Speaker 1: 0:22

Hey everybody, I'm Nathan, I'm Scott Gustin, and welcome to this week's episode of Adventures and Mousecapades. We are blessed once again by the presence of Disney journalism royalty on our humble little show. If you follow Disney news at all, then you're no doubt familiar with our guest who breaks all the news that everybody else bickers over, the gentleman who occupies at least one slot on the Disney News source, mount Rushmore. The guy who just spent last weekend in the bowels of the Coronado Springs Convention Center learning everything Disney shared at Destination D23 2025. And learning some things they didn't want to share too. That's right. This week's guest is the man, the myth, the legend, his Royal Excellency Scott Gustin. Goodness gracious.

Speaker 2: 1:15

Made me uncomfortable. I was so uncomfortable I didn't even. I almost missed the introduce yourself. Just say my name Didn't hear all of that stuff, so no good to be here and happy to talk. Destination D23.

Speaker 1: 1:28

Yeah, can you remind our listeners kind of who you are? I mean, obviously I just laid it out, but kind of what's your connection to Disney, what's your day job and how the heck do you keep so plugged into what's going on from Disney?

Speaker 2: 1:41

Yeah, I'm a journalist journalist. I work for a company it's called next star. Uh, so I work on the digital side, next star, and then I cover covered theme parks in disney for a while. But I really was just interested in trying to be a kind of a fact focused news forward person covering the parks.

Speaker 2: 2:03

Yeah, I have always enjoyed reading all the rumors, but I I knew that there needed to be a through line to what was real and what's not.

Speaker 2: 2:14

Yeah, because it's really fun to talk about what disney can do, should do, but it is important to know what they are saying they are going to do, what they will do. So I tried to find a path there where I'm just trying to really focus on what's being announced and a lot of the time it's just trying to gather all the different places that that news is shared and then just share from, obviously, the one place that I put my news, which is basically on Twitter. But yeah, I mean, it's just a person. I have a personal interest in not only going to the parks but the crazy inner workings and just running that entire mammoth of a city in Orlando and then also Disneyland, not so much but, um, just the the fun part of how that city, both cities work, but especially in Florida, um all those uh cast members, the guests coming in and out, all the transportation. It's just something I've always been interested in as a fan, and then also covering it, so it's fun.

Speaker 1: 3:26

Well, I can say for us, for sure, it's not real unless Scott Gustin has tweeted about it. So we, we appreciate your, your voice of sanity in the midst of the clickbait and the morass of opinions and, uh, people arguing over this, that and the other thing. So thank you for everything that you do right off the bat.

Speaker 2: 3:48

Yeah, I appreciate it. I like to argue too and I have a lot of opinions, but I do know that I think most of the value that I try to bring which there's a lot of awesome voices that cover parks yeah, I think the value that I try to bring is that it's just trying to weave through and find the facts and the context that can go along with it. If it's good or bad things that people do and don't like, also trying to add context to those things.

Speaker 1: 4:22

Yeah, so this year's tagline for destination D 23 was, quote a journey around the worlds of Disney. What did that mean to you going into the weekend and looking back, do you think Disney delivered?

Speaker 2: 4:37

Yeah, it was. Uh, it was a classic uh destination D 23 weekend. Um, if you had only gone to one before and it was the most recent one and you went to this one and I think you would be confused, I don't know if you'd be disappointed. It would just feel like two very, very different events, uh, with last destination being more announcement and news focused and in this one, having those moments, uh, throughout the weekend, but presented in context and not just a everyone get in the room. We got to talk about all these things that we're working on.

Speaker 2: 5:15

It was more of let's get in the room and let's talk about castles and let's talk about how our creative process is for, you know, working on developing a new theme park.

Speaker 2: 5:26

If it has a castle, what's that going to look like? Um, they did fun look back at previous castles and then they gave us some news that they're gonna, you know, update uh center of the castle in florida back to kind of its traditional look. Yeah, um, I think in a previous the previous destination that would have just been part of a bigger panel that had a bunch of announcements in it and that it would just have been oh, by the way, we're going to paint the castle. I do think for fans the way they did, it is a lot more meaningful. Um, and it's the audience that's going to appreciate an entire panel on castles, whereas at D23 Expo next year if they were announcing if the castles were on the table or repainting Magic Kingdom or the Cinderella Castle, magic Kingdom was on the table for D23 Expo, it would have been a side mention, probably cut for time type thing.

Speaker 1: 6:24

Or one of those things that Disney loves to dribble out the week before, the week before, right yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:29

Got it. A lot of, I would say most people and I'm not saying they're wrong would look at the weekend and say that there was less news, or that there were smaller updates or no news. You know those are all valid takes. I think it's all what your expectations are. And if your expectation is formed on the last one, uh, you're probably right. But if you look back at some of the first destination d23s, this one felt very similar to those got it.

Speaker 1: 7:01

I just kind of mentioned this a little bit. Disney loves to dribble out news ahead of these events, both Destination D23, which happens on the even years at this or odd years this point in Orlando, and then D23 Expo, which is on the even years in Anaheim. The week before Destination D23 this year, there was a whole bunch of news that came out. We got some details about Zootopia Better Together Excuse me, Better Zoo-gether my apologies to the branding department there including a meet and greet with Nick and Judy. We got some updated renderings and story elements about Big Thunder Mountain and its refurbishment. We got a lowdown on the rethemed pre-show at Rock and Roller Coaster featuring Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, which looks awesome, and we got to see the updated ride vehicle coming to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Why? Why does, in your opinion? Why does Disney do this ahead of these shows, instead of adding to what's happening on the weekend?

