Main Street Talk Podcast: A True Disney Miracle & Halloween at Disney World

Nick and Joni cover the latest at Disney World, from the kickoff of Halloween at Magic Kingdom to changes around the Adventureland Archway, Rivers of America, and the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean Tavern.

They’re also joined by guest Seth, a Disney Vacation Club member, who shares the incredible story of his daughter—born with a rare eye condition—showing signs of vision for the very first time during a character interaction on their Disney trip. It’s a touching miracle at Disney you won’t forget.

Plus, Disney Cruise Line’s newest award and details on the $50 giveaway for subscribers.

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Transcript

Nick 0:31

Hello everybody. Welcome to this week's episode of the Main Street Talk podcast, your go-to podcast for everything Disney World related, the tips and the tricks, and the attraction spotlights, and all the latest news of the parks. I am your host, Nick, and as always, Joanie is with me. Hello

Joni 0:49

Hello everyone.

Nick 0:50

So today's Saturday, August 16th and big weekend and down in Disney World. You know what happened?

Joni 0:57

I can take a gander.

Nick 0:59

Take a guess.

Joni 1:00

I I'm gonna say booty You.

Nick 1:02

booty you. Booty

Joni 1:04

booty

Nick 1:05

me. Why? Booty me. Uh, yes. The Halloween party started last night. That's exciting. Down in Disney. Everything went pretty good. You know, I watched some vlogs, I read some vlogs, and, seemed like everything went pretty good. Saw some pictures of, or we both saw pictures of the, the popcorn bucket. Oh, yeah. What'd you think?

Joni 1:24

Well, I like the popcorn bucket, but as you had stated, it looks awfully small. Like where does your,

Nick 1:28

I think you can probably fit seven kernels of popcorn in

Joni 1:31

have baby Hands to get in there. So make sure you have a little one with you that feed you some popcorn.

Nick 1:36

If you haven't seen it, it's Jack Skellington Uhhuh, and he's very skinny. Yeah. And, yeah, it's, it's, it's definitely decorative. Yeah.

Joni 1:45

But you know what I thought was really cute? and kind of, because what I like about the, Halloween parade, I, well, I like all of it, but one of the things that really stands out to me is the grave diggers scraping their,

Nick 1:55

the grave diggers. Love the grave

Joni 1:56

the concrete,

Nick 1:57

the sparks coming up. Yeah. Yeah. It's

Joni 1:59

And the buck or the, little bag that you get.

Nick 2:02

trick or treat bag. Yeah. Trick or treat bag

Joni 2:03

The trick or treat bag has It's the grave diggers. on it. Yeah.

Nick 2:06

Yeah. We saw, okay, so we were discussing this earlier. We saw two bags. One of'em says booty you and the other ones is the grave diggers. We don't know if it's the same bag front and back. You think it's the same one?

Joni 2:18

I think it's the same. because I pull, I've pulled our bags and they're different pictures on each side. So I think it's One bag, two sides. And that's two

Nick 2:28

Two images. Yep. Okay.

Joni 2:30

I think that's, I think that's what it's my, my opinion,

Nick 2:32

the grave diggers was really cool.'cause I mean, that's probably my favorite part of the parade and I think it's probably a lot of people's favorite part of the parade.

Joni 2:39

Well, and the headless horsemen, like we had said,

Nick 2:41

Yeah. That, that's,

Joni 2:43

It comes down about five.

Nick 2:44

That gets things started. Yeah. Just hearing those, the horseshoe on the concrete and seeing that, that's pretty, pretty eerie.

Joni 2:51

Pretty spine chilling.

Nick 2:52

Yes. Especially if you're watching it come down Main Street, you know, everything in the background. So yeah. Halloween party is off and going. Get your tickets. There are I think five sold out dates. I don't think there's been any more since last week. Not that I saw. But again, don't wait on it. Get'em if you plan on going. So you ready to dive into the news? Yes.

Joni 3:11

Yeah, Let's do it.

Nick 3:12

Okay. At at Magic Kingdom, the Adventure Land Entrance, Archway and Magic Kingdom has been partially dismantled. Not sure what's going on, if it's just for a small refurbishment or if it's getting completely replaced, but the whole Adventure Land where it says Adventure Land is gone.

Joni 3:29

Mm. Okay.

