100 - Prologue

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Welcome to It's Happenings Season One and welcome to the Prolog episode. And I know I've been gone since September of 2025, but it doesn't mean that I haven't been thinking about you all. And beyond that, I miss it. I miss talking to you. I realize that part of this great hobby is that I like doing it. I like talking. And sometimes I don't really have anybody to talk to it about. I mean, I can go on the forums, I can go on Discord, but this is kind of my space. This is my area. And we could go back and talk about the past, which we will, but I'm I I miss talking about this hobby. But I didn't miss trying to keep up with it every day. If I was a retired person, if I was, I don't know, unemployed, whatever, right? I could definitely see me revisiting what I had before. But you know, I tried to do that and it didn't work, right? I had a decent amount of following, and maybe that's my problem. Maybe I'm chasing something that I can't I can't obtain. It's not like I want this podcast to be downloaded and listened to by millions, right? I think that'd be kind of neat. I think it'd be fun to have face, but I don't know. I don't know if that's my thing either. So maybe I should relish in having a small audience. So with that being said, welcome back to Diz Happiness. Let's let's do a little revision here. Revisionist history. Started podcasting out of the I'm gonna call it the popularity of the Disney Comeback Index. Of course, I had um some quote unquote viral form posts, started out with the before and after, and then it kind of migrated into the you know, the Disney Comeback Index, which was tracking COVID returns, whether it was an attraction enter or entertainment, right? And from that, you know, I was on Lens Show, I was on the DBC Pod. And from that, I wanted to have my own space. So I queued up a good friend of mine, Mike, another friend, Christina. Um, and we created a a a three-person podcast. That podcast went on for a while. We tried to do it bi-weekly, or sometimes weekly, and that had its challenges, but I think it had the heart, right? It had the heart of what I wanted, which I just like talking. I just love talking about about Disney World and about Disney theme parks. That's kind of my thing. And it's kind of a strange hobby. I don't know where it came from, but I you know, as when I was growing up, it was sports, sports, sports, and some other things. And then something happened to me. I don't know what it was, but something happened where I think I think it was kind of my sports fandom. I realized that there wasn't always a happy ending. And as a Philly sports fan, I'm always getting kind of kicked, getting kicked in the teeth at the end of the season. Never saw any championships as a young kid. Matter of fact, I didn't see anything until 2008 as a as a Philadelphia sports fan. Right? It wasn't a long time, a lot of a lot of misery. And travel grant me. It was it didn't start with Disney. First, our first trip that was super memorable to me was I got married to my wife. I barely did any traveling as a kid. I visit some family out in Arizona two summers in a row. I went to Tulsa maybe once or twice. My sister ended up living out there, and I did see the Grand Canyon, I'm grateful for that. I might have had one word trip or two, but there was no there was no travel itch. Our vacations were Jersey Shore, right? And when I traveled in 2006 with my wife Adrian, after we got married, we were trying to figure out where to go. We went to uh Sandals in St. Lucia. And for many reasons, it was the best week of my life. Um, just getting away with my wife for a week, fully independent. You know, we were still living in home up until then, um, up until we got married, of course. And then we went away a few days after we got married. It just felt like something clicked with me. And I loved it. I loved the Sandals experience. I love the all-inclusive experience. And at the time, honestly, probably didn't take advantage of the alcohol package like I would like I would do it now. And not that I'm this massive drinker, but I drink more than I did when I got married for sure. Um, and that's not a um that's not a statement on on being married. That's it's more just like kind of um having new hobbies, right? And and gaining new interest, kind of like this one. We were really close to booking our honeymoon in Hawaii, so much that it was on my waste radar, and we decided to do that in 2007. We went to Maui. We had a direct flight to San Diego, first time my wife and I over in the West Coast, and that's where I went to the San Diego Zoo. Kind of thought the the West Coast and and the Pacific was very interesting. I was very intrigued, but we weren't there long enough, and that's when we took a flight the next day out to Maui, where I believe we stayed at some timeshare, but the seeds were being planted. I was really digging this travel stuff, really into it. I had back-to-back, incredible trips, never did anything really, and that's not a knock on me growing up. I grew up in a large family, and no traveling just wasn't a thing. We had other things, right? We had lots of love and um lots of dinners and and celebrations together, right? But still, the travel itch was not unlocked. At this point, with two vacations behind me, again, just my wife and I, in 2008, my wife said, well, I think we were both talking