Speaker 2: 8:09

uh, I mean, they didn't have a buzz light year panel, right, they didn't have a panel to talk about all of those bits of news. I think that week before was very much walt. Disney world setting up the one thing that matters to them, which are bookings in 2026. So they want to lay out everything that they have coming up for the next 12 months. Zugether, you're the only person that's ever going to misspeak and call it Better. Together, I'm sure You're the only one. Sorry about that. What a weird name that is.

Speaker 2: 8:44

But that's opening this year but over the next 12 months. That's what they focused on were all the things that are important to them as a resort and I think it was they kind of established what they wanted Destination D23 to be and those announcements didn't really fit in to kind of the framework of the weekend they had planned and I think also it was just I think Walt Disney World had their own priorities and they're not to make a really good weekend for destination D23 as much as they would love for that to be the case. Like, their job as a resort is to increase bookings and sell people and coming next year. So yeah, as someone who was down there for those announcements and then down there for destination and I came home in between, it would have been nice if it was all at the same time.

Speaker 2: 9:36

Selfishly, but I understand why they did it that way. I mean, it makes sense, yeah, when you kind of stand back and look at it. But that's kind of based on a view of knowing they were going to do it differently versus how they've done in the past. Yeah, even though they've done week before announcements, like you said, this one was different because it was intentional in the previous years. Those are things that kind of just didn't make the cut. These would have made the cut in previous years. It just didn't write the cut. These would have made the cut in previous years. It just didn't right cut because of how they wanted to have that d23 weekend go right the format had changed.

Speaker 2: 10:13

Right the format had changed, and Walt Disney World, I think, also wanting to kind of do their own, their own way of presenting all of those headlines yeah yeah, that makes sense of everything that did come out early.

Speaker 1: 10:25

Anything stick out to you as a big surprise um or a big win, I mean, I think all of it's a all of it's a good win.

Speaker 2: 10:35

Yeah, or I love them finding ways to make kind of smaller updates to familiar attractions and things that we enjoy and love, even ones that are not this was at D23, ones that are super popular with a small group of guests.

Speaker 2: 10:54

Finding a way to improve it and make it just as popular with those guests, if not more, and then also open it up to more people. Like the carousel of progress update will will do right, I love those types of updates, and buzz like buzz lightyear is a great win because it was very much possible. It was very possible that that ride would have just been completely ripped out if they were going to spend the money. Yeah, it was very likely that it was going to be a rip and replace and new IP who knows what it would be but I'm glad that they did it the way that they did it and I think that it's just a win. The strategy and it's in and of itself, like it doesn't need to be two years of nothing there, so you can take it out and put in something very similar with record Ralph or whatever it might be Right, very similar with Wreck-It Ralph or whatever it might be. So I'm encouraged that they are able to improve upon something that is a very popular attraction.

Speaker 1: 11:53

Right, and of all those Toy Story shooters, that is the one that has historically frustrated me the most, just because the technology is so different. And anything that can help spruce that thing up and actually put it back on my list of an attraction that I actually want to go participate in is good. And frankly this puts it back on the list because I can't distinguish my little laser dot from anybody else's and I have no idea what I'm aiming at.

Speaker 2: 12:18

So hopefully this helps yeah, I feel like I could and it was my one few like skills in life has been really good on that ride. So selfishly, how to impress the kids. Yeah, if I only was thinking about myself, then I I might say you can just leave the blasters attached and clunky, it's fine, just update everything else. I mean for that ride, everything it was really they needed to update the, the blasters and the targets yeah but for me it really was.

Speaker 2: 12:49

Just just got it just looked old, like inside dingy and all of that, like it just needed it needs. I'm hoping they give it an update for all of the, the signage and all the things inside in a way that it will kind of withstand time better, whereas, like all of the bright stuff that they put in there before just collects dust and it's very visible. So I hope they go more lighting and led ways versus like glow in the dark look, which it just you don't paint it very frequently. It looks it can look old really fast.

Speaker 1: 13:29

Yeah but yeah, yeah, there's a few other rides that, um, I have similar opinions on, but uh, uh, we'll, we'll, we'll stat we'll put a pin in that. We'll circle back around to that a little bit. Let's pivot to the main event. So so, unlike D23 Fan Expo in Anaheim, destination D23 in Orlando is significantly scaled down. How would you describe the focus and outcomes that Disney is looking to drive with Destination D23, in contrast to what we get in Anaheim?

Speaker 2: 14:00

I mean, I think it is for. I think it's for the fans D23 Expo has. It is created for fans to attend, but I'm not sure it's always everything done with the fans interest in mind. Like it's kind of a company interest, very much like the brands that we're now working with. Here are the shows that are important to us. Yeah, it's not just that.

Speaker 2: 14:28

Like obviously there is an overlap yeah, but everything at destination d23 is very fan interest and fan focused. I mean, um, you know, entire panels and concerts for the goofy movie, like that is only driven by fan interest, whereas at D23 Expo it's the company kind of saying you know, what do we really need to be pushing that's releasing in the next eight months? Like what do we need to make sure we're talking about, whether people are super interested in it or not. So I really think it's just the difference of like curated specifically for the fans, whereas I view I don't view they would describe it this way, but I view the expo is just kind of being the blowout for the whole Disney brand for fans, but maybe not specifically curated for the biggest, biggest Disney fans.

