Mickeyphile Podcast - Disney World, DVC, and More
An unofficial Disney fan podcast. As locals to Central Florida, and DIsney Vacation Club members, Scott & Karen are often found in the Parks. Weekly episodes include news updates from around the Disney Parks, Marvel, Star Wars and more, as well as trip reports, interviews, and fun discussion topics.
Mickeyphile Podcast - Disney World, DVC, and More
Country Bears Musical Jamboree and Flavors of Florida.
The Mickeyphile Podcast Episode 202 - Country Bears Musical Jamboree and Flavors of Florida.
We tried some of the many items available in Disney Springs for the Flavors of Florida celebration. The Country Bear Musical Jamboree opens this week, and we got a preview on Saturday with D23. We’ll share our reviews of both the event and the new show. Also, there’s news about a Single Rider line at Hollywood Studios, and the refurbishment of the Jungle Cruise. All of this and more on episode 202 of The Mickeyphile Podcast.
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Music: “Cân thema (Mickeyphile Podcast Theme)” copyright Scott Daves 2023
We tried some of the many items available at Disney Springs for the Flavors of Florida celebration. The Country Bear Musical Jamboree opens this week and we got a preview on Saturday with D23. We'll share our reviews of both the event and the new show. Also, there's news about a single rider line at Hollywood Studios and the refurbishment of the Jungle Cruise. All of this and more on episode 202 of the Mickey File Podcast.
Speaker 2:Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Mickey File Podcast. I'm Scott and with me, as always, always is my lovely wife Karen. Hello everybody, Monday, July 15th yes, Halfway through the seventh month. You know what I got today. What did you get today? An email to register for dorms. It's the software, not the actual like building dorms. It's the software, not the actual like building, but it is the actual thing on. Do you want to live?
Speaker 1:at flamingo crossing. Oh really, so it just went mass to because you're in the dcp it just as a mass email thing yeah, for everybody basically going september night.
Speaker 2:they told us that that zoom meeting last week it'd'd be this Monday or Tuesday. Oh okay, so yeah, I got that.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you getting ready to sign up for that babe?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I totally want to live in a 2-2, sharing a bedroom with someone 30 years younger than me. It would be fun. It sucked 30 years ago. Cannot imagine it being better now. So I think I will not be living there. But yeah, I did get that Because we are inside of two months now. We are, and we had a pretty cool little God like 18-hour trip to Disney Actually a stunt trip. It was like 22 from when we actually got there, True. True. It seemed a lot longer it did it was fun. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Got to try some of the new food and see country bears, which was why we went there.
Speaker 1:Yes, so fun trip it was. We'll talk about it, we will.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's where we are right now, not anything else really going on.
Speaker 1:No, if we're being honest, no, it's pretty quiet right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not even a lot of news, no, no of course, probably right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not even a lot of news. No, now, of course, probably the day after we record there'll be a ton of news, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:Because they always put stuff out on Tuesdays. Yeah, all right. Well, with that said, let's talk about what news we have, so we can get into our reviewing. Okay.
Speaker 1:Star Wars Rise of the Resistance is testing single rider line. However, you skip past all of the pre-show parts and basically come out right before you get into the queue to board the vehicles.
Speaker 2:So I saw a like photo journal of the line today. Mm-hmm. You go through a lot of hallways, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:A point that was made by the person who wrote the article. Yes, when you're marching guests through as part of the queue, probably you shouldn't consider it being backstage, and Disney is apparently not considering it necessarily backstage because they allowed photos through that hallway. Yeah, they did Right, which is not supposed to happen, right, as we talked about related to Cirque du Soleil last week, right, but so they take you through some hallways. They take you by, like, through the place where you get into the transport.
Speaker 2:Mm hmm, but not under the transport Right, which is interesting. No, I mean, you know they're taking people to that point In groups. Yeah Right, groups of single riders, basically.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not to that point, in groups, yeah Right, groups of single riders, basically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not one person at a time or anything, right. And then you go through another hallway and you come out at the Stormtrooper room, mm-hmm, and the ride's been open for like over five years, so I'm going to assume people know for the most part about the stormtrooper rim yeah, that, hopefully it's not a spoiler so you come out in there and right now what they were doing this morning anyway, was sending you down the left side.
Speaker 2:Okay, so now that's gonna make that other line a lot longer. Yes, it is. If that's what they're using for single rider, yes, but anyway, that's where they then, you know, look for one. So a couple of things I saw and this was from the pictures and everything was from Blog.
Speaker 2:Mickey, the author of the article and I can't tell you I don't remember who, it was sorry said that the first time they went through single rider, the standby line was 90 minutes. Second time it was 85. Okay, they waited 14 minutes and 30 minutes. They wrote it twice within an hour going through standby as a single rider. Wow, so that's cool, yeah.
Speaker 2:They also said they were going out of their way to find parties of two Rather than pulling two people out of single rider. So their recommendation and it makes sense to me is one this is like the second time I've heard that they're kind of being sticklers about single riders being single riders, like going out of their way not to let parties through the line, um, but they were going out of their way to find parties to not put two people out of the single rider line, so you're more than likely not going to be able to ride with someone else in your party If you try to go through that way, right, um? Second thing was they highly recommend that if you have not been on the ride before, um, don't do single rider your first time, because you're going to miss a really cool effect in a room where ray talks to you and then the really cool transport part of it, right, but if you've been on it a lot, yes, single rider yeah, so cool.