about it, and my sister and her family were staying at the Wilderness Lodge Lodge at Walt Disney World. And never having to check it off, I was intrigued with it. I thought, sure, that's something I wouldn't mind getting done. I think it's um every American dream to take your family to Disney World at least once. That was kind of my position on Disney World at that time, but I had a unique opportunity. We were still childrenless, and we took a swing. And I expected to to like it, but it built something in me. It really built something in me. It built that foundation, you know, and I know so funny. I listen, it's like I jump, I feel like I'm jumping into forums and into um podcasts where people talk about the when you know they win in the 80s and stuff. I don't have any of that background. I guess I'm still new to this community overall, but I was intrigued and I had the best time. I felt like when I called it with my wife, I felt like a little kid between going on the rides, and I think we had the deluxe dining plan at the time. So we tried all kinds of food, and between the attractions, experiences, the entertainment, I think we saw wishes from the California Grill. I actually don't think I saw wishes. Um it was either wishes or the Christmas party was going that night. I don't remember which one. I think it was wishes. And I try to look back at some of the historical things that that's but either way, I was blown away. These fireworks over the castle. And again, I don't remember the music played thin or anything like that. So but I feel like it was wishes, and I was really struck. I was really struck on how incredible it is. I mean, I you know, we made it an annual tradition to to go to the 4th of July fireworks in town, so we could see the fireworks get blown off, right? And of course we might even did the Phillies here and there, which they put on a good show. But this was something. This was something like they do this every night here? Are you kidding me? And that was from the California Grill. I remember we took the blue launch to get there. We were staying at the Wilderness Lodge, which was a super cool hotel for the first time. It's funny, it was our first hotel. We have not stayed there since. And that's not by design, it's probably more by luck. We haven't stayed there yet. We will, we will as a family. I've been back several times, especially around the Christmas season when we've gone. And we did see illuminations, reflections of Earth, and I'm glad I did. Because when we came back years later, I missed the show. I I just but I was I was still blown away by illuminations. I thought it was great. I loved it. And I'm not I don't remember if I saw Phantasmic the first go around. I feel like I did, but I I remember the great movie ride. I have pictures of you know um seeing you know Dorothy and the Yellow Brick Road and that old um stunt show uh from Hollywood Studios. And it was called Hollywood Studios. I think I beat that MGM Hollywood Studios by the the name change, like not beat. I never entered into MGM. It was Hollywood Studios by the time I got in there, but it was it was pretty quick. It could have been the same year. Um I remember doing the Universum Energy with Ellen. Things that were that were there, I remember. Um, and it was a five day, it was a Monday through Friday, and I just remember, man, I'm like, this place is awesome. I gotta go back. I like I have to go back. I know I'm coming back with my family one day, but we still put Disney World on the back burner, but it was it still left a great impression on me. I'm not gonna say that I enjoyed it more than Maui um or Sandals, but man, it there was something special about it. The transportation, the lot, you know, the the logistics, you know, magical express. So I'm almost positive we'd use magical express in 2000. Maybe I'm maybe I'm wrong. Um, but I I was uh was blown away, guys. I remember we we had all these dining credits left over towards the end towards the end, and we did like beer gardening, in which we had no business, and we had big adult beverages in in in in beer garden in the German pavilion, and honestly, I remember just passing out doing the American Adventure. So it left a great impression. In 2009 and the 2010, we did real Caribbean cruises. Um, my friend was a a huge cruise goer fan, and that was kind of the next thing to tackle. So we did a couple, we did one cruise that left from um from San Juan, uh, and the other one, the other one actually left from Cape Liberty. That was our first one. It was a 90 cruise. Of course, by then we had a dog, believe by the second cruise. So that kind of changed changed the formula a little bit. And then in 2011, we welcomed our our first daughter. And the vacations, we hit the pause button. And I wish I could go back and talk to Matt from uh at you know from 2011, 2012. I would have said, man, find a way to get the world. But I knew I knew it was going back. I didn't know when. In the 2014, we had our our second and our last daughter, and I knew that I wanted her to be old enough to potentially remember it. And then we s when we decided to to start it in 2018. We we did an off-site trip. We stayed at a timeshare, timeshare was great. I want to say it was Blue Tree or something like that, but you know, staying off-site, it has its pros and cons. You know, I was trying to save some money, it was nice because it was a bigger place, it