Disneyland Resort 2026 | Family Theme Park Strategy & Trip Updates

Jason: Grab your mouse ears and ready your wands. You're tuning in to Castles to Cauldrons, your ultimate guide to the magic, the thrills, and everything in between. From strolling right down the middle of Main Street, USA, to dodging fire-breathing dragons in Dygon Alley. You've got your theme park adventures covered. And now, sharing their hottest takes and best tips, here are your hosts, Jason, Micah, Rachel, and Terry. Welcome to episode. 64 of Castle Secaldrons. I'm your host, Jason Davis. I'm here with Micah and Terry. We are fresh back from Disneyland. Terry is fresh from the beach. The beach. Yeah. Well, I mean, I love the beach too. Yeah. Ghetto North Carolina. I I I'm not a fan of the beach, but I mean, if I'd rather be at the home or the beach, I'd choose the beach. So it's in Emerald Isle near Moorhead City, North Carolina, where they had the big rock tournament. this weekend. And if you're from the coast or anywhere on the eastern, you know what that is. It's the biggest marlins fishing tournament in the US. And they had a record nine hundred and nineteen pound marlin caught. They won six million dollars. That's impressive. Six million dollars? For fishing. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's a the boat's nice. The equipment they use is nice. It's no no joke. And those marlins are dangerous because they're They fight when you are bringing them in. He was huge. And they I'd like you can't really eat marlin, so they do like a lot of ⁓ scientific stuff on them. So it's it's not wasted. You're not just fishing for fun. And so NC State, whoop whoop, Holler went there. They have one of their ⁓ bio teams, marine biologist teams go down there and they like they opened them up and he had just eaten like another smaller sailfish and like all this other stuff. That and they estimated he was over twenty years old. And all this other stuff. So pretty inter you guys went to Disney World, I mean Disneyland, so I'm still jealous. But I mean, while you were sitting there watching fishing, you know, we were in the middle of the I was on the beach watching it on Instagram. And then drove down there to see it once they it takes them like three hours, like they're two and a half hours off the coast. So it takes three to four hours to troll it back in and they have to load it the boat and it's a big one to weigh it to all those almost a thousand pounds. thousand pound fish. That's crazy. So yeah, we we were in the middle of the World Cup stuff, the FIFA out there. Yeah, because that was happening in LA. Yeah, when we went for our night tours. It was ⁓ Paraguay and U S A we're supposed to play that day. So on Friday. Yeah. We came into the lobby after seeing one of the hotels and The lobby was just completely packed with fans. It was great. It was the Hilton Anaheim, the convention center one, right? Isn't that the one we were at? And it was just like they were hosting Paraguay. Like, so all the people that were like staying there were from Paraguay. They all had their jerseys on. Like it was crazy. I love, I'm sorry, I was gonna say, I love watching all the Europeans that are like posting like how much they love America that are here. Like, like Freddie. The German on Twitter that everyone's following. I now follow him. It's just it's so wholesome 'cause they're like, ⁓ you guys just aren't like guns and violin. You're like, Well, we don't think that 'cause we live in America. I mean, there's some guns and violence, but where, you know, they're like you guys have free refills and air conditioning and it's so pretty. Like they don't know how pretty the US is, which I think is very sad. Funny thing was Freddie started his journey in Alabama. Like he flew into Atlanta and he went to Auburn to watch the ⁓ Messi, whoever team ⁓ is it Argentina? They played in Auburn and that's where he made his like started out because ⁓ he was like, ⁓ my goodness, this is a crazy stadium. They have an eagle flying around here and light crews and all that. Yeah, that's the thing that they do before every football game. He saw the Gulf Shores. in Alabama and he's like, This is the prettiest coastline and the sun prettiest sunset I've ever seen in my life and all this other and I was like, This is so wholesome. I love it. It's like Josh and Jace that are from like England and ⁓ I think is one of them from Scotland or Ireland. But like they're the same way coming over to the US. Just love everything about it. Yes. It it never strikes me that people are afraid to come to the US because you know I feel relatively safe here and everything. So the fact that they were kind of nervous to get over here and then they get here and they're like, This is amazing. Mm-hmm. And like things that we take for granted, they're like, This like the food. Like they're growing like chilies and Waffle House and Texas Roadhouse. And they're Chick-fil-A, this is the best food I've ever eaten. It's the eating when they go and eat biscuits and gravy at Cracker Barrel and they're like, This is looking gross. And then like tea for the first time. Yeah, Milo's. Well, since we're talking about travelers, we're we're missing Rachel. She's our world traveler. She went from Disneyland home for a day and now she's in Walt Disney World representing magical travel for the golden and silver earmark. So, Rachel, you are missed. We really wanted to have you on so we could talk about this. And we were gonna do a live show, like I I carried all my mics out, which aren't the big mics, my small mics, so we could record something and we just had too much fun and couldn't stop yeah running around long enough to you know, record a podcast. I mean it was go go go. I felt like we didn't really have downtime. The only downtime we had was like our hour and a half in the airport before we left. Yeah. We were too busy stuffing our faces. So Yeah. We were. Well we have a few little announcements or ⁓ news that we want to go over. We're gonna talk about some of the hotels we saw out there in Disneyland just so to give y'all some information to pass that we We learned to pass along what we liked, what we didn't like type stuff, and then we're gonna just go into Disneyland. So the first thing is best news of the world like this obviously best time of the year for me because of the H H N stuff. The other day we got the announcement for Stranger Things. Season five is going to be Winnie Houses. ⁓ so that's on top of Cinners and the Dr. Oddfellow and Jack House. I'll be honest, I don't like Stranger Things. I've never been a fan of the the show, so the house really doesn't excite me too much. But it makes sense since it was like the season like what is this the last season that they're doing? Like it's the finale. So it just makes sense. Yeah, they have to they have to finish it off. They've done all the other seasons. So might as well get this one. Yeah. And I was gonna say this is a good intro house, I feel like. So like you love horror, so you're not into s Stranger Things. But someone like me, hor like this is as horror as I like to get is entry level Stranger Things. So it's a good bring people in the park, commercial, you know. And they're as somebody who doesn't like the show, I've always enjoyed the houses. I don't really know what's going on, but they've been good. So yeah, that's that's that. ⁓ Terry said she'd go through the house. So we're gonna get her down there so she can go through that. If we if we do go down there and if I do go, that will be the one house I'll go in. But no more houses. Just food. We'll see. We'll plan something. We'll get something going. Yeah. We'll see. Sticking with ⁓ Universal, Epic has a new nighttime show starting July seventh. People thought this would be online before the seventh for the fourth of July, but it's gonna be called Celestial Goodnight. They're introducing fireworks into the park and then they're gonna have the big fountain in front of Helios. I'm excited for it. I think you're gonna have a great view from Stella Nova or Terra Luna. Like you're not gonna have like you can just stand in the parking lot and watch the fireworks. This Are they only doing them on the nights that they're not opening Celestial Park to everybody? Because it almost doesn't seem fair that the people that get to come in for free get to watch this show. I think they're gonna do it every night. I mean the draw to get people in to eat and stuff like that. Yeah. Come in and see the show for free, eat Blue Dragon, eat The Atlantic, whatever. And you can watch that. And maybe sell some ⁓ Express Nows on Stardust. Right. I don't know. I still just don't know how I feel about the Let it like opening it up. Like I understand it's so far removed from City Walk, but at the same time, like you pay to go into these parks to see these nighttime shows. And now technically those people could just buy some drinks and a appetizer and they also now are seeing the show. I think that they're just they need a reason to get people in there. And I think it's something maybe that won't last for a long time. But I think just right now getting place to butts in seats is kind of their their MO. Yeah. But Jason, you're more in tune with universal that I am, but are they doing anything? Like you said, I was expecting this to go online before the fourth. Are they doing anything for the fourth? Like Disney's doing their whole I haven't seen anything. I hadn't either. That's why I was like, did I just miss it? But I'm not sure that would be an easy I usually see those that type of news and put it in our notes so that we have it to talk about and I haven't seen a anything for it. And I feel like if the the three of us haven't seen anything then obviously advertising getting word out is not doing very well if they are planning anything but I do think what they want for Epic isn't that they want people to buy go in and buy tickets. ⁓ it's still pretty cheap to get in. It's not sold out for those like a lot of the days in the summer that I've seen. But they don't like they could do something on the fourth of July. They just don't want to announce it 'cause they don't want to flood the park with all the people. But you'd think they would want to. Like all those Epic and they're I think they're still not ready for a full park like that. Like service staff wise and things like that. Well that but the park during the summer, how much it storms? Yeah, I mean seven out of eleven rides shut down when it rains. Yeah, so it's it's what are you gonna do? You don't wanna bring all those people and say, Hey, come here and then you're disappointed, what are you gonna do for those, you know, two hours of storms? Yeah. But Yeah, I'm ⁓ we planned on going epic for Fourth of July. No if we still will or not. We're gonna move over to Walt Disney World for a second. ⁓ well not for a second, for actually a little bit. We got some news about the boardwalk and how we're getting some new experiences over there. The the Jelly Rolls dueling bar piano closed a few what