Podcast: The Ride - Star Wars Galaxy's Edge Opening Day Special with Len Testa

Episode Date: June 3, 2019

The boys head to Disneyland's Star Wars Galaxy's Edge for opening day! Joined by a cavalcade of stars: Lindsay Katai, Erin Gairdner, Jenny Nicholson and a sit down interview with Len Testa (The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and Disneyland, Disney Dish Podcast). Listen to Podcast: The Ride Ad-Free on Forever Dog Plus: http://foreverdogpodcasts.com/plus Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forever. Dog. special galactic sit-down with len testa bright sun it's podcast the ride Welcome to Podcast The Ride, the theme park podcast hosted by three men who will soon make the Kessel Run in over 50 parsecs when Jason drops a black tap cake shake on the control panel. My name is Mike Carlson. I almost ran out of air saying that. You got it out. Joining me, Jason Sheridan. You did get it out. Yeah, I did. And I will probably do that. Yeah yeah scott gerdner also here yep i can i can see it all you know we don't know a

lot of what awaits us in galaxy's edge but that one's uh that one's guaranteed um but that's what the rest of this is all about is forming the plan i guess and trying to figure out what we're gonna do because we should we should explain what's what's going on here okay the timeline's very confusing what's the most confusing timeline in a star wars movie do they mess with time there's no time travel in the movies well you know what this is this is like a prequel second trilogy third trilogy situation where and you're the audience is listening to a prequel right now yes that's true that's a good point as we talk because you are hearing this a couple days after the opening of star wars galaxy's edge but we are recording this a few days before the opening of

star wars galaxy's edge but by the time you've heard it we will have been to star wars galaxy's edge so yes when as this episode proceeds we will be there you will hear us there you will hear us after they're saying what we think but right now we're anticipating because the moment is here it's almost here we got a couple days to go as we record this right but uh we've been talking about this for months years i think we probably brought on the first episode we were like why are we doing a theme park podcast well star wars is coming among other things and we're finally here yeah it's it's felt like yeah it felt like maybe a big pitch if people were like why are you doing this we're like this stuff is going to get more popular there's going to be big things coming that the world will be talking about and that's what's going to happen

people will be talking about more than like you know horizons and the mexico boat ride yes these are like major and major theme park attractions are major stories in the world right now right and this is all the mexico boat ride always should be obviously but yeah i think if it was a different social media day that mexico boat ride would be celebrated and instagrammed so hard but now and we will make it so soon enough but for now i guess galaxy's edge is the big trend. Yeah. And we're going to check it out.

Yeah, we're checking it out. Before we started recording this, we kept accidentally wandering into conversation about what our expectations are. And then we go, no, no, no, save it. No, no, save it, save it. Save the good stuff. That conversation was more like the extended universe novels and comic books and video games that are all now fucking garbage that disney has deemed not canon not gonna see those there in our hearts yeah yeah it's not canon like tony solaroni and the uh and the holiday special and when the bots are on sesame street yeah that

obviously is all canon um but yeah we've i mean like because we had to do a lot of off-air discussion of how this is going to work. We have like boring personal logistics to work out, like who's like who's going to drive and everything. But I mean, the main reason being that, you know, also for months we've been wondering how are we going to get into this place? Are we going to get into this place? And we are getting into this place. Yeah. And I'll presay thanks to you mike thanks to you jumping and on the on the best possible plan we will be there morning number one 8 a.m yes may 31st we are in the first group besides cast members and employees

and press besides fuck all that regular right good honest hardworking joes folks we folks the real experience you know we don't need bob eiger you know stumbling through a not quite fully baked joke about like uh the force was with us when we started this project and it is with us now i don't need to hear steven spielberg's boring war stories impraddling on oh yeah with real people with the people with that's right if someone said you could get in early i would have said no way no fuck off i would have said i want to do it with the regular theme park i want to do it with the regular people who will enjoy it not like the 30 member story committee who spit on the ground

when they hear George Lucas' name. Were we invited to a preview? No. No. But that doesn't matter. I would have said no. Yeah, yeah. We wanted to do it the real way.

Right. Absolutely. And we're getting our wish to be to do it in the time when it is the most unorganized and stressful humanly possible. If Josh Gad himself came to my door with Scott Trowbridge, I would say, get out of here, you two. I don't want to go to Galaxy's Edge this way.

Why don't you guys go make a 180 line crossing unwatchable sketch and leave us to... Dude, that's the most obscure reference I've ever seen. I was going to say, the audience probably didn't know what you're talking about. I should be so lucky. Yeah, yeah no we're doing it with the i can't believe this is the case morning number one yeah because i didn't know if we weren't i didn't know if i was gonna get in for the whole summer money yeah yes who knew that the solution was to pay extra yes because here's what we're going down and we're all get we're all sharing a couple hotel rooms because once we realized that was the plan that's the way to get in yes the crafty disney method of pay us more pay us more which our original we can say now our original idea was

to go in on a tour guide very quickly learned that like nope not gonna work not happening it might work though it might work it was just unclear of that being a clear-cut plan. Well, you know, when we were talking about that, we didn't know about this reservation system for the first month. This was pre-reservation. This was pre-hotel. This was pre-wristband. Now everything's changed. We've been, like, staring at Twitters, getting every morsel of information.

And now we sort of know what we're doing although i'm still i have no idea how that first morning is gonna go yeah we've gotten a little more uh information in the last 24 hours i feel like a really complicated email went out to everybody you listening might have this email yeah if you have a reservation in your name because you didn't know it well other people got it too oh oh maybe it's just because we also spoiler alert uh we're scott and i are going in different times as well yeah we all did a lot of math of like when uh yeah well other other groups we all were on the website on that first morning probably a lot of listeners were too uh which we made it on and i was very happy but i

was seeing other people who did not and i felt bad for them but not bad look i couldn't give up my spot if i wanted to i couldn't i'd have to make a fake id i'm going on the last day i can go to the disneyland resort until like late august uh disneyland park i can go to california adventure for another like month and a half oh that's interesting why is that what's what's your i have the southern california pass still and they do california venture different days they're starting to yeah interesting uh so uh but i'm also i have to when i'm if i get a chance when i'm down there um uh or maybe uh ask one of our potential uh check-ins with one of the people on this show because they also just announced the disney flex pass recently that just went into effect

that cost exactly the same amount as my socal pass so now i'm kind of weighing and i also want to know if i can convert it flex sounds good yeah i think you go flex i think maybe yeah it's complicated i can't go i can never go back yeah but what's unless flex goes good yeah i think you go flex i think maybe yeah it's complicated i can't go i can never go back yeah but what's unless flex goes away yeah that's true uh yeah so but that's we shouldn't talk about flex that's a whole nother three hour podcast surely is the most interesting podcast you ever heard i yeah we well we're all gonna get on a spaceship and stuff that's probably the main thing and we're all good yeah so we're all good so mike on a spaceship and stuff. That's probably the main thing. And we're all good. Yeah. So we're all good. So Mike, you got, all right, I'm going a second time, uh, with, with my wife, Aaron, you're going how many more times?

I don't know. A couple, a couple times, uh, a couple. So you'll keep hearing from us, uh, about, uh, you know, our, our galaxy's edge thoughts, obviously pre rise of the resistance, but hopefully we'll between these visits we'll have be able to been able to fit everything in but the main thing is 8 a.m and we have decisions to make yeah big decisions what are we yeah what's everybody doing do we stick together do we split up because we've got a bigger group too and we'll explain we'll check in with other people as we go but aaron and lindsey are coming for an andrew chrism's coming and but like do we divide and conquer well that's what i'm so so basically the situation is is that

6 a.m is when the park opens and we go into the park go to star wars launch bay in tomorrow land on the other side very convenient very convenient and you get your wristbands you have to all be together you can't one person can't be missing which stresses me out yes yeah man so everybody everybody's got to coordinate and be there at the right time ungodly early time this is like when you buy a row of movie tickets and there's always one or two people who get into hijinks and it's a a real but worse but worse but incredibly high pressure because we'll all be waiting on this thing we've been thinking about and talking about for months.

Right. So wait. So once we, if the park opens at 6 a.m., are attractions running at 6 a.m.? No. Nothing is running.

Oh, I love you didn't know any of this. Yes. It is an empty theme park. Which, by the way, kind of cool. Kind of cool. Yeah.

I'm not into it. Well, my question then is when do the coffee shops at the hotels open i'm sure those are open i'm sure those are open very early i'm sure i've read that they will have like limited amount of food open at 6 a.m in the park sure they're not gonna abandon us but and the parking garage is supposedly open at midnight so what's going on are people getting there like will there be some lineup well this is the thing this is the thing that always happens is they say no one can line up before 6 a.m just come in at

6 a.m that's how it'll work but where do the people that are waiting to get in at 6 a.m go yeah so it will be a line yeah there's no way this doesn't end up in a line there's always a line it just maybe it's on maybe it's front of in front of captain kids or something like you know like it'll be it's on the street somewhere it's on the freeway probably right i'm glad we're there overnight because fighting our way in yes so next month fighting your way in is going to be crazy yes i think that by the way also have you guys know this is pre galaxy's edge we follow this twitter the annual past Twitter that says, oh, Mickey and Friends is closed, so go to Toy Story.

So many days I've been seeing there is no parking available at the Disneyland Resort. So many of these days. I think people want to see it.

Want to see it before it becomes whatever it becomes, you know, with Star Wars. Because also, they have refreshed a lot of the park.

Yeah, we get to see this brighter castle. I haven't any of this yeah that's gonna be good uh-huh you'll see it at 6 a.m like jacked up on a quad latte it's beautiful it's beautiful three hours of sleep yeah all of us together we gotta that's another thing we gotta figure out so i was talking there's another there's some other people going with us and i was talking to this one person and she was saying that i was saying like well should we get the launch bay at seven and she was like oh yeah that's so that would be pretty good because i was i do think even though there will be a line to get in i think getting into the land won't be that bad because there's a limited amount of people yeah maybe it's a thousand people but everyone should

be wristbanded by that point and really all that is is just a march in so marching in in a line of a thousand once you have your wristband isn't going to be the worst thing it seems like it's been working pretty well for the cast member previews and presumably it's about the same number allocated and it's and since yeah since since the number going in i think is the capacity of the land we're not going to be held i don't think it'll just sort of be a steady stream and that's the very opening of the park anyway and yes and that's the only people in the park will be there for now it's going to be tough because when 11 a.m rolls around and we won't leave or at mid noon we won't leave we refuse to leave because we're crying touching the walls a storm trooper to hit me with the butt of their gun to make me i want them to

hit me in the mouth to make me leave kill me kill me you'll do you'll do the ride with a concussion but you'll do the ride yes i want the general huck's walk around character to slap me with a glove that's gonna be the problem big spanking give me a big spanking on my bottom like that woman in vegas was gonna do to you yes like that horror oh no but with a light paddle. Captain Phasma is going to bring a big space paddle. Who runs the cantina? Uga? Uga? Is it Uga? Is it Uga?

Is it Uga? It's probably Uga. It's spelled Uga, but who knows? It's probably Uga. I keep confusing Uga and Doc Ondar. Don't confuse them. I know. They both seem like real prickly pairs.

Well, maybe we should talk about priorities because here's what worries me is that what if there is more of a ride situation and I don't get my dream of being the first lay person to have a a.m., which I'm not saying we do. I don't think we should do that. But that is the fact that then you will be at the very front of the line. So it seems like the lines that form that are the worst are the Cantina and the Falcon. But the Falcon, I think, loads fast. Yes, and it's also built to accommodate lines.

It's supposed to have lines. As opposed to a 30 person occupancy. How many people fit in there? It's like 130. Very. Yeah. It's going to be great in three years when it's less crowded. Yeah.

Yeah. But right now. Yeah. Sure. That's what they said about Trader Sam's. Always fun and easy to get into. Always a pleasant experience. But don't you appreciate that it's

small i appreciate it no i like it it should be huge isn't the one in florida bigger a little bigger do you appreciate the size of that one uh well no it's very it's negligible how much bigger it is in florida there should be more of an outdoor there should be more of an outdoor which they've kind of made the terrace a little bit more fun and you can sit at the bar i do think it'll be fun if there were like little rooms that maintain the intimacy but didn't well i like being in a small bar but wait what i was gonna say like almost like a some sort of club like an adventure themed club with different small bars and rooms that seems like what an idea it'll never work i think that i think the play probably is get in line at the cantina first

i think we have a drink what jason's giggling with glee already i have a number one i don't think anyone else has okay we'll say everybody's priorities yeah because i'm i think i'm cantina but i also like can we contend people i'll get in but this is well this is maybe this is my thing and this is what i have to ask our sort our source who has been inside already do they think that maybe three or five can leave and explore while certain people hold places in line sure that's the question i have because if that that sounds fine but then we got a cycle and what a chore for somebody to stand in the line for that's unfair to well but we'll we'll set a timer on our phones sure so like 15 minute intervals i think it can't be you leave and do the Falcon. No, I agree. I agree. Yeah, for sure.