was bad because they had shuttles, and I think that was kind of before Rideshare really took off. So we we had shuttles, and because Toy Story Lane just opened, every departing shuttle from the hotel was the Hollywood Studios. So we'd have to go to Hollywood Studios and then we'd have to find we'd have to use Disney transportation to get someplace else. And then coming back, this was the biggest travesty. Coming back, all of the shuttles came back before the nighttime shows. So I I didn't know that would be my latest opportunity to see reflections. I didn't know. I wish I'd known. So we we went to Avcot, but we left early because not super early, but we left before, you know, before uh before the show because we had to catch the shuttle back. So yeah, I'd like to go back and talk to Matt in 2018 as well. And then in 2020, you know, we skipped the year in 2019. 2020 was the big trip trying to arrange it with my parents, and that's the trip that cemented things for me. We stayed at the boardwalk in with my parents, and it was a seven-day trip. And man, it just boardwalk, especially after staying off-site, just like awakened everything and me again. And being able to go to Epcot, how convenient it was to go to Hollywood. I remember Rise, Rise was brain spanking new. We're talking two, three months, and they had the virtual cube. We had to be inside a park. It wasn't like that first month, but you still had to be in the park, and you had to be in there before park opened to get to have a chance at the virtual queue. And I remember me and my dad took a very cold walk past Crescent Lake, and I guess it's still considered Crescent Lake, and we took that long walking past the Hollywood Studios. At the time we had some maybe spring jackets on, it was chilly, and we snagged a virtual queue, and my dad and I did rise together. Dad's not a huge Star Wars fan, but it was one of those things. I I still think my dad was like more blown away from flight of passage, right? But it was something that we did together, and it was cool that I had that moment. And the fact that I understood the process helped us go back on our last departing day where we had a late flight, went back with the family, and we snagged Rise again, this time with my wife and my girls. Well, my kids were, you know, at that time, you know, seven and you know, five or whatever it is. Um so still a little young. My math is bad there. Nine, nine and nine and six or nine and seven, they were. But boardwalk was it. That was the best trip. And when we got when we left there, I was obsessed with getting back. I was trying to think about how can I, and first off, it was a deluxe accommodation, and I couldn't drop that kind of money each time we were going. No way. And I knew that if I wanted to get back to the world, I you know, and I and I won and and my family's already kind of um what's the word I'm looking for? They were on board with the deluxe accommodations, they didn't want to go backwards, which is not fair, because we really didn't get to really enjoy the Portalines of the world and you know the pop centuries. We just we just skipped it. We went from off-site to boardwall, and we ended up coming back, and you guys know what happens a month later, and and in February of 2020, like I fell in love with everything again, and then in late March, COVID comes. And why I'm dreaming about the next trip, all of a sudden I'm worried if I'm ever gonna go back, right? We got COVID, we have a pandemic, and it's probably the least important thing in the world that's me worrying about going back to Disney World. But it was on my mind all the time, and it it helped birth what you guys know is the Disney Comeback Index about tracking these entertainment offerings and attractions and things that were that existed pre-COVID, and some things never return. We know that. That's kind of where everything started, and then I get to the Disney Comeback Index, I get on Len's show, I get on Jason and Phil's show, and it kind of had life on its own, and I loved it. And I really wanted to talk more about it, so created the the podcast with with my buddies. Uh, Christina ended up wanting to call it quits. Um, you know, we had we were lucky to spend a Christmas season then, and I want to say it was 2022. We were both down there together at the same time. Funny enough, we did rides together. Um great memory there. And we saw each other at Topolino's, they just did it, and then we were coming, which was pretty funny. Um, but we didn't spend enough time there together, which is kind of a regret. I think we'll both kind of admit that. Um, you know, our girls played soccer together at the time, so we we knew we were still gonna bump into each other, we start the podcast, all those things. But at some point, Christina decided, you know, she wasn't up for it anymore, and it was totally understandable. I tried to kind of run it a little bit with Mike, but uh Mike, Mike's a childhood friend, and I felt like he was probably doing more out of obligation. Still appreciated everything that he did for me, and and same thing with Christina. So that's when I decided to to redo the podcast. And at that time I changed it to Diz Happenings, where I was gonna do it a weekly show or a weekly, every other week show with Sean. And I had a great time with Sean. Sean's my guy. You're gonna hear more, Sean. I promise. But it was tough because west coast, east