Podcast: The Ride - Disney's All-Star Resorts with Jacquis Neal

Episode Date: December 2, 2022

Jacquis Neal (Physical, What If...?) returns to the show to talk about the All-Star Sports/Movies/Music Reports. Featuring giant objects, outdoor bars, and, of course, that kooky crypto polycule. Kingdom Hearts episode up at Club 3: Patreon.com/PodcastTheRide Listen to Podcast: The Ride Ad-Free on Forever Dog Plus: http://foreverdogpodcasts.com/plus FOLLOW PODCAST: THE RIDE: https://twitter.com/PodcastTheRide https://www.instagram.com/podcasttheride BUY PODCAST: THE RIDE MERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/podcast-the-ride PODCAST THE RIDE IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/podcast-the-ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forever Dog. Warning, the following podcast contains quickly named food courts, two double beds becoming a quadruple bed, three story cowboy boots, and tasteful 90s colors you'd find in a juice box commercial. All this plus Jacquees Neal returns to talk Disney's all-star resorts on today's value priced podcast, The Ride. Welcome to Podcast the Ride, a theme park podcast hosted by three men who are only around sporting equipment if it's used as scenery at a novelty hotel. My name is Mike Carlson. Joining me as always, Jason Sheridan. Yes, I love all the giant objects that populate these hotels.

Well, of course, but sporting equipment, when was the last time you were around it in an earnest way, other than it being at an Orlando resort? Yeah, that's a great point. It's a really good point. Surely, actually, let me ask you, when was it? Do you know? I don't know. I feel like playing with the dog.

Sporting equipment? Yeah, what's the equipment? A small ball. I guess that's kind of a stuffed ball. No, dog toys don't count. Dog toys don't count. A tennis ball would, though, I feel. Scott Gierner here.

Yes, a tennis ball that's actually earnestly for a human would count with this question. They had to have made it with earnest intentions, and otherwise the tennis ball doesn't count. Because it can't be like a cute dog ball for this question. It has to be a real tennis ball. And this is probably the answer that the like Griffith Park dog park. There's usually a few tennis balls lying around. So you pick one up and throw it. That's probably it.

A used dog tennis ball. A used dog tennis ball. But they say you're not supposed to give them regular tennis balls anymore because they can chew them up and choke on them. There's harder ones you can get for them. Mike's just lording his famous love of tennis over jason so but i don't need that's not exactly i won't even count that for this exercise because i don't know scott do you have an answer i do because i have a little boy now so i have gone to buy a basketball and a basketball pump and another basketball pump because i forgot i bought the

previous pump nice i can show you both of them here in the garage is there a hoop is there a hoop anywhere there's not here but there's there's a bunch around town okay the the greater burbank area we find our spots yeah i have uh those have been around for a long time but i do golf we moved into what we rented we're renting a house now so i guess i was like looking i'll go i could get a basketball hoop here. I could do that. At least the child's version of Fisher Price.

Let's ask our guest to bring him into this. I assume he, maybe it's been more recent. It's been, it's been less than a week. Okay. That's healthy.

That's fair. Yeah. I play, I play basketball and baseball weekly. That's great. Okay. That voice from the show's physical, How I Met Your Father, returning to Podcast to Ride,

Jacquees Neal is back. Ah, hello, everyone. Hello. Hello. Thank you. Yes, let's talk about sports. Yeah. What's missing from this show?

Let's talk about it. Yes, let's talk about it. Explain the basics of it. Explain the basics. What did you say? Oh, you know, it's a little ball, hand-eye coordination, nice bat. You're trying to hit it over a wall. I feel like that's all you need to know.

That's all you need to know. I played when I was in kindergarten. I played baseball. And the only, and I've said this before on the show, one of the best moments of my life was I went to a bachelor party in Wisconsin, and we just rented a house and somebody had a wiffle ball bat and i like we were all just taking turns throwing and hitting and whatever and i was getting mocked by my peers my friends because how poor of an athlete i was

consistently in high school and elementary school and i got up there and nobody hit the ball more consistent and farther than me i shut everyone up to the point where you can ask them about this. I'm not lying. There's many witnesses. I think it's a fluke, which happens to me all the time with sports. Bowling, it happened to me once. I bowled like a 230 or 430. A 230?

Once, and then not again. Wow. So this is my situation with sports. I know we're going to be talking about stuff. Does anybody else bowl? Anybody bowl? No, not really. No?

Not often. I like to. Can I ask? Because I often think this. Bowling is the one thing I don't want to be great at. Because I feel like if you're good at bowling, it takes the fun out of being good at bowling. Right?

Like part of the fun of being good at bowling is, will I get some strikes today? Like will I have like the game of my life? Well, you know, you want to hit a strike every time. And when you do, it feels good. If I know I can bowl 250, 260, like, okay. It feels boring at that point, right? I don't know.

I think what, maybe this is not what you're saying but i feel also like when you go bowling it's so much more of a hang well yeah that's if you weren't if you were also very good at it it wouldn't have the same vibe yeah people would just be mad like here go this yeah again go ahead and get your str. Go ahead and curve the ball. Because you would be so much more like, I brought my own ball, I brought my own shoes. You would be an outlier with the group unless you were with a bunch of bowling friends. But I would still have my own ball

and have my own shoes with an average of 115. Yeah. You want to still be, that's more about the style. You want to pick that color ball. You want to pick the bag's more about like The style Yeah Like you want to pick That color ball You want to pick the bag Yeah But I just don't want

To be like great I can be average Yeah yeah Like what is that 150 170 Probably 150 170 is a good score

170 is a great score 170 is a great score Yeah okay I bowled with somebody A couple weeks ago Who was a really good bowler Like the curve And everything And he got 167.

Wow. Okay. That's good. He was good. We was like, this motherfucker, this dude is great. Anyway, I just wanted to know. I've never asked that question to anybody else. I just wanted to see what-

I think you're right. It could ruin the hang, certainly. We've all bowled together at Downtown Disney. Oh, yes. At Blaine oh yes i don't remember how we did i don't know i don't remember how we did either because we were eating like a big thing of nachos at the same and like we had to keep like wiping our like cleaning our hands oh yeah that's right yes the combo of snacks you're eating with your hands we had greasy balls yeah it's a bit of meals yeah yeah because the table was right by the lane so we were going

back and forth between a bowl and do it which was fun but i don't think you could focus on either thing yeah that well yeah but i mean you know whatever yeah only for only when it's theme park research assignment to go back to your previous point we're around sporting equipment when it's big and fake. Yes, exactly. We're covering everything for a long time. Or we have to. Yeah. Yeah, if they put a Topgolf or Batting Cages, we'll be there.

At Disney, specifically. At Disney, yeah. I mean, I love, I'll be at Batting Cages to begin with. I love Batting Cages. They're great. They're so fun. There's a Topgolf here now, too. Is there?

Yeah, there is, near the airport. Okay. Wait, that's themed? That's a theme? We could review that. That's always in silly places like Vegas and where indoor skydiving is. Yeah. Actually, I think you just gave us an episode.

I just gave you. All right, I'll see you all later. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Good job. You gave us a future episode instead of doing this one. And it'll help our health. It will, yes.

Just moving a little bit. Yeah. Swinging a club. So, yeah, we're talking all-star resorts, the Disney World Resort, specifically the all-star. What a topic. What a, like, no one's ever said it. We've never had it on a list

i love this specifically about the all-star resorts i love this this is your they're my they're my favorite i have so many thoughts wow sure so many thoughts oh boy they're my favorite there was a little discussion uh jason texted me and then i emailed about this because there was a discussion of what is what is under the umbrella of the all-star resorts? Probably the ones with all-star in the title. That's what we ended up on. But it became shorthand for all the value resorts.

It became shorthand for all the value resorts, which now includes Pop Century and Art of Animation now. Yes, which are, I saw one video refer to those. Those are actually a tick up. They're called Value Plus. See, that's a new name. That's a new name. It's classification.

It's a new name. And those two have their own complicated history. So we've sort of narrowed it down to the original three. Now, wait, who was on? Was someone concerned? Was somebody like, well, Pop Century's going to be at something. Well, Jason was not concerned, but he just asked me. I wasn't concerned.

And then I emailed Jason about it. confused i was confused because you're right because when you think about those you when you think about the all-star resorts i do not so much art of animation i feel like they should just make that it's it's more expensive than the other four yeah yeah but pop century does have you know a little bit of the all-star feel to it more than art of anime they they were building pop century the first time i ever went to uh disney world okay and my second time going to disney world we stayed in pop century um like when it was relatively like a year or two old uh so and it felt very similar to the other all-star resorts what's big stuff i don't know enough about art of animation to know if it's big stuff or not yeah i don't know

it is it's big stuff and it's also big stuff it's also big stuff it's got a lot of suites okay yeah to the movies yeah that's that's partly why the it's popular and those two i i think uh elevate it a little in price-wise. Still pretty inexpensive. But they sit on a lake, and they have the Skyliner station in between. Yeah. So that's what I would say. Like, okay, that's why it's worth it.

I just did the search for, like, three, four weeks from now, like, in between the holidays, how much do hotels cost? And some shocking numbers coming out of Florida for the hotel. Ooh, I want to know. Shocking numbers, not since the deep COVID era have shocking numbers coming out of Florida.