Nick 3:31

Not sure what's going on. I could not find what's going on. I don't think anybody knows.

Joni 3:35

so

Nick 3:36

we may have a brand new sign up there. Or we may just have a new paint job, who knows?

Joni 3:40

Oh,

Nick 3:41

But they took it down.

Joni 3:42

here's what I'm thinking. I mean, they do a lot of stuff overnight and it's done that night. So if it was just a paint job, don't you think?

Nick 3:48

I would think they would get it done overnight.

Joni 3:50

it's not getting a renaming,

Nick 3:51

it? Yeah. No, they wouldn't re No, I don't think they'd rename the whole land, but the sign's gone. Okay.

Joni 3:57

Okay.

Nick 3:59

And the Rivers of America is almost fully drained. It is. I saw pictures of it. It's. It's pretty. Are you

Joni 4:08

this day and night?

Nick 4:10

I, so I was thinking that too. I don't know. I would imagine,

Joni 4:13

time to drain

Nick 4:14

but that's a lot of water too.

Joni 4:16

yeah.

Nick 4:17

Oh yeah. And where's it going? I don't know where it's going. I, I didn't look it up where it's going. But like, is it going into large, tanks on trucks and they're hauling it away? Or is it getting transplanted, you know, transplanted to another water source?

Joni 4:32

don't know. I don't know. I

Nick 4:34

I don't know. But, um,

Joni 4:35

well, and it's, cause it's treated right? I mean it's got some,

Nick 4:39

yeah, well if you can look at the pictures

Joni 4:41

necessarily like use it to water the crops or

Nick 4:44

anything. I probably wouldn't. It definitely need filtered. I would think that's gross, but you can see the track of the river boat. Okay. And um, it's really low. Yeah. Oh yeah. You can see the track and you can see like the actual algae

Joni 4:57

Oh, the track

Nick 4:57

and stuff, so I definitely wouldn't drink it.

Joni 5:00

Yeah. No, no. Or eat anything that has been watered by it.

Nick 5:04

Yeah, so that's, that's pretty, you know, it's, it's almost done. I think from what I saw, and this was big news on August 14th, we talked about this last week, the excitement of the Beacon Barrel Pirates of the Caribbean restaurant. Oh, wow. Or tavern, excuse me. It was opening, so they opened reservations on August 14th. Okay. And guess what happened? The entire Disney Dining Reservation crashed.

Joni 5:32

because everybody wanted in.

Nick 5:33

I don't know why, but this, this affected multiple services on the website and especially the all dining reservations.

Joni 5:42

Oh, not just

Nick 5:43

not just for, not just for

Joni 5:44

Oh.

Nick 5:44

I even think the DVC website went down. Oh, I don't. So. What

Joni 5:48

what a

Nick 5:49

who knows, Disney's It department? Um,

Joni 5:53

yikes.

Nick 5:53

yeah, they, this, this happens too often. Stuff like this just happens too often. I, I don't know. But anyways, it, it completely, so nobody, like, you know, I get notifications on my phone from Disney News. My phone was going off all day, like. People saying Still not up yet. Still not up

Joni 6:11

So

Nick 6:11

Has anybody gotten a reservation? So

Joni 6:13

happened with all these people's reservations?

Nick 6:15

They, nobody could make

Joni 6:16

Nobody could make'em. So

Nick 6:17

what they did eventually during, I don't exactly remember what time, I think it was early afternoon, the regular dining service came back up like you could, you could make reservations for the regular dining. Beacon Barrel Never came Okay. So, Jack Sparrow broke the internet. Yeah, he did. He's always doing

Joni 6:36

with his little body.

Nick 6:38

broke the internet and he probably ran away from it.

Joni 6:42

Oh, no. Like wreck it

Nick 6:44

Um,

Joni 6:45

breaking the internet

Nick 6:46

And we got possibly, we don't know this for sure, but possibly more news on the Disney villains land coming up at the end of this month. Okay. D 23 is later this month

Joni 6:58

already My goodness.

Nick 7:00

end of this

Joni 7:00

year has flown by.