But like 15 minutes you explore. Sure. And then come back and exchange with the people. I like this system. If we can do that, I think that makes the most sense to me. Go see the Rondo Roaster. Go see the Rondo. Go see the Pod Race Engine. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So what is Jason? What is your priority? My number one is the milk bar ever since i was a child i've wanted to drink the blue milk is that true yeah i ever since i was a kid i was when luke sits down in a new hope and starts drinking the blue milk i was like what the fuck is that i want to drink that now the milk bar is by the cantina and according to a few posts the milk bar docking bay seven the

other restaurant and ronto roasters i think all three will have mobile ordering okay so in theory might be fine i can mobile order a blue milk and a green milk but i'm afraid i'd get sick um because my number two milks at two milks you've had two colored milks before uh now non-dairy coconut with a hot dog to sop it up though that's number two the space hot dog it actually is that's number two but they're like here's the breakfast version it's like i don't want the breakfast i want the lunch version with with pulled pork and coleslaw and ranch on top when does the lunch version come wow that's a big question we're all we're all doing morning hours you will be like you'll be craving pulled pork at 8 a.m i will be wanting white wine as early in the morning as possible i will be the i want a sugary drink colorful drink i will be hammered at 9 a.m my stretch goal is then to get into the cantina and have the second kind of

blue milk as well but i realize that's unrealistic you really need to do both milks in one day uh i don't need to do both milks and when that's the indulgent there's nothing i i'm shocked that you've saying this about the blue milk i've never actually seen anyone say wow wouldn't it be great to have the milk from star wars when they when they did the star wars like hyperspace mountain and they and the star wars launch bay in 2015 and my family was visiting we were there like the first day they did all that stuff and they're like look there's going to be star wars food i'm like all right blue milk here we go yeah i get that it makes sense because that's one of the only food items that they sort of talk about or call out in the movies i just i'm just saying like unlike butterbeer which

is so i think appetizing if you read the books how they make it sound and then they talked about it and like it's so uh thought of fondly blue milk is just like well just make the milk blue i guess for luke and it'll be like a space milk or whatever like it's such an afterthought and it was never very appetizing to me at least and i've never heard this seems like the kind of thing that usually i would be saying and someone on twitter or facebook is like fucking scott brunner and i'm actually surprised to hear a counter star wars point from you i'm i could be wrong i've just never heard anyone speak of it in a way of like man i always wanted to try that blue milk i always wanted i don't know i just flew was always my favorite color and uh sure i think i think the way they've talked about like that it's non-dairy

so a lot of people can enjoy it that it's kind of like it's meant to be cold for hot weather and it has like citrus flavor like i'm very they've intrigued me what do you think that taste is like if you had to compare it to if you had to guess before and we'll update everyone else and everyone in 10 minutes about what it actually tastes like um i well i know the i know the green one's supposed to have like hints of melon flavor uh which i think in melon liqueur like the star trek experience i don't know i think from what i understand like of like candy and sweets in asia melon is more of a go-to but would be more unique for american audiences and that seems to be what they're doing with the food program in uh star wars like stuff so stuff is unique but a little

familiar sure so uh yeah so i'm i'm honestly not sure the blue milk may just taste like strawberry milk honestly sure sure yeah by the way you know taste like strawberry milk, honestly. Sure, sure. Yeah, by the way, you know, this isn't a super big priority, but yeah, if I could eat something while I'm there, like, it's definitely not, if I leave and just go do regular Uwe Bahr kind of stuff and we just have a regular Disney day, whatever, but like, I am excited about the food

and I haven't yet been to Avatar, so I haven't done this new breed of like elevated disney food right themed disney food and all so much of yeah what's been on blogs and everything looks great i like that a lot of it is like uh plant bait that it's like oh falafel balls with like a tomato cucumber salad and pita like oh that sounds very neat and refreshing yeah yeah yeah but also like ribs crazy meat sticks crazy meats yeah crazy jerky the one stand's going to sell different kinds of jerky um chewbacca jerky i forget what kind of meat they said but also yes you get you could get like you know like

i'm gonna guess like 600 slices out of uh out of one wookiee i or if it's just the kind of wookiees like i hope i'm not behind chewbacca in line he's gonna buy out the whole shop but i i do want to go to the ronto i think it's very funny cooking over a pod race yeah it's great and i like that they are acknowledging the prequel that they are because the worlds of star wars are interesting and fun and so yeah uh yeah yeah i know it's nice that it's not like exclusively it seems like it's more like episode seven eight nine dominant but it's not purely yeah yeah it's not to the history but i yeah i don't i don't know and then i guess number three for me would be

the falcon ride but if like only some of us can get into the cantina i i recognize it's uh important for you scott i'd rather you go well that's the sweetest thing i've ever pilgrimage to rex and i won't hold you back from uh eating your space dogs this is perfect i wasn't we leave each other i don't know in what way would i you just shoving kids out of the way to get a hot dog at 8 a.m i really the first time i mean i'd love to 8 a.m. Wouldn't be the first time. I mean, I'd love to be the first. Because really what you're talking about is the first layperson Disneyland drinker. If I could hold that title.

Or if I could cede that to my wife. If she could have that title. But it also seems like you've got to be a 4 a.m. line. I think there's no way yet you get to be first unless we're sitting outside Captain Kids in a tent. I think that might be the only way. And then the city of Anaheim will gun us down. Yes, very possible. We will be sprayed by a fire hose.

Yes, the Disney police, the Disney secret police to get rid of the unwanted unsightly people. Go to Tustin, motherfuckers. Yeah. Mike, what are you leading towards number one is hard i i i i think getting in the cantina is my number one i do i think seeing rex i think having a weird cocktail seems so fun to hear i want to hear the music that rex has playing because eventually we're going to need to hear the whole rex right so let's start shipping it off now and and number one being that being number one just feels like that's going to be so popular and it's such a hard thing because like they let

you stay in there 45 minutes how do they do we know how they enforce that no idea who knows oh boy so like that that feels like this the thing of like i gotta do it like that's why i'm having the most anxiety about well maybe we're agreed then we all it's all straight there i mean we can all we'll all have like an hour upwards to game plan with nothing to do in an empty disneyland so i think we'll figure it all out and i bet we can also get on but we were saying we're hearing conflicting reports i was specifically told by somebody who knows dimension or whatever that uh lines have been pretty short during cast member previews for falcon and that the cantina is really the problem yeah i heard that multiple people were saying you can't do both cantina and falcon that the lines are too long that there was a three-hour line in

one cast member preview but who knows who knows we're getting their first thing but there's still there's gonna be probably more like say we get there at what do you think we should do as far as getting at the launch bay because i was at first hanging like seven and i was like oh that's an hour that'll be but like does that mean 500 people are in front of us well my other question is and what i heard was that you can't build a lightsaber and do the falcon it takes too long but then now they're saying there's a separate scheduling to do the lightsaber i don't know that any of us are in the market for a 200 dollar well we are not at the moment yeah i don't think i'm gonna do that uh i feel like you both want to buy uh rexes i will certainly have a rex

i will buy rex i think that is that they're rex i think is you buy him off the shelf i don't think you don't make a rat you don't have to sit in it whatever the droid depot show because i've heard that's maybe a crazy line that might be a time suck i am have enough crap, but I would like a tiny Watto, a tiny toy, fake hand-sewn Watto from the toy stall. I hear that. The Jabba looks very cute. The Jabba looks good. There's like a Wampa that looks real good.

The Wampa looks cute. And I like the tin. They have like tin toys or wooden toys. Salacious Crumb toy looks pretty good. Salacious crumb yeah uh i have to see what grabs me in the moment i want to see how big all this stuff is because it can just fit on a desk who will grab you and grab you by the throw you out of the land yeah drown you in the rivers of america get out of the bar idiot um i mean i want to get a coke

i want one of the bottles that's bottles. That's a day one priority? It's down the list. Are you going to drink it or just leave it? I'm not sure yet. I haven't decided. We are lucky that we do have the other reservations. So I think what you got to prioritize in that first day is what do you want to do on that first day? Because we'll get to do everything.

Well, I'll be there a bunch. And my second one is at night. And I'm excited to see how it's different at night um but i mean bar first day seems like you got to do it you got to do it and now so now what you're gonna hear is uh whatever happened uh you may hear us in a line in the park if jason allows it it seems like you've come around oh yeah yeah no i i just came around sure yes uh yeah uh not an issue but you know who are will we be too frazzled to will we be too like coffee bleary will we be too drunk where are we where are we all gonna be at on the morning of may 6 30 is probably if you're saying seven it should probably be six i was thinking 6 30 you're thinking get to launch bay at 6 30 yeah i guess so my other concern is are

people whose reservations are at like 4 or 8 p.m are they going to be there at 6 a.m thinking they're going to get their wristband and then come back so really like i don't i don't think so but i don't know i could be wrong you never know huh i don't i don't know the question then is that 6 a.m is everyone allowed in the park that has reservations or just people that have 8 to 12 as long as it's just 8 to 12 that won't be a problem at the very is there a separate check at supposedly disneyland supposedly there is like a magic mornings they have a system in place for like when they do an extra magic hour for only certain guests but i don't know if you just flash your hotel key they've also erected some temporary

customer service stations throughout the whole park okay knowing that there's going to be a million questions about star wars in a moment like this i am very glad that we have mike as our guide through crowd complications and uh i don't know a deeply confusing uh crowd flow scenarios the fact that you got because you were also juggling all this weird like you had another hotel room there was all this bizarre math i've had five total hotel rooms booked at a certain point and then i yeah i got no no weird fees to to get rid of them you just have to make sure you cancel before a certain time wow and that's potentially still a tip for people i maybe

there are still hotel rooms available towards the end of the month yeah there no there's still you can get one for thursday huh really yeah i mean because people cancel all the time sure yeah so it's just that's the checkers that's the checkers knowledge thank god there's it like in that falcon cockpit like we need a good pilot we need a good engineer but we mainly need a good checker we need a good checker i'll check in the back of the falcon i don't have to control the those thinking back to 2012 when like carsland opened and the dca revitalization was done like we i think you went down opening day and then we both went down on sunday of that opening weekend but we just wandered we did it on a whim parked

at mickey and friends when it was crowded sure i think i even did radiator springs racers like that opening weekend but it's so crazy how it's evolved i'm well i i have some trust in that disney knows what they're doing and i'm gonna i'm gonna lock in some feelings here a couple days before so that i'll see if my expectations are not met or matched a couple days later but i'm gonna say here now before the opening it's all seemed smoother so far than i expected it to be the reservation thing seems smart there being a cap on it seems smart um and i now will we be able to do all the thing i think if i just the fact that i might be able to do one major thing on the morning of may 31st but you could hear us you know if you

taste fast forward five minutes and we could all be uh screaming angry i don't know i don't know we'll see the future isn't written yet you know that's the thing about the future no but if uh the past is any indication like in star wars these cycles just keep repeating themselves the stories rhyme as george lucas says the stories rhyme have you ever you've heard George say that yeah oh

so that makes so that makes it okay that just all the same things happen in episode 7 that's what he says well if he justified it long ago

we'll all be visited by force ghosts of ourselves today by May 29th us saying but you said

you would have a wonderful morning you said you were looking forward to it. Shut the fuck up. Force ghosts of Christmas future? Yeah, I don't know where. Usually like force ghosts don't go back. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And yeah, so stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion in a couple seconds. Yeah, the next time you hear us we will either be doing it or mad or something will be happening yeah the thrilling conclusion also known as the meat of this episode yes yeah yeah the actual episode here we go here it is this is anaheim dispatch from the front galaxy's edge The time is 7-17 May 31st. And we have made it into an empty Tomorrowland. Tomorrowland is now

a holding pen for Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, but hey, a pretty efficient start, right, for anybody wondering, is this going to be chaos? It wasn't chaos yet. We were worried there was a long line, but it was just for merch. It was at the top floor of the launch bay.

A terrifyingly big line. Yeah, but no, that was okay. It was a quick line. We got to see a video of Scott Trowbridge talking about the new land. We all shouted Scott Trowbridge together, and you know it's a good crowd when that's happening. But hey, it's a very good crowd because we are joined by show favorite guest. Here, I'm going to pull her over.

Joining us here in line, Jenny Nicholson is here. Hi, I'm Jenny and I'm sick. We swear it's her. I know she sounds different. This is my real voice. Oh, jeez. This is what I just talk like when I'm not doing a video. You put on a lot of cheeriness.

You dredge a lot up for these things. It straightens my voice so much that it sounds like this the rest of the time. Wow, geez. Well, hey, we'll try to put some filters on it or something. Yeah, it just brings the pitch a lot. It'll make it sound natural. I think we can work some magic. So we're here morning number one, but you beat us.

You've done it already. I did the cast preview on the 26th. Boy, oh boy. What can you tell us? It was great. Sure. The blue milk is refreshing. Okay. But it's also a slush, which, you know, I don't like slush

that much. I see. Okay, so consistency. That's all. That's pretty much it. And that's all you have to say? Sure, sure. Yeah, there's nothing else to comment. Sure. You have items with you. You've already done some merch, and you don't have to wait in the horrible merch line. I think it's called a Queckhorn. It's a Droopy McCool's instrument, and I brought my port called a quack horn. It's a Droopy McCool's instrument. And I brought my port.

Can you play a little bit of a Droopy McCool's instrument? The quack horn? Yeah, here. You need some help? Oh, this won't be annoying. So this is like a cantina band flute. This looks like a cosmic shillelagh. Okay.

And then it doesn't have the last note. Beautiful. Beautiful, too. Pretty competent. Hey, it seems like you're an expert on this thing already. The notes are so beautiful. It's wonderful. Can you just really quickly play the Podcast the Ride theme?

Here you go. Yeah, sure. Perfect. That's it. I just improvised that. Nailed it. Nailed it. Exactly what it would be.

You have to pay royalties, but you can use that every episode if you want. Geez. Thank you so much. We didn't realize you'd be doing musical accompaniment as well. I know. It's crazy. What is your plan of attack going back? Where do you want to go first? I want to go straight to the lightsabers.

Let's not say this too loudly. I want to go straight to the lightsabers because it was like the worst line at the preview, and I haven't done it yet. Okay. And I didn't want to do it then because I wanted to be able to record it. Same with the droids. And there were no photos or videos allowed there. Yes.

So that's my first plan. And then I'd like to do the cantina today, but that might not happen. So we'll see. Yeah, that's the check-in we then I'd like to do the Cantina today, but that might not happen. So we'll see. Yeah, that's the check-in we can do at about 7.30 is I do feel like the dream of first wine at the Cantina is dead. Looking at the line ahead of me. Oh, I want to drink that Tonneray Alderaan. Is that the wine? Is that Padme's wine?

That's what Scott wants to do, too. Yeah, it's from Alderaan. And then Alderaan was destroyed, so it's now in a finite supply. Oh, there's no more of those grapes. There's no more. They only have a few caps. It's the genocide wine. Yeah.

Folks, everyone's lining up for the genocide wine. It's almost too late. Yeah. It is certainly my hope that we can toast some, what is the name of the wine again? Tonneray. Tonneray. Tonneray. If we can all toast some Tonneray wine together.

And Erin, can you jump in really fast? Yeah. We're talking about wine We're talking wine So Erin Gairdner has to be summoned Welcome back to the show Do you have like a palate Yes

So you're not going to like the teal wine Oh well I Whatever I'm not discriminating If it's wine Yeah You guzzle it down I have a palate for everything

Okay good Yeah Good Well what about you guys If we do a cantina, I've heard, I was hearing people talk around the Tango Aterras last night about

the fuzzy tauntaun. Tauntaun. It has some kind of foam on it. Uh-huh. Yeah. But I also learned just now that there's not, there's like tiki-ish glasses, drink stuff. Yes, but also they have like a big pororg sipper. What?

Yeah, they didn't have it at the preview. They showed me a picture, and they were like, they're going to have this opening day, and I want it more than anything. You can drink out of, like, a hollowed-out Porg? I think literally, like, the straw comes out the top of its head or something. It was just a little picture on the menu, but I want it. Is it ceramic? It's probably plastic, yeah.

I like that popcorn bucket that's the mouse droid as well wait what that's what i heard there's a pop maybe i that's a rumor i don't know oh it would be actual size too yeah supposedly there's like fun flavor popcorn and then it's the mouse droid supposedly i don't know cor effect. It's like the red popcorn is like kind of vaguely spicy and salty and the purple stuff is like gross and fruity and sweet. But together it's like kettle corn. So it's pretty good. As long as we can eat out of a hollowed out skeleton or drink. Yeah. Yeah. If we can, if we can fill up a poured skeleton with wine, I think that's the, at.m. That would be the best outcome. I just want to get liquored up at 8.30 a.m. or 9.30 a.m. I just want to get so hammered so early at Disneyland.

That's a regular Friday for me. Nothing different. Star Wars doesn't change that. Lindsay Kaytai's here, too. What do you think? Three feelings. What do you want to do? What are you excited about?

