101 - State of the Union

Matt gets into his thoughts and attractions/experiences that are stock up and stock down.

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Before/After Watch

Music in Dizhappenings copyrighted by Audio Jungle 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

This happened. Welcome back to another episode in season one. This episode is really all about the state of the union. And um, I want to talk about what does Walt Disney World emotionally feel like right now as a longtime fan. And Walt Disney World, to me, it kind of feels weird in a good and in a bad way. I feel like there's some parts, and we're going to talk about it. There's some parts that I feel like are more emotional and more alive than ever before. And then there's some others that have lost, you know, pieces of themselves. Parks are evolving. And we're going to talk about that. That's kind of the throughout the season and how I'm kind of evolving as a fan. And let's just talk about the overall resort vibe. So Disney to me feels more alive again. And I think it's because I feel like there's a more emphasis on entertainment. And think about it from think about it from the Magic Kingdom perspective. We finally have a nighttime parade back at Walt Disney World with Starlight. And you know, most of the year that show is running twice. So you have this energy at night that's built up, that gets built up throughout the day. Between that and Happily Ever After. You have Epcot with Luminous The Symphony of Us, and you have Hollywood Studios Phantasmic. Basically, you have four nighttime entertainments that are, and I'm going to get to my Starlight review at some point in another episode, but you have four pretty big draws at night. And it was always a three-show thing, right? We still don't have anything in Animal Kingdom, but there's just a screen draw at night, a ton of energy. And, you know, they put so much energy into entertainment recently. Think about the new shows at Hollywood Studios. You have Unfairly Ever After, you have the Little Mermaid Musical Adventure. You still have the old shows, the Beauty and the Beast at Indy. We're going to have at some point a Mostropolis show, right? So the Mickey Shorts there. But think about what they're doing in Animal Kingdom with the Bluey experience. And the Cool Kids Summer. They're I feel like they're dialing it back up to character, characters interacting with kids, with families. And that's exactly where we want to go. Think about cool kids summer. You know, there's they're finally putting something in a diamond horseshoe, right? You got Bluey. They're they're gonna try to maximize some capacity capacity to Animal Kingdom by by having a a train ride where you at least in the beginning, you have to be in a virtual queue to get over there, right? To Rafiki's Planet Watch. I don't even know if they're calling it that anymore, conservation station. But yes, it's pretty neat, pretty cool vibes. And also, you've got the party season. And as much as the party season kind of drives me crazy, it's fun, right? The Halloween party from August on. You got the Christmas party, and you got the you got Jollywood nights, it's electric. That's what makes Disney World great to me. Is I, you know, I like being there in the morning and the afternoon. There's something special when the lights go out, and that's still there. The vibes are still there. And personally, I kind of wanted to talk about, you know, what's going up and what's going down for me. Like I always feel like you come off a trip, and we've all been there, right? Where certain attractions like stock up and certain attractions stock down. And it could be, it could be anything. It could be, oh, I got all in, you know, the people mover, and I'm feeling better about the people mover, even though I've done it 10 times or whatever it is. The 11th time, there was something special about it. Just it it dug into me differently. Or, ah man, this shrine's getting long in the tooth to me. It feels old, right? It feels stale. And that's I'm calling this this segment the stock up, right? What is stock up? Things that I appreciate more than ever. And I'm gonna start with a couple attractions. And I think it's I have to give the credit, honestly, to those imagineering videos that go out. And they they did a special on Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway. And you guys have probably seen that came out months ago. I saw that video and I saw the Easter eggs and I saw the work that they put into it. And I went back with a different lens when I back went back on the attraction. And guys, that that's an elite attraction. It's so good. I know it took over the great movie ride. I know in Disneyland it took up space, right? I mean, it's a massive win out there in Disneyland. You're taking over the great movie ride. I can understand why people are upset, but took over a ride and turned it really into a great family ride. And there's just so much to take in with that attraction. It's got so much repeatability, just being able to pull out the Easter eggs, whether you're looking for um, you know, nods from the great movie ride in the queue, or