Episode #624 - Recent Disney Offers and News

Welcome, Foolish mortals.

Time to be turning around.

Because this here's a wildest ride in the wilderness!

Hey Henry, what's holding you up? Let's get on with the show. We can't hang around here all day.

Ladies and gents, this is the moment you've waited for.

There's no turning back now.

Now it's time for the WDW Beyond the Gates podcast with your hosts, Michael Hurley and Gary Arruda.

This is the greatest show!

That's right, this is the WDW Beyond the Gates podcast episode number 624,

recorded from the Defant LaRoy Studios in Kent County, Rhode Island in sunny Southwest Florida.

I'm your host Gary joint as always by my co-host and my cousin Mike Downham, Florida.

How are you doing today Michael?

I'm doing well, thanks buddy.

You got a storm there you said. We lost power for a minute.

Just a split second.

Spectrum service alert, power outage.

You figured that out.

Spectrum service.

Your area is being disrupted by a power outage based on our information provided in a power company.

You can expect power to be restored by 10 p.m.

We're an hour and a half ahead of that.

I have a game that I want to play real quick.

What were you going to say?

I was just going to ask what's going on and it sounds like we got a game.

So we're cooking today.

I didn't tell you. You know, you've heard a debt wireless, right?

I talk about it often.

It's like a homage market.

It's an homage market.

All the stuff's local and the stuff is so cheap.

So they have gas bars,

chorizo and linguisa.

Oh, from New Bedford.

Yes.

The Dartmouth actually, yeah.

So we had to get that because I told you emeral's meatloaf calls for them.

I might take a picture and you said how good it looked.

Yeah, you sent me a picture the other day.

What's better than meatloaf with chorizo?

Not much.

So today we did chorizo and eggs.

Oh, yeah.

And we're both in the kitchen.

And when we're both together,

it's not a good thing,

especially when we're both cooking because I'm an idiot and she's not so much.

So we were talking about all the quotes that she says,

all the things that she says to me.

So I said, you know what?

I'm going to play a game at the beginning of our podcast with Gary.

No.

Did Susie say this?

Yes or no?

All right.

So I'm going to read you the first one.

Okay.

And it's a quote.

I really don't think you have a leg to stand on

when it comes to telling people that they are effed up.

That's definitely something she said.

That's something she said.

But then she thought about it, she said,

although because you're so effed up,

you would know a person who is also effed up.

I disagree with that.

I think you're so far gone that you can't even see the forest from the trees.

Okay.

Yeah.

I think she was right the first time.

Okay.

Are there more photos?

No, no.

But there's quite a few.

There's a few.

Do you have any big ones in there for me?

Is this just going to be all stuff she said?

You don't know.

Either she said either she has set this or she has not.

The second one.

All right.

What's the next one?

I really wish we had known each other in high school.

No.

I don't think that's right.

That is correct.

That was...

That was never said.

Number three.

Can you just pretend to be normal?

I'm going to say no.

I don't think she would say that.

She has said that.

Uh, often.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Because you do pretend to be normal.

Sometimes like when you're a public, you're not messed up.

No.

And I'm not the member guest.

You're not embarrassed to sit next to me.

But not as one.

No.

No.

Um.

This one.

Can you please just be quiet?

I mean, yeah, I assume that's definitely happening.

Probably while she's reading the book or watching something else.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yep.

Yep.

Yep.

That's been said.

Um.

You're the most mature person I've ever met.

Now, unless there's sarcasm attached, I'm going to say no.

Okay.

Yep.

That is correct.

Okay.

I think you and I would have been great chemistry lab partners.

Yes.

I think that's just that.

Yes.

Okay.

Well, you're incorrect.

Oh, I got that one wrong.

You got that one wrong.

I really, I really thought she wanted to be your lab partner.

Yeah.

She's in all of these AP classes.

And I think this is the last one.

Oh, no, comma.

You're perfectly normal.

I'm going to say no on that one as well.

No, she has said that because again, it's a sarcasm.

Oh, well, okay.

So there is sarcasm attached.

You.

Yeah.

Gotcha.

She's at the door right now.

Just smirkin' because she can hear it.

