Disney World/Travel News April 2023

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[1:07] Welcome back to another meeting of the Gold Key Adventurers Society.
My name is Dan Leonard. Hi Dan. Joining me this week in the studio is Heather Strait.
Hello. And Mr. Jeff Williams. Hey, that's me.
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It's been a while since we had a good old fashioned news roundup.
Yeehaw! Oh, strap in, it's time to take a look at all the latest, greatest and weirdest stuff that's been going on in the world of travel and theme parks.
And then laugh as I fumbled to improvise a decent segue between stories.
Did you say strap on?
No, I said strap in. I knew that you were going to say that.
Yeah, I knew that. It's literally my job. Yes, that's what we keep you around for.
Our first story is coming in hot. I get it.
That's what we keep you around for our first story's coming in hot.

[2:18] Yeah, that darn old dragon at Disneyland's Fantasmic show was recently destroyed by a massive fire.
Engulfed in flames. Yeah. Yeah, that was intense. Yeah, it was bad.
You can see in one of the videos that circulated on the tickety-tock, you can see before it goes up that there was definitely fuel leaking from a line somewhere back in the dragon's head.
You can see it spray. Like the fuel burned, but then you could see liquid continuing to squirts the next time that igniter went boom He was covered in fuel two out of two Maleficent dragons.

[2:58] Consumed by fire Yeah, although it wasn't so bad when it was that Dizzy world because that steampunk Maleficent is mostly metal and it just burned up the head, Yeah, I think that's kind of what happened to this one, too. It's all draped in plastic he stuff Yeah, I mean, this one, the skeletons still there, but it melted half the body away.
It was bad. And also I found I don't have, there's not a link in this article that I have, but I saw another tick tock or is a video on Twitter where some guests were on Splash Mountain and they come around the bend in one of the outside segments and they see the smoke coming up and oh my God, what's going on?
And then they get around to the front and it's just hellfire raising out of Tom Sawyer's Island.
Yeah, it was really a spectacular show. I'm actually surprised it didn't look worse the next day because there's so much of that the dock area and barrels.
There's a lot of wood right around there. Maybe it's actually stone and made to look wood or something, because I'm surprised none of that went up in flames.
I think they also watching some of the videos, it looked like they started firing some of the fountains a little extra to.

[4:09] Wet things down there to prevent the spread of fire.
So how long before no more fire at Disney parks?
No, they've already said that.
Yeah, but not all of it. Actually the fire is still going to be present in Disney World's Fantasmic, because I guess they say they do it differently there. And also that show would really suck without the whole finale, the show would be awful.
The only thing at Walt Disney World that's going away is the fire from the Maleficent dragon in the in the parade. They are going to stop doing that.
Interesting. At least for now, until they make sure that they can figure out a way to do it.
I saw this article that said Disney suspends fire effects globally after a phantasmic incident out of abundance of caution.
So it's temporary, but maybe they're going to reexamine every one of their fire.
But I mean, meanwhile, every Broadway show and kiss concert across the world is shooting fire all day long with mostly no incident.

[5:11] If Gene Simmons can manage it, that's right. Fantasmic show at Disneyland has always had that fire for, you know, one show a day for years and years to even some days.
Yes. There's just, you know, something went wrong.
Yeah. You got to reexamine that one and figure out. Had Elon Musk recently reengineered it?
I mean, it's definitely though it's going to be quite some time before that is.
Yeah. Back up and running.
I'm sure that, you know, it's they don't have a spare gigantic dragon puppet out back that they can drag out.
My favorite meme was somebody had a who wore it best.
I put the two Maleficents on fire.
I think Disneyland wins that one. Disneyland definitely won.
It was definitely more spectacular. And did you see in the video when it was happening, Mickey is out there, dance around and doesn't notice at first. Yes. And then all of a sudden notices and just stops and is staring up at the dragon.
What the hell do I do now? You gotta run, Mickey. You have to run.
Yeah. That was very good, though.
I liked that. And then the lights go down and you see him scurrying away.
All about show out there. Yeah.
That was good. It wasn't good. I'm sorry. It wasn't good.
I'm sorry to say that Murphy the dragon.
Well, more.

[6:39] So. It would have been exciting to see, though, for sure.

[6:43] Now that I know in hindsight that no one was hurt. Right.
Yeah. Then it's great. The next hot story that we have, we might have to cut.
It's pretty hot out by the time this episode releases.
While Disney World annual passes went back on sale April 20th, Shockingly, five days later, all four passes remain on sale, which they had here that the launch went spectacularly smoothly, right?
Oh, yeah. It was easy to get through. It was great.
I they said, OK, they were intentionally vague and I should have known that they wouldn't be ready when I thought they would be ready.
They said sales passes would be on sale no earlier than six a.m.
So I set my alarm to be up so that I could get on site at 6am to try to be on there early and get it taken care of quickly.
They didn't start selling them until 6.45am. Fortunately they went straight to doing the virtual queue instead of the cluster that happened when they did the DVC passes a couple weeks ago.
I was immediately given over an hour wait time. By the time I got into the page where I could actually buy the pass, I got everything into.

[8:06] My crate, my cart, your cart, yeah, into the shopping cart. I was trying to go to the page to complete the purchase and the site crashed.
And apparently everything was down for everybody for a while.
They decided to to bring the annual passes out on a day that they did a dining promo for UK, guests at the same time.
So I'm sure that didn't help. So I had the pass in my cart, but it kicked me out and put me back in the queue.
Oh, fun.
Yeah. It said that my wait time was estimated to be more than an hour.
I finally got back in to be able to purchase at 3 p.m., which means I waited for nine and a half hours.
Nine and a half hours.
Yeah. Three thirty was when I was able to get in. It was ridiculous.
And he's on a minute by minute plan for.

