Adventures and Mousecapades: A Podcast About Disney

216. Mea Culpa (stand by for nostalgia)

• Alicea & Nathan Novak • Episode 216

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The suitcase zippers are straining, work piled up all week, and a Disney Magic cruise is hours away. Perfect time to hit rewind to January 2022! We’re taking you back to where our show began, re-airing our very first recording, and reintroducing the two nerds behind the microphones: Alicea and Nathan, high school sweethearts who moved from the East Coast to the Seattle area and accidentally became Disney adults.

We unpack the numbers that shape our point of view: 14 Disney trips since 2009, 127 nights in Disney stays, and 11 cruises—two of them Panama Canal crossings, one finishing as the world was closing down. You’ll hear the earliest sparks that made Disney stick, from a drumline turning onto Main Street with the castle dead ahead to the Wonderful World of Disney and Mousercise on vinyl. Then we rapid-fire through our favorites with practical detail: why Haunted Mansion still haunts us, why Rise of the Resistance feels more like cinema than a queue, and how PeopleMover earns its “underrated” crown. We talk DVC stays at Riviera and Aulani, the intimacy of the Disney Wonder, Garden Grill breakfasts that feel personal, and the eternal Dole Whip vs. churro standoff.

This is also a map for what came next. We share how we keep up with Disney news without parroting headlines, how we’ll handle topics like Genie+ only after firsthand use, and why our goal is to deliver weekly, focused episodes that help you plan smarter trips without losing the joy. Expect honest takes, usable tips, and plenty of park and cruise wisdom gathered from real itineraries. Have a question or a hot take? We want your voice in the mix.

Subscribe, share with a fellow Disney fan, and leave a quick review to help others find the show. Then tell us: which park wins your heart, and what’s the one ride you’ll never skip?

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Adventures & Mousecapades is a passion project from Alicea & Nathan Novak - two Seattleites addicted to The Mouse. We are not affiliated with Disney, nor are we travel agents. Opinions are our own.

Instagram, Threads, Facebook, Twitter: @ourmousecapades
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podcast@ourmousecapades.com

Late Night Update & Rerun Plan

Intro

Please stand clear of the doors. For favor, mantenganse ale de las puertas. Please stand clear of the doors. Por favor, mantenganse ale. Because this hear's the wildest ride in the wilderness.

The Very First Episode Re-Introduced

Nathan

Hello everybody, I'm Nathan, and this is a very Mea Culpa episode of Adventures and Mousecapades. As I read this, it's nearly midnight on Friday night, and we're getting picked up to head to the airport in about seven hours. And we're just finishing packing for our cruise on the Disney Magic. Yeah, time got away from us this week. And with a Super Bowl win by the world champion Seattle Seahawks, travel back from Sterling's Theater Competition in Sacramento on Monday. Work, other commitments, and well, just life in general. Um yeah, uh, for the first time in four years, we don't have a new episode ready for you this week. But what we are gonna do is fire up the Wayback Machine and rerun our very first episode that kicked this whole adventure off. Back then we had like three or four listeners. Hi, family. And while our little community has grown a little bit, uh, some folks may have missed this one. Now we'll be back next week, don't fear, with a trip report on our five-night Marvel Day at sea cruise on the Disney Magic, complete with stops at Progresso and Cozumel, Mexico. In the meantime, let me reintroduce you to the two nerds behind the microphone here on Adventures and Mouse capades. Uh hey, what's going on?

Alicea

Hello. Uh, we need to have a little chat.

Nathan

Uh-oh, what did I do this time? Look, I'm sorry, whatever it was.

Alicea

Ah, blanket apologies are so passe. No silly. I want to do a podcast.

Nathan

Oh, well, that explains these microphones. So, what are we gonna do a podcast about?

Alicea

Well, Disney, of course. Everybody always asks us for little tips and tricks, and we've got a lot of stories to tell, so

Nathan

cool. That sounds fun. Uh, so how do we start?

Alicea

Well, how about something like this?

Intro

Please stand clear of the doors. For favor, manténganse a left out. Please stand clear of the doors. Por favor, manténganse a lez this year's the wildest ride in the wilderness.

Alicea

Hi, I'm Alicea.

Nathan

And I'm Nathan.

Alicea

And welcome to episode one of our adventures and mouse capades.

Nathan

Woohoo! We made it. We finally started recording our podcast.