Yeah.

The way that's been used was.

Oh, no, comma.

You're perfectly normal.

I'm like, do you think I'm effed up?

Oh, no, you're perfectly normal.

Oh, gosh.

You see how that would fit in now?

Yeah, that fits like that.

Yes.

Okay.

Interesting.

We can play this game every week at the beginning of the podcast.

Do you like this one?

I do like this.

Anybody left it and let us know.

You could come up with things that you've said to her

and I have to guess if you said it because that would be a lot harder.

Yeah, that would be difficult.

God.

Like, especially if people didn't know you

because if you came up with one and said, hey,

do you want to smell my slipper right now?

Most people would think probably not.

But I know because I've heard you ask that before to multiple different people.

Who have you heard me ask that too?

Both of my kids.

Your wife, me.

I think your mother-in-law.

I don't think you asked Sarah.

I did.

I did ask.

I did ask K.

If she wants to smell my slipper.

That's messed up, isn't it?

Yeah.

When did I ask your kids?

I think when we were at Disney.

At the tree house.

Yeah, so.

I asked her if they wanted to smell my slippers.

Yeah.

They said no.

Thankfully.

That's really stupid.

Yeah.

It may have been your sandal.

Not your slipper.

I don't know.

But the point still stands.

Yeah, right, right.

Oh my god.

You know, it's bad when you take a step back.

Yeah.

And then you truly see how messed up you are.

Yeah, because when you, when you hear someone say that back to you,

you're like, I wouldn't have asked an eight-year-old that.

But no, it's back.

Yeah, you're exactly right.

Because when she repeats it, I go, did I actually just say that?

She said, yes, you said it three seconds ago.

Do you want to smell my slippers?

Yeah.

It's a lot to me.

It's like your old mother-in-law.

Yeah.

It wasn't, it wasn't thrilled to begin with.

No, she didn't want to be, she didn't want you there.

She like being there.

Just she don't want you there to be.

No, I'm just saying like the whole wedding thing.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, I didn't want this to begin with.

Now the city is asking me if he wants to smell my, if I want to smell his slippers.

Now did she get to you or did she just ignore you?

That's a real question.

She did answer me.

Unfortunately, I just bring the worst out of everybody.

Yeah.

As you can tell on the podcast.

That's true.

So it's dumb.

We may have to do some pre-recording based on NCAA tournament tip-offs next week.

I'm totally fine with that because I was even going to say, I was even going to see if we could get ahead a little bit.

I'd love to.

Just because it's a paint like I'm always editing the day before this podcast comes out.

If we could.

For the tournament, we can do it.

But then we could it's no harm to be a day a week ahead of everything.

Yeah, let's just roll a week ahead.

We'll try to get a couple more.

I'm good with that.

Anyway, so this those weeks topic for the WDW Beyond the Gates podcast.

We're going to do some Walt Disney World news.

They announced a lot of stuff in the last week or so.

Yeah, they did.

What about what's going on?

There's some.

Some free dining.

There's some new park tickets available, promotional park tickets.

And then there's a lot of stuff reopening.

Or opening over the next few months at Walt Disney World over the summer.

I want to start with.

The tickets.

If you're good with that.

Yep.

So they just announced this.

A four day four park magic ticket.

Starting at $109 per day plus tax.

Okay.

This is this is called the summer Discover Magic and Thrills ticket.

And or the summer Discover Magic ticket.

And it just says it.

Yeah, blah blah blah.

Anyway, so you can visit all four theme parks once each.

So it's not a four day ticket.

You can't go to Magic Kingdom twice.

You have to go to each park once.

No park hopping.

And it is also last seven days.

From the start day.

Okay.

So that's pretty good.

If you're going for six or like six nights, seven nights.

That's perfect.

The four day.

Mm hmm.

For $109 per day.

Okay.

Park reservation not required.

The dates are valid from May 26 through September 26.

All tickets are non transferable, non refundable, blah blah blah.

So I think they did something similar last year.

Or the year before or even both probably.

Yeah.

And I was looking at this and it's actually a nice,

a nice little deal if you only want to go to each park once.

I took advantage of the buy four get to free days.