I'm talking like some of the hotels, a thousand dollars a night. Oh my God. The high end? Yeah, the higher end. That's ridiculous. Yes. It's ridiculous because

these hotels are the nicest disney hotel is not that great i don't think that yes right i think like maybe decor wise maybe lobby and vibe and like the uh the convenience of proximity to a park or there's some other perk but like the and i'm sure the suites that where you go oh holy shit but like i don't know so many dis suites where you go, oh, holy shit, but like, I don't know. So many Disney hotel rooms are just like. Are just hotel rooms. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They're just hotel rooms. The only hotels that I would stay at that wouldn't be a value resort and at this point it's not even about like cost. It's just about principle. Like I don't want to spend

this much money for an upgraded holiday inn. But the only ones is the Animal Kingdom Lodge. And I got to be staying on that side where the giraffes are. I want a giraffe right up to my damn balcony. Have you done it? No. That's like my...

I started planning a trip. And I was also, like, planning a europe vacation and to go to the animal kingdom lodge was like for the whole thing was like eight thousand dollars and i was like all right maybe maybe not at the same time i'm planning a europe trip yeah right maybe not maybe not yeah uh but that's the only one i would pay that much money for and a boardwalk hotel because it feels like i'm not yeah it feels like a not... Yeah. It feels like you're not at Disney when you're staying on that lake with the yacht resort across the hall and shit like that. And it's fun to walk.

It's fun to walk to Epcot. You can walk to Epcot. You can walk to Hollywood Studios. Yeah. It's a little farther, but it is fun. Yeah. Every other hotel can suck it. Not worth it.

It's not worth it to me. No intrigue. Like, I love the vibe of the polynesian i don't like that price i don't but like yeah does that do anything for you a vibe why if it was more reasonable if it was more reasonable like because that's the thing if it's a dope vibe sure yeah the polynesian although i will say this the last time i because i've been at disney world quite a bit and i've gone to other i've gone to the other resorts just to like check them out or eat, you know, because they have good restaurants.

Last time I was at the Polynesian, I had not, that's somewhat similar to like Hawaii, correct? Yeah, yeah. I had not been to Hawaii yet. Ah. Now, I went to Hawaii for the first time last year. Oh, great. And now I'm wondering what I would think of it if I went and checked it out now. Now that I know the vibe of Hawaii, I don't know.

Would it make me, would I be like, this actually is worse? Well, it has to be worse. Well, yeah, it has to be. Because you're not there. You're not in Hawaii. I would say it accurately, I think it does feel like Hawaiian hotels in that it was built in the early 70s. And you kind of like, only so much remodeling can take away the early 70s feel of it.

So I feel transported just, but I'm after like 70s vibes anyway. Gotcha. So you might be like, I don't know where you stayed in Hawaii, but you might be like, this is old and stinks. I like old and stinky. You know, I appreciate old and stinky. I like what they call balconies in Hawaii, the lanais. I actually don't know the term.

The lanais. Is that what a balcony is? Or a patio. Yeah, they don't call them patios or balconies. They're called like lanais or something like that. Huh. I feel like last time you were on, you were saying, I think you went for the first time when you were 21? When I was 21, yeah. Yeah.

Because I feel like half of my nostalgia, or I guess maybe more than half, were contemporary and Polynesian is because I went when I was little. Yeah. When I was like five and I was like, well, this is the greatest place I've ever been. This is the greatest place ever. Yeah. So I could see it wherever you went later and there were other options and you were like yeah okay yeah i mean so in 08 08 when i went first time 21 years old i had never been to

any disney park so like i'm going to disney we touch down. We get on that Magical Express. You're going to get the video going. I'm like, you know, we walk up. We pull into the actual resort. Everything is Disney, right? And then we jump to the, I've stayed at the All-Star Music Movie Resort. That was the first one I ever stayed at. Oh, this is the first trip ever.

This is the first trip. Okay. All-Star movie. And I was like, this is dope like it felt like disney it felt like what a disney hotel what i thought a disney hotel would feel like which is big ass disney characters everywhere yeah like you know just nothing just disney shit right it was like all right we're not just a hotel we're a disney hotel and not like subtle disney things right like it was no we got big ass statues of woody and we got big ass statues of like the

characters and dalmatians and like i was like oh shit this is pretty tight and then the customer service was nice and everything was dope and i was like oh this is great and you're getting the full like you associate all-star movies resort with the experience with the experience in general yeah that's huge because to me like all right yeah i've been we've all been to the contemporary or stayed in it or something like that it's a hotel like you know it's a hotel it's a hotel right you know is not the operative word necessarily again i'm after early 70s vibes so i love the place but if you don't have that it's yeah it is not yeah it's like maybe there's mickey ears in the carpet in the carpet you know like a painting

the monorail going through was cool monorail through is the big selling yeah that's that's that's cool we all well yeah we all was were fetishizing it because i think we were especially because we were little and we'd have books where you'd be like the contemporary contemporary but i can imagine if you have none of it you go and you go yeah okay it's kind of a weird big building yeah like i've stayed you know i've stayed in nice hotels before you know okay yeah and the thing too is you're not staying in your hotel the whole time you're out a lot right yeah so for me the room isn't a drawing point yeah to a hotel and like at this stage i've seen a lot of disney rooms like i've seen like the fantasy suites above pirates of the caribbean i've been in those rooms

and shit i've went in wow uh i went on a tour for my birthday. And they took me through and shit. And they show you all of that. And those rooms light up. And trains be coming out the walls. I don't think we've talked to anybody who's been in there. What happens? This seems crazy. So every room in the suite has what they call a good night's kiss. And you can flip the switch and your

room comes alive so every room is differently themed so some rooms like the wall which just looks like a regular wall will like start to light up and fireworks will pop off of it or other rooms like the trains will pop out the walls and like the toys that's in the room will start coming alive and everything like that it's kind of like the tiki room like uh or the tiki hut the tiki room whatever it's called so like that's dope like if my room did that yeah sign me up sure but the contemporary rooms are just rooms they're really just boxy 70s businessman literal boxes that they put in it was we learned when we were writing yeah slid them in like drawers yeah it doesn't sound but that doesn't sound relaxing or magical no um now that said you're in the all-star movies reserve like i've never stayed in there we i've

done pop century jason did pop century uh wait nobody stayed in any of the all-stars i have you have oh okay all right yeah uh which one um i have stayed actually at two i have stayed at the i'm trying to remember the first one i think we stayed at the movies when i was younger for a couple days because sometimes you break it up to save some money too if you want to do one of the better hotels um and then more recently lindsey and i stayed at the uh music one which is dope i really like the music one i like it there's a good vibe there too there's a really cool vibe there yeah it's like a little bar outside by the pool yeah you can swim right up to it yeah it's it's again yeah if you're if you're i get it if you're like whole thing is like hotels and i'm gonna hang out and i need a specific thing like a specific vibe but if it's like i'm gonna be here a little bit and like you can have a nice

drink at the end of the night and go back to the room yeah great sure it's great let me do here's for the the layperson uh the the overall picture of these resorts i think disney mostly had more premium options it's more in that grand californian especially like late 80 the eisner era it's all of these kind of ornate beautifully themed and getting kind of expensive hotels like grand feridian and yacht and beach club so then uh early 90s these start popping up as much cheaper options so it's kind of there's sort of no frills. Room-wise, I feel, that's what I was going to ask you guys about. But they're also, and you're not attached to monorail or boats or fancy transportation, so you're not paying for that.

But you're saving a lot of money. The buses go to these hotels. And they're also not, it's not the ornate Cape Cod type theming or whatever. It is big objects and disney characters and here's a big tennis racket yeah and so two of them open in uh 94 and one of them opens in 99 so it's kind of like a new breed of resort you don't really find like i don't think there's this in paris like no it's a pretty particular it's particular to wild disney world yeah yeah but it helps people save a lot of money for sure in there there was a few things going on with the

company at the time they realized they were losing money to people staying on the outskirts staying in like kasimi or staying in the outskirts uh the cheaper chain hotels much more affordable the other thing is like around 94, early 90s or so, they opened a bunch of moderate hotels to Port Orleans, Caribbean Beach. But there was a big emphasis at the time of keep people on property. The most important thing is we keep people in the bubble. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's what it did for i mean because when we were looking i mean in 08 a night these tickets were oh yeah like 70 and even now they're still like around the like 100 129 range which is i was kind of shocked when i saw those numbers that even i figured even these they were just charging way too much more because they're still relatively cheap yeah yeah that's not bad at all i think a hundred dollars and under a hundred dollars was what they initially started as now they're between yeah 120 and 190 okay so they've gone up so still under 200 okay for now open for now like yeah now you're not blowing the which is what i wanted when you're doing pop century when we went a couple years ago like yeah i would

love to not oddly spend four hundred dollars every night and not really see the the returns it seems to me like you're like it's not even about that and the saving money for you i think you it seems like you like the places vibe wise yeah i like the places vibe wise which is why i do like boardwalk i like animal kingdom lodge even though i've never stayed in those two like the next time i go to disney and i splurge it's going to be one of those two yeah hotels because like the vibe of it for me if i'm going like let's let's talk about disneyland yeah yeah let's talk about i don't know if anybody saw obviously i've only been to current disneyland which is fun cool uh but if anybody saw that documentary uh on disney plus where they showed like the old disneyland hotel back in the day oh yeah yeah like when it was like really

themed and had different shit like that would have been cool but now i'm like all right it's not that much there it's a marriott it's a marriott it's a very nice marriott resort the grand california is and here's the thing i want people to hear me out i'm not shitting on these hotels grand california is great it's a beautiful hotel it's dope i love sitting in there high as hell and just like looking at the wood. The lobby is insane. It's beautiful. Just sitting in there. Yeah, it's great.

