots.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to pour them in, and they actually had a separate carafe of egg whites. They did.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they were turning them out pretty quick.
Speaker 2:They were Like that was cooked way faster than the omelette station at our club is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So, I mean I already knew mine always take longer, Egg whites always take longer to cook, so so mine took a little longer, but they were turning them out pretty quick. They had foregoing at a time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Two people cooking two each, Yep. So it was. I very much enjoyed that. That may be. That may be my go-to character dining. Yeah. Now yeah, at least for breakfast.
Speaker 1:Right, and those crepes were fresh made. They even had, you know, the kid's station. But I mean it was a four-sided. You know it was a square, two sides had the same things on it.
Speaker 2:The staples yeah, eggs, waffles, pancakes, french toast. Yeah, and then Bacon sausage ham Right, and they had ham on the buffet and they had ham carving station.
Speaker 1:Right and then they did a couple little muffins and stuff on the on the Mm-hmm and some pastries Right and fruit and then you can make your own little parfait. It was. It was very good, I think, for the value and the quality of the food and the interaction was very good. And he kept coming around. No rush, just I'm leaving it here just so he didn't forget. But he was definitely not trying to push us out. Yeah, no.
Speaker 2:Kept the drinks full. Yeah. So all in all we had three pretty good restaurant experiences.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2:We did do well, you did the Christmas party.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I didn't, but that was a work thing.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So I could not stay for it. Yes, unfortunately so huh, is that who you met there? Yes, okay, but you had a good time at that.
Speaker 1:And went to the dessert party.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you said, they stepped that up a little bit.
Speaker 1:They did it would. Usually they have like five or six desserts and then they put some cheeses on there and some fruit. They had like eight to 10 desserts and they were a little bit nicer than they've been at other parties, very fresh and kind of stepped up a little, the cheese and fruit and everything. But then they had a crepe there. It was an apple turnover crepe. Oh my goodness, it was delicious, freshly made.
Speaker 2:It was delicious. They only did the pre-fireworks party this time.
Speaker 1:Correct. But and they said check in was at 8.30. I went up there. They said when the podium's in there you can go see when you can check in. I went there at about 10 minutes after eight they go yeah, we'll take you to your table. So and the fireworks were not until 10 o'clock, so basically I had to about 9.45 because they walk you over obviously. So I had to like 9.45 to sit there and enjoy and relax. And they've added another red wine too, so they've added more. One more alcohol in there too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so very cool yeah.
Speaker 2:The party other than. That was kind of the party. Yeah Right, yeah, doesn't really change anymore.
Speaker 1:No. However, after everything, I watched all the shows. The show was really good. Finally got to see the entire stage show, because usually when we go it rains and it stops. Yeah right, got to watch the entire stage show.
Speaker 1:The fireworks were very good and it was really funny because we walked in because I'd met two ladies, hi, priscilla and Sam. It was a mother daughter. The mother lives in San Diego, the daughter lives in Las Vegas and this was her Christmas present. They came they're Disneyland people, so they were very excited.
Speaker 1:I had a nice time with them and I ended up going into the fireworks section in our watching area and there was another couple in there that I'd seen in the party and I'm telling them I'm like, just go to the back, land against the rail. He goes, you're that person you know. Wait for you know. You know when you come and stand in this fire to watch the fireworks. We were the only ones standing across the rail. That's what you know, what to do. So I watched the fireworks with them. Then we went up and watched the show stage show at 10.35. And then at 11 o'clock was the parade. So I spent that entire time with them, talking with them at the party and then doing all those other items as well. So it was really. It was a lot of fun meeting them.
Speaker 1:And then they left and then I went on my cookie stroll Cause I hadn't only gotten one cookie earlier. So I went to all of the cookie stations and the cast members they were so cause most of them are college program. They're like here, please take all these cookies. I hope you've had a fun time tonight and they're being very nice and talkative, cause there weren't many people there and they're here. Please take the cookies. Oh, you have a cute little cookie tin. Please take more cookies. I think I have probably at least two, two and a half dozen cookies at least. Wow, they were all very nice. They wanted to talk with talk with, you know, guests coming in.