it was last year. I think it was last year that it closed. Love a dueling piano bar. I never went to Jelly Rolls. I always went there. But Vegas, around here, love ⁓ So Joe Rolls is being replaced by a new lounge called the Hurley Burley. Hurley Burley. It's gonna it's gonna they have said during the day it's gonna well during the afternoon, guests can drop by for family-friendly activities like trivia and other games led by a charismatic host. So kind of like ⁓ the lounges on Disney Cruise, you know, they're more friend family friendly during the day. At night time, ⁓ the Hurley Burley will transition to a live music venue, welcoming guests 21 years and Over to unwind with classic coastal inspired cocktails and tasty light bites while enjoying a variety of musical entertainments that perfectly complement the boardwalk's other unique offerings. The concept art they put out, it looks like it's a jazz club. Kind of, yeah. It has that real that upright bass, like a really small jazz drum set. So I I think that might be fun. We can go have drinks there and listen to to jazz. I mean it does it definitely looks fun. It definitely looks fun. This doesn't appeal to me at all. I know that sounds bad. Well you can stay in the room while we go and have drinks and listen to a guest. It's one those things that if a bunch of people were going, I would definitely meet you guys there. But like if it was just like Matt and I You're not gonna go. No. Like the name of it doesn't entice me. Sorry about that. Hurley Burley doesn't go with beachwalk to me. You know, I don't know. It just A nineteen twenties ish jazz club theme. I don't know. It's just I think though with where ⁓ Jelly Roll is, it and ⁓ where this is Hurley Burley, where that those two equal out for the the Atlantic dance floor, which is right there, like it kind of lends itself to that theme. 'Cause that elected the Atlantic has that same type of classic feel to it. I guess it's probably a lot better than my mind than it than it You know, looks on paper. I don't know. It's probably better on paper than it is in my mind. Let me feel like that. But right now, just like when they announced it, I was excited and then I saw it and it's just not what I had in mind for what they would do. We had a we went to the French Quarter a few years back with I went with Jerry, Amber, and Nicole and I had a great time there. And it's jazz. So it's just real cramped. So I'm kind of curious what they would do with this ver like make this bigger. What will will what will it do to that over there at ⁓ French Quarter? The other store we have coming in is ⁓ a basin, which is the biggest disappointment to me. Thank you. Okay, I didn't want to say that, but when they announced retail spaces coming in, yeah. Bath products was a little disappointing. Disney Springs. In Disney Springs. So that was a third location. That's exactly what the mail in is what I felt like it was like they couldn't nail something down really, so they just put another one in there. But do they really sell that many specialty bath products to support three separate locations? So French the random flow is like real small compared to the big store and diffin springs. But are you gonna have two a medium sized store? Like or is is s bath soaps? That in demand that you just need to have one in the proximity of six resorts? No, not when you can order it online and have it shipped and you don't have to pack it in your suitcase. I don't pack it the suitcase anyway, I drive down. Well, for you. Yeah. I like like I just feel like there's so many other things that I'm like especially somewhere like boardwalk was which is, you know, a little upper. Yeah. That maybe a little boutique where I can buy like A nice sweater if it's cold. And you know, that's the price point of people there that would like go buy a cardigan that doesn't have like a Mickey Mouse face on it. Like the Johnson Grand Flow or things like that for you know, an Atlantic Beach I mean, Atlantic City boardwalk. Like And that's what I was gonna say, you could put easily put a nice little s little Disney style boutique there that does so sell that higher end stuff. Yeah. But 'cause like that well, I don't know if y'all weren't there the The jacket that was $400 at Grand Flow. It's like the maleficent ears or whatever, or horns it had on or whatever. Mm-hmm. Yeah, he said like the stuff it won't sell, maybe, you know, on Main Street and Disney World because the price point is too high. Look, we walked into ⁓ Grand Cal the other day, and they had a Louis Vuitton in a case sitting there. And Rachel straight up goes, Why is this here? And the guy walking around working there goes, Well, because it's Louis Vuitton. We're an upcla we're an upscale resort, so we want to sell something that upscale guests want. And she goes, Well, there's no Mickey on it. He goes, Not everybody wants Mickey. It's like, But that's true, but this is still Disney. You should have like a Louis Vuitton Disney bag, not just a Louis Vuitton. Mm-hmm. See I'll go in the middle of that there. As someone who likes Disney but doesn't want Mickey Mouse on everything, like I can understand. I wish they would do like a charm. Or like the zipper pull or something was like a Mickey head. So it's like a subtle, like subtle in the Louis Vuitton, like where it's not like we're like, ⁓ there's a Mickey on there. But if you're looking, no. I don't want any anything larger than a quarter size Mickey something. Because you still want it to retain like like it looks cute and demure. But yeah. I got Bethany her coach a coach bag for Christmas and it has Mickey on it. And Mickey I mean it's Mickey's maybe that big. And the coach bag isn't huge. But it's it's subtle. You know, it's not yes. This isn't like I don't like when they put in the stitching. Like it's just the stitching is Mickey shaped, but it's not like a plastered subtly ⁓ like so in the middle of that, it is a Louis bag there, but it should have had some sort of Disney like specialty. But could you why are you carrying a Louis bag in Disney? I would not. I would carry a fake Louie in Disney. I would not carry a real one. I'll even say ⁓ and this is saying something kinda I know a like bags, but ⁓ Veera Bradley. They have that stored in Disney Springs that's pretty massive. You could have put it's not expensive like Louie. No, but it you could put a Veera Bradley in Boardwalk. Yeah. And it's subtle Disney that like you can spend a lot of money in 'cause if you want the whole set. Uh-huh. Sunset Boulevard, a really cute specialty boutique that's on the right in all those shops. Yeah, right there. It's the last one, right? The Yes. And it's got stuff in there you can't find in the rest of the parks. They had a bag in there and it was like a belt bag or a fanny pack of something. Was it a Harling? No. It was ⁓ but the design on it was really cute and I was like, ⁓ that's cute. And I picked it up, but it was $195. And I was like, well, that's a little outside of my price range. But like things like that. Like is what I feel like should be in there. That's like Disney stuff, but it's not theme park stuff. But it's it's higher than your average park goer would just drop on a you know, just a whim walking into a gift shop. But go ahead. So let's move over to Epcot for a second. We got the eat to the beat concert lineup, you know, we like to talk about these and see. Can I just tell y'all, no one when we were at the beach as a lot of people. Spoke of. Someone said something about SeaWorld. And I was like, Y'all gotta look up the concert lineup for SeaWorld. And they were like, It can't be good. ⁓ it's like, you wanna bet? So I brought it up and I like I was reading them out and they were like, There is no way. I was like, Yeah. I was like, SeaWorld is trying to get people in there. I was like, they've got better line ups than like Disney and other places like that for their concert series right now, in my humble opinion. ⁓ I think this is a better this is a little bit better lineup than what we had for the f ⁓ flower garden rocks lineup. But Garden Rocks is always in the ⁓ cover bands. Yeah. I'm not gonna go over everybody because there are a lot. But there's lot. Returning people are like Starship's back, Tiffany's back, Smashmouth with their dead lead singers back. Hansen. Hansen. They always have the ⁓ hops is always one of their beers that's down there, so they always come back. And then of course Rachel's favorite, ⁓ the Beach Boys featuring John Stamos. Yeah. But then they have like Blackman is where I'd be. I would do that. ⁓ Bowling for Soup, I'd probably do. New guy new people. I don't really know any of these new people. Lauren Elena's country. That's I don't know her. So Warren Warren Treaty couch fits in the Warren Treaty's country. Say I wouldn't know them. You know that. I know who Grace Potter. Okay. Yeah. I can make no hands clap. Yeah, that's fits in the tantrums. Ray Ruse, Alan Stone. Like I I just don't know any of these. I'm not saying it's not. I'm just saying this is better than what they had. I will I'll say this is probably a little bit better than what even what Mardi Gras had. But it's But it's just I think Disney can go should be able to reach a little bit more and get some of the bigger stars in nowadays. Especially for like food and wine. Because I feel like this is the biggest form when it comes to comp. I feel like they should if they can't get great bands, they should get A great cover band that covers like hits of the eighties from because sometimes a cover band's better than a regular band that you only know like two of their songs. Cause then you have to listen to this other like ⁓ Bowling for Soup. Stacy's Mom, that's about all I know. Other than that, I would be lost. But if you had a pop punk band for the early 2000s come in and sing all the pop punk hits of the early two thousands, The I've never heard of the band, but I would be seated for that band because I would know hit after hit after hit after hit. Because they have so many things to pull from, like All American Rejects, Green Dead, like all of these things. We're like, ⁓ I know that song. ⁓ I know that song. Exactly. So I think like that sh maybe we should be doing that instead of getting it. And that's why they have Evolution of Motown as their first one. 