Alicea

After talking about it for well, it's not been that long. Only three months or so, maybe. Yeah.

Nathan

It's been a little while, but yeah. Um so welcome to our probably two, maybe three listeners. At least for now.

Alicea

Family.

Nathan

Yeah. You?

Alicea

Hi family.

Nathan

Hi family. Uh, and to, you know, once this blows up and gets huge, and we have 10 people listening, and they go through the back catalog. Hi to you in the future.

Alicea

Hi from the past.

Who We Are And Where We Live

Nathan

Yes. I I I sure hope the future is going a lot better than the past has been going.

Alicea

Yes, indeed. Yes. So we are here to well, to talk about Disney and our adventures and our mouse capades. See what we did there. Mouscapades. Yeah. Um, we love Disney very much. We've been on a couple of vacations. Just a few. Just a few. Um, I'd say we're semi-fanatic. I mean, just looking at our decorations around our house right now, maybe we're leaning a little more towards fanatic.

Nathan

You mean the fact that we had to get a whole other Christmas tree because we pushed all of our non-Disney ornaments off onto its own tree?

Alicea

I don't know what you're talking about.

Nathan

Okay.

Alicea

And yeah, yeah, the beautiful Lego, Mickey and Minnie on our wall. Yes. So we decided to start this to talk to you all just about Disney.

Nathan

Yeah.

Alicea

Our vacations, our things that we've learned as we've been vacationing.

Nathan

Yeah.

Alicea

And we wanted to start off just talking about ourselves, of course, because everybody loves to talk about themselves. We wanted to give you guys a little intro.

Nathan

Yeah.

Alicea

Basically on who we are.

Nathan

Right. So you know who these two random voices are that are talking in your ears, are you know what our background is and where we came from, and a little bit about, you know, all the fun that we've had with Disney and uh kind of what we plan to do here with the podcast.

Alicea

Exactly.

Nathan

So, um, Alicea, who are you?

Alicea

I'm Alicea.

Nathan

Oh, okay, great.

Alicea

Thanks. Um, well, I could talk a little bit about where we are too.

Nathan

Yeah.

Alicea

I'm Alicea. I'm 40 something years old. I forgot how old I am.

Nathan

43.

Alicea

I'm 43. That's right. Oh my gosh. As you get older, you kind of forget how old you actually are.

Nathan

Especially when you're like the year isn't like a zero or like a five, and it makes it easy.

Alicea

Well, pandemic's kind of screwed everything up. That's true. I don't remember a thing. Um, anyway, I'm 43 and we live in the Seattle, Washington area. Yeah. We're not in Seattle. We are not too far from it. And right now it is a winter wonderland outside. Lots of snow.

Nathan

Yep.

Alicea

We have two kiddos. One is 16, 16-year-old girl, and a 10-year-old boy. And later on down the line, you guys will definitely hear from them as they add to our just what we do. Just as they chime in and and share their experiences, what they love, what they don't like, you know, stuff like that.

Family, Jobs, And The Move West

Nathan

And trust us, we will talk about them. Yes.

Alicea

Because they are part of our lives.

Nathan

Absolutely.

Alicea

Huge part of our lives.

Nathan

And they're not an inconsequential part of why we started down this whole Disney Road in the first place. So um yeah. Should we name names?

Alicea

Yeah, I think that's fine.

Nathan

Okay. So our daughter, who is 16, uh, her name is Kaitlyn, and our son, who is 10, his name is Sterling. Um, so yeah, Alicia, what do you do when you're not sitting here on the couch talking to me with a microphone in your face?

Alicea

Um, I read and I play video games.

Nathan

Oh, yeah.

Alicea

Are you talking about like job?

Nathan

I mean, how do you support this podcast empire that we are building when we don't have any advertisers or sponsors?

Alicea

Through my massive intellect.

Nathan

That's right. What do you do for a day job?

Alicea

My day job is I am an executive business administrator at a am I allowed to name companies?

Nathan

Sure.

Alicea

At Microsoft. Yes. I support a team of 200 and I absolutely love working there. I love my team.

Nathan

Where did you grow up? Kind of what's your background, your your history in 30 seconds?

Alicea

My history in 30 seconds. I was born in Bellevue, Washington.

Nathan

Hey, that's close.