It's a great place to take a poop. Like if you need like a nice bathroom. Great bars and restaurants. Yeah. I'm not shitting on these hotels. You're shitting in them. I'm shitting in them. I'm shitting right in them. But I look at these hotels and I shitting in them i'm shitting in them i'm shitting right in them

but i look at these hotels and i'm like okay these are really nice hotels but i i could pick these hotels up and put these hotels anywhere yeah so if i'm paying this much for a hotel that i can just pick up and take anywhere else like i i can't really pick up any of the all-star or value resorts or any of the alls and put them anywhere and be like where the fuck are we at but at disney i'm at these hotels and i'm like this makes sense this makes sense yeah there's like no like cheap motel six that just has a bunch of big toys outside yeah like there isn't doesn't exist the version of it because it to me it's like it's the kid it's your kid brain going everything's big and there's a bunch of toys and there's like yes like it's fun because it feels the vibe but it reminds me of like a disney store or something

or like a toy store so you're not going to get that anywhere else yeah yeah yeah so for me and and then too like just the like the grand california is like 700 a night yeah yeah it's got so crazy it's insane to do what to look at fucking uh you know pins across the street like uh what's the bowling alley at downtown disney now to look at naples the last time i stayed i had a view of the sandal store yeah like what what yeah so that's the thing that makes me upset too because for that amount i can't go to disney world and have a giraffe come up to my fucking balcony and like you know put his neck up to my so you're not giving me anything different with these hotels right to charge as much as you're charging and the vibe of them is if you are really doing a disney

like vacation you're not in your room as much even though you may have disney like or days where you stay in the crib or stay in a hotel or whatever just to rest or relax you're mostly just sleeping in the room for the most part right yeah yeah so and probably barely and relax, you're mostly just sleeping in the room for the most part, right? Yeah. Yeah. And probably barely. And probably barely. If you're trying to crank through parks,

you're not relaxing a ton. You're not relaxing a ton. Well, especially now, if you're like, all right, I set an alarm for 6.50 because it's 7 a.m. I have to open the app.

I have to open the correct app. I have to get off the Wi-Fi because the data... Jason, I hate to cut you off, but remember, you have to stay up till midnight to buy the thing to get the reservations

to get you into the app at 7 a.m. Oh, my God. I'm sorry. I may have been looking at a June 2022 article. I wasn't looking at the September one, which is Sims updated.

They made a point of making it more complicated. Yeah, that's right. It's ridiculous. Don't get me started on it. Yeah. You know what just happened to me with the Wi-Fi is I was on the Disneyland Wi-Fi, and I tried to get on my app and flash pass. That's only available on the app. I don't have a physical pass.

I have a card. I tried to, you do have a card. You don't have a card. Okay. No, I don't think. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, and I tried to get on the monorail station to get into Disneyland. Oh, yeah. Mission basically. And it would not come up and it kept asking for a new password and a new password.

And I'm like, I know my password. I'm not crazy. I know what my Disney password is. Uh, and I'm not, I know my password. I'm not crazy. I know what my Disney password is. And I'm not going to say it here. Don't do it. Everybody took their pen and paper out. Let's use some teamwork.

You say your password and I'll say your email. I was going to say, yeah, you can say your password, but people might not get the email, right? That's true. I think they can guess. Scott, if a listener guesses it, will you tell them if it is that guess on twitter i think i know what i'm thinking what it is i think you'd have to you'd have to make a lot of a lot of leaps well let's let them guess but let's let them guess your security is pretty tricky because your email is password1 at gmail.com. But your password is password2.

So, you know, they're not aware of that. Security question. You have to know as much about the Beach Boys as I do. So study them and then you'll get it. But anyway, I was trying to, basically, I just like, I could not even access my pass. And I was with somebody and I was like, I'm sorry, I can't go in right now.

And then I thought, is it the Wi-Fi? And I got off the Wi-Fi and I got into somebody and I was like, I'm sorry, I can't go in right now. And then I thought, is it the Wi-Fi? And I got off the Wi-Fi and I got into it right away. Wi-Fi stopped me from signing into the app at all. How does that happen? How does it block your password? Yeah. That's interesting. We've threatened to do an episode about Go Disney.

Disney.go.com. Disney.go.com, Which they're still using. And you have to like, your app routes you from the app to a website to do certain elements. Like to make reservations, you can't just do it in an app. It shoots you over to this,

what is it? A company that Disney bought 20 years ago for the internet? Yeah. It was a competitor of like Yahoo and Ask Cheese. And so Disney, in an attempt to become multimedia they bought abc they bought go.com and so go.com is still the backbone of a lot of the company

and it's so bad it's yeah and the thing supporting the backbone is they hire a lot of contractors for projects the projects launch and then they lay off the contractor so it's not but like that wi-fi if that wi-fi was flimsy even if it's working a little bit i feel like if it was all in app some that you wouldn't have that happen a lot maybe i'm wrong but like it feels like if everything was just one thing instead of being routed from app to website back to app some of that stuff wouldn't happen because i've had that whenever i have to make a park reservation it like routes me to the browser yes so you in the app then why am i in the app right and then i have to re-put in my password it's so inconvenient don't worry

they've only made it crucial that you reserve everything at all times. Every meal, every party, every ride. So that's fine. Just always be in the app, but also the internet's horrible. It's going to be like a movie minority report. They're going to have a thing where they know what you want and they'll have a printout before you even know it.

And then that'll be in the app telling you. But then the printout will say, not available on the page. Oops, somebody on the page i saw that earlier in researching this i was trying to see like what are these hotels cost right now so somebody ate somebody ate somebody ate the page i can't go to i can't look at what restaurants are at All Star Music today because Dale thought the webpage was an acorn. This is, people joke sometimes, like why are travel agents around?

Why is Apple Travel still in, like not Apple computers, but the chain Apple Travel, why is that still in so many malls or shopping centers? And the answer is for this yeah yeah like they will do this for you and you don't really pay a fee to them disney kicks them the commission yeah oh or like disney there are a million we could oh we should get become disney certified travel agent you should there's a lot of yeah you're right there's a lot of the right host when you had that idea i just thought it would be a funny bit to do have links and every time somebody clicks your link you get a commission with a book

yeah i'm coming around on the idea access to other pools of reservations yeah yeah it's kind of wild that's the only way to like beat this or win this war of attrition as far as the disney company's waging on us theme park fans everybody's in their phone part of the machine i i haven't been last time i was at disney world i stayed in all-star music and that was 2018 uh and uh and like it wasn't phones yet like we still had the magic bands like you didn't obviously you know fast pass was still the paper tickets still and everything like that i think i think it was still the paper yeah it was still the paper tickets so it was like it was it was and now if i go back it's just gonna going to be all phone, Genie Plus.

You can see between 2008 and 2012, they were doing a lot of interactive lines. Like in games you could play in the queue to get you off your phone. And at a certain point, they went, we're admitting defeat. And we're pumping some money into the phones. People are going to be on their phones. Always be on your phone at all times. But I feel like people weren't always on their phones like in comparison now people are always on their phones because you have to be but right in comparison i feel like people were putting down their phones to a degree huh uh you nervous about going back you think the vibe's not gonna be good when you go i am i am kind of nervous about going back i i uh yeah i'm nervous i'm nervous about going back which is why if i go back the next

time i go back i will cheat on my all-star resorts and and do like the big one just in case this is like i think i'm probably not coming back for a very long time like just in case is that i mean you know outside of just a random trip but if i'm gonna like really drop the dough sure yeah oh i hear you because they're gonna probably they're trying i mean they are when i say war of attrition they're trying their hardest to get us all to tap out going all the time that's what i think that's what it is that is what they're trying to do they're just you don't spend you don't spend so much money yeah they don't want you regularly. They'd rather have us going

once every five years and very rich people going all the time. Yeah. That's what they want. And people, they do not like you because you're like,

I'm just going to have a Clif Bar for breakfast and coffee in the room. No, you buy all three of those meals. We are in the process of some weird like computation that is happening an aggressive computation it's not about like staffing and stuff it's about maximizing the the type of person that's spending the most money in the park so with the reservation system you can keep out the

annual pass holders until you need to fill up the parks with more of them because you'd rather have them than nobody but if you can keep them out until like people that are going to spend more money are stacking up in the parks that's what you're going to do so then at the last second you can release more spots for annual pass holders to go well okay fine i'd rather have them in spending five dollars right if we didn't fill up with the guests that are paying more so that's really what it's about versus like oh it's just for staffing they don't give a shit about no no give a shit about staffing staffing is they're about to lay a bunch of people off right they don't care that article just came out i realized it wasn't until i i made a few jokes about it online it

dawned on me how close we were to the holiday season oh yeah they're threatening the like well layoffs are coming layoffs are coming god it's wild it's wild they don't care about staffing this they need more staffing now more than ever oh they need so much more say that's the other thing you're saying like keep the the annual pass holders until you just when you need them that's they're like doing the same thing with staff it's like how little can we get away with? Yeah. They can get people. They just don't want the staff. It's quite a culture. It's pretty wild.

It's pretty wild. It's always like the thing that happens with corporations, and it always happens to some degree, but right now, especially just in the world, this type of aggressive number crunching is happening. Data science and algorithm. When we were watching the social network and Moneyball, we didn't realize, hey, remember the same drastic stuff?