'Cause that's I think that's who was playing when we were there because it was definitely like Motown music. And it was great to listen to as we were walking by. Probably one of the best because you knew every song. Yeah. I mean, and we all were singing along to those songs because we all knew them. So here's what I would do if I was them. November 1st through November 16th, those dates. That's they usually record the Disney Christmas parade and the morning special, all that stuff, like Veterans Day weekend, that long weekend. So I bet Grace Potter's gonna be here. That's why the V Boys are there. I have never seen the people that do that. on this lineup. You should do that, Disney. Like you should put these already there. Yeah. Why not put a show up? If you want people to come in and pay for that dining package, put some of those pentatonics up there and let them I would totally go see Pentatonics. Those like those are some big names that would that would sell out that dining in a heartbeat. And just stagger it out where it's November 1st through November 16th and you just end this thing with like big band after big band after big band if people want to see it. But it's I should say, are they only being paid for like the one or two songs they're singing for the show and not like for a whole set? Like would their would their price go way up if they were playing a whole set like You could pay them for one set one of those nights and just let the b want that one set be the concert for the night. Well even not even record it, but the you could You would make your money back in a flash because of all the drinks you're gonna buy with people coming and standing at in the American Pavilion, listening, all the dining packages you're gonna sell for the food ⁓ the whatever this food ro food rocks, whatever E T. Everything's gonna sell out if you sit there and say, We have Taylor Swift coming to sing on this stage. You know, and Taylor's not gonna do that. But I'm just saying, like, if you put one of those names up there, it's it's sold out. Right. If you put Sabrina Carpenter, if you put anyone like that, it's going to sell out. Good sting. You know, last piece of news I want to touch on. We mentioned this at Easter, and it has now come back and supposedly going to be permanent. Disney is going to start checking for reservations when you get on buses from Disney Springs to resorts starting on June twenty eighth or the fourth of July. And that said they they've started putting signs up for A-Frames. I think this is a big thing. It's got a lot of Disney ⁓ Twitter and a and a kind of a ruffle. Well, I understand why they're doing it because you park for free at Disney Springs and people were doing that instead of paying for parking. Yes. I get that. Are they saying then you can only go to your Disney resort? Or if you're staying on property, you can go to any? You have to have a reservation to get on a bus to any resort. So if you if you're staying at Let's say All Star Sports. Mm-hmm. And you want to go to Grand Grand Floridian. Mm-hmm. You have to have a r a reservation for Grand Floridian at some point, like where food. So Victorian Al groups. Only if you are going from Disney Springs. If you are doing it from if you're going from Disney Springs, you have to have a reservation For whatever hotel you're going to, whether it's you're staying there, you're or you're eating there, or you have some type of activity there. So refresh my memory. Does a Disney Springs bus go straight to Magic Kingdom? There are no Disney Springs buses that go to parks. So you can't like if I'm if I'm at all store resort, like you said, I can't get one to Grand Flow to go to Magic Kingdom. Is what you're saying. Like even th I mean you could take one to on property. Right. You could take one to Magic Kingdom, but not from your like your other resort to another Disney resort. And we don't we this is still like hearsay. Like there's there's a lot of this is how it's going to work. I haven't read official wording, but it says reservations are needed. So maybe if you do have a hotel reservation at All Star, you can scan your bat and it says, okay, we see you're staying on property, you're just trying to go somewhere. That's fine. Right. But if you have a dining plan, so you want to go to Polynesian and I'm eat at Captain Hooks instead of at yours. Yeah, so I don't we don't know how exactly this works. The biggest thing is that they also said that this is potentially rolling out elsewhere. So if you s like stay at All Star Sports to get on a bus to go anywhere, you have to have have the park reservation or whatever, I guess. Or if you're at the hot maybe it should be better if you're at the park, if you're at Hollywood Studios and you're staying at All Star Sports. you had to scan to go to Grand California or Grand Floridian. Don't see it going that far because then you couldn't resort hop. You know, you could I mean that's point. But I feel like they would you know for like reservations. They don't want pe their resorts crowded with people. Which is a which is I don't agree with, right? No, because I like what if you want to go check it out before you book there? That what if you what if you just want to go shop at what we're just talking about? Those higher like the gingerbread tour or the Easter stuff and all that. Like I don't see them doing that. I see them cutting off the Disney Springs thing 'cause like you said, outsiders part of outsiders is in like people that don't stay on property. And then that that also goes back to like, you know, if you're staying if you're at Magic Kingdom for the night, yeah. You hop on a pop century bus so you can get a cheaper Uber. You know. That's that helped. As someone who's had to wait for multiple buses sometimes to go somewhere, I agree. If you're not I don't care where you're staying on property, get ⁓ any bus you want, but as long as you're go paying member of anywhere, that's cool with me. Now, if you're Joe Blow that just lives in Orlando and you don't want to pay for parking or you want to cheap for Uber, I got a problem with that. I wonder what this does with like minivans though. Like if you park at Disney Springs and take a minivan from Springs to Match Kenny, are they gonna check for a reservation? I think they should. No, because of how much you pay for the minivan. They might be like kind of recouping their cost. You're still getting free parking though. Yeah. Yeah. And as a resort, one of the resort benefits you should have is like you get priority over transportation of any kind. Which many which you can't find that out with But like if you're like if they check a magic like you can't get a minivan without a magic band or presenting some sort of like reservation. You know what I'm saying? Like it's gotta be linked your account or something. I don't hate that they're doing this from Disney Springs because again, it's keeping those people who are just parking there for free and wanting to to go into the parks and not have to pay for it or going around the resorts. ⁓ where I would have an issue is if you're staying somewhere like ⁓ let's just say Coronado Springs and then you did want to go over to Port Wilderness because you wanted to see things or if you wanted to go to Animal Kingdom Lodge just 'cause you wanted to walk around or go eat there. Like I don't think you should be told if you're paying money on that vacation that you can't then go to these other I agree. I one hundred percent agree. I don't think they'll do that. I don't like what if what if we were family and we went as a party but you stayed animal kingdom and I stayed in flow. And we're meeting there for some I can't go meet my family that's staying in a different I don't I don't think they'll go A, I think it'll gum up the system to scan everyone's magic band as you get on to say, where are you going? You can't get on. You know what I'm saying? Whereas if you just show a magic band or something, you can be like, okay. That that can't work though, because if I have a magic I have how many magic bands sitting here? I can just put one on and say, I'm staying on the door. Well I think we'll have the scanning point, but I think it'll be just like clean green that like yes, you have the rev you have a hotel reservation at Disney and you're allowed on the I think that would be the Like it's not gonna to it's not like a two verification thing. It's like okay, you you beep green, you get on. Not like I don't think it's gonna be like, ⁓ you're trying to yeah, you're trying to get on the Port Orleans bus, but you're staying at All Star Movies. They're just gonna be like, ⁓ you're staying on property, cool. Like I also think it kinda it kinda hurts the hotels because or it helps the hotels when you stay at and when you park at Disney Springs to go eat at I keep saying Grand Floridian, so we'll keep it there. Because That's so much limited parking there. So if you say, Okay, I'm just gonna park and take a bus there and come back and shop or whatever, it should be like that's fine. Yeah. It's it's I'm curious to see how this works. We have a trip plan for Well, because even if you showed up to Grand Flow and you had a reservation, you get to park for free if you have a reservation anyway. But it's still for dinner. It's still inconveniencing you because you have to walk across the street because the dinner parking is on the other side. Yeah. So if you take a re resort bus to Grand Floridian for the res you get dropped off at the front. But I do I do think at the end of the day it's gonna be do you have a reservation on property to stay? And that's how you get if you're trying if you're off property, you have to have a reservation for that specific resort restaurant. 'Cause it should be a benefit. You should get more stuff for staying in their resorts on property. I mean, that's easy as that. Like that's that's an incentive to stay in their resorts. And if you don't And you don't like it if you stay in a Airbnb and you have to Uber or drive over to Grand Flow for parking and it's further away for dinner parking, well, sorry, next time book a ho book a resort and then you can have the the buses to your advantage. But yeah. And then it's incentive for the rest of us that, you know, don't stay off property. Like you said with park hopping. If I'm parko if I'm staying at All Star for my very first trip and I wanna see what the all the husfuss is about French Quarter. Yeah. I should be able to go over there and look at it and be like, Well, this might be this is an upgrade for me. Let me stay there. I think it's worth it on paper, but once you see it in real life, you'll be like, ⁓ okay, I see how close it is. This is what the pools look like at a moderate. This is what they ha their food court looks like. Yeah. Yeah. Well, while we're talking about hotels, let's move over to Disneyland for a little bit. Okay, we s like I said at the beginning of this ⁓ episode Mike and I were were fresh off of Disneyland. We went out there. I stayed at Pixar Place. Micah stayed at Grand Californian. Yes. And then we took a tour with the agency of Magical Travel that ⁓ we saw the Element, the Home Two Suites, the Hilton Garden, the Holiday Inn, the ⁓ Hilton Anaheim, and the Hyatt Regency. Which is all they're all good neighbor hotels. They have fifty seven good neighbor hotels that work with Disneyland. We're not going to go fully in depth on ⁓ We're going to talk about what we like and maybe what we didn't like in some cases. Yeah. But I think overall, like being able to talk about the good neighbors, because we we're very much when it comes to Disneyland, it's the opposite of Walt Disney World. Their good neighbor hotels are walkable in most cases to the park, if not a short bus ride. And they're just as good as the