You helped me book that through your travel agency.

Yeah.

And I was looking at the pricing of this one.

But it's considerably less.

Overall, if we just did the four days,

because we were originally planning to just do four days.

But I said, why not get the two for free?

Because then we can go in for an hour.

If we want.

Right.

You'll guilty about it.

But I think it would have been.

About $700 less to do this one than the one I booked.

So basically for two more days.

$700.35.

So it's like a hundred.

So it actually.

Yeah, talking for the entire family, though.

Right.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Not.

Right.

Right.

So whatever that is $700 divided by four is $351.75

for two extra days that were supposedly free.

However, I could go to Magic Kingdom all six times.

If I want with the ticket I have.

Right.

You know what I mean?

And so that's there's a lot more flexibility with it.

Yeah, that's what I mean.

You're it's a lot more flexible.

And now you're not.

You don't have to go to the parks all the time.

What you guys don't like to do.

Right.

No, I'm fine with it.

I don't regret the one I got.

But that's this is a good deal, though.

It's a very good deal.

And then on top of that, speaking of deals.

We have some free dining available.

For people that are using.

I think you have to use a Disney visa to book it.

I believe it was the caveat for this one.

But I don't see that.

On the website right now.

That I'm looking but get a free dining plan with this delicious deal.

Enjoy a free dining plan when you purchase a non-discounted four night four day.

Walt Disney World travel package that includes a room.

And theme park tickets with a park hopper option.

For arrivals on select nights from June.

28 October 3rd October 19th to the 31st December 6th.

So basically the whole year.

Essentially with a few.

Blackout periods in there.

Starting in June.

Book by April 30th.

So you got to get it done soon.

If you stay at a moderate or value,

you get the quick serve dining plan for free.

If you stay at a deluxe, you get the regular dining plan for free.

Depending on the size of your family and everything, it can work out.

I think generally for two people, it does not.

Like for you and Susie, obviously.

It doubly wouldn't work for you because one, you have a annual pass too.

You're not booking a room.

But if you were.

You don't make, but when you get that third and fourth free dining,

it kind of helps.

And the blow and ends up being a pretty good deal.

But just good to see.

I mean, the free dining used to be.

All the time.

Well, it was every year, but it was for a shorter period.

This is a long time to have it.

I feel like it's more this year than it has been.

I'd have to do.

We'd have to break down the numbers a little more and see where the break even point is.

Because you can save.

I think they have like a 30% discount on rooms right now as well.

And that's a whole thing is that you really do have to be careful.

Because most people jump on the free dining, but you what really wanted.

Not necessarily pay full rack rate.

And if you can get a discount on the room.

Yeah, if you can save 30% on the room.

That sometimes is a better deal when you could pay for the dining with that discount.

If it's two people by when it's four people.

Then, you know, maybe it's better to do the dining.

The other thing is that you need to get at least a four day park with park hoppers.

So that's adding to it because the park hopper is very expensive.

So you just have to do your math to figure out.

If it's worth it, if you were going to do the park hopper anyway and.

You know, like I said, if you have four people and you're standing at the locks, maybe the 35%.

Yeah, right.

Let's say it's 600 a night.

What's 35% of that 200.

Approximately.

Yeah, what was the number?

If the room 600 and you save 35%.

So you're saving a couple hundred bucks per night.

Right. So that's $800.

But the dining plan is 97 per day.

So if you got three three adults or four adults in there, that's $400 a day.

So you're you're making out on that.

That is correct.

If you were going to do the park hopper already.

But with two people, it's basically break even and then you have to decide if it's worth it at that point.

Because most people are not like me where they take advantage of the dining plan just so they can say they made money on it.

Drinking like two two beverages at breakfast because my wife doesn't drink every meal.

That's up quick parts.

It really does.

Yeah, it really does.

Any any other thoughts on the on the ticket package or the free dining?

I do like the ticket one though.

I think that's a nice way to help people save money.

It's so expensive to get into the parks now.

It really is.

Even what that like quote unquote deal for my family when I'm going.

Yeah.

I just priced it out.

It's still $2,000 for the tickets.

For four people.

For four days to go in.

So it's it's $500 a day.

