Circle of Parks Podcast: Talking all things Walt Disney World
Because there's far too much to see and do. We're here to help guide you through. We are a married couple with two boys age 9 and 6 talking all things Disney World. This podcast will cover the tips and tricks we've learned along our journey, history of the parks and attractions, and most importantly why and how Disney makes us feel how we do while in the parks and that it's ok to feel that way.
Circle of Parks Podcast: Talking all things Walt Disney World
Episode #215: The Final Episode: Celebrating Four Years of Disney Adventures
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After 215 episodes of Disney magic, our journey comes to a bittersweet end. In this emotional final episode, we're joined by special guests Johnny, Darth Mouse, and Travel Planner Erica to celebrate four years of Disney adventures while explaining why we're hanging up our Mickey ears.
Life has a way of shifting priorities - between demanding work schedules, family health concerns, and our sons' competitive soccer careers now taking us across the southeastern United States, we've reached a crossroads where something had to give. But this isn't goodbye to Disney - just a pause in how we share our experiences.
We go out with a bang through heated debates about the parks! Would you rather be stuck on It's a Small World for an hour or wait three hours for Flight of Passage? Is Animal Kingdom underrated or the weakest park? Which resort doesn't deserve the hype? We rank everything from quick-service restaurants to nighttime spectaculars, and reveal our most controversial Disney opinions (prepare to be shocked by some hot takes about Figment and Harmonious).
The most meaningful part of this podcast journey has been connecting with fellow Disney lovers and helping others plan magical vacations. Walt Disney's story reminds us that dreams take courage and persistence - which perfectly describes our podcast adventure.
Thank you for being part of our Circle of Parks family. While our regular episodes end here, our Disney journeys will continue, and perhaps someday we'll find new ways to share the magic again. Until then, remember that in the words of Walt himself, "All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them."
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Final Episode Introduction
Speaker 1hello and welcome to circle of Parks podcast episode number 215 . Today is going to be our final episode . There is far too much to see and do and for the past four years we have been here to help guide you through . But before we do that , we must talk Disney merch . So this week on DisneyStorecom they're all about the Haunted Mansion right now , and there is a new Haunted Mansion Dooney and Burke crossbody bag priced at $228 . Priced at $228 . And you'll find yourself in a grave situation everywhere you go with this crossbody haunted mansion from Dooney Burke . The front is simulated leather bag , features the cemetery with the three hitchhiking ghosts trying to thumb a ride out , while the back features more of the attractions inhabitants with a lineup of the singing bust . So again , a whole new line coming out for the haunted mansion , not just with duny and burke , but spirit jerseys and all , and that is this week's disney merch the final merch is haunted mansion .
Speaker 2Yes , yeah , all right , thank everybody for joining us . Episode number 215 , this will be our last one . I'm Zach .
Speaker 1I'm Brittany .
Speaker 2And for four years we have taken you to Walt Disney World or Disneyland every week
Why We're Ending the Podcast
Speaker 2and helped you get through your week . This is going to be tough to do . We have guests with us , awesome guests . We have Johnny Hello , hello . Darth Mouse and Travel Planner Erica with us . Hey , hey . And we're just so happy to have them here with us and doing this final episode with us . It's going to be a fun one . We're going to have fun with it , but I guess we need to talk about the huge elephant in the room , right ?
Speaker 1Well , you had me say it in the beginning , I know yes .
Speaker 2Why are we ending the podcast ? Well ? Well , you had me say it in the beginning , I know , yes , why are we ending the podcast ? Well , it's a long story and we're going to try to shorten it up here , but I think the wheels kind of started getting into motion . Around January . My work schedule changed . I was I'm an air traffic controller . I've not ever said that , but I am an air traffic controller here at BNA and we do work six day work weeks and it's very stressful and all that . I've never mentioned that because I never wanted it to be about that . Right .
Speaker 2Right , it's one of those jobs where everybody wants to talk about how cool it is and this and that it's not what I wanted this to be . So I've never said that before . But yes , I'm an air traffic controller . Our schedules change . This year , instead of a rotating schedule , which I was home every night of the week , we went to a week of days and then a week of nights . The week of nights we weren't recording at all . Right , during the week of days we were recording two podcasts a week . Yes , on top of already doing six days a week , work weeks , the travel , soccer , life , family and it started to become too much to do two episodes a week . And , if you noticed , we stopped doing the Disney trivia , which I do miss .
Speaker 1Yes .
Speaker 2I do really do miss doing the Disney trivia . It was just I couldn't keep up with what week was what right .
Speaker 1That would just be too much you know what I mean .
Speaker 2And then I said on our beginning of the year podcast that I wasn't going to let other factors bother me anymore and I was going to get back to doing the did , you knows , and all that stuff . Well , the other factors were my work and I know , if you're listening to this and you're in the United States , air traffic controllers got put in the huge spotlight in January .
Speaker 2And so yeah not that that directly affected me , but that weighs on you , though , right and all of that , all those ideas and everything gone , like I was just burnt out . I didn't want to do anything really , so that happened , and then we were kind of trudging through , right , we were doing okay . Yeah . And then our trip got canceled .
Speaker 1Yeah , in February , and work was getting tough .
Speaker 2For me , work was getting tough for Brittany and me . And then in May the family emergency had was my mom had a heart attack and everything kind of stopped right then .
Speaker 4Right .
Speaker 2Y'all had a family emergency as well . Yes , yeah , and that kind of resets everything Right . During this time I'm like , okay , my mom's in the hospital , my dad was having a procedure as well , and I was like I'll get a lot of writing done for the book , I'll get a lot of like podcasting stuff done , while just sitting in the chair there with her at the hospital , right , had my laptop out and just nothing came to me right , just blank right .
Speaker 2Well , also during this , we , our boys , had soccer tryouts , travel soccer tryouts , and our youngest , nolan , is on the ecnl team for his soccer club . Yes , and if you know anything about travel soccer and you know what the ecno league club is , you just had two thoughts . One wow , he must be really , really good . And yes he is . He was a top-ranked striker in the state of tennessee for his age group just past spring and two I'm so sorry for you yeah because , are you gonna be traveling ?
Speaker 2we just got our . We had our team meeting yesterday and we're not even doing friendlies or state league or our tennessee state league . We are playing in this ecnl league with 20 teams from georgia , florida , kentucky , mississippi , alabama , south carolina and a couple teams from tennessee , and that's all the teams we're playing wow , okay , so that's a lot of traveling . It's a whole lot of traveling . So we went from travel ball .
Speaker 6And our other son is playing soccer too .
Speaker 2So we went from traveling in middle Tennessee to the whole south , the whole south . My goodness and after our team meeting yesterday , the coach was like yeah , fall break . We just automatically thought fall break and spring break , completely devoted to soccer now . And it's going to be yeah . So all of that running together , we're like you know what .
Speaker 1We're just not going to have time to do this anymore , and it's one of those like yes , we do some short episodes sometimes , but we don't want to be rushing all our episodes just to try to squeeze it in . Rushing all our episodes just to try to squeeze it in , like we want to still provide accurate information to you guys and share our experiences the way we've always done , and so I feel like if we continue doing that , it would just be quickly put together it would be way too much .
Speaker 2And you all know , doing these podcasts we're not just getting together and talking like there's a lot of work and research and sitting down and looking at this stuff . It takes hours of prep work to put a podcast on right . We're not just sitting around randomly talking right now yeah , it's just the show notes .
Speaker 2It'll take you several hours for a one hour podcast yeah , and it's just the social media , if you notice , I stopped doing the daily walt dis Disney quotes and just all of that just became too much . And I had somebody tell me back in April like , also during this , I was really putting pressure on myself for the book . I was reaching out to editors trying to start getting that in line and they were wanting to change the book . They were wanting to oh , we need to develop it , develop it . I'm like it's a walkthrough . What , what are you developing ? And it just became way too much . Like I just got overwhelmed and this person I was talking to were like was like , do you hear yourself ? And they were like it's okay , just because you take a day off and don't do anything , you're not lazy . On my one day off always felt like I've got to write , I've got to do the podcast like I've got to do this , I've got to do that .
Speaker 2stop like you don't have to do that . And if I didn't do it , I felt lazy and felt like I was worthless , and that's . That's not the case , right , you know ? So I needed a break , britney needed a break , and it's just I I missed . I'm going to miss this .
Speaker 1I really am , yeah , but Well , sorry , that's not on purpose . I did get choked up the first time I tried to do the intro to the episode , and then now I'm choking up again for other reasons . But no , we will definitely miss it for sure . And you know I mean who's to say we won't ever do it again .
Speaker 2I don't know , you know to say we won't ever do it again . I don't know , you know we're keeping all the equipment and it's just . It's not because we don't like disney it's not that you know like and we all have we're going to get into our opinions here in a bit , um , but it's no , it's , and I hate to be doing it right now our show . We've got a lot of new listeners and thank you for for listening to us . I really do appreciate it . Thank you to erica for sponsoring us . Uh , the past bit .
Speaker 2This is how much we believe in erica she . We've been advertising for free for her for the past two months , since we've decided to do this which thank you very much I deeply appreciate that , and well , I'll save mine for later . I'll save all that okay , um , but we still love it . We're still going to go to the Disney parks . We're just not going to be going as often as we have been . We're still doing our Christmas trip . The boys still think we're going to .
Speaker 1Pop Century , but we're going to Animal .
Speaker 2Kingdom Lodge , brittany is going cruising next year .
Speaker 1Yay , I'm so excited , so a shorter one to start with . Let's hope for calm waters .
Speaker 2Yes , but we still love Disney , we're still going to love the parks , but it's just . It's time for us to move on from this , I think , and I'm going to enjoy fly fishing more . I'm going on a trip next month to Colorado to go fly fishing . And just on my day off I'm just going to do nothing and that's OK .
Speaker 6It's absolutely okay , it is okay , and if you guys ever do get bored or miss podcasting , you could always come on ours oh , shameless plug wow johnny , once upon a park podcast .
Speaker 2Go check them out , we would love . I mean , we had fun when we were on two weeks ago yeah and we still want to do all that like this isn't , we're just completely done , we're walking away , but I just think it mentally for the time .
Speaker 3This is something we have to do for the time being so , but yeah , what's next for us ?
Speaker 2um ,
Would You Rather: Disney Edition
Speaker 2I'm gonna try to slow down some . Yeah , I'm gonna finish the book . I got two and a half chapters left . It's gonna be done , but I'm not putting a time limit on it though . Okay , you know right yeah , I mean that's . You have a lot of goals still , so it's not like you're retiring no , no , not at all , and and we up until about a month ago , we were seriously talking about moving down to orlando yeah really even like three weeks it was .
Speaker 2I mean , we were seriously talking about it . But with my parents health and britney's Brittany's mom's health , there's no way we can leave right now .
Speaker 4Right , it's just not , yeah , so okay , we're going to have fun .
Speaker 2We're going to have fun . It's going to be a fun episode . We're going to do some would-you-rathers Are you in or out ? And we've got questions .
Speaker 5Yes , lots and lots of questions .
Speaker 1Yeah , this should be interesting , and I'm laughing because my original , original Disney merch is on my notes . Sorry guys , it took me a minute to get new Disney merch that I shared a little while ago because I was like , oh , where was it that I had written down what I was originally going to do and then now I found it . But it's okay . All right , if you want a second Disney merch real quick . It was going to be a new magic band plus that was leopard print . That would be perfect for your animal kingdom days .
Speaker 5Well , there you go , there you go .
Speaker 2Oh , we're definitely gonna talk about animal kingdom today all right , we're gonna start with some , would you rather ? We've got two each . We're gonna let Erica go first . Oh , I get to go first okay , um .
Speaker 5So my first would you rather is would you rather get stuck on it's a small world for 60 minutes or wait in line for fly to passage for three hours ? Oh , that's an easy one I'll wait , you'll wait . I'm sorry , I'll . I will go last . Oh , I thought you made like you would wait for three hours . Okay , johnny , what say you ?
Speaker 6With Disney , time is money . I'd rather be stuck for 60 minutes than wait in line for three hours . Okay .
Speaker 2That's fair . Yeah , brittany .
Speaker 1Are the kids with us ? Yes , oh , Ryan would be going crazy on .
