SPEAKER_02: 0:03

Please stand clear of the doors. For favor, mantenganse ale de las quit. Please stand clear of the doors.

SPEAKER_01: 0:18

For favor, mantenganse ale. Because this year's the wildest ride in the wilderness.

Nathan: 0:24

Hello everybody, I'm Nathan, and this is a very Mayakopa episode of Adventures in Masquerades. As I read this, it's nearly midnight on Friday night, and we're getting picked up to head to the airport in about seven hours. And we're just finishing packing for our cruise on the Disney Magic. Yeah, time got away from us this week. And with a Super Bowl win by the world champion Seattle Seahawks, travel back from Sterling's Theater Competition in Sacramento on Monday. Work, other commitments, and well, just life in general. Um yeah, uh, for the first time in four years, we don't have a new episode ready for you this week. But what we are gonna do is fire up the Wayback Machine and rerun our very first episode that kicked this whole adventure off. Back then we had like three or four listeners. Hi, family. And while our little community has grown a little bit, uh, some folks may have missed this one. Now we'll be back next week, don't fear, with a trip report on our five-night Marvel Day at sea cruise on the Disney Magic, complete with stops at Progresso and Cosmo, Mexico. In the meantime, let me reintroduce you to the two nerds behind the microphone here on Adventures and Mouse Capades. Uh hey, what's going on?

Alicea: 1:47

Hello. Uh, we need to have a little chat.

Nathan: 1:51

Uh-oh, what did I do this time? Look, I'm sorry, whatever it was.

Alicea: 1:55

Ah, blanket apologies are so passe. No silly. I want to do a podcast.

Nathan: 2:00

Oh, well, that explains these microphones. So, what are we gonna do a podcast about?

Alicea: 2:06

Well, Disney, of course. Everybody always asks us for little tips and tricks, and we've got a lot of stories to tell, so cool.

Nathan: 2:15

That sounds fun. Uh, so how do we start?

Alicea: 2:18

Well, how about something like this?

SPEAKER_02: 2:23

Please stand clear of the doors. For favor, manténganse a left out. Please stand clear of the doors.

SPEAKER_01: 2:42

For favor, manténganse a lez this year's the wildest ride in the wilderness.

Alicea: 2:50

Hi, I'm Alicia.

Nathan: 2:51

And I'm Nathan.

Alicea: 2:52

And welcome to episode one of our adventures and mouse capades. Woohoo!

Nathan: 2:57

We made it. We finally started recording our podcast.

Alicea: 3:01

After talking about it for well, it's not been that long. Only three months or so, maybe. Yeah.

Nathan: 3:09

It's been a little while, but yeah. Um so welcome to our probably two, maybe three listeners. At least for now.

Alicea: 3:18

Family.

Nathan: 3:19

Yeah. You? Hi family. Hi family. Uh, and to, you know, once this blows up and gets huge, and we have 10 people listening, and they go through the back catalog. Hi to you in the future.

Alicea: 3:32

Hi from the past.

Nathan: 3:34

Yes. I I I sure hope the future is going a lot better than the past has been going.

Alicea: 3:39

Yes, indeed. Yes. So we are here to well, to talk about Disney and our adventures and our mouse capades. See what we did there. Mouscapades. Yeah. Um, we love Disney very much. We've been on a couple of vacations. Just a few. Just a few. Um, I'd say we're semi-fanatic. I mean, just looking at our decorations around our house right now, maybe we're leaning a little more towards fanatic.

Nathan: 4:09

You mean the fact that we had to get a whole other Christmas tree because we pushed all of our non-Disney ornaments off onto its own tree?

Alicea: 4:16

I don't know what you're talking about.

Nathan: 4:18

Okay.

Alicea: 4:18

And yeah, yeah, the beautiful Lego, Mickey and Minnie on our wall. Yes. So we decided to start this to talk to you all just about Disney. Yeah. Our vacations, our things that we've learned as we've been vacationing.

SPEAKER_04: 4:34

Yeah.

Alicea: 4:35

And we wanted to start off just talking about ourselves, of course, because everybody loves to talk about themselves. We wanted to give you guys a little intro.

Nathan: 4:43

Yeah.

Alicea: 4:44

Basically on who we are.

Nathan: 4:46

Right. So you know who these two random voices are that are talking in your ears, are you know what our background is and where we came from, and a little bit about, you know, all the fun that we've had with Disney and uh kind of what we plan to do here with the podcast.

