Main Street Talk - A Disney World Podcast

Happy New Year! Walt Disney World Updates with Railroad Spotlight

Nick Garcia Season 2 Episode 34

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0:00 | 24:05

In this week’s episode of the Main Street Talk podcast, we ring in 2026 and reflect on our first year of the show. We share our thoughts on the Stranger Things finale before diving into Disney news, including the closure of the Tron Identity Program and a near-incident at the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. The episode also covers updates on Harambe Market, Zootopia 2’s box-office success, and the future of the Hulu app. Additional segments spotlight Disney attractions like the Walt Disney Railroad and Main Street Vehicles, include a review of The Three Caballeros and its Epcot connection, and wrap up with a helpful tip on using Disney hotel laundry services and a call for listener suggestions.

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Introduction and New Year Greetings

Nick

Hello everybody. Welcome to this week's episode of the Main Street Talk podcast, your go-to podcast for all things Walt Disney World related, all the news and updates, and the tips and tricks.

Joni

I

Nick

am your host, Nick, and as always with me is Joni.

Joni

Hello everyone. 2026 is here. Yeah, happy New Year.

Nick

New Year everybody. I know we said it last episode, a little, uh, premature, but it's here. Happy New Year. We are looking forward to 2026.

Joni

Again,

Stranger Things Finale Discussion

Nick

I wanna thank everybody for, for coming with us on our inaugural year of 2025. And, uh, looking forward to 2026.

Joni

I

Nick

Gonna do some tweaks to the show. I think remember talked about it last week. We're gonna talk about some things we can do. One of the things I wanna, I haven't mentioned this in a while, is if you wanna be a guest on the show, if you have a fun Disney story or um, if anything, you know, a vacation story or tip or trick or anything, just email us and, You can come on and be a guest and share your story with us like Seth did. Yeah, Seth had a great story to share with us.

Joni

You shared. Mm-hmm. He sure did.

Nick

Before we get into the Disney stuff, I want to talk about something that half the world seems to be talking about. That's the ending of Stranger Things.

Joni

yeah.

Nick

So I know that's a huge show.

Joni

what are, where are we going with this

Nick

are you going? I was, I was reading today that it is. The most streamed. It's hard to judge like, streaming shows, but I think they said it's the most streaming hours of any show ever is Stranger Things. Little backstory. Uh, I watched season one when it came out 10 years ago, and I never watched any further than that. I don't know why.'cause I remember I liked it. So Joni and I started watching it again, what, three weeks ago? We binged the whole thing and

Joni

I prefer it that way though. Yeah. I don't like waiting six years for,

Nick

yeah. And

Joni

hear the end of a story. Just we

Nick

cut through it pretty quick. And, uh, what'd you think of the ending? I mean, if you haven't watched it, we're not gonna give away any spoilers, but if you wanna fast forward you can, but, but the thing with big shows like that, very popular shows is a lot of times the creators miss the ending. They don't hit the target.

Joni

No, I think this one totally

Nick

I think this one, I think it did too. I think, um,

Joni

And I cried, but I'm a big softie and I'm

Nick

those, that was a heartbreaking moment.

Joni

and it just makes me sad. I mean,'cause we've only known him for a few weeks, but,

Nick

we watched him grow up.

Joni

to, it's gone like, yeah, what are we gonna do?

Nick

I, I thought

Joni

brother's been throwing some other ideas out at me for other shows, so

Nick

I thought they nailed the ending. I know a lot of people online were complaining about, I was thinking about this. A lot of people are saying, or, or exposing all the potholes in it. And all I gotta say to that is, yes, there's potholes when you have a show. That has that much going on, that many characters going on, and then you throw in the physics and the science of it. Of course you're gonna have potholes.

Joni

That's why I don't, that's why I can't watch medical shows a lot of times.'cause I critique everything. Like, you can't go in the operating room like that.

Disney News Updates

Nick

But yeah, there. I thought they, it was a great show. A couple spinoffs are in the talk, so sorry, I just wanted to, it seems like half the world is talking about it, so I just wanted your opinion on how, how they ended it. I thought it was

Joni

I thought it was perfect. I even said right when it was over, if we were in a theater, I would've stood up and started clapping.