I'm excited about whatever you have told me is in this place. There's the Millennium Falcon ride. Millennium Falcon ride and milk. It's blue milk too. It's not regular milk. And green

milk? Yes, from the teat green milk? Don't do that Yes From the teat Of that monster In Last Jedi Yes Yes Also I've managed To cut myself

I don't know how that happened Oh I missed that Oh no When did I wonder Where you were? In the bathroom Oh Who knows you guys

You stubbed your toe Before we left And you've constantly Been stubbing it For a day This is like when you go to a new place you injure yourself yeah this is edges new and so i have injured myself obviously wow a whole new world of injuries for you yeah so i'm really looking forward to it i think these

are good omens the beleaguered accommodating on Amazon. A multitude of many significant others coming here today. Do you think UGA or Hondo will have a first aid kit for you? Yes. Only you know the answer to that. You've read all the previews. Yes, they do. They have it by the counter, and it'll be fine. It's a space first aid kit. Like the Cokes, it's customized.

It's like Disneyland has made new the Cokes, it's customized. It's like Disneyland has made new again. Yes, it is. Well, I mean, what else? Do we have any final thoughts before we hopefully start moving

in a couple minutes? Only that this was surprisingly easy. Yes. Like, very smooth. I'm really impressed with the crowd control. They're tiring us out

by making us crisscross the park. We've gone Main Street to Launch Bay, holding in Tomorrowland, heading for the Critter Country entrance. And we're slightly on the move, so maybe this is a good time to... Oh, Jenny, we should mention, is carrying a camera.

Explain the camera. It's a vintage novelty camera that superimposes Phantom Menace characters into the side of your photo. Wow! Yeah, right now it's set to Qui-Gon Jinn. What are the different choices? It has like Darth Maul, Qui-Gon Jinn, Queen Amidala, Jar Jar, Jake Lloyd, and that's probably it.

Jake Lloyd. Yeah, Jake Lloyd. From Jingle All The Way. Did I say Darth Maul? Darth Maul's in there. But no Watto. Oh, I don't think so. It's good. It's so archaic that it just tells you like like, A, B, C, D, E, F,

and it gives you a legend in the instruction booklet you're supposed to memorize. Sure. So, you know, that's going to be an interesting thing. So you'll show these pictures on Twitter eventually. Oh, I'm sure. I just have to send them away in the mail to have them developed. Like a caveman. Somebody's got to blow dust off of an old machine.

Oh, here, we'll take a picture. Can we request Jake Lloyd? Can we request Jake Lloyd? Okay, yeah, yeah. Check the legend. I'd be fine with General Tarples. The Gungan. Check Twitter

for a picture of us and see. Alright. And everybody, see all right great thank you we got photos and we're uh we're on the way in jenny erin lindsey thanks for joining us and we'll see you in the batu jason i have a quick question for you while we're waiting out here and recording live audio in line. Are you comfortable as we're doing this? Yes. Yes, I am comfortable.

I am comfortable. But I'm now annoyed. No counterpoints to present? No. Not at this time. Counterpoint, though, maybe counterpoint Mike was right. Is that maybe something you'd like to say now on the record? We go that far.

No, never. I got your mobile order. I picked up your mobile order. Jason now believes that because he picked up an iced tea for me, he does not owe me a counterpoint, I am right. That's fine. I think by the end of Exploring Batuu and Black Spire Outpost, you will say counterpoint Mike, right that's fine I think by the end of exploring Batuu and Black Spire Outpost you will say counterpoint Mike you are right we'll all be hugging each other and like weeping

and saying counterpoint you were right you're all right I love you guys just waiting with bated breath for the the restaurants are in the mobile ordering system but are not available yet so I want that breakfast hot dog and breakfast milk. I saw you praying a couple minutes ago to make sure that everything would go smoothly. Yes, praying to the sacred Jedi text.

To the dex, of course. Alright, well, next time you'll hear us we'll be in Batuu. Okay, sure. Hi everyone, Just Jason now. Fair warning, there is no bathroom in the cantina. So it is

not advisable to pound a blue melt outside the cantina. Go in, drink a different blue melt, and then hope to use the restroom. No ins, no outs. All right, we have jumped in time.

It is 9.20, and we are wasted. We amazingly, thanks to the wonderful summer, were able to get into the cantina in the first half hour. We were bad boys and joined someone who had already waited a longer time in line. But once in a while you get excited and you have to be a little bad. There was no choice in this scenario. Do we not get in today or do we just jump in and do it? And I think I speak for all of us when I say, maybe I don't.

I will speak for myself and say I'm very happy, but I'm not the one who's had two milks already. Well, Black Spire Outpost is full of rogues and scoundrels, so I think we're all just, you know, playing by the rules. Why are you talking like you're in a Melville novel or something? We are, aren't we? I guess we are, in a way. We're talking Star Wars, isn't it, as far as I know? It's either that or this.

Here at the Spire, everyone talks like this. Like Quint from Jaws. Yes, like Quint, yeah. I have had two drinks. I have had very little to eat or water, so I'm doing very good right now. It's still very early. What were your drinks, Michael?

I had the Bespin Fizz and I had the, what was it? Oh, the Bloody Rancor is what I had. Now, the Bespin Fizz, and I had the, what was it? Oh, the Bloody Rancor is what I had. Now, the Bespin Fizz was a fajitas scenario where you attracted the attention of everyone else in the vicinity. Yes, I got a lot of attention from strangers, which I like. Right now, things are happening. Oh, there's some droid. There's a droid cleaning station, by the way.

Yeah, there's a droid cleaning station right now, which is great. Somebody's taking a jacuzzi in oil. I don't know exactly what's going on if i could actually take a like a washcloth and scrub one of these droids down i think it would make my experience very nice you would do your part to clean some oil off of some metal uh if this is too uh irritatingly loud to listen to my apologies but the bestman fizz people were asking questions and taking photos and you were the star of the table yeah i was finally the star of the table yeah i was finally the star uh it was something i've wanted for my whole life and then it happened in

uh uga aga what is it uga's cantina uh okay a couple things uh i ordered my long dreamed of white wine but when it showed up it was blue a fun surprise i wasn't sure at first and i see you know color and i think it's going to taste weird and sugary and fakey really liked it though i'm feeling fantastic and of course if you're listening to this you may have already seen on twitter uh the i my arrival into dj rex's zone i i truly i don't think I've felt that kind of joy since childhood. I feel incredible, and I've sustained it via white wine, the greatest joy of my post-childhood.

Feelings are good at 921. Hey, great. Jason, what do you think? Before we head over maybe to become pilots, what do you think? What are you feeling right now? Well, Jason did it. Oh, that's a good point. So Jason's two milks in, and Jason had to use the bathroom as soon as he sat down at uga's waited it out uh until he could finish his drink and then quickly ran out to find the refreshers found it and then proceeded to

solo rider walk on to the millennium falcon you've done it. So I've done it. All right, so don't tell us anything. We're doing it now. Nakano Naka is not pleased that you scoundrels for getting hammered. You know, Hondo can eat shit. I don't give a shit what Hondo wants. Let's go give him a piece of our mind right now. We're going to go see Hondo right now. All right.

Good luck. Hey, Mike. Mike. What? How do I control this? Oh my god! I see, I see, I see, I see. Now let's go get that guac. Where is it? Where is it? Yes! Watch out!

No! No! No! Yes! um what now after my modest profit your god minus what you owe me for damaging the Falcon, is full versus rough. Yeah, so, okay, that was us on the Millennium Falcon. It's already two days ago that that happened. Yes.

Right now it's Monday, more time jumps, but now we have experienced it. We're back on Earth and we can reflect on our experience uh which was was pretty wild you could hey that audio speaks for itself we're all really vocalizing the fun that we're having we're giddy we're we're a few drinks in as well jason had no alcohol i know i was on a sugar high i yeah that's one of my things when i go back i have not had the like first drink on disneyland soil yet i was just drinking candy milk all morning right you had a stronger in a way you had a candy milk we i think we refer you reference it a little bit you had a candy milk outside outside the cantina and then inside the cantina there was no alcohol in what you had in the that wasn't an alcoholic no that

was a non-alcoholic drink wow wow uh you had two drinks i only fit the one in right i uh i had the bloody rancor and the best been fizz if you follow us on social media the best been fizz was the one i was very excited about it was moving in my hand because of the dry ice uh somebody really insulted me because i think in the video i said this feels like it's this dangerous to drink because it was like so much cold steam coming out of it. And someone's like, dry ice, don't eat the dry ice, but it's fine or something. And like, he's right. There was a little protective thing, like the flaming mo.

Yeah. Where it's like the dry ice is not going to go into my mouth because it's protected under there. I see. So I felt a little stupid, but I was, that was very exciting because I like a colorful nonsense drink. And then, well, here's the main thing that the morning drinking did for me. I just had my one blue wine. But it was enough that I made it through the Falcon line, which is a fantastic line. Instantly, one of the great lines.

The smells are fantastic. This burning rubber smell. there's a lot of chaos people uh you know problems being reported in the hangar whatever it is then i don't think i knew we were at the door and it all happened so fast and that line's really efficient so when the doors slid open revealing hondo oh oh right right and then he does his spiel you're low you're watching one of the greatest animatronics ever created right uh the falcon lands behind him and then shui calls in i cried i cried actual tears uh-huh i think i i think it's become clear i do not have quite the affection for star wars that you guys have i didn't really wasn't really raised on it i don't have so much emotion about it but something i think it was maybe it was the

park's emotion you've been tracking the progress of this for so long and now we're about to get on the falcon and chewy calls in and that just the the level of that the reveal of that room was a holy shit moment yeah amazing it was the genuine greatness of the room was revealed because i think i had a pretty decent idea of what the ride itself was what the they've i've seen pictures of the cockpit obviously it's from the movie so you know what it is already but even i saw pictures of the animatronic and i didn't get a sense of what the room looked like what the scope of it was i swear i saw somebody say that like it was only like half a robot or something like you didn't see a full part like full animatronic i think but i think that's just

in that video that was like that little promo video that somebody might have been confused but he's walking and he moves and this it opens up to like a very it's a fantastic room it's like you look oh all the doors all the doors in the whole land they have the star wars door sliding open effect down yeah just going to the bathroom or the walking into the bar we gotta make sure talking about the bathroom um yeah so i think yeah i was pretty shocked i remember looking uh at everyone's faces a couple times and everyone had sort of the same like glee open mouth awe yeah incredible the the the hondo robot i think i didn't know the placement of him i was even jumbled up i forgot he was on this ride and not the other ride yeah uh it's all a little mixed

up in my head but the reveal of him and seeing where he is he's up on this higher this elevated platform and it makes him it feels like a cross between rocket raccoon and uh the ben franklin uh climbing the stairs yeah yeah in the american adventure long ago it's the like the the realistic moving around like like human movement. I guess he's not a human, but he's human. He's humanoid. Yes, yeah, yeah. Seeing a human-sized animatronic

moving around with such dexterity. And also I'd seen video of that robot just in a warehouse, and I thought, well, it's cool. I don't know that I'm having any real feelings about it. I was wondering, with lighting and with the full art direction is it going to

freak me out it totally did it's such a such a jaw dropper incredible yeah yeah that that part was the biggest surprise i the emotion i think is just something great like when you see something great yeah when you're when you're a little drunk and you see something great is sort of the feeling barely slept and uh yes you're drinking at a time that you've never drank. I think ever. Yeah, I don't think. What did we, we got in there. We got in the cantina at eight.

We were in by, I was looking at timestamps. We were in there. Oh yeah, that early. Yeah. So we had our drinks probably. I think maybe one time in Las Vegas, I had a 9am beer. Maybe what you think think like you're maybe having a Bloody Mary if you're

having an early breakfast or like a mimosa. I don't like Bloody Marys. I don't either. I ordered a Bloody Rancor and didn't even think about what I was ordering. Yeah. And then they put it in front of me and I went, oh yeah. I hate this. Did you like that? It's fine. Sure.

It's just not your genre it's not my thing i'm i'm not against like tomato juice there wasn't really a presentation for like the coffee one the coffee was liquor in it um so oh i had to i don't forget if i don't know what we recorded prior but i had to order off menu we got a we got a two-sided sheet of like morning drinks and i was like, fuck this. Give me that wine. Yeah. The guy's taking the orders.

I think he's probably like, whoever's ordering before me isn't even done. And I'm like, can I still get that wine? Is the wine still? Which one? The Tang Ray? Or what's it called? Not Tang Ray. What is it?

Tan Ray. Tan Ray. I still don't have it in my. T-O-N-I-i-r-a-y okay okay he's like which one are you thinking the tonner yeah yeah it'd be the tonneray yes two of those please yes yes the other is uh an imperial red i believe it's a cab maybe that's my next trip maybe when i return if i get into the cantina that's something to talk about we i we said it prior on the day we only got in because uh we hey we were kind of bad

boys we uh oh yeah we have to admit this we jumped in line a little bit uh because our friend was with him his friend summer and thank god for summer it were it not for summer getting there so early we go summer big time yeah we we do um we really struggled with it we tried and he jumped in line and he and they were like come on in it's no no problem we were waved over and we were we were waved over and then we were like ah you know with so many people we just and we tried to get in the falcon line and we were in a panic at this point i think we were all yeah we had gotten to the back of the frantic line i am consuming candy milk i'm consuming oh yeah jason He has his candy milk at 8.10. I ordered as the gates opened.

The mole ordering activated. And my window, I got to the stand at like 8.02, 8.03. And it was for like eight, the pickup at between 8.10 and 8.20. Yeah. And I had to go like, hi, Jason. I don't know if mine went, it went through. And they're like, like oh yeah there you are

and they they got it for they handed it to me damn um and yeah and then i had lost you guys at that point because it was kind of a scramble and then we all split up we never saw jenny again we never saw jenny that's true they're friends if you were open for her to come back on this episode sorry nope not gonna happen nope nope um yeah it was it was sort of chaos uh and and we really felt like we had to pick exactly what we were gonna do and uh and there's we didn't know how everything was gonna go down because i think also like later on in the land five minutes for millennium falcon right yeah like so we didn't know that was the case like we gotta pick our thing right now or we're not gonna get anything done there was a lot of like scared straight stuff online and a friend

of mine was like oh i read that uh you're not gonna be able to do the cantina and the falcon and i was like okay and i was like are you sure and he goes yeah i've read a lot of people say that and i was like shit okay uh so there's a lot of fear um but and i said we still didn't do everything we i didn't even go in doc ondars no den of iniquities what is it called doc ondars den of antiquities antiquities not iniquities okay got it not inequalities um uh lightsaber show we can't speak to you haven't done that yet that had the most line i mean cantina obviously had a line but in terms of lines that were definitely not moving at least the cantina people left once they had their drinks.