Alicea: 5:01

Exactly.

Nathan: 5:02

So, um, Alicia, who are you?

Alicea: 5:06

I'm Alicia.

Nathan: 5:07

Oh, okay, great.

Alicea: 5:08

Thanks. Um, well, I could talk a little bit about where we are too.

SPEAKER_04: 5:14

Yeah.

Alicea: 5:15

I'm Alicia. I'm 40 something years old. I forgot how old I am.

unknown: 5:22

43.

Alicea: 5:23

I'm 43. That's right. Oh my gosh. As you get older, you kind of forget how old you actually are.

Nathan: 5:29

Especially when you're like the year isn't like a zero or like a five, and it makes it easy.

Alicea: 5:35

Well, pandemic's kind of screwed everything up. That's true. I don't remember a thing. Um, anyway, I'm 43 and we live in the Seattle, Washington area. Yeah. We're not in Seattle. We are not too far from it. And right now it is a winter wonderland outside. Lots of snow.

SPEAKER_04: 5:52

Yep.

Alicea: 5:52

We have two kiddos. One is 16, 16-year-old girl, and a 10-year-old boy. And later on down the line, you guys will definitely hear from them as they add to our just what we do. Just as they chime in and and share their experiences, what they love, what they don't like, you know, stuff like that.

Nathan: 6:12

And trust us, we will talk about them. Yes.

Alicea: 6:16

Because they are part of our lives.

Nathan: 6:18

Absolutely.

Alicea: 6:19

Huge part of our lives.

Nathan: 6:20

And they're not an inconsequential part of why we started down this whole Disney Road in the first place. So um yeah. Should we name names?

Alicea: 6:31

Yeah, I think that's fine.

Nathan: 6:32

Okay. So our daughter, who is 16, uh, her name is Caitlin, and our son, who is 10, his name is Sterling. Um, so yeah, Alicia, what do you do when you're not sitting here on the couch talking to me with a microphone in your face?

Alicea: 6:48

Um, I read and I play video games.

Nathan: 6:50

Oh, yeah.

Alicea: 6:51

Are you talking about like job?

Nathan: 6:53

I mean, how do you support this podcast empire that we are building when we don't have any advertisers or sponsors?

Alicea: 7:01

Through my massive intellect. That's right.

Nathan: 7:04

What do you do for a day job?

Alicea: 7:05

My day job is I am an executive business administrator at a am I allowed to name companies? Sure. At Microsoft. Yes. I support a team of 200 and I absolutely love working there. I love my team.

Nathan: 7:20

Where did you grow up? Kind of what's your background, your your history in 30 seconds?

Alicea: 7:25

My history in 30 seconds. I was born in Bellevue, Washington.

Nathan: 7:30

Hey, that's close.

Alicea: 7:31

That is close. Um, let's see, my family moved around a bunch. We ended up in North Carolina in sixth grade for me. And let's see, I was in North Carolina for high school where I met this wonderful guy who's on the other microphone in front of me.

Nathan: 7:50

Aye, that's me. That's right. We are high school sweethearts.

Alicea: 7:54

We are high school sweethearts. Um, went to college for a while, wasn't quite my gig, and then got married.

SPEAKER_04: 8:03

Yeah.

Alicea: 8:04

And we ended up moving to the Seattle area. Love it very much. Absolutely. Although we joke that we're gonna retire in Florida.

Nathan: 8:13

I mean, you know, there are certain, you know, aspects to Florida that have their appeal to us.

Alicea: 8:20

It's just for one reason and one reason only, really, honestly.

Nathan: 8:23

Yeah, Florida rates on cruises.

Alicea: 8:25

Florida rates on cruises, yes.

Nathan: 8:26

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Cool. So let's talk about me.

Alicea: 8:32

Talk about you.