Speaker 1: 15:20

It's, I think, what's coming into my uh, to borrow from, like, the TV industry. It's like the Disney corporate wide version of like their upfronts is what you get in the D 23 expo in Anaheim. It's I love what you're saying. It's everything that's going on on TV and the parks and the cruise, like, like, everything that's going to make them revenue and money, everything that's going to make them revenue and money. They're targeting that messaging and trying to get Disney front and center in the general population's brain of oh, I do want to go see that movie or, oh, maybe we should think about visiting a Disney park for our once in a lifetime trip, because that looks really interesting and I want to go experience that.

Speaker 2: 16:28

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 16:29

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:30

I mean D23 Expo has plenty of, because they have multiple things going on at once. If, for anyone who hasn't gone, like, destination D23 is everyone's in the same room the entire time. If you're not going shopping or doing anything else, all of the panels are in one room, so you get to sit in the same room the entire time. If you're not going shopping or doing anything else, all of the panels are in one room, so you get to sit in the same seat. Everyone's watching the same weekend. Uh, d23 expo is more. Kind of choose your own adventure when you can. Yeah, some of the things you have to, you know, get lucky to even get a seat in.

Speaker 2: 17:00

Yeah, um, and there are there are plenty of panels that are super, super, you know, focused for fans of venice and ferb or whatever it is, but the the big blowout events at d23 expo, all of the things on the showroom floor are much more often focused on what's important the company or the fans versus just like fan driven itinerary and topics and story.

Speaker 1: 17:32

Yeah like you get a destination yeah, so at destination d23, the, the main event is saturday and sunday there were some tie-ins happening, like at disney springs. As soon as, like the Tuesday beforehand, were you in town to catch any of that stuff? I was not, no, I didn't do any of that. No, okay, and it's really just hey, you've got a bunch of fans in in town. What special things, what special tie-ins can we do? So there was I think there was a special fan day at one of the parks or or some other things going on at Springs. It didn't look like any news or anything was coming out of that. It was just kind of branded exercises, if you will.

Speaker 2: 18:10

I am very news focused at these things. When I go I do try to enjoy my time, but it is always. I'm constantly just trying to figure out, you know, is there news happening? And for that one, when I knew that there wasn't, I decided to. Because, I already said, I went to the event, the news event, the week before and then I came back for for destination, I decided to wait a day, coming back again, since there was no news happening that day. Good call.

Speaker 1: 18:40

Good call. Of course, one of the biggest draws for many D23 members is the opportunity to browse the special merch offerings, especially at D23 Expo. But same they had a bunch of merch shops at Destination D23. It looked like this was solely Disney-run stores, with the company store Mickey's of Glendale Incan Paint Marketplace and a couple other smaller spots, versus store Mickey's of Glendale, incan Paint Marketplace and a couple other smaller spots versus, like you were mentioning, with D23 Expo there's a whole show floor and you've got Lug and Bobbleheads and Lorcana and everything under the sun is there. In your opinion, was this a better setup? Do you ever think this would be done in Anaheim, or is there just too much content that they'd want to share in Anaheim? It really lends to a different format.

Speaker 2: 19:34

I wouldn't say it's better. I think it's similar. It's just on a smaller scale, without the vendor-only speak like Lug and Roosevelt's having their own spots. Like you didn't have that. Everything was in these central stores, but the same stores that they have at D 23 expo.

Speaker 2: 19:55

In general, I'm not a big shopper, so I'm usually going for one specific item, and that was what I was doing this time. I only bought one thing for a friend when I was there, so it was figuring out which one had it and then how to get in. I think the the frustrating thing um, it's this way at expo too, but they're bigger venues so they have more room is the. The shopping times and the queues I think were were pretty long. Um, but I didn't see anyone like super upset about that. It's just it always feels like they underestimate, like the demand for the merch and then they don't have spaces big enough for it.

Speaker 2: 20:39

I don't, I don't really know what I would have done differently for this one, but it does seem it is. I had one. I wanted to buy one thing and it took me like a day and a half to just get in that store to buy the one thing. Wow, you know, so like, and it's because I didn't have a time, uh, assigned, so I kind of had to wait until the the cues had died down and I had to go like during a panel, right, um, but it is what it is. It is just it is interesting that there's people, you know, saying I'm here to give you my money and I have to jump through a lot of hoops to do that. Yeah, um, but I would. I wouldn't say it was like there's anything better about Destination versus Expo. It was just very different because of the amount of space they have.

Speaker 1: 21:30

We were at Expo last year. It was our first time going to a D23 event and it was. It was shocking to us and walking into that situation in terms of oh yeah, you're going to wait in line for an hour to go see the like, we spent an hour in line just to go see the lounge fly booth and decisions were made. I think we will definitely plan differently next time, for sure.

Speaker 2: 22:07

There are studies about why those queues work and because once you've spent an hour in line, you're like well I have to buy something, right?

Speaker 2: 22:10

yeah, I just waited an hour, uh. So there, there is some evil strategy to how those operate, uh, as the person who doesn't buy a lot and just kind of wants to go see uh doesn't work out, but I mean. But I mean I don't know why, uh, the source shouldn't care what I think, because you're not the target, right, right, if you're not going to give them your money, then they don't really care.

