Alicea: 0:20

Hello everyone. I'm Alicea,

Nathan: 0:23

I'm Nathan.

Ryan: 0:26

and I'm Ryan.

Alicea: 0:27

Welcome to this week's episode of Adventures and Mousecapades.

Alicea: 0:30

This week, we've got Ryan back with us. He was down in Orlando recently with his kiddo attending a National College Soccer ID camp. And what happens when Disney people end up near Orlando? They go to Disney parks parks, because that's what you do. Not only did they get to spend some quality time in one of the best Disney parks, in the business Epcot, they also just happened to be in town for the premiere of the brand new Magic Kingdom Night Time Parade, disney Starlight. Of course, we could not let this opportunity to chat pass us by. So welcome again, ryan.

Ryan: 1:02

Thank you for having me?

Nathan: 1:03

Yeah, it's good to have you back. Can you remind our glorious listeners I'm just laying into our listeners all the time. They're just the best the very best people on the earth. Could you remind our listeners a little bit of your kind of Disney background? And we've cruised with you.

Ryan: 1:20

Yes, yeah for sure. Yeah, so been a big Disney nerd all my life, grew up going to Disney World. Disneyland is nice, but my family always wanted to go to Disney World. Joined DVC in 2012 and been hitting the parks at least two times a year since then. Also got the cruise bug in, like 2017. I've been cruising every year since and got to enjoy the treasure with you guys earlier this year that was a lot of fun that was a great trip.

Nathan: 1:51

That was fantastic. Okay, so you were in town for an id soccer camp. What is an id camp?

Ryan: 1:59

yeah. So, for those who are interested in playing college soccer, ID camps are an opportunity for your kids to kind of show off to college coaches, so you'll see individual colleges offering them. A lot of times they'll also have them kind of regionally based. So last year my daughter did one in Bellevue at Bellevue College and there were about six kind of West Coast colleges that were there, including University of Oregon. Then coming out of that she received an invitation to this national camp which basically pulls kids from the different regional camps, if they want to, to this national camp, and so there were about 10 college coaches there, including, like Stanford and University of Colorado, so it was a lot of fun. It was a great opportunity for her to be seen 10 college coaches there, including Stanford and University of Colorado, so it was a lot of fun it was a great opportunity for her to be seen by college coaches also to play with girls from all across the country, which was really awesome.

Ryan: 2:54

She got to meet people from on the West Coast side because she was on the West teams. They kind of split the group into four different teams based on geographical locations. So she had girls from Oregon and New Mexico and Utah on and her team, so it's a lot of fun.

Alicea: 3:07

That's awesome, but in july in orlando, oh my gosh.

Ryan: 3:11

Yes, we did reflect on that a bit after the first morning by about 10 am, when it was 90 degrees, with humidity, we were very thankful Stetson University, where the camp was at, though they had a grass field. So, okay, that was really nice. Turf fields would have been, you know, 10 degrees or plus hotter for sure, yeah, that was good.

Nathan: 3:36

I mean it's a great opportunity, but oh my gosh, like, you thought being in the parks and just walking around and, you know, standing in lines were bad. Try playing soccer in that kind of heat.

Ryan: 3:47

Yeah, the joke we got from some of the... There were two coaches from universities in Florida. They kind of joked with us. It's like, yeah, you get used to it and we're like, how long does it take to get used to?

Alicea: 4:01

I'm sure you acclimate after a couple of months... I don't know how long it takes to acclimate

Nathan: 4:06

I don't know too long yeah, too long.

Alicea: 4:09

You guys got a chance to visit Ep cot the first evening that you were in town and there were four parks to choose from. Why did you pick epcot?

Ryan: 4:17

So, the reason we chose epcot is we stayed at Boardwalk. So you know one of the... well, and so you know, one of the things I think is great about doing a short trip to disney is that, if you have the benefit of being DVC, you can oftentimes get into one of the parks that are one of the resorts that's near a park and not need to necessarily take the bus transportation.

Nathan: 4:39

yes

Ryan: 4:40

So that was super nice.

Ryan: 4:41

So we... um

Ryan: 4:42

Similar to what we do when we cruise we try to get into Boardwalk or Beach Club or Polynesian so that you're at least near a park. Or if you're lucky to get into Boardwalk or Beach Club, you can walk in distance to two parks. So that was the primary reason. Also, my kids' favorite ride hands down is Guardians. Ok, fair, so if you can uh quickly get to guardians as soon as you get on ground and in in property, yeah, that is. That is key.

Nathan: 5:12

absolutely

Nathan: 5:13

so Okay, you flew out, and then went right to the parks, or at least went right to epcot, like what rides did you hit, uh?

Ryan: 5:23

So we actually I had decided that because we wanted to get guardians for sure, and you know there's no more virtual queue. I did, I did purchase the individual lightning lane. It was... It was only 16, so I felt like that was a good steal.

Nathan: 5:37

You know, it's less than the 20 it sometimes can be true. It's weird the math that Disney fans start doing to justify our life choices.

Alicea: 5:45

We do it all the time too.