Speaker 1:I'd do that if I was, you know, by myself or we didn't care about riding together.
Speaker 2:You know I have never gone through a single rider line. Really, I got to end the line once it test track and then found out somebody from another podcast was right outside and left the line and went and talked to him. Oh, okay. I have never gone through a single rider line, ever, oh.
Speaker 1:I've done Test Track a couple times. Single rider, that one's really quick.
Speaker 2:Be honest with you Now that it's closed, because even Disney acknowledged it wasn't very good. It wasn't very good and I didn't care enough to go through the single rider line for it well, I was with.
Speaker 1:I mean we were. I was with several other people, but we didn't care about that, I know, because we knew we could get through fast instead of waiting 45 minutes so rise of the resistance is testing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now, who knows he? They did it yesterday, they did it today. They may not do it again ever, right? So who knows exactly? They're certainly not going to take you through hallways. Yeah. So once they figure out if it's going to work or not, they're going to have to do something, yeah it would make sense if they put them into the transport, but I don't know.
Speaker 1:Instead of going through a hallway, at least you get through part of it, we. Instead of going through a hallway, at least you get through part of it.
Speaker 2:Well, you have to go through a hallway to get to the transport and they're not doing it one at a time. You can squeeze one more person in the transport. Yeah, that's true. You're not going to squeeze 10 more people in the transport. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:Plus, you're doing single rider, right, I mean you, you're gonna miss part of the queue true, all right jungle cruise is going to be closing for refurbishment on august 26th and it is scheduled to reopen before the winter holidays begin, so that's just kind of a guesstimating date.
Speaker 2:Roughly two months, because the holidays begin November, or actually second, I think this year November 2nd. I think there's a.
Speaker 1:November 1st Halloween party? No, there's not. This year it ends on Halloween. Okay, well, there you go. Yeah, so there you go.
Speaker 2:So they're not doing much. Not in two months, no, probably fixing the parts of the track that are breaking, probably and then that gives them a chance to set it up for jingle ahead of time anyways well, yeah, it does, because the last, well, the the last several years ago, I know, we were there on November 1st for a Halloween party, right, and rode the Jingle Cruise November 2nd. Yes, because they did it overnight.
Speaker 1:Yes, so there you go, just preparing people, people. Orlando's Magical Dining is taking place again August 16th through September 30th and it's including seven restaurants at Walt Disney World. They've kind of varied the restaurants around lately.
Speaker 2:So I feel like so we've got Amare Todd, english Blue, zoo, il Molino, those are all at Swatham.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Marie and Enzo's the Edison Haleo and Summer House.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Summer House is definitely new this year obviously.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like the hell's the name of the Chinese place, morimoto. I feel like Morimoto is always been on this and it's not right. Haleo and summer house are like trying to take over the whole Disney Springs experience right now, and good for them. Yeah, those are two of my favorite places there, with the edison, by the way. Yes, and we never talk about maria and enzo's. I really enjoyed our meal there. It's just expensive for italian food. Yeah, it's a nice restaurant. I know nice. You know Italian restaurants can be expensive, mm-hmm. I just thought it was.
Speaker 2:Because it's expensive and it's pasta, right, but it's very good.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, it is very good.
Speaker 2:So what is Orlando's Magical Dining?
Speaker 1:That's where they have a fixed price between $40 and $60 for your meal, um, and then the it? Um goes to community events, um, kind of giving back to the community as far as what.
Speaker 2:So donation part so here's the thing about. Now. I want to go to maria and enzo's, okay, um, I've never had an entree at summer house unless we count pizza. I don't know if you can count pizza as an entree so I'd like to see the menu for summer house, because I don't yeah, because it's kind of a each of them have a fixed menu that I've never spent 40 on food at summer house, yeah, so maybe we'll look that up yeah, but maria menzo's would be pretty easy to do, that.
Speaker 2:The edison could be pretty easy haleo is definitely easy to do that, right, so, but I like that summer house is embracing the full thing of being at Disney Springs. Yeah, you know, yeah, at Disney Springs with great service, like almost every time we've been in there and the guy two weeks ago was fine, he just wasn't great, right. Every other time the person the server or bartender has been great. Yes, with the drone experience and they've embraced being at Disney Springs and I liked that, yes.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, drone experience and they've embraced being at disney springs and I like that, yes so yeah, summer house is like a 40 menu each of them, so obviously the marina anzos would be the 60 menu, but still, that'd be easy to do. But yeah, I want to check out the menus and maybe try to take advantage of these.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because we'll certainly be there between August 16th and September 30th. Yes, we will.
Speaker 1:Tiana's Bayou Adventure and Tron are going to be using a standby line for Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Parties, rather than Virtual Queue.
Speaker 2:Based on the Virtual Queue like being available super long the last week or so and they already announced that tiana's was going to be virtual queue for a short time right until it was no longer needed. Basically yeah yeah, um, I'm not convinced that they need virtual queue all the way up to the middle of August, but I feel like the standby line for this party is going to be tied to getting rid of the virtual queue altogether. That's my prediction. Right.
Speaker 1:Which would be nice because people will be in those standby lines instead of the other lines.