Speaker 1:It was really neat the interaction and then went and got a couple you know, several photo pass photo passes. Wanted to get the one in front of the castle with the lights and everything on it. The photo pass photographer was so cool that the show was coming to an end, it was the last stage show and she's like wait there, wait there, the fireworks are just about to go. I want to get a good picture of you with the fireworks. I'm like how sweet is that? So I think she felt bad cause I was by myself. Very cool, yeah, it was really nice the experience I ended up having, and I only rode one ride, which was Tron at night.
Speaker 2:There was a lot to do with these parties that don't involve riding rides, yeah, so then we did Jollywood nights. There has been a lot of criticism early about Jollywood nights. I didn't see it. I thought it was really good. I mean, would I have changed anything?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and we talked about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we will, but it was better than what my expectations for it were. Getting in looked like a cluster. We were coming in about eight. Well, right before eight o'clock, yeah, it wasn't. It actually went pretty quick once they got.
Speaker 1:Once, people actually had, you know, the right tickets on their phone show, and if we had gotten there before park clothes it would have been a lot easier for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but we didn't, and that's fine. We also got a better parking spot because we didn't get there before the park closed, right? So ha, we only rode one ride.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:We did Mickey and Minnie's runaway railway. Yes, you got us a thing to rise the resistance.
Speaker 1:But they didn't call it until 1130.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and 1130,. We had stuff we were doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we skipped it Right, Because that's when we wanted to do shows Correct. Right when we came in we were at the very first show, like literally before eight 30, in the theater of Tim Burton's the Nightmare Before Christmas. Sing along.
Speaker 1:It was. What's this Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas? Oh yeah, it is.
Speaker 2:Which is appropriate, because they did what's this twice? Yes, what's this? The giant puppet came out twice beginning and end. He's a puppet To the intro and extra outro. There we go. He's a puppet. Yes, ow, and very well done. As far as I can tell, it looks like two people to work him.
Speaker 1:Yes, he's the same Jack Skellington that they have at the Halloween parties.
Speaker 2:We were sitting in the way back.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Last row. Yes, but it was very cool. Mm-hmm, I don't come. It is not the frozen-. Sing along, sing along.
Speaker 1:They have all of the words up.
Speaker 2:They do and they show videos with clips from the movie. Mm-hmm, there's these two people in pajamas like kind of not really even dancing, no but Acting out things Right. Parts of it were really cool, mm-hmm, when they pulled the giant string and unraveled Rougi Boogie, and that was super cool. Mm-hmm, some very cool effects that mixed like practical effects with the screen behind them, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Right, and the lighting in there, how it kept changing, was that was really neat. How, the how, the all of the all of the theming around there with the lights and the colors and everything was very good.
Speaker 2:I really enjoyed it, mm-hmm, and I'm not a Nightmare Before Christmas fan, right, I enjoyed the whole event there, mm-hmm, and everybody did. Right, there was an audible gasp when Jack Skellington walked out the first time. Yes, in the crowd. Yes, like it. Not applause like oh, you know, like you heard the oh.
Speaker 1:Yeah I, people did not realize Jack was coming out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess not, which you would have thought after a month of these, that people had heard something about it.
Speaker 1:but clearly not. I think people were trying to keep it up so you could actually get that excitement when you see him.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It was like it was tangible People. It wasn't. It was not even excitement, like, oh, it's Jack. Like like Miss Piggy and Kermit later, right, this was like an audible gasp in the audience. It was crazy. Yeah, I may have a recording of it. I don't know how long the batteries lasted, yeah, but if I do, I might put it in here. Mm-hmm, it was a super fun show. It was very cool. I enjoyed the show. I almost wanted to go back and do it again just to see, like what I missed the first time.