Speaker 6It's a Small World but it is only an hour versus three hours .
Speaker 1Three hours is just just almost half your day it's indoors and air conditioned too , that's true , that's true with little cell service I don't need cell service britney initially what popped in my head was waiting in line the three hours , but then I got to thinking of how long that really truly is . But then for an hour I'm going to have Ryan be like . I don't like this song . I don't like this song . I might do the waiting three hours because I know how Ryan would be .
Speaker 2I'm waiting three hours . Wow , that cue at Flight of Passage , it's fine are we talking outdoors in the summer Both ? Did you know ? Oh , oh , did you know ? Hold on .
Speaker 1We're outside for part of the wait . Yeah , oh , in the summer .
Speaker 5Yeah .
Speaker 1Oof .
Speaker 5Suck it up . I should have been more detailed in my question .
Speaker 1So then I might change that to the one hour . No , you already answered , Kim Doe .
Speaker 2There is a rookery on the outdoor part of the queue on the floating mountains when you're waiting in line for flight of passage outside there is what's ?
Speaker 6a rookery . I was wondering that too , and now you're muted .
Speaker 2I might get muted too . The Banshees ? Oh yes , yes , yes . And now you're muted .
Speaker 5I might get muted too . The .
Speaker 2Banshees . Oh , yes , yes , yes . If you look on the floating mountains , when you're on the outdoor part of the queue and fight a passage from behind , there are a bunch of Banshees gathered together . See , that's the kind of stuff I nerd out on .
Speaker 6Okay , all right , that makes sense .
Speaker 5But you're not seeing it the whole time .
Speaker 2You're in line , no , but there's so many , so much detail and storytelling in that queue . I would be completely fine . Three hours in there , no problem . Okay , I'd enjoy that way much more , it's a small . I'd rather wait in line for three hours and then just not even ride .
Speaker 1It's a small world now , if it was definitely like it's a small world in disneyland , I would have definitely chose that .
Speaker 5See , that would be a completely different question . Would you rather be stuck on ? It's a Small World in .
Speaker 1Disneyland or in Magic Kingdom . Disneyland , disneyland , yes , yes .
Speaker 2All right , erica , you have to answer your two .
Speaker 5Oh , Small World .
Speaker 2Small World All right For 60 minutes .
Speaker 6Johnny , what's your first one ? All right , would you rather ?
Speaker 5ride the people mover all day long , or carousel of progress , oh , oh that's a really good question , good one , britney , what do you think ?
Speaker 1people mover .
Speaker 6Oh gosh , people mover pass , come back to me uh , yeah , people mover so my thought was you could take a nap during carousel progress , because indoors and everything people mover is kind of jerky you yeah there's a lot of people watching but you can nap in carousel of progress as well yeah , yeah , that's what I probably do , but
Speaker 1you can nap on on people mover too though , but he's saying like the jerky movements , yeah , yeah , there's some fast parts of it so which one are you ?
Speaker 5choosing , I would do carousel progress so people would be like walking over you to get off of it really have you been in carousel of progress ? Yeah , yes , I've taken naps in the carousel of progress um my oh gosh .
Speaker 2This one's hard for me because carousel progress will always . It's just constantly the same , right . But on the people mover , it's always like , yes , it's always a people mover , but you're seeing different people and different things at the same time a different time of day . Yeah , yeah , you might catch , you know yeah I'm going people mover because I love it at night . Okay , okay , in the Carousel of Progress , it's always the same . It's always the same .
Speaker 1Well , I , just , I like People Mover because you can relax , maybe not fall asleep , but like just seeing , you know the castle , you know in Tomorrowland outside , hearing the screams and everything of Space Mountain and you know certain other features on it and stuff too , and it is relaxing , yeah yeah .
Speaker 2Okay , yeah , I'm a people mover . Good , all right , brittany , what's your first one ?
Speaker 1Would you rather no , this is character dining choices .
Speaker 2I'm out .
Speaker 1Hey , would you rather eat at Quit muting me , that's the first time . Would you rather eat at topolino's or tusker house for breakfast ?
Speaker 6oh , I'm gonna go tusker house okay I can go hide in tusker house I'm gonna say topolino's , because I don't think I've ever had Tusker .
Speaker 5House . You have not been to Tusker House .
Speaker 6So I know Topolino's and it's
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Speaker 6amazing .
(Cont.) Would You Rather: Disney Edition
Speaker 5Oh boy . Yeah , I'm going to say Topolino's as well , because the sour cream waffles are fire .
Speaker 1Yes . Brittany . This one's very difficult for me because I love , love , love both , like I love the theming in both the outfits that they wear at both um this . The selection is definitely more at tusker house and I love animal kingdom . However , when I really finally thought it all through , I think Topolino's Wow . This was before they said Topolino's .
Speaker 2I'm the only one for Tusker House . Yeah , should be no surprise to anybody .
Speaker 6Yeah , yeah , location , location , location , Right , right .
Speaker 1But you also had said that Topolino's is a good one .
Speaker 2Topolino's was fine , it was all right .
Speaker 1You said it was one of your more favorable .
Speaker 5It was better character dinings it was , it was better not as good as garden grill , though right we'll get to that in a bit okay , we'll get to that in a bit .
Speaker 2All right , my first would you rather , would you rather go to walt disney world for seven days and only go to animal kingdom and not ride rides or do the same except magic kingdom ? So you can only go to either animal kingdom or magic kingdom for seven days , no rides , just relax .
Speaker 5This is very specific for them oh boy , um , this is an easy one .
Speaker 6This is a slam , slam dunk . I'm going to Magic Kingdom because I could just sit and do like Main Street and just walk around and see all the little parts of Magic Kingdom that I just zip right past , usually to go to rides .
Speaker 2I love that answer . That's awesome .
Speaker 6There's so much . Yeah , there's so much .
Speaker 2Definitely yeah , shameless plug here . You know , there's going to be a book that comes out that's going to have all the information I was actually thinking .
Speaker 5I'm like I could take your book and actually do the tour .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , you could do that for sure . Oh , am I going next , uh whoever just chimed in .
Speaker 5Oh boy , you know what I'm going to surprise you . I'm actually going to say animal kingdom . Wow . I'm going to say animal kingdom only because I give Animal Kingdom a very hard time and I have spent so much time in Magic Kingdom . I feel like if I had seven days , no rides , to really dig into Animal Kingdom , I would probably enjoy it a little bit more .
Speaker 2I love it . I love Johnny answer . That's awesome . Take your time in the the magic king . There's so much storytelling there .
Speaker 1There really is and a couple of years ago that might have even been my answer , you know , because I used to really love like sitting around the castle and just taking it all in and and everything . But I would say , you know , just for like no rides , relaxing , observing and stuff . It would probably still be animal kingdom now , just because I know the quiet spots where I would want to be just to chill . But then I also know , you know , where some of my favorite animals are that I could watch for hours if they were out , things like that .
Speaker 2So yeah , I'm going to animal kingdom as well . Magic kingdom is just too . We talk about having to leave the Magic Kingdom during the mid part of the day just to get away from that , and there's a reason for that , it's overwhelming .
Speaker 5Yes , oh yeah , which is why Magic Kingdom is a two-day park .
Speaker 2Soon to be three-day .
Speaker 5Soon to be four .
Speaker 1Yeah , or four yeah .
Speaker 2Yeah , all right .
Speaker 5Erica , what is your number two , would you rather ? All right , my number two , would you rather is would you rather only stay at value resorts for life , or only ?
Speaker 2visit during peak holiday times Value resorts .
Speaker 5Wow , that was a really fast answer Really quick Okay .
Speaker 6I say value too , because I don't care to be at the hotel .
Speaker 2I'm going to be in the parks yeah well , I just don't want to be around 50 000 like , yeah , just it's too much yeah , value , because even though we've enjoyed , like when we have gone to the parties and stuff , it's still just so many people .
Speaker 1Yes , you know , like it's like okay , yeah , we experienced it , but I don't know yeah , I'm good .
Speaker 2So all-star movies made top 10 resort for me wow , yeah , really coming out tomorrow , no , next week , next week well , you're listening to this ahead of that . So last week's episode two weeks , what's up ? Yeah , wow . Is it overwhelming ? Yes , is it relaxing ? No , but it's still a very well themed resort .
Speaker 5I should have been more detailed in my questions . Like you , can only stay at a resort like no park days yeah can't go back and change it now .
Speaker 2Can't go back .
Speaker 6Can't go back I say value as well , unanimous all right , mine's gonna make you , uh , really not like me get the mute button ready .
Speaker 2It's fun .
Speaker 6Would you rather re-theme it's a small world to a marvel ride ? Or would you rather bulldoze the castle for a Star Wars attraction ?
Speaker 2Oh , re-theme it to Small World .
Speaker 6Really .
Speaker 2Easy .
Speaker 6Did you say bulldoze the castle ? Yes , take the castle out and make it into a Star Wars attraction . Why would you even suggest that ? Because this is one , you gotta just kill one .
Speaker 2Oh , get Small World . I have no emotional attachment to small . I get the history , I understand , I get it . But yeah , bulldoze that one or or change it into uh , marvel , I'm good with that yeah , I guess maybe , since it's well disney world it's not the original , original small world .
Speaker 1I'm still fine it's not the best yeah for , for here , for sure , it's a small world , or have some of them be the superheroes from Marvel .
Speaker 5You know , like theme it that way .
Speaker 6Yeah .
Speaker 5Groot was in a small world .
Speaker 6I thought there'd be a little bit more emotional attachment to small world .
Speaker 5No castles .
Speaker 2Now , if you said Carousel of Progress , I might would have a different opinion .
Speaker 5They should just get rid of Carousel of Progress altogether . I I might have a different opinion . They should just get rid of Carousel of Progress altogether .
Speaker 2I see what you're saying I know I'm not going to mute you .
Speaker 6Harsh statements .
Speaker 2Harsh statements here .
Speaker 6Yeah , I guess I'd get rid of Small World too you can't get rid of the castles .
Speaker 5Those are iconic , those are the symbols of the park .
Speaker 6Not all of them , just that one , just Cinderella's Castle . You can't , no , you don't want a giant like Millennium Falcon .
Speaker 2We have one , we have it in Hollywood .
Speaker 4Well , I mean .
Speaker 6All right , something else from Star .
Speaker 2Wars .
Speaker 5Can we get Darth Vader's lair . That actually would be really cool .
Speaker 6Giant Death Star yes , replaced with a Death .
Speaker 2Star , no Darth Vader's lair .
Speaker 6Oh .
Speaker 2I forgot the name of the planet .
Speaker 6I forgot the name of the planet . Is that the lava , the lava planet ?
Speaker 5yeah , That'd be actually pretty cool . Wrong park .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah .
Speaker 5Yeah .
Speaker 1All right , brittany , all right . This one not too tough of a question . It's just which one you would prefer . Would you rather wait one hour for Flight of Passage or one hour for Everest ?
Speaker 2Yes .
Speaker 1You have to pick one .
Speaker 2I'm in for both .
Speaker 1You have to pick one . I'm doing both Like if this was the only one you could ride , and they were both listed at an hour Flight of Passage or Everest .
Speaker 2I have gone on record of saying that Expedition Everest queue is the best in Walt Disney World , so I would be remiss if I didn't choose that one so you're saying , I'm saying everest . Okay , yeah , I can just hang . I can stay in that room in that queue all night , like the room where the cot is . I'll sleep there . I'm good with that . Like I've been in the queue before and people have been up behind me and I'm like just keep , I'm just hanging out .
Speaker 5Interesting . Yeah , I would say Everest as well , because I feel like if you haven't seen Avatar , if you haven't seen any of the Avatar movies , you're not going to fully understand the queue of Flight of .
Speaker 6Passage .
Speaker 5But Expedition Everest , anybody can understand . So I say Expedition Everest .
Speaker 6I like both rides . Everest . Hmm , I like both rides , but I guess the hour for Everest would be better , because it seems like I'm never sitting in it long enough , so I just zip right through that .
Speaker 2Those rooms are so awesome .
Speaker 5Yeah , they're really cool , it is .