Nick

I did see, Footage of a theater.'cause some theaters were showing it. Oh. And I don't wanna give any spoilers, but I'll tell you after, after we hit the, stop button, I'm record.

Joni

Okay.

Nick

cool.

Joni

Okay.

Nick

Okay. From Stranger Things to Magic Kingdom, from the Upside down

Joni

some other stranger

Nick

magical place on Earth.

Joni

right.

Nick

So, uh, I'm gonna start with the news In

Joni

a wormhole, dude. It's

Nick

it's a worm on. So Disney has officially closed the Tron Identity Program at Magic Kingdom. This is the experience where guests could create custom tron action figures and using their face and voice. It was abruptly closed. They didn't announce it. It, it was like cast members were there telling everybody it was gonna be closed the next day, and a construction permit has already been filed for that space. Dunno,

Joni

Mm.

Nick

that was a surprise. And over at Hollywood Studios crews have removed the pizza Rizzo billboard from the former Muppets Courtyard at Hollywood Studios. That big billboard that was up on top of the restaurant that is gone. And I don't know if anybody saw this. This was all over the internet too. A pretty scary moment happened in the, Indiana Jones stunt spectacular show. You know the big ball that rolls down after Indiana Jones? Of course. Did It came off the track. Oh. And it started heading towards the audience. Yeah. And

Joni

I did see that

Nick

cast member got

Joni

intervened. Yeah.

Nick

Knocked him over

Joni

Well, he was saving the Rico public.

Nick

Yeah, the ball ricocheted went the other direction.

Joni

It did knock him over.

Nick

It did knock him over. Um, he's not seriously

Joni

injuries.

Nick

Minor injuries, but they have, suspended that part of the show for, um, they need to find out what happened and make sure it doesn't happen again.'cause it could have been bad, you know, if there's, you know, little kids at that show in the front row.

Joni

Woo.

Nick

So, Yeah. Give them man a raise.

Joni

Yeah. No kidding.

Nick

And a animal kingdom, the harambe market, which was closed, you know, the food market over in Africa, it's set to reopen March 1st. 2026 with hours listed from 10 45 to three 3:15 PM The menu has not been released, but they already said that, um, it's gonna be like burgers and chicken nuggets and stuff, but Restaurant organized. Yeah, restaurant is sous, permanently closes in February.

Joni

Mm-hmm. So

Nick

thinking is, they may have to be open this early. Right now we're saying March 1st,

Joni

Well, that's gonna leave. That's gonna leave. What? A month? When did you say? February? What?

Nick

February? That's all they're saying. It's closing in February and this doesn't open until March. So.

Joni

Well, unless they're like, you know, within the day of each other though too. It could be end of

Nick

Well, yeah, that could be it. That that's very true. So, uh, that's it

Joni

will see. Otherwise, you know, they always allow you to bring in your own lunch. Yep.

Nick

Bring in your own lunch. Peanut butter and jelly. Yep.

Joni

Yep.

Nick

So in miscellaneous. With the Global Box Office take of 1.46 billion, this was as of a Tuesday or Wednesday. Zootopia two has become Disney's most successful animated film of all time. The previous record holder was Frozen two, which grows to 1.45 billion. And directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard recently shared that. Zootopia three is definitely a possibility, and if that's the case, it would hit theaters by 2030.

Joni

Wow.

Nick

This also mind boggling numbers. After making 345 million in its opening weekend, avatar Fire and Ash has surpassed the$1 billion mark. This makes film number four to hit 1 billion for James Cameron. His other one wears the other Avatar movies and Titanic. A new Winnie The Pooh film is in development. According to the official voice of Winnie the Pooh, Jim Cummings, there has been no official announcement and it is not known if it'll be animated or live action. And I don't know how to say this'cause I haven't seen it, but the new Tron movie is a Aries a RES tron, Ari. I'm gonna say Aries. It will be available to stream on Disney Plus beginning on January 7th of this year.

Joni

Wow. Okay.