you're looking for the hidden Mickeys. And there's this there's this warmth and charm from the attraction itself that it's just to me like it really draws you in. And this is Walt Disney World, it's the place that Mickey built, right? It's the place that Walt built, and we got an attraction based on those characters, and you still got Goofy being silly and Pluto being involved. You know, even the little conga thing with with Daisy, it just hits all the right notes. And like if I was to take my family down for the first time ever, that Walt isn't involved, that'd be the way to start it. That would be the first ride I would choose. I would choose that over Pirates, right? I would choose that over Haunted Mansion, I would choose that over Rise. That would be my number one attraction because it gets you in, it gets you into this theme park world, right? You were leaving the theme park and you're going into an animated feature. Like, how meta is that? So I I just think Mickey and Minis Runaway Railway deserves a ton more credit than it does. I know people like it, but the fact that they use projections and animatronics and they they use that that um that controversial um projection technology think really works well there or might not work on a frozen ever after. It really works there. And that is the best family ride. There's everybody can get on it. Not everybody can do pirates, believe it or not, right? Not everybody can do Space Mountain. Not everybody can do Rise. Some people don't like like dark, like haunted mansion, right? This ride hits every three-year-old can do Mickeys and Minis, right? It's you know, 80-year-old mom, grandma can do Mickey's and Minis Runaway Railway. Alright. Next up, this ride's slowly increasing on my scale of favorite attractions overall, and that's the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. I love the fact that you can get a different ride path each time you get on. So there's a lot of replay value. It's got a great story. You're leading up walking up to the Tower of Terror, and it just has that perfect mix of pacing attention and emotional immersion, right? And if you're going up to Sunset Boulevard at night, it's just this dark tower in the background. And you know, shout out to the the very cool gift shop afterwards, too, right? You can pick out some pretty cool Tower Terror theme stuff. Uh, so I I honestly think it's a brilliant attraction. I hope they never change it. And I'm I am a Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout fan. Don't touch this, Ry, please. Keep the Twilight Zone theme, don't make it Muppets or something, just keep it the way it is. It's such a classic. Obviously, it's not super family friendly in terms of little little kids. Some kids might be scared, and you're not gonna take that on. You know, because there's a a free fall, like my wife won't even do it, she won't even bother with it, right? So you you do eliminate people, so it's not it's not family friendly. And I will say this, that if you you road drop that attraction, you actually lose a little bit because uh you generally just kind of skip the free queue or the I'm sorry, the free show. You just skip and you go right on to the ride, which sounds great, but you're kind of you kind of lose that lead up, right? Especially being in that room and going through the you know the little story on what's going on. Like you need to take the whole experience on to enjoy the Tower of Terror. So a lot of times you don't need to do that with rides, but you need it with Tower of Terror. So if you rope drop that, make sure there's a little bit of a line just so you can wait a little bit so you can see the pre-show. And then I'm gonna stay in Hollywood Studios, and I'm gonna give stock up to Hollywood Studios. I know it gets a lot of hate. I know my phrase my friend Jason, he always talks about, you know, yeah, there's there's dead ends everywhere and all that stuff. Dude, so many parks at dead ends. Like, it's it is a goofy built park. There's no really central hub, but you could make an argument that um the main strip there, what is that? Holly, not Hollywood Boulevard, maybe it's Hollywood Boulevard. Obviously not Sunside Boulevard, but the main street there, right? Like, it does kind of connect everything, but it's I agree, it's not the best kind of hub. You do have to double back sometimes there, but it's not a huge park either. And look at all the advancements that it's doing. I mean, just think, guys, a few years ago, they ended up they ended with Rocks, right? They they ended with Galaxy's Edge, and it's like they're not gonna do much in this space now. They're not, right? And and then we had we had D23 and Destination D23, and what do you know if we're gonna lose? You know, they made the Muppets, sorry, they they made them, they made the Monster, the Monstropolis announcement, the Monsters Inkland, is what I think the announcement officially was. They they made that announcement, and I think everybody's really excited where things are going. People are just kind of like, ah, this is going in animation courtyard, and it never was. And it never was. Guys, can you imagine that building