Speaker 1: 22:33

They could care less. Yeah, yeah, you mentioned it earlier the. The other big difference is that there's just a single flow of presentations in one big room. You called out the Destination D23 approach this year kind of harkens back to what they used to do, kind of pre-pandemic. Do you think that this makes a lot more sense for the Disney World edition of D23 moving forward? Is it a better kind of setup for them?

Speaker 2: 23:03

Yeah, I mean for Destination D23, they've always done it that way where you're, it's just a single, single room for all presentations and not all the breakouts. I think it that only works. Um, that only works for for destination, you know it's. You compare it to D23 expo, it's the main hall, right, but there's just no other options, right. Expo, it's the main hall, right, but there's just no other options, right. And so I I think it works because you know what. All. There were 4 000 people at destination. You basically know what all 4 000 of those people are are wanting to get, because it is such a a super fan type event.

Speaker 2: 23:40

But, uh, what I don't, what I do not like about d23 Expo, is FOMO and that's this constant, especially when everyone's going in these things with a different agenda. But, like, if I'm trying to just find news, then I'm constantly wondering what's being talked about in that Marvel panel. Like the title didn't sound that interesting, but maybe it actually is a good panel, and you're often like limited to very bare descriptions or titles for some of these panels and you have to make a decision and while you're in there, there's something else happening somewhere else. So part of me does not like that. I do like that. That. Uh, it gives you options, but I I did often find, like I, there's a very specific panel. I won't even say it that I don't even know what was discussed, because the entire time I was in there I was following on Twitter news that was coming out of another panel that I couldn't get into. That did have lots of news in it. Um, that was not the best use of my hour being in that room.

Speaker 1: 24:43

That was not the best use of my hour. Yeah, just being in that room staring at my phone. And this was in Anaheim. This was last year. Yeah, yeah, this was last year. Yeah, I think we were going to go to Expo this year, and then I don't know that we're going to go to Expo this coming year. At this point We'll see. The more and more you talk about it, the disney world version sounds a lot more appetizing for us because we don't have that fomo. But I I have to admit there was something about being in the honda center. Oh, yeah, uh, for for those three nights that was absolutely fantastic, yep and that's coming.

Speaker 2: 25:19

I mean it's. That was probably the most exciting news. I mean we knew Expo would be back, barring some shock, but it was good to see that that worked for them. I know it had to have been expensive for them to do it, so the fact that they're doing it again was I was excited to see that too, because I was really, really enjoyed that.

Speaker 1: 25:45

Well, let's pivot back to what they did talk about at Destination D23. Saturday started off with a much-anticipated session called Disney Villains Icons of Evil, and I think we all thought okay, if there's going to be Parks news coming out of any of these things, we know we have a villain's land coming to Magic Kingdom. This is where we're going to learn a ton. Maybe Did we learn anything about what they're planning to do in the new villain's land, or is nothing really?

Speaker 2: 26:15

No, I mean, if you're interested in very vague descriptions of research trips vague descriptions of research trips in the extremely early um process of creating a new land, maybe, but no, it was, there was nothing there. Okay, okay, I mean, they I think the goal seemed to be that they just wanted people to know that they haven't, like changed the plan, like there's been anytime you announce something so far out. If there's any moment of silence, there will be people saying like maybe they changed their mind, maybe they've canceled it, and so it almost seemed like, uh, just like a um, a progress report check-in, like yep, yep, still happening, nothing's changed, same size, everything. We told you, uh, and we're still still working on it. Yeah, it's kind of what it felt like, got it?

Speaker 1: 27:12

Got it. So, even though there wasn't a dedicated panel, the parks did get some love during the event, with announcements about updates to carousel progress. We got some news about Tron Light, cycle Run and the Castle, which is what you alluded to earlier. What are your thoughts about what we heard?

Speaker 2: 27:32

Yeah, I would say probably most excited, personally most excited about Carousel of Progress. We didn't really get a timeline on that, but I am jokingly saying this. But I do wonder if it's not, if it's just a situation where that ride is in need of actual maintenance to the ride structure. Yeah, and it just makes me wonder if it's just going to come to the day where it just stops like all right now is where we're going to start our refurbishment, um, but I think it'll happen at some point next year.

Speaker 2: 28:06

Yeah, I think most excited for that, because it is a deserving ride of an update. It needs it and I think we'll also get to see them kind of perfect. The Walt animatronic, which they didn't stick, 100% stick.

Speaker 1: 28:22

The landing at Disneyland yeah, have you seen that one in person?

Speaker 2: 28:26

Yeah, it is. It's impressive in person but it's not perfect. It is. Does not look great in photos or in video Really, but in the audience, without the benefit of any zoom lens, when you're just sitting in a room, it is very believable, yeah, that you're in Walt's office. It is very believable, yeah, that you're in walt's office I mean he has this tiny little desk.

Speaker 2: 28:50

It's like this dumbest part of it is how tiny his little bitty tiny like minion desk that he has, but with the updates that it will get before they add it to walt's world. It's as a fan of both coasts. But being a home East coaster, yeah, it's cool that I think we will get the better of the two. Yeah, and we might get two Walt's in that attraction. They've only said one is very possible that we actually get two new scenes with Walt on the attraction. So I'm most excited for that. I think I'm.