Speaker 2It's such detail . All of those artifacts have been used on tracks for exhibition for Everest . Those aren't like fake props . That's the real deal , pretty .
Speaker 1I'm not big on Everest , Sorry guys .
Speaker 6So I'm doing Flight of .
Speaker 1Passage .
Speaker 2And she's muted . I'm kidding . Alright , my last . Would you rather ? Would you rather go to the Magic Kingdom and only be able to ride ? It's a Small World or go to Animal Kingdom and only be able to ride Dinosaur ?
Speaker 5Oh gosh .
Speaker 1I would do Animal Kingdom Dinosaur , if that's all .
Speaker 2Hello .
Speaker 1Oh my goodness .
Speaker 6For the audio only listeners . He has a dinosaur sock puppet .
Speaker 2I have the one that Dr Vigman uses oh my goodness I got it from the store there , of course you did .
Speaker 6I mean , they don't really care for dinosaurs .
Speaker 5We don't care for dinosaur . What was the other one ? Small World ?
Speaker 2Yes .
Speaker 6Dinosaur is more of a thrill ride , so I'd go with that one Nice .
Speaker 5Oh , dinosaur , because it's going to go away soon . Fair enough .
Speaker 1I said dinosaur .
Speaker 2We just have a ton of fun on dinosaur we love it .
Speaker 1I'm going gonna miss it when it's gone . I really am , because the kids have enjoyed it .
Speaker 2Yeah yeah , all right , we are now heading to in or out , erica
In or Out: Disney Park Choices
Speaker 2. What is your first ? Are you in or are you out ?
Speaker 5my first one is are you in or out to watch every nighttime show at every park of your trip , even if that means having to deal with all the crowds leaving at the same time ? Bus only transportation .
Speaker 2So we have to stay in the park .
Speaker 5You have to stay in the park and watch Fantasmic and fireworks and the Epcot fireworks that you love so much .
Speaker 2We're going to talk about that in a bit .
Speaker 5Okay .
Speaker 2You know what I'm gonna be in , because I can wait till after everybody leaves and still get the bus . Okay , I can just hang out which has been our plan to be it .
Speaker 1Since we've been going , we just never do it well , and we've done it before , a few years ago and stuff too , so we used to do it .
Speaker 6So , yeah , I'd be in I'd be in too , especially if I don't have to rope drop in the morning oh come on that's the problem is we go rope drop and it's just go , go , go . We go hard and then by the end of it I'm like I don't care about fireworks .
Speaker 5I've seen fireworks yeah , I'm out especially on our epcot day , because it always rains without fail yeah , it always does for us too and and it's only at Epcot .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 5It's bizarre .
Speaker 2Every trip . Yeah , johnny , what's your first ?
Speaker 6are you in or are you out Doing the four park challenge ? Oh , I'm in Brittany .
Speaker 2I don't know if she knows what the four park challenge is .
Speaker 6So you got to ride a ride , you had to eat a snack and you had to take a picture with a character and the icon of the park .
Speaker 5And we had to do all the modes of transportation .
Speaker 6Oh yeah , that was a little side quest .
Speaker 2It's like bus , boat , skyliner , monorail . I'm out , I'm doing character pictures .
Speaker 6We just have you won .
Speaker 4It's just kind of like proof you're there yeah no , I'm out .
Speaker 2You lost me at characters . I was in until then .
Speaker 1All right , I'm in , I'm in .
Speaker 5I'm in .
Speaker 6I'm out . I've already done it before , but yeah , I'd do it again .
Speaker 5Well , we did it when there was park hopping restrictions . We couldn't park hop until two o'clock , so we were booking it two o'clock so we were booking it .
Speaker 6Yeah , I mean , it's definitely you aren't getting to do everything in the park . So if you've already done all the parks before , it's a fun little thing to see if you could do it all in one day you lost me at characters yeah , sorry britney .
Speaker 2What is your first ? Are you in or are you out ?
Speaker 1I don't think I really did it right to tell you the truth .
Speaker 2Do you want me to go and you want to try to fix it ?
Speaker 1No , you're just going to tell me which you'd prefer in this game .
Speaker 2Okay , well , that's kind of what this is .
Speaker 1I put cinnamon roll and LeFou's brew at Gaston's in Magic Kingdom or school bread and Viking coffee in Norway .
Speaker 2So that's a , would you rather ? So that's Brittany's third . Would you rather , let's ?
Speaker 1just go with it .
Speaker 2I'm in with the school .
Speaker 1Yeah , again . So cinnamon roll in LeFou's brew , or school bread and Viking coffee .
Speaker 2I would only take one bite of the cinnamon roll and then a sip of the lafuse brew because it is way too sweet for me . But the school bread I do not like I say neither yeah , yeah , did we like the cinnamon roll .
Speaker 6We did not like the cinnamon roll and that's hard because , yeah , cinnamon rolls are um I mess up .
Speaker 5I like the gray stuff cupcake that's there , the LeFou's brew it's way too sweet . It is too sweet , I hate to say , because I love sugar and sugary treats but yeah , it's way too sweet . But I don't do coconut so I can't do the school bread . Okay .
Speaker 1Yeah , for me , I was going to choose school bread and Viking coffee . I'm not huge on the school bread , but it's good . It's just not my favorite , um . And then the viking coffee was really delicious when I just had it .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah all right , my first one . Bob eiger has stated that all new attractions will only be disney ip based . No non-ip attractions will be built . Are you in or are you out on this ?
Speaker 6I'm 100% out .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 6I'm out . I'm sorry , I don't need a ride for every movie that comes out . Or yeah , it used to be the other way around , right , they'd build an attraction and Pirates of the Caribbean , then they made a franchise about it , yeah .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 6Yeah .
Speaker 5I'm in .
Speaker 2You're in On all IP Okay .
Speaker 5I'm in on all IP only because the IP is what everybody knows of Disney . Okay , so you're going to a Disney park . You want like the feel good , feels , Like . I think that's why we reminisce about like the old times and everything , because we grew up on like Disney , like original Disney Channel and everything , and we have like those rides from our era and everything . So I'm all in .
Speaker 1Yes , bring it , yeah , and I'm like I'm 50-50 , really , because I get both sides completely stuff like this in prior episodes . I'm always like , yeah , but you have to think what . You know , what's currently popular , what's going to keep the younger families going , and even though I may not personally want everything to be IP , that's what's going to keep them going , you know , and it doesn't necessarily have to be like every movie that comes out , but you know the more popular ones . For sure , like initially , the first time I watched Encanto , I wasn't huge on it . Then the more popular ones . For sure , like initially , the first time I watched incanto I wasn't huge on it . Then the more I watched it I was . And now it is kind of exciting that they're going to do something like that in animal kingdom , you know , because so many people loved that movie . So that's going to bring more people to see it .
Speaker 2I'm out um I I do like that they have a lot of the ip attractions . I blame universal , though oh yeah I blame universal because , all their stuff is ip focused right and they're they're .
Speaker 2They're competing with universal right now . That's what this is all about . But I'll go back and look haunted mansion , pirates of the caribbean People , mover Expedition , everest Dinosaur , jungle Cruise , jungle Cruise All this stuff , great Big Thunder Mountain , the Society of Explorers and Adventurers , all that storytelling All of that's going to be gone now . No new stuff will be original storytelling and they did such an amazing job with that and that's what I know . They're not catering to me anymore , but that is why I have loved these parks so much Test track , living with the land , all this original storytelling they're not going to have that anymore .
Speaker 5Do you think that the Imagineers peaked ?
Speaker 2I think this is my honest opinion . I think they always had these great ideas and then they just kept telling nope , nope , nope . And then most of them because I follow a lot of them on twitter and instagram they've gone on to start their own businesses . They've left disney to start their own businesses and do their own creative thing . Could you imagine a Joe Rohde in this Disney environment now ?
Speaker 5Oh man what .
Speaker 2Animal Kingdom would have looked like . Yeah , could you imagine ? Yeah , that's yeah , that's tough . He was such a , you know , or Tony Baxter , or oh name any ex-famous Imagineers you know x bob ger , bob ger .
Speaker 2Yeah , hmm , just , but just all that creativityness . Creativeness , you know . I'm trying to say here yes , that's gone . Now it's like , hey , just come up with a side story for cars and that's essentially what it is right , and we're going to blend that into frontierland or tiana's replacing splash mountain , which I get , but it my problem is it does not tie into the story of frontierland I agree with that that's my problem with it . If they turn that little corner there into like well , the same at disneyland .
Speaker 1It doesn't fit with Critter Country right granted it is close to like New Orleans Square , but it's not in New Orleans Square , it's .
Speaker 5It's in Critter Country . She deserved her own space . Yeah , and I .
Speaker 2I completely agree . And what made Splash Mountain work ? No , it was not Wild West 1800s , it was post-civil war south 1800s . But the way they blended the attraction into the area , they were still able to tell that story . Yes , and I think Tiana deserves not much more than just a rethemed attraction . I think she deserves her own thing .
Speaker 5She needed something new .
Speaker 2Yeah , and I've been saying this since day one Turn Paddlefish into Tiana's place they have that at disneyland . I'm just saying but no like the the paddlefish restaurant yeah , and have everything there character dining the food , like make it the real tiana's place on the paddlefish .
Speaker 5I think that would be that's actually a really good idea , yeah disney contact me yeah so , yeah , I'm passionate about that , as you can tell .
Speaker 2Right , you know , like I would have never guessed two hours later all right moving on hours later . Yes , johnny , what is your number two ? Are you in or are you out ?
Speaker 5wait . Did I go or do you wait ? You go ?
Speaker 6did you just go ? No , he just went right .
Speaker 2No , okay yes , okay , sorry , number two okay , uh , number two .
Speaker 5Um , are you in or out , spending your entire day at epcot without writing a single ride in , without writing a , without writing a single ride ?
Speaker 2and 100 , I can walk around world showcase . Give me a beer in my hand , I can go sit with walt in the dreamers . I can just go and listen to that music and just chill , hang out .
Speaker 1Give me a snack , give me a drink like you're , but we're there from open to close . I'm good , I'm fine , like all day .
Speaker 2Yeah , I'm fine , I can eat . Early entry to close . I'm fine , I can eat , I can snack , I can go to the restaurant , I can chill , I'm down , I'm in 100 open to close .
Speaker 1I don't think I could for several hours ? Yes , because we do that , but oh , I'm in but I I mean , like I love Soarin' , I love Remy's , you know , even though it's the same thing every time , I still love Spaceship Earth , you know . So , yes , we spend several hours on the World Showcase side , but it's after we've done several rides too .
Speaker 2I can , I'm in 100% . I'm out , I'm out , you know the food Like I could .
Speaker 6obviously the food there's pretty good , but yeah , I'm not going to just sit there and look at the giant golf ball and not go in it . It would be too heartbreaking .
Speaker 5I'm out , I'm out . There's no way , I'm going to Epcot and not going on Cosmic Rewind .
Speaker 2There's no way . Okay , there's no way .
Speaker 4Ain't no way .
Speaker 2Welcome to the South All right .
Speaker 6Enter you out . Staying off property at Walt Disney World Out .
Speaker 5No , why ? Okay , wait a second . Let me , okay , wait . Caveat , it's the four seasons . Fine , I'm out .
Speaker 2I'm out . I'm out . We stayed at the Dolphin and on our . We just talked about this a lot On the previous episode . Yeah , I know that's considered On property still , but it felt like and I said this before it's like you're invited To the cool kids party but no one talks to you . Yeah , because you're , and this was even on property . Yeah , and it was a non-Disney theme , it wasn't . No , and this was even on property .
Speaker 1Yeah , and it was a non-Disney theme . It wasn't no . I couldn't even imagine staying off property . It was a very nice resort , but it just felt like other Marriott's we've been in .
Speaker 2You know , it felt like you were miles away from the Disney stuff ?
Speaker 6I'm out 100% . Do they have bus and stuff that goes to the parks ? They do , yes .
Speaker 1Yeah , although like Magic Kingdom and stuff , they don't take you to the bus depot .
Speaker 2I'm out . Yeah , no , unless it's the four seasons .
Speaker 6We've literally never stayed off property .
Speaker 5Because it's that amazing . And there's so many benefits . Come on , we don't have to drive , we don't have to do anything really .