being in the middle of animation courtyard? Like, it's gonna, it would be such quote unquote, or I guess I should say pun intended, it would be a matrocity, right? It would just, it would just like this the viewers would be terrible. You can't have a building like that in the middle of animation courtyard. It would have been terrible, guys. Yeah, would it would have been better, you know, taking over animation courtyard? Maybe, but let's now that we have the ability, we had the knowledge of hindsight, I think we could see that this was a major win, right? We could see that Launch Bay was gonna transform into this very relaxing courtyard with places to sit and relax, new stores, places for you know moms and and children to hang out in, right? Um with the um, you know, with the nursing area that they're putting there, they're moving that from the front of the park. You got the sorceress hats with the nighttime effects. This looks lovely, gang. This looks like you know, kind of what Epcot was trying to do with their center spy, right? Like this looks really inviting. And, you know, who's to say that they can't do some more projection shows up there in that area? Like, it's it's got potential. It's it's a nice little area. And then, of course, is anyone gonna complain that we lost parking spots? No. Hollywood Studios is expanded, it's expanding in a big way. It's going all the way out to the parking lot to build this door poster, which is going up so quick. And you know, if you say that on the forums, you'll get you'll get lectured. That pace of construction is is not what it seems, nor does it mean completion, all that stuff. Yeah, I hear you. We're just talking about it, looks cool, man. It looks like it's coming together. We're excited, we're allowed to be excited, and I don't know if it means it's closer or not, but I get more excited about concrete beams than I do about dirt moving. It's just the way I am I'm programmed, and and then you know, losing Muppet Vision 3D, you know, hurts Hollywood Studios, no doubt. And moving over to Rock and Roller Coaster, now that we have the benefit again of hindsight, that we're taking animatronics, we're taking some of the gangs, we're taking some of the props from Muppet Vision 3D to rock and roller coaster starring the Muppets. Like win, win, win. Loss for Muppet Vision, but win-win-win with everything else. Brand new Muppets attraction, and you're talking about honestly a huge significant leaps and bounds improvement over rock and cold rock and roller coaster featuring Harris. It's silly to deal with the bait pre-show, it was all screens before. Now it's got a scooter and animatronic and the penguins that we believe are from Muppet Vision 3. And it has Songs Incorporated by Electric Mayhem. The pre-show has different characters on screen, so you might be able to catch it, so you have more re-ride capability. And then how about when you get off Rock and Roller Coaster, and now you got Saddler and Warhop, right? You had the two old dudes making jokes at you. Complete home run, complete improvement over what was before. Now, some people don't think it's enough. Some people don't think it's enough for the Muppets. And, you know, I've been on the forums. You guys have known this, and I feud it with people left and right, that Muppet Vision 3D died when it died because of a lot of factors. One was it was going to be a construction wasteland shortly after, which it was, but the one thing I didn't know, and that people that argued against me didn't know, is that they were taking the animatronics and and the artifacts from Moppet Vision and putting in rock and roller coasters. So let's see, it closes early June Moppet Vision 3D, and in May, it opens. May the next year it opens with those artifacts. Interesting. It's almost like Disney had a plan. It's almost like Disney didn't just end Muppet Vision 3D because they were being cheap. And yeah, did they save operational expenses? Of course. I mean, yes, they did, and I'll get back to well, they also lost revenue from Pizza Rizzo, Mama Melrose, and maybe some Lightning Lane sales from Muppet Vision 3D. I don't know how much, but it was on Lightning Lane. Even if they were breaking even on the land, which that's on my gut feeling. Or maybe it was a slight loss. It added capacity to the park. And I don't know what's going to replace Muppet Vision 3. I don't know if it will be a great show or not. But this was a major advancement. And just in the state that it's in right now, Hollywood Studios is way better than when we're talking coming out of Galaxy's Edge Finishing. Right? Way better. Animation Courtyard is all of a sudden land that people will be able to enjoy. Rock and roller coaster is better. And yes, we do have an area behind walls, Metropolis, but it's not gonna be that long. Year two, 2027-2028, where we start to get more foot traffic in that area, too. I just think there's winds there. And Hollywood Studios has a Christmas part in it. We'll get to that too at some point. There's just a lot going on in Hollywood Studios. Phantasmic is a great elite show, and you get to sit to watch it. So if you're tired, the only thing you got to