Nathan: 8:33

Yeah, tell me all about you. Well, first in the beginning, the earth cooled, and then the dinosaurs came. That's you, huh? I'll skip ahead a little bit. I'm not that old, although I am older. You are, yes, I am 44 and stuff. Um yeah, I was uh uh uh New Englander, East Coaster. Um, I born in Vermont, grew up in Connecticut, uh, finished high school again where I met Alicia. Um uh finished high school, went to college, and we and started our career, uh careers, um, in Charlotte, North Carolina. And yeah, um uh just about um twenty-two years ago almost exactly, as we sit here, um no, twenty-one years ago. Yeah, math. Math is look, it's optional at this point. Um anyhow, yeah. We uh the company I was working for, consulting firm, uh I was working for, uh, closed their office in Charlotte and said, Hey, do y'all wanna move to Seattle? Um, we'll pay for the move. And Alicia's family is originally from out here. She's got tons of aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents are out here and aunts and uncles, and uh and we had always said, hey, it would be great to move to Seattle and live there because we, you know, on you loved it from being out here. I'd visited once or so and I fell in love with the place. And um, here we are, fresh out of college a year or so, and we've been married almost a year, and somebody's offering to, you know, pay all your moving costs to move across the country. It's kind of like, okay, I guess it's time to go. So yeah, so we've been out here uh, you know, 20 plus years, and like Alicia said, we absolutely love it out here. Yes. Um yeah. Uh I am a uh program manager at Microsoft as well. Um blue badge is in the house. And um I work in uh the Azure Networking Group. Um so basically making sure all of your all of your data and systems and applications that are in the cloud can actually talk to you. Uh that is uh kind of what I help do. And yeah, that's a little bit about us.

Alicea: 11:01

So let's uh let's dive into some Disney stuff.

Nathan: 11:04

Oh, Disney stuff. Oh, that's why we're here. That's why we're here.

Alicea: 11:10

So how many Disney trips have we taken?

Nathan: 11:13

Well, I just did the math.

Alicea: 11:14

I know.

Nathan: 11:16

Um uh we have done 14 trips to date, and we have uh three more scheduled for the next year. Yes.

Alicea: 11:27

14 trips, and we started as a family doing vacations with Disney in 2009.

Nathan: 11:34

Yes.

Alicea: 11:35

Um we've spent 127 nights in Disney accommodations that includes hotel, um, DVC cruises and all that. I've done 11 cruises. Uh and I've only gone on nine. Um, that's because we did a err, sorry.

Nathan: 11:53

Yeah, it wasn't we.

Alicea: 11:55

I did a 13th birthday cruise with Caitlin.

Nathan: 11:58

Yeah.

Alicea: 11:58

Uh and she got to choose what she wanted to do, and she wanted to do a cruise. And it was a back-to-back. That's why there's two extra ones on me. Uh we have spent 71 nights. I have spent 71 nights on a Disney ship. Um, two of those cruises were Panama Canal cruises.

Nathan: 12:18

Those were the best.

Alicea: 12:20

Those are amazing. And we'll we'll get to those a little later in this series. Um, our last Panama Canal cruise was in March of 2020.

Nathan: 12:34

Yeah, about that.

Alicea: 12:36

And it left March 6th of 2020.

Nathan: 12:39

Yeah.

Alicea: 12:39

So um it was still it was still an amazing cruise.

Nathan: 12:42

Oh, we had a blast, and we also ended up being like the very last Disney guests globally.

Alicea: 12:49

Yes.

Nathan: 12:50

For several months.

Alicea: 12:51

Wouldn't change it for the world, though. That was an amazing memory.

Nathan: 12:53

That was fantastic.

Alicea: 12:54

Earliest Disney memories. So my earliest Disney memory is um I know I'd been a couple of times, and and the memory kind of came from stories that I heard from like my aunt and my mom talking about, oh, we took you down to Disneyland. Um, I remember them talking about me being so excited. I was jumping on the bed, literally jumping on the bed, and it was like, I think they said like 11:30 at night or something. And I was just jumping and jumping and jumping, and then like immediately fell asleep. Mid-jump or something. I don't know. I don't remember that. So my earliest Disney memory how old were you in Disney? I have no idea. Five, four, five, something. I'm not sure. Got it. Um, my earliest memory, I was probably about eight or so. I remember I was down in Disneyland, and you know, I could probably do the math. Sword in the Stone had come out not too long before then, and Merlin was down there as a character. And I remember getting my picture with Merlin. He's standing behind me, and he has his hands on my shoulders, and he takes his beard and throws it over my face. So that is my earliest memory, me trying to swim out from Merlin's beard. And I just remember I thought it was the funniest thing, and I was laughing so hard. Um, I think I have a picture somewhere, or my mom does somewhere. But yes, that is my earliest Disney memory. And I know I've I'm fairly certain I've gone since then, like before our 2009 trip. But nothing's coming to mind. Maybe that was my last one before our stuff. But you have some pretty awesome Disney memories too.