To go into the parks for my family.

It's I'm not saying it's a bad value, but it's still expensive.

It's a lot of money.

It certainly is.

It certainly is.

And you can make the case and I actually agree with it.

Like would you rather spend $500 to take your family to Epcot for the day or to go to a Boston Red Sox game for three hours?

Because it's going to cost you the same amount of money.

You buy $80 tickets and you got a park for whatever and then buy all the food they have in there and the concessions.

It's going to your that's $500 for my family to go to a Red Sox.

You know what I'd rather do.

I'd rather go to Epcot for eight hours.

I'd rather go on a cruise.

Well, that's not part of the equation here parts.

I know.

But yeah, I get your point.

I'm just saying.

Yeah, so those are the kind of things going on, but I think the.

One thing I was really looking at is a lot of the new things that are opening or changing coming up in the coming weeks of months.

So.

I'm going to run through some of them here and we'll get into them as we go.

Okay.

Let's see, we have.

The animatronics just changed and frozen ever after I think that's already reopened.

They updated it to you know how they have like the faces with just the projections on them.

Yeah.

And the frozen ride on the animatronics.

Now they're like more realistic animatronics, I guess.

So they change that already.

So that's good.

We also have.

Big Thunder Mountain is is going to finally reopen early May.

That's.

How long has that been almost 18 months refurb for that one?

Yeah, it's been a while.

It has been a while.

This December of 24, so it was closed all of 25 and now for about five months and 26.

One of the best rides.

I can't wait to see what they do with it.

I think it's going to be really good.

I'm actually excited about it.

Yeah, it's one of my favorite attractions there.

I'm looking forward to it as well.

When's the last time you were in the parks?

December.

Okay.

And then did it look like close to ready when you were over there and that.

I don't even believe because we stayed at Riviera.

I think we just didn't have caught.

Yeah.

Oh, you didn't even do magic kingdom.

Okay.

No.

No, no big deal.

I haven't really seen pictures or anything.

That whole area is a disaster with the river being drained and all the.

Completely.

Complete disaster.

The other thing that's reopening.

Is the Buzz Lightyear space ranger spin with all new vehicles and.

And the guns.

I know you don't like that one.

I do not.

That's correct.

Yep.

I do not like it.

Toy story, Mania.

I think it's going to be a little better because the.

The one in Disneyland.

Has the the laser shooters.

You can like hold handhold and point them as opposed to.

The swivel ones that Disney World had.

But I think they changed them.

So the updated ones and the ride vehicles are going to be better.

And I think they changed a couple of the scenes.

That's reopening as well in the spring.

We have.

The big one that really does is going to be.

Has no effect on you, but any family with little kids.

This is the big story because.

At Animal Kingdom, they re-themed.

Refiki's Planet Watch for Bluey, which is a huge.

Show on Disney plus.

So that's coming.

You go to the conservation station and you could play and dance with Bluey and Bingo.

Play some of your favorite games.

With fun animal twists.

And then.

Plus part of your wild excursion step outside.

To discover an experience with animals native to Bluey's home country of Australia.

So they got rid of the petting zoo area.

I think they're going to put like an Australian animal exhibit out there instead.

Assuming there's going to be like kangaroos and stuff.

So that area is changing.

I don't know how much of the building is changing or just the outside sections.

You know when you get off the train and you walk through and there's like all those winding paths that everyone just kind of speed walks by.

Yeah.

And they have little activities in each spot.

That no one really pays attention to.

So I wonder if those are all going to be updated to try to draw people into those areas to do little activities with the kids and stuff.

Be nice if they did, wouldn't it?

Yeah, I mean.

They took away the whole dinosaur area for the refurb, which was great for kids because they had that playground area.

So making that conservation station and the planet watch more kid oriented.

I'm fine with that.

And then this is cool too.

Later in the summer, the magic of Disney animation will open Hollywood studios.

And there's going to be some drawing classes and different areas with hand drawn animation computer animation story layout lighting and effects.

Some meet and greets.

You can see layers of fact backgrounds, painted cells come together like magic.

So they're bringing some of the old school animation back into Hollywood studios.

That's a positive.