It's going to fuck your life. Yeah. Everyone. Yeah. That's coming for everything. Yeah. And that's what, and I've said this story many times on the show, but in some Don Rickles documentary, Bob Newhart says that the mob was better it was better in vegas when the mob ran it

and he's right is that is a heavy i've said it many times on the show but now it makes more sense than ever when we're seeing what disney's doing because the mob would allow things that didn't make that much money to exist but now it's corporations you're pro you're pro mob listen the mob the mob is cool. You know, they dress nice. They always smell good. Right. Nice cologne.

You know what I'm saying? Nice little taps on your cheek. Nice little taps. They live by a code, you know? I watched the first 45 minutes of Casino and Goodfellas, and I'm all in on the mob. Chelsea, yeah, you didn't finish them. You didn't finish.

You didn't get to the end. You didn't get to the end. You didn't get to the moral. I ran out and bought suits. This Lufthansa heist, they really hit the jackpot with this thing. I wonder what happened. It was great. You know, talking about the All-Stars, I watched a bunch of videos of people reviewing them online. And there was one very kind of dry informational one. And they're

like hey look here's a benefit of staying at the all-star you get um to book fast passes 60 days out you get the magical express for free and then it's just like you know you get to use disney transportation and uh those were like this is old info now yeah and i was like wait a minute this is 2019 two of the three are gone yeah and that's that that's um so i my heart broke when they got rid of disney magical express everybody hates genie plus uh i think yeah yeah what a bomb it's a bummer and so like you know some of the things that i mean they still have the transportation that takes you to and from the parks which runs pretty often it's pretty cool you're not gonna drive

anyway you know like and here's the thing like yes if we're standing at boardwalk for instance you can walk to epcot you can get to hollywood studios relatively quickly but you still need to take transportation to get to magic kingdom or the water parks or epcot or uh animal kingdom so you know every hotel because disney world is a city so every hotel has parks that they're near and but for the most part you are getting on their transportation to get to and from most of the places so like the fact that the all-star resorts were never like neat walking distance to many of the places wasn't a big deal to me uh because i'm getting on a bus for 80 of the shit i want to go to anyway you might be in most places yeah yeah at most places right you know so it's not that big of a deal the one thing that somebody brought

up to me was and you somebody one of you guys just said it you were researching like what restaurants are at the all-star yeah and like they don't have any restaurants they have they have the big cafeteria right so they have and each cafeteria has like three or four different styles of food that they'll sell throughout the day so you can always eat and stuff like that um but you're not getting yeah you know what i you know like the one thing i like about disney world is they got pretty good restaurants uh some of the hotels like some of those hotels have great fucking restaurants that animal kingdom lodge is so good i always forget the name of jiku i forget jiku and boma yes it's a buffet jiku's the jiku yeah yeah that's incredible my i and for me i

guess it's all about how you travel. Like, if you are the type of traveler that, yeah, I'm going to eat at the parks, but if I want to sit down and eat at a nice restaurant that's not at the parks, I would rather it be, or just like walk up or anything like that, then obviously this is better to do at a hotel that you're staying at or you can easily walk to, right? The type of traveler I am, though, is if there is a nice restaurant that I want to go to, like, I'll look and research it before and I'll just plan how to get there, right? And yeah, it may take like 20 extra minutes. I may have to take a bus to the nearest park and then from that park, get on a to the hotel i want to go to yeah but like i'll do that like and i've had like really good meals and it only adds an extra

30 minutes at the most because the number one thing somebody told me when i first started planning my first trip to disneyland or disney world was just don't be in a rush. Never be in a rush. And so I took that to heart. So for me, an extra 30 minutes to get to a restaurant I really want to go to isn't that big of a deal for me. I'm not in a rush. I'm not going nowhere. You're in the bubble. You know what I'm saying?

You're in the fucking bubble already. So it's not that big of a deal for me in that aspect. Or I may plan like, oh oh we're in epcot today instead of going right back to our hotel we'll just go to that like we'll go to the polynesian and go to the restaurant there for dinner tonight and then make our way back to a hotel or something like that yeah so there's ways around it if you want to go to the other restaurants that are throughout the other throughout the whole resort that doesn't really add that much time but you know it's how you travel and you can take a lift you yeah you can also take a lift fairly inexpensively at least

when we were there last time yeah yeah from like a hotel to hotel that's true except remember the when we were on this end of the property that was a lift nightmare there was a lift nightmare where we came back late and it was literally like roads were closed and because from downtown orlando from a live show we did and we got like just trapped on the same road back and forth back and the driver could not figure it out police had to like escort us oh man it was over an hour ordeal i don't know if you can blame that it's this end of the property or anything, but it did like, I was having like bad flashbacks looking at this area on a map, like,

Oh right. Oh God. Disaster. After 10 o'clock. Who knows? Who knows? Yeah. Yeah.

Earlier is fine. That's what I was going to ask is like, okay, you're fine with it being like cafeteria food court style restaurants, but you never found yourself in a situation where you're like trapped or like, well, I'm not getting anywhere at this point. No. Stuck with these restaurants, which are kind of, you know, they're probably fine. No, no, I never did because, you know, for the most part, the way I travel is if I'm at a park or if I'm out i'm generally there for most of the day right um and and you know and i always will get the dining plan which with the dining plan is a little easier to

kind of plan your meals out uh because you know where you except for like the quick service if you it's easier to plan your table service meals out because you need to know where you're going to actually use them right so you know and then you know at the worst at the absolute worst i'm still at a theme park so like if i have to just order a room service pizza like it's not the worst thing your bar is at theme park yeah my bar is at theme park and so if the if a whole piece of it has to be just delivered to my room like i'm doing okay i'm doing okay for the most part but like i've never felt trapped in a hotel again last time i was at a disney world park was 2018 so who knows what it's like now. I mean, that is, you mentioned the pizza in room, like pizza delivery.

That is a common thing at the All-Stars. I think one reason people like them is the consistency. Like there's a big food court in the hall. All the lobby buildings are called halls. There's usually a giant pool and then one or two smaller like quiet pools yeah um you can get pizza there's jogging trails there's walking trails there is like some exercise yeah yeah so you can exercise and they're all in a row the three hotels yeah they're all relatively close to each other yeah so you can walk to the other also if you want just to change a pace now you're going to find your change of pace is very similar to what you have just left but yeah

i mean one cool thing about that is uh so they used to do like movies at the pool yeah they would bring out the big inflatable screen and one time one of the movies was a movie it was my fiance at the time we didn't want to see that movie but the other resort was showing a movie we did want to see so we just like walked over to that resort took five minutes to walk over there from where we were watch that movie and then came back to our hotel uh so like that was a cool thing to be able to do and that they were pretty close to each other. But I think these and this area, this is like the southern,

very southern part of the property. I think it crosses, it is in Osceola County, not Orange County. Is it another county? That's so wild. Disneyland border is in two different counties but I love this uh what you were saying about like yeah before I'm at the park I'll just take a bus to another hotel when when I was a kid like my parents were like okay and then if we have to get to a hotel for dinner

we'll have to get to the ticket and transportation center but as everything has built up it's like well no each park in disney springs are now like transportation hubs so like yeah they all are just get to one of those you can get anywhere like i get anywhere when i stayed at pop century what it's just like i want to go to this one hotel i was like oh disney springs is right there i'll just go to disney springs and then get a bus to the hotel yeah sure yeah sure and depending on what time of day you're doing, like those buses run, like if it's really late, you may wait. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, you may wait a little bit for a bus, but if it's peak time or close to peak time, those buses are coming. Sure. Every like five to 10 minutes at the most. Yeah. So, yeah. You know, it's weird about the county thing.

I was like, wait, does does this mean like how are we looking on an electoral map and in fact most of most of disney world is in orange county but then there's the osceola parkway and that's the division line and anything south of that so it's all-star resort it's not pop century pop century is in orange and but uh it's just the all-stars and the wide world of sports and then outside of disney you know what's right at the literally at the line is the margaritaville resort oh yeah i love this h2o water park and so it's so if you're if you want to go to the rock and bruise in in that's in osceola county but over but you cross the highway and you want to go to the rock and bruise in in that's in osceola county but over but you cross the highway and you want to go to the red robin or the applebees or the hooters that's an orange that's an orange

county and orange at least in the most recent this is uh governor this is the desantis christ election right uh orange went blue and osceola wentola went red. Yeah, yeah. So you're in DeSantis territory. I mean, all of it is, I guess, but electorally, you're in DeSantis territory at the Rock and Brews, which makes sense

with the Kiss connection. But that's a Blue Hooters you got. That's a Blue Hooters. Wow. We know we love our Blue Hooters. If you're a CNN reporter and you want to interview someone in some diners,

this is the perfect place. This is the perfect place. You just got to go right across the street. Just go right across the street. All right, I'll do Applebee's here, and then I'll do, you know. Just got to avoid cars. Yeah. Sorry, I'm just trying to get to the Denny's.

I got to figure out kitchen table issues. So wait a minute. So the all-star resorts are in red territory, is what you're saying? Yeah, they were both blue. Well, it's been real all-star nights. Yeah, that's the end of that dream. Well, you know, now it's trending that way with DeSantis and Chris. Literally, they were like, one is plus eight for,

Orange is plus eight for Chris and Osceola. So all-stars went plus eight. All-stars went plus eight. I don't think it was voting on behalf of the all-star resorts. No, that's where they were voting. They were voting right at All-Star Music. In the Grand Hall. Their main issue is that, like, look, sports is the first one on the bus lane.