Speaker 2:Tiana's since, like a few days after it opened, it's been available for a long time, like more than an hour, right Many days, if not every day, and it's super confusing because you can only do one of the two, correct I think it's a mess. You can only do one of the two, correct I? I think it's a mess, to be honest with you. So I don't know. I haven't seen it really needing a virtual queue. Keep selling fast pass. I'm selling genie plus single individual passes or whatever they're calling them next week, but I don't know. I think the virtual queue is trying to build demand that may not be there maybe so so july 18th, which is, uh, tuesday, went thursday, right.
Speaker 2:yeah, yes, dole whip day is the third thursday in july, okay, so this year, july 18th, and in true disney fashion, dole whip day lasts from the 18th to the 21st, like a 50th anniversary celebration that's a year and a half, right, and a hundredth anniversary celebration that you have after the hundredth year, right? Or like when you open a corn dog stand, just say, ignoring the fact that cake bake shop is going to be at least a year after the originally announced due date, right.
Speaker 1:So what is the specialty stuff? On the Dole Whip Day.
Speaker 2:At Magic Kingdom Park. Okay, At Aloha Isle Refreshments. This is such a big celebration that all of these items are currently available, Because they have been available for like 50 years. Yeah, Dole whip, dole whip float. Pineapple upside down cake served with your choice of dole whip soft serve or swirl Dole whip raspberry swirl. Dole whip raspberry swirl float. So there you go.
Speaker 1:See that raspberry swirl one sounds yummy Dole Whip Raspberry, Swirl Dole Whip Raspberry Swirl float. So there you go.
Speaker 2:See that Raspberry Swirl one sounds yummy. All of these Sunshine Tree Terrace, all the same stuff they've already had. Jungle Skipper Navigation Company Limited. Skipper Canteen, enchanted Orange Dream.
Speaker 1:Dole Whip blended with vanilla soft serve and served with an orange candy rim.
Speaker 2:I think I remember um joe hunt having that when we had lunch um yeah, I think maybe for the christmas or halloween party uh storybook treats the rapunzel sunday and the aurora cone that they've already had. Uh, here's a new item in epcot at the refreshment outpost dole whip, cherry, pineapple swirl. That actually sounds kind of good. That kind of does at animal kingdom all the same stuff. Trillo bites, available now through september 9th. The zazu dole whip, lime and coconut float. Somebody just had that. That I saw. I don't remember who got that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I remember seeing that too.
Speaker 2:Here we go. Here's some more new items Disney Springs, swirls on the Water, key Lime Sundae with Dole Whip Lime and a Waffle Bowl topped with whipped cream and lime garnish. It says that's available through August 11th, because I am pretty certain that that is actually on the flavors from Florida menu the Orange Bird Cone and the Orange Bird Float. We talked about all of these last week because they're all flavors from Florida thing. Yep, that, because they have Dole Whip, are being included as a dole whip day. Okay, so that's it. There are four specific items for dole whip day, which is the fourth annual dole whip day, and even got a whole article on the Disney Parks blog. Four new items, three of which are specifically for a different celebration that they're just including in lumping, in Including in this, yep. So, yeah, I wish I'd have read this article in whole before we talked about it, because it's kind of pointless. We talked about it because it's kind of pointless.
Speaker 2:There's a couple things in Disneyland that are new, or at least limited availability. Alani has a Dole Whip cupcake Okay, new, available July 14th through the 20th. So there is absolutely zero here. That is for Dole Whip Day, okay. Okay.
Speaker 2:Zero. Everything is currently available. What a silly event. We're going to call it Dole Whip Day, but we're just going to give you a list. And here's the foodies guide the foodie guide to Dole Whip Day. It is literally just a list of here's all the Dole Whip stuff available in the park and we're going to call it Dole Whip Day, apparently. So Wow, okay. Anyway, dvc News there's a new DVC sweepstakes for a six night package for the cabins at Fort Wilderness Resort. Uh, entries are open until September 6th at um DVC, the DVC webs, yep. So there you go, cool deal. Um, I'm totally down, yeah, but whatever, I guess we'll go apply yeah, I think I did already sign up or whatever register yeah, I did the thing already yeah okay, our little uh, overnight visit.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's not really a trip, it really wasn't. We were in the park for three hours, yeah. Disney springs for an hour and a half, about, about that. We left our house about 10, we got there 12, 30 ish, maybe one o'clock, because we did go. I mean like we took our time getting from the border to Through the parks. Yes, got a car, wash and vacuum the dog hair out, yeah, charge the car, yep, so we'd be able to get home. That's actually not true. So we'd get home with a realistic amount of charge left Right, like half. But we were getting hungry. So our first stop, we actually went to Disney Springs. We went to BB Wolf's Sausage Company. Yes, because they have the Ybor City Cuban Dog Mm-hmm, quarter-pound all-beef hot dog with mojo, pork, pickles, swiss cheese and mustard. I don't still know what kind of bread it was on. It's supposed to kind of, I don't know. It wasn't really a hot dog bun cut in half and grilled, I don't think.
Speaker 1:It kind of seemed like it was, though.
Speaker 2:It certainly wasn't Cuban bread.
Speaker 1:Right, it seemed like it was upside down because it was toasted yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't know what it was on and nothing ever tells you no, but it was a good hot dog.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, it had a good flavor with the mojo pork in it.