Nick

And Disney has announced they will retire the Hulu app sometime in 2026 and integrate its content into the Disney Plus app, which if you have Hulu and Disney plus, you have seen that, that's already, it's kind of already started, but they're gonna completely disable the Hulu app sometime this year. Disney Visa card holders can now access a portal directly in the My Disney Experience app that lists all their Walt Disney World perks, like discounts and character meet and greets. It is on the homepage of the app. In order for it to show up, you have to make sure your card is linked under your profile in the, my Disney Experience app where it, you know, put all your payment information and all that. Disney Cruise line will no longer offer Walt Disney World Hotel stays or park tickets as add-ons to cruise bookings starting January 2nd. So this has already started.

Joni

Mm-hmm.

Nick

So guests would have to externally, not externally, but you know, go to the Walt Disney World website to add any tickets or hotel stays.

Joni

and

Nick

full 20 26, 20 27 calendar of run Disney events is now available. There's a lot of information I didn't want to say at all. There is a blog up. I did put a blog up with all the dates'cause, there's dates, registration dates, real runs, virtual runs there. There's a lot going on on that page, so, so go to the blog if you are a Disney runner.

Joni

Yeah. And if you're a Disney runner, you showed me some, sneakers that were I did,

Nick

did, yeah. Yes. Brooks has come out with some,, run Disney shoes. Yeah.

Joni

I love Brooks. Yeah. Chip and Dale

Nick

There was a castle. I don't remember. You can Google, uh, Brooks run Disney shoes. I'm sure they'll come up. But, uh, yeah, there was some cute shoes. So

Joni

so

Nick

that's it for the news this

Joni

Okay. That

Nick

That was a lot of, a lot of movie news.

Joni

Yeah.

Spotlight on Attractions: Main Street

Nick

$1 billion. That's crazy. Like that's his fourth film to do that. And Titanic was made in, I believe, 1995, if I'm thinking right.$1 billion in 1995 was, that's huge. I mean,$1 billion is huge, but even more so 30 years ago,

Joni

No kidding.

Nick

we gotta go see Avatar soon.

Joni

Gotta go see Zootopia Thunder.

Nick

Gotta go see'em all. We'll spend the day at the movies.

Joni

That's okay.

Nick

okay.

Joni

I'm fine with that. Can we take our buckets?

Nick

All right, let's go to the spotlight on attraction. What do we have this week, Jon?

Joni

This week we're going to finish up in, or actually touch in Main Street. We're gonna do a couple today, we're gonna talk about the Walt Disney Railroad, and we're also gonna talk about the main Street vehicle.

Nick

I love the railroad.

Joni

we're gonna lump this all together and then we'll be finished up here in, magic Kingdom here very soon. So as far as the Walt Disney Railroad, firstly, it is Main Street, frontier Land and Storybook Circus as the locations

Nick

Yeah, but it's over. Yep.

Joni

Um, it is a slow outdoor, I don't know the speed of it. I don't believe I put the speed

Nick

97 miles per hour it gets up to,

Joni

oh, okay. Well, I'm glad you did that research because I'm looking in my notes, I'm scrambling and I do not see it. So does it really? No. Oh,

Nick

you didn't catch that, did you? You

Joni

that, that no, I did not catch that. But I guess that would only go that speed if you put the flux capacitor in it. So, take your seat on one of four meticulously restored, vintage narrow gauge steam trains originally built 1916 to 1928, and enjoy a relaxing 20 minute. One and a half mile scenic round trip tour.

Nick

20 minutes. 20

Joni

20 minutes. 20 minutes for a round trip. It seems longer.

Nick

it seems longer than

Joni

I mean, it might be by the, I mean, they're not gonna brush off by

Nick

would just, I know they'd stop at the stations.

Joni

Right. And that's, and that's what

Nick

but I just thought it was like, 20 minutes seems very

Joni

they're, like I said, They're not gonna just, you know, when somebody's halfway hanging on a

Nick

kick you off.

Joni

on a a seat. Just

Nick

We, we got a schedule to keep people.

Joni

Yeah. And be like, back to the future where you're hanging off the end of the train. So anyway, no height requirement. It has capacity for about 365 passengers with two wheelchairs per train. They're speculating that each bench can seat three to five passengers. So it does, like I said, it has two wheelchairs per train so you can, be in your wheelchair, but if you having a scooter, you have to transfer to a wheelchair. It can not accommodate scooters.