Speaker 1:Well, again, I remember I went to a Jollywood nights earlier. There was only a few things I picked up. They were identical, which a lot of times doesn't happen on shows like that. Well, I don't mean that I mean like no, no, no, no. It's just that all the little things that I wanted to pick up, like the only things that I noticed difference were like the things on the wall and some of the lighting and just a few little prop things were different, right, but I thought it was really fun and I hope that they continue to do.
Speaker 2:You know, maybe you can do a seasonal-. Mm-hmm. I mean, I know Frozen is Frozen and all that. Right. But I thought it was very cool. Or you know, incorporate more of those. They got a bunch of theaters around those parks, right that they could do more stuff like that, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:It was very good and it would have been very easy because they do it to just do the Frozen one that night. Yes, I mean that would have been the easy thing not go through a whole creating a whole different show. Yeah, so I was super excited about that. Mm-hmm, we left there. We went around, we went to baseline tavern tap house, walked right in, sat inside. There was nobody there. There was nobody outside of the middle of the park, in front of the theater all night long. Anywhere you went, there was nobody. On that one picture, photo shot.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:But even we got in line for Mary Poppins outside of, for the photo shot outside of Star tours baseline yeah, star tours Basically. Yeah, at Grand Avenue, and we were I don't know fifth or sixth people in line. It was not a long line for Mary Poppins and the Penguin, we were obviously getting close to when they switched characters because the guy did come and tell us that even though it's Mary Poppins and he started with the people in front of us even though it's Mary Poppins and the Penguin, it could change just no white and dopey at any time and we were fine with that either way.
Speaker 2:Either way I was, but we did get to see Mary Poppins and you were on the wrong side, but the Penguin was super excited. Oh, he was, I loved it.
Speaker 1:I know very excited, Like you know, like my hat and my dress, that I was all sparking and Mary Poppins was wearing the white dress that she wears in Epcot.
Speaker 2:Right, you know, but getting her with the Penguin was super cool.
Speaker 1:Right and she kept saying about how excited the Penguin was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh she, whatever, definitely was yeah.
Speaker 2:So that was a fun little experience, mm-hmm. We did one more magic shot kind of thing inside Over in the animation courtyard they had. When we walked up they had Donald, minnie and Pluto Right and then when we were leaving the area a few minutes later they had Donald and Daisy had switched. They had I think was Goofy over there, and I guess Mickey came out. Yeah, mickey came out Right. So they had the one photo op that a friend of ours, chris Futral, did with his wife Brandy, with like this robot arm that moves all over and you're supposed to like do different poses, and it was a very cool photo shot. But we were in line. It was 1226. There were a lot of people and like every every time the next guest would come up. It took a long time. Right.
Speaker 2:And I wanted to see Jingle Bell or Jingle Bam at 1230. So I looked at you. I'm like we're not getting through this in 25 minutes, right. So we laughed. But they did have the one where you like open up Christmas present and look in the box, and I haven't seen it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, they have the animated one. It showed up, it's animated and is still so. It's actually kind of cool yeah.
Speaker 2:Those were both inside and then you had the characters outside. So the photo ops were great they had. I know that. I saw Pinocchio. I saw Jiminy Cricket Stitch. Yep, and then I'm not sure I saw Snow White and Dopey when we were leaving baseline.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Tap room.
Speaker 1:And then I'm not sure where the rest were. I'm not either, so, but it was also very cold.
Speaker 2:It was very cold last night. It was very cold, yeah, it was low fifties and windy, still Right. It was very cold, yeah, and then the show we saw. We did the other. We did the other show, which was Disney's Holidays in Hollywood. It was a little hokey because it was supposed to be like we're filming this live on TV and they would go to a commercial break.