Nick 7:01

know. And it just seems like not that long ago, they announced it. I can't remember when D 23 was last year, but it's pretty much, you know, it's pretty close in range every year. But there, yeah, there may be more news because. This is one on, on their D 23 announcement. This is their announcement. Or on their website, join Disney experiences and some of your favorite troublemakers for a panel discussion on how Disney villains experiences come to life around the world. Hear directly from the creative minds behind new projects and attractions. Plus, enjoy a special villains themed medley to kick off destination D 23 a day two. So this is a 45 minute panel and will take place from 9:05 AM to 9:50 AM on Sunday, August 31st. Okay.

Joni 7:47

Okay.

Nick 7:48

So we

Joni 7:49

they say Join the troublemakers. Yeah.

Nick 7:52

So we may get some new moves.

Joni 7:55

I just can't believe that a year has gone. by already. My word. It just seems like

Nick 7:59

we were so excited when they

Joni 8:01

I know.

Nick 8:01

that we, we may have to find a way to watch that. I

Joni 8:04

Let's just go, let's

Nick 8:07

go down to Disney World. Just for the D

Joni 8:09

Yeah, let's just go. Why not?

Nick 8:11

Yeah, hopefully we find out something because yeah,

Joni 8:13

of our friends,

Nick 8:14

yeah, like Carsland stuff, you know, trickle has been trickling out and trickling out and trickling out, but nothing on villains. Just that, that one concept art that they have.

Joni 8:26

Well, I'm just curious, like what could they possibly have? They had so much news last year and then now nothing's completed. I mean, everything's spread out over the course of the

Nick 8:35

years. Yeah.

Joni 8:35

of years. Like what could they possibly

Nick 8:37

the table? I don't know, in another, they're building a new DVC resort, so I don't know. Maybe they'll talk about that. Um, but I know they

Joni 8:47

like a whole lot to have a whole.

Nick 8:49

No, but in, you know, but in years past they have been like, well, you know, we've thought about doing this and maybe we could do that and we might do this. So at least we got some concrete stuff last year. So, but hopefully they

Joni 9:02

so it might be a lot of, we might We should. we could, but we won't.

Nick 9:06

be.

Joni 9:09

Okay. All right, well, we look forward to that.

Nick 9:11

Yeah. Um, so that's it for the Magic Kingdom. I included that in a Magic Kingdom because Dylan's land. Sure. So, makes

Joni 9:20

makes sense.

Nick 9:20

Yeah. So, over Hollywood Studios, Disney has announced that the Little Mermaid at Musical Adventure will officially join the Lightning Lane Multipass lineup at Hollywood Studio starting September 11th, 2025. Okay,

Joni 9:34

Okay.

Nick 9:35

so this will be, grouped into the tier two category. So if you're buying, lightning Lane Multipass, you can get a little more bang for your buck. If you wanna do the Little

Joni 9:47

in like Flynn.

Nick 9:48

you didn't like Flynn. Didn't like Flynn. Yeah, skip that line. That's all I had for Park News this week. Yeah. Really. Okay. Nothing that I've got nothing in Animal Kingdom unless you wanna hear about permits that they're endlessly filing, but no, because nobody knows what they're, you know, what exactly they're

Joni 10:03

I have a comment to make about animal kingdom I still have yet to see. I would love to go through, RAF's.

Nick 10:11

planet

Joni 10:11

and see,

Nick 10:12

and a surgery,

Joni 10:13

a surgery, some sort of a medical treatment going on. Yeah. That just fascinates me. I have a little bit of a medical background in

Nick 10:19

the office. Oh, you have a surgery background? Yeah.

Joni 10:21

And so that. just Fascinates me

Nick 10:23

that. Yeah.

Joni 10:24

I can't wait for that. We, we take the venture out there every time we're there, but I still have yet to see.

Nick 10:29

But you know what that means? All the animals are healthy.

Joni 10:31

Oh, that does mean that that is true. That is true.

Nick 10:35

But no, I, I know what you mean. And I love the little, the little doctor Mickey doll they have in there with the surgical mask on. He's like sitting in the corner. Uhhuh,

Joni 10:44

he's, he's, he's the foreman.

Nick 10:46

Yeah. Supervising. So, yeah, that's it for Park News. Okay. Got some miscellaneous news.

Joni 10:51

news.

Nick 10:53

Disney World has announced they will be expanding the minivan, airport service Oh. To Deluxe resort guests. So the minivan, if you don't know, is the service through Lyft. You know, it's got the, the mini mouse. Yeah. You

Joni 11:06

red with the white dots.