There was a crazy queue for the build a lightsaber experience. It's unclear if we can do it without buying or we can just say no afterward. Like we cannot get it. Hopefully we can shed some light on our experiences, but we we are not a hundred percent on but i'll say this uh i did i have done all the positions in the falcon i did the falcon three times i know you're bragging about it but the first time i did single rider after i fled the cantina looking to find a bathroom because i had to use the bathroom pretty much from when i stepped foot in the land and then the scramble happened and i downed two beverages and uh then really had to use the bathroom and i'm like trying to sweet talk all

the cast members in the canteen it's like hey is there a bathroom in here in my head knowing there's no way they built a fucking bathroom in here which they of course have not and i'm like can i go back out and come back in they're like you cannot so uh i'm all jumbled up at this point we i'm worried we've told this story like seven times in the episode i don't remember when we did what and i think i give len a little but single right basically once i had used the bathrooms then i did single rider on the falcon and got right on but you skip all of the pre-show okay you skip the hondo sequence you do hang out in the falcon like uh quarters i think we i think you talked about this in the live we're previewing everything i think you also said just to repeat the thing you just talked about outside sorry you guys have to deal with it twice

i'm not cutting this out you got to hear anecdotes twice i'm so confused i don't know what the hell uh did i mention that i hung out with rex and i drank blue wine did i ever say that yeah i think you mentioned it i didn't i think i'm gonna uh perhaps um what have we not talked about though well we didn't talk about we came in just going into the land it was a very fun maybe maybe oh we did not yeah like like we walked in and and we've said a little bit and we've said it a couple times this thing was so efficient uh and we got right to the land at eight and i'm sure we say that in the upcoming land test interview but we got to go through and this big fun ceremony basically

felt like an unofficial ceremony of like imagineers and disney parks people all like kind of like lined along star wars galaxy's edge like high five middle management clapping yeah like thank god we got this open and you'll give us more money they were so happy about that but it felt like really it was oddly emotional to be there it made me really glad i feel like we'll always have that we did that day one and we got that line of applause and they're applauding us for coming in but i kept saying thank you you did it holy shit scott trollbridge who was there somewhere because i saw on his twitter he was there in that line but i didn't see him i was looking for him but i didn't notice him i was really trying to find him so i could yell his name because i was getting really

used to yelling things in the morning because i yelled i saw uh fresh baked disney the youtuber uh i don't know if they call him that but i yell fresh baked at him so i was like really enjoying yelling things so i was like gonna yell scott thank you scott but i didn't see him so now we did a lot of yelling of uh uh bright suns yes bright suns that is how you say hello or good morning i didn't okay do you guys knew all this i didn't know about no bright there's a key they released a key of the batu uh customs and stuff i see i didn't know about bright suns okay so yes you here's a tip when you get there hello is bright suns although it's different at night i forget what it is at night oh it's uh oh shit i just saw that yeah oh whatever it's something about uh stars right

to the spires it's kind of like a goodbye or or is it till the spires i've seen it written as both i'm not sure and then like may the spires keep you is a goodbye yes now this seems like the kind of if you would describe this to me before i probably would have uh verbally rolled my eyes uh however having been there it felt so much like a foreign travel experience like i'm comparing it to having just been to japan where you learn your couple phrases and it kind of helps you through all your interactions it makes you feel like a local just in the tiniest little way and it it like it it's this real analog of it's it this little language thing makes you feel so much more like you traveled to a foreign place yeah rather than you went to uh land in a theme park

in anaheim yeah it's a lot it's details all of it is details and the the uh phrases and things also just great details i was reading you're supposed to say let the wookie win to the resistance and they may like give you something i don't know i that's what i saw i i'm gonna try it we'll see uh there's like other little things i think you can say there's a lot of like secrets which is so much fun a lot of secrets there's people wandering around which len talks about in the in the interview so i won't go into that um what was i gonna say characters there's a we missed the there's this kylo show evidently yeah jason i saw a little i saw that a little from a distance but then there's a show with uh

maradi the woman we saw in the but there's an original character that there's a book coming out starring this character but there's a walk around person playing this character too. And there's like a little mini stunt pop-up thing above that one entrance. There was like a catwalk and that, and she's like pursued by stormtroopers. And I think Chuby shows up. So there's almost little pop-up happenings going on. Those stormtroopers what when you realize that there's stormtroopers up on that second level monitoring things incredible you really have to

give so much credit to the harry potter team yeah for pioneering like there's very specific you can't say ripped off it's not ripped up because i think if you think of something in theme park world it becomes part of theme park vernacular it's part of language now anybody can do it but the idea there's very specific things little weird pop-up shows that involve puppets and such sometimes and like cages with weirdo animals that are rustling around and waking up the idea that the uh i mean obviously the beverages, the idea that your merch getting experience is also a show. Yes.

Harry Potter kicked open all of this and Disney took the ball and ran with it. Yes. It's up to the listener, really. Is it better? I think it could be better. A rising tide lifts all ships, I think. Yeah. Yeah.

One innovates and the other responds and then it just keeps going back and forth you know yeah yeah so what will the nintendo experience of making your own merch be what will that what will what will surpass even these two they have to you know suspenders design your own yes there you go design your own plumber suspenders great your dream finally realized are you saying i can put my own initial on a hat yeah instead of m or l it's your own color scott pick your color it's a me scottio everyone has to have an o at the end of their name that's the only thing you can't justify that yes and men and women both um by the way that actually is a really good idea

yeah hat with your initial line it's a different color and if we see it in the land we'll know that they they stole it um here's a here's a little detail do you remember or were you guys around when a ship whizzed by and then i maybe this was only me uh a ship whizzed by and I turned my head. What was that? Where did that go? Realized that was pure audio. Oh, yeah. There may have been a light as part of it, too.

Some subtle light. But it was just like ultra stereo effects. A ship whizzing by. The audio landscape, soundscapes are incredible. Yeah. There's stuff everywhere. There's even more down by the resistance camp which i got to a few minutes before you guys um and then you guys came and

we pretty much had to leave at that point i will say a couple of things uh if you haven't been following one they didn't really uh they didn't um pistol whip us to get out of the land there was no stormtrooper clearance no and i don't know if we maybe we alluded to it a little in the clip so far everything was so smooth everything was so smooth we talk about it in the next clip though for sure yeah but it is like um it's so crazy that everybody thought this was going to be hell on earth, and myself potentially included. Although, I did say before we went that I have a good feeling about this, as opposed to Tildebrex on Star Tours.

Like Alden said, you have a very good feeling about this. Does that say it in, really? Yeah, he says that in Solo. I'm missing out. Boy, everything gets flipped on its head. Yep. solo i'm missing out boy everything gets flipped on its head yeah uh so yeah i it just felt like all the like they knew they had the stakes were so high which is why i had i also had a very good feeling about this um and yeah everything there was an article that just i don't forget where it

was from i just read it was like this could like change the game for new lands essentially in any theme park because harry potter they had to limit the amount of people in the land but you would have to wait eight hours when orlando opened yeah sometime whatever depending on the day uh to get in the land but this combined with the fact that they're going to do virtual queuing next month which i think that'll actually start to be worse in the park again. But the land still will be at a good capacity where you won't be crushed by people. It's a people eater.

It's huge. It's huge. And it feels like they could triple the amount of people that were in there. And still be comfortable. And still be relatively comfortable. At the last 45 minutes of our time there, that was...

I started to feel the crunch because there was an hour overlap with the next group and that's when things started to go like yeah it was a little more but it's still like it wasn't like walking by uh new orleans square during phantasmic which is the craziest amount of people you can possibly cram in one space yeah yeah but like it was never like that so it wasn't like the part of my tokyo trip where like the small world it was a saturday and the small world fast pass like corridor was so much worse than anything we experienced and get in the new galaxy's edge on opening day right it's really insane and i was comparing it all i think like a lot of my fear came from remembering what it was

like the entire first summer of the Indiana Jones adventure. And where there were, there wasn't any of this technology yet. It was like, all right, there's a big line. So get in it. And it wrapped all through.

It took over all of that little, like a sort of the Fiesta area of a frontier land, just wrap around, wrap around, wrap around. And the entire indoor queue was used. It took so fucking long and like but you've got to remember it's not 1995 anymore there's technologies beyond um to hear

stand in a big line it's like when you're it's like when you have a big two liter of soda and it's shaken up and you can do two things you can just open it up and it sprays everywhere you let a little gas out every like second you know what i mean it's like you're kind of like this is the way they're now doing it where it's like we make sure we limit it and we get take a little okay some of the people now are good they've they're satiated they've seen it and hopefully you do that over the course of a few months as opposed to like everybody get down here line up along harbor it's hell well and i think they knew that everyone has a megaphone nowadays right everyone has a smartphone so if it was a disaster there would have been hundreds or if not thousands of people posting that like yeah this sucks this is bad but i don't think we had a

bad experience like i said the last little bit there was a choke like i doc on dars was too full uh mobile ordering for a couple i tried like i got a little bit of time left should i get another food thing or another drink and it was only letting me mobile order a couple hours ahead of time so i couldn't have come back other than that pretty that's pretty minor like friction issues none of these are things you could put in a headline and go wait what happened no i will say one of honestly one of my biggest disappointments is that the giant pod racer that they're cooking meat on doesn't look like the pod racer in the art in the promo art but that is such a huge thing for such a little practice it's such an amazing

oh yeah it's just for places it's not any practical yeah application and it's still cool it's just like a little like kind of rubbery thing over an engine which is also looks like one of the pod racing engines but in the promo art there's like a really cool sleek looking pod racer engine yeah but that's who cares maybe my biggest disappointment is the pod the look of the pod racing engine well here let's okay so what is going wrong now it's it's it's a couple days after we have heard reports that there have been spork issues um well i guess we'll get into this actually with the way that we'd land a little bit in the future he was miraculously we talk about there is a spork tangent in the yeah yeah yeah okay so what what uh what lynn predicted uh did come true a little bit but again

like that's one of the biggest problems they're having i guess now you would have to say this cantina thing is a mess although apparently already there is a text-based system in place now right you put you give a name and you get a text message when it is your time which i have wanted for years like chilies can do that macaroni grill can say like go to the go to the barnes and noble come we'll text you when you come back and disney has all these bars where it's just like just stand in the line and it's like just text us to come back when everything else in the park is when everything else is texted some of the hotel restaurants have it some of the hotel restaurants will text you to come back but like this is great and hopefully it's working well and hopefully they roll it out at like the pixar pier at lamplighter

yeah and like other places of that type there's something in the restaurant i thought where they do texts maybe not the actual lounge but maybe for the actual restaurant itself yeah i think we do have to say it is a legitimate problem. It does make it more of an exclusive. Like, how great do we feel? How much different was our day because we got into the cantina first thing? But if we hadn't, I don't know. And some of the people who take all this effort to get down there and book hotels and then don't get close to the cantina, it's sort of a mess.

I don't know why they didn't build, like, two or or three more i don't know why it's not double the size i do think you would have to call this a fuck up that they didn't anticipate the insane popularity of that place it's weird yeah it feels like it's like less capacity or it's at least the same as the carthay lounge which is just sort of a little afterthought because there's a full restaurant so it's weird it is weird that there's not like two or three rooms like make three rooms of this with like a different yeah different fun droid dj or entertainment or something like it seems odd yeah that they would not foresee that being the only place you can drink in disneyland being popular yes plus yeah let's not even include that it is Star Wars mythology and

that you know some people have very strong feelings about Rex like myself but even if you don't it is a if you've never heard of Rex before there's a droid DJ playing original music for three hours this is the coolest thing ever yeah of course there's gonna be a line for two and a half hours but I yeah and I will I'll even take it back i'll say like this could just be an empty janitor's closet with one man and a bottle of fireball whiskey it's the only place to drink in disneyland it's going to be popular yeah people will go to the closet full closet with the man with the fireball uh especially if it's the guy from a new hope who's like he doesn't like you and i don't like you either i did notice a couple things of our cantina experience that i thought were well this was like we ordered the first round of drinks

as he brought the drinks he also brought the check so like he closed it out immediately sure they did let you guys order mike ordered the second drink also coasters he put down coasters when he came back he kind of threw more coaster he's like these motherfuckers are gonna what coast like and they're pretty cool about that at um the place in uh disney springs the the lindsey just brought dexter dexter who joined us i'm glad he i'm glad he survived lindsey's jock lindsey's has cool coasters too and they were very much like yeah take a pile is this like what i'm realizing i think i think here's what we have to say is that the you're talking about how cool coasters are we've talked about how cool these future sporks are how these sounds and smells and if you ask

me what's you know i'm preparing to tell people just like oh man what was that well how was it what was your favorite thing it was it was all that stuff it's details it's being there and uh like was the millennium falcon ride cool sure we have a little bit of complaints which we can get into but we do like the next part yes yeah yeah uh but the um yeah and and the cantina the cantina might be like the place highlight although droid depot is up there too but truly what is great about galaxy's edge it's being there it's those little and i don't think we found even like 20 of those things like if the coasters are that good i bet we're like we're we're missing a napkin or a uh you know or a sink somewhere that

would be one of our favorite things in the land they figured out yeah in the in the bathrooms which on bat tour called the refreshers there's a radio station playing there's more original music in the restroom really yeah did you not catch that i don't think i did there's music playing and every now and then a dj will chime in to the red chili peppers play on the radio station only um yeah i think that they've really taken and we get into we get into it with len a little bit of some of our interactions but i think and i've mentioned this a couple times on the show before one of the best star tours line memories i have is when the stormtroopers came fort like grabbed my arm really hard and like scared me i turned around there were stormtroopers and i went ah and then they did like a fun bit with

some kids or one kid and they kind of kicked a kid out of line who was trying to like cut in line or whatever and i was we were all delighted by it and it does feel like the imagineers really know that that's the stuff that sticks with people. So it's full of that stuff. And it's full of stuff that doesn't feel, I'm sure it's on a schedule of some kind, but stuff that doesn't feel like it's on a schedule. So it feels very personal to you as you're doing it. Like, oh, Jason caught a little bit of Kylo Ren show.

We didn't catch that. There's nothing on the pamphlet that says, oh, at 3.15, Kylo Ren does a show. So it feels like you're just getting to see something that's happening, and it's just for you and the people that are around you. So that's the triumph, I feel like, of this land, is just populating it with things that make everyone feel special,

make them feel like you're having a special little thing for you. I mean, the day and a half we were down there i was like enjoying walking around the parks just in general just especially the the emptiness on friday just walking around and being there and galaxy's edge just took that feeling just like multiplied it by a thousand how great did you all feel right after we probably should have recorded right at noon on the way out the door we were like yeah we were like a little high and weird we were kind of like speechless maybe it wouldn't have been good because we were it really just felt like we'd i don't know something washed over us it was really insane and i think you you put a great mic you said i don't feel

like i have a sense of it like it was such a weird flurry also to compare it to japan i bet you guys felt like this all the time in japan not just disney but the city but tokyo itself just like what was that i don't think i know even i have no like i'm so overwhelmed by it and that's that's how batu feels yeah well with so many so many of the things we talk about on the show we've especially disneyland and universal, we've especially Disneyland and universal stuff. We've seen it and been on it like a hundred times. Yeah. So yeah,

to get, to try to cram all of that in even four hours is very overwhelming. And especially to be, have two drinks at 8am. Like the feeling, yeah, it was like a little disoriented. And then we walked out to the coolest new addition to the

hungry bear restaurant the new hungry bear sign there's a new sign everybody and it's a little like grizzly bear trying to get a little honey or a honey uh beehive excuse me which i kept insisting he was he was fixing the sign no there he is he's fixing the sign no he's clearly searching for no oh he's lending a hand. Lending a paw. But then shortly thereafter, I got on the marked way and I had a whole deck to myself. Like, I had the whole middle deck. It was just me and a cast member.