Alicea

That is close. Um, let's see, my family moved around a bunch. We ended up in North Carolina in sixth grade for me. And let's see, I was in North Carolina for high school where I met this wonderful guy who's on the other microphone in front of me.

Nathan

Aye, that's me. That's right. We are high school sweethearts.

Alicea

We are high school sweethearts. Um, went to college for a while, wasn't quite my gig, and then got married.

Nathan

Yeah.

Alicea

And we ended up moving to the Seattle area. Love it very much.

Nathan

Absolutely.

Alicea

Although we joke that we're gonna retire in Florida.

Nathan

I mean, you know, there are certain, you know, aspects to Florida that have their appeal to us.

Alicea

It's just for one reason and one reason only, really, honestly.

Nathan

Yeah, Florida rates on cruises.

Alicea

Florida rates on cruises, yes.

Nathan

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Cool. So let's talk about me.

Alicea

Talk about you.

Nathan

Yeah,

Alicea

tell me all about you.

Nathan

Well, first in the beginning, the earth cooled, and then the dinosaurs came.

Alicea

That's you, huh?

Nathan

I'll skip ahead a little bit. I'm not that old, although I am older.

Alicea

You are,

Nathan

yes, I am 44 and stuff. Um yeah, I was uh uh uh New Englander, East Coaster. Um, I born in Vermont, grew up in Connecticut, uh, finished high school again where I met Alicea. Um uh finished high school, went to college, and we and started our career, uh careers, um, in Charlotte, North Carolina. And yeah, um uh just about um twenty-two years ago almost exactly, as we sit here, um no, twenty-one years ago. Yeah, math. Math is look, it's optional at this point. Um anyhow, yeah. We uh the company I was working for, consulting firm, uh I was working for, uh, closed their office in Charlotte and said, Hey, do y'all wanna move to Seattle? Um, we'll pay for the move. And Alicea's family is originally from out here. She's got tons of aunts and uncles and cousins and

Alicea

grandparents are out here and aunts and uncles,

Disney Trip Stats And Cruise History

Nathan

and uh and we had always said, hey, it would be great to move to Seattle and live there because we, you know, on you loved it from being out here. I'd visited once or so and I fell in love with the place. And um, here we are, fresh out of college a year or so, and we've been married almost a year, and somebody's offering to, you know, pay all your moving costs to move across the country. It's kind of like, okay, I guess it's time to go. So yeah, so we've been out here uh, you know, 20 plus years, and like Alicea said, we absolutely love it out here. Yes. Um yeah. Uh I am a uh program manager at Microsoft as well. Um blue badge is in the house. And um I work in uh the Azure Networking Group. Um so basically making sure all of your all of your data and systems and applications that are in the cloud can actually talk to you. Uh that is uh kind of what I help do. And yeah, that's a little bit about us.

Alicea

So let's uh let's dive into some Disney stuff.

Nathan

Oh, Disney stuff. Oh, that's why we're here. That's why we're here.

Alicea

So how many Disney trips have we taken?

Nathan

Well, I just did the math.

Alicea

I know.

Nathan

Um uh we have done 14 trips to date, and we have uh three more scheduled for the next year. Yes.

Alicea

14 trips, and we started as a family doing vacations with Disney in 2009.

Nathan

Yes.

Alicea

Um we've spent 127 nights in Disney accommodations that includes hotel, um, DVC cruises and all that. I've done 11 cruises. Uh and I've only gone on nine. Um, that's because we did a err, sorry.

Nathan

Yeah, it wasn't we.

Alicea

I did a 13th birthday cruise with Kaitlyn.

Nathan

Yeah.

Alicea

Uh and she got to choose what she wanted to do, and she wanted to do a cruise. And it was a back-to-back. That's why there's two extra ones on me. Uh we have spent 71 nights. I have spent 71 nights on a Disney ship. Um, two of those cruises were Panama Canal cruises.

Nathan

Those were the best.

Alicea

Those are amazing. And we'll we'll get to those a little later in this series. Um, our last Panama Canal cruise was in March of 2020.

Nathan

Yeah, about that.

Alicea

And it left March 6th of 2020.

Nathan

Yeah.

Alicea

So um it was still it was still an amazing cruise.

Nathan

Oh, we had a blast, and we also ended up being like the very last Disney guests globally.

Alicea

Yes.

Nathan

For several months.

Alicea

Wouldn't change it for the world, though. That was an amazing memory.