Speaker 6All right .
Speaker 5All inclusive , especially with the dining plan now .
Speaker 6All right , I'm out . Okay , everybody's out .
Speaker 1Out with the dining plan now . All right , I'm out , okay , everybody's out . Out . All right , britney ? Well , again , I didn't do this right . So when y'all are laughing at johnny earlier , I'm like , oh , I think I messed up , so , um , okay . So it's a rainy day . You need a poncho or a raincoat all day long in hollywood studios are you a row Would ? You be , would you it's ? A would you rather so would you rather do that or a 110 degree day in Hollywood studios ?
Speaker 2Oh , put my rain jacket on . I'm going to town . Yeah , I'm good , I'm fine with rain .
Speaker 6I got my Crocs on , I'm good .
Speaker 5It's 110 degrees with a poncho on .
Speaker 2Yeah , I'm good with the rain , but rainy or just miserably hot in 110 degrees .
Speaker 5Rain , I'll take rain .
Speaker 2Rain .
Speaker 5Rain , yeah , rain we have good raincoats .
Speaker 4I'm good .
Speaker 6Yeah , we always pack our ponchos and we bring our Crocs with us .
Speaker 2Yeah , all right . Are you in or are you out ? The 24-hour coast-to to coast mountain challenge starting in disneyland yes , one million percent yes not even sure what it is , but I'm in . Okay , I'll explain it starting in disneyland . Okay , you got to ride . Uh , we're gonna all the mountains , we have to do big thunder matterhorn we're gonna have tianas in space space mountain all right , and then splash mountain formerly splash mountain and then fly , take a red eye uh-huh and then do tianas , big thunder , space and expedition everest .
Speaker 1Yeah , I'm in in 24 hours , yeah yes yes , britney even though I don't like everest , I'm in , you're in , I'm in I've wanted to do this for a long time yes , I he is .
Speaker 2I think this would be something . I know it's going to be exhausting and you'll be tired , but I think it's something that would be fun to do , you know 2026 .
Speaker 6It's like the Amazing Race , but only in Disney .
Speaker 2Yeah , I think that would be a fun trip . That would be really fun .
Speaker 5That would be really fun to do , actually , okay , yeah .
Speaker 2You could take two days and do that .
Speaker 5Yes , yeah .
Speaker 2That would be really fun .
Speaker 5It would be exhausting , but you know , okay , good stories .
Speaker 2All right , we're going to go to questions now and everybody's going to have their own answer . Number one we'll start with Erica and go around . What is your most underrated resort in Waltalt disney world ?
Speaker 5disney's port orleans resort , french quarter okay , please explain beignets beignets .
Speaker 5That's all you need . Okay , I feel like as a moderate it I think it gets overshadowed by like caribbean beach and coronado and especially with having riverside right next door , like you have so many opportunities for more dining and shared amenities and everything and it's smaller than riverside . And there's beignets in two places there and I actually love their quick service . They have like the best shrimp and grits that I've ever had in my life at that quick service at french quarter . So I say french quarter johnny .
Speaker 6I mean I don't really know if it's underrated , but I'm going to say Pop Century , just because Skyliner Food Court actually has some pretty good food and it's a value . So you know , you don't have to break the bank . You get to Hollywood Studios and Epcot pretty easy on the Skyliner , and then that's my favorite part .
Speaker 2Brittany .
Speaker 1So I put Port Orleans Riverside oh , wow yes , because , because I feel like I think like both the Port Orleans resorts don't get enough credit , you know , like I haven't stayed at French Quarter , stayed at Riverside , um , but you just don't really hear a lot about those resorts , I feel , and they do have so much to offer , like the food court at Riverside had some really good food like jambalaya and gumbo , you know , and um the like carriage rides that they offer , like later in the evening , just really yeah and yes , um it just I don't know .
Speaker 1I think they the theming and everything is definitely on par , but it's not like disney in your face you know , but it makes you really feel like you're you know , and down south you know , um , and yeah , I just I don't know . I think that you just don't hear a lot about it because , like you said , you hear more about caribbean beach . Yeah .
Speaker 2I'm going Saratoga Springs . Wow , okay , we stayed here on our first trip and maybe because I'm looking back at that nostalgically , but I thought it was very peaceful , very relaxing . The rooms are a lot larger , the theming isn't in your face and it's a good location next to Disney Springs if that's what you want to do . But I don't hear anybody talk about it none of the youtubers , none of the , the , the , you know more popular social media people . Nobody talks about saratoga springs and I think it's a great resort it is , I'll give it .
Speaker 5Yeah , I'll give it that .
Speaker 2Well , because it's gbc right , but you can still stay there . You can still stay there . Yeah , you can 90 of the yeah , you can . 90% of the resorts are .
Speaker 5GBC . Yeah , that's , true , or maybe exactly .
Speaker 6With more coming too .
Speaker 5So , yeah , yeah , I can see that .
Speaker 6Yeah , I don't think I've ever been there .
Speaker 5No , We've only gone over to that area for well , we together have only gone over to that area . So you haven't been to Old Key West either I want to go there .
Speaker 6Yeah , there's a couple resorts I haven't actually been on property in . Yeah .
Speaker 2All right , most
Disney Parks Q&A Session
Speaker 2overrated resort in Walt Disney World .
Speaker 5Johnny , you can go first . Oh yeah .
Speaker 6I'm going to say Pauly for 100 Alex . Just I grew up in a house with wood paneling , so it just feels outdated to me . Like this Hawaiian seventies tiki thing and it just I don't know if I have flashbacks of a wood paneled house or whatever , but I go in there and I'm just like I don't really care to be here .
Speaker 2Okay .
Speaker 6That's a bold answer . Yeah .
Speaker 5I almost said Polly Okay . Um , I actually say Polly , okay , I actually say contemporary . Oh , wow .
Speaker 5Okay . I say contemporary only because if you wanted to be close to Magic Kingdom , I would 100% say go to Polly . However , contemporary to me does not make sense , and I don't care for the Incredibles retheming that . They did it . Just I feel like it's missing something and they don't have a good pool either . At contemporary it just feels like an airport terminal yeah , it's , it's missing something and it just doesn't make sense to me and I just unless you're , of course you're in like a theme park view room right that's like the only reason .
Speaker 5Okay , stay there . In my opinion .
Speaker 1Right Brittany , yeah , grand Floridian .
Speaker 5Oh wow , the Montreal Resorts .
Speaker 1I mean , yes , it's grand , it's beautiful , but Out of the two grands , grand Californian in Disneyland is by far way better than Grand Floridian because of the theming and everything and it's bougie , but it's not like bougie in your face where you feel out of place there if you're not like super rich . Where .
Speaker 1Grand Floridian . I mean like even the gift shop . I'm like OK , can't really afford too much in here . You know , again it's nice . Okay , can't really afford too much in here , again it's nice . But I just I don't know , I don't know , I just feel like it's overrated for the rooms that you get and stuff too . I mean , the rooms were all right , but they weren't my favorite .
Speaker 2It was just almost too crisp . I guess you could say Grand Floridian for me as well . Wow , and it's because you're paying and I'm just going to say price right now . What do we pay ? $950 a night when we stayed here , but it was at Christmas time too . Okay , but still you're paying . What is the average price of somebody staying at Grand Floridian ?
Speaker 5You price this stuff out all the time . That is a very loaded question because it depends on the type of year , and are there promos ? And how many people and what room category are we talking ? Are we talking ? It's just , it's very hard .
Speaker 2But you're looking seven to nine hundred At minimum Minimum Right .
Speaker 1And ours was on a little bit of the higher end because it was Christmas yeah .
Speaker 2But what are you getting extra for that money ? That's what I look at right . You're not getting , as opposed to the Polynesian . You're getting the monorail right , the pool's nice , you have nicer restaurants , but you have to pay extra for that . What am I paying ? An additional $200 to $250 to stay here over the Polynesian Because it's the flagship ? Yes , that's it , but that's just because that's all you're paying for and I plus I feel too .
Speaker 5I think this is gonna be a hot take . I'm gonna get in trouble for this one . Um , I think disney kind of shot themselves in the foot this year specifically , um , because they are not doing the gingerbread house in the lobby . They're not no , because they are building a bar in the lobby . So there will be no gingerbread house in the lobby this Christmas season and I think that was a terrible idea .
Speaker 2Yeah , it was a terrible idea Because we saw the construction of it or where the walls were . I'm like this just takes so much . What is that adding to that place ? Nothing .
Speaker 5There's a bar right up on the second floor . It's called the Enchanted Rose . You , there's a bar right up on the second floor . It's called the . Enchanted .
Speaker 2Rose , you can go to the pool bar .
Speaker 5It's beautiful . There's many places to get a drink there . It was unnecessary .
Speaker 2The Enchanted Rose fits there 100% .
Speaker 5It's a beautiful place .
Speaker 2Yes , I don't understand that . Is it a ?
Speaker 6permanent bar .
Speaker 2Yes , oh .
Speaker 6So they're probably never going to have the gingerbread .
Speaker 2Don't say that , don't put that out there and they're in .
Speaker 6Why , would you say , is it in the same spot ? No , it's where the bird cage used to be .
Speaker 2Yeah , so it's just construction which I could care less about the bird cage , but yeah yeah , and I feel like there's just been so much construction . It's just ongoing at grand floridian right now I feel like you're just paying the extra money to say you stay at the grand floridian yeah , I would say , if you wanted to do that , do a split stay yeah and start at the grand floridian and then , like , move to animal kingdom lodge or wilderness lodge , stay in the deluxe category to have the deluxe benefits .
Speaker 2But yeah , it's , it's unnecessary yeah , yeah , all right , number three . What is your ? What do you think is the best quick service restaurant in Walt Disney World ?
Speaker 5Erica . Okay , so this is where I got a little tripped up , Because are we talking resorts or are we talking parks In Walt ?
Speaker 2Disney World , because I have one for each .
Speaker 1So like anywhere .
Speaker 5Just in property , oh that's even harder .
Speaker 2Okay , you can do one for each .
Speaker 5Resorts .
Speaker 2Okay .
Speaker 5Primo Piatto at Riviera we have yet to eat there . I go out of my way to go to Riviera and eat at that quick service , as well as Bar Riva , their pool bar next door and the Riviera signature cookie box . Is worth getting on the skyline or getting on a bus and going to Riviera for just for a little box of cookies , because they are not super sweet . So you guys would like them and they're way better than Gideon's For Parks .
Speaker 2ABC Commissary at Hollywood Studios . That's a good , very good one . It is a good one . It's a very good one . You want to care to expand on ABC .
Speaker 5Commissary , buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwich .
Speaker 2I don't have the applause on the sound pad anymore .
Speaker 5But nice , it is good , it is delicious and the fish tacos 100 carnitas tacos are good too they are good yeah johnny .
Speaker 6Um , for me , I did connections eatery nice , epcot that that it's called the french bistro burger . It's a good burger , isn't it ? It's a good burger . Um , there's always plenty of seating , air-conditioned , it's not like super hectic .
Speaker 1Except the day we went . Well , when ?
Speaker 6we went , it wasn't hectic . Maybe we were like an hour before or after lunch or something Maybe . But we just sat there and enjoyed the air-conditioning and the food was good . I love the music in there too . Yeah , yeah no , that's a good one Location . It's away from World Showcase , right by Guardians .
Speaker 1And you get a lot of food too . Yes , yeah .
Speaker 2You do get a lot , and this is a higher level than your regular quick service restaurant .
Speaker 6Mm-hmm .
Speaker 2But it's still quick service . Yeah yeah , that's a good one , brittany .
Speaker 1So you said on property . So I picked one in Disney Springs . Okay , okay , polite Pig .
Speaker 2Wow Okay , best quick service yeah .
Speaker 1Just the amount of food you get . I'm usually even though the rest of my family is big on barbecue I'm usually not , but everything here was delicious and it was quick service . But it also didn't feel like quick service . Yeah , yeah , and yeah , the food was just really really good . Um , I think we definitely got our money's worth with the dining plan there and all of that .