[9:02] Yeah, it was rough. I mean, once I finally got in, it worked fine.
They did put out a message that afternoon that they expected some tiers of the pass to sell out soon, but then they never did. And then they're still on sale as of April 25th.
Yeah, as of April 25th, they're still all available. So that was an interesting.
I'd love to know their target number of. Same. Yeah.
And why now was the time to bring it back? to make it easier for out-of-state people to visit since their sales are a little low.
Yeah, and that's the thing, this right now attendance at all the theme parks is down right now.
It's just, it's been on fire for the last two years because literally it's where people were willing and able to go if they didn't want to jump through any of the COVID hoops.
So it's, attendance has been really strong and it's down a bit.
I mean, we've been expecting that. Well, plus with their woke agenda, tails are down once you cave to the woke mob.
That's right.
You go broke. I don't think they're going broke any time soon, but the crowds are definitely back to pre-pandemic levels.

[10:23] So they did say, you know, they expect someday, eventually, maybe to sell out, but that also they do plan on bringing them back for sale more frequently than they have recently.
So I guess that's good news. Yeah. And we know, we certainly know there was demand of the DVC folks broke it when it went on on sale for them.
And there were people waiting hours and hours.
But you could have waited a couple of days and not waited at all.
The amount of people that dropped their passes.
I never we just kept ours. Mm hmm.
And that's the thing, too. I think that they knew they definitely knew what they were doing.
They made people worried that they were going to sell out right away.
And when they had no intention of actually make it seem scarce and more people will get in there and get it.
The mouse is good at that. Marketing 101. Mickey has a marketing degree, that's for sure.
Yeah, that is for sure. Team University did Mickey Mouse go to UCF?
I'll have to ask him next time I'm down there. He often has a big M on his shirt.
Maybe he went to the University of Michigan.
Gross.
Oh, we lost our Michigan listener.
Wait, we only have one to two hours.

[11:45] How does that math work? I got a confession to make. You don't listen.
You're from Ohio. With the sound turned off, I turned the sound off, set it to 2X speed and play the episode. So I get credit for a listen.
Oh, I just started cheating, Dan. Hey, every little bit helps.
It's officially halfway to Halloween. As we go to press right now and Disney is full of news.
They've been trotting it out slowly over the last week or so.
Trotting it out. Did you see the epic party they threw for influencers to launch this?

[12:24] Yeah, that was, well, I'm a little jealous that I'm not an influencer.
What a weird excuse for the most incredible party anyone's ever seen.
So if you didn't see the stories on this, they threw an incredible party in the Haunted Mansion and it spilled out all into that area around the Haunted Mansion, right?
There was some stuff. And all the way out into the transportation to get to the park from the TTC, they had the haunted boat and all this.
What in the world?
Yeah, and then they did. It looked epic.
They did, on the riverboat, they had appetizers out there and then they brought them into the stretching rooms for the main part of the party.
It looked killer and I want it.
They had people out there from costuming to give them makeup if they hadn't provided their own costume and makeup for the party.
The guests you mean? Yeah. Oh, the influencer guests.
Oh, Park, what do you think a party like that costs?
80 bucks. Oh, I think it was more.

[13:31] But we've had some pretty mid parties that were like one hundred fifty dollars a person just for a buffet.
So I'm thinking this is this was hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Oh, I think certainly more than a million.
Yeah, certainly.
It's a good thing those influencers are.

[13:49] Oh, don't get me started. Yeah, it certainly makes the news, though.
So publicity is the goal.
You know, I want it on the news, too, and whatever. Yeah. But anyway, so, yeah, they definitely kicked off halfway to Halloween, which I didn't realize is a thing.
Yeah, neither did I. Has that been a thing at Disney before? I don't recall this.
Never this big. Apparently it started off as just like a thing that a way to announce the Halloween party sales. right?
Yeah, but even before that, apparently it was a thing that like weirdos at the campgrounds were doing just as an excuse to decorate and have fun at the campgrounds.
Oh, got it. Yeah, it was the one time of year they didn't know how to decorate their dumb golf carts.
Yeah.
So, I guess at the campground kind of started it from what I understand and it's taken off.

[14:41] To be a big marketing thing, but they used it to announce that sales for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party are going on sale very soon. Very, very soon.
Did they have the full party last year? They did. Yeah, they did.
They're acting like it's back. Like I saw all the articles were like, it's coming back.
Didn't we do this? Yeah, they do that every year, like as if there is any doubt.
Like anyone's surprised that their biggest moneymaker is returning.
Right. They do the same thing with their Epcot customers. I think last year was last year.
The first last year was the first of the that party back the year before.
They did just after those after hours. Yeah.
Yes. Select dates starting in, Jesus, August 11th. night starting August 11th.

[15:25] Through November 1st, Magic Kingdom is going to have Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.
They didn't really announce anything that sounded like it was new or different.
So it's going to be same stuff like my granny always told me if it isn't broke, doesn't fix it. That's right.

[15:41] Yes. Wedge chefs. The Boo to You Halloween Parade. They're going to have I do love that. Spectacular.
Yes. Everdans trick-or-treating, the Sanderson Sisters Hocus Pocus Villain Spectacular is going to be back.
Also during the party, guests may have the opportunity to experience some of their favorite attractions including Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Trump.
Are they going to do, did they make any mention of the way they usually do Space Mountain during the Halloween party? Yeah, black out Space Mountain.
Black out, black out something. They have not actually officially announced that yet.
That's cool and scary. Yeah, I would like to try that.
I haven't been to the party in years, I should go again.
My favorite thing is sweating through a costume in August 11th.
That's why you need to play in your costume accordingly. Go as Maui next time.
Oh, good idea. A leaf skirt. Yes, perfect. Yeah.
One big announcement that they did, it wasn't a fun announcement, more of a tease that they had as part of this rollout, they showed a bunch of merch, they showed a bunch of the treats and snacks that they're going to have.
But they also teased again the return of the Hatbox Ghost. Yes.
Well, that's a return for the first time ever.
He will be materializing at the Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion. Yes.