Speaker 1:Right, and then they have a little interaction in between them and stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the ads that they played going into those were pretty funny. There was one for Goofy's Candy Company and I can't remember the other one, but it was funny. We laughed at it at the time, right. But the big one was when they brought out the big thing of presence and did the song and they were taking away presence from the stack and all of a sudden there's Kermit and Miss Piggy, our co-host, for sure.
Speaker 4:Yes, Just one. The greatest gift of all this holiday season. It must be such an honor for all of you to have more here tonight.
Speaker 1:And it was cute it was. I mean, you knew that's what it was gonna be, but you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it was still very cute, I knew they were in the show Right, so they had them they had. Let's see, they were up twice. Mickey and Minnie were on twice. And Tiana did a whole little. Tiana did a whole dance song and dance number, and that's a song that was written specifically for the party. So how cool is that? Yeah?
Speaker 1:It was a good show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then Belle did I presume a song from the Belle, the Beauty and the Beast Christmas video.
Speaker 1:Yes, and she was in her Christmas dress.
Speaker 2:Oh God, the whole dress.
Speaker 1:Which she was happy being dressed on that because it was so cold.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, the girl that was the host of the thing. I mean thank God they were dancing around Because, well, actually all of them, like the backup dancers, all had like sleeveless stuff on and like it was brutal. Now they were down, you know, at the bottom of the theater, so kind of protected from the wind, but it was still cold. Yes, it was cold, so and then I thought that show was really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a very good show.
Speaker 2:You know yeah, and packed theater at 10.45. Yeah, 11.45. 10.45.
Speaker 1:10.45. Because then there was another one at 11.45. Because they basically did them every hour. Same with Jack and same with yeah. Those two, those two, those two.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we went through the. We went through the commissary row where they had the fiesta and, like I think is what they called it party in the streets. I was trying to figure out before this how you were gonna put bands in there. So what they had was like, right by where Mickey does his meet and greet, mickey and Minnie do the meet and greet.
Speaker 2:They had like just a little tent set up with one microphone and a guy who played guitar, but he had backup music playing. He was basically right at the entrance of baby's commissary Right across from it. Yes, right across Down at the end, in front of baseline tap room, where it all opens up, they had like a six piece band with, you know, bongos and real drums and guitar keyboard. They were very good, they were really good. They were really good, they were really good and the lead singer was a very good showman.
Speaker 1:She was good, yeah, Show person. She was like oh, just dance, you keep singing it on your way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like people would walk by. And she was like come on, let me see that cha-cha One, two cha-cha-cha, Speaking of good showman, we made it back to the tip top club. We did.
Speaker 1:At Tower of.
Speaker 2:Terror At Tower of Terror. All right, so the drink? All right, so the drinks Back there. I think we're Back there. I think we're kind of let down.
Speaker 1:They were the pre-made Disney drinks and you only had three options Right, and one of them, the one I got, was non-alcoholic actually, cause there's only five bucks.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you got just the sparkling cider. Yeah yeah, they had a hard cider.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's okay.
Speaker 2:They were fine. I had one that was like kind of a margarita but mostly wine, like it was kind of weird but it tasted good. They weren't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was others I had wanted to.
Speaker 2:There were definitely not super strong. There were some others.
Speaker 1:I had wanted to get, but I think we were just kind of running out of time.
Speaker 2:There was a lot to do there and it was easy to do because there was nobody around, like there was nobody in any of the secondary areas right at all. You know, by that I mean like off the main drags trying to find that drink that I had.
Speaker 1:It was called the fifth dimension it was.
Speaker 2:It was because the picture they showed has nothing to do with what I actually got. Like they showed it in kind of a margarita glass, but it came in a wine like a champagne flute, see. So I had the fifth dimension, royale, which was a Taramana Blanco, tequila, quantro liqueur, a dessert pear, a Gave, nectar and lime juice, topped with Domain St Michel Brut and garnished with a dehydrated blood orange wheel. It was very tasty. It wasn't very liqueur-y, which is fine. You don't need people getting like hammered around there. Right.