So by the time the buses go to music and movies, there's so many people on the buses. Can't they redistrict to get the All-Stars? In Orange County? Yeah. Seems like they should they should look i mean i was wondering does any of this impact the way desantis is uh targeting the reedy creek creek district right yeah because they're stopping disney from doing although i'm starting to think none of that is happening and that was all for show and it's all for show it is not

does that not sound like the desantis you know color me surprised full of bullshit i don't believe it um but i but i do wonder like is this possible that uh due to like well they voted for me so all-star can keep doing whatever they want but if that's the case then sign me me up, baby. Sign me up. He should announce his presidential candidacy at the All-Star Sports. At the All-Star Sports. On top of a big star or on a big football. Right on top of that football, right?

Right on top of that football. He's running. He's home run goofy. First in line for the presidency and they tried to ask him questions but he just spits water out the kids love him i like it's honest he doesn't say a bunch of bullshit he just spits from the heart yeah uh one one cool thing though just, like, the big, or one of the resorts has, like, the Donald Duck and his nephews, like, spitting out water and shit. One of the things that, like, bothers me about Disney now is every new thing, for the most part, is generally an acquired property. Like, Star Wars, Marvel, like.

Right. star wars marvel like right i think like the mickey and minnie railway railway was the first like ride or attraction uh that they had built in like 20 30 years that actually used original disney characters or some shit like that that is not something that is not something they like acquired or something frozen in there but i guess frozen yeah it's pretty rare like the original disney characters like the disney mickey mouse like they don't build anything with them anymore yeah so like i didn't know this the first time i went but as i went back i've been to disney world five times now uh as i've been back i was like it's actually nice to just have big ass disney characters or like disney cartoons like just kind of around and not darth vader or you know star lord or you know the avengers or

some shit yes or here or the the like industrial building where the avengers work yeah maybe come out and say maybe maybe they'll come out and wave hi to you. Maybe they'll come out and wave. They're working. Keep in mind, they're on the clock. Yes, and you can't come in here. You can never see what's on the inside of this building. Let's start calling out. This seems like it's fun to hear about Sport Goofy.

Let's just get in the helmet. Let's just call out big stuff anybody likes. Here's the big stuff free-for-all let's just call out big stuff anybody likes this here's the big stuff free what is your favorite big stuff um i like the big jukebox the big jukebox is cool star music yeah you love rock and roll i love rock i love to rock around the clock i like it's a little fuzzy in my brain right now but i like the big like broadway thing oh the show to the show to the marquee like i like that they have a few little street signs yes and then a little mini central park kind of field yeah that was pretty cool say there's three there's three of them

sports music movies yes movies was the latter one added in 99 so that's anything we said throw out big things from any of them i just wanted to make sure we named the themes well i i want to name the the music genres uh represented you have broadway show tunes you know country rock and roll jazz and then calypso yes one of the big five one of the big five one of the big five we're all always listening to a lot of Calypso. I think that's Donald and him, right? That's doing the Calypso. Yes, the three Caballeros.

The three Caballeros. End up being Calypso. Seems like kind of they had the Caballeros in mind first, and then we're searching for like, and what music makes sense here? What can we put with them? I don't, yes. I don't know if we can name,

what are the big Calypso artists of the last 30 years good question uh Harry Belafonte oh no who's saying who's saying that is he probably not someone named Calypso Rose all right okay I like the name it tells you what it is Calypso Rose there's a steel drum with Calypso right

yeah really Jimmy Buffett has to have some Calypso inspired songs this will not allow you to say that jimmy buffett is calypso i don't know i think that is a real reach you gotta have a couple it with so if you want to put like oh if you want to call it like like rum ipso or uh rumocalypseo. He has a song. So he's an Ipso family. Is it a Calypso song about Apocalypto?

The Mel Gibson film? It was a very weird scene where you suddenly are watching and you're like, is that Jimmy Buffett's voice? I love it. Even the Wikipedia of Calypso, what they're calling out is like Harry Belafonte's Jump in the Line. Oh, so Harry Belafonte? There you go.

You're right. Yeah. Or Under the Sea is Calypso. Under the Sea. Yeah, they could have did Little Mermaid. Well, yeah. Why wouldn't it? Sebastian, according, if on the official Calypso Wikipedia, Sebastian is one of the main Calypso artists.

Wait, what? Really? That's wild. Just in the list, this is what I'm saying. That like Calypso enjoyed some waves of popularity with Jumping the Line and Beetlejuice and Under the Sea. Sebastian is the second most popular Calypso artist. And they didn't use him.

They used him. They own one of the most popular Calypso artists ever. That's so funny. Oh my gosh. That's so funny. And he only did one song. Oh no, did he with the sequel songs well if you're including the videos where the voice of sebastian samuel wright has a big party at the

caribbean beach maybe that's why maybe he's already associated with caribbean beach or also what little mermaid came out when 89 yeah and all- Music was 94 4 which means they probably would have started planning it around 89 90 maybe they already

had the plans in and they didn't know how popular Little Mermaid was gonna be oh maybe yeah yeah maybe

which seems weird cause Little Mermaid was supposed to be like the movie that kicked off the new era of like Disney movies yeah yeah

and I don't think look I don't know how much it costs to make a big thing you know but it feels like you could change six billion dollars well if it's six billion then i think that seems high but it's a little high this is why they didn't change it but you can make a big sabbat maybe you can make a big sebastian it couldn't be as big maybe it's smaller but there's a calculation um there's weird calculations all around because the in movies that's almost maybe the weirdest list is like well okay that's a natural we're gonna theme the different wings off of disney movies and there's infinite of those to choose

from so of course you gotta go with fantasia yeah of course story yeah 101 dalmatians okay okay we're getting uh the love bug whoa the love yeah come from yeah it's a little random it's it's very random that's very strange uh the streamlining of the movie's resort and then you get into the mighty ducks yeah which is my favorite i mean that's great i love that there's a big mighty ducks themed thing but then you go to the pool that's one of the pools there yeah and you're getting it's basically it's like it's goofy playing hockey and it's a big duck mask but if this is the movie resort shouldn't we be seeing gordon bombay and goldberg and Kenan with the knuckle puck?

I think so. We should see Kenan. They should definitely have Kenan. If they installed that now, a little boy Kenan perfectly. Daniel Radcliffe's still at Harry Potter Land and he's a little boy version of him. If it's just little boy Kenan. I would love it. I would go back immediately love i would go back immediately

i would go back immediately man there's a lot of push and pull they're still currying your favor with all these different these things are changing but you get keenan you get keenan in there i am there i am 100 there oddly yeah it's a little odd but like still big ass things. It is big ass things. I love the big duck shaped hockey mask. It's just that's from the team, which we did an episode about, which I love talking about the team. They haven't owned the team in a very long time. So there's an area. Wait, Wild Wing. Wild Wing is the name of the.

Yes. With the goalie mask shaped in a duck way. Yeah. I've never been over here by the way have you been over here despite not seeing have you ever been to the all-star i can't remember i i just maybe just passing them but i don't think i ever i don't think you it's really hard to because even if you have passed them it's hard to see them because they once you enter into the area where the all-star resorts are because they're not you

can see pop century from like just driving on the street i think you can also see art or animation but like the all-star resorts you it's almost through another gate you have to go through another gate to get to the yeah to get to the all-star resort annex yeah you got to go through the all-star annex to get there uh so they're not like super visible from just driving on the Disney freeways or whatever or Disney streets. Kind of hidden. They're kind of hidden, yeah. Although I will say, speaking of big things, one of the things I love about them too is that they have their names just in big ass letters right in front of the hotel. They're huge letters. star sports it's really gaudy yeah it's a gaudy hotel just yeah with just like let's just make everything

as big as it can fucking be uh which i appreciate i appreciate making everything as big as it can be instead of let's make this luxury. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is like. Yeah. To a kid.

It's like, that's cool. Yeah. Also a big buzz. If, yeah, if I took my son over, like if he, if we, if our hotel had a giant buzz late year, he'd flip out. Yeah. Even like the call, like the colors, like the big green, it's just so in your face. All-star sports.

Limey grist. Like a fancy adult would be like. You know what it reminds me of? Seeing that picture. Yeah. It reminds me of, and we're all relatively in the same age range. It reminds me of as a kid wanting to go to Nickelodeon Studios. Yes.

Sure. And how sad it is to see that building now as an adult because it still has the shape but now it's all white uh but then i think the blue man group went in there but it but like it's nothing it's nothing now it's just nothing now but like that was when we were kids and we all wanted to go to nickelodeon studios right yeah and so as an adult going to a place that kind of like has that vibe to it yeah it's like oh this is this is dope this is fucking dope yeah yeah and you don't see such big splashy tacky colors no you don't anywhere really other than

early the resort the signs from the 90s that are still up in disney world yeah yeah exit signs that look like the purple painted yeah blizzard beach yeah you're hitting the face with that like 90s that are still up in Disney World. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exit signs that look like they're purple painted. Yeah. Blizzard Beach. Yeah, you're hit in the face with that like 90s color aesthetic. Yeah. Now, I was a little... Now, this is Pop Century, not All Star. Pop Century, yeah.