Disneyland hotels with a cheaper price point. Cheaper price point. Breakfast in a lot of these is included. bigger rooms with more space to the point of Pixar Place. The pool is a tiny is very Pixar Place. It it's a tiny, tiny pool. It has a splash pad. But some of these other ones we went to had really large pools, great recreation areas, like before we get you to those. Let me ask you, because you've well, you've stayed at Grand California before, right? Mm-hmm. So did was that before or after the refurb that happened? Mm-hmm. It was in twenty two or twenty-three. I can't remember. Okay. What what were your overall thoughts with it this trip? I mean, it felt the same as last time. It's a really large resort and where our room was located, there's a lot of like hallways where there's like these like weird squares almost that you're doing like a half square that you're going around to get there. ⁓ it took me a little while that first night to get there. to get to my room. And one thing that I really dislike with most hotels is any type of carpeting that's slightly plush in hallways when you're trying to pull a heavy or trying to push one. So I feel like it should be just like flat carpet that has no plush to it or like laminate, hardwood, tile, something to pull a suitcase down. Cause it was a long way to pull a 50 pound suitcase. Which that's all the hotels. Disney hotels the same way Pixar places the same way with carpet in the hallways for some odd reason. I do I should have come up and taken a look in y'all's room at some point because I've never stayed in Grand California. Scene may have taken pictures. I'm unsure. I think there are some in there. I think ⁓ I rem she did. She posted them on her page. But just ⁓ like pictures only show so much. Like so being it being able to experience it a little bit would have been would've been fun. ⁓ Pixar Place. We stayed there a couple Christmases ago. It was it was fine for what it was. Price point was good. I I don't have much to complain about it. I don't have much to praise about it. I mean it's I the one thing I liked about Pixar over Grand Californian was that all the rooms are like five like fifth sleepers, like the couches make into beds. So you already can then have more people. Grand Californian, at least the room we were in, just had a couch. It was not a couch that made out into a bed. So it we only could sleep four. Positive we had a little balcony that overlooked down downtown Disney. I think Overall the Disney resorts are great. We gotta spend a little bit of time at Disneyland Hotel. I mean when I say little bit, we went to Trader Sam's, had some drinks, ate at Goofy Goofy's Kitchen. And we were in the. I think I walked into the lobby. Yeah, you you and Christine were in the lobby gift shop when I went to Goofy's Kitchen. Well, I didn't like walk around where people check in and stuff. The gift shop's different than a lobby. Not there is the same thing. It's it's a different experience. It's the same. So we're gonna move over Real fast, like I said, not too in depth. Let's start the element. We had breakfast at the element. It was they they sponsored the breakfast, so it was it's free for those who stay there anyway. Mm-hmm. We had a lot of agents that stayed there. I wish we could have had some of some of them on to talk about it. I know. But what it was about they said about a sixteen minute walk. The biggest thing to know about the element is that there's fixing to be a lot of construction around it. They're putting the ⁓ the new parking deck right there. Mm-hmm. But I liked it. Like I think great. Yeah, the pricing's like a round the in the what, a hundred and twenty price range. Yeah, probably cl up close to two hundred, I think, during peak times. But it includes a breakfast and they were very adamant on they don't just do the traditional every single day is like Eggs, pancakes, bacon. They try to change the menu every day. So if people are staying there for an extended period of time, they're not getting the same thing for breakfast every day. Which I thought was great. Then at night during the week they have alcohol and on the weekends they have cookies that they do at night. Yeah. That's they they're fixing to put s either no, they do have s'moores. No, they're getting ready to do it. She said that was new that they were getting ready to do. So that's gonna be coming, but then the the drinks and order orbs or whatever it was for the week. So that's that's included. That's really cool. Like it felt up class, but it wasn't the price point of up class. The rooms generally slept like six to eight people that we saw. There were bunk beds, there was ⁓ queen beds, there's somebody had a king bed, there were suites, so like they all had kitchenettes. I think there was one room that could sleep up to eight and then you could have another room attached to it and you could sleep up to fourteen people like in the two rooms. It's crazy how big those rooms were. And like I said, looked super nice. So if you guys had to put this on like a value moderate deluxe scale. It w it was value priced. Yeah. But felt more like a moderate. That's what I was gathering from you're I was thinking about. And then one of the coolest things that they have is they have free bike rentals. They have four bikes there. And you just go up to the front desk, ask if there's a bike available, you sign it out, they hand you a helmet, and you could have the bike all day and a chain. It has everything you need. And you could ride the bike to the park and like chain it up and ride it back to the resort. So this is like a bike bike, not an e bike. Yeah, it's a bike bike. Okay. Yeah, that was it wasn't the furthest away, but it's the people who stayed there said they didn't run into trouble. The people who don't know Anaheim does have ⁓ some homeless folks that that are around the resort. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. They said if they're there by themselves, it could it felt a little sketchy, but if they were with a group of people, they were fine. Yeah. We definitely like, ⁓ we had one agent that Christine was very protective of and was like I will pay for your Lyfter Uber to go back. I don't want you walking by yourself. Like please. And she walked back by herself anyway and said she felt fine. But from then on though, anytime people were going back to the element, they were kind of buddying up. Right. Yeah. Just a general large city kind of thing. So it doesn't feel like I would say walk around Charlotte, North Carolina by yourself. The next hotels we chose we got to look at Or home two suites and the Hilton Garden. The big thing to note about these are that they are the same building, just separate hotels. So when you go into the lobby, you check in at that one desk to go to either one of these. And they ask where you're staying. Yes. And then when you go up the elevator, you turn was it left to go into Hilton? Or the home two suites and then right. It's one of that like, but they're literally split in half. And then one of the there's a distinction in like the carpet and the decorating. You can see ⁓ with home to suites, everyone gets breakfast, but with Hilton, only if you book it through Disney, you get free breakfast through the Hilton Garden Inn. So home to sweets is, you know, gonna be your family place to stay. When they were saying like the Hilton Garden Inn is gonna be more adults or ⁓ business travelers, you know, those types of people are gonna be staying there over. The other one. Is this the one that had the really cool lounge area that's not a lounge that it was open to anybody? Yes, it was. I thought it was. Because it had the breakfast across the way for the home to sweets people. And it was, I guess. I don't remember. I'm thinking about the convention center, what that was the old ⁓ club level that overlooked the parks. Maybe that's what I'm thinking of. The whole day is running together. Yeah, there there was a lot thrown at us. I didn't get to go in and too many of these rooms. I just wanted to let people sit like I I look at the pictures on on these because I'm not staying there and most of my clients don't ask about this type of stuff. Mm-hmm. Just full transparency. I like this I like this area. We also toured Holiday and Express. There's nothing really to talk about here. It is a Holiday and Express. Except it's on the same property as Home to Suites and Hilton Garden in. The posit the thing to note about these, like they're right behind the Anaheim Fairfield Inn. And there's a there's a Hilton right there too. I can't remember if that's but they're walking distance from the park. Like you should you could take a couple turns and be the at the park in maybe ten minutes. Mm-hmm. But it's also right next to the highway, the freeway. So you're gonna have noise. We saw one room because all the rooms look the same. Yep. Breakfast is included. Small breakfast. It and it was nice. I'm not saying anything about like it's it's it's they they good neighbor hotels have a standard they have to have. They get inspected twice a year. One's scheduled, one's surprise. Mm-hmm. So Disney does this, make sure everybody make sure everybody's holding the Disney standards to have that. And Disney apparently has taken the good neighbor status from hotels when they have failed their surprise inspection. And you know it's a good neighbor because there's a silver Mickey in the lobby. Mm-hmm. It's a big statue with information. Uh-huh. The f we then got on the bus, went a l the other side of the park, which is the Hilton Anaheim. This is connected to the convention center. Uh-huh. This was hosting the Paraguay of fans. And I think the team maybe I they said team. Yeah. Interesting. The biggest hotel on the Anaheim resort area. was like over fifteen hundred rooms or something like that. Crazy how big recently renovated. It was beautiful. Mm-hmm. They gave us some some swag. They did when we showed up, they had charcuterie cups ready. No, that wasn't that wasn't them. That was Hyatt. It's a very Hyatt move. So Hilton we got stuff from two of them though. Yeah, we did. So Hilton No, Hilton gave us the bag with the s sheet spray and the water bottle. That's where we were up in the little club thing. Yeah. This beautiful. And I think if anything, this dis this was like what Michael was describing with Grand Californian. It's there's a lot of nooks and crannies where you're gonna get lost in. But there's a they have plenty of stuff to do when it comes to food service and stuff like that. Shop. If you're there for a convention, it's connected to the Anaheim Convention Center. And it's a short ⁓ it's a short walk. I've made that walk from the convention center to Fairfield Inn, which is the other side of Disneyland, and it took me maybe twenty minutes. So it's not bad. And it has a huge Starbucks. Yes, it's the biggest Starbucks in a resort, is what they said. Yep. Huge Starbucks. I didn't get it because it was empty. Like a lot of it was just completely empty. No seating, not a lot of