Nathan

That was fantastic.

Earliest Park And TV Memories

Alicea

Earliest Disney memories. So my earliest Disney memory is um I know I'd been a couple of times, and and the memory kind of came from stories that I heard from like my aunt and my mom talking about, oh, we took you down to Disneyland. Um, I remember them talking about me being so excited. I was jumping on the bed, literally jumping on the bed, and it was like, I think they said like 11:30 at night or something. And I was just jumping and jumping and jumping, and then like immediately fell asleep. Mid-jump or something. I don't know. I don't remember that. So my earliest Disney memory how old were you in Disney? I have no idea. Five, four, five, something. I'm not sure. Got it. Um, my earliest memory, I was probably about eight or so. I remember I was down in Disneyland, and you know, I could probably do the math. Sword in the Stone had come out not too long before then, and Merlin was down there as a character. And I remember getting my picture with Merlin. He's standing behind me, and he has his hands on my shoulders, and he takes his beard and throws it over my face. So that is my earliest memory, me trying to swim out from Merlin's beard. And I just remember I thought it was the funniest thing, and I was laughing so hard. Um, I think I have a picture somewhere, or my mom does somewhere. But yes, that is my earliest Disney memory. And I know I've I'm fairly certain I've gone since then, like before our 2009 trip. But nothing's coming to mind. Maybe that was my last one before our stuff. But you have some pretty awesome Disney memories too.

Nathan

Uh my earliest Disney memories, uh, all up are probably um, you know, like the Disney channel when we first got cable when cable was first a thing. Um I remember there was like this morning exercise program that would come on and Mouser Size. That was it. Yes.

Alicea

I had a vinyl of Mouser Size.

Nathan

Yeah, my dad had a hi-fi uh stereo system and a very, very expensive record player. Uh, and you know, those quote-unquote cheap albums were never going to see the light of day on his needles. But uh no, my first Disney Park memory and was really my freshman year of high school. Um, I was still living in Connecticut, and the band from my little school, um we went and did Disney World Magic Music Days. I think it was the 20th or 25th anniversary or something like that, of magic music days. And I remember like the the most the biggest memory from that trip is I was playing bass drum and the drumline and we came out from backstage. If you're in Disney World and you're at the like the flagpole and you're looking and you see the you're looking and facing towards the uh firehouse, there's a backstage door to the right of that, um, kind of between the firehouse and where like the haircut place is. And um, so the door swung open and we had been, you know, backstage. The parade came out from back there and then went down Main Street, and I'm sure it went, you know, off into Adventureland or Frontierland or you know, off to the off to the left there.

Alicea

Adventureland.

Rapid-Fire Favorites: Alicia

Nathan

Yeah. And but coming out, you go around, you know, past the firehouse, past the train station, and then you make that turn, and you're dead straight in the middle of Main Street, and the castle's right there. It is like I'm I have goosebumps thinking about it right now. Uh that whole image and experience is just seared in my brain. I absolutely loved it. Yeah. So the the cool part about all that was, you know, we were a bunch of high schoolers, and so it was hey, the the bus is gonna pick you up at you know 10 p.m. at the circle in front of Epcot. You've got parkopper passes. Enjoy your day. Um, and so, you know, a bunch of us, you know, this little gang of of uh uh kids that I was with, there was probably I don't know, seven or eight of us. Um we just went everywhere, it was so fun. Um, we hit Mexico and got this giant, like three-foot wide sombrero, and we went over to Hollywood Studios or MGM Studios right after that because we had a park hopper and we saw an ewok, and I don't have the picture, but we took a picture with our little group with one of the ewalks, and we had the sombrero on the ewok, it was amazing. Um, anyhow, yeah. Earliest memories. I think we all we both have some good ones.

Alicea

Yeah.

Nathan

Yeah.

Alicea

You mentioned before you talked about the park watching Disney stuff. Yes, I watched so many Disney things. I remember watching the wonderful world of Disney with my parents. Um, was it Friday nights or Saturday nights? There was a m they had a movie, weekly movie, and I remember watching that, and I remember seeing you know the Tinkerbell intro with her little pixie dust thing. Um, and that was something we watched every week, every week. Um movies, I love Disney movies. I love Disney animated movies. I will watch them forever. Um when a movie comes out, we will go see it.

Nathan

Yep.