Speaker 2:See, I have to be honest, I didn't feel like I tasted pork. It tasted like a hot dog with mustard.
Speaker 1:Oh see, mine had. Maybe it just didn't have that much mojo on your section of it maybe they did cut it in half, which was cool.
Speaker 2:Um, I enjoyed it. Yeah, I don't know that it was worth well, 50 or whatever it was 1279, yeah, um that was kind of high. Yeah, I thought that was a little or a hot dog, it wasn't a foot. I didn't know that it was worth $12.50 or whatever it was. It was $12.79. Yeah, that was kind of high. Yeah, I thought that was a little pricey, or a hot dog. It wasn't a foot long hot dog.
Speaker 1:No, and it didn't come with anything else, just the hot dog. Just the hot dog, like no chips. No, nothing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that was a little high. And here's. It's not a festival, right, and every year it comes up and we and our friends like talk about, oh, we gotta go try this and this and this and this, but that's not what this is. No, this is a 12 hot dog. That's like a regular size hot dog. Yeah, it's a 15 hamburger, it's, and, but they're full size, you know they're not.
Speaker 1:It's not a.
Speaker 2:It's not a tasting yeah, they're not festival size stuff for eight bucks. Right, it's a sandwich, it's a hot dog, it's a dinner, you know? Yes, but the hot dog was, the hot dog was very good. If you're into hot dogs especially, right, I say that because I know we have friends that aren't correct. But it was a quarter pound hot dog. I mean that's cool, yeah, which sounds huge, but that's four ounces, right, but anyway, um, as someone who was born in the shadow of Ybor City, Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:I don't know what the Ybor City part of this was. I mean, I do Because of the pork we put more mojo pork and Swiss cheese on it. Look, it's Cuban, right, but it was good for a hot dog, mm-hmm. I got very excited because the last couple of years D Lux burger has done a really good job with these specialty.
Speaker 2:Seasonal kind of hamburgers, yes, and they didn't disappoint. No, they did not. Signature blend patty, citrus, braised pork, belly, grapefruit, paloma, aioli, pickled and fried, fennel, grapefruit, jam and lettuce and we split that, and that was really good. It was really good, I mean really good, both of these items, by the way. Uh, so far mobile order, yes, which was very nice.
Speaker 1:Yes, we ordered the deluxe burger while we were eating the hot dog from bb wall well, because our whole point was, is to get something to eat, so that way we can, you know, move on with our day, because we had a time thing we had to worry about, right yeah, um, we also.
Speaker 2:I got the key lime pie shake. And how was that? Vanilla gelato blended with minute made lemonade and graham cracker crumbs topped with whipped cream, graham cracker crumbs and a lime wedge. So even though it was with lemonade, it tasted limey. Okay, more than lemony, so that. So that was good. That was good. It was super thick. Even with the big fat paper straw it was super thick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you said I need to let this melt, otherwise I'm going to be sucking forever on this. It was like a custard shake, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Like really thick, very good, I don't know what it costs, $7.80. I'm looking for you. It was 775.
Speaker 1:Okay, um, it was very good, I would get another one of those um.
Speaker 2:The burger was 440 1449 right and didn't come with fries or anything. No fries, just the burger just Then.
Speaker 1:Oh, and then you got a soda, which is fine, Right, and then I got the. I wanted to try the beer. Okay.
Speaker 2:Sunshine Stroll. Orange Pilsner Giraffe oh, that's the special beer that is only available at Disney Springs and is supposed to be, I believe, exclusive to Chuck Lindsay. So that's kind of funny.
Speaker 1:Well, it says exclusively at Disney Springs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's this Right here at Chuck Lindsay's hangar bar.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Is a Disney Springs exclusive.
Speaker 1:Okay, right, so it was. It was actually really good. It was had an orange flavor, citrus, citrus leaf flavor, but it was light, which is really nice as compared to like a blue moon, which is really heavy with the orange flavor. Right, so it was actually very light and refreshing. Um, and that was 11 25, but I enjoyed that. I'd have that again.
Speaker 2:So part of what I was saying before about this not being like a festival kind of atmosphere. Right, I could be wrong, but I believe those were the only two places involved that had mobile ordering yeah, I looked, I think amorettes, but not those don't count as meal.
Speaker 2:Yeah right um, so now it became a matter of we were there at 1 30 at this point right lunch time, trying to get into a restaurant for us to share something, and that means it's going to take 45 minutes, right, you know? So we didn't do that, so this is more a. If you're going to one of these places for dinner, then you can order the item rather than going searching out the item right to me, right, except for, you know, everglades and ganachery and geodella, and right, the ones that have the walk-up windows yeah, but anyway um what we had was very good Both of them.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know, I still want to go to Cilantro, whatever it's called, the food truck.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:It's called Cilantro Urban Eatery Food Truck. If we're there and we happen by one of these places, we'll go Right. You know like if we get a seat at the bar at Chef Art Smith's places, we'll go Right. You know like if we get a seat at the bar at Sheffard Smith's, maybe we'll order the Cuban. Yeah, I think I'd rather have the one from Cilantro Urban Eatery. Okay, but Okay. There we go.