Nathan: 5:46

Yes...

Ryan: 5:47

It's like oh, this is today's a good day, it's only 16, yeah, so, um, so yeah, we...

Ryan: 5:54

We stopped at um boardwalk, literally just threw our bags in our room um hit the boardwalk pizza window for you know a slice of pizza, and then went straight to our individual lightning line for for guardians. So it was, it was great that's a, that's a good plan. Yeah, so you know it worked out.

Ryan: 6:08

Well, I was... You know you always get a little nervous flying into orlando in the summer in the afternoon I was like, okay, how, how late can I book this lightning lane and you know, guarantee that I'm gonna get it right. So that was that was really good.

Nathan: 6:20

Were you able to book the lightning lane while you were, like, on the plane?

Ryan: 6:24

So because you're staying on property now, you can book individual lightning seven days out.

Nathan: 6:29

Oh, that's right, I forgot.

Ryan: 6:30

Yeah.

Ryan: 6:32

So we do have a disadvantage on the West Coast, though, because that opens at 4 am our time. Yeah, so I booked an individual lightning lane for the the thursday night. We arrived at Epcot, right, and then I went to get, a lightning lane for Tron on Friday, yeah, magic kingdom. And I was like, oh, I'll come back, I'll get back and I'll, maybe we'll do another lightning lane for Guardians on Friday as well. By that time I had tried to book like the third you know, like everything was sold out.

Alicea: 7:05

Oh wow

Ryan: 7:06

yeah, so

Nathan: 7:07

wow

Ryan: 7:07

yeah. So you have to if you're on the West coast here's your reminder. Early early alarm. This is super early. I did it at six, 30 in the morning too. So yeah, details.

Nathan: 7:17

It's okay, we've done. Yeah, details it's okay, we've done that. You tried.

Alicea: 7:23

We've done that before. More for what have we done?

Nathan: 7:26

We've done super early stuff, dining reservations yeah, dining reservations that opened at like 8 o'clock or 7, or maybe it was 6 o'clock in the morning, east Coast time... it was in the middle of the night,

Alicea: 7:38

yes

Nathan: 7:38

And I remember we were like, no, we're going back to sleep after this, because it wasn't like you know, if it was a five o'clock thing, I'd be like, yeah, I'm up. Yeah, yeah, not this, not that one.

Nathan: 7:57

Okay, so Epcot's also, you know, a good foodie park did you guys...? you got

Nathan: 7:59

you had a slice of pizza beforehand, but...?

Ryan: 8:00

Yeah, so, um, to be honest, we were, uh, we were a bit melancholy this trip because, we're, it's in between festival time so Flower and Garden had just ended, I think last the week before, and Food and Wine they've like pushed that back now to mid August I think,

Nathan: 8:15

It's back where it used to be.

Ryan: 8:16

Yeah, so like we walked in the parks and you see the like, all the beautiful um, you know little shops that they have they're all boarded up and you're like sad day we but we did, you know, we, we, you know we would not be deterred. And we did go to france and go to the get some patisserie nice in the back, which is and honestly I think that is like the hidden gem of the French Pavilion

Nathan: 8:40

oh yeah, 100%

Ryan: 8:41

nobody...

Ryan: 8:42

I mean it's, there's always a line, but I feel like if people actually knew how good the pastries and the sandwiches were back there like it would be like down, like all the way out to Chefs de France or something like that.

Alicea: 8:53

It is very good. We've done breakfast there a couple of times and are surprised that they don't open. It may change, though when we've gone. It doesn't open when the park opens it may change, though, um when we've gone. It doesn't open when the park opens. It's like it's like an hour later or half hour later or something.

Alicea: 9:08

But we're like, nope, we need our croissant!

Nathan: 9:11

Yeah yes, well, or in your case, Ryan, you just drown your sorrows in a baguette.

Ryan: 9:15

Yes, yeah, so we had the napoleon and like the French um, like fruit custard tart it was so good.

Nathan: 9:27

I should have had lunch before we recorded, oops.

Alicea: 9:33

Did you guys stay around for the fireworks and projection show that evening?

Ryan: 9:37

So we saw part of it. It was actually pretty crowded at the park that day, so by the time we had gotten our food and we were kind of walking out of the French Pavilion, there wasn't a lot of space to see it, so we caught about half of it on the, the bridge that goes between France and the UK Pavilion yes um, I definitely. It's funny.

Ryan: 9:54

We were actually talking about how um divisive, you know, harmonious was yeah, how everybody seems to love um the new show.

Nathan: 10:02

yes, it is uh, Luminous... Luminous, the Symphony of Us... tm. What do you think of the show?

Ryan: 10:11

So we actually we liked Harmonious and we like Luminous I think, um, I think the music might be just a bit better with Luminous, but it's not like distinctly different it, just it feels like everyone just hated the barges.

Nathan: 10:25

Right, I was just about to say that I liked Harmonious. I hated the barges, yeah.

Alicea: 10:31

No, I loved Harmonious because it took songs that everybody knew, but they were in different languages for the different cultures. And I absolutely loved that Disney did that yeah.