Nathan: 14:42

Uh my earliest Disney memories, uh, all up are probably um, you know, like the Disney channel when we first got cable when cable was first a thing. Um I remember there was like this morning exercise program that would come on and Mouser Size. That was it. Yes.

Alicea: 15:03

I had a vinyl of Mouser Size.

Nathan: 15:06

Yeah, my dad had a hi-fi uh stereo system and a very, very expensive record player. Uh, and you know, those quote-unquote cheap albums were never going to see the light of day on his needles. But uh no, my first Disney Park memory and was really my freshman year of high school. Um, I was still living in Connecticut, and the band from my little school, um we went and did Disney World Magic Music Days. I think it was the 20th or 25th anniversary or something like that, of magic music days. And I remember like the the most the biggest memory from that trip is I was playing bass drum and the drumline and we came out from backstage. If you're in Disney World and you're at the like the flagpole and you're looking and you see the you're looking and facing towards the uh firehouse, there's a backstage door to the right of that, um, kind of between the firehouse and where like the haircut place is. And um, so the door swung open and we had been, you know, backstage. The parade came out from back there and then went down Main Street, and I'm sure it went, you know, off into Adventureland or Frontierland or you know, off to the off to the left there.

Alicea: 16:30

Adventureland.

Nathan: 16:31

Yeah. And but coming out, you go around, you know, past the firehouse, past the train station, and then you make that turn, and you're dead straight in the middle of Main Street, and the castle's right there. It is like I'm I have goosebumps thinking about it right now. Uh that whole image and experience is just seared in my brain. I absolutely loved it. Yeah. So the the cool part about all that was, you know, we were a bunch of high schoolers, and so it was hey, the the bus is gonna pick you up at you know 10 p.m. at the circle in front of Epcot. You've got parkopper passes. Enjoy your day. Um, and so, you know, a bunch of us, you know, this little gang of of uh uh kids that I was with, there was probably I don't know, seven or eight of us. Um we just went everywhere, it was so fun. Um, we hit Mexico and got this giant, like three-foot wide sombrero, and we went over to Hollywood Studios or MGM Studios right after that because we had a park hopper and we saw an ewok, and I don't have the picture, but we took a picture with our little group with one of the ewalks, and we had the sombrero on the ewok, it was amazing. Um, anyhow, yeah. Earliest memories. I think we all we both have some good ones.

Alicea: 18:06

Yeah.

Nathan: 18:06

Yeah.

Alicea: 18:07

You mentioned before you talked about the park watching Disney stuff. Yes, I watched so many Disney things. I remember watching the wonderful world of Disney with my parents. Um, was it Friday nights or Saturday nights? There was a m they had a movie, weekly movie, and I remember watching that, and I remember seeing you know the Tinkerbell intro with her little pixie dust thing. Um, and that was something we watched every week, every week. Um movies, I love Disney movies. I love Disney animated movies. I will watch them forever. Um when a movie comes out, we will go see it.

SPEAKER_04: 18:48

Yep.

Alicea: 18:48

That's just I I love them. I love the the feel-good, happy feeling that you get from them. Um I love happy things, and Disney makes me happy.

Nathan: 18:58

Let's kind of go rapid fire here because we don't want to be sitting here talking for, you know.

Alicea: 19:03

Oh, you want to go through our question list?

Nathan: 19:05

13 hours. Yeah, let's go through the question list. So, you want to go first? Sure. I'm gonna grill you.

Alicea: 19:11

You're gonna grill me. Go for it.

Nathan: 19:13

All right. Favorite character Daisy Duck. Are you sure?

Alicea: 19:17

I love Daisy so much.

Nathan: 19:20

Favorite movie.

Alicea: 19:21

Oh, see, I should have thought of these first ahead of time. Um, I really like Princess and the Frog. Oh. I love the music in that, and I love that she's independent, but still, you know, has a lesson to learn.

Nathan: 19:36

Yeah. Awesome. Favorite ride.

Alicea: 19:40

I know this is gonna be a shocker. I love Haunted Mansion.

Nathan: 19:44

Really? Yes, dear listener, we have haunted mansion stuff everywhere, including on the front of our house by our front door. Yes. Yes. We are foolish mortals. Yes. Um, so I'm uh you have classic ride and newer ride. So I do.