We all scattered too. Oh, yeah. We all sort of went our different ways. But we, like... Yeah, Aaron and Lindsay hung out in the Carthay Lounge for like an hour and 45 minutes while we talked to our guest, or you'll hear. Yeah.

And everybody had, there was no lines anywhere. And that was after Lindsay and I went on Guardians of the Galaxy four times in a row. Jesus. Beating the record that Jason, Anthony, Gio, and I had

of three times in a row right in the early in the morning. And I may be going like very, very soon. And maybe I'll beat it. Maybe I'll beat four. See if I can do five. We got four different songs too. impressive wow wow you got you covered the gamut of the soundtrack well

there's two more there's six wow so yeah uh pretty good yeah so so it was a real popcorn into rocket's mouth and no one stopped you nope they didn't care uh so yeah the whole day was very fun because disney scared everyone away yeah yeah and you know what else is weird is like every cast member elsewhere was seeing our wristbands and going oh my god how was it and how's it going over there like you felt like this weird it felt like everybody who was working was not working like everybody's brain was elsewhere and we just like all of the typical sort of a customer interaction was broken just like wait can we stop and talk about this for a second because they're

all so curious themselves it's what everyone's talking about the dj in downtown disney is calling out like i see some people here have been to batu all right you've seen the black spires and you know i hope you had a magical day out there. And back here on Earth, the weather's pretty nice. And it was, I don't know, there was odd. It's what everyone was thinking about, clearly. I want to go back, and there's like six things I didn't even do. I mean, you guys ate in docking day seven. I didn't, because I had just eaten.

I had the Ronto Roasters. I had the Space Hot Dogs. Well, that's that hot dog content up if not uh already um i didn't yeah it was too full to go and dock on doors i didn't even stop at the first water shop or the resistance um shop which i think it's just like you know carts because it's meant to look temper like they have to pack up at a moment's notice oh interesting huh yeah that's fine yeah there's a bunch of things i did not do i didn't have i only had the blue milk sorry i didn't get to the green milk this time but something exciting

to look forward to when i go back um oh we should well let's talk uh dry depot a little bit oh yeah sure the i didn't i didn't do enough previewing to know that the way you assemble your droid is a conveyor belt of loose parts. Yeah. Yeah. Incredible. Really great. That was, and even if you don't do it yourself, just watching that thing go by is so fun. Bunch of weird dude ads.

You don't know how the hell they'd begin to go together. And apparently, and I watched videos of people doing it where they'll pick up, Ooh, this looks like a good top and no, but they know you're building an R2 that goes with the bb that doesn't work um so you have to like learn processes while you're doing that that's the funnest toy experience yeah it really is and like uh scott and i both got rexes hell yeah um and but the thing is like yeah that droid putting the droid together seems fun but maybe i

don't need more toys i already have too many and maybe there's a couple on the way still in my mail uh and i don't need another droid but i want to do it i really want to build a droid and i want to make them purple well that's going to be one of those things that like in how do you keep galaxy's edge interesting for you if you don't do that for three years yeah oh you know what i never did was uh was a droid i also the lightsaber thing too which we didn't do um which seems very cool and they have much like harry potter they have make your own lightsaber and you get your kyber crystals and you do the whole thing and your hand and your hilt your hilt um but they also have legacy lightsabers much like harry potter where you can also just buy like snape's wand Or Harry's wand Yeah You can buy Luke's lightsaber

Or Mace Windu's lightsaber Oh And I'm looking on Twitter And I'm like Oh these look pretty good Yeah And I'm like But I don't know

No No Bad Michael It's hard They really Isn't it funny That the whole thing Is an outpost

And a marketplace A bustling You know Place where you can buy A ton of shit and i did a charming marketplace but with wide walkways true and lots of cash registers like yeah yeah i have one complaint uh i did so i did buy rex which i have zero complaints about what a toy it's great but in ringing him up the cashier said what was the phrase it was like do you have

credentials something like that oh is that id uh i think that was that was the term for annual pass there's a term for annual pass and i miss i didn't know what she was asking and i said no oh no i didn't know this scott because i haven't told a story that happened to me while we were there oh the day before uh-huh uh uh when i paid i went we went to black tap burgers and shakes and a little while after we were there i realized i did not give the annual pass i did not get the annual pass discount holy fucking shit for uh do you need to like stop recording and just like vent a little bit no because i went back and they're like oh this happens all the time we'll fix it and they you went back yeah because it was again it was

empty later so i was like hey is this a can you do that and they're like yeah and they like did it in 30 seconds when i was storing money to your car yeah they restored like seven dollars to my card so that much really yeah yeah i know i got fucked on because they do i'll give that tip droid depot they do uh i thought that i thought they did i thought none of it was going to take annual i did i did okay you did but i they i yeah uh and food we mobile. Did you not get a discount? I did. Okay, you did. Yeah. And food, we mobile ordered, and that was a discount. Oh, you got something very rare. Do you know about

this? It's already sold out, the gift card. Oh, is it sold out already? Yeah. Yeah, so I believe Dave Meske, who I went to elementary school with, who is a Patreon subscriber, tweeted at us during like i think we were over by the um roncho's roasters and there was a person who tweeted that you can get

these cool little uh gift cards that are like pieces of metal with a cool symbol on it and those are the gift cards in batuu and someone was like you can just get one of these and use it to buy something else and it happened like minutes before i went into droid depot and i saw them sitting there at the counter and i said is it possible can i just buy one of these and then use it to buy rex and she's like oh sure i guess so i did that and i have it oh it's upstairs it's a cool little yeah yeah yeah so i didn't realize those were sold out already. So get through this Batuvian language jargon nonsense and make sure you get your annual pass discount because I ate it a little bit financially.

But no regrets because now Rex is rolling around my house. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have already seen I was having my DJ Rex take requests. And thank you everyone who did that for sending in your requests. I've had so much fun with him already. And follow me at SkizzGirdner on Instagram and maybe I'll do it again in the Insta stories.

We did a lot. Rex played crack and cocaine. I hate music. A lot of our favorites. It was a Videopolis. It was a blast. The toy is great. You've been fucking around with it, too.

You sent us a video of him playing Kokomo. Much appreciated. The dog hates him. Yeah, cats are a little freaked out. Oh, and my cats are real freaked out by the Porg. Oh, really? Aaron bought a Porg puppet the porg puppet is great it's got two little levers when you reach up into it uh one is arm flaps or wings one is uh

sound and my cats sound exactly like a porg so they should get along great it's that little flutter and so they should be best of friends but it uh it truly freaks them out especially because okay you operate it for a little bit right and then you set it down that was fun no more no more more porg uh about a 45 seconds to a minute later it just makes a sound on its own oh wow it just adds to this feeling of it's alive and this land that is so interactive you bring to your home this same feeling i didn't just buy a puppet that's an alive porg it's freaking out my cats even if i'm not touching it yeah oh that's great i didn't realize it even did that yeah so cool does your jason got a waddle i went to i got went to the toy dairy and toy shop and i got the waddle plush and that

do anything secret plush no they're because they're meant to look like hand stitched right right they're not a real someone made but it's so funny to think like 20 years ago if you had told me as the movie as phantom menace was coming out like when you are 33 years old you're gonna be so psyched to buy a stuffed waddo at disneyland not disney world but you're gonna be very happy to see a stuffed waddo at disneyland not disney world but you're gonna be very happy to see that stuffed waddo that that was my that as i've aged like that's why like i can't believe they made a waddo yes that's why i live in california now i live in california uh i'm irony you have you are you do have irony poisoning uh but it's fine and you can

have hot dogs anytime you want hot dogs and sugar milk milk technology is gonna get crazy a lot hasn't changed you will be one of the first people to have a very special new milk one of the most anticipated milks in theme park history and this will be a day after you had a uh milkshake with a slice of funfetti cake mounted on top of it. Hey, you know, while we're talking about Jason's dreams coming true, I have a little gift from Aaron that I can present to you here in this bag. All right, here we go. Yes, she told me about this.

Oh, okay, great. Extra toiletries from the Disneyland Hotel. We all stayed in the hotel together. Not in one room, but we booked two. That's a fun way to play it would have been nice mike and lindsey uh aaron and scott and then our adult sons uh our respective adult sons on the couch uh it was a wonderful affair um so so toiletries await i went to the hot tub the night before me too i went twice two hot tubs. That probably helped the relaxation and the ease the next morning.

Ease your body's resistance. Ease the relaxation. Make your body last. The reopened Starbucks opened at 4.30 in the morning opening day. Thank God we all were able to fuel up. We all had, besides all, just what a great weekend and trip it was. And you know what? Another great thing, and maybe this is the time to throw to it,

we got to talk to somebody who we have been listening to for many, many years. When we first poked around, are there any, before we even thought we wanted to do a theme park podcast, I remember going, well, podcasts are kind of blowing up. Are there any podcasts about theme parks? there's there's a ton certainly but if you're looking for if you're looking for quality if you're looking for scoops if you're looking for info you can't get anywhere else the the major one is the disney dish podcast with jim hill and len testa And lo and behold, we were heading to Black Spire Outpost at the very same time as

Theme Park Podcasting Luminary, Len Testa. Now we have a very special interview, a very special guest. We're talking about the co-author of The Unofficial Guide and the co-host of the Disney Dish podcast,

Len Testa. Here we are in his hotel room in the Disneyland Hotel. We are very excited. Len, welcome to Podcast the Ride. Thank you, guys, and welcome to my hotel room. Thank you. You know, Galaxy's Edge is an exclusive Anaheim experience, but this one's even more exclusive.

Also, yes, room 267 at the Disneyland Hotel. Apparently also fairly exclusive these days. We'll skip the invites. Oh, yeah, exactly. Got to be in the theme park. Apparently also fairly exclusive these days. We'll skip the invites. Oh yeah. Gotta be in the theme park podcast game.

Will you be out by Monday? So if when this comes out people won't bombard your room. I'll be out by Monday.

Great. Fantastic. They'll just know that if you guys could leave your wristbands with the attendant as you leave that would be

sure. We're recycling. We've got a time cap. Yes of course. Okay. So yeah for those of you who don't know Len co-hosts a podcast that we have all listened to that we have all talked about ad nauseum.

Rumors, fun stuff, history, it's all there. Numbers, statistics. You're like Mr. Statistics, I feel. I have a team of great statisticians. You have to be that way because you have a guide That is full of numbers And full of information Sure So yeah

We've talked about You guys forever Yeah thanks So we're big fans Yeah I'm a big fan Of you and Jim And yeah I mean what I was thinking

On the way What I was realizing On the way over Is you know We talk a lot about Mike's Mike's probably Biggest obsession

That we talk about A lot on the podcast Is his obsession With what he calls checking. And checking, I guess, would be defined as, well, how do you define checking? Well, checking is anything that, I think it's a repetitive motion. I think that's really what it comes down to. Doctors call it a compulsive behavior. It is a compulsive behavior.

It's like trying to get tickets at Ticketmaster, which is like I'll spend 40 minutes refreshing refreshing trying to get better tickets when it's fast passes i'm canceling and trying to get better ones and better ones and then at the high i get when i get like a fast pass that's 30 minutes away versus two hours so you're optimizing yeah yeah exactly i'm optimizing and it's maybe the greatest thrill that i experienced during a possible day maybe let's say maybe sure it depends on the day but i was thinking it's like for you to meet the the person who runs a like theme park planning website is like it's like meeting mickey mannell that is a good point yes it is a good point yeah so you like you have it all in your head more um but i do i enjoy planning i enjoy

figuring out the exact you actually i should thank you now that i think about it because we stayed at port orleans in orlando two years ago and you were the one who told me on the podcast not me personally but you told me about the hot lighter deals and how you would be able to check and see if you could tell which or Orlando resort it was. So I had a much more expensive resort. And I checked and I checked. I was like, oh, my God. And I canceled the one I had.

And we stayed at Port Orleans for like $150, $200. I don't remember. Something crazy. Because some of those are dead giveaway. Like, you know, New Orleans. They tell you sometimes, too. They tell you sometimes. Yeah. It still depends.

So thank you. We're just keeping praise on you for so many minutes there's a so one of our uh one of our users uh his name is john he's a guy that keeps track of the uh the price line and the hot wire deal so he has a system that is i'm not going to say it's foolproof but it's a hundred percent wow and we can't say how it works on the air um wow it's fine send me send me an email i can explain to say how it works on the air. That's fine. Send me an email. I can explain to you how it works. Sure. That is very exciting to me.

We'll talk about it off the air. Does it work for everywhere or just Orlando? It works. We know it works for the Disney area hotels. Okay. Because I just was in Vegas and I was doing all of this obsessive hot wire and price line to try to figure out what would... Okay.

So we'll talk later. Yeah. We'll talk later. Yeah. Okay. Got it. Got it. to try to figure out yeah what would okay so we'll talk later yeah we'll talk later yeah okay got it got it yeah um but i guess i guess the question to ask specifically is uh in regards to star wars galaxy's edge which we which all four of us now have experienced uh i mean how's that changed uh

your world uh with touring plans what have you been like looking for what have you been the most uh nervously anticipating, worried about in terms of things being a disaster over there, which I think we can safely say they were not. Our big concern was how they were going to handle opening day crowds, and to their credit, Disney pulled it off flawlessly. I don't think

today could have gone any better than it did. All the crowds were manageable. All the lines were clearly marked. Disney did a great job operationally. better than it did yeah all the crowds were manageable all the lines were clearly marked um Disney did a great job operationally hats off to all the check-in check out was very yeah very fast yeah yeah yeah they did really really well and all of it we got in like at 8 o'clock exactly maybe like they really had pinpointed it down because they walked us from Tomorrowland over and it was just it was crazy because we were like like wow we're gonna get him right at eight o'clock like it was insane right at eight o'clock yeah what'd you guys do

first uh i got a blue milk by 807 i had no order from the entryway it was sooner it was 801 i want to say i'm gonna give you that credit unless i was misreading it was 8 10 and i was like oh my god i'm gonna have to burn 10 minutes standing here. But then there was just a cast member standing at the mobile order pickup and I was like, hey, I'm mobile ordered. Jason? And she's like, oh yeah, there you are. And she just got it. So we kind of got separated

at some point and then I just showed back up with Blue Milk. Jason, one of his things he said before today, he wanted to do that. He's had two milks, different types of milks. I had it in the cantina, too. Oh, you did? Honestly, it was better frozen.

The other way about the butterbeer, I like the cold butterbeer, but the frozen milk I thought was fun. I think it's better frozen as well, yeah. Official verdict here. But we did that, and we were able to get into the cantina, but as we were saying right before we started recording, mainly because we were with somebody who was in the front of the pack. And I might advise anybody listening to this to if cantina is your concern, maybe try to be too early and get it.