Nathan: 10:44

Yeah, so yeah, I don't want to dog on Harmonious.

Alicea: 10:49

No, I like that.

Nathan: 10:49

It was a great show, Except during the day. You could see those stupid black eyesores all over...

Alicea: 10:55

the floating tacos.

Nathan: 10:57

Yes, the floating tacos.

Ryan: 10:58

Yes, exactly, it's so funny because we were my daughter and I were joking because it's like you know, the Luminous has barges, yeah right it's just, they're just a low profile old school barges that they had before, Harmonious,

Alicea: 11:13

And there used to be a big freaking globe in the middle of the place too.

Alicea: 11:18

I forget what that was for shame on me.

Ryan: 11:22

Yes, for illumination.

Alicea: 11:22

Shame on me, it wasn't there the all day, though right.

Ryan: 11:24

So like they, yeah, they floated it out, like the other ones, yeah, shame on me. Illuminations, yes for Illuminations. Shame on me, not knowing the name.

Nathan: 11:27

It wasn't there all day, though, right, so, like they, they rolled it out.

Ryan: 11:28

Floated it out like the other ones, yeah

Nathan: 11:30

And they take the barges away for luminous right?

Ryan: 11:33

No, they stay there all day.

Nathan: 11:34

do they?

Alicea: 11:34

yeah, there's parts of it that come in and go away but there's, there's parts of it, but they're all low profile.

Ryan: 11:41

Yeah, they're low, similar to the old school ones that they had for...

Nathan: 11:46

Illuminations?

Ryan: 11:46

Yeah, you don't necessarily see them as much, and I think everyone's just like, oh, it's such an eyesore, yeah.

Nathan: 11:52

Well, anything's better than what. The what was it? The tacos?

Alicea: 11:56

Floating tacos. Yeah, yeah, okay.

Ryan: 12:06

I mean really, but how many pictures did you guys take going across the World world showcase?

Nathan: 12:09

I mean, we definitely took some my favorite pictures from the uh, from the, the gates there over in uh, Japan, yeah, yeah, that's true, and that was not a good look,

Ryan: 12:12

true with the tacos behind floating tacos did not work very well.

Ryan: 12:15

No, no okay.

Nathan: 12:17

So you made a quick stop the next day at both Epcot and Magic Kingdom before you went to soccer camp.

Ryan: 12:24

We did yeah, oh, and we got breakfast too.

Alicea: 12:27

I mean that's a busy morning, yeah.

Ryan: 12:31

And then Brynn went to go play soccer, so thankfully there wasn't any games on Friday, so we got up at Boardwalk. And it's so funny because, like I said earlier, it's great to be in such a close hotel or a villa. But you know you wake up and you're you realize you're checking out.

Ryan: 12:52

you've only been in the room for like 12 hours and you're like, oh, this is such a nice room, I could have spent like more time here, oh well. Oh well, I guess we'll we'll come back. And then, uh, we hit up trattoria for breakfast at um boardwalk excellent, you know, it's one of it's been one of our favorite, uh, restaurants for breakfast. Yeah, um been hit or miss, like probably the last two or three times we've been there, honestly, but still, um, still a great option, especially if you want to do breakfast before you rope drop because you have because you can.

Ryan: 13:26

You don't even need to be staying at Boardwalk. Think about it. You can like get a seven am reservation there and just Uber over from wherever you're at. And then you have breakfast and then go rope, drop Epcot in the back and hit up Ratatouille, that's a good plan.

Nathan: 13:38

Yeah, that's a good plan.

Nathan: 13:45

Speaking like a true disney pro there.

Ryan: 13:46

Yeah, not that I not that I've ever done that. No, no, no, Yeah, so hit, hit epcot and then, uh, took the monorail over to Magic Kingdom and you know, uh got to go on Tron, which is always a blast. Um, you know, I think people think people talk bad about it for some reason yeah and, but you know, it's our probably second favorite ride after Guardians.

Nathan: 14:07

I I really like Tron.

Nathan: 14:09

I would love Tron if the ride was 30 to 45 seconds longer or so.

Ryan: 14:14

So you want to hear my hot take on this?

Nathan: 14:16

Yeah

Ryan: 14:16

Okay. So I rode Tron in Shanghai so I guess, the OG Tron right, which is it's a clone so it's exactly the same between Shanghai and Magic Kingdom. Yeah, if Disney had flipped the order and opened Tron first, like they originally intended, at Magic Kingdom and Guardians second, I don't think anyone would say anything about Tron because, Guardians is... Guardians is so long, yeah, from, uh, from a ride standpoint, I think it's almost two minutes.

Alicea: 14:44

Yeah, yeah.

Ryan: 14:45

Um and Tron is is much more of a traditional launch coaster, just like Rock and Roller coaster. So everyone I think in their minds everyone is comparing Tron to Guardians, and so they're thinking, oh my gosh, this is. I've waited so long and this is such a short ride yeah whereas if they had opened Tron first and then Guardians second, I think Tron would get less kind of um, you know.