Alicea: 20:00

Is so haunted mansion is my favorite classic ride. Yes. Uh favorite newer ride, rise of the resistance. Yeah. I love it so much. I I know I've seen people say that, oh, one and done for that one, and I don't understand that at all. It's so involved. I we've been on it three times now, and each one of those I've seen something new. And I'm sure I will see something new each time in the future that we ride it.

Nathan: 20:27

Assuming it's working.

Alicea: 20:29

Assuming it's working.

Nathan: 20:30

That ride seems to have the worst luck.

Alicea: 20:33

There's too many things going on to keep it going. I love that ride. Yes.

Nathan: 20:38

But Disney, please make it work all the time. Okay, favorite roller coaster.

Alicea: 20:45

Expedition Everest.

Nathan: 20:46

Nice. Favorite uh underrated ride.

Alicea: 20:51

People mover.

Nathan: 20:52

Oh, nice.

Alicea: 20:54

I love people mover.

Nathan: 20:55

Okay, here's the big question: Disney World or Disneyland?

Alicea: 21:00

Now, if we're talking about the resort area, Disney World all the way, just because you have four parks, Disneyland just has the two. Um I think that's what I meant when I was asking when I wrote that question down anyway. So Disney World for that one. Favorite park?

Nathan: 21:20

Yeah.

Alicea: 21:23

Oh I honestly think it's a tie between Epcot and Hollywood Studios.

Nathan: 21:28

Really? Yes. Why Epcot?

Alicea: 21:31

Mainly the festivals.

Nathan: 21:33

That's fine. That's totally fine. That's awesome. So, full disclosure, we are DVC owners. Yes. What is your favorite DVC resort hotel?

Alicea: 21:44

Riviera.

Nathan: 21:45

Yeah.

Alicea: 21:46

Alani's really nice, but there's no parks with it. Riviera, we just went and it's amazing. I loved it. It was totally our vibe.

Nathan: 21:57

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Swank. Sophisticated high-end. That's totally a okay.

Alicea: 22:04

What we enjoy, not necessarily what we are.

Nathan: 22:07

Okay, that is a fair point. Favorite character meal.

Alicea: 22:11

Tusker House.

Nathan: 22:12

Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one. Favorite quick service. Woody's lunchbox. Oh, yeah. That's cool. How about favorite restaurant?

Alicea: 22:24

Favorite restaurant, I think it's another new one that we went to was Topolino's Terrace. In the evening.

Nathan: 22:30

In the evening.

Alicea: 22:30

In the evening. I the dinner there was superb.

Nathan: 22:34

Uh-huh. Absolutely loved it. Uh-huh. Favorite snack.

Alicea: 22:37

Dol Whip. Okay. Okay.

Nathan: 22:40

All right. And then obviously we've been on a handful of cruises. What's your favorite ship?

Alicea: 22:45

So, disclosure, we have not been on all of them. We have been on one ship far, far, far more than the others. And that's my favorite. I love the Disney Wonder. I love the smaller ship size. We've been on the magic once. We've been on the fantasy only once. But I still think Wonder's my favorite.

Nathan: 23:07

Yeah. We haven't hit the dream. The dream and the fantasy are effectively the same.

Alicea: 23:11

Yeah, there's a little difference.

Nathan: 23:12

Just like the wonder and the magic are effectively the same. Um, yeah.

Alicea: 23:16

Okay. Cool. All right. I'm going to go down the list for you now.

Nathan: 23:18

Oh boy.

Alicea: 23:20

Favorite character.

Nathan: 23:21

Favorite character, hands down, sorcerer Mickey. Sorcerer Mickey. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. From Fantasia. Favorite movie. I'm going to go with the original Incredibles. I love that movie. Um Mr. Incredible pre-workout phase really speaks to me. I think I resemble that remark to a certain degree. Um, but also like he's just it seems like he as much as he tries, like things go wrong around him. I don't know. Like I feel like I can relate to that. Um, and the music in that movie. Yes. Oh. And that franchise, it's really good. Yes.

Alicea: 24:05

Favorite ride.

Nathan: 24:07

My favorite ride overall, Rise of the Resistance, like you, is it almost does it injustice to call it a ride. Like it's an experience.

Alicea: 24:20

Yep. Yeah. Favorite classic ride.

Nathan: 24:23

Favorite classic ride, I would say, is I'm gonna say pirates. Which one? Disneyland.