I'll edit it out because it's not considered part of it. It will be its own odyssey. But I'll edit it out. I'll edit it out i'll edit it out i joke but play music right here play that would be a fun episode the the odyssey to get pop century both built both properties open is like a 20-year ordeal really art of animation and pop century oh yeah it is art animation did take a while i do remember that taking a while 12 yeah they started it at the same time and really yeah they started at the same time

oh what happened they just 9 11 oh all right wow you walked right into it please let him ask me please scott ask me let me say my numbers but yeah but then 2000 so that delayed pop century the the classic years what is we know is pop century now that was delayed to 20 2003 the other one did not get open until 2012 okay wait a minute pop century opened in 03 yes oh shit i thought it opened in like oh wait i'm i was wrong i thought it was like opening when I went to, but it was new. Yeah. Oh, they broke ground in three.

No, no. In 2001, it was almost done. They were ready. And then tourism drop was so steep. They're like, all right,

close these projects. So they sat abandoned for a long time and then they got the one open. And then the other one was abandoned for years. If you stayed at pop century you would just look at dilapidated buildings that weeds were growing through across the lake target on sunset oh yeah i had no idea the husk the big husk same thing yeah but like the premise is the original premise the art of animation was supposed to be the legendary years 1900 to 19 through 1940 so think about popular culture like exciting thrilling popular culture like the monopoly

game like charles lindbergh so no that that's why i choked like no we should do an episode that the story is wild it is yeah yeah i'm like looking at it now this is pretty wild that's dope anyway we'll get on the you talking about 9-11 will become not a five-timer but a 911 it did it's it directly applied to the it is not a circuit it's directly affected our thing applied to yeah it's a reason we tell these tales. They're very important. You learn from them. I was going to say, okay, I know Pop Century is a different thing, and we will make it

its own thing, but the vibe is similar. It's you arrive in a big hall, as Jason said, and it is pretty gaudy. I have to admit that when I showed up i did not know the vibe of pop century when i got there in 2019 got there a big old line and a line with loud music and where with like giant yo-yos or whatever and i was i was kind of thinking what have i done like i have to be here for six days and and it ended up being fine i actually liked the rooms and i like the kind of economical nature of them and they were just redone recently but i i got there and thought oh my god i booked a room in a cruise ship i'm in a cruise ship accident and i didn't know what i

was doing and i'm gonna be nauseous every day coming home and i wasn't fully true but there were times here what do you think of this if i throw this out am i am i crazy am i am i a joyless uh no no if i say that i i like i did want to escape the vibe a little i'm like i don't i we've done so much disney today do i really want to come home and pass by a big lady in the tramp and climb the stairs into like a 50s diner uh record player and like i was i was a little bit like this is the one i maybe would relax a little more if i wasn't that's very fair with these colors and yeah am i but now i know mike's mike's glaring at me big time but yeah no i can't agree with that i mean i was in the 80s 90s corridor so i got to walk to my room and see a giant laptop a giant old four stories i and i was like i never want to leave

you're kind of wrong guys built the 2000s wing which will have the towers exploit you get to live in the towers so can i did you do you had when you went to pop century do you have did you have a kid no no okay no i think you and now i'm doing the math like he would love any of these yeah star for sure i i get i get that you're like all right the hotel is my my time to kind of like i want a little disney but i also just want to like kind of decompress before i go back to it the next day right i get that i i i get that i again like this is all like i said how you travel i don't think it's joyless or anything i also wondered like what i would have thought if the first hotel i would have went to would have been like you know the polynesian or like you

know like with my whole but as like you know coming into it and just ready for disney so it was disney everything i was like yes yeah yes something different i'm also a cruise head so i love cruises i'm going on the disney cruise in two weeks so for the first time a disney crew i know for the first time ever i've never been on a disney cruise oh i'm so curious we haven't talked about them a ton which one are you uh just the one leaving from san diego wonder i think it is i think disney wonder not one of their smaller boats but should be fun i'm excited for it do you know what the what's the unique stuff about wonder right i don't know

probably nothing uh like i they you know like they have a big ass theater so they're gonna do a lot of disney shit i'm sure yeah uh like live shows a lot they got yeah they have a lot of live shows on there uh and just disney themed i don't know i i've been on many cruises so i'm i'm interested to see how this is going to be different what's do you go on like different types of crew like we yeah i don't have any of us been on a cruise uh i went on a my family My family went on a Norwegian cruise line cruise to Bermuda, New York to Bermuda, when I was in sixth grade. Gotcha. But we're not like cruise guys.

How many cruises have you been on? I have been on, give me a second. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Seven. And by the end of this year, I'll be on nine. Give me a second One two Three four Five Six Seven Seven And by the end of this year I'll be on nine

Wow Because I'm about to go To Disney Cruise And then I'm doing A Virgin Cruise Later in December Oh you're fully Wow

The Virgin one is free I got that one free Or else I wouldn't be going But I got like a Four thousand dollar room For free Wow So I'm definitely

Fucking going Is there So have you gone on a variety going is there is so have you gone on a variety like is there the ones are more adult vibe yeah yeah i've been on i mean the nicest boats i've ever been on were royal caribbean yeah um and i've been on like their like latest boats which is you know they have fucking roller coasters that's going around or like water slides that take you around the whole park and just like land they have lands it feels like lands you know like it's it's it's crazy uh and then i've also been like with homies on carnival cruises which is just party yeah like

it's partying that's yeah and shit so those are the two cruises I've been on, Royal Caribbean and Carnival. And I'm sure Disney is going to be a lot of kids. I'm truly just going to say I've been. To say I've been. I feel like I've been on so many cruises and so many people know I love the Disney parks. Those are like the two, quote quote weird things that i like to people so it makes no sense that i've never done the two things together so i'm going just to like go you're probably dig it i'm gonna i'm gonna have a fucking blast uh i i hope i hope so how much it is because that's the crazy thing carnival cruises a three-day carnival cruise i can take for like four hundred dollars

wow really oh my god yeah versus this disney cruise was not four hundred dollars i want to start guessing but that doesn't seem right yeah it's it's a little it's expensive but you know i'm gonna have a good time well You'll have to come back and talk about it. Oh, I definitely will. We'll see. Yeah. We'll see what it, we'll see if I have positive things to say about it, which I'm sure I will.

The cruise that we're closest to going on is the Star Trek cruise. The yearly Star Trek cruise. You gotta go. It's like a big party. Yeah. I think theme cruises are, I've never been on one, but I think they will be very fun.

Cause you just, it's like summer camp. You're just around a bunch of people who like what you like yeah and you're like isolated so you're forced to hang out with each other which once it's kind of like going to disney world once you're in the bubble you're in the fucking bubble yeah yeah you just kind of you just vibe with it at that point disney has that new cruise the wit disney wish uh yeah uh was just unveiled a few months ago and they sent a lot of like reporters and vloggers and my girlfriend and i were watching all these videos and we're like i think we want to go on this cruise and we're like we haven't

considered it and it's like yeah i think some of the germy stuff for the last few years is fading away because we're like i know on that cruise ship the first cruise i went on at post well you know post lockdown post germy stuff i like pandemic pandemic is called germy yeah germy it's a nicer way to think of that yeah there was the germy stuff yeah but for me i'm like you know i get once i got past it after a day i'm like this is almost the same as being in like an all-inclusive resort where everybody's around and touching the same shit and stuff so you know at least if i want to i can spend all my time outside on the cruise oh yeah if you want to sure yeah if you want to

yeah but i don't care because covet ain't real y'all y'all heard it right here on podcast arrived i'm editing scott's pop century thing out but i'm not editing i can't even see the big poster board that says the truth on it i've been i've been sitting here with it above my head the whole podcast. I know what it meant, but now I do. What else have we not said about this? The names of the bar and the food courts. Yes. Yeah. Okay.

So what do we think of these names? Because I'm a little bit let down by, like, a couple of the food courts on the website just used the same stock photo of a hamburger. Yeah. Not a good sign. They're not really like showcasing but like it's sports it's end zone food court yeah the grandstand spirits pool bar yeah at uh movies it's world premiere food court and the silver screen spirits pool bar and then

at uh uh the music sorry sorry, Intermission Food Court, which I think is the worst name maybe. That's terrible because movies don't have intermissions, y'all. Right. The rare one every five years. Maybe a Tarantino, maybe. Yeah. And the Singing Spirits Pool Bar.

Wait, no, intermission is music. Oh, I got confused. I'm so sorry. Yes, intermission is music. So it makes sense for the show tunes Wing Only for the Broadway Sometimes concerts

Unless it's like an old like James Taylor Might have an intermission at the Hollywood Bowl Yeah Beach Boys do intermission If you're old enough you do an intermission I think If you need to go and take your inhaler in the back Let's open one of these Squares If you need to go and take your inhaler in the back. Let's open one of these little squares.