Speaker 2: 29:27

I was delighted by the castle because I like the classic look Same and it just delights me that they can still do things that need to be done that are not 100% revenue drivers. Yeah, that was probably someone on that team at both, as you wrote, had to fight really hard to get that, because Mr Spreadsheet is kind of like well, fine, like it's this. I think there's more to it than they've told us. We'll kind of find out over time, maybe, why they were able to do it, but I think that was the biggest surprise was them announcing that.

Speaker 1: 30:12

So, in other words, maybe it needs some structural rehab or something like that, and then hey, if we're going to be doing some construction on it, we got to repaint it anyway. Here's our opportunity to to change the color scheme.

Speaker 2: 30:23

I think so. I think there was bringing forward of some budgeting that is outside of just a paint color. I think, the same type of conversation you might have with your significant other. If they want to repaint the living room and has a really tall ceiling. It's like, well, if we're going to do that, then we might as well do X. It feels like it's probably a very similar type of conversation that happened?

Speaker 1: 30:48

Yeah, we had always wanted to repaint the inside of our house and we have half of it done for about a year ago. But that's because we had a water pipe burst and we had to have a bunch of repainting done. Anyway, it's like, well, while the upstairs is empty, let's go ahead and do it.

Speaker 2: 31:04

Yep, and that's just how it works sometimes, and I'm okay if that's the case here. If we find out anything, I don't think it's going to be a bad thing, but I think that there's more to it, but we're all going to win as a result.

Speaker 1: 31:20

Scott, it's a business thing. It's called synergy.

Speaker 2: 31:25

I don't think they're going to paint Avengers Doomsday on the side when they're doing it Probably not.

Speaker 1: 31:30

That's what we're saying they tried that for one day and they had what? Stitched toilet paper? The castle back in the day when that first movie came out, and I think they learned their lesson. Maybe let's not mess with the castle for the sake of messing with the castle.

Speaker 2: 31:44

Yeah, I mean it's really funny to go and just look at the castle through the years up until like 2010. They did a lot of weird stuff. I mean not even ones that people talk about. Like there's a very interesting castle overlay they did for to celebrate the 50th anniversary of disneyland. That has this like giant, like mosaic type thing right in the middle of the castle, one that I don't see a lot of photos of. It's just any change of the castle now feels like people make a bunch of noise about it I mean myself included but it just seems like back then it's just kind of like yeah, sure, throw it up there, but it is. It is funny that there's so much excitement about just going back to plain pre-2007 like castle we haven't seen.

Speaker 2: 32:37

We haven't seen that castle. It's not just the the pink castle we have now. We haven't seen the castle that they're going to give us. We really haven't seen that color scheme in almost like 20 years. So I'm excited for it, but mostly excited that they were able to get it done. That makes me optimistic for other stuff too.

Speaker 1: 32:55

Yeah yeah. Saturday night's main hall presentation, wrapped up with a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Emperor's new groove. And then I'm going to butcher this up with a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the emperor's new groove, and then I I'm gonna butcher this kuzco topia night at typhoon lagoon. Did you make it to either of those?

Speaker 2: 33:13

I went to the kuzco thing. It didn't do any of the water stuff, but we just went to see some of the characters. Yeah, it was a fun event. It was good, um, and it was not. It was not crowded at all. I don't know, maybe people that have done like the h2o glow probably was similar uh attendance for that, but maybe even below that. But they had the free ice cream bars, popcorn, drinks type thing you get at the after hours event. So it was.

Speaker 1: 33:39

It was fun nice there were a number of sessions over the weekend celebrating, and I'm gonna go. This is is deep Disney nerd stuff here. So Exitensio the three Caballeros Disney Legacy panel with Roy P Disney, plus a session from Disney Archives. Anything stand out to your Disney nerd heart from all that.

Speaker 2: 34:01

I mean it was all interesting. Um, I mean it was all interesting, I. I found myself um. I think my one biggest complaint about the event was the wi-fi was just the worst, so unfortunately.

Speaker 2: 34:13

Unfortunately, myself and a lot of people that were trying to work had to leave the venue to actually work. So there were some panels that I actually actually missed because I was trying to share news, which had to like go out of that conference center, literally out of the building sometimes, to get a signal. So if it wasn't about parks, I was either not able to listen in a way that I maybe would have wanted to or I literally was out of the room.

Speaker 1: 34:43

Yeah, got it. Or I literally was out of the room. Yeah, Got it. Well, you did mention in closing out the weekend, on Sunday was a celebration of the goofy movies 30th anniversary and then something called the Disney eighties and nineties celebration concert. What was that all about?

Speaker 2: 35:00

I did not see that I had to go, I had to leave, but it looked like it was. It looked like a lot of fun. There was, I think, actors from a few movies, I think kind of all on stage singing together. I think it's a You'd have to fact check me on this. I want to say that's a thing that they've done before. I think they've done it on some of the cruises and they've done it other places. They've done before. Like, I think they've done it on some of the cruises and they've done it other places. So I think it's it was a bigger version of anyone who's seen like that show. It was like a bigger version of that.

Speaker 1: 35:31

Yeah, there was a cruise line adjacent event where I remember somebody talking about this and I can't remember. Oh, it was the most recent DVC member cruise that they had and I think this concert or a pared down version of this concert was there. Yep, that was it Okay, got it Okay. So same kind of thing, so fun for the Disney nerds. That's such a bummer that Wi-Fi and everything else wasn't working.