Because it's not a line per se. Like everybody gets into the land and you can easily do the most of the things you want to do. But cantina i mean you said like that was up to two two and a half hours two hours they told us to the the last hour of your wristband eligibility you can't get in line so they cut you off an hour beforehand interesting to try and get you all the way through right they're trying to gear into you 45 minutes in the cantina right it's nice that's great which is nice but it took us 45 minutes to get our drinks yeah so uh so when they you know that when the waitstaff comes out and tells you,

you've got to be gone in 45 minutes, I've got two and a half minutes to drink two drinks. This is great. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can have some fun that way. Did you, because I learned the hard way that, I figured that, well, maybe there's not a restroom inside,

which there is not. There's not a restroom inside. There is no ins and outs. They said if you go out. No, you're out, you're out. You cannot come back in. Yeah, that's it, one you you go to you use the facilities before you go in i yeah it was it was kind of a whirlwind you bailed early i bailed yeah i stayed for a little while you had so much milk inside you crazy yeah uh and a coffee and a coffee walking in i mean i

we've been up since like I got up at like 4.45 this morning yeah I got up at 3 yeah yeah sure 3 oh my god you're on east coast whatever

oh yeah yeah sure I here's a question do you the smoothness of this would you credit any

like recent programs Disney has instituted or any other theme park organizations have been experimenting with? Is there anything that you can point to that's been happening in the last few years where it's like, oh, that must have been planting the seeds for the smoothness of the groups and the reservations? I think the Project Stardust thing that they're doing where they're opening opening up the walkways you can definitely tell that that's made a huge difference the stroller stuff was all much better all the things that they've been doing over the last you know six months to a year which is widening the walkways all of it we've probably heard about a lot about this on on your podcast but the yeah what are the big project stardust things it's like clearing out adventure land but the curves yeah making the curves lowering the curbs making the walkways

more consistent uh and wider even if it's moving things like a foot that they've moved things a foot right and you can tell i mean it's um the walkways are much more uh accessible uh they're wider but also the whole park looks really good right now yes we're talking before we recorded that i spent um parts of tuesday and wednesday just walking around and taking a look at both Disneyland and DCA right before Black Spire opened to just see what it was one more time before everything changed. And the park looked really, really good. Everything was working. All the effects in Toontown, for example, were working when I was there. Wow.

Everything looked really good, yeah. When you're looking like do you have like a checklist even of effects or are you just kind of going off of memory I go I walk with guy who has a walking encyclopedia of things guy knows where all the individual uh different decades of fencing are in so apparently there's this apparently there's this place in in Tomorrowland where you can see uh three decades of fencing coming together. And, and Guy showed me this, this particular spot.

And I'm like, man, that is some knowledge right there. What's the spot? You got to tell us the spot. It's over by, um, where the sort of the Matterhorn meets the,

um, the submarine voyage. There's three different sections of, of, uh, of fencing there. That's, uh,

it's like early Tomorrowland and then two versions of Fantasyland coming together. All at one point. Because a lot has been redistricted because there used to be two Autopias and things have changed and moved. There were two queues for Matterhorn, apparently. Oh, sure, sure, sure. Three decades of fencing, all of it from the past.

All from the past. None of it from tomorrow. Yeah, none of it from tomorrow, no. Some of it it was was definitely fantastical though so that sort of fits in yeah yeah that's good we gotta get a picture with this triple fence we are literally gonna go it's three of them college fence yeah he's gonna drag his wife i'm dragging my girlfriend from carthay circle and going we have to see this that's's a special match. Yeah, exactly. We must see the fencing. The other thing to mention is with the smoothness of the day. Okay, so we got out of there.

We got out of Star Wars around noon. We've just been tooling around the park for the last couple hours. And now the rest of the park is virtually empty. Like some of the shortest lines I've ever seen. It's very quiet. Carthay had nobody in it. Carthay has nobody. I just had a Carthay Manhattan. It's insane. I don't remember the last time there was only like three occupied tables maybe never

yeah it's really wild that was gonna be much more crowded than this not not dca necessarily but i thought disneyland would be much more crowded with people who thought maybe that they didn't need a reservation to come in or right but no i mean disney's got the word out it looks like i was worried about people yeah not understanding and that everybody in the line would be uh uh we also like oh they'll let us in it's disneyland it'll be fine yeah yeah hey we'll smooth talk our way we'll be friendly and sparkle and they'll there was a message report i won't say which one that said there was somebody that like was very adamant that like there will be a stand they're not saying standby line but there will be but that's not happened right i? I haven't seen a standby line.

We haven't seen that. So that was wrong. And whatever this website is, I guess, listener, if you really want to email me, I'll tell you what it was. But I don't want to say now. You know, the average listener. If you have my email, I guess we have a show email. They were loading in. They were loading in by Critter Country in the afternoon.

We went in through Big Thunder Trail Yes The only hiccup was that we were told We would be loading in at Critter Country And then we loaded in at Big Thunder I thought the colored tape was the dead giveaway For how you were supposed to load Because green was the second wave

And they were over at Critter Country But we were blue in the morning The gentleman I guess was just. I think he was probably just speaking too quickly. We just kind of followed the mass of people. Yeah, exactly. There was nowhere. And there was so much managed. There were so many people in business attire. In addition to cast members

in Star Wars attire, there was a lot of managerial people. Well, also, it's a workday Friday, too, for a lot of people, so they should if it was a Sunday. Oh, yeah. That's true. But it's Friday. So what did you guys think of the ride uh we we i think my review is i dug it but i don't think it's the highlight i don't think it's like the best thing about being there which is i don't know if maybe that's the cantina maybe that's the just atmosphere

in general i think it's just like walking around is the best thing about being there but uh um yeah i don't know i but i i liked it and i like the queue is the best thing about being there but uh um yeah i don't know i but i i liked it and i like the queue experience and i like being being like in that waiting room in the falcon and then the ride itself is like hmm it's fine yeah it's fine for what it was what uh what put what um what role did you have um oh i did all three i wrote the fucking three times uh this morning while we were in there that's amazing that's saying something those single riders yeah single riders you're right there walk right on but i mean you miss all of the pre-show stuff but like if you've just seen it once yeah you'll and you'll also probably be the engineer uh because it's like except we a single rider in our party got to be

the pilot which is unfair yeah that's true one of us should be the pilot but i felt uh i felt too bad through it yeah you can talk through it. I mean, I was going to take it. They're not letting you pick, because I asked one time to be pilot, and they're like, no, but we ended up being pilot anyway. Oh, really? How many times did you do it? Three.

Okay. I've done one in each role. Oh, what did you think? So the engineer's in the back, right? Yes. That's the worst role. Yeah, but it's a lot to do. It's what I would have guessed.

It's a lot to do, but did you notice the ergonomics of the millennium falcon are also not that great kind of yeah you kind of got to sit i don't want to complain because it's a spaceship and you shouldn't really complain about like the ergonomics it's a fun spaceship right ultimately yeah but no but like you're when you sit down the seat is facing forward so you can see the action everything you're supposed to do is 90 degrees to your right yes i this is yes yes yes yes whoever was actually setting up that workstation i think did not have like osha compatibility in mind when they were doing it well would you blame that it's is would you have to blame the design of the real millennium falcon for this problem well i think there was a practical compromise because famously the millennial falcon there is a very long uh gunner sequence in a new hope where they're separate yeah there is a

separate and that's what i thought i thought we would be separate yeah or at least in like little antechambers to the side sorry antechambers to the side of the uh of the main pod like where we actually had guns yes i mean that mean, that would be crazy. Yeah, I mean, we were basically pushing buttons here like ordering a Frappuccino at a gas station or something. This is not the Millennium Falcon that I... My feeling was I did pilot, I was in the back seat. I almost felt like it was a better ride in the back seat,

even though I couldn't see as well. But I sort of was not as stressed out. But it would take me out a little bit when I'd have to turn and press three buttons. Yeah, and it's because you can't see what's going on on the screen. And also, I thought the screen would be more wrapped around you.

I thought you'd be farther in the cockpit a little bit. Yes, I guess. When you're the engineer, if you look up, all you see is beige ceiling. Right. I get it that it's maybe accurate technically but maybe they could have like uh it's an eight person delorean in the back to the future right it's not the delorean where you would have not even room for a third person yes uh so maybe they have maybe they needed

to like we've expanded the cockpit to allow for and don't this i don't want to like just hate on it because i did really enjoy it like i truly like being in the cockpit of the money and falcon is amazing yeah and piloting is really amazing i do think they were trying to be too nice to everyone who's sitting down my feeling is one control should have been oh let me back up there's two pilots one controls up one controls side to side and man is that frustrating yeah exactly that is so frustrating yeah because like it's like you have half of a half of a steering wheel yeah right it's like kind of insane honestly like i get where they're going with it but and i know that it's on rails like you really can't go that far out of where they want you to go i tried when i was probably yeah sure straight down and nose dive um can we flip this like flight uh do it

the uh the visuals are very very constrained like uh you can't you can't leave the the field that you see right so you can't like turn left and just go around the world to the left yeah i mean i get it i get like i get it it has to sort of be that way. Does it? Doesn't it? But isn't it like a fewer tour? I mean, I like the question too. I mean, here, I'm thinking now, Star Fox 64. Sure. There were worlds that were on like kind of rails, and then there were worlds that were sort of more open air, and you could go around and zip in, but there were still objectives

to do. Yeah. So perhaps there was a way to maybe do it where it was a little more exploratory. I would have liked a little bit more exploring. Yeah. And with the consequences of, you know, if you explore, you don't finish your mission. Right. And there are consequences for that.

The other thing, too, is I didn't get the, like, I didn't get how the consequences happen once you leave the spaceship. Like, did you guys end up with positive points or negative points we had like mildly positive but the first one seemed negative and there were like flashing green lights and that's what let us know that as you walked into the hallway which was actually a complete power down on one ride like everything black and then back up again oh no this was like theatrical oh no no i got an actual yeah oh wait it actually like broke down for you yeah like there were not there was no there were no visuals for like oh my three or four minutes yeah it's like that long really reboot the laptop yep oh that's interesting yeah huh huh it was fun um

sure sure yeah they actually have a spiel that they uh that they play that was very funny i like that they have a lot of different little tidbits to cover when they're they do this a little bit in avatar land exactly yeah and they're but they're when they're... They do this a little bit in Avatar Land, too. Exactly, yeah, but they're doing it better here, I think. This one was actually much more subtle. The one in Avatar is like a 10-second looper, I feel like. It's something that's very repetitive, and it's

just a guy typing on a computer like, oh, I'm working on it, and then it's like 10 seconds later, I'm working on it, and you're like, okay. But this is like Hondo has a whole different thing i have to say they endeared hondo to me pretty quickly like a character i was not really familiar no shows up in the cartoons and stuff but like a character that's going to be brand new for pretty much 90 of the people going to this yeah it was great and it's like oh i like

this yeah this is fun i like this skeevy guy yeah the cue is fantastic all of it's fantastic i really truly that all of that is fantastic. That they're working on the engines, and you can hear the engines starting up. Yeah, and it smelled like a garage. Right. And we walked in and saw Hondo, and I guess, spoiler, we'll say this before, but spoiler, we see him up there. We all gasped.

Yeah. And I looked at all of us. It's great animatronic, isn't it? It's fantastic. So all of that stuff, I think, walking into the Falcon, very mildly emotional for me. All that stuff, sitting down, like, it was really crazy. And then, yeah, like, it's good. The ride is good.

Yeah. It's good. It's good. Like, you've never been on a video game this cool or elaborate. I don't think they're going to. I think they will hear some extent of this i bet we will see like modified retools i like i don't think that ride stays exactly how it is day one no i don't think so and i think you'd have to think that the interactive elements let them change it up and i

think yeah i think we'll see more interactivity i still don't understand how the uh how the outcome tracks you through black spire oh yes that's been said for so long and i don't really i don't understand how the outcome tracks you through Black Spire. Oh, yes. That's been said for so long, and I don't really... I don't think it's... I don't think it's... If it's true, it's not working on day one. Seems like it would make sense with the Magic Band sort of system. We don't really have that out here. But you've got...

So now when you use the Play Disney Parks app, if you turn Bluetooth on, I believe that's how it's tracking you. Is that what it is? Yeah, I think so, yeah. Oh, yeah, because it asks you to have bluetooth on the whole time and i think that's what they're doing yeah so when uh when guy and i rode the second time we both had bluetooth on and right before you walk into the falcon there's a there's a small tv uh yeah and uh hondo came back on and said oh you guys are back yeah oh oh Interesting. He said you're back. Wow, that's interesting.

That's cool. I got to give it up to them. So that's how I think they're tracking, and it must be coming from the app. And did it not seem to you guys like we were in that room a little longer the second time, and the Hondo spiel keeps going, and in an unbroken animated sequence,

it extends, it auto extends because there's a delay which is pretty wild to me that's a thing to go back to the future ride there's no like extra fill from Doc Brown they go to the test pattern but you wouldn't get like yeah they didn't like

have an auto update five hours of improv to make sure to cover please do every possible option one for if there's a legionnaire's disease outbreak now eclipse

do something on eclipse in three minutes three minutes in three minutes just covering our bases moons man they're crazy right yeah

did you guys going back to the bar did you guys try the drink that numbs your mouth oh no what i mean perhaps not that doesn't sound familiar uh so it's uh the one with the foam hmm no no no i i did the bespin fizz and then the bloody rancor those are both okay we ordered one of every drink oh really yeah and so we were like i mean those people are with us too yes we're fuzzy ta the Fuzzy Tauntaun? Yes. The Fuzzy Tauntaun.

The foam actually numbs your mouth. On purpose? On purpose. Yeah. Apparently it's a thing. And I know there are Chinese spices that numb your mouth. Oh. Okay.

So they must be using some sort of extract of that. But it's flavors. It's either mildly numbing or mildly itchy depending on how how you take it yeah but it's uh it was it's tasty drink too yeah they're not bad you get the like the party mix yeah it's got the party mix yeah it's wasabi it's not bad yeah that looked interesting picture afterwards after we had left and then the uh the jello thing that looked like it looks like um um boba boba and jello yeah And that's exactly what it is Okay But it's not bad

I'm not a big fan of Jell-O or Boba But it wasn't bad Any other food? Did you do one of the We tried all of the Ronto Roasters things Which I thought were all pretty good Oh yeah I had the hot dog sausage thing

Did you try the breakfast one? The breakfast one was the best No, just the lunch one Is it? Yeah Breakfast one with the egg Was really super tasty Also, did you guys see the cutlery?

The Sporks? Oh, right Oh yeah, you brought that up And then we were keeping Did you find them? Yeah, breakfast with an egg was really super tasty. Also, did you guys see the cutlery, the sporks? Oh, right. Oh, yeah, you brought that up. Did you just find them? Yeah, we ate it. Did they still have some out, or people had stolen them already? No. I don't think so.