Alicea

That's just I I love them. I love the the feel-good, happy feeling that you get from them. Um I love happy things, and Disney makes me happy.

Nathan

Let's kind of go rapid fire here because we don't want to be sitting here talking for, you know.

Alicea

Oh, you want to go through our question list?

Nathan

13 hours. Yeah, let's go through the question list. So, you want to go first? Sure. I'm gonna grill you.

Alicea

You're gonna grill me. Go for it.

Nathan

All right. Favorite character

Alicea

Daisy Duck.

Nathan

Are you sure?

Alicea

I love Daisy so much.

Nathan

Favorite movie.

Alicea

Oh, see, I should have thought of these first ahead of time. Um, I really like Princess and the Frog. Oh. I love the music in that, and I love that she's independent, but still, you know, has a lesson to learn.

Nathan

Yeah. Awesome. Favorite ride.

Alicea

I know this is gonna be a shocker. I love Haunted Mansion.

Nathan

Really? Yes, dear listener, we have haunted mansion stuff everywhere, including on the front of our house by our front door. Yes. Yes. We are foolish mortals. Yes. Um, so I'm uh you have classic ride and newer ride. So I do.

Alicea

Is so haunted mansion is my favorite classic ride. Yes. Uh favorite newer ride, rise of the resistance. Yeah. I love it so much. I I know I've seen people say that, oh, one and done for that one, and I don't understand that at all. It's so involved. I we've been on it three times now, and each one of those I've seen something new. And I'm sure I will see something new each time in the future that we ride it.

Nathan

Assuming it's working.

Alicea

Assuming it's working.

Nathan

That ride seems to have the worst luck.

Alicea

There's too many things going on to keep it going. I love that ride. Yes.

Nathan

But Disney, please make it work all the time. Okay, favorite roller coaster.

Alicea

Expedition Everest.

Nathan

Nice. Favorite uh underrated ride.

Alicea

People mover.

Nathan

Oh, nice.

Alicea

I love people mover.

Nathan

Okay, here's the big question: Disney World or Disneyland?

Rapid-Fire Favorites: Nathan

Alicea

Now, if we're talking about the resort area, Disney World all the way, just because you have four parks, Disneyland just has the two. Um I think that's what I meant when I was asking when I wrote that question down anyway. So Disney World for that one. Favorite park?

Nathan

Yeah.

Alicea

Oh I honestly think it's a tie between Epcot and Hollywood Studios.

Nathan

Really? Yes. Why Epcot?

Alicea

Mainly the festivals.

Nathan

That's fine. That's totally fine. That's awesome. So, full disclosure, we are DVC owners. Yes. What is your favorite DVC resort hotel?

Alicea

Riviera.

Nathan

Yeah.

Alicea

Aulani's really nice, but there's no parks with it. Riviera, we just went and it's amazing. I loved it. It was totally our vibe.

Nathan

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Swank. Sophisticated high-end. That's totally a okay.

Alicea

What we enjoy, not necessarily what we are.

Nathan

Okay, that is a fair point. Favorite character meal.

Alicea

Tusker House.

Nathan

Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one. Favorite quick service.

Alicea

Woody's lunchbox.

Nathan

Oh, yeah. That's cool. How about favorite restaurant?

Alicea

Favorite restaurant, I think it's another new one that we went to was Topolino's Terrace. In the evening.

Nathan

In the evening.

Alicea

In the evening. I the dinner there was superb.

Nathan

Uh-huh. Absolutely loved it. Uh-huh. Favorite snack.

Alicea

Dole Whip.

Nathan

Okay. Okay. All right. And then obviously we've been on a handful of cruises. What's your favorite ship?

Alicea

So, disclosure, we have not been on all of them. We have been on one ship far, far, far more than the others. And that's my favorite. I love the Disney Wonder. I love the smaller ship size. We've been on the magic once. We've been on the fantasy only once. But I still think Wonder's my favorite.

Nathan

Yeah. We haven't hit the dream. The dream and the fantasy are effectively the same.

Alicea

Yeah, there's a little difference.

Nathan

Just like the wonder and the magic are effectively the same. Um, yeah.

Alicea

Okay. Cool. All right. I'm going to go down the list for you now.

Nathan

Oh boy.

Alicea

Favorite character.

Nathan

Favorite character, hands down, sorcerer Mickey.

Alicea

Sorcerer Mickey. Yeah. Yes.

