Main Street Talk - A Disney World Podcast
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Main Street Talk - A Disney World Podcast
Happy New Year! Walt Disney World Updates with Railroad Spotlight
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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
NickHello 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.
JoniI
Nickam your host, Nick, and as always with me is Joni.
JoniHello everyone. 2026 is here. Yeah, happy New Year.
NickNew 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.
JoniAgain,
Stranger Things Finale Discussion
NickI wanna thank everybody for, for coming with us on our inaugural year of 2025. And, uh, looking forward to 2026.
JoniI
NickGonna 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.
JoniYou shared. Mm-hmm. He sure did.
NickBefore 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.
Joniyeah.
NickSo I know that's a huge show.
Joniwhat are, where are we going with this
Nickare 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
JoniI prefer it that way though. Yeah. I don't like waiting six years for,
Nickyeah. And
Jonihear the end of a story. Just we
Nickcut 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.
JoniNo, I think this one totally
NickI think this one, I think it did too. I think, um,
JoniAnd I cried, but I'm a big softie and I'm
Nickthose, that was a heartbreaking moment.
Joniand it just makes me sad. I mean,'cause we've only known him for a few weeks, but,
Nickwe watched him grow up.
Jonito, it's gone like, yeah, what are we gonna do?
NickI, I thought
Jonibrother's been throwing some other ideas out at me for other shows, so
NickI 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.
JoniThat'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
NickBut 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
JoniI 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.
NickI 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.
JoniOkay.
Nickcool.
JoniOkay.
NickOkay. From Stranger Things to Magic Kingdom, from the Upside down
Jonisome other stranger
Nickmagical place on Earth.
Joniright.
NickSo, uh, I'm gonna start with the news In
Jonia wormhole, dude. It's
Nickit'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,
JoniMm.
Nickthat 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
JoniI did see that
Nickcast member got
Joniintervened. Yeah.
NickKnocked him over
JoniWell, he was saving the Rico public.
NickYeah, the ball ricocheted went the other direction.
JoniIt did knock him over.
NickIt did knock him over. Um, he's not seriously
Joniinjuries.
NickMinor 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.
JoniWoo.
NickSo, Yeah. Give them man a raise.
JoniYeah. No kidding.
NickAnd 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.
JoniMm-hmm. So
Nickthinking is, they may have to be open this early. Right now we're saying March 1st,
JoniWell, that's gonna leave. That's gonna leave. What? A month? When did you say? February? What?
NickFebruary? That's all they're saying. It's closing in February and this doesn't open until March. So.
JoniWell, unless they're like, you know, within the day of each other though too. It could be end of
NickWell, yeah, that could be it. That that's very true. So, uh, that's it
Joniwill see. Otherwise, you know, they always allow you to bring in your own lunch. Yep.
NickBring in your own lunch. Peanut butter and jelly. Yep.
JoniYep.
NickSo 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.
JoniWow.
NickThis 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.
JoniWow. Okay.
NickAnd 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.
JoniMm-hmm.
NickSo guests would have to externally, not externally, but you know, go to the Walt Disney World website to add any tickets or hotel stays.
Joniand
Nickfull 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.
JoniYeah. And if you're a Disney runner, you showed me some, sneakers that were I did,
Nickdid, yeah. Yes. Brooks has come out with some,, run Disney shoes. Yeah.
JoniI love Brooks. Yeah. Chip and Dale
NickThere 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
Joniso
Nickthat's it for the news this
JoniOkay. That
NickThat was a lot of, a lot of movie news.
JoniYeah.
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,
JoniNo kidding.
Nickwe gotta go see Avatar soon.
JoniGotta go see Zootopia Thunder.
NickGotta go see'em all. We'll spend the day at the movies.
JoniThat's okay.
Nickokay.
JoniI'm fine with that. Can we take our buckets?
NickAll right, let's go to the spotlight on attraction. What do we have this week, Jon?
JoniThis 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.
NickI love the railroad.
Joniwe'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
NickYeah, but it's over. Yep.
JoniUm, it is a slow outdoor, I don't know the speed of it. I don't believe I put the speed
Nick97 miles per hour it gets up to,
Jonioh, 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,
Nickyou didn't catch that, did you? You
Jonithat, 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.
Nick20 minutes. 20
Joni20 minutes. 20 minutes for a round trip. It seems longer.
Nickit seems longer than
JoniI mean, it might be by the, I mean, they're not gonna brush off by
Nickwould just, I know they'd stop at the stations.
JoniRight. And that's, and that's what
Nickbut I just thought it was like, 20 minutes seems very
Jonithey're, like I said, They're not gonna just, you know, when somebody's halfway hanging on a
Nickkick you off.
Jonion a a seat. Just
NickWe, we got a schedule to keep people.
JoniYeah. 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.