Speaker 2: 36:02

Yeah, and it just happens at these things. Yeah, like, um, I was using cell service at one point, uh, and then trying to use the wi-fi. I don't complain about it too much because I think a lot of the wi-fi was getting eaten up by people that were streaming for the people that were not there, and I'm glad that they did that for the people that couldn't come, so they could see it at home via someone streaming on youtube. Yeah, but I had to, like, change the settings on my phone to take super compressed photos just so I could get a image to upload for a lot of the time. So it was, yeah, and some of the people that were at the event, drew Drew, the Disney dude, on Twitter.

Speaker 2: 36:46

Yeah, he just ended up sitting at the very, very back of the room. Yeah, like near the door, Because that's where he found one spot that he got the best Wi-Fi signal and he's like all right, I'm just staying here.

Speaker 1: 37:01

Hopefully they do some infrastructure upgrades to the Coronado Convention Center before they got two years to get it done before they're back. I'm sure, yeah, so from a Disney Parks News perspective and we'll include all the pre-show announcements from the week prior to Destination D23, did we get what you thought we'd get?

Speaker 2: 37:22

Uh, I got what I thought we would get. A week before like after, when I went to the event at Walt Disney World and they talked about the things, they talked about a lot of things. I thought that would come up. I posted on. I have a sub stack, I wrote some predictions on there and I want to say like half of the things I predicted for D23 actually happened the week before. So after that I was kind of like all right, this is going to be a very, very different event.

Speaker 2: 37:47

Yeah, so I think in that week before my expectations were right at what we ended up getting but, before that they were way off, Like I was certainly, even though I'd had people say you know, don't expect big news drops. Don't expect what we did a couple of years ago. Yeah. I still was thinking we would get more than we got, but inside of that last week it ended up being about what we thought. And then the wall announcement was a nice surprise that. I had no idea it was coming.

Speaker 1: 38:19

Yeah, it was cool Flip side of the coin. Anything that you really thought we'd hear about, that we didn't.

Speaker 2: 38:24

I feel like I mean, mean, they've teased and talked about bluey coming to the parks and they just refused to follow up on that. And I don't. This one frustrates me because they're so slow this is so slow sometimes and they just miss the moment. And I don't really think that's the case with bluey, because it's always going to be popular with a certain age group and with with parents that have young kids. But it just seems like why would that not be the project that you could figure out how to speed up, right? It's just like insane how slow they're moving.

Speaker 1: 38:58

Because they basically just said the characters are going to be in, or the character Bluey is going to be in the park, right? I mean it's like a meet and greet or some walk around or something like it, and they said it's basic, yeah, most basic thing ever and they said it was going to happen this year, in 2025.

Speaker 2: 39:15

So it's like the clock's ticking guys and I am still confident from what I've heard, I'm so confident it will happen this year. But they did leave themselves some wiggle room in that initial announcement that we all interpreted, myself included, to be that it is going to happen this year. Yeah, that I think. They said you know, bluey would be coming to the parks and cruise line Bluey made his appearance in Australia like on a few cruises and then it disappeared and then they kind of said we'll have more about their appearance in the parks in the months ahead. I mean mean, yeah, you never know how many months right, like I'm gonna be alive for like I don't know, like 300 more months or something.

Speaker 2: 39:55

I guess we could, we could go that route in like 10 months you could also say days yeah, like in the days ahead the year, I mean, um we'll have an announcement coming in days, yeah yeah, how many days uh, I, I, but I still think it'll happen this year, but at this point they're not willing to promote it.

Speaker 2: 40:14

It's not going to be a lot, which is okay, yeah, which it really is fine, but it also is going to be like what took so, what took so long, like, right, we're going to wake up one day and then there's just going to be a website. It it's going to say Bluey is making an appearance at Hollywood studios and he's just like standing in the future animation courtyard and it's just going to be like why did it take, you know, 12 months to do this? Right? So I don't know. That one felt like a an obvious update.

Speaker 1: 40:49

It was owed. We didn't get it. Yeah, I know blue is from australia. Maybe there's a you know, there's an immigration joke in there, but I'll leave that on the table for others or maybe there's like a contract.

Speaker 2: 40:56

Yeah, like I, I hope, I hope there is a legitimate reason and it's not just people dragging their feet. So I I kind of thought we would get that. I didn't expect them to talk about cars at all, yeah, and they didn't. Yeah, I mean there were other things that I thought and I may have even tried to predict that they would talk about, but it wasn't anything like I came out of the weekend saying like why did they not give us an update on blank? Yeah, but it's because they gave us a lot the week before. Yeah, so they gave us a lot the week before. Yep, so I think between the two I felt like they talked about most of that. They never talked about disneyland resort much. I wasn't expecting them to, but they have things that they could have talked about. Yes, um, right there sitting there waiting on them, like more info on the parking structure, the coco ride, avatar, like there's a lot that's coming, but it wasn't the right venue. I think expo next year is going to be a lot of Disneyland stuff. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 41:54

Yeah, cause they have not only the stuff that you just mentioned, but, like there's the whole Disneyland forward, which is that plus a whole bunch of other stuff that they're rumored to be working on. So it'll. It'll be interesting at expo next year just to see what, what comes out of it. Yeah, for you on a personal level, what was your highlight of this year's destination d23?