Nick

Okay, yeah. Yeah,

Disney's Steam Locomotives

Joni

That makes sense. Yeah. And there's no rental strollers allowed, and I believe you have to take your littles out of the strollers and you have to fold the strollers up. Yeah. To be able to get on this just like you.

Nick

yeah, I don't know. I was thinking you had to leave your store at the station, but that's just not,

Joni

no, because if you're, because you can use it as a ride, right? Or transportation. So if you wanna get off at another location, so no, you can definitely take it with, we just have to fold it up. So as I said, one loop around is about a, a mile and a half, and it takes approximately 20 minutes. It's an opening, a traction of October 1st, 1971, and a little bonus information. The trains are real steam locomotives. There are four authentic steam engines and they are named Walter e Disney, Roy O Disney, Roger e Broy, or Broy. Who is it? Broy.

Nick

not sure

Joni

He's Disney's first. Imagineer. And Lily Bell, who is Walt's wife. Mm-hmm. So those are who they're all named after. And as I said, also, they're all pre, they're all built between 1916 and 1928. They originally worked on the railways. And Mexico before being restored by Disney. So they were worked on and moved. Uh, the normal route is Main Street, frontier Land and Fantasy Land. But with the,

Main Street Vehicles

Nick

The expansions. Yeah. It's now running only from Main Street to Fantasy land because, they're building, you know, cars, land, and villains land back there. There's, it's gonna be, the website says it'll be up after the expansion.

Joni

So just the back and forth trips on those. There are hidden details inside the cars. Some cars feature vintage photos, maps, and plaques that reference railroad history and Disney lore because railroads have always been, trains have always been a, fascination of Walt Disney's

Nick

Fascination. Yeah. It was like a passion of his. He had one in his backyard. Backyard. Yeah.

Joni

Yeah. So we're gonna move on and touch base on the Main Street vehicles here real quick. So these are, and I don't know the distance or the speed on these. So do you, are you gonna throw a number out there at me? No,

Nick

I, I think they go about

Joni

Oh,

Nick

train goes 97. So I think these can go

Joni

Oh my word. I can even believe I fell for that. Just like, whew. Right over my head. Okay. So travel back in time during a breezy drive down Main Street in a charming turn of the century vehicle. No height requirement. The capacity varies depending on the vehicle that's chosen. You can have a vintage horse drawn trolley, an omnibus, a jitney, or a fire engine. So there's four vehicles. Okay? You must be able to transfer from your wheelchair and your electric vehicle.

Nick

To get onto,

Joni

Yes. And they're only one way trips, so I don't know, you gotta leave somebody behind so they can take your, your stuff back to you, I suppose. And the one way trips are between town square at the park entrance and the central plaza, which is the park center. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So that also is an October 1st, 1971 feature. Okay. And they have special hours.

Nick

I

Joni

I don't know the hours.'cause it varies

Nick

main street cars? Yes.

he Three Caballeros Movie Review

Joni

Okay. It's not an all day thing that they run it, we've not ridden on any of'em.

Nick

We have not, So

Joni

Okay. So that's all I have for the,, attractions.

Nick

the railroad and the main street vehicles. Okay. If you want to get a good picture of, Cinderella Castle, go up to the train station.

Joni

Yeah.

Nick

And then sometimes you'll see Mickey and Minnie and all the characters hanging out, hanging off the, or not hanging off, but waving to everybody from up there, so.

Joni

Mm-hmm.

Nick

Alright, thanks Joni.

Joni

Yep. You be.

Nick

Now let's go on to our movie and one of the most underrated rides in all Walt Disney World. I know I said it last week, and I'll say it again

Joni

and he'll say it next

Nick

and I'll say it next

Joni

Oh,

Nick

What is our movie?

Joni

Our movie is the Three Ceros Ceros. I always wanna,

Nick

I don't know.