[17:03] So he returned to Disneyland after many years. Was that last year or the year before?
A year before, I think.
It's been a little bit. He's been back for a little bit. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So they tease that, again, that he's coming back.
They did mention that at 2020. Oh, wow. It was 2015 that he returned to Disneyland.
Yeah, I was thinking he'd been there for a while. Before this show.
I thought it was, I didn't think it was that long ago.
Getting old. They finally figured out how to make the effect work.
So let's put him back.
Right. That's right. They also just today, they debuted. It's not that huge and exciting I'm going to go take a shower.

[17:41] As the Hatbox Ghost, but there's a new lighting effect in the Haunted Mansion. In the graveyard scene, there's a hearse that's crashed in the background and they added flickering lantern lights inside the hearse so you can see it more and it makes that part of the scene look more lively.
Expect a small refurb downtime for them to install hatbox ghost or is it have not yet announced. They wouldn't have to go down to install. Right and I believe at Disneyland they didn't either. They rearranged the attic and put up they put, up some curtains while they were working on the area but they kept the doors like rolled. They worked on it behind those velvety drapes because it's just in that one. I I don't know it's a little bit different at world than land where because there's not that platform where or just before you go out, So yeah, I don't know how they're gonna do it But I think they're gonna have to rearrange the attic scene a little bit. They'll put in the Navi lady to distract you.

[18:45] Yeah, they have a ton of merch this year and a lot of good stuff for Halloween and they love a spirit Jersey There's ten different Halloween spirit jerseys released for this thing. Have y'all been to Florida? It's hot down there I'm not walking around in a thick sweatshirt.
Also, they're not very flattering on most people, but everyone loves them, especially ladies who love walking around in leggings.
Well, it's long enough to hide your big, fat ass is what people think, so.
You're supposed to buy them like six sizes too big, right?
Yeah. Yeah, that's good. So yeah, keep an eye out for that and talk to your Key to the World travel planner for help purchasing tickets for that event and planning the rest of your trip around that it.

[19:26] Briefly touched on this maybe a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about EPCOT, but those harmonious barges are not only being removed, but they are being scrapped with a vengeance right there on Walt Disney World property.
You can see photos of that. They should use that metal structure to rebuild the dragon at Disney Land.
Oh, there you go, yeah.
And they have officially removed the Stargate from the center, so we were curious if that was happening or not, but that's gone.
And you can see, there's aerial photos of the marina nearby where they stage those things and they are cutting them apart and scrapping them.
That was an expensive show for its, what, 18-month run? I really loved that show.
It caught a lot of crap because of how ugly it was when the show wasn't running, but I just loved the show.
I wish they could have figured out how to have those things come up out of the water or go back or, yeah, move them in and out like they did with the ball.
Yeah, that's I love the idea of all of the world music versions of all the songs from the films.
It was much better than just shoehorning in every movie song in its normal version like they do.
Yeah, it had a really great moving message.

[20:43] And it was good. I love that show. Speaking of things that that Disney is spending, and spending a metric butt load of money on, they're getting ready to drop a little cash at the Magic Kingdom.
A few bucks. Did they say specifically Magic Kingdom on that we're gonna spend $14 billion thing?
Billion dollars. A lot of it is Magic Kingdom.
I believe that the way Iger put it was that it was investment at Disney World.
Yeah.

[21:12] Given the teases of Beyond Big Thunder, I think a lot of it, we assume will go back there.
For anyone listening, you we've all talked about this, but all of Universal's epic universe by Universal is cost.
That's an entire third gate for them. And that's costing $1 billion.
That's bananas that they're going to spend like 14 at 14 billion, 17 billion.
And they plan to hire 14,000 people.
Right? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Even more money.
Yeah. And that's the thing. They're getting ready to bring a whole bunch back.
They're going to need them for for that beyond Thunder, Big Thunder Land.
There's been a lot of Turner's Mad Max is beyond Thunder.
Right. There's been a lot of speculation about what that's going to look like.
I think some of it's more accurate than others.
I still don't think that they're going to take all of Frontierland down to Nolens.
I hope that makes sense to me.
There's been a bunch of rumor articles about.

[22:17] The country bears going bye bye for it. I just.

[22:23] But yeah, the one I've read sounds like a redo of country bears with updated animatronics.
And that I could get behind for sure. I just don't think with how far Frontierland expands away from Splash Mountain and the flow of Liberty Square into I think I don't think they can take that little corner area that has the tortugas that flows into the thing as a dead space between Adventureland and Frontierland.
Anyway, they could dress that up New Orleans style and turn the whatever that dumb burger place.
What is it called? Take those bills. Take those bills.
Turn that into Tiana's thing and put a beignet window where the Fry Shack used to be.

[23:06] Mm hmm. Something like that. There's a little bit of dead space there.
They could put some front.
And then that could gracefully fade into, you know, one building has the wrought iron balconies and then it changes back into fades gracefully into frontier land. Right.
And there's there's plenty of space in that kind of courtyard area in front of the splash mountain and blending on back to big thunder. So I think that corner, like you said, makes more sense than to take the entirety of it all the way down.
Because it goes nicely into Liberty Square the way they change it a little by little. Right.
And that's the whole point of the land is it's you're supposed to be traveling slowly back in time or forward in time, I should say.
Sometime in time. Right. Yes. and.

[23:55] There's talk about potentially opening up a path past the Haunted Mansion. I love that idea.
If they did a river walk thing that went around back there and then that tied in with, I guess, they're talking, suggesting that would tie into Villains Land, which Villains Land, Heather, and I drove around the back of that thing.
We have a storage unit that's back behind the Magic Kingdom.
And we went back on an access road that you don't normally see in the public.
There is just a ton of room back behind there.
So much space. That's all already Disney and it's mostly just land.
There's a little bit of utility stuff back there, but they actually have a lot more land back there than you would think.
Some of it right now is nature preserve. But I think what they have done a lot of times is they, when they build on something. New wetland. Yes, exactly.
They take over some of their other property and recategorize that as wetland or nature preserve.
And then just moving around the preserved land.
Yeah, it's funny how they do that. They did that a lot with.