Alicea: 15:10

Derogatory comments about oh, this is so short. Yeah, that makes sense, because you're talking about Rock and Roller Coaster. Yeah, Rock and Roller Coaster is really short as well. I mean just remembering going on that ride. I don't know how much longer or how much shorter it is than Tron, though I'm guessing they're pretty close.

Ryan: 15:26

I'm guessing they're pretty close. I mean, if you think about it, right it's,

Nathan: 15:30

I don't know we could look it up on the Rectangle of Knowledge, but I'm not interested.

Ryan: 15:34

But yeah, I mean it's because they're both launch coasters right

Nathan: 15:36

Yeah, hmm.

Nathan: 15:39

You hit Tron... Anything else over in Magic Kingdom.

Ryan: 15:42

We also hit Jungle Cruise and Pirates.

Nathan: 15:46

Perfect.

Ryan: 15:47

May I recommend anyone who goes to the parks in July definitely sprinkle in some indoor rides with AC. Pirates was like the most glorious experience I think I've ever had on that ride.

Ryan: 15:59

It's like you, just want you know, because Pirates is always great because it's cool. But like transitioning from like what feels like probably a hundred degrees into Pirates is always great because it's cool, but transitioning from what feels like probably 100 degrees into Pirates, it's like oh, this feels so good.

Alicea: 16:10

That has a nice indoor queue too.

Ryan: 16:12

Yes, super long indoor queue.

Alicea: 16:13

Under the entrance area. It's nice and cool.

Ryan: 16:16

Yes, I was hoping I could see a peek of the new bar that's going to be opening up over there, but all the walls were still open Okay Soon open Soon. I did try to. We did have a little bit of time before our Tron lightning links. I did pop for that as well, sheepishly as I say that. I did try to go to the DVC lounge at Magic. Kingdom because I've heard that's pretty cool as well. Yeah, there were like 20 families on the wait list ahead of us at noon.

Ryan: 16:48

So like hmm, probably not going to get into that one.

Nathan: 16:52

I've heard it's like that.

Alicea: 16:52

I'm sure eventually it'll die down, but it's still the bright and shiny right now, right, yeah.

Nathan: 16:59

Yeah, we talked about that when they were first designing it and saying where it was going and how you know we saw, I think, some of the artists rendering is like that's really small, like it's not like what they have over at Epcot, where that lounge, that DVC lounge, is really big and you can get a ton of people over there. Uh this is the opposite.

Alicea: 17:19

Yes, yeah.

Nathan: 17:20

That's small.

Alicea: 17:22

Well, you'll just have to go back and try again.

Ryan: 17:24

Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, we're going back in November, so I can keep my fingers crossed. Yeah, and I would say, maybe just a pro tip I just need to give myself is to rope drop the DVC lounge as well.

Alicea: 17:34

Yeah, that's actually what I've heard for that one is get your name on there or be prepared to wait. Wow, now the wait lists do come through, because people don't stick around, right?

Nathan: 17:49

yeah, well, at least hopefully. Well, they're paying a lot of money to be in that park. Hopefully they didn't drop $150 or $200 just to sit in a lounge all day.

Alicea: 18:00

It's an annual pass or something True.

Nathan: 18:03

Okay, so $1,400. There you go, yep.

Alicea: 18:07

Just sit and wait. I mean, hey, we've done that, but that's okay.

Nathan: 18:11

All right, we've buried the lead long enough. After the weekend camp at soccer camp, you came back to Disney World and got to see the premiere of the Magic Kingdom's new nighttime parade called Disney Star starlight dream the night away. Was that just sheer dumb luck or did you know about that first night happening?

Ryan: 18:33

uh, a hundred percent sheer dumb luck, I would I would love to say that we it. We knew about it really in advance, but I think I realized it about a week before we left. I think they had announced the official premiere a couple weeks ago.

Nathan: 18:48

And then I was like wait what?

Ryan: 18:51

I saw it in some TikTok or something. I was like wait, we're going to be there. That's going to be the day we're coming back to Disney. This is going to be epic.

Alicea: 19:01

That's awesome. It runs twice a night at 9 pm and 11 pm. Which one did you see?

Ryan: 19:06

so we did the 11 pm, okay, um, so we, um, and it actually worked out really well for us because we we came back, um, we were staying at Yacht Club this time, um which was awesome, you know got to do Storm Along Bay in the the afternoon. Uh, this is the first time I've done a pool in a long time but, you know you got to jump in the pool if you're at Storm Along Bay for sure of course um, and then we did dinner at Tempanito oh nice yeah, so that was a lot of fun.

Ryan: 19:33

And hit Guardians again, and then, um, you know, we knew that. I knew that the 9 pm parade was gonna be insane yeah for sure. And so we decided, hey, um you, um you know, assuming weather was going to be good, we're going to hit the 11 PM parade.

Nathan: 19:47

Yeah.