Nathan

Yeah. From Fantasia.

Alicea

Favorite movie.

Nathan

I'm going to go with the original Incredibles. I love that movie. Um Mr. Incredible pre-workout phase really speaks to me. I think I resemble that remark to a certain degree. Um, but also like he's just it seems like he as much as he tries, like things go wrong around him. I don't know. Like I feel like I can relate to that. Um, and the music in that movie. Yes. Oh. And that franchise, it's really good. Yes. Favorite ride. My favorite ride overall, Rise of the Resistance, like you, is it almost does it injustice to call it a ride. Like it's an experience.

Alicea

Yep. Yeah. Favorite classic ride.

Nathan

Favorite classic ride, I would say, is I'm gonna say pirates.

Alicea

Which one?

Nathan

Disneyland.

Alicea

Okay.

Nathan

You took the words right out of my mouth. The one in Disneyland. For those of you who don't know, the Pirates of the Caribbean, Caribbean, whatever, is twice as long in Disneyland as it is in Disney World. It's like what five or six minutes versus 10 to 12, or I forget the exact number. It's significant. Like there's extra scenes. There's yeah.

Alicea

Now we haven't gone on any of we haven't gone to any of the other parks. We haven't been to any of the international parks. I know Shang, I know Shanghai Disney and I think Hong Kong Disney have an amazing, yeah, screen heavy Pirates of the Caribbean, which I'd love to see sometime.

Nathan

To me, though, I definitely want to see the story. It's not the it's not a classic ride.

Alicea

Yeah.

Nathan

Yeah.

Alicea

Favorite newer ride.

Nathan

So I'm gonna throw, I'm gonna not say rise. I love rise. Oh, like you, I should have thought about this beforehand. I'm gonna say Expedition Everest. I really love it. Although rock and roller coaster is a close second, and I would say it also in the top three, this is gonna be controversial. Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen. I really like Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway.

Alicea

I love Mickey Minnie's Runaway Railway.

Nathan

A lot of people don't think it was worth the demise of the great movie ride. Uh, I don't like, I don't know. I just love the style, the the vibrancy, the stories, the tornado, the dancing, the like the original song. Yes, yep, you know, the explosion and you walk through the screen. Like, it's really cool. It's really cool.

Alicea

I like that ride a lot too.

Nathan

Yeah.

Alicea

Favorite roller coaster?

Nathan

Uh Expedition Everest. Yeah, for sure.

Alicea

Underrated ride.

Nathan

It would be cliche to agree agree with you on People Mover.

Alicea

But it's so awesome. It is.

How We Keep Up With Disney News

Nathan

It's really cool. And I will say the reason I'm gonna say people mover is because on one of our trips in Disney World, we were on People Mover and the lights were on in Space Mountain.

Alicea

In Space Mountain. And I think it was still running too. Yeah. Like there are people in the cars and it was running.

Nathan

Yeah.

Alicea

But the lights were on. That was pretty cool.

Nathan

It was really, really cool.

Alicea

For those of you that don't know, People Mover goes through Space Mountain. If the lights are on, you can see the track.

Nathan

Yep.

Alicea

Okay. Uh Disney World or Disneyland?

Nathan

Oh, this is so hard for me to answer. I love everything that's in Disney World. I love that we get to see our awesome and amazing friend family that lives in Orlando. Hi, Bill and Rachel, and Andrew and Mare and everybody else. Um I'm gonna say Disneyland. If if only because it's it's just more walkable.

Alicea

Yeah.

Nathan

It's just not as spread out. I don't feel like we have to completely kill ourselves to see stuff. And the tra we don't have to worry about buses and transportation and all the rest of that stuff.

Alicea

All right. Favorite park.

Nathan

I am going to say I can make arguments for several parks. I'm gonna actually say California Adventure. Oh my gosh. The the immersion, the design, the colors, especially at night. Yes. Holy cow. Yeah. I and and what they've done with Pixar Pier is fantastic. Yes. I love it. I love it.

Alicea

Favorite D V C hotel.

Goals, Format, And What We’ll Cover

Nathan

I'm gonna say I love I love Riviera. I agree with your your example. I think my favorite though is Alani. Um I love being in Hawaii. Uh yes, it's very nice. It's just so relaxing. And I don't feel tied and super Disney-ish. Yeah. Like I don't feel tied to the resort, and I have feel like we have to go kill ourselves when we're there. That's true. You know, we're not walking 20,000 steps a day and wondering if my knee's gonna you know blow out or not. Um, you know, and we can you know drive around the island and see all sorts of different stuff. I really love Alani.