[24:59] Yes. I mean, every project they have to reallocate wetland space to different areas and stuff.
But so there's definitely a space back there. So you can see how.
But I'm also curious, like you said, you know, with what Universal is spending on Epic Universe.
What else does this 17 billion dollars represent? I think they're going to build another park.
I mean, it's so much.
And they also just I forget the deets of it, but there was some filing that they just did that sounded like maneuvering to get another park on started because of the way some tax thing worked.
Something was like they had to make some move to make a park possible by a certain time or they'd lose that ability.
So so we're officially speculating possibly maybe Fifth Gate.
I would love it. Don't you think? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, where do we think they would, that it would go?
They've got so much space. In one of the hundreds of millions of acres.
Right. I mean, the thing is, though, that they have other things that they need to do.

[26:07] After they finish Epcot, I assume part of that money is going to go towards some of the changes they announced. Blue Sky projects for Animal Kingdom.
Honestly, Hollywood Studios isn't done. It needs something. It's so landlocked now, though. They keep doing that. They bought all this land and then put like.

[26:25] Essentially, they're not they're privately owned, but they're essentially interstates right up to the back of all of their parks. It's like weirdly, purposely landlocked themselves.
Strange. Yeah. Disneyland, it makes sense because it, they built up around the Landy end, but at World he did all this to avoid that and then did it to himself.
There are still a lot of sound stages and offices back over there that I don't believe are being used anymore for sound stages that they could take that.
Also, that was taken up by Star Warsville. Yeah.
But isn't there space behind Star Warsville that they could be adding more Star Warsville?
Yes, there is still space there.
They also have Launch Bay and behind there, that whole area over there by Launch Bay and Little Mermaid and all that stuff needs to be something.
If they're not pretending it's a working studio anymore, they could just clear out all of that. Absolutely.
They've already, the Disney Junior meet and greets, like, almost like they need to maybe do some sort of kitty, true kitty land that's more of a play area.
Yes. Or something. I don't know.
Yeah, small rides like they have at Disneyland Paris. That's all essentially kiddie rides, but well themed and that being close to Toy Story land would make perfect sense.

[27:48] Yeah, I mean, there's been speculation about that area going to other Pixar properties besides Toy Story back to Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy.
All that stuff could also tear that out. or something.

[28:04] Yeah, something worthwhile. Well, 17 billion dollars is just so much.
If they did a refurb on every single ride and added a new land to every park, that's still not that much. Yeah, it's so, so, so much money.
I think you're going to see I mean, maybe we'll finally see monorail improvements, especially now that the state of Florida is saying we're going to come in and inspect the monorail for you and force you to shut it down while we're inspecting it regularly.
There was a bulk, an entire brand new hotel project that got axed, maybe we can see something on that front.
Yeah. And there's been a lot of rumor of the Epcot Hotel right there by the entrance. Yep.
The Epcot Hotel also, they're going to be refurbing, they're going to be turning, I'm assuming it's not all, but some of the cabins at the campsite are going to be DVC cabins.
I was going to bring that up when you mentioned the cabins and people decorating their goofy carts. Yeah.
They're redoing all of those cabins eventually. They'll be in the same footprint, but they look real modern and cool and they'll have much better amenities.
Of course, everybody cries about it because they, I don't know why, but they'll, they will now be DVC properties, which you can still rent them as a consumer.

[29:26] Just because it's a DVC doesn't mean you have to be a DVC owner to partake.
My favorite resort that I stay in all the time is Riviera.
It's DVC and I'm a DVC owner. It says it's projected to open in late 24.
So that's a pretty quick turnaround on this. I don't know.

[29:44] How many of those cabins they have, but I guess they could just build one and then build it.
Yeah, they can do that one at a time for sure. Or even if they shut down an entire cabin loop and worked on them all. They look modular too, like they are, those units they can build off site and drop right onto the footprint.
Oh yeah, like the contemporary. Go slide in like a drawer. Yeah, chest of drawers. The Polly is also built that way, but nobody celebrates that on the Polynesian. It's all the contemporary gets all the hype. It was first made. Yeah.

[30:19] Or it wasn't simultaneous. Let's just go with me being right.
That's always the best policy for me. You're humble employee. Speaking of Splash Mountain and, Tiana's Bayou Adventure, we have a closing date for Disneyland Splash Mountain. It's going to be closing late May, specifically May 30th of 2023.
And the story lame storyline is still lame. Storyline is still lame.
Yes. I can't wait to see the Bayou Adventure while Tiana shops at the market co-op.
Although they did release some concept art from it. And I guess.
The rabbit and the vultures at the top of the hill are going to be replaced by what's her name, Mama Odie.
I don't know why she's sending you over the edge. We like her.
Yeah, I don't know. How is it that we all thought of the perfect thing to happen?
Everyone but the Imagineers.
Yes, come on. Because they killed him off and then they had to decide, well, let's make the storyline after the movie everyone loves.
So who thought a ride based on what happens next was a good idea?
This is what Star Wars ruined. Instead of putting us in the movies we love, they write some dumb original story.
No, here's what it is. They overcorrected.
They said, okay, we're redoing this because of all of the problems with Song of the South. And so they went...

[31:46] They try to make it like as inoffensive and see, this makes me sound like I'm on the go go broke side, but like, which we're not.
But no, you can go to, you can overcorrect because that movie in and of itself is a great film.
Just make it about that actual story. I think they were afraid of too much singing, dancing, New Orleans.
Yeah, I don't know.
Which becomes a little could be accused of being a caricature.
Now she's a businesswoman. Co-op is stupid.