Joni

so this show is actually, this film is actually, a sequel to Saluto Amigos. Which is what we talked about last week. So this film premiered in Mexico City on December 21st, 1944 and February 3rd, 1945 to the USA. The runtime is one hour 12 minutes. The official budget is not widely publicized, but it was a package film intended to be a more economical production. The box office was 3.355 million worldwide in rentals. By 1951, but the movie database, TMDB reports a total lifetime revenue of 6.71 million. Really? I'm shocked.

Nick

Yeah.'cause and we watched this, we, like in the middle of our Stranger Things, we, we threw in this on Disney cartoon.

Joni

I literally was like, how much time is left on this film? Yeah.

Nick

I mean, it was cute at points,

Joni

It's 80 years old. It's, you know, and I mean, but

Nick

a lot of Donald Duck I do,

Joni

I do, but I love Donald Duck, so I didn't mind all

Nick

just, yeah. It's a Donald Duck movie.

Joni

And I do think that technology then, obviously 80 years ago, the, What they have Yeah. Was amazing,

Nick

right? Because they had the, uh, like Donald Duck was interacting with, with real people. Yeah.

Joni

Dancing and different things like that. Sure. Yeah. So the supervising director is Norman Ferguson, sequence Directors Clyde, Jack, bill, and Harold, as the same with Saluto Amigos is based on Donald Duck, by Walt Disney and Dick Lundy. And the storyline is this animated film is where Donald celebrates his birthday and meets two new friends. Jose Europe,

Nick

Kara Yoko, I believe his name is.

Joni

And he's from Brazil and Panchito Pistoles from Mexico. And together the trio Guana colorful musical adventure through Latin America, learning about different cultures through song humor and imaginative animation. This film like Saluto Amigos, was part of another government funded film aimed at Latin American Goodwill. The Saluto Amigos was. Southern. Mm-hmm. And in this film, the US Department of State commissioned a Disney Goodwill tour of Latin America, just as the other, as part of their good neighbor policy. Okay.

Nick

Okay. So

Joni

So just trying to,

Nick

little history, little, uh,

Joni

Yep. They wanted, I don't, I don't wanna say it was, try trying to persuade sides during, around the World War II era, but it was,

Nick

it was, it was trying to get, those countries

Joni

to side with the US rather than Germany.

Nick

yeah. Than Germany's ideology and

Joni

sure. Yep.

Nick

But yeah, it was, it's a cute movie. I don't know if I'd watch it again.

Joni

Yeah, no. Hey, it's a one and done for me. The overall comparisons though, now, so there were some critics that thought it was too flashy and whatnot. So overall comparisons, Saluto Amigos feels more like an educational travel film with animated characters. It went at a little bit of a slower pace. The Three Cab Ceros is more imaginative, fast paced, playful, and pushes animation in a creative and surreal direction.

Nick

is, that hits the nail on the head because Saludos Amigos.

Joni

and Me goes,

Disney Hotel Laundry Tips

Nick

When we watched it, I had like a feeling that I would, there's something you would watch in a classroom when you're in elementary school, you know, very informative and educational to where this film was more, um, entertainment.

Joni

was a lot of dancing and singing

Nick

a lot of entertainment.

Joni

different things like that. Right. So we got those two buddies out of the way, the Solu Amigos last week and the three Ceros this week. And don't forget, there is a ride in

Nick

there is a ride in Epcot, very underrated. I will that and living with the land. I'm not gonna miss missing either one of

Joni

those

Nick

when I'm in Epcot.

Joni

No, I'm I got, Nope, not at all.

Nick

All right, well, thanks Joanie.

Joni

you bet.

Nick

so onto this week's tip or trick. This one. This is beneficial for longer stays and that is if you are staying on property, all Disney hotels.

Joni

make

Nick

you take advantage of their laundry. All the hotels do have, a paid laundry service. So I, I, the only ones we've been to, we went to the ones at Pops Sentry. Those are all in the, the buildings by the pools. Yeah. Where the restrooms are and stuff. We've used the one in Kani, the communal one. And that's the thing for DVC members. If you're staying on your points and at A DVC resort, you can't even, if you're in a studio and you don't have a washer and dryer in your room, you are able to use the laundry facility for free. I believe even that, like Jambo house, where Jambo house is mostly hotel rooms with one floor of DVC rooms, I believe if you go to the front desk, they'll give you a credit if you're staying on your DVC points.