seating. So it's by square footage that it's the biggest. Yeah. Last one we saw was Hyatt Regency. This one was the furthest out. The cool thing about this was that instead of like they have an atrium in the middle, like when you walk in, it's a huge atrium. So they have hotel rooms that look into the lobby. Yeah. It reminded me of like ⁓ MCO, the hotel that's inside the airport. This is they they welcomed us with champagne and ⁓ waters and the charcuterie. And we got some some swag there. Champagne was okay. I don't think we saw partake in the champagne. I did. The it was it was pretty good. I I enjoyed this. I've been in this hotel before and seen some of the rooms. Mm-hmm. It is you will take a bus. Like there that is Yeah, it's furthest away. And it was what, seven dollars a person? ⁓ under three is free. And that's for the whole day. You can go back and forth to the parks as much as you want. That's not bad at all. So There's plenty of options. If you wanna know any more about these hotels, just let us know. We can we can talk about ⁓ You can email us and we'll talk. Magical travel for any of that stuff. You can find all three of us over ⁓ at Magical Travel. We're gonna take a short break and then we're gonna come back and talk about our Disneyland experience. And we're back. So the whole trip was great. Overall, we had a great time. Yeah. Like we I don't I think we said it, but we missed you, Terry. We Course we missed you guys too. It's always great getting to know the agents that w that you don't get to see on a regular basis. I know Micah's still kinda new to doing this stuff. Terry's really new. But so sh Micah stayed with Christine who's been on podcast a couple of times and the grand cow. So she really got to know her. Besides Terry, Christine is a fantastic roommate. Like she is great. I was really like nervous to share a room. I mean, I guess it's that way with anybody. Like nervous to share a room with someone I've never met before. Yeah. Are we gonna get along? Like, you know, Christine's not old at all, but like her and I have an age difference. Like I'm in my thirties. She's not in her thirties. Like we, you know, we have a big age difference. Her We Christine acts like she's in her thirties though. She does. No, Christine's so fun. She really is. Like her kids are way older than Kova. So like we don't have kids the same age like Terry and I do. But one thousand times I would room with Christine again. Like she was great. We joked a couple of times about Christine being the mom because Mike and I pretty much hung out with Christine whenever we weren't with the whole group. Mm-hmm. Let's ⁓ start with Wednesday. Kinda we won't go day by day so much. We'll just try to float around, but you know, Wednesday was us just getting getting in. I spent more time in the park. Mike could have spent absolutely no time in the park. She got in so so late. My flight was delayed an hour, leaving Charlotte. I didn't land until like nine fifteen, nine thirty. By the time I got my bag, got a lift. I got to the hotel around ten fifteen. Thankfully, Jason kept Christine out in the park so that I wouldn't wake her up coming into the room. Yeah. It was And my first introduction to Christine was her pretend snoring when I came in the room to make sure she was asleep. So we were on a small world going through that horrible ride. ⁓ it's a great ride out there, but I just don't I it's not I'm not a fan of the ride in general. And Micah Micah had sent me and Christine her flight information. So we were keeping track of her on how where she's at so we knew if she got here safe and all that stuff. So she ⁓ She's getting close and I'm like, Christine's getting mad because you're getting here so late and this is not gonna be good for you. Like And then Christine's texting me, Don't listen to a word he's saying. So it's it was great. We're having fun before before she gets there. I can't remember what we ate that night. ⁓ we had blue bayou. Blue bayou. Which was a mess. It's under refurbishment. It's under refurbishment. So the walls are all in f all the way around where the pirate trees. It was too we didn't have like the food was fine. Okay. We just had a server problem. Siobhan was working with an agent on some stuff that was that was happening. So she was on the phone. The server we originally got just like, well, somebody was on the phone that I don't want that table. So we had out all out of nowhere a new person come up. So after that, the service was great. You know, we able to do what we We ate the food was fine, but it just the atmosphere for it when it's under refurbishment wasn't as good as it is when the boats are going hot. Well, I wouldn't have been able to anyway. My my back was to the to the water anyway. ⁓ right. But ⁓ then what ⁓ so Thursday was the first day like we all everybody really started coming in. Mike had been More people were flying in that day that were a little bit more local to the California side. And then we had our well. These coast people were were coming in. Some of them were coming in that day too. Pretty early. Yeah. We met at like Kenda had been there a couple of days before we got there, so she had enjoyed herself around the resort. But like we just kind of hung out. We didn't really do too much until dinner that night. I mean we didn't say it was no park day. Yeah, we got we we got up and we started running around the parks, had fun, you know. We did BCA, our Disney California adventure that day, rode some stuff, had lightning lanes. Didn't take it super hard because we wanted to go to dinner that night, but we had a Goofy's kitchen and that was like our welcome dinner. Yeah. For the agents and everyone. We took a midday break, you know, before dinner, got ready for dinner, sa that type of stuff. It was very relaxed. I just can't I can't like I remember doing stuff. I just don't remember what we did. That's the s thing. It's like I we did this was the day we did like ⁓ mission breakout for the first time, I think. We did. Used our ⁓ 'cause if you stay on property, you get one free lightning lane. So we a lot of us used that one on mission breakout. What did we do? That was when we had a lot of like sitting around 'cause we went into the parks, rode single rider for Radiator Springs racers. Then we kind of met up with everyone and hung out at Pim's kitchen. I got a cookies and cream cold brew and that Yeah, people were starting to come in the park after we were. So Pim's where we met people everybody at. We did Incredicoaster that day, which is Spider Man. Was a phenomenal. Spider Man was great. I I lost like I was losing, but I then I I then I got ahead of Mike at least, but then I lost to ⁓ Christine, I think. Well, I got whooped by Siavon and Rachel. Like they all had like I think Denise even had four hundred thousand points. She did. She had almost five hundred thousand points on that one. I only had like two hundred. Yeah. So when you guys were out there, you said there's a lot of sitting around and stuff. Did you do you think when you go out to Disneyland and well just when I say Disneyland, we're encompassing DCA with everything, so we're not, you know, differentiating. The resort itself. Does it just seem more laid back? Yes. That it does. It the whole vibe and like it's not nearly as well did you not feel like it's not nearly as many people, not like crowded at points because of and mica can can attest to this is like over in adventure frontier land, adventureland where jungle cruise, that whole area of Bangle Tiger. Uhhuh. It felt super crowded. But then you look at the wait times and it like twenty, thirty minutes for some of these attracts. Yeah, I think we waited twenty minutes for jungle cruise. When we did Spider Man, it said it was like a thirty minute wait. It wasn't like we did stand by on a few things that we weren't getting lightning lanes for right away. And the I don't think we waited more than twenty, thirty minutes for anything that we stood and standby. It wasn't until Sunday when it started feeling like and it didn't feel crowded. It was just that where we were trying to go, yeah, that's when the like the crowds followed. So we were just bad at picking where to go. 'Cause we went to Mike and Sully and it was said ten minutes in the app and we got there was thirty-five, forty minutes. So and we weren't that far. Like Sunday was actually the day we went, but I also feel like in Disney World people rope drop. Like I mean, if you're not in the park at rope drop or very close to it, then weights automatically just start stacking up. But we went early because we were used to going to Disney World and we stayed in Grand California and so we just walked right in. And it was so crazy that I mean, it's almost like for the first hour, hour and a half, we had the parks like to ourselves. 'Cause it was that few people in there. And then on Sunday, it was like around lunchtime, it started building and then by dinner time it was packed. And I mean, we we literally like looked we asked a guy at a kiosk when we got food. We were like, Is it like is this a slow day? He's like, No, this is completely normal. And he was like a little californian teenager. We were like, no, in Disney World by now, like everything has a weight. Like you're shoulder to shoulder with pe he's like, Really? And I was like, Yeah. He's like, It's Sunday though. And I like, That doesn't that doesn't matter. Like in Disney World s no, it's like if you're not in the park by nine AM, you're waiting for everything you do. And he was just amazed. And I was like, Is this just the California vibe? Or is this I mean, I think that's part of it 'cause it's lot of like locals who go and and stuff. Like even on Saturday after our classroom training in the morning, we were back in the parks and it was literally like three o'clock in the afternoon and we had a ten minute wait for Mr. Toads. Like we did not really wait. Like we really didn't stop moving in that queue. And like at Disney World, that would not happen. Like that's a ride that doesn't have Lightning Lane. So like we just wanted to ride those 'cause they're special to Disneyland. But we can't ride those. So I mean Like I said, the weights were not terrible. Like some of the rides did get high, like Radiator Springs Racers, that always has like a whole weight. Mission Breakout ended up having a long wait. Roger Rabbit, anytime it was open, had a long wait. Like it was never like down though a lot more than anything. So that's why it got away. Like in its heyday when we went on it, just because it's out there and I was like, This is why I don't like Wa Roger Rabbit. It didn't do anything for me. I'm glad I wrote it. But yeah, I just I was wondering if y'all like felt the same way. So out there it's just and I want to know why more loc and you know, Matt said the same thing. He's Well Terry, he's like in Orlando it's like it's a vacation. There's so many resorts there that everyone is there for the parks. He's like here people live in the city and they happen to come to the parks. They