Singing spirit. Okay, so they're all spirits. Because that's what a drink you can call a drink. We all always call them spirits. How about to the spirits? John Taffer might call them spirits, but he's in the business. Yes, he's in the spirit business. That's a bullshit name shut it down it's a little i i mean i think the thing about the all-stars is that after disney world had

been open for 20 plus years and stuff they i i do give them credit for knowing like okay this is what how people vacation in this place like the the all-star, like that's everything, a family blitzing through the parks. There's a food court. There's a coffee bar. There is a bar. I don't know the smarts about like, all the bars are pool bars and they're mostly outside

and it rains every day in Orlando, you know? Yeah. So you're saying that that it's appropriate the level of thought put into the theming for the the average goer of the all-star resorts i yeah i think yeah if you're kind of uh running in um running through all these things with 80 degree or 80 humidity six hours of sleep at night you might not notice that it's like what the intermission yeah you might not know that you went there intermission what yeah yeah eating a meal at intermission and they do have they do have like the pool bars you can't sit under them and they have like an audience if it's raining they're

like yeah but they're not like bars like you know like you're not going down to the lobby bar if you just want to play was the indoor real estate was allocated for some of the biggest arcades you've ever seen yeah oh yes that's right i forget about i love the arcades yeah i rest in peace disney quest too i missed it oh wow yeah disney quest i did like disney quest it was just cheesy enough for me for me not see you didn't grow up with it you did it for the first time at 21 no i did i grew up with it it was in chicago first oh it was in chicago first wow so when i went to disney world because it closed in chicago so when i went to disney world i was like oh shit disney quest I got to go back to it as an adult oh wow nothing

had changed yeah nothing nothing had changed at all oh I'm so nothing to change at all suddenly you were in a Disney Quest city did you do a lot we went we went when I was kidding that Disney Quest became an ESPN zone okay in Chicago that's a good change uh which. Which was fun. It was where me and my ex went on our first date. That's a funny first date place. Yeah. And now both of them are in an NBA store now. But when I went to Disney World, they had both the Disney Quest and the ESPN. Which was very fun.

That's why it's perfect. That's why it was perfect. Best place. But yeah, no, Disney, I did enjoy Disney Quest because it was just like a throwback to like a more fun Chuck E. Cheese when I was a kid. So your first Disney park was Disney Quest? I guess so.

Yeah. Yeah. Disney Quest in Chicago, downtown Chicago. Man. That's an interesting perspective. Miss it. Disney Quest was not long ago. miss it disney quest was not long ago like it was still in orlando not too long ago yeah oddly i think like 2017

still going strong yeah they shut it down relatively like recent ago yeah and again nothing changed nothing changed nothing had changed they put in the nba experience uh so bad the going uh theme entertainment going public was not interested no because it was expensive and there wasn't a lot to do and i loved the nba and even i was like what the fuck what is this what is this the nba experience i would think it would be going to a game it's probably you know i can have the nba experience you know which disney world did have for a little bit and then the bubble was there all right right speaking of bubbles yes all of the whole season during the germy time yeah it was at the disney world resort it was

in osceola county yeah Yeah, all the time. It was over the county line. During the bubble, there was all the talk of people sneaking out, so I wondered, did anyone go like, I got to get out of here and go to All-Star Music and take a look at the big things? You know? The easiest jailbreak to make.

Yeah. Yeah, did anyone stay there? Did they make, I don't think you could fit a lot of players in those other kind of small rooms. No, that's true. I mean, their families were there. Oh. In the bubble. Yeah, because they had to stay in the bubble. But yeah, what else? i mean their families were there oh they're in the bubble like stay in the bubble but we have some of their families were there yeah spread out among

the hotels i believe distribution was based on team rankings it was like like the more and the further you went the more family members you could get to come and stay so they made that an incentive yeah that's a little like psychotic play dribble good you better you better dribble good if you want to see your kid one more child to come based on your dribbling wow is there a there has to be a list somewhere just of which teams stayed in what hotels. Yeah, I'm sure there is. Yeah. I'm sure there is. We've got to go back and look at that because that's fascinating to me.

Yeah. I didn't know. That's how it... So did people have to be in the All-Stars? You would think the All-Stars stay in the All-Star? The All-Stars were in the All-Star Resort. Or they should have been in the Sports Resort. All in the Sports Resort.

Yeah. Maybe that's where they put the family. Yeah. That's where they put the family. that's where they put the family you guys stay in the value resorts right because i think disney world was closed at that point yeah if i'm not mistaken or right it opened in july there was a little bit of crossover i think yeah because there were vlogger there were people going like i'm staying at the Grand Floridian. I cannot go in these buildings because NBA players are staying here. Right, right. That's wild. What a time.

Yeah, things, boy, things get screwed up in a weird way. Oh, we didn't mention that. About the sports one, a lot of visiting, like, middle school, high school sports teams will stay there. If there's cheerleading competitions or Pop Warner football, people will stay usually at the All-Stars. You didn't stay at the All-Star. You went on a band trip once to Orlando, right? Yeah, we stayed off-site.

Yeah, because it was the cheapest option. Because it seems like very easy. Like, well, you want your band to come and play? Why not stay at the All-Star Music? Come on in. You all like music, right? It's not that much more than the Holiday Inn or what you're paying for outside. I mean, I think it was smart.

Like, if you're going to pay for a Hilton, which, you know, unless you get points, you might as well spend less money and just stay on property and get all the perks and shit the difference they don't know they don't know the difference they don't know the difference at all like kids all traveling together at these i could see it i i'm coming i think my my icy heart is melting once you got past the hall i was surprised that that like, oh yeah, it's all pretty chill. I mean, the pool's a little noisy, but like, yeah, the vibe is pretty good at these. I never really felt, I never really felt every time I've stayed.

And again, like first time I went, I was 21. I'm 36 now. Last time I was there was 18. So how long ago was that? I was early thirties then. You know, I do not like kids a lot more than i did then um but and like you know in a cute way to not like kids but like i i i do wonder like if i never felt like it was like frantic um like or it was like too much like i'd never felt yeah it felt chill like even like

staying in a pool like that that would be the same in any of the resorts like you know all the kids and some of those yeah some of the like fancier hotels quote unquote have pretty chaotic chaotic chaotic pools right yeah and so i'm not really which is where i would spend most of my time if i was at the hotel like in the pool area or you know maybe i would grab some food maybe go to the arcade but you're mostly outdoors which never felt too wild to me yeah i wonder how that would feel now like you know in my mid to late 30s if i would be like oh one more kiss splash me with water but like i'll probably be fine you probably wouldn't get thrown into a rage yeah yeah i probably wouldn't get i probably wouldn't go into a fit uh maybe i think all the rooms at this point

have been redone to something similar to like what we say it in a pop century i think everywhere is kind of art of animation i think has a lot more character decorations and stuff but like again the way people like to go uh on these trips it's like okay well the second bed is a murphy bed that when you put it up it's the tape it's a table when you put it down the table folds down and there's a lot of storage space under the beds if you have is this at the one you were saying that at pop century okay i i think all the all-stars have been like turned into these kinds of oh really because last time i was there they were just they're a bit you can get um you could get a queen size bed maybe a king or double

yeah um which i don't know if they i don't know if they still do this but if i can give everybody a little secret yeah if you ever go to any of the hotels yeah i always request two double beds move that little table in between and put those two beds together and get the fucking biggest bed you can ever sleep in like in your life and like you put them both and then when they come and clean them up they don't separate them they let they keep them how you have them and just put them together and you literally are just rolling around like it feels like you're sleeping on an island and it is gorgeous and the only reason i discovered that is because disney accidentally put us in a double room one time oh and instead of one bed

so we were like well you know this bed is a little too small for both of us to sleep in so we just put them both together and we were like this is great this is fantastic what's beyond king it's a it's an emperor california california king is only just longer it's the same way oh okay it's an emperor California King is only just longer it's the same width oh okay it's the same width so yeah put in two doubles together or two queens together is the biggest bed

you can sleep in it's amazing for anywhere for a home to get two beds but in terms of like people like I don't really need

an ironing board if I'm staying at a Disney All-Star but I do need a bunch of USB ports because every device there were device any of those there were a lot of things you need because you get that phone has to be charged it has to be charged there's no way around that yeah um i have one more little thought exercise before we wrap it up these are big themes that they dealt with with big obvious you know it's sports you could do big helmets and it's movies you have movie characters and music so it's a big piano pool and all that if they wanted to add one more they want to keep

all-star what these are big primary topics what would fit as all-star for i was thinking about this too before we got here and this isn't the right answer and this is not my answer but i just got cryptocurrency was the first thing i thought. That's not the answer. All-star crypto. Well, because crypto.com, there's a lot of, another exchange went belly up recently. Yeah, Miami just removed the FTX branding

on the arena. Oh, yeah, they did. Yeah, so there's a lot of that in the news. Crypto.com is coming up soon. Oh, is it going to disappear? Really? That's insane. We don't know yet. We don't know. That's insane. We don't know yet.

We don't know. Anything's possible. It's the Wild West. By the way, I think, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know any of this. FTX Arena is where Miami Heat play. Yeah. And that they're taking FTX off of it.

Yeah. I think this arena might have been designed by the same architects as the All-Star Resort. Oh, really? For real? I think maybe because it's a the firm the firm's insane when you see it on the wikipedia for the it's built by architectonica love it name is like yelling architect maybe i'm putting too many letters in there but i they've built a ton of like recent uh high-rise stuff in miami and i saw an arena in there so i think maybe this

is the same people who built the all-stars that's a crazy idea if i'm wrong i'll then i mean you know south florida i'll cut it out in florida i get it i'll hear this um a lot of cuts in this one but anyway okay let's uh yeah well okay how does that work because you know the i only vaguely know i know there's like ethereum and there's bitcoin itself yeah are all the halls different now defunct increasingly currencies i think you would yeah it would have to all be different cryptocurrencies you know doge as the dog we've seen that graphic so there's a doge wing there's an ethereum way i don't wait we've all seen that graphic what do you's a Doge wing. There's an Ethereum way. I don't wait. We've all seen that graphic. What do you mean?