Speaker 2So definitely , yeah should be no surprise to anybody here gosh satouli canteen , and , yeah , the atmosphere here is is probably one of the best quick service atmospheres you can get . The cheeseburger pods yes , they're just cheeseburger pods , but there's just something to eating a cheeseburger pod and having a hawk's grog ale in that environment , with the music and that theme . It's just awesome . And then the but the variety of food you can get here , though .
Speaker 6The bowls are good .
Speaker 2You do have some very healthy options here , erica . Just let it out . Just let it out , just let it out .
Speaker 5I'll save it .
Speaker 2We've got more coming . We've got more coming . Oh , I know where you're going .
Speaker 1I just realized Go ahead .
Speaker 2Erica , what is the worst quick service restaurant on property ?
Speaker 1I have two go ahead no , don't mute her cosmic rays I don't disagree with you on that and satouli canteen .
Speaker 2Hey , stop muting her oh , I hit my computer , you have have I get cosmic rays . It's just burgers .
Speaker 6I get that . It's burgers and it's always crowded . I love Sunny Eclipse though .
Speaker 1He's outdated . I'm sorry .
Speaker 6He belongs at Chuck E Cheese oh yikes , now you're muted .
Speaker 4Wow .
Speaker 5Bunny Trail . Did you see that ? Chuck E Cheese ? Oh man , here we go . I'm muted too . Stop . Chuck E Cheese is starting an adult restaurant chain .
Speaker 6Oh no , really .
Speaker 4Yeah , yes .
Speaker 6That's going to be creepy .
Speaker 4Yeah .
Speaker 5Maybe he'll end up there , maybe he'll retire there .
Speaker 2Okay , maybe , okay , please , here we go . No , you have to elaborate .
Speaker 5No , no , move on , you got to elaborate . What don't you like about Satouli Canteen ? I don't like the menu . It's a me problem , I don't care for anything on the menu , and Cosmic Ray's is just . It's not good to me . I'll go to Casey's Corner I get it .
Speaker 2No , I get it . But did you know Cosmic Ray's is the most visited restaurant in the country ?
Speaker 5Yes , I did know that , because you mentioned that on a prior podcast .
Speaker 6Yes , yes , it's because there's no other good options .
Speaker 2Well , it's just , it's right there , everybody's there .
Speaker 1It's just , and I think , because you get the burgers and the chicken tender , this is basic burger , right ?
Speaker 6Yeah , I think they could definitely use another quick service . Option in Tomorrowland yeah . Option in Tomorrowland yeah , just because of the traffic .
Speaker 2So , johnny , what do you think is the worst ? Quick service restaurant .
Speaker 6I said the Friar's Nook at Magic Kingdom . It's in Fantasyland , it's just , the menu is like very select . I think it's like for lunch . It's like hot dogs and some sort of tater tot thing .
Speaker 2They're usually like specialty things .
Speaker 6Yeah , the food just wasn't good . There's really like no seating . There's like maybe four or five seats , like , and where it is located like they just need it needs to be bigger , with a bigger menu , because there's so much traffic there but do you think they put the worst food there ?
Speaker 2because they they're they thinking oh , this is the most trafficked area .
Speaker 6People's gonna come here no matter what I , I don't know , I don't know , yeah , I I we've never , actually we've never eaten there .
Speaker 5To be honest with you , because it's always just like it's , oh , it's like chili and cheese , corn dog or chili and cheese tater tots and it's like I'm not gonna eat that , I'm just yeah like I'll get stuff like that at Sonic , but not .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , okay , that's a good one . You're not missing much , yeah , brittany .
Speaker 1It's a Magic Kingdom Pecos bill .
Speaker 5Okay .
Speaker 1I agree with that . Yeah , yes , we've only been there one time and it wasn't like awful , but I kind of expected more at the same time , because I was like , really , how can you do tacos wrong ? I don't know it was but they did . Yeah , it just wasn't very tasty , like I was just telling myself okay , we paid this much for it , I need to eat a little more , kind of thing , you know .
Speaker 2I I love the theming in here . I actually write about it extensively in my book . However , yeah , the food is not good . And then they they've changed the menu again . Oh really , yeah , it's not even like tacos anymore , it's just like fajitas .
Speaker 5Still not great yeah .
Speaker 2I love the theming here . I love beautifully how Pecos Bill transitions Adventureland and Frontierland together because you get the Caribbean caribbean like the spanish caribbean theming coming from adventure land , blending perfectly into the southwestern uh , mexican theming of the southwest , like it blends perfectly . And that's going back to the old imagineering stuff I love that yeah um , yeah , I didn't , I wasn't impressed with it , me and and Ryan went again a couple years ago and we were like eh .
Speaker 1Yeah . No .
Speaker 2My worst quick service is Pinocchio's Village House . Oh my gosh , staying in Magic Kingdom , wow .
Speaker 6Yeah .
Speaker 5Magic Kingdom's striking out . Not surprising though . Yeah yeah , Magic Kingdom does not have good food .
Speaker 2It's the worst park for food . Yeah , unfortunately it's just .
Speaker 5For now high hopes , I'm not .
Speaker 2I have high hopes , but it's just flatbread and it's worse than rat pizza . I'm sorry to say it , I don't know if I get it that far .
Speaker 6Rat pizza's amazing Well everything's worse than rat pizza , because rat pizza's so good , it's so good yes , no , I think Pizzafari's worse than this .
Speaker 2It's the same pizza I don't know .
Speaker 1No , I think Pizzafari is worse than this .
Speaker 2It's the same pizza , I don't know . No , no , the Pizzafari , it's just a puffy pizza . I think it's a puffy pizza over going to Pinocchio Village House .
Speaker 6Flat bread . Yeah , it's just not good .
Speaker 2All right , so we're going to go to what is the best sit-down restaurant in Walt Disney World . Erica , what do you think is the best ?
Speaker 5So again , I have one for resort and one for parks . Okay , that's fine For resorts . I have Ale Compass Restaurant at Yacht Club .
Speaker 2I'm sad we did not go there . It's amazing what were you giving me the eye look for .
Speaker 5And for parks making a comeback in Magic Kingdom . Skipper Canteen . Oh , that is good yes yes please elaborate um , ale and compass has my the best meal I've ever had on property at a sit down and it's funny because I don't usually like pot pies and this was a seafood pot pie and it was just so flavorful and so well done . I I think it was what like three years ago we went there for the first time yeah I still dream about that meal it was that good .
Speaker 5Um , skipper canteen and magic kingdom . There are so many good amazing sit-down restaurants that are in all the parks across property , but there's something different about skipper canteen because of the storytelling okay , there's so many little hidden gems and , like the , I feel like the cast members are so just on a different level at skipper canteen . Every cast member that I've encountered there has just been super into their role and super friendly , super nice . I've never had any issues there and and the food is really really good . It tastes like chicken because it is , yes , it's just really good .
Speaker 2Johnny .
Speaker 6Mine was the Yachtsman Steakhouse , another one we wanted to go to At Yacht Club .
Speaker 5Yeah , at Yacht .
Speaker 6Club . It's just a high-end steakhouse , you get you know the service is great , the food is great . It high-end steakhouse , you get you know the service is great , the food is great . Um , it just was a really good meal and maybe it was .
Speaker 5Was it for my birthday ?
Speaker 6or yeah , it was your birthday , you know , maybe it was just special because it was the two of us , but it was a really good meal and I yeah , I liked it .
Speaker 1Okay , okay , britney all right , so I put two . Okay , summer House on the Lake .
Speaker 2It was very delicious .
Speaker 1It was very delicious and just the theming around it and everything very , very , very good . And I put Geyser Point .
Speaker 5Oh yeah .
Speaker 2Excellent choice .
Speaker 1Yes , excellent choice , because again the theming , the views you have there , the food , it was just yeah . It was a great experience as well .
Speaker 2Geyser Point is the most confused restaurant in Walt Disney World . For sure , it's a sit-down , it's a quick service , it's a lounge and it's a pool bar .
Speaker 5Pool bar .
Speaker 2Yeah , and it's amazing at all of them . Yes , yeah , I agree , I was torn on this one because there are so many great options , but when it came down to it , I kept asking myself what do I always go back and talk about ? And there was only one answer Skipper Canteen .
Speaker 5Wow , we agree , skipper .
Speaker 2Canteen bringing some hope back to the Magic Kingdom for food . Skipper Canteen bringing some hope back to the Magic Kingdom for food . I think it's also the most underrated restaurant in all of Walt Disney World as well the food you talked about is delicious .
Speaker 2It is so good . It tastes like chicken because it is chicken , maybe the best piece of chicken I've ever had in my entire life . The theming here , like you said , on point , the cast members are on point . The storytelling here , the wall of China . You know that . Yes , yes , so awesome . I think this is the best restaurant food . Just overall experience Overall experience , and it's a sleeper .
Speaker 1Yes .
Speaker 4It's a big , it's a sleeper , yeah .
Speaker 1Well , and I wish we had gotten a chance to experience it even more at this point yes you know . But I think the menu initially when we , when our kids were younger , kind of threw us off a little bit .
Speaker 1But don't do that like if you're listening and you have younger kids because they they make exceptions , you know like you know they can do just French fries and things like that , you know for the little . So don't let that menu like scare you away . You know , and yeah , like I enjoyed it when we were there and you know one of the appetizers , the ponte cacio . That's Ponte cacio , thank you , that's my aunt or my sister-in-law .
Speaker 2I'm sorry .
Speaker 1That you know it's not on the menu , but they tell you about it once you sit down . And it was delicious . It's so good yeah .
Speaker 2Oh yeah , all right . So do you want to shamelessly plug yourself , or you want to hear us talk about you recorded it .
Speaker 5You can play that one .
Speaker 2Okay , we're going . Planning a Disney vacation can be overwhelming , but that's where our new sponsor comes in . You've heard us talk about her for a long time and now she's the official sponsor of this podcast , travel planner Erica with Wishes Co Travel Planning . As a travel planner specializing in Disney destinations , she takes care of every detail , from finding the best resort options for your family booking , dining reservations to park strategies and now offers a special , lightning-ling booking service to your park days . She truly offers top-tier service from start to finish , and the best part is her planning services are free when you book your room and ticket package with her .
Speaker 1We're thrilled to have Travel Planner Erica as the official sponsor of this podcast , and exclusively for Circle of Parks listeners . When you plan your next Walt Disney World or Disneyland vacation or your next run Disney racecation with Erica , you'll receive a Disney gift card based on the value of your trip on your arrival day to put towards your Disney snacks .
Speaker 2So if you're dreaming of a magical Disney trip , she's the expert you want , on your side , ready to plan . Reach out to Erica at TravelPlannerEricacom or follow her on Facebook and Instagram at TravelPlannerErica . She's amazing .
Speaker 5She is awesome , she does it all she sounds familiar .
Speaker 2All right . So what is the worst sit down restaurant ? Mine was an easy one .
Speaker 5I had a hard time . I didn't .
Speaker 6I didn't . I had a hard time .
Speaker 5For resorts . I hate to say it , but Ohana , I would have said that , yeah , ohana , at the resorts and for parks Hollywood , brown , derby . All right , they did me dirty and there's just no coming back from it , okay . Yeah .
Speaker 6Yeah , I went with Ohana for breakfast , if you don't know . We had a terrible experience , terrible . I've never ever written a Yelp review or emailed a company to complain . I just will never go back . But I actually emailed Disney about it because it was so bad . Yeah , I understandney did the right thing .
Speaker 5They actually they made it better . It was good .
Speaker 1Yeah , good to hear , but yeah , I'm not going back to a hunter for breakfast all right , britney all right , um I put the edison all right oh .
Speaker 1So I mean , the food was okay , but definitely overpriced and definitely yeah just I don't know like they were trying to make things bougier than it needed to be . I mean , like the theming there , the decor , the bar area and stuff seemed really cool , but the food itself like it was just kind of like a lit down it'd be a great place to go have a drink yeah , but that's in like an appetizer or something that's where the bacon on the wire is .
Speaker 5Huh , yes , okay , yeah , but even that wasn't that great like a presentation okay , but other than that , yeah , okay going stk steakhouse I knew , I had a feeling you were gonna say that .
Speaker 2So if you want to go to a , no , it was not if you want to go to a nightclub and go . Oh , you know what's missing here a steak .