Ryan: 19:48

And so, um, you know, we left um Epcot, right as Luminous was, kind of you know, starting up and hop the monorail and then ended up over at Magic about 9:40. And so, by that point the parade for the 9 pm parade it starts in Frontierland and runs to Main Street, ok, and they had just wrapped up as we were kind of pulling in from the monorail, from TTC OK, so you could see all the people kind of streaming out of the parks and everything.

Nathan: 20:15

Yeah.

Ryan: 20:16

So, and then the 11 pm parade starts at Main Street and then goes to Frontierland. So, for those who haven't been at Disney Park for a parade that runs twice, which we haven't been since the last time the night parade was in there, which I think we looked up was like 2017, 2018.

Nathan: 20:37

It's been a while.

Alicea: 20:37

It's been a long time.

Ryan: 20:39

So we weren't sure which way it was going to go when we got there. But a cast member, the first cast member we said it's like, oh, I think it goes from Main Street to Frontierland. It was like, oh, that wasn't very confident.

Nathan: 20:48

Yeah.

Ryan: 20:51

So we asked the second cast member. Yeah, and they confirmed that it does start in Main Street at the 11 pm parade, but I mean at 9.40,. When we walked into the park there there were people sitting down on Main Street. So these were people that didn't that had. Well, maybe they'd watched the 9 pm parade too. They were definitely going to sit on Main. Street for a good hour plus to catch the parade.

Nathan: 21:13

Well, fireworks are at 10?

Ryan: 21:15

They were at 10, yeah

Nathan: 21:15

Okay, so you're getting more than just yeah, there's more going on there. So Disney describes this new parade as a shimmering processional inspired by the classic Main Street Electrical Parade and says it's a starkest constellation of Disney dreams, brought to life by the magic of the Blue Fairy. That's a lot of words.

Ryan: 21:39

I was going to say I didn't realize that was a description that Disney gave it. Oh yeah, truthfully, the parade looks incredible. I was going to say that's I didn't realize that was a description that Disney gave it.

Nathan: 21:44

Oh yeah um, truthfully, the parade looks incredible from what we've seen online. What were your first impressions?

Ryan: 21:53

So I I would say I didn't really know what to to expect going into it. I had not seen anything about the parade, I didn't. I think I maybe saw one piece of concept art, okay, um, and I think that was for the um, the wish float yeah with um, the new, uh, princess from wish, yep, um. So I really I really didn't know what to think. I had vague memories of like spectro magic and the electric light parade yeah um, the.

Ryan: 22:19

So the first thing. So we we decided to view it in Frontierland, and so we were kind of near where the old shooting gallery was, yep, and one of the intersections that you can cut between Frontierland and Adventureland, so you could see the parade was going to come like through Liberty Square and then basically turn down to go through Frontierland, and so we could see where that turn was going to happen. And the very first float that comes down is the Blue Fairy float, and when we saw it, I kid you, not my jaw dropped, my daughter's jaw dropped. She turned to me with her jaw still open and we were just both like whoa, I mean, because this float is massive. I mean I think a lot of times when you think of Disney parades, you think of really big, long floats. This is tall.

Ryan: 23:13

I mean easily 20 plus feet tall. Wow, and the Blue Fairy is at the top of that.

Nathan: 23:18

Yeah.

Ryan: 23:19

So it was definitely an amazing way to kick off a parade, definitely set the tone, I think, for, with all those you know, put putting all those words into action yes, for sure, yeah, um, and so that was.

Ryan: 23:34

It was definitely a like, a very like cool opening sequence that they did for that

Nathan: 23:38

yeah

Alicea: 23:39

I'm gonna take a minute and just list all the floats, because there's a fair amount of them.

Alicea: 23:44

It starts off, like you said, with the blue fairy uh, looking like she's flying through the night, spreading magic all around. The next float is the wish float with Asha and Valentino, the little goat dude. After that is the encanto float, has Mirabelle, Isabella and Bruno. Then we have a frozen float which is Elsa on it. Just Elsa, right?

Ryan: 24:06

Yes, just Elsa.

Alicea: 24:08

Then we have a Royal Princesses float. It has Aurora, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Belle, Tiana and Friends, so the princes that go along with all the princesses, followed by the Coco float, which has Miguel Dante and a giant Pepita, which is that? What does I call them? The Abrejos or the spirit animals?

Ryan: 24:32

Yes, it's the giant cat.

Alicea: 24:34

The giant cat with the wings?

Ryan: 24:35

Yes, it looks like a multicolored panther or something with wings.

Alicea: 24:39

Next float is the Moana float. It has Moana and Pua and Heihei, followed by the Peter Pan float with Peter and Wendy, and Tinkerbell is leading the way and the grand finale train float is Goofy, Pluto, Donald, Daisy, Snow White and Dopey, Rapunzel and Flynn, Aladdin and Jasmine, and Mickey and Minnie. That's a lot of floats.

Ryan: 24:59

That's a lot of floats, it was.

Alicea: 25:00

Did you have a favorite?

Ryan: 25:02

Oh man, lot of floats it was. Oh man, um. So I think honestly, like I would say the ones that that really stood out, um was the moana float. Um was probably one of the first ones that kind of popped out my head, because, um, the the front of the float has um, the grandmother, um,

Nathan: 25:23

Grandma Tala

Ryan: 25:24

Yeah, Grandma Tala's in the... in her manta ray form and so that was that was really cool.