Doge coin is sort of a meme. Do we know what I'm talking about? Anyone? I know Doge coin, but I didn't know it was based on like a image. It's kind of a meme. There's like a, kind of a funny looking dog's face that's often associated with it.

And it's like, you know, it's like kind of started as a joke, but then like, if you invested in the right time, you could be a millionaire or a lost all your money. It depends what time you took the money uh out but i'm right you don't have to cut it same uh same architect wow wow uh yeah great nice um michael i uh the interesting thing the ftx story just keeps getting more and more interesting i believe a chunk of the

management team was all in a big polycule together. That's a whole million other pockets. There were just like nine people living in a big house that were running the whole thing. They were all in their 20s, I think. Yes, and they were all in one big relationship. They had a guy on staff. They had a guy on retainer who would fly in to resolve conflicts among this sexual polycule. And these are the people who build FTX? Yeah, this is All Star.

This is an all-star team. This makes me love it. Not the architects. We don't know how the architects do their business or who they have sex with, but it's the coin people. Oh, the coin people. The coin people.

Yeah, we're all in one big thing, one big relationship. Yeah, and then basically what happened was since all this stuff is unregulated, they were taking all people's money that they had invested and then using it to invest in other stuff, which then if you start running out of money, gets you in a lot of trouble,

and the whole thing went belly up and people lost a lot of money because they had their money in there, but their money was being used to make other money until it wasn't, until they ran out of money. Interesting. It's very similar to Bernie Madoff. When people would give him money, he would put it in a checking account.

He would put it in a Chase business checking account. And when they would ask for a payout, he would make a withdrawal from that checking account. It's what happens at regular banks, but there's just more regulation on it, basically. Your money in a bank is being used to make the bank more money. Yeah. But it's not being used as recklessly, I say, not in really knowing. That's true.

They've just been at it for longer. They just know how to do it. FDIC, in short. It's guaranteed by the government. Right. So there's more, some, been at it for longer. They just know how to do it. At DIC, and sure, it's guaranteed by the government. Right. So there's more, some quote-unquote protection there. Are NFTs in the family enough? Yes.

Oh, they're in the family. They're crypto. Absolutely, Bored Ape is one of the wings. Yeah. I don't know who else. Because what other IP do you have? Yeah. Everyone, I don't know.

You know, Johnny Depp has those NFTs about his son's, the character that his son created in a dream. Which or what? Is it a cat? Is it a bunny? It's a bunny man. Is it worth like $10 now? It's a good point. It might actually be skyrocketing. He's on tour with Jeff Beck

and everyone needs these NFTs that were made by Johnny Depp. I don't know. The Paris Hilton one I think is that they gave out to all the Tonight Show. She's like on the Tonight Show. Like, I'm giving everyone an NFT. That, I believe, is worth like $3 to $10. Love it. All right, okay.

Hey, man, that's a cheeseburger. That is true. Yeah, that is a cheeseburger. That's a free cheeseburger. It's not that. What do you call then, can you name like the food court or the pool like i'm sorry this is all on you because blockchain blockchain spirits blockchain

spirits yeah okay that's the that's the bar here's the coin bites i don't want to be i don't want to be insulting but that's a little too clever for the precedent set by the other all-star that's true yeah that's true in a better place you're right that's a perfect name so is it called like the the trading oh wait the trading post but it's a it's like a it's a pun because it's you trade the coins but also you eat food that's fun what about just like transaction cafe i think you got it i think that's that feels right for the thought exercise that that feels the best yeah wow. I would eat there.

I would eat there. Surprise. Listen, you can't mess up. You can't mess up a Mickey waffle. You know. No matter how dumb the name is. No matter how dumb the name is, Mickey waffle stays the same. That's a beautiful sentiment.

And I guess on that note. On that note. You survived. Yes. Oh, my gosh. Yes. great oh i love all i love talking i've never got to express my love for the all-star resorts you made me love them i think listen i think it's i think it's cool i think if you're gonna save some money yeah but without sacrificing like enjoying the area you're in and then also when i compare the prices like

the cheapest hotel at disneyland is paradise pier yeah i can just i can fucking stay at red roof in like down the street like instead of paying 300 a night but yeah the cheapest hotel at disney world i ain't getting that nowhere else so yeah i mess with it um jakeese i have an update for you but i think we talked about on your last oh appearance yes because uh the uh ducktales world showcase is it out now came up well uh as of the end of september of this year end of september this year uh uh cartico rodriguez the vice president of epcot in a disney parks blog post rodriguez she said coming later this year uh the ducktales world showcase adventure is going to happen it still hasn't happened yet we are we are running out of ago

even saying in september of this year even saying later this year you're running out of you're running out of time so but maybe people were speculating well maybe for the biggest busy christmas season i mean listen if that's the case please somebody let me know if you go to disney world during christmas or any time between now and new year's day and it's there let me know because i still don't know i recorded this in may of 2020 i recorded yeah i recorded donald duck for this and uh for this was as a reminder this was because the and there's a thing in the cartoons where in duck tales where donald duck is voiced by don cheetle yes yes yes cheetleified i was the don cheetle donald

duck so he wore he he he swallows like a voice modulator and then he somebody asked me like do the voice i was like bro that was almost three years ago i don't remember it like he swallows a thing and then becomes like smart don or just no suave and you know yeah good talking donald okay so this this is a scavenger hunt that you go around the countries in world showcase and you use the play disney parks app i cannot attest to how much of go.com is the backbone of that it'll never work i will tell you that app takes up a lot of room on your phone and it makes your phone very hot so if it's a cold day warm up by downloading the play disney parks app and going to world showcase to do the ducktales world showcase adventure and hear jakees's voice please please do i mean i am upset that i haven't been given

free tickets to go see see this i should talk to my agent or my manager and be like, hey, man. Yeah. I have a voice at Disney. They can run me a ticket. I think so. I don't even have to stay at a hotel. Just run me a ticket. Yeah.

Although, if you can get them to also cough up a little All-Star room. Listen, I'll take a week back at All-Star Music. I'll take that. Give me a nice pizza. It's second on the bus. It's second on the bus. It's second on the bus. So hopefully a lot of people have gotten off at sports, gotten off at music.

I can sit down for a couple seconds. And you can sit down. Yeah. I can sit down. Full exit through the gift shop. Anything else besides the, you can't even, maybe if you can be heard in Disney world and we don't know,

and we do that if you can, but anything else you'd like to plug? Oh, anything. Oh, yeah. I mean, listen, watch Physical on Apple TV. I'll be, like you said, in an upcoming season of How I Met Your Father, which is a Disney show. Disney made me take an hour COVID class before I can go to set. It was great.

I didn't know this policy. It was fantastic. And they recently dropped the vaccine mandate. And they just dropped it. I missed it by a couple months. Is anybody fun in the video? Do they have characters? Garsh, be careful.

Yeah, I wish. That would have made it more interesting. It was just uh lady talking uh and then also if anybody you know if you're in la come check out uh comedian feud which is uh i host a live version of family feud with uh comedians uh and tv people and all the fun shit um at elysian theater every month so come check that out okay theater oh yeah awesome yeah um i just also just thought you know it'd be like perfect thing to do they don't have to do it anymore but to illustrate the six feet you get pinocchio lion and you like like you lie to a

perfect six feet nose distance hey they miss serve as a living ruler right they missed disney covid video that's a perfect thing. You get him to say, you illustrate, you get him to say, COVID isn't real. Then his nose grows. Although,

that could be a pretty dope pool design. Just have Pinocchio at the top and his big ass nose is the pool. Big narrow. Yeah. A big narrow pool. Like Olympic labs. It turns into the bird's nest.

Oh, that's when it gets long enough. So that's the jacuzzi. Maybe all the way at the end. That is a little fantastic. Yeah, that's right. Great ideas.

Left and right. For our, for our stuff, you can find us on the socials at podcast, the ride on the, the, the currently technically existing socials But we'll see where things go

Merch is available on our TeePublic store For three bonus episodes every month Check out Podcast The Ride the second gate Or get one more bonus episode On our new tier Club 3 You'll find all that at Patreon.com Slash Podcast The Ride And Mike I know you got all those edits to do but if you want to just

toss some like uh some fun calypso music in as an exit just just a suggestion but you know you don't have to i'll put yeah margaritaville i'll put fruitcake sending the jimmy buffett song does jimmy buffett ever sing with sebastian the crab on any sort of disney album i don't think so you can put it together yeah i seems hard look take your collection of jimmy buffett stems and lay uh sebastian the crab over top of it all right fine i'll do that okay and it's playing now and if it doesn't play right now i got very busy so i apologize if it's not about to play and you don't hear anything you just hear the forever dog sting i'm so sorry oh no if you put in tropicalia music instead of calypso no big fuck up if you do that show don't include my voice in this episode all right

now that's some editing that's some editing ever you got a choice Which one is harder to edit? Be careful. Pay attention for what's about to happen. Forever Dog. This has been a Forever Dog production. Executive produced by Mike Carlson, Jason Sheridan,

Scott Gairdner, Brett Boehm, Joe Cilio, and Alex Ramsey. For more original podcasts, please visit foreverdogpodcasts.com and subscribe to our shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Keep up with the latest Forever Dog news by following us on Twitter and Instagram at Forever Dog Team and liking our page on Facebook.