Speaker 1That's what this is that's what this is it would be good , though , like if you're younger or the stories you've told me from back in the day before we met but you know , I've never been in a nightclub or a bar and go .
Speaker 2You know what I want a good steak right now .
Speaker 6That's what I want I've never said that big old steak meal yeah , I mean the food .
Speaker 1I don't know , the food's good . It was okay , but it is . It is loud in a party scene , yeah no , all right , best character dining erica topolino's terrace for breakfast all right .
Speaker 5It's just very unique in the menu . Yeah , it's regular breakfast food . However , it's just so much nicer the sour cream waffles , I'm telling you , don't let the name fool you , and the characters in their artist costumes . It's just . You just have to experience it . I don't want to ruin it for anybody , but great views outside as well . It's just really , really nice .
Speaker 2I did do a Disney trivia with Mickey at Topolino's Terrace .
Speaker 5He's the best .
Speaker 6Johnny , I also said Topolino's Terrace . It's away from the parks , so you don't feel as rushed , you just enjoy it . The food was really really good , really good . Yeah , and there was no shortage . There was quite a few characters there's four , yeah they came around quite often so you didn't .
Speaker 1It wasn't like ohana where they came around real quick and left yes pretty uh , I will also say topolino's at riviera wow , okay I just I think it comes down to like the way they're dressed . Minnie's outfit , oh yeah , oh , many , many , many many . She just is so cute in her outfit there and , yes , it is more relaxed . The food , you know , I didn't realize you got like those pastries at the beginning too , so that was a nice surprise . And then I had the quiche and it was very good .
Speaker 5I have had the quiche . It was good yes .
Speaker 2I always think of Robin Williams' comedy special .
Speaker 5On quiche . You call this quiche .
Speaker 2Sorry , I said the Garden Grill .
Speaker 5I knew it , of course .
Speaker 2For one reason and one reason only there's a buffer between me and the characters . I can sit in the back of the booth , plus . I mean you're you're seeing living with the land . Yes , come on . Yeah , that's definitely a bonus . Where can you go wrong ? Is the food great ? Yeah , it's . I mean it's , it's your basic disney food yes , so but yeah , I get a buffer between the table and the characters . That's what I like about it .
Speaker 5Fair , that's fair .
Speaker 2Alright , best snack Erica .
Speaker 5This one was a tough one .
Speaker 2It's a tough one . I have so many . I said Churros and Magic Kingdom , absolutely not no .
Speaker 6Where's my no button at ? Oh man , you left it at home . You should have brought it Dang it .
Speaker 5No , where's my no button at ? Oh man , you left it at home . You should have brought it . Dang it Okay . Best snack for me is the Mickey chocolate cookie sandwich in the Germany Pavilion at Epcot in Caramel Cushy .
Speaker 6Nice , the Werther's store .
Speaker 5Yes , there is a special seasonal one as well , for Christmas , and it's the gingerbread cookie sandwich . It's fantastic , it's so good . I will , but this Mickey chocolate cookie sandwich I will get every trip okay , johnny , mine's a little bit more basic .
Speaker 6You get it at all the parks pretty much . Oh gosh a warm Mickey pretzel with cheese .
Speaker 2I like it . It's gotta be warm . Sometimes it's you got to be just bread and cheese .
Speaker 6You know it hits the spot yeah get you through to the next meal . I get it I have three .
Speaker 1Oh my gosh . So , uh , I couldn't think of the name of the place in disneyland that has the meat skewers .
Speaker 2Oh , a bengal barbecue why can't we get one of those in badger ?
Speaker 5kingdom . No , that needs to stay in california there's plenty of room .
Speaker 2Uh , where across from ? Why am I going in adventureland ?
Speaker 5across from aloha aisle .
Speaker 2Yes , that little nook right there , because a lot does not meet people anymore .
Speaker 3It's very rare yeah , put it there , yeah well , you guys have skipper canteens instead .
Speaker 5That's true . Fair point the bar is coming , the tavern yeah , fair enough . Okay , fair enough .
Speaker 1But yeah , so the meat skewers there in Magic Kingdom , the Dole Whip Swirl that I love , the coconut and pineapple together , oh , it's just a whole other level . And then Nomad Lounge , churros . Oh man . They were good .
Speaker 2They were good . They were good , they're fine . Okay , I'm staying basic .
Speaker 1Like johnny , you can get this anywhere , just your mickey premium bar .
Speaker 2Yeah , really , yeah , okay , look , I'm not a dessert . I'm like it . I'm not a big dessert and sweet person , right , that's true , but you know sometimes you just want to make it premium .
Speaker 6I get one every day you know , it's just no little ice cream , you know , yeah cool , you know yeah all right , now we're getting into the meat and potatoes of these questions .
Speaker 2Erica , rank the parks in walt , disney world and disneyland from worst to best easy okay , animal kingdom okay he's the worst , is the worst , worst yeah worst to best okay
Speaker 5animal kingdom okay magic kingdom okay , hollywood studios , epcot , dca , disneyland okay , I'm not biased or anything .
Speaker 6No , johnny so mine is based upon how the parks are right now , like closures and everything Okay . So if I was to go to the parks now , how I would rank them ? Okay . Animal Kingdom , Epcot I don't want to walk around that much Magic Kingdom , Hollywood Studios , DCA , Disneyland Not biased at all Okay .
Speaker 1So mine's mixed up a little bit Magic Kingdom , hollywood Studios , disneyland , epcot , dca , animal Kingdom wow my heart .
Speaker 6I'm surprised DCA got so high . Wow , I just DCA , because Cars Land . Wow , I just Cars land , dca because Cars land .
Speaker 1It's special with the boys , especially Ryan . Yeah , you know . And I mean they just did Such a great job Theming it and when you're there , when they turn the neon lights .
Speaker 6On , and everything too , yes .
Speaker 1And I mean I'm 40 years old and Lightning McQueen's Driving down the road .
Speaker 2I'm like Lightning McQueen Well years old and lightning mcqueen's driving down the road . I'm like bigger news . She just admitted for the first time how old she is .
Speaker 1Yes , she's been 39 for four years welcome to the club thank you , so yes just recently turned 40 but , but yeah , but no but yeah , dA , mainly because of Cars Land for it to be number two . Yeah .
Speaker 2All right , I'm going worst to best . Magic Kingdom Epcot .
Speaker 1Epcot's down there for you really Okay .
Speaker 2Hollywood . I've been enjoying Hollywood Studios more than Epcot lately . I have as a whole .
Speaker 6Yeah , star Wars Land .
Speaker 5As a yes , the Galaxy's Edge .
Speaker 2It's not Star Wars land as a yes , galaxy's Edge , it's not Star Wars , it's whatever , it's Batuu if you want to get technical about it thank you , hollywood Studios DCA , disneyland Animal Kingdom all right , that's more acceptable . Yeah , all right . Disneyland was number four for me . All right , that's fine .
Speaker 6Mine's more acceptable .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 6All right .
Speaker 1Hey , Disneyland was number four for me .
Speaker 2One experience in Walt Disney World that no one talks about . That you must do .
Speaker 5Am I going first ? Yeah , erica go first Okay , so mine's a little different . Erica go first Okay , so mine's a little different . Going the week right after Halloween , being there for , like the very last , mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party , and then the next day , it being Christmas , traveling during that time . You're getting a twofer . Basically , not all the resorts are going to be decorated and everything but Magic Kingdom , specifically . Overnight it goes from Halloween to Christmas .
Speaker 2I love that .
Speaker 5So I think that is something that not a lot of people think about , because when we talk about like vacation time and school and when a school break and everything , I think that's just a really magical time to go .
Speaker 2I like it .
Speaker 6Yeah , johnny , so mine was , um , you kind of touched on it earlier , but it's actually leaving magic kingdom in the middle of the day and jumping on the monorail and going to one of the you know , one of the resorts to get lunch and everything one of the most overrated resorts we've just talked about . Yeah , yeah , well for me , don't go to poly , yeah , but yeah , just getting out of the park and getting away from the crowds for a little bit and going and getting you know food at a resort yeah , I like it yeah britney
Speaker 1uh , I put the behind the seeds tour at upcut yes so good yes , yes love it because , I mean , I don't even know if a lot of people know about it really , and you know , you're probably thinking well , you're just behind the scenes of you know you're behind the seeds
Speaker 1no , I know , but that's what people are thinking you know , um , but it it was definitely worth it . It's not really that expensive and very informational and you get to sample like the cucumbers they grow there , at least on the one we did I don't know if it's every single time , but , um , and they do taste different in a good way , and yeah , I just I really enjoyed it more than I thought I would , and I think more people should try to learn about it and experience it .
Speaker 2So aren't you glad I talked you into doing it ?
Speaker 6yes , all right it's not very expensive no it's like 35 dollars .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , I was like it was less than 40 .
Speaker 2Yeah um , mine , uh . One experience in what doesn't really no one talks about that you must do is go see ye ha bob . I know I'll talk about him ad nauseum , and I do that for a reason . He is an icon . Yes , he is the . So last time I saw him this past trip I I was assuming that's the last time I'm going to see him for a long time , and during his intermission he meets with all the guests that are there , and I told him I was like you are the embodiment of what Walt Disney envisioned , of parents and children having fun together , and it's just amazing how he blends these songs and makes it fun for everybody , everybody .
Speaker 2I will say this , though if you're we , we talked about on our last podcast how , when you walk into Port Orleans Riverside , you walk in , you go . This is relaxing , it's peaceful , the music is chill . If you walk in and check in on a Thursday , friday or Saturday night from 9 to 11 pm , you're gonna see an 80 year old bald man , goofily dressed , going and you're gonna go . What in the world did I just walk into ? Yes , and it is awesome yeah , but any other time .
Speaker 2It is very peaceful here um , but yeah , I think no one talks about even when he came back , I think , like one youtuber mentioned it , and maybe for a reason because yeah but when I've been here , every time it's the same bartenders it's the same servers . Every time they don't go anywhere and that place is always packed always .
Speaker 5I love barely standing room . I mean , we have his autograph , right there , you know he's an icon .
Speaker 2Yeah , he is . He should be a dis Disney legend and have his name on the window in Main Street .
Speaker 5I agree with that . He is an icon .
Speaker 2All right , your one must-do in each park .
Speaker 5Erica Animal Kingdom Nomad Lounge , Not for churros but for the lobster mac and cheese from Tiffin's Next Door .
Speaker 2Nice , at least you're there , at least I'm there . Yes , I'll take it .
Speaker 5Castle pictures at Magic Kingdom . Ok , every trip that's a must do . Margaritas from Epcot , from Mexico .
Speaker 2You rope . Drop that , don't you I ? 11 o'clock .
Speaker 5Yes , 11 am is when that little stand opens up . Yes , hollywood Studios really taking in Galaxy's Edge . As a Star Wars fan , I could spend all day in Galaxy's Edge . Those are my must-dos , johnny .
Speaker 6Mine are all rides .
Speaker 5Of course they are , that's fine .
Speaker 6I'm a ride focus , that's fine . Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom , cosmic Rewind at Epcot , rock and Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios and People Mover at Matching I love it .
Speaker 2I love it .
Speaker 6People Mover is just so nostalgic and I really wish Disneyland would bring theirs back , because the tracks are , the infrastructure is there .
Speaker 2Yeah , not the tracks , but Not the tracks but they didn't tear down all the stuff so , okay , let me ask you a question here , Because the real reason why they got rid of the PeopleMover was because of what was going on in grad nights .
Speaker 5That's what the majority of the population knows .
Speaker 2If they were to bring the PeopleMover back but not have it open during grad nights . I think it would be just as bad you think it would okay . Yeah , okay , if you want to know what we're talking about , I'm sure you can go google , google that , moving on .
Speaker 1Yes , moving on . All right , my musty in each park , so I did rides as well , even though I I love a lot of experiences and stuff , but , um , I chose people mover as well , even though I love a lot of experiences and stuff , but I chose People Mover as well in Magic Kingdom you know , because we've talked even several times on episodes where like hey , can I just stay on , let me ride one more time around .
Speaker 2You know how they have the red or green thing at Brazilian steakhouses .