Speaker 2: 42:17

I think the carousel progress update yeah, probably is the highlight because it confirms that that ride is not going to go away, yeah, and we're going to get a nice update. We're going to get wall in the magic kingdom. I think it just also shows us that tomorrowland, magic kingdom is kind of being reinvigorated in front of our eyes. Yeah, the buzz update, this update there's going to be more coming and I I kind of like that approach instead of what I think they might end up doing at disneyland and what maybe needs to happen at disneyland, to be honest, uh, is just kind of a starting over of what tomorrowland is going to be. I kind of like that. That walt disney world's magic kingdom is just uh, let's, let's just make everything better that's in here. You know, know, they have to retract Space Mountain. Give us an updated but familiar, better Space Mountain. Like that sounds awesome. Yeah, but I would say the Carousel of Progress announcement was probably it.

Speaker 1: 43:19

Yeah, as we shift into kind of you know that forward looking at what we think may come out of D23 Expo in Anaheim next year. There's a ton of stuff we just talked a little bit about it that they're planning for the whole Disneyland resort area. I know it's early, but if you were to put your prognostication hat on, what do you think we hear about next year? Any specifics?

Speaker 2: 43:42

Last D23 Expo was a lot of announcements.

Speaker 2: 43:46

I think this year or next year is just significant updates on those projects, details, details, like if you think September 2026, I would expect us to walk out of Expo finding out, or already know, an opening time frame for Tropical Americas and I don't know if they can hold it until next september, but I think they could if they wanted to and finding out more about what the actual encanto attraction looks like like. They haven't really really talked about it. Yeah, they've shown us a few few pieces of concept art, but they haven't really talked about what that story and attraction is going to be like. So I would say that um, and then they know that they have to give more on villains, and they will. At expo, I I think we'll have a better idea of what maybe at least one of the attractions will be um, a framework of the land.

Speaker 2: 44:46

I think they want to talk about that yeah and then I think for disneyland they're going to talk about all of that. I think tomorrowland avatar structure, I hope like is very far along yeah, yeah you know, coco and the parking structure.

Speaker 2: 45:00

I think construction is supposed to start on both of those later this year. Avengers Campus construction is moving very quickly, so I think we'll get that. And then my two big ones would be. They've been predictions for a long time. I actually think next year is the year is Tomorrowland and Figment. That I've got I think will be the the two big reveals next year.

Speaker 1: 45:28

Yeah, figma is the one ride. You were talking earlier about rides that just need a fresh coat of everything. And, turning to imagination, with Figma just is tired. For me right now. It's the ironic ride like oh, oh, yeah, let's go ride this because it's so bad, and I'm I'm willing to make that statement and get all the hatred for it, because it's just a bad ride. Yes, the dinosaur is cute, I'll give you that, but it's a bad ride my kids like it, in spite of the what the ride is like.

Speaker 2: 46:05

They like fig mat yeah, but they don't like the right I mean he's. The story is just like does not work in 2025, just doesn't work. Figment is annoying. He's a. He's a brat. It just doesn't. It's not what figment was, yeah, or should be. So they know all of that. It's just, and they've known that for a long time. It's just the. They need to be able to justify taking a family attraction at Epcot offline for a while and spending money on a ride that doesn't have to. Unfortunately, because there's not a lot of family rides at Epcot, people still do figment.

Speaker 2: 46:46

They still ride it just because it's's there. It's there, yeah, um, and so the ops people are just always like, can't give up that ride, yeah, but I I do think next year is the year we hear it finally revealed and it will be. It will be a fun place to be when they, yeah, announce that, in the same way that the villains thing and the monsters inc.

Speaker 2: 47:10

Coaster, I think, the figment announcement, yeah, in tomorrowland if that one happens like that, the roar for that might be louder than figment, because if they say the word people, which I don't think they will, but if they did, like that would probably, uh, exceed anything that we got last year, even villains land.

Speaker 1: 47:30

So the other ride that really needs a refurb at this point and they talked about it, but the pandemic killed. It is spaceship earth. Do you think we get a redo of figma or spaceship earth first? And to your point, I don't think they can do both at the same time because the family ride, like capacity, just will not take having both of those gone at the same time.

Speaker 2: 47:51

Yeah, I think Spaceship Earth would be first, because Spaceship Earth would not be significant. I think Figment would be pretty significant. Got it Change. I don't think Spaceship Earth would be. I think it would be a. I put that in the same bucket as Carousel of Progress. They would not put a wall in Spaceship Earth but it would be a significant, needed treatment to the ride. Preserving it essentially is the same attraction. Finally doing something with the descent on that attraction. It's just all black curtains. It's such a waste. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 48:27

I would guess if one is going to happen before another, it would be Spaceship Earth. Just because it would be quicker, yeah, but I think they would have to get started on it pretty quick if that's going to happen. But I think it's possible. We're not going to go a full year before we hear other things. There's other announcements that are going going to happen, but before expo for sure all right, I'm gonna ask you to give a negative prognostication.

Speaker 1: 48:54

What do you think everybody wants disney to talk about next year at d23? That they probably won't be ready to announce?

Speaker 2: 49:02

I don't think they're going to be ready to talk about as much with villains as people will want to talk about. So I think there will be some frustration there because people will forget we're still talking about something that's even in September of next year will be. You know, four years away, yeah. So I don't know if they're going to give as much as people want on that.