Nick 11:07

with white dots. Yeah. The big, you know,

Joni 11:09

the

Nick 11:09

Lyft cars typically they only Yeah, exactly. Typically they only service on property. So from resort to Park, park to park, you know, Since the parks reopened, they were doing club level. Rides to and from the airport, just club level people. But now they're expanding it to Disney Deluxe Resort guests. Yay. So club level and deluxe resort. Guests can get a minivan from the airport, so guests may book Minivan Airport transport, beginning 60 days in advance to their visit up until two days before their visit. To check for availability and book a minivan, please call 4 0 7 8 2 8 3 5 0 0 and

Joni 11:51

and that number is. On their website I'm

Nick 11:52

Yes. This, yeah, this was from their website. That's 4 0 7 8 2 8 3 5 0 0. I don't know if you can book it in the Lyft app. It, it did not say you could, so, but I guess that makes sense. If you're trying to book a ride 60 days prior, I know you can preschedule Ubers and Lyfts, but many minivans are a little different.

Joni 12:12

Yeah. Well, and there's gonna be a contract with them and Right. I mean, to make sure that you get the official minivan and not somebody's. Spray painted hoopty. Um, you know, just, just go through the website and get it that way. But I wonder if they're gonna have to, buy more vehicles if they're opening this up.

Nick 12:30

they could. And for those of you don't know, don't use Lyft or Uber. I know a lot of people don't. A minivan, they are cool. You just book'em right in the Lyft app and it'll say minivan. They are expensive. Even compared to, like you

Joni 12:45

you couldn't book it

Nick 12:46

No, just like if you're going from a resort to a park or something like that. Okay. Um, they, they're very expensive compared to, you know, I, and I don't know, maybe a lift would cost you 20 bucks, but if

Joni 12:55

depending on how many passengers, if you're splitting it with a buddy, I mean,

Nick 12:59

they can fit I think six

Joni 13:00

Yeah. I, mean, unless they're doing a per person. charge,

Nick 13:03

like a regular Lyft might be$20, a minivan might be 60.

Joni 13:06

Well, if you're splitting it with you you know, If you have a party that fits the whole thing, you split it amongst your

Nick 13:10

or if you wanna, but they can actually with, at Magic Kingdom, Ubers and Lyfts can only take you to the TTC where you get on the monorail. Minivans can go up to where the buses drop off. Oh, nice. Or not right there, but they can go to the park.

Joni 13:21

Oh, nice. So they'll pick you up from the airport, lemme get this straight. They'll pick you up from the airport. take you To your resort. Yes. How about on your return? Do they take you from your resort to the airport?

Nick 13:31

That's a good question. I did not see anything stating

Joni 13:34

Okay. So they just bring you to the fund, but

Nick 13:36

it, well, okay. Hold on. It says airport service. Okay. So that's a good question. I didn't look into that. I should have looked into that. It may be, I bet if it's gonna do one way, I'd imagine it do both. Let me, we, we'll follow up on that. Okay. We'll talk about that next week. Okay.

Joni 13:54

We'll Make a note of it and touch base back some little. housekeeping

Nick 13:59

and the Disney cruise line was honored in the 2025 Travel and Leisure World's best awards as the number one large ship ocean cruise line.

Joni 14:09

Oh, wow.

Nick 14:10

Now, last year in 2024, they were number two, but this year,

Joni 14:15

by,

Nick 14:16

I didn't read that. I just, the article said they were number two last year.

Joni 14:18

let's not go into that anyway. Yeah.

Nick 14:20

Yeah.

Joni 14:20

They don't wanna hurt anybody's feelings.

Nick 14:22

so this year it tops the list. Oh, good. With readers praising the rotational dining.

Joni 14:28

Oh yeah.

Nick 14:29

The presence of Disney characters, Uhhuh, the cruise lines crew, and the attention to detail. There's a couple quotes I have from, from a couple of, um, passengers from person says amenities and facilities were amazing and everything felt like the Disney atmosphere of my childhood.

Joni 14:45

Oh.

Nick 14:46

somebody else wrote, as an adult, I am wowed. I can't imagine what it must be like to see it through the eyes of a child. Mm-hmm.