Speaker 2:It was a very tasty drink and would have been really cool if they could duplicate it as a Mbac tail, I think. Right, I'm not sure it was worth the 975 or whatever. It was Right, but it was good. But they had a band playing Like I don't know why. I expected more jazz, because we already had a jazz thing going on at Brown Derby, right, but this was more of a I don't know almost more big band, even though there were just four people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it had more of a big band type feel to it and the music selections were more big band and I think even-.
Speaker 2:And she was in the long evening dress and they were wearing dinner jackets and bow ties and scarfs because it was cold. We haven't mentioned. Yes, it was cold, but they were really good as far as audience interaction and the silly jokes that you would tell, right, it was very good. I was happy. I wish they had kept playing. We would have stayed back there longer but their set was up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they had another set. It was gonna be like another 20 minutes, so yeah, yeah, and we were running out of time. Right. So, and then we'd also stopped at Joffrey's to get some coffee with families in it, just because coffee warms you up.
Speaker 2:Warm us up. Yes, last thing we did before we left and before everybody left was Jingle Bell, jingle Bam Bam. So I think the show was a little different. Yes, they definitely I don't remember it specifically because it's been a while, but I feel like there was-.
Speaker 1:They did.
Speaker 2:It was a little different.
Speaker 1:They did change it and it was stepped up the graphics in it. As far as the projection graphics have definitely stepped up. The fireworks were really good. They did a really nice job on the fireworks.
Speaker 2:They did. The projections on Tower of Terror were really cool. They had snow. Back on sunset they had it coming down. Hollywood Boulevard when you came in and when we were leaving Yep. So well done, they did a good. Yes, they did If I could change one thing.
Speaker 1:Okay, let me hear.
Speaker 2:I don't need a whole parade and I don't expect Disney to design a second parade, right, I don't know why they didn't have Santa Claus driving around in his convertible.
Speaker 1:Because I think it's perfect for that Right.
Speaker 2:Right, it wasn't crowded Like you could have just had him drive around all night. But aside from driving around all night once or twice, yeah. You know, once an hour drive through the park in his Corvette would have been really cool. Yeah, non-existent.
Speaker 1:I have one that I think would be helpful is Citizens of Hollywood.
Speaker 2:That would have been perfect for the time frame, more of that street-mospheric thing.
Speaker 1:Because the time frame, the timing of it based on the Jollywood time frame they were looking for, would fit perfect in that.
Speaker 2:And here's the thing Other than the character meets. It's really weird, Like everybody was in that area but other than the character meets, there was nothing going on in that Hollywood Boulevard Boulevard.
Speaker 1:Right and hub area. Right, they had a DJ guy. They had a DJ, they did, and apparently the first night he was not there, so they added him.
Speaker 2:Well, all right. So I listened, like a day or two after the first one, to Lomondello's podcast, right, and he did a full review of it. Now, of course, he was, you know, hashtag hosted, right, so he had a bit of a different experience than a lot of people did that first night, right. But one of his criticisms was that there needed to be more going on in that area, like, do Jiggle Bell, jiggle Bam twice to get people back into that area. Yes, so that you had like a, you know, christmas party kind of feel. Right, everybody was at the tip top club or in the Brown Derby or not riding rides, because Mickey and Minnie's runaway railway had a five minute wait, right, like all night. Yeah, so they weren't riding rides, you know. So putting the DJ there, I think, was cool, you know, and he was a good DJ, yes he was.
Speaker 2:Like a good Disney DJ especially. Yes, and of course you had the two big character meets there with Pinocchio and Stitch, and Pinocchio characters and Stitch and I don't know who replaced Stitch, and even in, I don't know. But yeah, a little more, but I just think Santa Claus driving through, yeah, would have been cool. I don't, like I said, I don't expect the whole parade. Yeah, especially when you don't. We know Disney reuses floats for the Christmas parade. It's not like they have all new floats, right, but the Corvette works out.