Alicea

It's very nice.

Nathan

Yep.

Alicea

Favorite character meal

Nathan

garden grill, Epcot, breakfast. Holy cow. The food is amazing. There are so many characters when that's a thing. Yeah. Um it's it's all of the other ones, all the other character breakfasts we've gone to have felt a little, I don't know, I wanna uh almost like assembly line-ish, like you know, the characters are just going around to all the stations, like you can see the whole restaurant and what they're doing. Although Tusker House is not like that. Um but it just feels more intimate.

Alicea

It is, it's a much smaller restaurant.

Nathan

Yeah, and you're in these booths, like you're not seeing the whole rest of the room. Um and the food is incredible. Yeah.

Alicea

Okay. Favorite quick service.

Nathan

I would go Woody's lunchbox as well. The grilled cheese and uh potato barrels.

Alicea

Yes, potato barrels. So yummy good. Favorite restaurant.

Nathan

Topolinos Terrace, just like you, for dinner. Wasn't super impressed with breakfast there. No, especially for the money.

Alicea

Yeah.

Nathan

And the character experience, at least the character experience we had was not good. Um, but the dinner there, I mean, there's a reason we went multiple times.

Alicea

Yes, and spent lots of money. It's an expensive restaurant, but it is delicious.

Nathan

It is, absolutely.

Alicea

Favorite snack?

Nathan

Churro.

Alicea

What

Nathan

Disneyland Churro.

Alicea

Churro. I am shocked, I tell you. No, I'm not shocked, I tell you.

Nathan

If you have to get a churro and you're in Disney World, go to Nomad Lounge in Animal Kingdom, and then you get fancy ass churros and a beer, and there's your day.

Alicea

You have to pay separate, they don't come together. It's not churros and beer.

Nathan

Oh, you get churros and a beer.

Alicea

Oh, got it. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you like beer. All right. Last one, favorite ship.

Nathan

The wonder.

Alicea

Yeah.

Nathan

Yeah. Like you. It's just I love the intimacy of the smaller ships. Um, you know, we've only been on the fantasy once. Um, hopefully we'll fix that uh this coming summer. Yep. Assuming the world doesn't end. But um, yeah, I just I love the smaller ships and specifically the wonder. We've been on that one the most. It's the one that comes over and cruises here on the west coast.

Alicea

Makes it a little easier.

Nathan

Exactly.

Alicea

Well, that is our quick list of questions, even though that went a little longer than quickly. That's okay. It's all right. That's okay. We're just starting out. We're just learning, we're getting into our groove here.

Nathan

That's right. That's right. Um, speaking of, like, what is our groove? Like, how do we keep track of what's going on at Disney? Obviously, we don't live in Florida. You know, we live in Seattle.

Alicea

Yeah.

Nathan

There's, you know, 16 inches of snow on the ground. Um, we're we're not Disney fying at the moment.

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Alicea

That's not an exaggeration either. There's literally 16 inches of snow on the ground. Yay! It's pretty though. Well, okay, so keeping up with Disney, we have a couple of blogs that we vlogs that we listen to and watch, and just I guess some news sites and and whatnot. We just keep those. Do you want to name some names? Um, we love all ears. We love the all Ears cast. We watch their stuff on YouTube all the time, along with DFB guide Disney Food blog.

Speaker 4

Yeah.

Alicea

Um, and there's a couple of other podcasts that I listen to here and there. There's nothing I really listen to religiously. Um there's yeah, there's a couple other things that I that I watch, but those are our main sources.

Nathan

And they cover pretty much everything.

Alicea

Yeah. Oh, Inside the Magic is another one that I watch too.

Nathan

On YouTube.

Alicea

Yeah. Um, you'll find us a lot of times in the evening. We'll just scroll through our subscription list and take a look. Oh, what's what's new in in the Disney World in land today?

Nathan

Yep.

Alicea

That's where we get that info.

Nathan

Yep, on YouTube. So, Alicia, you wanted to start a podcast. It was your idea. Fantastic idea.

Alicea

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Nathan

What what are your goals? What what do we want to what are we doing here?