coast, he travels a lot, he just has a new baby, right? Or a new or a young son. It was tough to connect, it was tough to establish times, and there'd be times I'd be recording at 1 a.m., right? It was just too much. And I really had this desire to do a daily podcast where I was breaking the news down, and guys, I love that run. It's it's like I don't I don't miss the editing and the publishing and making shorts done, but I loved that podcast. I loved it. I was retired. If I was unemployed, I could see that coming back. Like if I if I can make a real income from that, right? It's not gonna happen. This is all for fun, and I know that now. But I still took a shot with it. I wanted to see where it would go. But I wanted to show you guys, I want to talk through my evolution, and this is why I'm on to the next chapter of Me Podcast. And what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be having seasons. This is season one. Welcome to season one of this happiness, where we are going to hear from people, mostly me, of course, selfishly, and we're gonna have thoughtful episodes. We're not gonna be breaking news on a daily basis, but we'll be breaking news that I want to talk about over months at a time. We'll be talking about things from the heart, we'll be dropping the whole season at once, or in a very small window, so you're not gonna have to wait for the next episode, you're gonna have it the next day or maybe immediately. I still haven't figured that out. But I want it to feel more intentional. And I want to come into your living room, into your drive, your commute, and I want you to have an experience with me, man. I want you to have an experience with this happiness. I don't play games. I I credit a lot of Disney World is awesome. Those guys make great games up. BBC Potter going through a round when they got these blind rankings, very cool game. I've never been a big game guy, right? Even with Mike and Christina, that just wasn't my thing. There's definitely a place for them, and I hope that I hope that this is a a supplement to those podcasts. And, you know, really, I want you guys to know that just because I stepped away didn't mean that Disney didn't matter to me. I've been very active on the forums, been very active on Discord. I anticipate the news, I thirst for it every day. I still, you know, think about going to see Happily Ever After or Starlight with the family the next time I'm there or luminants, right? Can't wait to make family memories and to plan future trips and and I have an emotional connection down there. Like I want to end up down there. Oh, you know, I want to I want to snowbird, man. I want I want a Florida home. I'm gonna be 20 minutes from Epcot. Like that's that's kind of my life dream, man. Some people want, you know, short homes, some people want crazy swimming pools, all that kind of stuff. Dude, give me give me a place I can I can snowbird from December to April or May, whatever the heck we're talking about here anymore, up in the northeast, away from the cold. So, with that being said, this is the prologue. This is not the first episode you will get that, but you know, so what are we gonna talk about this season? Well, we're gonna talk about I've had many trips since we talked, and I actually have a couple ones on deck I might get to later on. I'm excited to talk to you about, but I want to talk to you about some of the new stuff that Disney's put out there. Really talk about them. I want to talk to you about my day at Epic Universe. I want to really break down Jollywood versus very Merry Christmas party. I want to have some of my favorite people on to talk to you guys. And I also want to come to and talk to you about some of the things that I'm kind of struggling with these days in terms of my Disney fandom. And um, I'm sure more is coming. So anyway, I hope you're along for this ride. Hang in there with me. You might hear the treadmill in the background, you might hear birds chirping sometimes, you might hear my car in the background. Just flow. I'm still gonna record when it's convenient for me. This is not gonna be some highly professional recording where you know you're gonna see my face and I'm gonna have a backdrop and all that stuff. Maybe, maybe one day, guys, but just take the take the content, right? I always feel like so. This is how uh my mind goes going forward. Is I remember that Larry David used to tell Casey Blowing and the people at HBO, you know, they they would come to him actually, like, hey, you when do you want to do a new season? Right? And Ly was like, I'll I'll let you know when already. And that's how I am, guys. I might go a long time before releasing another season. I don't know. I have no idea. Or maybe go get another season next month. I have no idea. When I want to record and when I want to put out content, you're gonna get a season. When I'm up for it, when I'm not, maybe when I don't have a super busy life chasing my two daughters around for soccer, having having a lot of work going on, right? Like it's there's a lot of factors on when and where I'll be recording from. Um, and I certainly don't have Larry David's following or his his bank account. So hang in there with me on this ride. I am excited about it, and uh, I hope you guys are too. I hope you guys are pumped. So get ready, come in at the end of the week, start dropping episodes. So we will see you in our first season at Dis Happenings.