come in to ride like a ride and get the snack or the food that they want. And they just want to be there for the the atmosphere. Lightning lanes work better there. I mean typically we were able to get what we wanted. Well, Siobhan was really good at it. Like we got mission breakout really late in the day and she kept modifying and like refreshing and she got it down from like eight PM to two o'clock. Like it was just two of us in the middle of like I was like I said, we went on a Sunday, so it's like a Sunday, Monday. And it we didn't even need lightning lanes. Like everything was almost the only thing that formed a line was pirates, but when we got on it, it was like a fifteen minute wait. Then when we got out of it, it had like, you know, Sed back and forth outside of it like it does. I think the thing with Lightning Link. The thing with Lightning Link for us though was that we weren't even looking at the app. We just made the conscious decision of we're going in the park and as soon as we scan in, we're buying it. ⁓ I think Thursday or Sat no Saturday, we said we weren't going to buy it because we were we had classroom training. We were gonna go in that afternoon. Why are we gonna waste the money on something to use it for half a day? And then we ended up all buying it because we ended up with a group. Mm-hmm. But we didn't need it so much because Right. We didn't one, we didn't use it because we didn't ride many rides, but we also just kind of just went with a flow. Thursday, I think it was needed. Like the Thursday we definitely utilized it because we did pretty much DCA the first part of the day, did dinner and then went into Disneyland. And we were leaving Disneyland as Phantasmic was happening. Right? Isn't that the night we left? Yeah. Yeah. 'Cause or were we leaving when Paint the first Paint the Night parade was going on too? I think so, because I was like I have to see that. Yeah, because we watch Paint the Night Wednesday night without you. Right, 'cause I wasn't there yet. I was on a plane, flying across the country. But the ⁓ like Lightning Lane looks better works better out there because so many rides aren't on it. Yeah. So the all the fantasyland stuff isn't on it versus everything at Walt Disney World. So you can go through and ride rides without it. Mm-hmm. The only problem is still have to make those reservations if you don't get the Premier Pass. That's why I think Express Pass works the best because you just walk up, scan, and go in and get your ride done. Mm-hmm. I'll be able to let you guys know what someone thinks about Premier Pass at Disneyland. They're literally leaving on Saturday and they're only gonna be there for two days and they're buying Premier Pass for both days, just so they make sure they get everything done that they want to do. So she's gonna let me know how she feels it works 'cause they're Disney World annual pass holders. So they're going out to Disneyland and she's gonna give me her like feelings on it since she's such an avid Disney World person. I will say I think there will be complaints of people from people that went to the training of like stuff we didn't do enough. Like what didn't you do, you think? I think we did everything we wanted to do. It was like we just like in Credit Coaster. Mm-hmm. We w all wanted to ride in Credit Coaster a few more times than what we actually did. We only rode it twice. We only rode Mission Breakout twice. Uhhuh. I only rode Soren three times. Despite me trying to get Mike to go on it one time before we walked out of the park. But you whatever. I've rode it twice, I'm good. I was like, I've rode it three times, I'm gonna make it even. But you know, th it's just those personal preferences of things that we want. Yeah, but I think if you if you're going out there for training and not for fun, and you at least get to ride whatever you want to ride once, I mean And that was the good part about the group that was there was I think our group at one point was as big as 10 people. There was only 15 at the training. And then as small as three of us, even two of us when it was just me and Jason, like walking around that last night. And that was just shopping. Like that was just shopping. Yeah. We didn't ride anything. and I mean in everyone did what they wanted to do. Like everyone had their like, I want to do this. But we also very much like it was in the group of if you want to be in the group. be in the group if you want to go off on your own, that's also fine, but only be on your own if you want to be on your own. Yeah. And we and we very much try to make sure of of people newer agents. Mm-hmm. I'm not gonna say names, but we're gonna we're we try to reach out to those people that were out on their own and like for paint the night, hey, we're sitting here if you want to come sit with us. You know, so we we were always trying to make sure Megan, we always try to make sure Megan was part of our group because she doesn't like being left behind. ⁓ and she made that like known that she doesn't want to be left by herself. She likes to be with a group. And there and there were some that were just they would hang out by themselves for a little bit, come into the group for a little bit and then leave. I mean it's it's great. Let's move on to a little bit more meat. Okay. So Paint the Night. I've seen it multiple times. Micah saw for the first time. Terry, it was not happening when you went? No. Okay. Micah, did you like Paint the Night? Loved Paint the Night and seeing as two weeks before that I saw Starlight. So I feel like I had two nighttime parades to compare to each other. I loved Starlight. I thought it was beautiful. It made me tear up. Like it, like when the princesses went by, I just felt like a little girl who was seeing, like, you know, Belle and the Beast dancing on the float. Loved it. Paint the Night is so energetic and fun and so colorful that the joy that that brought me. And we did the second parade. at night, which was great because we sat on the curb and didn't have to stand up. No one was in front of us. Lovely. We got great videos. Just the the floats and even like the performers. Like I again, I was just so happy. Like it literally made me just like a little kid. So happy and joyful. Did I get the like the emotionalness like of wanting to cry? Part of Starlight might have been because that was the end of my fifteen mile day and I was just really really tired. That's just exhaustion. And so like I wasn't that tired at the end of like that day at Disneyland. I thought the parade, like I would watch that parade every single day. Like it was just so fun. When we saw it Wednesday night, there was a group of like three in front of us, three kids, and they were yelling at every character and it was great. You know, it at some points it's like, Hey kids, you stay on the curb, you know, you're fixing getting run over type thing, but they were so excited to see everything. The the fluke that happened for us on Wednesday night was that we heard a mistake from Disney for the f like one of my very few times. They were supposed to make the announcement that all the viewing areas for Paint the Night were closed. Please move somewhere else or keep ⁓ keep moving on the sidewalk. What they pushed was due to unfortun unfortunate circumstances, we were canceling Paint the Night. So we had g we had found some spots just to watch 'cause Christine really wanted to watch it. I think ⁓ Kinda had w wanted to watch it. Of course I do. I love a nighttime parade. And we just lucked out on these spots for the four of us, and Heather was there with us. But as soon as they made that announcement, it's like, okay, well, we're gonna head out. And we started walking out, and then that made the announcement that the all the viewing areas were closed. Well, somebody had already popped in our spot. So we were able to come and find another little spot where for us to sit, which was happened to be behind these three or four kids. And it was great. It was fun. I'm glad we gotta sit down though Thurs Saturday night though and watch. I mean the music. So they used the song from Wreck It Ralph. That's the Owl City song. So fun and upbeat. Again, and I just I loved it. Like it just made me like so excited. The other nighttime thing we experienced outside of World of Color, we'll talk to World of Col Color in a minute, because I've I have my own opinions on that. Was Star Wars. Mm-hmm. Which is something we don't have in Walt Disney World. I wish they would bring that, but we watched the Star Wars projection show on in Black Spire, and then we watch the Fireworks. And I can't remember the names of these two. I think one of them was Rising Moon. And then something of Skywalker was the projection. The s projection, Chef's Kiss. Like it starts with Anakin episode one and goes all the way through episode six. It doesn't mention anything about the prequels. So it makes even better. So you get the story of the legit skywalkers. Mm-hmm. And then the fireworks I felt were slow. Right. I feel like they need to do a little bit more with the projections on the spires. Like I feel like there needs to be a little bit more storytelling. Like when you're in front of the castle, you have the whole story of everything. Yeah. There there were long pauses of no fireworks. And not really any injections happening. So you're music and everything. John Williams scores happening. Okay. So here's the thing that like I was noticing. I don't know if Micah noticed me turn around a few times. I I think I pointed it out to you or Christine. But where there was pauses in our show, the fireworks like directly behind the castle were still going off. Yep. So If you don't know what they're doing over in Disneyland is the fireworks show that happens that you sit in Main Street and watch, or you watch from Phantasmic Small World, they have put a new soundtrack so you can watch the main fireworks shoot off from behind the black spires. And it's its own show. So it it kind of li it's the same fireworks throughout the park, just a different show in this one spot. And it doesn't it doesn't have a story to it. If they would have put the Skywalker story to the fireworks, I think it would have worked. Because over on Main Street you're watching a full blown ⁓ narrative happen. You're not you're just listening to music. Best comparison. Was it way less crowded? ⁓ yes. Yes. Like we had no problem finding a spot. We project well, we're problems for the projection. And then we got spots for we didn't know what was happening. So we walked out and we were like, are seriously all these people lining up back? Here in Star Wars over an hour before the fireworks. Gotcha. And then I looked on the app and I was like, ⁓ wait, no, there's a projection thing that's getting ready to happen. So I had walked over to a cast member before I knew it was a projection thing and just said, Where's the best place to watch this? And she goes, Against the wall right here. So that's like as you're going to Smuggler's Earth and coming down from docking bay