Speaker 5Yes , you need one of those for People Mover . Oh , that would be really cool , like Mickey's glove , like thumbs up or thumbs down , Just give him a little twirl like let's go again .
Speaker 1I did pick two at Animal Kingdom because I have to do Safari and Flight of Passage each time .
Speaker 2Okay .
Speaker 1And then at Hollywood I did Toy Story Mania or Pew Pew Pew . Pew , pew Pew with Nolan yes . And then Epcot Ratatouille .
Speaker 2Okay For me and Magic Kingdom . Pirates of the Caribbean . Bet y'all didn't see that , huh .
Speaker 5No .
Speaker 2It's so . I love the one in Disneyland better , but this one is just . It's so well done .
Speaker 1Because a couple of trips ago we skipped it and we missed it . I was angry .
Speaker 2Yeah , I love Pirates of the Caribbean Hollywood Studios again . Like you said , erica , I can hang out in Galaxy's Edge all day long and all night .
Speaker 5Yeah .
Speaker 2That , I think , is up there . Oh my gosh , If I had to rank the themed lands , it would be Cars Land and Galaxy's Edge .
Speaker 5I agree with that that would be tough to decipher .
Speaker 2Yeah , you know . Yeah , I remember , because when we went on this last trip , I was in the mindset I don't know when we're coming back here .
Speaker 2I just don't know . And I hung out in Galaxy's Edge a lot and I just love it . Give me a Gold Squadron beer . I just love the noises , the music , the sounds , everything . Especially at night it really comes alive . Love it . Epcot I have to do Living with the Land . It's a must do . It is the closest thing there to what Epcot was supposed to be . Epcot Center was originally supposed to be Animal Kingdom . I've said it before eat cheeseburger pies and have a Hawk's Grog Ale and Satooli canteen . It just takes me to a different place . The , the theme , the music , the decor , everything . It's just I'd rather do that than do everest or flight of past . You know , like that's just my chill place . I love it , okay , so all right . Moving on , question number 12 what is your favorite country in epcot ?
Speaker 2erica france and mexico you can only pick one .
Speaker 5Oh man , okay , it's fine I'm gonna oh gosh , it's fine , you can have to . If I had to , oh france france .
Speaker 6France is my favorite yeah , I also went with france because of ratatouille and , um , I'm not even to try to pronounce the names of the places in there , but the pastry shop . The pastry shop in the back where you could get sandwiches and croissants .
Speaker 5The patisserie , the patisserie , the patisserie , but then the one next door where you get the ice cream , the ice cream .
Speaker 2Yes , the holistic glacier .
Speaker 5The ice cream sandwich yes .
Speaker 6The brioche Brittany .
Speaker 1France , norway , mexico , japan , that's all one . So France , same reasons , just in the theming and everything , the music when you get closer to Ratatouille , and everything like that . Norway , just we as a family , I think , thoroughly enjoy spending time in Norway , from looking at the shop and getting some desserts there , and now , like , my favorite drink is Viking coffee , apparently . And then Mexico , just I love how it feels like you're at a village somewhere at night , you know , just I love it , I love it , love it . And Japan , you know it can be very peaceful if you go back towards the garden area , and we love walking through the store there and everything too .
Speaker 2So yeah , I was torn because I answered this correctly . I was really torn between Japan or Norway . Okay . And the more I got to thinking about it , I went back to which country do I have a t-shirt from ? And it's Norway . Okay .
Speaker 2I love the music . If you ever can hear the background music , I love the music here . It's very dramatic but done really well . I love the shop here . It's got some very unique items outside of frozen it and that can be a , but it doesn't seem as crowded of a pavilion as Japan or France . Like France you're throwing bows to get through in France and I like some of the unique lagers they have here their bakery shop . I don't like sweets , but like that potato bread thing , with cinnamon on it and , like some chocolate , it's very light .
Speaker 5Yeah , did we have that ? We probably did . I think we have it's very delicious .
Speaker 2I love the the stave church . Here I actually did a coast to coast disney trivia with loki in dca and then you can find loki and thor . Loki and thor and and all that , the storytelling there at the State of Church . I just think it's really well done and , aside from the Frozen stuff , I do love the Frozen queue .
Speaker 5I will go on record and say yeah , the queue is fun .
Speaker 2What's his name ? Oaken Oaken . I just want to go to the cast and be like hey , can I just go hang out in Oaken's for a bit ?
Speaker 6I don't want , I just want to just hang out in there , you know . But yeah , norway , I am actually wearing the cologne from Norway right now .
Speaker 5Oh , nice yeah . That was a birthday present .
Speaker 6Greer G-E-I-R .
Speaker 5I don't know , but it's from Norway .
Speaker 6The Norway Pavilion .
Speaker 5I just think it's more . It smells great .
Speaker 2I just think it has more unique items and stuff that you don't like . Yeah , that . And stuff that you don't see in other countries yeah yeah , yeah . That's my opinion , all right . Favorite attraction in Walt Disney World Erica .
Speaker 5Cosmic Rewind . I love it .
Speaker 6Yeah , I'll also go with Cosmic Rewind .
Speaker 1Okay , brittany Flight of Passage .
Speaker 2I'm going with Flight of Passage as well .
Speaker 4Split yeah , two for . Two .
Speaker 2Do y'all Care to elaborate on ?
Speaker 6Cosmic Rewind . It's just the . It's an amazing roller coaster . The music I really liked the Guardians of the Galaxy movies , and the music and everything , and Disney nailed both rides . Yes .
Speaker 1Cosmic .
Speaker 5Rewind and Mission Breakout in .
Speaker 6California , that's yeah , I just love that ride yeah .
Speaker 5Yeah , it's always fun when you're like what song are we going to get ? You guess , if you don't know about Row 9 , get Row 9 and everything . They did a very , very good job with Cosmic Rewind . I think they did as well . It's just fun . It's fun it is fun .
Speaker 6It's very fun , brittany .
Speaker 1What for Flight of Passage , Would you care to elaborate ? Uh , it's just , it's a , it's a whole other experience , you know , and all the like 40 that you get from it . Um , and you know it goes back to like . You know , ryan had been able to ride it with us the whole time due to height and everything , but nolan had to wait a couple of trips and then when he finally did , just finally finally getting to see that look of ah , you know , this is what they're talking about . I mean , his whole face just lit up . You know , I think now when I look at both of them when we're writing it , I still picture them as those little kids , you know .
Speaker 4Yeah .
Speaker 1And I love it when we have written it several times not every time , but several times when it's done and everybody's like aww , or they clap really loud because just everyone went through that experience together and was like wow , that's amazing , yeah , yeah um , I said flight of passage as well .
Speaker 2I love cosmic rewind . It is a , like you said , it is a fun coaster , but flight of passage , it just for four . Was it four minutes ? Three hour , three minutes and 50 seconds . You are in pandora you are you are in that , you're fully immersed in that , and that's I mean it's it's almost emotional , you know , yeah , and that's to me there's been nothing like that since I've never found anything better than that yeah , yeah , it is definitely a full immersive attraction . Yeah , yeah all right , we're going to y'all's coast now .
Speaker 5Favorite attraction in disneyland slash dca okay , so I have one for each park because I'm like well um , I don't know I got one for each as well um over at dca guardians great choice mission breakout um and disneyland was kind of hard . It was hard for me to choose one , but Haunted Mansion with the Nightmare Before Christmas , overlay .
Speaker 2All right Care to elaborate .
Speaker 5It's so good . I'm a huge Tim Burton fan and I love , love , love , love . Nightmare Before Christmas and the way that they pulled it off so quickly , just turning it over from haunted mansion to nightmare
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Speaker 5before christmas , astounds me every year and I can never get sick of that story . I love sandy claws and I love seeing zero . I just an oogie boogie at the end . I just I love it so much okay .
Speaker 5Yeah , they did a really good job with that and mission breakout because it's amazing and everybody needs to go on it johnny , for me I just chose Space Mountain , because it is just so smooth and just so nostalgic .
Speaker 6It was one of the first real roller coasters that I ever rode . I love all the overlays they do . The Ghost Galaxy and the Star Wars one .
Speaker 5Hyper Space .
Speaker 6Mountain . It's a must ride every time I'm at Disneyland . Yeah , okay , brittany .
Speaker 1So in DCA Cars Land the racers .
Speaker 5Radiator Springs Racers yes .
Speaker 1Just again going back to you know , ryan loved the Cars movies growing up and Nolan too , and they just , you know Ryan loved the Cars movies growing up and Nolan too , and they just , I mean , they just are on point with how they did that ride . You know you can either get new tires or a paint job , depending on what side you're on , and just the way you're like going through the canyons and everything is just , you know , beautiful , it's peaceful , exhilarating , all at the same time .
Speaker 2So yeah , what about disneyland or that ?
Speaker 1just overall that was oh well , yeah , that was just overall in on the west coast okay yeah , um , mine at dca is guardians of the galaxy mission breakout .
Speaker 2It is fun , it is pure fun , that's all I can say . Yeah .
Speaker 5It is a party , yeah .
Speaker 2Like as soon as those doors close . People are like woo .
Speaker 5Oh , I'm on countdown . Yes , oh , it is awesome .
Speaker 2And then in Disneyland , Pirates of the Caribbean . Yeah , it's classic . I love it I can go on it every time , like back to back , to back . It's just so well done .
Speaker 1I will say real quick Disneyland . Even though I wasn't huge on the movie like you were , I think they did a really great job with the Roger Rabbit ride there .
Speaker 2Yes , yes , yeah , very well themed In Toontown .
Speaker 1Yes , yeah .
Speaker 6That was like the only attraction in Toontown for a long time .
Speaker 5Yeah , it was . There was the little roller coaster , gadget's Go-Go Coaster . It's kind of like the Barnstormer but gadgets , go-go coaster .
Speaker 1It's kind of like the barnstormer right , yeah , we did right ever , yeah , yeah , I tell you one I will not do again . In dca is the goofy sky school never again . Oh my goodness we stopped .
Speaker 5We stopped going on that ride a long time ago and it's called mahalan madness mahalan , uh , mahalan , drive madness mahalan madness yeah , you're right , um . And then last year when the kids and I went to Disneyland , we went back for Oogie Boogie Bash . Riley and I went on it and he was terrified and I was like I tried to tell you this was awful Never again .
Speaker 1Yeah , well , I was thinking because it doesn't didn't have like huge drops or anything . Something else is like a kiddie coaster , like the next level , not like the basic , but like next level and oh my oh man .
Speaker 5Yeah , mm-mm , never again . No .
Speaker 2All right . Last question , this is the big one your most unpopular Disney opinion that you're dying on the hill for Erica .
Speaker 5I have several . One oh , man , I can't pick one . Okay , all right , ever roll One oh man , I can't pick one . Okay , all right , oh gosh , Filming fireworks should be banned .
Speaker 2Okay , I don't think that's too controversial .
Speaker 5Yeah , jungle Cruise needs an update .
Speaker 2I don't think that's too controversial either .
Speaker 5Epcot does not need a festival 99% of the year .
Speaker 2I agree with that too .
Speaker 5Yeah , figment is overrated . Okay , they can get out right behind you .
Speaker 2disneyland is a better park than magic kingdom I don't think you want to disagree with that one , churros are better on the west coast .
Speaker 5Okay , that's okay . All of them . I will die on the hill for , okay , multiple hills elaborate on on figment .
Speaker 2Of all those , the figment one is the one that his ride needs . He's a little overrated .
Speaker 5He's a little fromrated . He's a little From somebody that did not grow up going to Walt Disney World and Epcot , that doesn't understand the backstory of Figment . Okay , All right . It's a little strange . It is strange . And his ride it needs love .
Speaker 2It needs a lot of love . So you're . You think so you're not separating the attraction from figment .
Speaker 5Well , he is the attraction , though .
Speaker 2But he's a figment of your imagination .
Speaker 5Imagination Okay , I don't know .
Speaker 2He needs some new clothes too . Well , he's wearing the Epcot 40 behind you .
Speaker 5I know , but he needs more Christmas sweaters .
Speaker 2He needs more merch Gotcha Okay .
Speaker 6Johnny , I had a hard time thinking of this one . I just said , park hoppers are a waste of money . I think it's pointless For your first time . No , just go to the park and enjoy the park you're at .