Speaker 2:Cool, so that's our talk on on that. We left there. We went to the residence in orlando at flamingo crossing yeah, guess what it's called? Yes and uh got our usual room, not room number, no, just our room. Yes, like 24,000 points. By the way, it was pretty cheap. It was significantly cheaper on points than any of the other three Marriotts on that street. Yes, which was interesting because it's my favorite and the newest of those four hotels, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And the staff there is very nice.
Speaker 2:And I had stayed there Wednesday night for a job and left my Yeti cup, so I had to go back there and get it anyway. It worked out yeah.
Speaker 1:They brought it up to the room for it, which was nice. I just find that they're very pleasant there.
Speaker 2:One recommendation if you stay there, any of those hotels, just ask for extra pillows at the front desk when you're checking in, because the pillows are great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they just collapse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think they're feather pillows. They can't be the foam, they have to be the feather ones that they have in there. Yeah, but they're feather pillows. They can't be the foam, they have to be the feather ones that they have in there. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But they're just yeah. I actually have it set up on there. On things that you request, I request upper floor on like our account type and automatically two extra pillows. It's actually set up on our account thing so.
Speaker 2:So they have a good little bar restaurant thing down in the lobby. The food they've got wings, some sandwiches, salads, you know quick food. Right and it's pretty reasonably priced. The problem is, a beer is like six bucks, yeah, so that's how they get you, yes, but it's not a bad place to grab, you know, some food either yeah, and they have uh, netflix, amazon prime, youtube and something else streaming you to sign in with your account. Yeah. But it automatically deletes your information when you leave.
Speaker 1:When you leave yeah so that's cool and it has a nice desk.
Speaker 2:If you actually need to sit there and do work or something, yeah, so we watched a bunch of rules of engagement on Amazon Prime Tied into Disney yeah, because Patrick Warburton is in it, I know.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:David Spade, boom, boom, killing Emperor's New Groove right there in that TV show. So we went and we checked into the room, we hung out till about 4 30 yeah, and headed to magic kingdom and got there way too fast because we were there before five o'clock to check in for the d23 event at 5 30 right but you know, it's fine and I'm really glad that they staggered at this time because the line was much shorter yeah, much easier to deal with because they had groups coming in like every hour, whatever it was yeah, they had seven o'clock, eight o'clock and nine o'clock preview time, so that way they staggered the getting into it as of like thursday before the saturday event, only the first one was sold out, right?
Speaker 2:I don't know how that ended up. Yeah, I didn't. I don't know how it ended up, because every time I sign into facebook, an ad for that event that has been over now for two days pops up. Yeah, but so they're still trying to sell it, I guess yeah, so, yeah.
Speaker 1:So the event was sponsored by d23 um and with the event you got got to select a time for preview it was a seven o'clock, eight o'clock or nine o'clock show, and they already told us that it was going to have discussions with Imagineers ahead of time. Yes, and then it was going to. You get, you know, a little bit of commemorative things and you get entrance into the park, because it's really good for people who don't have passes. It gets you into the park and then, after you see your show, you have free reign of the you into the park and then, after you see your show, you have free reign of the rest of the park. So when we checked in, they gave us, um, the wristband, um, this little, what would you call it? A card like a big, like a big postcard.
Speaker 2:I honestly don't know what it is. It looks like the size of a 45 record cover yes, but then it also came with a pick yeah, which was really good that's kind of cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it says country bearer, musical jamboree, um, and then it has like a ticket. It's almost like a ticket yeah, I really don't understand what it is, but it's cute yeah, and then that and that was in like covered in plastic, and then they gave us a roll like a poster rolled up in cardboard, hard cardboard, so it's like I don't know eight and a half by 14 poster of all of the country bear in the jamboree, kind of a drawing thing, but it was really cute.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so let's talk about the event first.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I think the event and the show are two different things. Yes, the event was really cool. A guy from the disney archives and I'm sorry I don't remember what his name was, but he was um they came out, they did about a 20, about a 20.
Speaker 1:I'll be at 20, 25.
Speaker 2:23 minutes, I think, is what it was Kind of presentation talk, right About the history of the show a little bit and what they were trying to accomplish with the new show, a little bit of tone deafness, because the guy kind of kept. So Ken Ritchie was the Imagineer. Yes, first of all, he's the guy who was the show producer for this, so this is kind of his I don't want to say brainchild, but he was in charge of making it happen. Okay, seems like a really cool guy. Mm-hmm, seem to genuinely love. There it is Boom, the G23 gold member gathering. Still advertising, still advertising.
Speaker 2:Um ken richie yeah, he like seemed to genuinely have an affection for country bear jamboree, but he probably said four times in his little talk about how country music isn't very popular and dude, maybe not in florida, like, maybe not when you're in the South, like probably a bad idea. Yeah, even though I don't think they were at the time. But you know the Outlaws. Leonard Skinner, 38 special Tom Petty Yep, tom Petty's got a little country to him too, but he just kept saying how it's not very popular to him too. But he just kept saying how it's not very popular. And that's why that's why they redid disney songs for it. That was very cool. One of the first things they found in the archives was a memo from one guy to another guy with sheet music for bippity boppity boo and I want to say Zippity-Doo-Dah, but it may have been something else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can't remember.
Speaker 2:But it was sheet music for country versions of some Disney songs that were first. So I thought that was very cool and that's their justification for doing what they've done now. Yes, that's their justification for doing what they've done now. Yes, which is country-ish versions of Disney songs. Yes, so that presentation was very cool. The guys were entertaining. The Archivist far more polished at public speaking than the Imagineer was, yes, but that's not his fault, that's not what his job is. Right, you know, they gave a lot of good information. They've redone the speakers because they said the sound was not good, right?