Alicea: 24:30

Okay.

Nathan: 24:31

You took the words right out of my mouth. The one in Disneyland. For those of you who don't know, the Pirates of the Caribbean, Caribbean, whatever, is twice as long in Disneyland as it is in Disney World. It's like what five or six minutes versus 10 to 12, or I forget the exact number. It's significant. Like there's extra scenes. There's yeah.

Alicea: 24:56

Now we haven't gone on any of we haven't gone to any of the other parks. We haven't been to any of the international parks. I know Shang, I know Shanghai Disney and I think Hong Kong Disney have an amazing, yeah, screen heavy Pirates of the Caribbean, which I'd love to see sometime.

Nathan: 25:14

To me, though, I definitely want to see the story. It's not the it's not a classic ride.

Alicea: 25:20

Yeah.

Nathan: 25:20

Yeah.

Alicea: 25:21

Favorite newer ride.

Nathan: 25:22

So I'm gonna throw, I'm gonna not say rise. I love rise. Oh, like you, I should have thought about this beforehand. I'm gonna say Expedition Everest. I really love it. Although rock and roller coaster is a close second, and I would say it also in the top three, this is gonna be controversial. Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen. I really like Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway.

Alicea: 25:48

I love Mickey Minnie's Runaway Railway.

Nathan: 25:51

A lot of people don't think it was worth the demise of the great movie ride. Uh, I don't like, I don't know. I just love the style, the the vibrancy, the stories, the tornado, the dancing, the like the original song. Yes, yep, you know, the explosion and you walk through the screen. Like, it's really cool. It's really cool.

Alicea: 26:13

I like that ride a lot too.

Nathan: 26:14

Yeah.

Alicea: 26:15

Favorite roller coaster?

Nathan: 26:17

Uh Expedition Everest. Yeah, for sure.

Alicea: 26:20

Underrated ride.

Nathan: 26:23

It would be cliche to agree agree with you on People Mover.

Alicea: 26:27

But it's so awesome. It is.

Nathan: 26:29

It's really cool. And I will say the reason I'm gonna say people mover is because on one of our trips in Disney World, we were on People Mover and the lights were on in Space Mountain.

Alicea: 26:42

In Space Mountain. And I think it was still running too. Yeah. Like there are people in the cars and it was running.

Nathan: 26:47

Yeah.

Alicea: 26:47

But the lights were on. That was pretty cool.

Nathan: 26:49

It was really, really cool.

Alicea: 26:50

For those of you that don't know, People Mover goes through Space Mountain. If the lights are on, you can see the track.

Nathan: 26:56

Yep.

Alicea: 26:57

Okay. Uh Disney World or Disneyland?

Nathan: 27:01

Oh, this is so hard for me to answer. I love everything that's in Disney World. I love that we get to see our awesome and amazing friend family that lives in Orlando. Hi, Bill and Rachel, and Andrew and Mare and everybody else. Um I'm gonna say Disneyland. If if only because it's it's just more walkable.

Alicea: 27:30

Yeah.

Nathan: 27:31

It's just not as spread out. I don't feel like we have to completely kill ourselves to see stuff. And the tra we don't have to worry about buses and transportation and all the rest of that stuff.

Alicea: 27:44

All right. Favorite park.

Nathan: 27:48

I am going to say I can make arguments for several parks. I'm gonna actually say California Adventure. Oh my gosh. The the immersion, the design, the colors, especially at night. Yes. Holy cow. Yeah. I and and what they've done with Pixar Pier is fantastic. Yes. I love it. I love it.

Alicea: 28:16

Favorite D V C hotel.

Nathan: 28:19

I'm gonna say I love I love Riviera. I agree with your your example. I think my favorite though is Alani. Um I love being in Hawaii. Uh yes, it's very nice. It's just so relaxing. And I don't feel tied and super Disney-ish. Yeah. Like I don't feel tied to the resort, and I have feel like we have to go kill ourselves when we're there. That's true. You know, we're not walking 20,000 steps a day and wondering if my knee's gonna you know blow out or not. Um, you know, and we can you know drive around the island and see all sorts of different stuff. I really love Alani.

Alicea: 29:03

It's very nice.