[32:21] Yeah, but that are you ready? And New Orleans is full of voodoo.
It should have been that guy. Are you ready? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So but nobody thought the Winnie the Pooh ride should be set after Winnie the Pooh graduates from tax account at school, although don't say that too loud.
You're going to give somebody ideas. Winnie the Pooh, Esquire.
Yes, when his name is Winn-a-synth-a-feces, henceforth I will be unable to ken.
I'm sure it'll be a fun ride, and the drop mechanics and all that stuff are there, but you've got all these great songs that already exist, and let's write all new ones about, you know, her owning a business.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know how many of the sequels to animated features you've watched that have gone direct to video, they're rarely good.

[33:19] So I did like Lion King one and a half. That was clever. That was a clever idea.
That was a good idea. There's a handful. Yeah, it was like the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead version of Lion King.
Very good point.
I never thought of it that way. That was incredibly highbrow. Wow.
Quick, make another poop joke.
Oh yeah.
So some lucky guests on an Adventures by Disney expedition to the Arctic Circle this coming, this July, July 10th or 19th.
They are super lucky. They're going to be joined by Joe Rohde himself.
Did they not know this when they purchased?
I don't know.
This was added later. That's so cool if you just happen to be doing that.
And there are still spots left.
So not full yet. Yeah, so call up the world travel now because that sounds amazing you're going to join former, Imagineer Joe Rodia varying officiate. That's right. That's right I wonder what he'll add to his ear for this trip to the Arctic Circle. Isn't that way does he add something with?

[34:26] Yeah, he's a creative genius who's behind pretty much all of animal especially Pandora, But he had his hands on the Guardians ride at Disneyland, the redo there.
He just did that whole thing. Yeah.
So he's, and he does a lot of.
A lot of in-depth research and adventuring and exploring the world to help come up with the background for these attractions. He's an interesting fella.
He's just a great storyteller too. Very engaging. I would love that.
I tried to convince my family that's what we should do for summer vacation and I was, shut down. Your family sucks.
Your family's tubers. Polar bears and Joe Ruddy. Come on. Right?
I say this with the utmost affection for my husband, being part of you and your family.
Yeah, he's going, the trip starts in Svalbard. Norway.
I would love to see Norway. You go to Svalbard. You do go to Svalbard.
And then you get on a Penant Expedition cruise.
I love Penant. It's a beautiful ship.
Yeah. They're amazing ships. Heather's been on them. We've heard all about those.

[35:50] Spend seven days bored cruising around the Arctic Circle. Looking for polar bears.
Yeah. Joe Rohde will be leading some sessions that he will just share stories.
That would be so cool.
Whatever. Talk about cool stuff. And there's Joe Rohde.
Yeah. No kidding. The first time he hooked up with a bear.
Not the last time. Something tells me you don't come out here just for hunting.
It's my favorite Gilbert Gottfried joke.
I can't share it live on air, though. The expedition starts at a cool $13,799 per person.
Yeah. Yeah, but all of your food and all of your beverages are all included.
You would think so. It's a bargain.

[36:39] Right. Plus, you know, you're going way up to the Arctic where a single igloo hotel room can set you back a quarter of a million dollars for a night, as we've reported in the past.
So and that again is July 10th through July 29th.
I mean, so also, wait a second. Is that right?
Is the 10th through the 29th? Is the 10th through the 19th? There's a typo in this story.
It's the 10th through the 19th. It's the 10th through the 19th, and contact the Global Travel Agent if you're interested in jumping on the Joe Rohde action.
Yeah, that scenario already looked amazing, and now you've got Joe Rohde on there.
Glad to see I'm doing something with Disney.

[37:24] Yeah, wasn't he supposed to be going to outer space with one of the Bond villains?
Was he with the Branson?
I cannot remember which Bond villain, but yes. Certainly not Bezos.
I thought it was Blue Origin, yeah.
Yeah, it was. Which I... That's too bad. He's my least favorite of...
No, he's my second least favorite of the Bond villains.
Yeah, that's too bad.
He's my least favorite of, no, he's my second least favorite of the Bond villains.
He used to be my most, my least favorite, but now Elon Musk has surpassed that with his supreme douchery.
Yeah, his titter nonsense.
So anyway. That one, come on. Did you see that?
He had the W painted over in his corporate headquarters sign.
What? So that Twitter, Twitter corporate headquarters, he had the W painted over white so that it reads kidder because he's a child.
Yes. Wow.

[38:25] Yeah. Anyway, this is a quick one. The capture your moment photo sessions at at Magic Kingdom.
They've expanded the locations that you can visit so that now you can have your photos.
It originally was just.
It would take you to spots around Cinderella Castle. Now you can go out into fantasy land.
Some of the venues that you can choose from include the backside of the castle, Prince Charming, sorry, Prince Charming, Regal Carousel, Rapunzel's Tower, Prince Eric's Castle, the Entrance to Storybook Circus, the Belle and Maurice's Cottage outside the Beast's Castle and more.
So you're guaranteed at least one spot for your session.
Usually you end up visiting a few spots for your photo shoot.
This would be a lot of great spots.
Yeah, they do a good job. That'll be. Yeah.
Yeah. Those photo shoots are phenomenal. I'll link to an article we've got about the experience of that of of that package.

[39:33] Are you saying you experienced a package? Yes, I did experience the capture your moment package.
And and yeah, it's great to see more locations, more options for photos.
Make it special to you.
I think I've figured out some of the money they may be spending.
Some of that 17 billion might be.
Used to put in more cameras and security at the Remy ride at Epcot.
Just got rogue on the script here. There was a news item this week.
Epcot this week. Yeah, we're going there.
Yeah, we're going there. We're going to touch on this one. All right.
There were two incidents at Epcot this week. There were two incidents.
This is a headline that I just had. It was a scroll stopper.
Man arrested after watching porn, masturbating, smoking and then vaping on Remy's Ratatouille adventure in Epcot.
How long is this ride? This ride is not that long.
That's so many activities. Maybe he was doing all of that at the same time.
And allegedly, does he have arms like Ganesh? How could he do all of this?