Speaker 2:They've repainted new curtains, new gold leaf on all the stages Yep, not painted gold, it's actual gold leaf on all the stages. Yep, not painted gold, it's actual gold leaf. Yes, so that's all very cool.
Speaker 1:it was really cool to hear about how they with the animatronics themselves, that now they have a much more fluid motion to them. So when they pick up their arm, their body moves a little bit when they pick up their arm, just their body moves a little bit when they pick up their arm, just like it does, naturally.
Speaker 2:So they took a lot of parts from the animatronics at Splash Mountain and used them for this. Yes, changed them from the A1 animatronics that were around 50 years ago to now the A100, which is like the Wicked Witch at the Great Movie Ride, which is no longer there, but she was the first A100. Right, so they did move better. Yes, there's no real new functionality. They're not doing anything different than they were doing, they just look better doing.
Speaker 2:Yes, you don't hear eye clicking Right, that was a big thing. Well, so that'll be when we get into the show. But yes, they've um Melvin and Buff and Buck. I think um now do like the safety spiel at the beginning and they're involved in some of the songs which is really neat well when you, when they're doing the safety spiel and there's no music playing. Apparently the eye clicking was super annoying, so they fixed that right and, uh, the eyes are no longer just painted, they're like like you know not real eyes, but better eyes.
Speaker 1:And they still kept a lot of the same features on a lot of them. You know they wanted to try to keep as much as they could from the original faces. They said like around the mouth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they used Mark Davis's original designs for faces and expressions, right. So all of that is very, very cool and the event part of it, very cool. It actually was much smoother checking in this time, like we said, with the boarding groups, than it was for Tiana a few weeks ago, right, I would have liked a pin, but the prints are cool. Yeah, you know, there wasn't food, but it was a whole different thing. Like you, you were tied up for an hour and then, okay, the park sure is the next group is coming in, right, because of what they were doing. So it wasn't a hang out and have Mickey bars, you know, right.
Speaker 2:So, overall, the, the, that was probably a three and a half or a four for the out of five, Okay, so seven, seven and a half out of 10. Okay For the event to me yeah, um, the show it's under 10 minutes. Yeah, it's really short. Um, the songs they do are all like chorus verse. Go to the next song, right. So there's the original song at the beginning country bear musical jamboree or whatever it's called, I think it's called.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's what it's um, I like that.
Speaker 2:you know, the come on back again song is still the end of the show. I like that a lot. Yep, they kept, they kept Big Al's personality, kind of Mm-hmm, mostly, mostly yeah. That was cool, mm-hmm, and there's some throwbacks. You know the little guy, whatever his name is, yeah, squeaks the bear as the stage is rolling back in, like he always did, but now he's wearing a hat yep um teddy bear says at the end of her deal you know y'all come back and see me sometime yeah, um, henry doesn't say anything about the ladder, but at least that's still in there.
Speaker 2:There's a few things where Still giving homage to the original. Yeah, the end of what's his name? Shaker with the yeah, you know the Tom Toms and all that's still in there. So there's still some throwbacks to the original show which are very cool. Right, big Al does remember me.
Speaker 1:It is pretty funny, which I think is very appropriate.
Speaker 2:yes, and it still has the one, the one note is still, you know, out of tune and which is perfect, which is perfect right, like, even though I knew what he was going to sing, for a minute I thought he was going to do blood on the saddle, yeah, and at the end of the show he's still what everybody else is singing. After everybody's gone, then he's, his curtain opens up and he starts trying to do remember me again.
Speaker 1:Yeah they had some nice lighting things in there which was kind of neat yeah, the lighting's way better, the theater's way brighter. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Back to Big Al. Yeah, coco's like a big deal for Disney. Yeah, they had arguably the most popular country, bear do the song. He sang like a line and a half Yep, twice, and then started crying and knew it's too sad and that was it. I don't know, things are so short.
Speaker 1:And it moves very quickly to them, to the next one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't even know what to compare it to. Somebody said it's like phil her magic. It's not the phil her magic.
Speaker 1:Scenes are way longer yeah you get like whole songs well and, like I said, the transitions is really fast. So because it immediately starts into the next, there's not enough of a gap to you know, even acknowledge it with a clap, because then you're already cutting into the next song no, you missed a lot because of the applause.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, the guy was really nice.
Speaker 1:I don't want to really criticize his show no, he was really nice, but I think they needed to, even if they put a five second pause, five or ten second pause between before the next music segment started. Even you could show the show the bear, but don't start it yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it would have been so they start off with the country bear musical jamboree. Um, it was a cute song actually. Yes, it was try everything. That was Try Everything. That was Trixie Mm-hmm. That girl who sang that, emily Ann Roberts. We saw on the Voice. She's a great singer, yes, especially if you're into, like Patti Loveless and Dolly Parton. Yeah, she's great, she's always been great and it's a good fit for that.
Speaker 2:Yep, then they did Kiss the Girl that was old liver lips, romeo McGrow, now In an Elvis outfit, which was very cool. It was very cool and the heads sang with him. Yes, a Whole New World. From Aladdin, that was somebody I can't remember which bear and Teddy Bear comes down from the top. That was cool.