Yeah, for sure.

So that used to be like the star war when they're building the Star Wars area.

That was all like Star Wars exhibits.

So they're finally changing that.

They're not going to have.

They're not putting the studio back.

They're not going to do the hand drawn animation movies out of there, but it's going to be an exhibit based on that.

So I'm good with that.

That'll be good.

I'm happy to hear they're doing that.

So that should be open soon as well.

And then at some point this summer, we've talked about this.

The rock and roller coaster is being re-themed to the muppets.

So that'll open in the summer.

We're getting some new scenes into the Millennium Falcon ride at Galaxy's Edge.

Around the Mandalorian and Grogu, whatever that means.

So new storyline for that, updating that attraction.

I've never done that one.

Have you done the Millennium Falcon one?

Yeah.

Is that good?

That's where you have to have like a pilot and all this other stuff, right?

It depends on what you do.

What happens?

Yeah, she got sick on that.

I thought she thought she was actually dying.

Oh, so is that like worse than Star Towers for like motion sickness?

It was for her.

She got.

She started like, you can't see me because my camera died, but she started like kind of waving her head.

And when we got off, she was kind of like, and she's, we got off.

She's like, I got to sit down.

I'm like, you okay?

She's like, no, I'm like, do you need some water?

She's like, yes.

So I like ran and got her water.

And she's like literally sitting right outside of the ride.

And she had some water and she was dizzy and had trouble walking.

Like it was.

Yeah.

It was pretty bad for her.

Yeah.

I don't know.

You said Sarah has more motion sickness, but not really.

Like she can do Mickey and Minnie's runaway railroad, right?

Yeah.

She's good with that, but she hates Star Towers.

Like she won't go on Star Towers.

Yeah.

Suzy hates Star Towers.

So she hates Star Towers.

She might not like the Millennium Falcon.

Yeah.

Well, she doesn't, she didn't like the Pandora ride either.

Which one?

The Suzy loves it.

Suzy loves flight of passage.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

Sarah gets sick.

She liked it a lot, but she's like, I don't, I won't do it again.

It was too much.

So it's a, it's like when the screens move fast.

So she couldn't do Tron.

You know how like the lights are flashing in Tron a lot?

Like the different color, the red and the blue and everything.

Is that pre-show though?

No, like even on the ride, it's just like the changes colors.

Like with the screens moving really fast at you, that's what affects her the most.

Because you know what you know about the Suzy and we were very concerned about the ride was.

What's the name of the one at Epcot?

Guardians of the Galaxy.

Yes, that pre-show where you have the lights.

Yeah.

That that she had to close her eyes and I'm like, Oh, no, I hope this ride isn't anything like this because this is going to be bad.

And I kept looking at her during the rides.

She was fine during the ride.

So it's interesting that certain things.

Yeah, affect people differently.

Yeah, because like Sarah loves space mountain, but she doesn't like the beginning where you're going through like the lights on.

Yeah, with those white lights where it makes it look like you get doing hyper space or whatever.

So she has to close her eyes until she gets into the dark part, which is.

Gotcha.

Gotcha.

Anyway.

She had migraines.

No, she doesn't get migraines, but she just gets really like motion sick easily, nauseated from that.

And then the one thing or not one, but one more thing that I'm very much looking forward to.

We've talked about this a lot.

Over America or so on across America, excuse me, is going to be opening Memorial Day weekend right around there.

I'm excited.

I knew about that.

I was thinking about that on my travel agency notebook.

Because you were concerned that it wasn't going to be available when you were there for the 4th of July.

We both agreed that they probably would have it done, but knowing Disney, how long it takes them to.

Yeah, I was worried that they would botch it.

They definitely wanted it open by that.

I mean, you can't do a ride for the 250th of, you know, to celebrate the 200th anniversary and not have it open for that day.

But I would screw it up.

It would be Disney, right?

You wouldn't.

Yeah.

Now, I know 4th of July could be busy.

We were planning on going to Epcot on 4th of July.

Do you think that's a mistake?

No.

Magic Kingdom was crazy 4th of July last year.

I didn't like it.

I'm thinking Epcot will be less crazy.

Yeah.