Ryan: 25:30

Um, and then the wish float was really neat too, because they, um, you know well, the blue fairy float, I think, kind of sets the, the tone for the parade. I think that the wish, float um with asha and they have like some cool led synchronization happening. I think kind of brings to light, you know, the whole like idea of starlight and wishing on stars and everything like that.

Ryan: 25:48

So that was. That was really neat. But I mean, every, every float in the parade is so well done, yeah, um, and everyone has kind of little details in it that I think are really cool.

Ryan: 26:00

Um, like the last float, which is all the characters, um, including like a couple of the princesses, um, you know, Flynn Rider and and Rapunzel are on it and they have the lantern like one of the lit up lanterns. Um, so that was really cool to kind of see them like have for sure yeah,

Nathan: 26:17

what did you think of the music?

Ryan: 26:19

So I thought the music was really good. Um they, they sprinkle in a little bit of the old school electric light parade music in there. It was so funny when it was happening. I kept hearing the riffs of it through the show and I was like why do I know that? Why do I know that music? And so when I got back to our hotel I was like, oh okay, yeah, they did sprinkle some of the. They worked it in really well, and so if you've seen spectra magic or you've seen the electrical light parade, you'll kind of hear the jingle throughout, and that's pretty cool yeah great.

Alicea: 26:53

Did you happen to get the new special popcorn inspired by the disney starlight parade?

Ryan: 26:58

we did not um. There was apparently special popcorn and special pins. Oh that we missed out on. And so I was a bit bummed by that, but we did get a pretty cool photo.

Ryan: 27:10

The PhotoPass people were out in force. I'm not sure if they could do this at every parade, but I saw more PhotoPass people kind of along a single area that I've never seen, and they had one of those sign boards with the name of the parade on it that you could hold and take a picture and it had a little bit of Disney magic in the picture.

Ryan: 27:30

When you got it your picture was kind of outlined with the blue fairy and stuff. So that was really cute Neat. So yeah, it's like probably like 30 PhotoPass people along the Frontierland part of the route, just back there.

Nathan: 27:45

Yeah, holy cow, yeah, that's a lot.

Alicea: 27:47

That is a lot.

Nathan: 27:49

There's no way they're committing to that kind of staffing for every night.

Alicea: 27:52

No, I'm guessing it was for opening night.

Nathan: 27:53

That was for opening, yeah

Alicea: 27:54

Because you know there had to be a crap ton of content creators there.

Ryan: 27:58

Oh yeah, I saw it was so funny because when we, when we were looking for our initial spot, um, you know, it was still probably because the parade starts on main street so it doesn't get to Frontierland until like 10, and it was like probably like 11, 20 by the time it turned that corner, yeah.

Ryan: 28:16

But there were already people lined up in Frontierland and like pretty much they were all content creators. They had, you know, their boom mics. They had.

Ryan: 28:25

I don't know.

Ryan: 28:25

I mean, they weren't selfie sticks, so I guess that you can bring in like a full tripod and everything. But, they were all lined up to get their perfect shot for whatever content they were planning to make or create.

Nathan: 28:36

I want to circle back to the popcorn just for a second

Alicea: 28:39

yeah, I figured you were going to

Nathan: 28:40

yeah. Okay. So, in true Disney fashion, they describe this as a star kissed mix. Sure, whatever

Nathan: 28:48

Y'all, it's, it's bubble gum and blue raspberry candied popcorn with chocolate, m&ms mini marshmallows and a white chocolate drizzle. Like what?

Alicea: 29:01

it's pink and blue.

Ryan: 29:04

Okay, but have you been to the confectionary's? Make your own popcorn thing at Magic Kingdom.

Alicea: 29:09

I have. I haven't made my own, but I've seen it.

Ryan: 29:11

Have you ever seen it? We've done that.

Nathan: 29:14

It's amazing I'm just the old guy sitting on my porch, but popcorn's supposed to be yellow and slightly buttery and salty.

Alicea: 29:23

Oh, no, no no no, you are.

Ryan: 29:25

You are missing out, Nathan.

Nathan: 29:27

Okay, I'm missing out. Like I don't like kettle corn either, so I will mix M&Ms with my popcorn occasionally.

Alicea: 29:33

I like the salty and sweet mix, yeah.

Nathan: 29:36

Sorry, it's just not, it's just that's just not me.

Ryan: 29:41

I mean, If they can mass produce that popcorn in the way that you can make your own popcorn at the confectionery, it's got potential.

Nathan: 29:48

Okay, I'll take your word for it.

Alicea: 29:50

Tell you what next time we go, we'll go to the confectionery. Kaitlyn has to be with us, though, because she likes sweet popcorn too.

Nathan: 29:56

Okay.

Alicea: 29:57

And we'll do a mix. You can watch the mix. You probably won't partake in it.