seven, like right there. And I was like, ⁓ well there's no room against the wall. So we stood kind of in the middle in front of the Millennium Falcon watching the projection show. And then we were like, Well, we still need to be here for the fireworks. So we kind of scoped out the wall and waited for people to leave and then kind of rushed over into their spot. ⁓ Yeah, it it was there's fans like I told Mike and Christine it really felt like ⁓ Disney's trying to one up the universal wand raising when one of the Harry Potter cast pass way, 'cause you know, they all go out there and hold the wand up like they do in ⁓ the what was it, Deathly Hollows or something like that. But in this they they have a line that says, So let's raise our lightsabers or late r raise our lights and there are people that have their lightsabers and they're trying they're raising them, but there's only like four. You know, the w there was one guy that was completely decked out and he was like he had like when it was getting close to it, he put on a serious face, put his hood up. Like had his lightsaber ready and then it like holding it up. I was like, That dude, he's serious. That's what he came for. Yeah. So that I would I go see it again? Probably not. Like if if it was us three and Terry had no desire to see it, I wouldn't push to see the fireworks there. ⁓ I think we would have probably spent better watching fireworks on Main Street to see what the seventieth was like. But I'm I'm glad we experienced it. And it was something like Christine really wanted to do because one of her sons is very into Star Wars. So she wanted to do that. I didn't hate it. Like I 'cause when we went to leave from there, we were not fighting the crowds of people. Like I mean, there were crowds, but it wasn't like when you're on Main Street in front of the castle and everyone's trying to leave right after fireworks. Like we took our time. Did we have a lightning lane for that? Yeah, we had Indiana Jones. So we went and rode Indiana Jones. That's fun. No, that was after ⁓ Paint the Night. I think we just kind of made our way towards Main Street. We got popcorn and sat down and waited for the career start. And then we did Indiana Jones after. So the big thing to remember with Disneyland is that there are six nighttime attractions or events happening in that park. Five of them in Disneyland proper. I mean, if you you you can count six if you want to count paint the night twice because it runs twice. Right. But it's it's six total in the resort. So you have to make a decision on what you're gonna be doing. There's two in Star Wars, so you have the projections of the fireworks, you have the fireworks on Main Street, you have Paint the Night, you have Phantasm Phantasmic. Which has two showings. Yeah, right. So if you want to count that, that's seven shows. And then you have World of Color across the street and or across the Esplanade in California Venture. So we did not watch Phantasmic. We did not. ⁓ I would have loved to. I love the show. I love Disneyland's version better than Walt Dis ⁓ Walt Disney Worlds. We just can't fit all that in. I would say it's nice to have many options and it also spreads out your crowds from everyone having to like be here at one time, here at one time. Because what we do spend in multiple days at the park. What did we do Thursday night? Did we go back in before fireworks started Thursday night? I think so. Cause we're I think we were leaving as the first paint the night was happening since we had resort stuff like the tours the next day. I think we were trying to get out and not be Yeah, because the fireworks were going off while we were walking around somewhere. Friday. Yeah. ⁓ so full dis full disclosure on this one, Friday night we had dinner with our Disney rep. Uh-huh. So this is all what we got to experience food wise and entertainment wise was because possible because of Disney. Right, because they're there for training. Yeah, very appreciative of Lauren and Disney of what they did for us. We had to break dinner at ⁓ wine country. Mm-hmm. Tutorial. Yeah. The food was pretty good. Company was the best thing about it. Yeah. The very much enjoyed everything that we we had. And they were very gracious. ⁓ yeah. I w I've eaten there before. I'll eat there again. It's not horrible food, but it's also not Olive Garden. Like I that's kind of like the level. I would always say a step above all Olive Garden. And pasta is hard to mess up. I mean, it may not be the best pasta you've ever had, but it's still gonna be pretty good. You know, like me and Jessica were two of the only people that liked the dessert. Yeah. Because a lot of people it was a lemon teramisu. Like with blueberry. Which it was so good. I ate almost all of mine. I I tried it, Terry. I took a bite of it. I sent you a picture with his weird face. So you said turbos soup. It didn't have coffee. Okay. So lemon and blueberry do work well together. It was very tart. I mean, if you like lemon cheesecake, if you like lemon cake of any kind, yeah. I thought it was great. But apparently Jessica and I were the only two people that really liked it. Everyone on the other other end of the table, I find out from Christine, everyone took like a bite and like pushed it away. And I was like, I like I eat almost the entire thing. Like a lemon marine pie is not my favorite. Or lemon bars. But they're okay. They're good. If it's giving you for free, you're gonna eat it. I I that's what what my thing was. I tried it. I wasn't impressed. Would I have eaten more? Probably so, but I was not in the mood for lunch. Feeling great. No, I was not feeling too good. I'd probably rather that than real Tiramisu. I do not like Well I hate Tiramisu. So ⁓ after that we had World of Color. We had ⁓ private viewing area pr ⁓ right right below the dessert party area. ⁓ which I mean we were like the only people in this square. Yeah, I thought we were gonna be sharing it with like fast passes, but there's fifteen people in a pretty big square. And Lauren room to dance and do stuff. Lauren provided us with some churros, so we had our own dessert party. They were way better than Disney World's churros. I'm not a I'm once again, I'm not a fan of churros. I'm not either. But these were good. They were so I probably could have eaten a whole one. I think me and Micah split we're split some churros. I thought you mean you only had ten in between you. I was like, ⁓ my God. ⁓ Rachel had had nine. Yeah. So the rest of us we can post a picture if you want to see that. But ⁓ so world of colors seven it's called happiness for the seventieth. We didn't mention it. The seventy th anniversary stuff star ends in August, so you probably won't be seeing a lot of this. Best part of happiness was the Muppet intro. And the Rainbow Connection. Rainbow Connections. It was a the the Rainbow Connection wasn't Kermit singing. Right, but it's still the song. It was full on Muppet Intro. And don't Don't jump in the bag. So ⁓ my world of color while you were there, Jerry? Yes. You had the regular one, right? Yes. It had like Harris and Pirates of the Caribbean and February before they started the seven with all the celebrators. Yeah, you had like the Phantasma ⁓ Phantasm a Fantasia scene with the whales and all that. That's my favorite one. I've seen the Winter Wonderland one, the sixtieth one, which is I think forever. Okay. Can't remember. Or one. But this one was was Like maybe third, second or third. It wasn't It was it was okay. It was fun. They didn't I mean we're at Pixar Pier and I feel like they definitely focused more on Pixar stuff. Like it was heavy, heavy, heavy Pixar. It was hosted by the inside out crew, so all the emotions from inside out, hence happiness, joy was the main. Yeah, it just didn't like for me, the the original one kind of like you were talking about with ⁓ Starlight for you. Mm-hmm. It has a little bit more emotion to it. Yeah. And this one kinda like felt thrown together and like they missed an entire opportunity when Fear says let it go for them to throw Elsa in there singing Let It Go for even just like the chorus of the song. And I just thought that's what was gonna happen and then I was like, ⁓ no, they're going a different direction. Like they shouldn't have thrown let it go in there if they're not gonna follow it up with like at least the chorus. And the big thing for a lot of Disney nighttime shows and Disney shows in general is just that heart tug moment. I don't feel very. ⁓ that's how what was the the terrible works at Disney World that we didn't like? ⁓ Enchantment. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I felt was that one is like It was the fireworks, the music, the projections always made me tear up and that one ⁓ like you know, you kinda look at it when it's over like, Is that it? Is that what we got? That's what you do you know. So the ⁓ the cool thing with World of Color was Sunday night we went running for in Credit Coaster. Christine wanted or well, we all wanted to ride it one more time, but Christine was very adamant on trying to ride it. And we could not it it went down. It had been down all day. So we got off with like nonstop. Micah kept looking. So it finally we got off Radiator Springs. It came up. We went running over there as fast as we could to get single rider. We gotta ride it. This was the first for me. I've never ridden it ridden it during World of Color. And that was probably the coolest thing ever. It was like all the lights are off and you have the the objections going on to the water and like you know, because they're using in Credit Coaster also as part of the show. And so it was really fun. But Jason and ⁓ Christine got tried together in Single Rider. Yes. And I rode. On my own. Trying to think. ⁓ just in general from the whole trip or or just that day? This whole trip. I mean, 'cause that was the day we did ⁓ so the day we did resort tours, we did just have a very short window between resort tours and when we had to go in for the stuff. Some people chose to go into the parks and hang out. ⁓ some people chose to go back to the rooms and take a nap. I chose to go back and hang out at the pool at Graham, California. The pool is beautiful. I didn't have a problem finding a seat. But it was also just very convenient that our dinner reservation was at DCA. I could go. But we also did go to Trader Stamps and get to experience that. I think you did lose y it was fun. You do lose some by not being able to sit inside, but y we had enough people where you couldn't It would take forever to be accommodated. ⁓ something I do wanna mention that I didn't when we talked about the resorts, staying at Pixar Place, being a resort guest, a Disneyland resort guest or hotel guest, we could utilize the gate to Grand California. So every day when we'd walk in, we'd pick up Micah and Christine in the lobby and then go into either downtown Disney if we were going to Disneyland or DCA via the Grand California entrance. So that's And they were very strict with that gate. Like you had to show your key and