I think they had them. They're not going to be there tomorrow. I used them. You think, should I have stolen them? Should I have stolen? I didn't. I'm just saying it's this year's must-have souvenir. I'm just saying.

I looked. I don't think there's any on eBay yet. I will be shocked if tomorrow morning we wake up and they're not on eBay. They're metal sporks, essentially. But I would put that in your kid's lunchbox and be like, guess what I got for you? Oh, yeah, yeah. Bring a little of the magic home with you. I actually thought it was like a, I think it's a good utensil.

It's sort of like a diagonal spork a little bit. It's like weightier, bigger surface area. Yeah, I mean, you've seen this at Food & Wine, right? I mean, just, where'd you get this? Oh, Black Spire. Yeah, yeah. It's like instead of a pocket knife, you carry this spork from Black Spire Outpost. It's like a multi-use thing.

No, I think it's fantastic, yeah. I thought all the food was really good. The only thing we haven't done yet, and we'll do it tomorrow, is the lightsaber experience. Ah. We have a map. That seems potentially not compatible with all the other things you can't do all three of those things you can't do the you can't do the falcon the cantina and the lightsaber experience almost like they're trying to make you come back out of that time you have to buy the lightsaber at the end or is it can you just sort of see the show element i i don't know i i imagine you can

always say no right you can always say no um but i think everyone that's going in there is going in there to buy a lightsaber i think so yeah and there was plenty of people go two and a half hour long yeah but i mean it's only it's 14 groups of two every 20 minutes so what is that that's 42 people 84 people an hour that's not a lot That's a real That's your experience Hey what do you think

About listing that As an attraction I mean they're going To have to do reservations I think at some point Where it'll be like Cinderella's royal table Where you'll pay up front

Okay For your reservation You'll get the lightsaber At the end And that's how They're going to do it Because I can't imagine That everybody in that line Was in that line To buy a lightsaber and if they were god bless them

but sure but they'll cut that in the line too oh gotcha yeah do we know what that's like the highest selling merch thing yet i think it's uh uh no i've seen a lot of people the animals but i think the lightsabers at 200 bucks or pop are still i think a decent deal is are you um do you have any merchandise from theme parks or are you not a merch like collector i don't really collect anything anymore interesting i mean i think of the soda bottles here for uh derek bergen he asked me to bring some home to me sure i don't really i don't really collect stuff anymore yeah no it's the stuff that i the stuff that i have is the stuff you can't buy and i'm sort of into that do you have like that me yeah i was gonna say like

what is that like a car i gotta I can talk about it on the air. Fascinating. I didn't know you meant like experiences and love. I have things that are, that are meaningful that you can't, you can't acquire through normal channels. Interesting. Very interesting.

I mean, very small things. It's a guy in Florida, a lot of trouble for that right now. All of it, all of it's semi-legally obtained yeah if you have any of buzzy's clothes i swear yeah no no that was you have his shirt that's not is the shirt still missing i don't know i i forget i kind of followed it and then i was like yeah um

i mean the warrant is so funny um but also sad um yeah that's not the way that's that's not the way i'm going down let's put it that way not for that yeah did you notice because you were in there for a little while too did you notice them like it like nudging people out because we know not at all no didn't notice noon and we still like a photopass photographer still took a picture in front of an x-wing yeah i didn't really notice you know i think after four hours you know you you've done everything that you want to do. And I think for most people, four hours was good.

I think it was plenty of time. Yeah. Yeah. I would say so. Do you think they were putting, like, for each group, what do you, obviously, like, since there was overlap,

capacity of the land can't be the amount they're letting in every year. Oh, yeah. So we're trying to figure out how many people were in. We did a little bit of counting. We figured there was about

3,000 people in every group. Mm-hmm. Hmm. Which is less than two hours of um millennium falcon capacity uh-huh so spread that out over four hours and you have like an average 30 minute wait right which seems like it's about the average weight because i waited i waited about 45 minutes i waited about 15 minutes and i waited about five minutes right so maybe less than that maybe it's a 20 could you put 3 000 in some other like is there another like ride or area in a theme park just to like help me visualize what else what what's another place that would hold 3 000 i mean 3 000 is about the peak hourly capacity of like pirates okay and that's what you that's what you think they're letting into the whole land yeah not many i mean and that's i think that's why

it ran so smoothly and there was. And there was open space. Yeah, there's a lot of open space. If you go back where Rise is supposed to be. Right. Yeah, there was not a lot of people over there at all. In fact, that's one of the best places to go get the Coke. The Coke bottles. Ah, that's a good tip.

Yeah, that scene, that was kind of like where we ended. That's where we ended too. We were like, okay, turn around and go back. We sort of hit a choke point where it's like oh there's 30 minutes 40 minutes left the the overlap group has arrived so like dock on the they weren't letting anyone into docks oh really so i hadn't seen that okay they said like doc's too busy right now if you could come back yeah it's a small small place the milk stand wouldn't let me mobile order unless i wanted it like three hours ahead of time because i tried going back to try the green milk i don't think

they understand how mobile ordering works yeah i don't think they understand how mobile ordering works i think that yeah i think they tapped it out but i didn't want to spend the last half hour in the line in case the rumors of them going like uh no you can't buy that i see what it's 1203 yeah so but by the way did you guys do the uh the character any character encounters did you meet ray no you saw that is the best character greeting i've seen in a long time oh oh tell us i yeah i missed this entirely so normally you know disney character meet and greets you go up you meet the character or you take a picture or on your way like love and show right okay sure so sorry it's okay don't worry um but like ray will actually pull you from the group and uh guy uh was meeting ray so guy got the photo

but um she walked with guy and talked about the force and i was like i think these two are having a moment they're they're a cute couple they're really nice wow but yeah and then she turned around and they posed and took pictures but it was like an actual meaningful short little conversation they took a stroll they took a stroll walking around yeah she didn't really have a friend of Ray with her but hey she looks like Ray she acts like Ray she had all the mannerisms down that part was fantastic I went another 10 feet and hit a crowd and Chewbacca was there

with like another rebel spy guy and they're both kind of like eyeing everyone up and the crowd parts and Chewbacca comes up to me

like gets down to my level looks me in the eye for a beat and then gives me a big hug and it was like which he has done

in Launch Bay before so you remembered you yeah i guess so uh but it was moving it was like so moving like uh today but then he just keeps walking there they weren't yeah uh well he acknowledged you and yeah yeah you want him to hang out longer no i wanted to like try and get a picture but like i mean ray i guess he's got things to do yeah he's got things to do yeah he's got things to do

yeah yeah yeah responsibilities they were always he's got a starship to fly too i mean you know he's got sure they're still they were on break from building rise of the resistance they were on their union break so that's what i heard like that all the characters are actually inhabitants right and so they're just going about their day right that's the idea yeah yeah so ray was actually walking right sure and she's probably just stopping quickly yeah exactly i was on her way to somewhere else yeah we saw someone in the cantina who is oh yeah like on i just happen to remember they were on the cover the character is on the cover of a book that hasn't come out yet and i was like i think that's this but like i

found it on the amazon and i'm like that's this person and she I found it on the Amazon. I'm like, that's this person. And she's like walking around looking over her shoulder. So like, Oh, I think if you like talk to her and ask about the resistance, but like she was darting like in and out. Yeah. I didn't even see her stop, but she was like,

that's clever. Yeah. It was like, she was a little too well dressed to be maybe a civilian, but she looked exactly like the Jason pulls the book cover up on his phone. We're like, Oh yep. That was her.

Yeah. And it was a painting of a person on the cover, but yeah, but she looked exactly like the jason pulls the book cover up on his phone and we're like oh yep that was her yeah there was a painting of a person on the cover but yeah but she looked just like her yeah it looked great um so they're doing geez that's good i hope they keep doing that that's that's the kind of atmosphere stuff that we'll like to yeah i'm seeing this you know that'll give it legs beyond like yeah exactly all these things a ton of times and if they can figure out how to actually track like your progress like flying the falcon and yeah stuff like that yeah there was an art uh when i was getting rex we scott and i both bought rexes from the droid depot uh and r2 was right by uh the rex and all of a sudden r2 came to life while i was buying or really rex and then started beeping at me and i was responding to me like i would say oh hi r2 knew like like in the turn of head and then people were coming up to it and kids were coming up and hugging him and it was like everyone was just like enthralled by

this uh by r2 yeah because like supposedly they were going to do it in the full land but then it was like too busy we don't want to do it yet but that's what i heard that they they got a lot of the um the autonomous robot stuff working but then they're like somebody's gonna come over and try and push it over. I think also when I say I heard, it probably was from you, I'm guessing. Mostly when I'm saying I heard, it's from you or Jim, I think. This has happened. We probably have spent

a lot of time on our podcast ineloquently, badly reporting something that we heard from your podcast. We're not trying to pretend we have some sort of source. We're not claiming the scoops. I'm just realizing, like, you know, yeah, you guys say something succinctly, and then

we say it like, I think I remember, like. So, hey, thanks for letting us siphon this material. We're all in this together, man. We're all in this together. We've entered a fraternity. Actually, and now on that note, there's something that I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up. Okay, the three of us,

we have one podcast. You, Len, have one podcast. One podcast, right. Jim Hill, your partner in Disney Dish, has 27, I think. I believe, yes. That was my count. 27 podcasts.

Yeah, 27. Do you feel lazy in comparison? It makes us feel lazy there's uh it's such a uh time to do all this i don't know it was also what i would say is like it didn't go from one to two to three all of a sudden there was like 12 yeah it was wild in the same feed just like you're being pummeled by new podcasts every day uh uh it's it where do the words come from jim where do the words come from where do the scoops come i know i'm an introvert like i i don't talk this much yeah yeah you build it up for this and then you go then you have to cite myself up starting monday for our thursday recording sessions let's do this. Let's do this.

What's my joke today? What's my joke today? You know what? It's nice that they, you know, everybody else on all these shows, they're trying their best, but I feel like,

you know, I don't think these other co-hosts, I don't think they got that Lynn magic. I think you guys are the dynamic do-er. Everyone's very good. And I don't know. You got to stick together i want i want to say i want to see the pair uh like martin and lewis we gotta we gotta make this work absolutely they do they made it work right don't tell me yeah it worked out fine

it's three creative partnerships especially comedian duos always ends well always ends well always ends well in the history of hundreds plus years of not great comedy I can't think of his best friends yes

Laurel and Hardy yeah Emily Costello yeah no sad biopics about any of this so let's I guess let's

yeah let's say let's give our final sort of thoughts I mean there's gonna be so many thoughts and then I have a few I guess a couple questions just general theme park questions. So just feeling like overall your experience with Galaxy's Edge,

like meeting expectations. Are you thinking more analytically? Are you thinking as a fan? Are you doing all of it at once? So I'm trying to think of what the typical theme park guest is going to encounter. So if they keep the lines like they are it's it's run pretty well um you know somebody's paying 160 or whatever to get in uh i think if they see both rides uh and they get an experience like we had today i think they'll be absolutely fine with it um i expected a little bit more in terms of technology and a little bit more in terms of ride quality from this ride.

And again, I had huge hopes for it. Sure. So that's fine. I'll be interested to see what most people think of Falcon. Do you think we get another mission at some point? There are three, apparently. So we're only getting one right now. Interesting.

Oh, is that right? Well, we have one and a half. There's apparently an extra 30 seconds of footage that you can you can enable on this if you uh if you play it right whoa wow more tie fighters oh interesting when are the other ones cycle in do you have any idea the plan um yeah so it's about from what i understand it's about halfway through so at one point i uh when i was gunner i'd shot 11 tie fighters oh yeah which i think yeah it wasn't it wasn't bad yeah my second time out on a ship when i was doing pro yeah that's progress yeah that's progress um but i

think that's that if you if you do reasonably well you get uh you get more tie fighters to shoot at in the middle i see okay oh no kidding all right so that's good incentive that's a good tip for uh i could be totally wrong on that but that's what i heard yeah um so like looking for maybe they get maybe they got to crack this ride a little bit better and but once like if there's little tweaks to this thing if rise of resistance is up and running i think rise is supposed to be the big ride right yeah it's supposed to be the major thing right um so this is this is like the navi river journey of uh of galaxy's edge right and that's fine for what it is, right? It's a good ride. I thought the merch was all good.

I thought the food was better than I anticipated. The cantina was good. We'll see about the lightsaber thing tomorrow. But overall, I mean, it met expectations. Yeah, sure. I think I agree with that. What else do you want to know from Len? Well, I just, if you would ever,

we probably should do in the future, if you're ever available, a full-on kind of general interview. But I just i just my question actually was because we hear just like about history and rumors and stuff i just was wondering like what are your favorite rides at these parks like what do you like the best what is your all-time favorite ride or a few a couple you don't have to pick one like three or something so i'll give you one in each park so my uh i'll give you two in magic kingdom so pirates is the first ride i ever loved okay all right and oddly enough it's pirates in florida even though this one is far better here uh so i went on that one on tuesday um and i like splash mountain quite a bit okay i like

splash mountain because it's got sort of everything that you want in a theme park it's got a catchy song um it's a good ride. It's family friendly. The ride is long, so you can wait 45 minutes for it. And I feel like, you know, it's over in a minute and a half. Oh, it's not just done in a blink. Yeah. It's funny. And it's also very, it's a big sort of big scope ride.

Yeah. You get a big bear butt in it. Who doesn't like that? In Epcot, I think Spaceship Earth, is the is still a great ride um it needs to be updated to something else but i don't know what um do you think what do you think about those rumors of a two-year closure for spaceship earth whoa you think that's happening uh you know jim seems to think that there's gonna be an overhaul of some kind there you know it becoming a roller coaster no i don't think it will but. But we can do more with communication.

I think actually the thing that needs the most refurbishment in Epcot is the American Adventure. And I said this in the book this year. And they haven't updated any of the scenes in 40 years. But think about how our understanding of America has changed in 40 years. Yeah. How it's changed in two. In two. Wasn't going to go there. It's been a bit in 40 years. Yeah. It's changed in two. In two. Exactly. Wasn't going to go there.

It's been a bit in two years. Yeah. The last two years have been the longest decade of my life. Yeah. But yeah, but things have changed, right? And we don't think about things the same way. Entertainment doesn't end with Will Rogers. Yeah.

But you think about it, like the thing that's great about the ride is its scope, right? It's massive show sets. But it's also its it's, it's weakness because you can't update those things, right? It's, you're not going to bring down American Adventure for a year while you update two scenes, right? So I think there's that. In the studios, I don't think there's anything great, like Toy Story Mania, I think it's fine.

But a lot of the studio stuff needs to be redone. Even Tower of Terror? Tower of Terror is probably one of the best rides. But it's a very fancy drop shaft ride. Right? They do parts of it really, really well. I don't know. We'll see what happens when Rise of the Resistance opens there.

That might be my favorite ride. That's in play. Mickey Mini Railway seems like a good ride. Oh my god, I'm so looking forward to that. Have you guys seen the cartoons? Yeah, they're great. Oh yeah.