Speaker 2:Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious has a very cool smoke effect from the guy playing the fiddle. Uh-huh, but there's not a word in the song. No, he plays the chorus on a fiddle really fast and next, yep, the heads join in on Fixer Upper again with Shaker. Yep, that was cute, it was cute and it was cool to see that, that it wasn't let it go or into the unknown, right. So, although it was kind of funny, he's like if you're not going to do one of those songs, what song from frozen do you do and like half the audience was like do you want to build a snowman? And it was a look at his face like holy crap, we forgot about that song. It was really bizarre to be honest with you. Then, like I said, big Al sings like two lines from Remember Me, henry and Sammy, do You've Got a Friend in Me? And the whole group does Bare Necessities.
Speaker 2:But again, like chorus verse song's over songs over yep, and then they do come again and you leave. And that was weird too, because they basically were like all right, y'all get out now.
Speaker 2:And then the heads started talking yes, you don't want to leave nobody got up to leave because it was like the show's not over, right, but the show was over. I don't know if they were going for like a ferris bueller thing or what. Yeah, um, but it was a little off, um. So here's what I think. I think if you love the country bears, you're not necessarily going to love this. If you like country music, you're not necessarily going to love it, but you have to go see it. Yes, but I don't see this. And and this is disappointing because he said multiple times in the talk was we went with these songs because the original version lasted 50 years and if we're going to reach the new generation for another 50 years, we had to update it. Well, I don't know how old zootopia is, it ain't new? Kiss the girls 30 years old. Whole new world is 30 years old. Supercalifragilisticexpialidoas is 60 years old. Fixer Upper is at least 10. Coco's got to be coming on 10. Toy Story is over 10. Bare Necessities is 60.
Speaker 2:Well, I think they were trying to get people to know those songs, because country music's not popular, right. So we have to do Disney songs, right, and it fits with the. Everything we do from now here on out will be IP, right. I don't know if it has staying power, not because the songs aren't great songs, but I'm not going to go see it every time we go to Disney.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:I'll go see it if it's walk-in. They also took like all the seating out of the lobby and replaced it with like displays, yeah, which we actually didn't even get to look at, right but they, they told us they go.
Speaker 1:You guys didn't get to look at it because we shuffled you in here, right, but yeah they let us in very early into the theater.
Speaker 2:Yes, the following groups weren't going to be able to do that because the show was still going Right. I don't know. I mean, I don't even know what to compare it to. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think part of it because it was the first time seeing it, like I said, I like I. I thought it was very cute, but it was just.
Speaker 2:I think it transitioned too fast into the next one I'm afraid that I like the show more than it deserves because of the being caught up in the entire event. Maybe, to be honest with you, I mean it's possible. I mean I need to see it again to see that that's not the case. But I'm a little concerned that maybe I liked it more than I should have. Maybe I don't want to say it's bad, it's not bad, no, it's just, it's not regular country bear jamboree it's better than the encanto show.
Speaker 2:No way better than that um, I think they tried what did happen, that I didn't think was going to happen, was there was a lot more singing by the crowd yes then I expected and even at the beginning, people, people were clapping along and everything too because?
Speaker 2:because I came into it thinking you know, one thing it's going to be missing is I don't see where people are going to be singing along with it, right, um, and they did you at least early in the show. Yeah, and of course at the end, because that's the song.
Speaker 1:Well, and everybody's singing Bare Necessities.
Speaker 2:But I like that. They kept a lot of the. They made callbacks to the original show. I liked that a lot and the heads were a lot funnier. The heads in the old show were like Stadler and Waldorf to me. Yeah, where this? Now they're part of the show and actually made some really funny. The guy's right, and it was hard to hear the guy's right. The we have a fiddle budget is a funny line that gets lost in the show because of who delivers it and when. But it's a funny line, right, and what we're talking about is when he's playing supercalifragilisticexpialidocious anyway, right. And when he gets really going, the the fiddle starts smoking, right, and it's that's cute. Well, the three heads are like man, he's on fire, he's really burning through our fiddle budget, and then Buff's like we have a fiddle budget.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's a really cute thing. It's the whole thing was, you know, funny. It's all dad jokes, but who cares? Yeah, disney should be a lot of dad jokes exactly. And uh, because they're, you know, inoffensive and still funny. Right, but that one got lost. But that's just he.
Speaker 2:He acknowledged before the show that that line gets lost, especially if you're sitting on the far side of the theater from where the heads are yes so there was a lot of, there was a lot of good humor in it, and it is certainly um less salacious than the original yes let's say that. But um, given the choice, I'm probably going to tiki room because it's sentimental yeah, but it's one of those.
Speaker 1:I want to go see it again without having being wrapped up into the you know. Oh my gosh, you talked all about it, you know, because he even said he goes, okay, I've done, I'm, we've talked enough, we just let him see the show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was that was the last thing he said was um. The guy said do you have anything else to add? He goes how about we shut up and let him watch the show? Yeah, you know. Or stop talking and let him watch the show, yeah, so that was. That was cool, you know. So it was um, it's very different than what.
Speaker 2:So, my initial impression was it was better than what I had heard. Yes, but again I'm not sure how much of if it is better than what I heard or if I think that because I was caught up in the whole Briefing and man he came out of there really liking. Ken Ricci, yeah, and so I wanted his show to be great.