Speaker 5Each park .
Speaker 6If you can't spend a whole day at a park and this has come from someone that doesn't even like to spend a whole day at Animal- Kingdom you gotta get in line for a bus and go and this has come from someone that doesn't even like spend a whole day at animal kingdom like going to . You know you got to get in line for a bus and go to another place , just enjoy the park , okay , okay .
Speaker 2Brittany , this one's directed towards me .
Speaker 5I can already tell Nomad lounge has the besturros in all of Disney . Where's your no button when you ?
Speaker 2need it . You can't mute her . I got the controls . Oh , dang it , I don't know .
Speaker 1So I really I'll elaborate on that a little bit . So I don't know if the second time we went to Disneyland and got a churro it wasn't in the park , it was in , like the .
Speaker 1That was the problem , but see we'd had it from downtown Disney the first time too , and they all tasted fine , like pretty much the same . So last year we went and you know , the year before Nolan had probably almost 20 churros . I might be exaggerating a little bit , but he had to get a churro every time we pass by , you know . Um , then last year when we went he got that one and it just wasn't good at all like it tasted like the ones that you would get in magic kingdom and walt disney world and I was like what happened ?
Speaker 6is this how it is now ?
Speaker 1um , and so I don't know if that adds to this or what where ? No , my lounge has been consistent every time we've gone and um , and so it's not necessarily a dig at you guys it's just . Every time we've gone it's been it has been consistent yeah yeah , but I but I think most people would say no , disneyland's better , or why would you go get churros at nomad lounge , you know ? But yeah , but they're the best alright , mine is .
Speaker 2Harmonious is the best nighttime show Epcot has ever had and I loved the barges . Come at me oh , no what out of all the things yes .
Speaker 4I'm dying on this hill the music .
Speaker 2Okay , I'm going to explain . The music in harmonious was beautiful . It was disney ip , but they blended it really really well . And the use of the different languages for the countries in epcot was epcot right , like you're , you're doing an ode to apcot there , okay , and the music was just so well done . It was beautiful , everything about the barges in the show . It just worked . I know the biggest complaint was the barges in the middle of the lake , right it wasn't terrible .
Speaker 2A lot of the barges are there for a luminous now yes they're not as gaudy , but they're still there , right and illuminous . Now I'm gonna say it sucks . Here's what they did .
Speaker 1You've only seen it one time though twice .
Speaker 2Here's what they did . Okay , so they they heard the complaints about people not liking harmonious and how much they loved illuminations . Right , I've seen illuminations on youtube , not in person . But what they did with the luminous was they took the original music from . Like , try to take some of what made a illumination so great was not ip music but original music . But they try to do that and blend disney ip music in with it and it does not work . It just does not work . You can't have illuminations and harmonious and call it illuminous . The two , the two types of music , just do not blend . They just don't . That's my opinion it just doesn't work .
Speaker 2You have thoughts .
Speaker 5Well , that's how people feel about Wishes . The firework show that was at Magic Kingdom and Enchanted , Like everybody hated it . Enchantment sucked . Enchantment . Everybody hated , it Sucked and everybody loved . Happily Ever After . I don't think Happily Ever After is the best .
Speaker 2That should have been your most unpopular opinion .
Speaker 5do you know what the best is ?
Speaker 2wondrous journeys at disneyland that should have been your most unpopular disney opinion right there oh I people would hunt me down all right , I don't know .
Speaker 1I was just thinking like a luminous , like I've only seen it all the way through once and we didn't have the best view where we were , um , and then I've seen it , like as I'm walking out of the park , like walked around it , you know , and glanced over and stuff . But I just feel like you know , I might need to see it one more time again , but it's on a time when no one hadn't been at the park all day and ready to go , so it just doesn't mix .
Speaker 6What was the show we saw at epcot ?
Speaker 5harmonious okay yeah , you haven't seen the new one yet . What was your opinion ?
Speaker 1the barges were big , but , like you said , this current one still has barges , they're just not as big and the biggest thing was right get rid of them yeah and they're still there , yeah um , I wasn't really big on harmonious .
Speaker 6I mean , it's just having to watch these things that are far away . I mean once you've seen World of Color at DCA . Oh man Any other water shows kind of .
Speaker 5Yeah , fair enough , blackluster . Okay , yeah , that's really true . Yeah .
Speaker 1I can see that because we loved that at DCA . Yes , we did , yeah , yeah .
Speaker 2All right , erica , do you have any final thoughts on anything podcast or Disney related or anything that you would like ? Final thoughts on our podcast .
Speaker 5Actually I do .
Speaker 2Okay .
Speaker 5And I'm going to have to take my glasses off for this one . Oh no , I wrote you a love letter .
Speaker 2Oh , thank you . I wrote you a love letter .
Final Thoughts and Farewell
Speaker 5Oh , thank you , Dear Zach and Brittany . It's hard to believe we're here at the final episode of Circle of Parks and while I know all good things must eventually come to a close , I still find myself feeling a little emotional as I say this next part oh okay . Working with you as your travel planner has been such an incredible journey , from the first quote to the last countdown . It's been more than just logistics and bookings . It's been sharing in your excitement , your adventures and your love for Disney . But somewhere along the way it became much more than that . It turned into something rare and special , a true friendship . You've let me be a part of your magical moments , from Vero Beach Sunset to Popcorn Bucket Quest in the parks and through it all I got to witness the joy , the laughter and the realness that made Circle of Parks such a gift to listeners . You brought honesty , humor and heart to every episode and I know so many people felt like they were right there with you , because I sure did .
Speaker 5Your podcast wasn't just about Disney , it was about connection and for me the greatest gift has been connecting with the two of you . Thank you for trusting me with your travels and for welcoming me into your world . I've loved every second of it . Circle of Parks has been something really special . You've invited people in , made them feel a part of the story and reminded us all why we fell in love with Disney in the first place . And even though this is the final episode and goodbye , I know it's not the end , not for our friendship and not for the magic you two bring to the world . Wherever your next adventure takes you , I'll be cheering you on and probably sending you a few resort quotes along the way .
Speaker 2Thank you so much . You've been an amazing travel agent , amazing friend . Yeah , I'm so glad that we've eventually gotten to where we are now .
Speaker 2You know , we kind of took a little bit of a side track there but , you've been an amazing travel agent , amazing friend , and I've always said this if we did decide we ever wanted to start a travel agency , I would say you do it how you want to do it . We're just going to be like the silent financial backers . You do it because we believe that much in you , your passion , your dedication , your work ethic , your it's just yeah , thank you . Whoever your clients are , I'm thankful to be a client of yours and friends and you've been great . You really have , thank you .
Speaker 1Because every trip you go above and beyond , and whether it's special notes that you've left the cast members to put our anniversary on there because he didn't want the extra attention , or you know the our appetizer we had on our anniversary , you know just different things like that . But I mean , you know you have always paid attention to detail . You know and I know , yes , we're friends , but you do that with all your clients . Yes , we're friends , but you do that with all your clients . You know you want to make sure that you know every experience is very personable for them and memorable and stuff , and you know it really shows .
Speaker 2And we're going to continue to use Erica for not just our Disney travels , our boys . Another reason why we're moving on from this is the boys want to go to other places . They're getting older , you know , they want to go to Cabo . They want to go to other places . They're getting older , you know , they want to go to cabo , they want to go other europe . We want to do these places . We're still going to use erica for all of our travels , always . I mean , it's not just because she sponsored our podcast right , we still are squeezing disney from time to time yeah , we're still gonna see , yeah well , thank you very much thank you , guys , you're
Speaker 6welcome , johnny , anything yeah , it's kind of crazy to think that you know uh listening to a podcast and then you become friends with the people from the podcast and it's like it's just uh friendship develops , you know yeah , and it's you know we , a love for disney is what first brought us all together .
Speaker 6but you know , like your boys and our boy , you know , hang out from time to time or we'll go out to dinner or something and and it might be the end of something but it's not the end of friendship and stuff . No , right , yeah , no .
Speaker 1Definitely still be getting dinner and all that yeah .
Speaker 5Well , now we have to go to our Italian place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays because they have a cheese wheel that they do the pasta in .
Speaker 1Oh , nice , yes , nice , yes , yes , very nice , yes , still doing hockey too . We still got to catch a game . Yeah Well , I'll be seeing you guys ?
Speaker 6I mean , might be seeing you guys at the park . Yes , yeah , so .
Speaker 1Yep , because I know anytime we are at that park , you know , one of them's always like is Johnny here ? I'm like I don't know yeah .
Speaker 6Yeah , it's Saturday . After Handsome at the park .
Speaker 5I mean and plus two , you never know . I mean crazier things have happened , zach might do a run . Disney run one of these days .
Speaker 1No , that's not you never know , Maybe you're setting some PRs right now . I know you never know Not going to happen .
Speaker 6Never say never . Yeah , we could do a local run together .
Speaker 1Local race If you keep up the way you're doing maybe a little short one final thoughts well it uh . I I honestly don't think this will be our last one for good . We'll put it that way for a while . It will be for a while , but I don't think we're going to be completely gone . Um , I see us from time to time finding some way to communicate things out there , whether it be in the podcast format or not , and , of course , your book coming out when you're , when you finish .
Speaker 1And just you know , because we will be doing some Disney things still and I think somehow we will probably still try to share that , even if it's just a random Instagram post , you know , six months from now or something you know , Because you know , as we all just said , you know it brought us together , you know , six months from now or something , you know , um , because you know , as we all just said , you know it , it brought us together , you know .
Speaker 1And then so many of you listeners , when we have questions stopping before you know , have reached out like oh , no , please don't , or um , I didn't know . At times where you know , early on , when I was like , oh , zach was like maybe we don't need to do disney merch anymore , several people like no , keep , keep it keep it .
Speaker 2They were adamant . I was attacked .
Speaker 1Yes .
Speaker 2I did yeah .
Speaker 1And then one listener from another country . She said we really helped her on her first trip and overcome some fear . She had a little bit and everything , so it's goodbye for now .
Speaker 5Yeah's ttfn . Ta-ta for now .
Speaker 2Yeah um , I want to say thank you to our listeners . Y'all have been great . Thank you so much on going on this journey with us for for four years . Um , mine's more disney related um , the I hope people of that that have listened to this got one thing out of this Disney can be whatever you want it to be . If you want it to be a woke company that you're never going to go see again , then that's fine . That's what you see , disney .
Speaker 2As that's not what I see it as I see it as the Walt story right , and I think the Disney parks still communicate that story of you can be whatever you want to be . You can live your dreams , but it's going to take hard work and you're going to fail along the way and I still think the Disney parks show that and express that and I think that is the most important life lesson that I think you can give to anybody and I hope our boys have seen that . I hope our listeners have gotten that .
Speaker 2And to me , that is the most inspirational thing , because I think our dreams have come true . I mean , we're sitting here talking about Disney and we go multiple times a year . Our kids are at high level travel soccer . We have become successful , right ? And our dreams , I think our dreams have come true . Would you agree ? Disagree , no for sure . But it wasn't easy though , right ? No , yeah , I mean , doing these podcasts aren't easy , but doing you know where we are to where we are now to get .
Speaker 1Here has not been easy .
Speaker 2There has been a long struggle , so that's what I see , disney , as inspiration do what you love right , find what you love and be courageous enough to do it . That's what I see it as , and with that I'm going to end with what I think the best mashup ever made . Yes , it's for harmonious , I don't care , but this is , I think , the most inspirational way we can end this I've been staring at the edge of the water long as I can remember , never really knowing why I Because they don't allow me to be in it Wherever I want to be .
Speaker 4That point in which the sea calls me and I know how far it is and I know how far I'll go . I have often dreamed of a far-off place when a great , warm welcome will be waiting for me . I will run away . I will have no more .
Speaker 4Ti saluterà dicendo questa è casa tua ? I will . There's a line where the sky meets the sea . It calls me my way . Yes , I know what shall that I can do . All over the world , with my wind in my sail , all the sea stays behind me . I'm gonna take a go . I'll go . I will search the world . I can go the distance Till I find my heroes will come along to me , right where I belong . I'm , I'm , I'm , I'm , I'm .