[40:46] I just feel awful for anybody that might have been in the car near him or with him even. Yeah.
Yeah. This happened at the end of March. From the report, at approximately 8.40 p.m., this person, or no, a cast member, asked the guest to stop touching his genital area through his pants.
And then he lit up a cigarette, causing the ride to stop.
They stopped the ride and made an announcement over the loudspeaker that smoking is not permitted.
So then he put out a cigarette and began vaping instead and then started touching himself again.
I'm thinking this guy might have had too much drinking around the world.
I think so. Probably the same as the other incident that happened in Epcot where the parents that were accompanying.
Yes. Oh, yeah. You cut me off before I got to say the word ejaculation. Oh, I'm so sorry.
Was there, did he finish?

[41:48] Did this occur? Yeah, from the police report. A few minutes later, they observed the subject viewing pornography on his cell phone.
The subject continued to masturbate until ejaculation and later exited the cart at approximately 21.5 miles.
Oh, there it is. Yeah. This one is a little less offensive.
It was some possibly over-served adults who were accompanying a cheer team to competitions who decided that they were hot and tired and they were just going to climb in the fountains and use them like a swimming pool.
I mean, I have thought of that.

[42:22] They're Canadian, so I'm wondering, like, is that the norm in Canada?
I did see a comment on the original TikTok that shared that said, oh, in Canada, that's just normal. We use the fountains like that.
It's like yeah, okay, but you're not in Canada. I have seen that like in Chicago and places. There's kids in fountains and yeah, But not grown-ups not drunk. Yeah, they were just late. They're just laying there I'm in the fountain and we're just laying there and I, Was real close to putting my feet in the fountain one time at the one at the American Pavilion, but I didn't even do that I certainly wouldn't have just laid in there, But then what happens after you get out and you're a hundred percent soaked wet to Walker No, that sounds awful.
Yeah, no, that sounds awful. Like a chafe.
Yeah, so apparently they actually didn't get in as much trouble as they should have because that kind of behavior can result in the team getting disqualified, but they went on and competed and have not been disqualified. They won second place.
Yeah, apparently the kids from the team also had an incident where they were doing some aerial stunts in Italy and security had to come and ask them to stop, which again, I I don't know why they weren't disqualified because stunting in the parks is expressly verboten that you're not allowed to do that.
No.

[43:42] Cheer competition time sounds like a rough time to be a guest at the All-Stars.
Yeah, I mean, have you seen the photos of at All-Star sports outside the football buildings?
They have a football field and it's just full of hundreds of cheerleaders morning, noon and night practicing their routines before their competition.
Well, I'm booking a flight.
I really sold it for you, didn't I? We did stay at Pop Century one time during, I don't know if it was the cheer, I can't remember if it was.
No, it was cheer. Cheer or dance. Contest. Yeah.
And my son was little and we'd been there a couple of times and he goes, I don't know why dad, but I really like it here. And he's in a pool amongst like, you know, five dozen cheerleader girls who are all like doing stunts and stuff in the pool.
I was like, I know why you like it here. And that's the day he knew.
Yeah. For sure.

[44:37] So yeah, that's, please don't get in the fountains. It feels like everyone is just getting more obnoxious just by the day.
Yes, it really does. Especially in public places like theme parks and- On airplanes.
This kind of thing. Yeah. Wild.
Man screaming and throwing a tantrum because- You need to take a step back and remember how to be human.
Yeah. Because a child was crying on his flight.
Oh yeah, I saw that. That happened recently as well. Well, that child made extra to scream. Yeah.
Just some reprehensible behavior lately. It feels like it's become more socially acceptable not to hide your flaws.
I blame the comment sections on social media have made it where everyone thinks they can do and say whatever, and now they're taking it out into public.
Yeah. I don't like it.
I mean, I like the Ratatouille ride too, but it doesn't give me that one.

[45:28] Anywho, Virgin Voyage's third ship, the Resilient Lady, launches in May.
Very soon. This year? Yeah.
The Mermaid and Voyage. Now with real mermaids. That's right.
All over the boat. It launches May 15th from Athens, where it's going to be headquartered for... Georgia?
No, Athens, Greece. Greece. That's where it's going to be headquartered for its maiden season.
They're going to have two different itineraries that they're sailing there.
One I erased the description of it. One is the Greek Isles Cruise that is going to stop at Santorini Roads, Bodrum and Mykonos.
And then the second one will be an eight night itinerary that includes the Greek Islands and then also goes, wait, no, sorry, reverse that.
The first one is the Greek Island Glow. So that is the Santorini Roads, et cetera.
And then they're also going to have an Adriatic Sea and Greek gems.
That one looks incredible.
There you have it.

[46:37] All the ports are just spectacular on both of those itineraries.
Really, I'll be taking my young son on that next summer.
One of the two of us stay in the in the Mediterranean until October of this year, and then she's moving on down, to Australia and New Zealand.
That's right. On the way, her repositioning voyage sounds pretty phenomenal, too.
They're going to stop in Cairo, Dubai, Bali, Mumbai, Phuket.
Oh, I'd be careful with that. Yeah. And also Singapore.

[47:13] It arrives in Sydney on December 4th, and then it's going to stay down there.
Although some things I saw said that they were going to be splitting the winter.
That must have been all plans or something. So something about Southern Caribbean.
But then there's nothing on the schedule for that.
Yeah, I think Resilient is going to stay over in that hemisphere and then Brilliant Lady will be launching, I believe next year, their final ship.
I think so.
So this really rounds out their itinerary offerings with some great stuff. Yes.
Scarlet and Valiant will be over here doing the Caribbean and then, I mean, Greek Isles tour. That looks just fabulous.