deal with is the buses when you go back, plus you're staying somewhere skyliner or walking distance. You do got to deal with that, but that's anywhere. And you waddle out of there like a penguin, the Disney Waddle. Waddle in. It's a great show, though. Elite show. It's right up there with the best shows. So Hollywood Studios, big thumbs up for me. All right, let's see what else we got. What else do I got on this list here? The other thing that I think that people kind of dismiss is how great Expedition Everest is. We did those rankings a long time ago where I rated the number one old school. It's just an awesome attraction. The single rider, which I know has taken a hit, which I'm guessing that your single rider wait time now, with the weight that they're loading, they're now loading just odds and evens, and then they kind of grab the extras from the single rider. I'm guessing it's probably the wait time is probably up 50%. But wins for wins for family versus wins for you going solo. It's hard to argue with that. And I've been there and taken advantage of the solo thing. So what are you gonna do? Um, feel bad for the single riders out there, but everything's great. Every time you get it, you feel like you pick up something new, pick up a different thrill, depending on where you're sitting. Even the the disco Yeti is still great. Just feel like it has certain times that it whips you around that there's no feeling like it on property. And you know, handcrafted story, great cue, it just you just when you walk up to that mountain, man, like there's something about it, right? It's just so magical. And then the last thing I have for thumbs up, for stock up, is the Epcot Beacons. The Epcot Beacons, such a wonderful addition, and people don't talk about them enough. But I had the chance where I was there by myself, and I just sat there and geeked out on the Festival of the Art shows. Just sat down in front of the I don't know what the little crystal things, if you s if you tie lines, I I don't know what they're called. But the the three of them that intersect or whatever, and in front of Space Firth at the front of the park. And I just sat there, man, and I just those beacons are wonderful. They tell a show, they they have animation, go along with music and just give you all the feels. I guess, I guess I wished, especially if you're there in the summertime, it's really hard to enjoy them because you figure, you know, by the time it gets dark in the summer, it's eight o'clock, and then you got luminous on the other side of the park. So you can't really enjoy it. You can't enjoy Afcott as much during the summer. It's just really hard. They could fix that by keeping it open till 11 or something, but they don't do that. But you get new shows, you get classic shows, you get shows that hit you. It's just great. All right, so those things for me hit me emotionally harder the last few times I've been. And then I want to talk about stock down. Things that I feel like really kind of just, you know, you might still love it, but you don't love it as much. Or you come, you came off the experience just like eh, something's a little down about it. And I feel like some people are kind of like that overnight time shows and all that stuff, and I totally understand that, you know, or rides as you did a million times, there's always going to be that little take a step back, right? But I I first got to call out Diet Epcot. Diet Epcot is incredibly weak. Now, you have Diet Epcot, but then you can put the Diet Epcot plus Cool Kids Summer, because you could kind of put the Cool Kids Summer in a little bit of a different quadrant, right? It's not they have enough entertainment there, and they're adding which I thought they would do, they're gonna add some food, cool kids summer items, it looks like specific to the parks. Big win, but the lack of food boosts and the lack of you know, something like a candlelight processional or um, you know, the temporaries from um from Flower and Garden or the concerts and stuff, like there's a big drop-off from Epcot to Diet Epcot with Cool Kids Summer to Diet Epcot. So we're talking about Willie Vanilla Diet Epcot. I honestly think, you know, if you had to rank all my parks, you had to rank all the parks that I've been to. I think Disneyland is my favorite, which I've talked about. And then I would say Epcot is number two. But if I if Diet Epcot and um Diet Epcot with Cool Kids Summer was uniquely different parks, they would be towards the bottom for sure. They would be probably above Animal Kingdom because Animal Kingdom does not have a nighttime show. But if Animal Kingdom had a nighttime show, clearly you would be above it. Would I prefer DCA over Diet Epcot? That's hard. That's really hard. Probably I would. Um I just think you lose, you lose a huge. Edge of Epcot. And you know, Epcot is underrated with their attractions. Very underrated. It's a powerhouse of lineup. It is. Guardians, Test Track, Remings, Frozen, Sorn. That's a powerhouse. And then you throw in spaceship perfectly more with the land, aquarium, and the countries. Like it's powerhouse, man. But still, Diet kind of hurts. It hurts the park. Do I