We were there 4th of July when we stayed at Riviera a couple of years ago, and it was fine.

We went in and out maybe two or three times, and it was fine.

Okay.

And I wonder if that right.

I mean, I'll just do fast passes or something.

I need to go on that ride.

Because it's a limited time, too.

So I don't want to miss it.

And if it goes away forever, because I love, I mean, we both love so.

Oh, yes.

Soren's one of the best.

So that that's great that they're doing that.

And you know, that's pretty much all the all the stuff coming.

They're doing that cool kid summer again that they did.

Last year.

Which isn't really.

Anything crazy because they're just going to have.

You know, the water park thing, which we've talked about the free admission to the water park starting in May.

On your first day.

And then some of the resorts have character meet and greets.

I think art of animation.

Porter leans.

And Caribbean Beach.

I think of the three.

Maybe one more.

I'm trying to see.

If it says I'm looking at the website here.

I could have sworn I saw it, but.

Maybe not.

Oh, different page.

Hold on.

Yeah.

Oh, that was right.

So pop century art of animation.

Caribbean Beach and Porter leans Riverside.

Have some special meet and greets only there at certain times.

They're having some meet and greets at the water parks, which they normally don't.

They're doing a Disney Springs dance party on certain nights.

You love the dance parties parts.

Oh, who doesn't like a good dance party.

And then a lot of the other stuff we talked about over the summer.

So it will be definitely.

Interesting to see.

I like they do the perks.

I mean, I like going in the summer anyway.

And I think summers become their slow time now ironically.

Used to be like avoid the summer.

It's so busy.

It's crazy.

Isn't it how it shifted?

Because December used to always be slow.

Up, you know, until approaching Christmas.

Now December early is in this.

I mean, we're not talking too long ago.

I mean, we bought DBC a couple years ago.

And it was always green to yellow on the crowd calendar.

And now it's yellow to red.

Right.

All over December.

So December is tough.

May is tough now because of the festivals.

And, you know, those were the.

I set the only real still slow time is early September.

September is fantastic.

September is the time to go.

And it makes sense.

That's going to be when you guys go in a few years when I don't want to say a few years

because your kids are still young.

But once your kids are off to college and out of the house.

Yeah.

Oh, and they're at an age where they can go to school and take care of themselves.

Right.

And you can sneak off for a week in September.

That's a time to go as a DBC owner as a.

To manage crowds.

Yeah.

September September.

September is a time to go.

No, I agree.

I think you're right.

The weather's still good.

But it's not July hot, but you're going to get.

89 to 92.

I mean, that's why they did the food and wine festival originally, right?

To try to drum up some local crowds during their slowest time in September.

They did all most of the festivals.

Yeah, flowering garden in May and other slow time.

Right.

Yeah, I mean, September is really tough to bring kids.

Like, you don't want to take them out of school their first week or two of school.

No, I know.

I totally understand that.

Yeah.

Exactly.

So it makes sense why it's it's very slow.

Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, there's a lot going on.

The attraction's opening up.

I'm really excited about Thunder Mountain.

I hope I could see them up at roller coaster rocker roller coaster.

And I'm there.

I would like to see that.

But not the end of the world if it doesn't happen.

I don't know what else anything else you want to talk about.

Do you want me to wrap things up here?

No, you can wrap it up.

All right.

You know where you can find us at WDWBTG on YouTube, on Facebook, on Instagram and on Twitter,

or Facebook group WDWB on the Gates Listener Lounge.

You can go to our website WDWBTG.com.

Download us wherever you get podcasts, leave us reviews, leave us ratings.

It helps us out quite a bit when you do that.

You can go to our website.

WDWBTG.com.

Email the show info at WDWBTG.com.

Mike at WDWBTG.com.

And Gary at WDWBTG.com.

Anything else you need me to mention here?

No, sir.

All right.

That's going to do it for episode number 624 of the WDWB on the Gates Podcast.

My co-host Mike, my name is Gary.

Thanks so much for listening.

And we'll talk to you again next week.

Now it's time to say goodbye to all our company.

And I see.

See you real soon.

Can you why?

Why? Because we like you.

And all you ask me.