Joni

mm-hmm.

Nick

In all DVC villas, one bedrooms are larger, do have,

Joni

We've used all of it.

Nick

we've used all of it, but yeah, there is, uh, there's laundry there. It is paid. The, what the cool thing about it is, and we haven't used the paid one in a while, but at the time, and I imagine it's only gotten better, there was an app you download.

Joni

Yeah.

Nick

And it would tell you when your, when your cycles were done, when your, washer was done, when your dryer was done. So, uh. Yeah,

Joni

We just threw the load in, went to the pool and went back and got it when it was ready.

Show Suggestions and Final Thoughts

Nick

Yeah, so if you're staying for a week or so, you know, you can get pretty, some pretty dirty clothes

Joni

Well, and my big thing

Nick

steps every day.

Joni

Yeah. And my big thing, I don't like bringing laundry home because I am so like, what if TSA has to go through my bag for whatever reason?

Nick

Yeah.

Joni

Another tip, I'm just gonna throw in there that if you do not access the laundry and you do have dirty, laundry materials that you need to be bringing home. Throwing a couple dryer sheets in your luggage, it really does help. So,

Nick

all right. Well I think that's gonna do it for this week's show. This is a short show. Yeah. Does anybody, now that we're thinking about it, I, I don't know why I'm throwing this out here. Does anybody have any show suggestions we should watch now? We're done with Stranger Things. I wanna watch Cobra Kai. I I'm into Cobra. Kai. I haven't finished it'cause I, I wanna restart it for Joanie to watch. So if you have any suggestions Yeah.

Joni

we're open for

Nick

Yeah.

Joni

My son, my son said, landman, but see, I don't even know is if that's even over, if that's still in film. I don't know. It's

Nick

pretty new. I don't know if I'm into the

Joni

but yeah, we like the ones that are over, like newly over or almost

Nick

Yeah. Because, um, the thing

Joni

we don't wanna wait week after week, year

Nick

especially like the way they do'em now, you have to wait a year for the next season to come out and, that's just, that's too long. I forget.

Joni

get to, yeah. He does very much so. Forget, I have

Nick

forget. I gotta watch the final episode of the previous

Joni

yeah. Well, which one did we start watching before? It was, uh, the, the Viking one.

Nick

Vikings was good,

Joni

but we had to start over.

Nick

did it'cause we had a major po Oh no. Because, during the pandemic, one of the seasons was very prolonged.

Joni

Okay. Well, I remember you and myself, and I usually don't forget like what has happened. I can recall instances and situations, but I was even like, I don't even know what's going on. We have to start over. You watched the whole yeah, that

Nick

that was a, and that was a lot at that point.

Joni

Yeah. So

Nick

Yeah, any show suggestions, let us know. And again, if you have any Disney memories, any Disney, you know, vacation stories

Joni

or hint hints or anything. Anything

Nick

contact us if you wanna be a guest on the show, contact us. We're open to have guests. Like I said, we're gonna kick around some things to make 2026 even more interesting. More, audience participation. Yeah. So

Joni

we wanna hear from you

Nick

We do wanna hear from them. Alright, well I think that's gonna do it. Visit our website@mainstreettalkpod.com.

Joni

All

Nick

That's our home base for everything, all our links. Our Facebook is Main Street Talk podcast. Our Facebook group is Walt Disney World Tips and Tricks. Our Instagram is Main Street Talk podcast. We are on YouTube as well. If you want to take a Disney vacation, you contact me at nick.Garcia@academytravel.com. My services are free and you can always bring the theme. Park smells home with you at the Magic Candle Company. We are affiliates. The link is on the website. Use code Main Street talk at checkout for 15% off. And oh, don't forget to register to win a poster'cause we're gonna be giving away some random posters. So you do that by subscribing to our email list on the website. Just hit the subscribe button and you'll be put on our list for those posters. Mm-hmm. All right, well that's gonna do it. So, thank you for joining us all last year. We look forward to this year. So we will talk to you real soon.

Joni

Bye everyone.