So that's a 3,600 people an hour too. I think that's going to move some people through. Hey, it should be the, it should be the highest capacity Disney ride ever built. Ever? Really? Really?

No kidding. Great. And you just framed 3000 for us. So everyone from 3,600, I think is, is what it was saying. Everyone they let into Gal let into galaxy's edge would all fit in an hour inside of an hour crazy wow yeah but i think uh i think uh mickey minnie's

runaway railway is gonna be a sleeper hit for the studios yeah yeah yeah where it's not gonna be like build in a blockbuster way like galaxy's edge but the technology is good yeah the the video uh the projection all looks good cool so i'm super excited about that that's cool and then um and animal kingdom i like uh i think kilimanjaro surprise is good um and i'm not a huge fan of flooded passage but it's done well yeah sure sure yeah there's those things you didn't ever go to hard rock park did you uh hard rock park yeah you know there was when there's a hard rock cafe theme park in myrtle beach no i miss there if you're more if you're an eagle's life in the fast lane guy or what's up on the ride guy uh i just thought i'd check uh did you miss that park

existing and i missed the entire thing existing i would think you might be interested take a look it's unbelievable unbelievable like like i can't believe i've seen this like theme park university's uh retrospective is 10 parts long. Multi-page 10-part posts. Every statue, there's a story. You have to stop and talk about every sign that was up. They had a sign that said, free air guitars. And then it was a rack that was just blank. Great stuff like that.

But it was open for, what, six months? How many months? Six months or something. Summer of 2008. Right before the financial recession and that was it yeah wow no i'll have to look at this one if only there was like in retrospect like that you had done an unofficial guide to uh to hard rock park and you just said it was 300 pages and they were all blank except for the first one that said don't go i've actually done that i've done that

ride review before it was a uh yeah there was a ride in um uh thorpe park i think in england oh and it was a ride called i think uh no exit and it was this idea that you were uh trapped in a computer virus and the sort of like imagine a really bad indoor small slow version of space mountain okay oh man with space slow i can slow that's lord of backwards space so my uh my ride review was like you know like you know what is it it's an indoor roller coaster ride when to go and i said when to go is uh if there's a lightning storm outside you've recently renounced god and there's no other shelter to find. So it's probably similar to a lot of the rides at Hard Rock Park. Yeah, it must be. I would assume.

If you guys want to do a whole, you and Jim want to do a whole Hard Rock Park series, we can help you out. We can help with ourselves experts at this point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Experience nostalgia for a place we've never been. Yeah, exactly. The chronological Hard Rock park series yes please this would be like six years to finish that seven years we were confused why it just like went away

why like it like you just didn't do one for like a couple years yeah we sort of got on the we got on the the unbuilt disney track right so have you guys seen the uh the buzz price archives over in orlando and i've heard you bring this oh my god i forget the uh but it's okay there's like there are plans for and concept art for things that were never it's like 200 moving boxes of disney history going back to pre-disneyland right right that's just fantastic research stuff i mean several moving boxes full of like the actual plans for epcot with the roof and man it was supposed to be a city with you know but they you know like here are the plans that we're giving to you know housing and urban

development or whatever you know government agency we need to talk to about this and yeah i mean they had everything planned out so if you want to go if you want to find Theme park related Memos Oh yeah Then these archives Are the place to go I mean stuff you've Never seen before Concept art you've

Never seen before That was you know That Buzz had Because he got it From the Imagineers That drew it Like I'll put this In my living room

Great Wow And the reason why It's in the archives Is apparently He had to take photos Of it for insurance purposes So the photos

The photos became Part of the archives Wow Will you be doing More of those Unbuilt I think so We have to find photos of it for insurance purposes so the photos the photos became part of the archives well well will you be doing more of those unbuilt i think so we have to find a little bit more a little bit more material but we think we have a little more we can do yeah okay yeah those are i mean those are some of my favorite things sure sure very exciting you wouldn't give that no exit uh review to anything in the in the disney realm would you i actually said uh that the disney pixar short film festival wasn't something that you sure uh you needed to go see and i mean fast

pass for that is just pulling up youtube on your that's exactly what i said i said in the book i'm like let me give you the links in the book so all of the youtube videos so you don't have to go do this right now when you're paying you know ten dollars an hour per person to be in the park please to god don't those but we we get feedback from people like oh it was my favorite part of the day in epcot let me tell you what that says about epcot lady because it doesn't say anything about the about the quality of the films right you might love all of those short films but they don't belong in that park is there what is there a most shocking thing you've like a consensus that you hear from people that shocks you like everyone loves something like that versus like what you feel or i mean generally the uh the the readers have a pretty good sense of

what's good value for money the one thing i think that like i personally disagree on and i realize this is just me so so it's not... The readers are right and I am wrong when I say this. I don't think California Grill is all that good. Oh, interesting. At the contemporary... At the contemporary in Walt Disney World. I don't think it's worth the money.

I've never had a truly fantastic meal there. Whereas if you tell me like Chico, I've had many great meals at Chico. Okay. Victoria and Albert's, of course, everyone, you can always eat good there. But like... And unlike when it used to be the top of the world now you can't see like a concert from helen reddy up there right those like they were groovy weren't they with the outfits photos yeah bright orange shag in the walls yeah and somebody was playing guitar and i was like this is why are we not doing residencies yeah yeah sure why are we yeah why are we not doing this anymore yeah yeah yeah yeah all right make it a review and that's the way we yeah get us in

there we'll do live podcasts yeah i don't think it's that it's not great gotcha okay huh all right well controversies uh abound again i say i know it's me i know it's right but generally but generally speaking you dug galaxy's edge and uh we dug talking to you about Galaxy's Edge. I appreciate it. And Len Testa, you survived Podcast the Ride. Woo! Thank you so much for doing it. And, I mean, there's so much for you to promote, but what is the main thing our listeners should leave listening to this and check out?

You can read my books. It's the Unofficial Guide series. You can get them on Amazon, Unofficial Guide. I also run touringplans.com, so when you need help planning your trip to Disney World or Disneyland, touringplans.com can help. And then listen to our podcast with

Jim Hill. It's the disneydish.bandcamp.com. One of Jim Hill's podcasts. One of Jim Hill's many, many podcasts. The first. One of the first. Number one. The flagship. The flagship, exactly. The Great Floridian of podcasts. Absolutely. Number one. The flagship. The flagship, exactly. The Great Floridian of podcasts. Absolutely.

We can agree on that. Awesome. Thanks so much, Len. Thanks. Wow. There you go. There you have it. Extra info about logistics and numbers, attendance figures.

The fencing in Disneyland, which I actually forgot to look at. No, we didn't go to the fence. We didn't drag our- Character walk-arounds that the characters are just going about their day. I thought that was very interesting. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And we got down to the bottom of the Jim Hill Media Podcast Network Consortium.

Mm-hmm. We found out a little more what's going on over there. So, a very productive visit. Very productive. Thank you to Len Testa for having us to his hotel room. Mm-hmm. His spotless, organized hotel room his spotless organized hotel room like he was there for days he was working he's the hardest working man in like theme park

very nice or whatever you would call it theme park publishing theme park analytics i think all of those things apply to him we met so many icons over these last few days jason met shubaka and we all met we all met lentesta um so i think like to wrap up like we're gonna be going obviously again what are we looking forward to now what are we gonna do which is the way what is the way to tackle it next like i will start i want to figure out what the best view of the land is. What is the most beautiful view of the land? We talk about Cars Land, that entrance over by the wharf is the most beautiful view of Ornament Valley. I'm interested now in kind of looking and seeing through the different archways and the different spots you can look at.

What's the cool view they made up obviously we know like the millennium falcon where that's parked is very very cool but like what is like the epic what's the most epic of all the views i'm interested in that i'm interested in seeing how they design that and paying more attention to like that stuff when i go there how does night impact that my next visit is at night. I'm really excited to see you at night. I was very happy with the smoked kadu ribs, but I'm also maybe going to switch next. If I eat there again,

I might switch over to the fried yip-yip. I'm going to switch over to the red, the imperial red. So give that a shot. You know, I think we've, of course, in a mega episode, we've maybe given the Falcon short end of the stick. We had some complaints.

I have a lot of very good things to say about the Falcon 2, and I'm interested to crack it better. I didn't get to pilot it, although I think I'd be terrible at it. It's hard. I think I can't write this thing off. I can't say that it's like

a just okay attraction, because the lead up is so fantastic uh um and i think there's a way to make that to get more accustomed to it for it to be a little less stressful and to maximize your falcon experience and if what lynn says is true and there are future expeditions coming i just i want to end up loving the falcon and i think i think i will yeah i think that's right i want to give a shout out to the cast member who the one time we did the falcon um and kind of banged it up a bit and the lights were like glitching on purpose as we were leaving we said wow we really uh did a

number of the falcon and the cast member was coming from backstage area without missing a beat went you did what to the falcon like hondo is not gonna be happy like played played the reality wow oh yeah and there was that also uh just i forgot to mention there was a cast member who was we were walking he goes all right beat lilo the first order here so don't do it like he was really did a very good um sort of fun little bit there so that's great i have to say yeah i i feel like i barely scratched the surface on treats and eats uh i want to walk around more and i think a thing to do while i walk around i didn't really fiddle with the play disney parks data pad experience but there's a lot of stuff to scan um yeah yeah one of the summer who we were with was doing it a lot more and she had

like by the end gotten a reputation gotten weapons and clothing i so like i think there's a lot there's a lot of frequencies you can tune into she was like texting with hondo she was texting with hondo and uh it seems like the the quote-unquote when your reputation follows you is they're kind of tracking it through bluetooth it asks you to have bluetooth on the whole time so that way you can go into things um because we were speculating because the one time the last time we went back one of the times we went back to the falcon we got like a different video where they're like you're back yeah uh which they may have figured that out through bluetooth so i'm curious about that right right um i you know it's maybe a good next goal for me i did my morning wine uh in the in the cantina i want to see what happens if you

get kicked out of the cantina like because my next slot is the end slot. It's 8 to 12 p.m. I want to see if I won't leave. If I say, keep them coming. More frog eggs, please. More frog egg juice. I'm not getting out of here. If I make a scene, will somebody pick me up and throw me out? I wonder. I wonder what would happen if you did that at Carthay.

Whatever would be much different. It might be less comical yeah they'll send out that that big tall 40s goofy uh that singer with the blackjack yes with his big comical blackjack that is practical yeah um what i want to look at and i don't know that i will purchase it but i just need to take a look at that gold bust of Plo Koon. The Sith character Plo Koon that supposedly is sold in Dakondar. Yeah. I got to take a look at it.

I shouldn't buy it, but my irony poisoning makes me want it. It's the other prequel item. There is a Mace Windu one, too, I think. Yeah, fuck Mace Windu. I want Plo Koon. Famous prequels character that there is a mace windu one too i think yeah fuck mace windu i want famous prequels character plo coon and i want to take a look at it and i want to assess it i don't know how much it is do we know how much it is uh no i think we can find out though i bet we can't find out i think people have been cataloging every item for sale you know what i actually don't want it i'm going very soon i don't want to know i want to figure it out let the force guide you i'll see if the force low coon if the force tells me to

purchase plow coon i may we'll see we'll see what will happen something tells me it might your midichlorian counts strong enough i'm curious to see what happens though because the next few weeks with the reservations there are time slots where there's a two-hour crossover with the different two different parties as opposed to one hour i'm curious to see how that affects everything we'll see i guess we'll hear about it i i would think if anything was going to go bad it would have been this weekend and it seems like this weekend went great yeah wow it certainly did for us personally and i hope it was great for you to listen to us have a good time in a place that you maybe couldn't get to.

I hope listening to it was just as fun as being there. Yeah. I can tell you that it wasn't. That's the number one thing I can see. Like, I'm still, I've been watching videos ever since we left. Videos don't tell you. It's all that stuff. It's atmosphere. It's sounds. It smells. Watching that ride doesn't tell you it's it's all that stuff it's atmosphere it sounds it smells uh

watching that ride doesn't tell you because like okay they're like are the graphics like is it a little video gamey on the ride once in a while sure but you don't you have like the feeling of hitting a button and then you like it you hit a button and then the whole thing shakes in a crazy way or that it's you you're making it all happen yeah yeah yeah you got a whole another level yeah from just seeing because i saw like um i won't say who was already trying to make the millennium falcon ride a disaster of our friends you won't say which podcasting which pot which peer one luminary one partner one which ip hating podcaster let's call him a d boy like i don't want to be specific here but which one imagine what that stands for

stuck in development how he sees a person uh development system that's what we'll say but he was already trying to sort of paint that as a as a big disaster and i did say like if you watch the video there's a lot more glare on the falcons like screen cockpit and i was like i can see where you like it looks maybe a little cheapy but it really it being in there is a much different experience let's remember too that is technically the d ticket ride the e ticket isn't even open yet there's a whole other ride insane we need to yeah remember that a whole and a whole copy of this land coming to florida yeah uh yeah and florida people were here watching how everything was going so they can that's their little cheat sheet so presumably florida will

also go smooth yeah once that right i i keep forgetting that there's oh the best part of it isn't open yeah i thought like times a supposedly, the best part is not open yet. And I can't, like, I kind of like that they didn't open it yet. I kind of like that we got more. It is kind of fun. If you're going to get me to renew my pass, my pass is going to be up. Am I going to not go on that ride? There's no way you can't.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. They got me. I'm so screwed. We're all going gonna spend so much goddamn money we already have like yeah yeah it's uh we'll get to see how all this architecture holds up to hurricane uh conditions when the florida version opens kind of in the middle start of hurricane season oh no it's all gonna blow away um it's all going to blow away and then rearrange itself.

Spires are millennia old, so hopefully they withstand. Hopefully they stand strong. Well, hey, folks, you survived podcast The Ride, supersized Galaxy's Edge edition, almost as long as a window of time in which you could be in the land. Now, if you have, we called for questions on twitter and we couldn't fit them into this episode but head over to patreon.com slash podcast the ride and we will put up we are do we'll do a a podcast the right post office devoted to your questions

and anything that we missed uh about galaxy's edge uh and keep throwing questions at us because we'll probably we're hey we're gonna milk galaxy's edge we're gonna blue milk it for all of the content that we possibly can uh and uh regular stuff too i was just saying that episode's gonna be up wednesday yeah yes so yeah look more right away and then we're heading to uh hopefully see some of you at our live show at our hundredth episode oh my god yeah there's a few tickets left so if you're hearing this and you want to go and maybe on the fence i would buy now because there's only a couple left give it a shot no promises but uh yeah yeah i think i mean i should check but maybe you might smuggle some tickets out of the DynastyTypewriter.com. And yeah, but otherwise, we'll see you there.

And that'll be out on Monday. And boy, a bunch of fun stuff. Gentlemen, it's been great. Yes, it has. It's been as fun as riding a caddy. Yeah. May not bright suns. We have to say the spires.

May the spires keep you. Or yeah. Okay. I think. I think you're right. May the force be keep you. Or, yeah. Okay. I think. I think you're right. May the force be with you. Bye. All right.

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