Alicea

Well, um, this is kind of a way for us to do a couple of things. One, reminisce about our vacations, um, and tell people about things that we have learned on those vacations. There are things we went into, like going on a cruise for the very first time. We had no idea about simple little things that, and and frankly, we didn't know about them until after we had finished our first cruise. Things that we really would have liked to have known ahead of time. Now I know there are a lot of a lot of sources out there where you can get this information, but this is just us wanting to talk to y'all and just say, this is what we've learned, these are our experiences. Um, yeah, and pretty much just go through that. I want to go through our vacations, our memories. I'd love to get a couple people on with us as well just to talk about Disney stuff.

Nathan

Yeah. How often do you see us putting a podcast out for people to listen? What's our goal?

Alicea

Weekly?

Nathan

Yeah.

Alicea

I think. And they're not gonna be long. I have no idea how long we've been talking now, but probably weekly we can uh we can cut them down to if they get long, we can do like next time on. Yes. Um, we'll cut them up so they're not so long. So it's a nice bite-sized, easy listen.

Nathan

Yeah, and I think we'll over time we'll introduce all sorts of new topics. Um, it's not just gonna be us talking about you know what we've done and lessons learned as we go on new trips and vacations, as we learn new things, we'll try to share that. Um, as there's big events that are happening in the Disney verse, is if I can use that as a term. I suppose. Sure. Um, you know, we'll probably throw a podcast up here or there talking about, you know, Genie Plus and what do we think about it.

Alicea

And once we actually get to experience it, yes.

Nathan

That's the other thing too. We're gonna try not to um just regurgitate the opinions of the folks that we see online. Um, we're not here to necessarily be, at least for right now, a news site or news podcast where we're completely up to date with stuff. Uh, and we're not gonna just um recycle what we've heard or read. We want to share what we've actually experienced and the lessons learned and and what our opinions are. Um, you know, we just like uh we always have to say, you know, we may work for Microsoft and have a blue badge, but our opinions are our own and not Microsoft's. Uh same thing with with Disney. Yes. Um, you know, we don't work for Disney, we're not affiliated with Disney with Disney. Um, we're not sponsored, we're not, you know, getting any kickbacks or anything. But we're also not here to just, you know, make stuff up or do willy-nilly. We're here to give you some advice. We're here to share our opinions, and uh um we're here to help you make good choices on what you want to do for your vacations. Um, and part of that really is um helping you do some research and pointing you in the right directions. If you have a ton of questions, find a great travel agent. We have some that we can recommend. Um uh but you know, we're not here to be your travel agents. Um, we're here to help um you just know more about what's going on in Disney and what you know, boots on the ground, what our experiences have been.

Alicea

For okay, yes, we are occasional Disney vacationers here to let you know about our experiences.

Nathan

Yeah. I mean, with three trips scheduled for you know the next nine months, we're we're a little more than occasional, but yeah.

Alicea

That's not the norm though. We don't go three times a year usually.

Nathan

No, it's usually twice.

Alicea

Maybe okay. It's not too much. I promise you, it is definitely not too much. Nope. There's no such thing.

Nathan

Nope.

unknown

Nope.

Alicea

I do want to say that if you guys have any questions or suggestions, you can email us at podcast at adventures and mouscapades.com. You can also follow us on social media platforms at our mousecapades.

Nathan

Yep, and that's InstaTwitface.

Alicea

InstaTwitface.

Nathan

Yep, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, just our mousecapades. And that's where we'll post our reminiscence and ruminations and all other alliterations. Yes, exactly. Things, all these social things. So yeah, I think we should probably wrap that one up here. Yes. All right. Thanks everybody for listening. Uh, and like I said, or like Alicia said, you know, if you have any questions, give us a yell. We want this to be interactive. If there's stuff you want us to talk about, topics you want us to cover or weigh in on, please let us know. We definitely want to help out. And and we're here to be your resource, as much as it's we're here to actually force and I, Alicia and I to talk to each other. No. But uh yeah, thanks for listening for this long, and we really hope to uh see you again, talk to you again, whatever.

Alicea

Talk at you soon.

Nathan

We're gonna talk at you soon.

Alicea

Something like that.

Nathan

All right. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye. Bye bye.

Intro

Thank you for flying Star Tours. Bye bye.

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Alicea Novak

Host
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Nathan Novak

Host