Speaker 1:Right. That's why I say I want to see it again without being caught up in it. The costumes are cool. Yes, they are. They're very good.
Speaker 2:I love Henry's outfit. It does not match the poster. No, not at all, by the way.
Speaker 1:Well, the, the, the style of it does.
Speaker 2:The color does not.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Anyway, it was it's. You have to see it once. Yes, you know, and if you come once a year, you probably have to see it every time you come right romeo is very cute and you know what, in 20 years we may all be upset when they change out a song or whatever, right, because they're changing country, barry, you know. But yeah, romeo was funny, you know his costume anyway. Yeah, um, clearly, when you name him romeo mcgrow, he's gonna do kiss the girl, right?
Speaker 2:well, and he even said he goes because of his lips right right, it made sense for him to kiss the girl yeah, earnest the dude that's who did uh Right, it made sense for him to sing Kiss the Girl. Yeah, ernest the Dude that's who did oh no, wendell. And Teddy Bear, that's who did A Whole New World. Yeah, remember what Ernest sang? Oh, ernest played the fiddle, yes, yeah. So the five bear rugs were there. Bunny bubbles and Beulah were there. I don't understand the line of bunny bubbles and Beulah, or is it Beulah, bubbles and Buddy? I don't get that. It wasn't funny. I don't know really what the point of the line was, but it was in there. So anyway, there's our review. Yep, it helped absolutely no one, because you still don't know how we feel about it.
Speaker 2:Well, no, I mean okay, Because we don't know how we feel about it Well, I think I liked it. Here's what I know for sure.
Speaker 1:I didn't love it here's what I know for sure, I didn't love it. No, I didn't love it, but I I still thought it was. It's not one of those where I'm like, oh my God, I'm never going to go back in and see this again.
Speaker 2:No, it's not the link, just kidding. Yeah, I mean, I didn't love it and I purposely did not. I liked it.
Speaker 1:I did not purposely watch anything any other than like a individual picture of something. I purposely avoided everything because I wanted to go in with no judgment I um.
Speaker 2:I watched the video that Dizzy PR sent us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I didn't do any of it.
Speaker 2:It had very, very brief snippets and then talked to a couple of the singers and that Ken Ricci guy, okay, so I hadn't seen much. I also had watched that video that came out months ago of them recording the bare necessities. Yeah, I didn't even watch that, so I knew what it was going to sound like.
Speaker 1:Sounded good, I had seen what the, what the triplets costumes were, and that's all I had seen.
Speaker 2:The lighting is better, the animatronics look better and the theater looks better. Yes, cause everything was all redone. Yes, so that's all good. Apparently, there are a lot of very cool Easter eggs in the lobby but nowhere to sit. Right Part of the appeal of the Country Bear Jamboree was the 20 minute show in an air-conditioned theater. Yes, and the you know 10 to 15 minutes. You got to sit in the air-conditioned lobby. So, um, part of that is no longer around, but it's fine. It's cute. If there had never been a Country Bear Jamboree, we would probably all love this. If it was a new attraction.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Of course, if it was a new attraction, they would have never put it in like this. It would have been all screens and maybe puppets yeah, that's true or a 3D movie, you know. Anyway, there's our review. Yep, the hamburger is great. A hot dog is pretty good for a hot dog. Yes, and I guess it's Florida E. Um, that key lime milkshake Don't sleep on it. It's really good. The beer was pretty good, yeah, it was. Like I said, it was very. It's a citrus beer, not a like a IPA.
Speaker 1:Right, that's what I'm saying. It's much more refreshing.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So those were good. And go see the Country Bear Jamboree and decide for yourself, because the show looks great and there we go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there you go. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, just look at them. Everything's more colorful, everything's, you know, it's all new, even though it's not all new. I mean, they remade everything.
Speaker 1:Right, they remade it basically from. They said they remade it from scratch but used.
Speaker 2:They went back to Mark Davis's original drawings and remade everything, right, you know. So look at the difference in the colors, mm-hmm, but I don't know. 's it okay? I want to say they deserve better, but I don't know. I want to see it again and see how I feel about it again. Yes, on second viewing. Yes, I miss things because you know you were in there with the true disney fans, right? This was a paid D23 event.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So it's already people who are paying for a D23 membership, who then paid for this event, and many of whom probably probably fewer of them for this than Tiana, but people probably traveled down here to do this event.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean, we know people came for tiana's not this, yeah this one was kind of sprung on pretty quick and you didn't have a chance to like talk to people, because you weren't hanging out like we were at right at tiana's. So you know, I know the people that we ended up riding with several times were from pennsylvania, philadelphia right, we didn't really have an opportunity to network for this like we uh, like we used, like we did on that. So, anyway, okay, that's gonna do it. Okay, I think, yeah, we don't need to talk about the japanese barbecue. So that's gonna wrap it up. Um, that's episode 202 of the mickey file podcast. Thank you again, everyone for listening, for uh your support and uh. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok. We are at Mickeyfile underscore podcast. Join the Facebook group Mickeyfile Improvement District. Find the podcast everywhere that you find podcasts, including now on YouTube podcasts and, if you want to send us an email, mickeyfilepodcast at gmailcom. Goodbye, good night everybody, thank you.