Joni 14:54

that's sweet. So I just have a comment to say to any, any cruise line? Yeah. Or any passenger, or if you're doing another cruise line, just be kind. Absolutely. Just because you get. Unlimited amounts of food and you have service to do your rooms and somebody to pick up after you for your entire vacation does not warrant you

Nick 15:16

to be rude. The

Joni 15:18

attitude or to be, a pain in the, in the, neck

Nick 15:22

and you know, in that,

Joni 15:23

be nice.

Nick 15:24

And the thing also, especially with cruise. Crew members, cast members, whatever you wanna call'em, they're away from them, their families for six, 12 months at a

Joni 15:33

Yeah. And they work hard. They do, I mean, they probably get a few hours of sleep a night. Yep. They are up cleaning, they are up making food. They are up making your room up for you and, you know,

Nick 15:47

to make your experience better, responsible

Joni 15:49

for, wanted them to be at their beck and call. They do their best. Um, and I just really think. It's rude and unnecessary for people that are unkind

Nick 15:59

because I agree.

Joni 16:00

That is somebody's child. That is somebody's parent.

Nick 16:03

Mm-hmm. That's just good advice for, for,

Joni 16:06

And that's why I said, not just

Nick 16:07

specifically,

Joni 16:08

I just think that people just need to be more kind. Yep. And not be entitled.

Nick 16:12

those people are there

Joni 16:14

And they are very much there.

Nick 16:15

Make your experience better.

Joni 16:17

I was gonna say, and the people that are and feeling entitled are very much there too. Yeah. There's lots of them out there. Oh

Nick 16:24

yeah.

Joni 16:25

And shame on you.

Nick 16:28

And speaking of the Disney cruise line, number one, they got voted. Yeah. You can contact me for your Disney cruise or your Disney World vacation, nick.Garcia@academytravel.com. My services are completely free.

Joni 16:42

Mm-hmm.

Nick 16:43

Mm-hmm. So contact me and I can help put that, uh, vacation together, whether it's your first trip, your 10th trip, you just don't wanna deal with it. Yeah.

Joni 16:50

Yeah. Even if you're a seasoned, um, cruiser. Or vacationer And you just wanna let somebody else have that headache? give it To Nick. Because I'm not enough.

Nick 17:02

All right. Well guess what? Next week is our big$50 drawing. Oh yeah.

Joni 17:07

Woo hoo.

Nick 17:08

Woohoo.$50. It's been, this is week number seven. I can't believe it.

Joni 17:12

I'm excited.

Nick 17:13

excited. I'm excited too.

Joni 17:14

I'm excited for all of our listeners and I appreciate, the feedback that we've gotten, yes.

Nick 17:19

So, yeah, until our next giveaway, we're brainstorming and figuring out what we're gonna do. But, um, next week is the big$50. So if you're not subscribed to our email list, go to our website at Main Street talk pod.com. Hit the subscribe button. You got one week left. Yeah.$50 Disney Plus or Disney? Disney. So, um, we have one poster to give away though this week. Yeah. Last poster. It's, this has been fun.

Joni 17:42

It. has been

Nick 17:42

It's been a lot of fun. So,

Joni 17:44

so we're gonna get on with that.

Nick 17:45

We're gonna get on with it. Okay. Are you ready?

Joni 17:47

I'm ready.

Nick 17:48

Okay. Spin the wheel. I got the list. I have it. I don't have it pulled up. Where to go? Here it

Joni 17:53

Okay, I

Nick 17:54

it.

Joni 17:55

we're going. We're going.

Nick 17:56

We're going. spinning. spinning.

Joni 17:57

Last one guys.

Nick 17:59

number?

Joni 18:01

Last one. 75. 75.

Nick 18:04

75. Who we have here? We have Adela. Adela. A-D-E-L-A. Okay. Congratulations, Adela. Yeah. A oh, we will be contacting you, midweek or so to get your mailing address so we can get that poster out to you. And you are.

Joni 18:23

Eligible

Nick 18:24

for the$50 gift card still, um, for identification purposes. Adela, you have the word grift in your email address, so congratulations, Adela. Yeah, congratulations. Next week the big one get subscribed. So we're doing things a little bit different this week and we'll continue our regular format next week of the movie.

Joni 18:45

Mm-hmm.

Nick 18:45

The spotlight and the tips or tricks.

Joni 18:48

The tricks. Okay,

Nick 18:49

because.