NickOkay, yeah. Yeah,
Disney's Steam Locomotives
JoniThat 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.
Nickyeah, I don't know. I was thinking you had to leave your store at the station, but that's just not,
Jonino, 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.
Nicknot sure
JoniHe'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
NickThe 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.
JoniSo 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
NickFascination. Yeah. It was like a passion of his. He had one in his backyard. Backyard. Yeah.
JoniYeah. 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,
NickI, I think they go about
JoniOh,
Nicktrain goes 97. So I think these can go
JoniOh 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.
NickTo get onto,
JoniYes. 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.
NickI
JoniI don't know the hours.'cause it varies
Nickmain street cars? Yes.
he Three Caballeros Movie Review
JoniOkay. It's not an all day thing that they run it, we've not ridden on any of'em.
NickWe have not, So
JoniOkay. So that's all I have for the,, attractions.
Nickthe railroad and the main street vehicles. Okay. If you want to get a good picture of, Cinderella Castle, go up to the train station.
JoniYeah.
NickAnd 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.
JoniMm-hmm.
NickAlright, thanks Joni.
JoniYep. You be.
NickNow 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
Joniand he'll say it next
Nickand I'll say it next
JoniOh,
NickWhat is our movie?
JoniOur movie is the Three Ceros Ceros. I always wanna,
NickI don't know.
Joniso 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.
NickYeah.'cause and we watched this, we, like in the middle of our Stranger Things, we, we threw in this on Disney cartoon.
JoniI literally was like, how much time is left on this film? Yeah.
NickI mean, it was cute at points,
JoniIt's 80 years old. It's, you know, and I mean, but
Nicka lot of Donald Duck I do,
JoniI do, but I love Donald Duck, so I didn't mind all
Nickjust, yeah. It's a Donald Duck movie.
JoniAnd I do think that technology then, obviously 80 years ago, the, What they have Yeah. Was amazing,
Nickright? Because they had the, uh, like Donald Duck was interacting with, with real people. Yeah.
JoniDancing 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,
NickKara Yoko, I believe his name is.
JoniAnd 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.
NickOkay. So
JoniSo just trying to,
Nicklittle history, little, uh,
JoniYep. 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,
Nickit was, it was trying to get, those countries
Jonito side with the US rather than Germany.
Nickyeah. Than Germany's ideology and
Jonisure. Yep.
NickBut yeah, it was, it's a cute movie. I don't know if I'd watch it again.
JoniYeah, 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.
Nickis, that hits the nail on the head because Saludos Amigos.
Joniand Me goes,
Disney Hotel Laundry Tips
NickWhen 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.
Joniwas a lot of dancing and singing
Nicka lot of entertainment.
Jonidifferent 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
Nickthere is a ride in Epcot, very underrated. I will that and living with the land. I'm not gonna miss missing either one of
Jonithose
Nickwhen I'm in Epcot.
JoniNo, I'm I got, Nope, not at all.
NickAll right, well, thanks Joanie.
Joniyou bet.
Nickso 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.
Jonimake
Nickyou 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.
Jonimm-hmm.
NickIn all DVC villas, one bedrooms are larger, do have,
JoniWe've used all of it.
Nickwe'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.
JoniYeah.
NickAnd it would tell you when your, when your cycles were done, when your, washer was done, when your dryer was done. So, uh. Yeah,
JoniWe just threw the load in, went to the pool and went back and got it when it was ready.
Show Suggestions and Final Thoughts
NickYeah, so if you're staying for a week or so, you know, you can get pretty, some pretty dirty clothes
JoniWell, and my big thing
Nicksteps every day.
JoniYeah. 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?
NickYeah.
JoniAnother 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,
Nickall 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.
Joniwe're open for
NickYeah.
JoniMy 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
Nickpretty new. I don't know if I'm into the
Jonibut yeah, we like the ones that are over, like newly over or almost
NickYeah. Because, um, the thing
Joniwe don't wanna wait week after week, year
Nickespecially 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.
Joniget to, yeah. He does very much so. Forget, I have
Nickforget. I gotta watch the final episode of the previous
Joniyeah. Well, which one did we start watching before? It was, uh, the, the Viking one.
NickVikings was good,
Jonibut we had to start over.
Nickdid it'cause we had a major po Oh no. Because, during the pandemic, one of the seasons was very prolonged.
JoniOkay. 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
Nickthat was a, and that was a lot at that point.
JoniYeah. So
NickYeah, any show suggestions, let us know. And again, if you have any Disney memories, any Disney, you know, vacation stories
Jonior hint hints or anything. Anything
Nickcontact 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
Joniwe wanna hear from you
NickWe do wanna hear from them. Alright, well I think that's gonna do it. Visit our website@mainstreettalkpod.com.
JoniAll
NickThat'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.
JoniBye everyone.