want festivals 365 days? No. But they still need to make like a festival absent perks or or or um offerings, right? And they're doing that with the cold kids' summer, but they need they need more of that to offset it. Probably some food boosts would be good, just something. While we're staying in Epcot, Reming's Ratatouille Adventure used to be one of my favorite attractions. But I would say stock down on Reming's Ratatouille Adventure. The 2D does not come off the same way as 3D. And I just feel like that attraction it needs a little juice. It needs a little juice. I don't know what that is, but just feel like it might have been my favorite attraction for a while. Like I loved it so much, but I just feel like the stock's down on it. And and maybe it's just 2D, maybe it's 3D, maybe it's just I've done it so many times. I mean, I still love snow and the food, and I love the little effects, but I don't know. It's just down, guys. Alright. And then we gotta talk. Let's leave FCOT for a minute, but we'll be back. Let's talk about Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom's an awesome part, right? But I haven't ranked last, number six on the domestic rankings for a lot of reasons. And now we're missing a whole land. Dylan land is done. Not that it was that special anyway. I guess we'll revisit, right? When Tropical America's open. But Better Together, man, maybe it's great for kids. I hated it. You'll hear more, but I didn't like it. And I I'm you guys know I'm pretty optimistic. I like a lot of this new stuff. I just can't. It's not good. I mean, the bluey thing's kind of cool. I don't know if I would take advantage of it. Hopefully it will draw people there. And Animal Kingdom, you know, let's face it, during the summer, good luck with your 6 p.m. closings, right? It's like it's it really does it's such a park with full potential. It could be maybe the best park, but it's missed some components to really keep it to make to make it climb the rankings. And it just feels like an incomplete park. It feels like a half-day park, and and it's a shame because it might have the best dining there, um, best snacks. I mean, it's it's it's got some great things going for it. And then let's talk about Epcot Spine, the Epcot World Celebration Area, the Spine, where they spent 45 years developing. Yeah, you know what, guys, it was a mistake. They should have kept a fountain or they should have had a fountain there. I know they have journey of water, but it's not that great there. I mean, it's you could sit and hang out there. I guess it kind of has that that new Walt Studios um lot, whatever we're calling it over at uh Hollywood Studios. It does have a little bit of that, but one of the main components of that is the lights. The lights don't work, the ground lights don't work. It's a it's been a disaster. It worked for, I don't know, when did Luminous come out? Was it 2023 or 2022 in December? Whenever it came out, those lights haven't worked since. How is that possible? Just a complete disaster there. And until they fix those uh those lights, uh it's tough for me to act like it's it's uh it's a great spot to be on in the parks. And lastly, Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom is an exhausting park, and you know, with Big Thunder Mountain opening recently, and Buzzlight year opening, it helps. So we're finally kind of coming coming around full circle, but just Disneyland hurt the Magic Kingdom for a minute. Like it it almost was like, hey, you're the the younger sibling Magic Kingdom, and as the big sibling, I own you. And we've talked about why it's better. The fact that you can take in the nighttime shows from five spots, like, come on, win, win, win, win, win. You the only spot you can watch it truly the right way is in front of the castle or on on Main Street in Magic Kingdom, and there's there's just so much more variety at Disneyland, and there's more things to do. You don't need Lightning Lane Multipass at Disneyland Park. You can get on a ride for pirates that doesn't have lightning lane multipass, as well as all the fantasy land attractions, it's tough to compete with. Talk to me when when you know Piston Peak opens up, talk to me when Villains Land opens up, and we'll come back and see if it moves up the rankings. Alright. But that being said, overall, Disney World, man, it's the best. It's the best. There's nothing like the nighttime shows, there's nothing like the music, you know, the the entertainment that's there and the theater shows and the attractions and the family-friendly situations. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, the family-friendly environments that it puts you in. Like it's just it's the best, man. It's the best for a reason. All right. So I'll say this, you know, hopefully you guys like the episode a little bit different. Um, but you know, we're gonna get to Epic Universe. And then we're gonna talk about at some point all the new stuff that I experience and where I kind of rank them all. Um but yeah, hopefully you're hopefully you're enjoying this, hearing me on the treadmill. Appreciate you being on with me. We will see you at the next episode of This Happens.