Speaker 2:But, you don't have another parade in Hollywood studios anymore, right? Just him driving around in the car. Yeah, and maybe do it like the flotillas at Animal Kingdom where once an hour, four different cars come out and drive through with four different characters.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but anyway, that's the only thing that I thought was missing. Yeah, other than that, the only real difference I could tell you between that and a Mickey's very merry it was smaller. It was not crowded at all anywhere in there, except for the photo things, and the photo lines, by the way, were not.
Speaker 1:Insane, they weren't a two hour wait. I'm just not gonna wait 15, 20 minutes for a picture.
Speaker 2:A half hour for a picture and, by the way, by the time I get up there, it's not gonna be that character anyway.
Speaker 1:Right, Right. And probably the only other thing I would have added is I know that they had some carts. They were off to the side. If they put them in a more prominent location, people could stop and grab something Like even the little pre-made things, like the cookie things or whatever they could have put those out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we walked by a lot of closed ones trying to find some place just to get a Coke. Right. So that was. That was something that was a complaint at first, and I've heard that they did open a few more but, not enough of them.
Speaker 1:Right, but I still think they had them backed into corners and stuff. Maybe if they even put a little inflatable thing, like they have at the Christmas party or the Halloween party, where, okay, this is where you come and get something, let people know it's there.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you this for the price, and I don't remember what we paid 160 something. Okay, so it was like 10 bucks more. Maybe I didn't look at what Hollywood Studios was for a day to get, but all of them were around like 160 this weekend. For that price you could have gone to Hollywood Studios and done everything between 830 and 1230. Right, everything, because nothing had a line, right, I mean. So you know, as a family, if you're not into the Christmas thing, I would go to that party. Yeah.
Speaker 2:As my Hollywood Studios day, the only thing that I can tell you you would have missed the toy soldiers and Frozen and Indiana Jones, Like that's the only things I saw that weren't regular.
Speaker 1:But then you know, then you had the what's this in place of Frozen. So, at least there was something else in place of it.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So you really only missed the soldiers and Indiana Jones.
Speaker 2:You could have done everything in four hours for basically the same price, right? So for that that was a different vibe, for sure than Mickey's very merry.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:You know where some of the rides seven dwarfs are still long, right, but I don't know. I felt like it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:The shows were all well done, both well done. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, there was things I wanted to you know, food or drinks that we didn't get to do only because when we went by that area the line was really long, and then didn't necessarily want to go back and possibly miss something else that we wanted to do.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so, that was yeah, the line at the line at whatever that place is called.
Speaker 2:The boat on Echo Lake Right.
Speaker 1:But also it was right after the first show and got let out, so everyone got in that line. It was right after the first. What's it show? What's this show? Yeah, right, the Dockside.
Speaker 2:Diner Right.
Speaker 1:And I think if we had gone to do that and came back later in the evening it probably would have been less. There were some things at Epic Eats but I was like there was a line there, we were cold and I think the coldness for me affected me going and getting the things I wanted to get, but when we were back on Sunset, none of those places had any line whatsoever. Right.
Speaker 2:So Gertie's Ice Cream of Extinction, that's the one that had just a crazy line all night. But again, it's because everybody was in that Echo Lake area. Nobody was anywhere else, right? So really odd. But I hope they do it again. I hope they've made money on this thing and they do the party again, and I also hope that it stays like it is and doesn't get to be Mickey's very merry where it's oversold and you can't do anything, right? So there it is.
Speaker 1:There it is.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, this went longer than I thought it was going to, but we're all done. Yeah. So thanks again, everyone, for hanging out with us. Join our Facebook group Mickey File Improvement District, follow us on Instagram MickeyFile underscore podcast, and please continue to just tell people about us, yep. And if you want to get in touch with us for anything, if you want to be a guest on the show, let us know. Our email address is MickeyFilepodcastatgmailcom. Happy holidays, bye, everybody.
Speaker 1:Happy holidays. Good night everybody, Thank you.