[47:57] And I was looking at their schedule for 2024 and it looks like the resilient lady is going to occasionally take breaks from their normal Australian itineraries and occasionally go up into Southeast Asia type spots.
So.
What's the itinerary in Australia, it seems.
There's a couple of them. They go around Australia. And New Zealand.
Just. Yeah. And some of the islands around there. That's the way that I want to see Australia, because then I can sleep on the ships where there are no snakes and spiders, yes. Thank you! No wolf spiders for me.
Yes. Now is the time to get on your summer plans and- They have a really good promotion right now where they will give you $1,400 towards airfare to get over to one of the Greek sailings.
And that actually goes all the way through May of 24. So one of their earlier.

[48:56] Some of the earlier 24 sailings are included in it. That's a great deal because it's pricey to.

[49:02] Fly over there to Athens to set sail. And that brings up another story we were going to talk about that the flights are filling for Europe and other international destinations for this summer.
Delta reported just a few days ago that 75 percent of their capacity is already full on their international routes for this summer.
So if you were looking to visit anywhere offshore for summer vacation, now is the time, yeah.
Yeah, get on that now because, and also, yeah, the flights are selling out and people are buying them no matter the price.
I saw something that fares are up by 20%. They are, it's not cheap right now.
Over what was already expensive last year.
Right, yeah. So it's just huge, huge demand to get it. Huge demand.
And it's a great time to sail with Virgin though because they still have really great prices on their sailings.
So yeah, great prices, great promos. They're always giving away a ton of money to spend on the ship, whether it's the sailor loot that you can use anywhere for anything or whether it's the bar tab, they're handing out bar tabs left and right.
They really are sides up.
It comes to being pretty much all inclusive with those bar tabs that they're including.
It absolutely was. My last one, I had.

[50:29] Nine hundred dollars worth of anywhere loot plus three hundred dollars on bar, so like what?
I was just everything was covered.
Yeah, I think I left there with still money in the kitty because I ran out of ways to drink it and eat it. It's been money.
Yeah. And that's, I mean, that's a great way to cover all of your shore excursions, maybe use that to upgrade to a more expensive shore excursion that you wouldn't have, sorry, a shore thing. A shore thing.
That you wouldn't have used otherwise. Get yourself a cabana at the beach club.
And they've got some great shore excursions on their Mediterranean sailings.
There's some really cool things to do over there. Start saving up, Heather.
You're buying me a trip next year. Thanks for the heads up. Right.
Yeah. Yes, yeah, and that leaves me to another trip for next year.
There's one city in Ohio that's going to have a perfect view of the total solar eclipse next year.
Ohio? Yeah, and they're giving away a trip to one lucky group of people to go see it.
I've always said it, but Cleveland rocks and they're getting ready to rock their solar eclipse game. You have always said that.
It does. It's a good city. is a bad rap, but it's a good city.

[51:48] So, they've got this online game that you can play. It's an online racing game.
You have to race through Cleveland to get to a viewing space downtown before, yes, with Jimmy Fallon, before the eclipse reaches its totality.
And then post your score on their Facebook page or on Twitter using a hashtag, solar eclipse CLE. You have until May 26 to do this.
And the traveler who wins the grand prize will get an overnight stay for up to four people at a downtown Cleveland hotel.
Tickets to two local attractions off the top of my head, I'm guessing that they're one of those tickets is attractions is going to be the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the other is going to probably be top of the science center. The only other thing door to it.
Top golf. There's the Great Lakes Science Center.
It's pretty good if you're into that kind of thing. Well yeah, they're definitely sending you to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[52:48] Plus a $50 gift card to a downtown restaurant and up to four pairs of solar eclipse glasses so that you can do what your mother always told you not to do and stare directly at the sun.
Stare directly at the sun. Or if you're a strong like bull like President Trump, you just look right at him.
That's true. Right in your retinas. Few people are.
So they're calling this eclipse the Great American Eclipse because it's going to be visible from lots of places across the country. American Eclipse way to make it about us.
That's right. It's taking place next April 8th. 2024 is going to stretch from the Niagara Falls area in Canada, into the US parts, be visible across parts of Indiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio and more.
It will first cross North America and Mexico Pacific Coast at about 1107 a.m.
So that's pretty exciting.
I like doing some events, putting some travel packages together.
Oh, yeah. And if you want to see that, you need to get on booking that now for next year, because there are.
The places that can see it, they are already, you know, filling up specifically for solar eclipse tours.
Wow. Yeah, it's a thing. I mean, and people have been planning this since the last total eclipse, which was what, like three, four years ago was the last time it was across over America that we can see it.

[54:16] But I guess I never noticed that you could only see that from certain areas. Yeah, yeah.
It only happens, you know, in certain parts of the globe, and it's a big deal for some people.
And it is booking up. So and we've actually seen some chatter of it with our in our agency.

[54:37] Little group. So definitely contact the world travel agent soon if you're interested in watching the sun die.
Yeah, I picked this next story mostly because the name of the airline amuses me and I thought that you might have some fun with it.
So there's this everything in the world now is going to subscription for everything.
I hate that every single app I want to use on my phone I now have to subscribe to or my Margaritaville cruise line is now.
I'm excited for that. I'm tempted to book the hundred dollar cruise just to see if it's as bad as it looks in the photos. You'll come back with scabies. You're going to pay them a hundred dollars for diarrhea.
I mean, I've spent more money and ended up with diarrhea.
I don't know if that's true. So anyway, there's a, there's a, one of those value airlines.
A European value airline, Wizz Air, is now offering flight subscriptions.