scan it. Like they were multiple times I was going through and there were people staying at good neighbor hotels. And they were like, Nope, you have to be staying here. It's our place to get through here. They're like, Are you sure? And they're like, Yeah, you gotta go back across the street and through like downtown Disney. Like you cannot come through here. That was the fun thing for Goofy's Kitchen and Trader Sam's was I just took the back way into Disneyland. I just scanned in and walked through their stuff so that I didn't have to go through all the crowds. Overall I th it was a great trip. ⁓ Denise, Rachel, Siobhan, thank you for what you do, Lauren. Thank you for your training. I know you you might not listen to it, but we appreciate it all. But y'all did a fantastic job. We had fun. That's the big thing. It's like we learned a lot, but I think the biggest thing that comes out of all this is the fun we have with each other when we're not in the classroom. We learn a lot. Like we learned so much in that what's three or four hours in the training that we had. I mean, the only thing I like I loved every bit of it. I just honestly wish we had more time in the classroom. There was more stuff we could have learned about. Yeah, Lauren had to rush through her little presentation in like five minutes. So like I just felt like there was a lot more and we only had three hours in like the classroom. Like I really wish we would have had more time. Like to to learn and stuff. Because I felt like we were getting a lot of stuff as We don't know Disneyland as well. I was gonna say a lot of intricacies. And they're yeah, they're two different vacations. I mean, they are two very different vacations. I will say we also we we went to watch the Walt Animatronic show. Mm-hmm. And when we went in, the Walt Walt Animatronic actually wasn't working. So they had no shows for that day. So we watched Mr. Lincoln. Well, I still love it. It's a great show. I got home the next day and watched a show. watched a recap on some construction happening in Disneyland just to know what's going on 'cause I like to be a nerd like that. And they said actually he's the Walt Animatronics been down for about a week. So Micah I told Micah that and she was like, Well just be happy it wasn't just for the day that we went. Yeah. And like what you were gonna say, as soon as you got home it was working again. Yeah, that's why I was like, Well at least we know like the other days we were here and he didn't try to go see it that he couldn't have seen it then either. Like it wasn't like he actually missed the opportunity to see it. None of us experienced the bluey stuff out there, but From what we heard, the show itself was qu kind of a disappointment, but the food and drinks were okay. Siobhan was the one who really had to go that way. Christine and Siobhan Heather all told us that it's just kind of like a disappointment of a show. but like the really big, costumed. So it's hard for them to move and go. And it's not like a a character meet and greet. Like they come out and do like their little dance or whatever. We'll stand on the stage for just a couple minutes for pictures and then they're gone. Like that's it. So it's not like the Disney Junior production thing like they used to have in Disney World. So it's not a show. It's ⁓ not a meet and greet. No, it's just a show. It's like a it is like a show with no meet and greet. And they play games. Kind of like Beauty and the Beast Live. You know, you don't really meet the characters after that. Like they go off. But that's a whole show. Yeah, but if they just come out there and dance, I mean that's not this sounds like it's a show with some incorporation of interactivity. But it's like they play games but Bluey and Bingo stay on the stage. They don't come down s down to the floor. ⁓ if you want pictures you can get, but you you're not next to ⁓ No, you're gotcha selfieing with them in the background. Do you think it's because of their costumes, like it's hard for them to move around and maneuver or or they just No, because Disney World, I think you can ta you have photos with them because they're in conservation station. ⁓ the big fun thing and I think we'll finish off on this, which we didn't mention was we were on the way to Ride Mike and Sully. And we it was a ten minute wait. So we're like, cool, let's head that way. As we're walking, you know, everybody in the Disney community knows what a blot a plat is. You know, there's a plaid in front of us, VIP tour guide. And there's a ton of VIP tour guides. Everywhere. So and it's it's the same way with Disney World. You know, ninety nine percent of the tour guides are gonna be absolutely nobody. They're just people that regular people that have the money to do this. I had my eyes open though. I wanted to find a new Hollywood. Someone's gotta be facing it. I wanna find it. We're looking at him. ⁓ it's a man and a woman. Th there was a white bag. It looked like it had Club the Club thirty three logo on it. So I was like, ⁓ it's probably just Club thirty three members. And then everybody started noticing the purse the fourth person in this group was a dress suit, woman in a dress suit with a clipboard or a portfolio of some sort or like it was like a black leather portfolio. That's not usual. So we're like that that's somebody. Christine went running up who was the worst I turn to Christine and Pam and I just go, Hey, I think that's a celebrity because it's only two people. First of all, she's dressed really nice to be in a park. He looks like he's tall and could be an actor. He is a they have a VIP tour guide and someone important with Disney. So either he's an actor or very important to Disney. So Christine goes, I'll walk ahead and see who it is. So she takes off, is looking comes back and goes, I don't know why I went to do that because I don't know celebrities very well. I was like, great. So then he turns and I see the profile. And I was like, I think I know who that is. So I Google how I met your mother actors. And it was Jason how do you say his last name? Seagull Seagal? Seagull. Seagull. And I pull up a picture. I go, is this him? And she goes, that's who it was. So to keep on with the story, we walked over to Mike and Sully. The line went from a ten minute wait to like a thirty five minute wait. We're like, We're not waiting in line for it. Yeah. We peeled back to go back toward Pim's kitchen. I think we were trying to go get something to eat or go to ride Spider Man. And we thought we lost him, thought he was gone. And then right next to the icon, we were hunting him down at this point. Yes, but at the same time it w he wasn't he wasn't visible. He's very tall, like she said. So he's pretty visible wherever he's at. We made we made it past Hyperion Theater and then once somebody noticed they were walking back down from the Hyperion Theater. There's must be a little break that they can take back there. And they were bringing him back. And that's when like we there's a bunch of pictures in our photo circles of video of Rachel videoing it and and you know this, you know Jason sitting there, like I know what these people are doing. Yes, 'cause who was I watching the other day on TV? And they were like, You can always tell when people are pretending to take selfies, but they're really or like they're typing on their phone. He's like, 'Cause no one types on their phone like this. He's like, no one does that. He's like, but you know, it's just part of what comes along with the job. You know, nobody's really messing with Yeah, he's like eat in peace with my family. He's like, you know, you just have to accept that sometimes people are gonna take pictures of you. He's like, that's always funny 'cause everyone thinks they're so smooth. He's like, No one's texting. We knew he knew what we were doing. Yeah, but like you said, no one messed with him and I mean, look, you make millions of dollars. You've gotta take some hits somewhere. And if people take a picture with you of you in public and you're not like in a bathroom, yeah doing something private and it's not your kids and it's you know, then you know, it's part of the job. So we we We all did respect him, but at one point he stopped to start shak taking pictures with some people and that's when Siobhan, myself, and maybe Heather started walking toward him to go get pictures taken. And then he turned around and started walking off and we're like, Well we'll continue to respect. My idea was to go as fast as I could all the way around Avengers campus back onto Hollywood and then have Siobhan. Well no, have somebody walk the opposite direction toward me and just yell Jason. Yeah. And then he would stop and turn around. And then I'm like, hey, ⁓ who are you? 'Cause Yeah, and we'll be like, Who your name's Jason? Like who are you? We don't know you. No one wanted to do that, but that was you know that was my Segal, your dad? ⁓ you pronounce yours differently. Weird. Yeah. Yeah. You look But I think that I think that's gonna do it for this episode of Castles of Cauldrons. ⁓ we had a great time, like I said. ⁓ there's just too much that we did. To really talk about everything. I think we hit a lot of the high points of comparisons for things. Yeah. I think you guys did a good job of like explaining the different vibes of the two different parks. Like for people that've never been to both or are choosing which one to go. I think you guys did a great job of explaining. And I mean, we've done this plenty of times on this podcast before of the differences, but this And I mean we didn't go to Disney World last time, but for one day we did most of a universal, but the whole vibe it just seemed way more laid back. It didn't seem like we were here, we were here, we did this, we stayed out to H H N for eight hours and got back at three AM and then hit the ground running for the next day and then took However, I was a whole day in Epic, did a whole day in Disney World. Like this was not like that. I was up for twenty four hours Wednesday. 'Cause I woke up around midnight s my time Wednesday morning to f go to Atlanta. And then by the time I went to bed, it was midnight my time. Sleeping on the flight from Atlanta? I don't I don't sleep on planes. I couldn't either. So that was that was a long day, but you know, it was worth it every minute of it spending with the agents that were there. Yeah, I flew into John Wayne. I flew into L A X and then Micah th flew into John Wayne. And then we both flew out. But if you want to go to Disneyland, if you want to go to Universal, whatever you want to do, we can ⁓ you can get a hold of all of us over at magicaltravel.com. Find us on social medias. ⁓ Terry actually has all the stuff from the Disneyland trip and she's going to be making some reels and posts about that over the next few few days, weeks, so you can see what we we did and experienced. So follow us over there at Castles Cauldrons, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. And until the next time, we will see you on the next episode. Bye.