Nathan: 30:02

I was going to say I can't wait, but I can wait, I can absolutely wait for that

Alicea: 30:07

All right. Lastly, you swung by Hollywood Studios the next day before heading to the airport. What was on your hit list there?

Ryan: 30:17

So we really didn't have anything planned out.

Ryan: 30:18

We ended up sleeping in a bit, as you can imagine after my daughter had a soccer match on that Sunday and then we drove back to the parks and everything. So we didn't actually roll out of Yacht Club until like almost 11. So we did not accomplish our road-dropping goals that day. So we just went over to kind of see what was going on.

Ryan: 30:40

So we initially tried to hit Tower of Terror. It was only a 30-minute wait, which sounded great, but then half the elevators went down and it went to 100 minutes and we were standing in that outdoor queuing area in the sun. You just feel all the heat sink into you and it's like, ok, let's go find something else.

Ryan: 30:58

So hit Star Tours

Nathan: 31:00

classic

Ryan: 31:00

10-minute wait. Lots of great AC once again Got to hit that AC. Hit star tours, you know classic, yeah, 10 minute wait, lots of great ac once again.

Alicea: 31:03

Yeah, gotta hit that ac.

Ryan: 31:06

Um, and then we uh decided to. We saw that Toy Story Mania was down. Yeah, we're like let's, let's go like hang out by Toy Story Mania and see if if it comes back up after about waiting for about five minutes outside Toy Story Mania. We we got we opened it back up, so walk on at like 1230 in the afternoon. Only happens if you're smart and you kind of wait it out.

Nathan: 31:30

I think that was our play the last time we were in parks with you guys.

Alicea: 31:34

Webslingers.

Nathan: 31:34

It was Webslingers we had seen you and you guys were trying to get on and it kept going down and we're like, well, we'll just head that way, and I think you all had given up, and then we waited for maybe 10 minutes and then yeah well it's the games we play,

Ryan: 31:48

yeah and then, and then we realized that the new village stage show had opened.

Ryan: 31:51

Yeah, because we had totally forgotten about that um, and so we, we walked over to um the villain stage show and caught that, which is it's a bit out of the way. So if you don't know where it is, you're probably never, you probably wouldn't find it on your own yeah because all the way tucked behind, basically almost behind, rock and roller coaster and tower of terror.

Nathan: 32:09

But yep, so this is disney villains unfairly ever after. It includes cruella deville, captain hook and maleficent uh. They evicted lightning mcqueen and took over the theater there next to Rock and Roller Coaster. What'd you think of the show?

Ryan: 32:27

I thought it was great. I really had no concept of what it was going to be coming in. All I had seen was you know they were doing this new show. It runs every 30 minutes which is actually a pretty.

Ryan: 32:40

That's a lot for a live stage show, but um, but it was great. Um, the uh. It's basically like emceed by the magic mirror from the evil queen and nice. They have, um, all of the all the villains kind of behind mirrors and then maleficent captain hook and cruella break through the mirrors because they're all trying to convince the audience who was most unjustly, unfairly talked about and misunderstood.

Nathan: 33:12

Sure, they're all misunderstood.

Alicea: 33:14

Maleficent, definitely

Nathan: 33:17

Yean, her name doesn't mean a nything.

Ryan: 33:19

Yeah.

Nathan: 33:21

Anyway, how long was the show then?

Ryan: 33:24

It was 20 minutes

Nathan: 33:25

wow

Alicea: 33:25

That was a very fast turnaround

Ryan: 33:27

Yeah so we were actually...

Ryan: 33:28

I was actually super surprised because I saw that it was um every 30 minutes, which was great, because I was like, oh, this is probably gonna, we probably can't get into the first show we go to right so it's like awesome, so we don't have to wait too long. But we we walked in at like it was like 1:20, and the show was just getting out. And I was like oh wow, and I'm like how are we going to? But yeah, they have it down to like a science.

Ryan: 33:51

I mean it's Disney, so I shouldn't have been surprised.

Ryan: 33:53

But yeah, they got everybody out of the theater, Everybody sat and the show started maybe 10 seconds late.

Nathan: 33:58

Wow, yeah, that's incredible yeah.

Nathan: 34:03

Did they keep the bench seating from when it was um?

Ryan: 34:05

No, it's. It's now individual seats.

Nathan: 34:07

Okay, okay okay, wow, so you've got individual seats and they're able to turn that whole place around in 10 minutes. That's, that's impressive. I mean, that is the kind of efficiency of Disney of how to do crowd control and move people around.

Ryan: 34:21

That's impressive yeah, I was. I was super impressed with how quickly we went from being in the outdoor queue to being in the building in in our seats, and it's a pretty big theater. If you haven't been there, it's not small.

Nathan: 34:36

We've been there when it was still Lightning. We haven't been there for Unfairly Ever After yet.

Alicea: 34:44

No, no, it wasn't open last time we were there so next year, next time we're there, when are we?