Speaker 1: 49:26

And that's largely because they need to do the new cars, land and that whole experience first, because the whole construction access to that goes through where villains is going right yep, okay, literally paving the way to villains is cars, right.

Speaker 2: 49:42

So there's that. I also. I don. I don't love the fact that Disney always has to talk about things as early as they have been over recent years. Like it's not natural for us to need to know every detail about villains land that's opening possibly in 2030. Like I don't know if I want them in a box and saying, well, we promised, you know, we promised maleficent, and then some great disney movie comes out a year and a half from now that has like the greatest villain disney animations ever created and then not feel like they can do something with that. Like I don't. As a fan, I don't need that, but I know people want to know. Yeah, and part of me does want to know. I just think it's we're also not being very fair to the process to expect it. So, yeah, but I would say probably villains will be the one that's not going to get as much.

Speaker 1: 50:38

We're not gonna get as much on that do you think we heard about villains as early as we did, because it was in part a response to epic universe opening and trying to say at least to the community and, and you know, to the investors hey, we are doing big things uh, yeah, I do.

Speaker 2: 51:00

I mean I think that it didn't didn't hurt, I guess, uh, but I think the reason we heard villains from the beginning was because of their vision of removing rivers of america and changing magic kingdom.

Speaker 2: 51:14

Um, from the beginning, I think, was always on the table. It wasn't always the decision, but it was part of it and I think they knew that fans would be excited for it and wanted it to be a package deal. I don't think there would be as much excitement today for all of it, and people are still upset about Rivers of America. But if you said right now, the announcement was we're taking away Rivers of America, we're putting in a Cars attraction and then we're going to have even more magic behind it, probably not sitting as well as it is now when people know that coming in behind it is villain's land. So I think it was just kind of a we need to package all this together. Yeah, people are. You know, there's a new theme park attraction or a new theme park opening, an epic universe, uh, so, so that doesn't hurt that we're talking about a huge expansion that people want. The timing is good. So I think it was just kind of all of that together.

Speaker 1: 52:14

Yeah Well, Scott, thank you so much for sharing your experiences from Destination D23 this year. You've mentioned you're on Twitter or X, or whatever the heck that thing wants to be called. These days You've also got a Substack which I absolutely have fallen in love with. Where can people find you Plug your thing?

Speaker 2: 52:33

Yeah, find me on Twitter, find me on Substack. First and last, scott Gustin, and there's a link in my Twitter bio, if you want to just find it that way. Twitter is still where I share news. Find it that way um, twitter is still where I share news. Uh, substack is where I try to go a little beyond it and get into my personal thoughts and opinions on some stuff more packaged presentation of news with context, but yeah it's been.

Speaker 2: 53:00

Response has been really, really surprising to that, and there's there's a lot of really good writers on Substack, just in general. So if you're, I would just encourage everyone. You don't you don't have to follow me, but just sign up for it and find your interests on there. Find people that are writing about politics or fashion, whatever it is. There's some. Really I've enjoyed using it as much as writing for it. Just finding really smart people that are sharing really smart content about the subjects that I'm interested in.

Speaker 1: 53:34

So who knew blog posts were going to be a thing again?

Speaker 2: 53:39

Yeah, I don't. I don't know why it works as well as it does, but it it. I think it's just missing right now, places where you don't feel like you're. It's not a bait and switch on the content. I mean, there's a, mine is, I have it set up. There's no paid subscriptions or anything. Some of them are, and but the ones that you do pay for like you feel like you get something in return yeah um, you get access or whatever it might be, whereas googling something now is just like a.

Speaker 2: 54:13

It's a minefield like you might get good info. You also might get bombarded with so many ads that you just have to close your laptop because you just wanted the answer to one question. So so, but yeah, the pitch. I'll pitch just sub stack as a platform for everybody to check it out.

Speaker 1: 54:31

Yeah, Well, thanks for being a voice of sanity and light in the darkness. Uh, we appreciate you, scott, and uh, we'll absolutely have to talk next year about D 23 or or sooner if something else comes up. So thanks again for coming on. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 54:45

You should have me on before and I can make a bunch of predictions that will not be right. Completely whiff on everything.

Speaker 1: 54:53

You got it. We'll hold you to it. Cool Sounds good. Thanks, scott. Well, thanks again to Scott for coming on with me.

Speaker 1: 55:01

Alicia is off and recovering this morning. She's absolutely doing fantastic. I did get her to sit down for an interview. So if you haven't listened to our bonus episode that dropped yesterday, if you listen to this on day one when it comes out, please go ahead and give it a listen. It's really fantastic and kind of inspiring and gives you some behind the scenes of what we've been going through. It's all good, but she is sleeping a lot.

Speaker 1: 55:31

And with that, please do remember that we and, of course, scott, we're not affiliated with Disney or any of their subsidiaries. These are personal opinions and suggestions based on our own experiences. If you have questions or suggestions or would like to be interviewed on our show to share your Disney experiences, please send an email to podcast at our mousecapadescom. Please follow us on socials. We are at our mousecapades pretty much everywhere you can find us. Of course, that would be Instagram, facebook threads and YouTube. And, of course, please do give us a rating and review in your podcast app. That really does help people find us. And lastly, of course, don't hesitate to share us with your friends and fellow Disney lovers of all ages. Thanks for listening. We'll be in your ears next week. Thank you for flying Star Tours. Bye-bye.