[55:44] And this is like a spirit air level airline where you pay for everything.
Yes, it's based entirely in Europe and they're having a subscription program, which for six months you pay, I think the starting, oh, where did I see the price?

[56:07] Who is there? I don't see the price. Where'd the price go?
Anyway, you can subscribe and you'll get one free flight a month for six months, basically.
But then you get a fixed price without having to worry trying to find the cheap days to travel.
You get a flight a month for six months.
You can pick different levels for services.
You know, if you want your bag price included in your flight then you upgrade your ticket or upgrade your price.
It's 249 euros a year for this privileged pass.
Yeah. I mean, for a month, flight a month. Where do they fly?
All over Europe. It's one of those small places that.
Huh, just go country to country around Europe? That'd be pretty cool.
So they're just testing this out right now and it's going to be for domestic routes in Italy plus international routes from Italy to Poland as part of its trial run.
So it's a little bit limited, but if you're, you know, hopping around Italy.

[57:16] Or if you're a business traveler and, you know, regularly have to make trips, it can be a good deal.
Do you have to pay to use the bathroom like you do on Ryanair?
Lovely. Really? You have to pay to use the bathroom on Ryanair?
I don't think they actually went through with it. They proposed that you were going to have to use a euro coin to get into the restroom to pee on the plane. Yeah.
You have to do that in a lot of public restrooms. That's true. That's true.
Anyway, I was wondering, like, do they get out and get off backlash for it? And I don't know where they actually went with it.
That's like having to pay for your seat after you buy a ticket to get on the plane.
Come on. Right. Certain things are included.
Inevitable. Right.

[58:03] But I mean, after seeing this, you know, last year we talked about how different places, including even Costco, were starting to do a subscription in private jet service, I would not be surprised if this is successful in Europe to see this come to the United States with some of the smaller regional airlines.
So, and you know, like I said, for certain people, it could be a good deal.

[58:29] So I just like to whiz air, thought that was fun. That's what it smells like in the bathroom. Yuck. Yeah.
All right. I had, by the way, I taught my daughter on accident to say, damn it, no, Sophia runs around the house saying it all the time. I taught her a little something at Max's last week.
Yeah, she did. And I have it on video. You are so proud of that.
The best part though is she understands, I don't know if language that Heather taught her, she understands, but she understands the context under which you use, she uses Oh, I love that.
She's frustrated. Yeah. When she's frustrated, she, God damn it. It's great.
Yes. I love her. It makes me so happy.
All right. So my last story for you this week, headline, Vienna nudists oppose plan for cable car over their beach.
Vienna nudists? Yes. I actually was unaware there was a nude beach in Vienna.
Yeah, apparently there is. That's so you can see their Vienna sausage.
I was wondering how long it was going to take to get the Vienna sausage joke.
And I'm glad that you jumped on that right, right, right out of the gate.
So nudists in Vienna are nudists in Austria are up in arms about plans for a cable car that would pass over a popular beach on the northern edge of Vienna where clothing is optional.

[59:56] I thought nudists didn't care about people seeing their Vienna sausages.

[1:00:02] According to, I don't want to end up on the Internet, says some 72 year old man with a beard and a sausage.
Exactly. Exactly. The country's Austria press agency on Friday quoted nudist Barbara Hausjuhl, who said that she fears for her privacy if cable car users with cell phone cameras are allowed to swoop across the area.
I don't want to end up on the Internet, the 72 year old told the APA.

[1:00:29] But the project developer wants to reassure nudists that the cable cars would only pass over the beach for a short period of time.
Also the windows could be made to turn opaque automatically.
So I love that exhibitionists are worried about someone seeing them.
Right. Yeah. So it's going to go over across the Danube River back over to the Kallenberg, which is a small mountain in the northern area of the city. 115 gondolas with panoramic windows would offer a breathtaking view across Vienna and its elderly nude bathers apparently.
Can't wait. Sign me up.
All right. Yeah. How long before that ends up on an ABD itinerary? It's part of the adults only section of the team. It's unsavory.
They'll take the kids off to learn how to waltz, and the adults can take the cable car over the nude beach. Again and again and again. Yeah, can you pay for the nudists?
I'd pay extra not to go over the nude. Yes, thank you.
You just push the button and turn the windows opaque, and...
Nudists are never the kind of people you would like to see naked. Thank you.
He just pushed the button and turned the windows opaque and...
Nerdists are never the kind of people you would like to see naked.
It's not like the cable car over the Playboy Mansion.
And even then, I'm not sure that over the I'm not sure who's living in the Playboy Mansion these days.
Maybe maybe even that excursions not going to be the most sure ask.

[1:01:57] Yeah, I don't know. So I think we've said all we need to say about talk about me.
Old naked Austrian people. Unless you've got any more. Show it up.
Sorry, I wasn't expecting the Vienna sausages this week. Yeah, we didn't say anything about Wienerschnitzel.
Imagine I made a really good Wienerschnitzel joke. I will. I will.
If you'd like to have some Wienerschnitzel. Are you prepared to offer dad service?
Do you realize the can of worms you just opened there? Wienerschnitzel is delicious, dad.
Wienerschnitzel is also self-marinating. Oh, gosh.
Thanks for hanging out with us again this week.
If you're experienced, if you're excited to experience the summer at Disney thrills or explore anywhere else around the world, key to the world travel has Tiana's abandoned salt mine full of expert travel planners, they're ready to make your vacation dreams reality. Head to www.keytotheworldtravel.com to get started with the no obligation quote.
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[1:04:17] Music.

[1:04:23] Thanks to Outer Vibe for the use of their song Hoka Hey for the intro and outro of our show.
Find them on Facebook at The Outer Vibe or check out www.outervibe.com for tour dates, music, merch, and more.

[1:04:35] Music.

[1:04:44] We'll see you next week for another meeting of the Gold Key Adventurer's Society, and, And until then, remember, life is short and the world is wide, so go have an adventure.