Nathan: 34:49

june

Alicea: 34:49

yeah, june

Nathan: 34:51

oh no, we're not gonna see it

Alicea: 34:53

at some point we'll see, at some point we will see it yeah

Ryan: 34:56

well, hopefully, hopefully it's still there, because you never know a stage show yeah, it's

Nathan: 35:00

very true

Ryan: 35:00

yeah, but yeah, I think that, um, I don't know if it's the new and the novelty or whatever, but it was, it was a full house, nice, yeah, so, and definitely, you know, um, the pacing was great again, you know, and and yeah we. We walked out of there saying like, hey, can't wait to to come back in november and see with the family that's awesome family.

Nathan: 35:17

So, yeah, fantastic uh. Any other highlights from the trip we haven't talked about.

Ryan: 35:23

No, I think we pretty much covered everything.

Ryan: 35:25

You know, I think the you know if you're going to do just kind of one or two days in the parks bookending, you know it's. Obviously having an annual pass or being DVC is a huge benefit because, you can get those perks If you're going to do it, you know, by with like a hard ticket.

Ryan: 35:40

you know, definitely put a plan together would be the only thing I say, because yeah well, the crowds weren't as bad as I thought, because I think kind of disney's kind of you know kind of level loaded their crowds. Now, pretty much um. You know it's still... Rides were still anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes in most of the parks so you have to kind of have a plan to get done

Nathan: 35:58

yep, you guys did so much yeah on top of like you didn't have a lot of shoulder time in before and after the soccer tournament or their soccer camp plus the whole soccer camp, like I'm imagining your daughter just collapsed and slept like ever since you've been back, and probably on the plane ride too.

Ryan: 36:18

like yeah, yeah, we definitely uh we.

Ryan: 36:22

I basically told her like you know, this is your, you know your bonus part of the trip because of you, know what you, you know what you did and how hard you worked. So you know we'll go for as little or as long as you want, and you know, I think that Disney kids find a way to rally you know Because you know, I asked her several times okay, you sure you want to stay up till 11 and go to the parade?

Ryan: 36:48

And she's like, oh yeah, no, we're going. I'm like okay, and so you know. But yeah, I think she is fully back in teenager mode now.

Ryan: 36:55

You, know, I think she slept till noon today.

Nathan: 36:58

So definitely still recovering, probably Excellent.

Nathan: 37:01

Well, we were going to have Brynn here, but she's a little under the weather. She's lost her voice this morning when she woke up, so it doesn't. Unfortunately, doesn't work well with the podcast.

Ryan: 37:12

Nope, hard to mime

Nathan: 37:13

yeah, exactly exactly, so we'll have Brynn on again, for sure.

Nathan: 37:19

So what's next?

Ryan: 37:27

So next is we do our annual November trip, yeah, to Disney World. So we always do Thanksgiving down at Disney with um, friends and and my mom, and then we uh, we're coming up on our final payment for the Christmas cruise on the Treasure which is going to be exciting.

Ryan: 37:37

We've never done any kind of special cruise on disney cruise lines.

Alicea: 37:41

Um, wow,

Ryan: 37:42

yeah, so super excited. We generally cruise in February, but realized that we had some conflicts with soccer and other stuff in 2026. So it's like, okay, well, how are we gonna make this work? It's like kids are old enough to be away from the house for Christmas. How?

Ryan: 37:58

about a Christmas cruise. So excited for that.

Alicea: 38:00

Oh, that's gonna be amazing. We love the christmas cruises and we'll be very interested to hear how, how the Treasure does a christmas cruise yeah, yeah like is there? Is there gonna be a gingerbread house or what's the christmas tree gonna look like? Yeah, well, we will have to have you all back on afterwards for sure.

Nathan: 38:18

What kind of mischief to Coriander and Sage get up to I know it's gonna's going to be good.

Ryan: 38:22

It's going to be exciting.

Nathan: 38:24

Okay, now I'm jealous. Hey, can we? No, no, we can't, never mind.

Alicea: 38:29

No, we've got something in November. Sorry, that's true.

Ryan: 38:33

There might still be space.

Nathan: 38:35

Our dance card is full.

Alicea: 38:36

We've got so many things planned right now.

Nathan: 38:38

Yeah, we do.

Nathan: 38:40

We do, we do.

Nathan: 38:41

Well, Ryan, thanks again for coming on. We'll have you back.

Ryan: 38:44

Yeah, thank you for having me Appreciate it

Nathan: 38:46

Excellent. Well, remember we're not affiliated with Disney or their subsidiaries. These are personal opinions and suggestions based on our own experiences. We recommend working with a travel agent or contacting Disney directly to plan your perfect vacation.

Alicea: 39:00

If you have any questions or suggestions or would like to be interviewed on our show to share your own Disney experiences, please send an email to podcast at ourmousecapades. com.

Nathan: 39:09

Go ahead and follow us on social media. We're at Our Mousecapades. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook Threads and YouTube.

Alicea: 39:16

Please give us a rating and review in your podcast app. It really helps people to find us.

Nathan: 39:21

And, of course, don't hesitate to share us with your friends and fellow Disney lovers of all ages.

Alicea: 39:26

Thank you for listening. We'll be in your ears next week.