Nathan: 29:04

Yep. Favorite character meal garden grill, Epcot, breakfast. Holy cow. The food is amazing. There are so many characters when that's a thing. Yeah. Um it's it's all of the other ones, all the other character breakfasts we've gone to have felt a little, I don't know, I wanna uh almost like assembly line-ish, like you know, the characters are just going around to all the stations, like you can see the whole restaurant and what they're doing. Although Tusker House is not like that. Um but it just feels more intimate.

Alicea: 29:48

It is, it's a much smaller restaurant.

Nathan: 29:50

Yeah, and you're in these booths, like you're not seeing the whole rest of the room. Um and the food is incredible. Yeah.

Alicea: 30:00

Okay. Favorite quick service.

Nathan: 30:04

I would go Woody's lunchbox as well. The grilled cheese and uh potato barrels.

Alicea: 30:12

Yes, potato barrels. So yummy good. Favorite restaurant.

Nathan: 30:17

Topolinos Terrace, just like you, for dinner. Wasn't super impressed with breakfast there. No, especially for the money.

Alicea: 30:26

Yeah.

Nathan: 30:26

And the character experience, at least the character experience we had was not good. Um, but the dinner there, I mean, there's a reason we went multiple times.

Alicea: 30:39

Yes, and spent lots of money. It's an expensive restaurant, but it is delicious.

Nathan: 30:44

It is, absolutely.

Alicea: 30:46

Favorite snack?

Nathan: 30:47

Churro. What Disneyland Churro.

Alicea: 30:50

Churro. I am shocked, I tell you. No, I'm not shocked, I tell you.

Nathan: 30:55

If you have to get a churro and you're in Disney World, go to Nomad Lounge in Animal Kingdom, and then you get fancy ass churros and a beer, and there's your day.

Alicea: 31:09

You have to pay separate, they don't come together. It's not churros and beer. Oh, you get churros and a beer.

Nathan: 31:14

Oh, got it. Okay.

Alicea: 31:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you like beer. All right. Last one, favorite ship.

Nathan: 31:20

The wonder.

Alicea: 31:21

Yeah.

Nathan: 31:21

Yeah. Like you. It's just I love the intimacy of the smaller ships. Um, you know, we've only been on the fantasy once. Um, hopefully we'll fix that uh this coming summer. Yep. Assuming the world doesn't end. But um, yeah, I just I love the smaller ships and specifically the wonder. We've been on that one the most. It's the one that comes over and cruises here on the west coast.

Alicea: 31:47

Makes it a little easier.

Nathan: 31:48

Exactly.

Alicea: 31:49

Well, that is our quick list of questions, even though that went a little longer than quickly. That's okay. It's all right. That's okay. We're just starting out. We're just learning, we're getting into our groove here.

Nathan: 31:59

That's right. That's right. Um, speaking of, like, what is our groove? Like, how do we keep track of what's going on at Disney? Obviously, we don't live in Florida. You know, we live in Seattle.

Alicea: 32:11

Yeah.

Nathan: 32:11

There's, you know, 16 inches of snow on the ground. Um, we're we're not Disney fying at the moment.

Alicea: 32:17

That's not an exaggeration either. There's literally 16 inches of snow on the ground. Yay! It's pretty though. Well, okay, so keeping up with Disney, we have a couple of blogs that we vlogs that we listen to and watch, and just I guess some news sites and and whatnot. We just keep those. Do you want to name some names? Um, we love all ears. We love the all Ears cast. We watch their stuff on YouTube all the time, along with DFB guide Disney Food blog.

SPEAKER_04: 32:49

Yeah.

Alicea: 32:49

Um, and there's a couple of other podcasts that I listen to here and there. There's nothing I really listen to religiously. Um there's yeah, there's a couple other things that I that I watch, but those are our main sources.

Nathan: 33:03

And they cover pretty much everything.

Alicea: 33:05

Yeah. Oh, Inside the Magic is another one that I watch too.

Nathan: 33:08

On YouTube.

Alicea: 33:08

Yeah. Um, you'll find us a lot of times in the evening. We'll just scroll through our subscription list and take a look. Oh, what's what's new in in the Disney World in land today?

Nathan: 33:20

Yep.

Alicea: 33:20

That's where we get that info.

Nathan: 33:21

Yep, on YouTube. So, Alicia, you wanted to start a podcast. It was your idea. Fantastic idea.

Alicea: 33:27

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Nathan: 33:29

What what are your goals? What what do we want to what are we doing here?

Alicea: 33:33

Well, um, this is kind of a way for us to do a couple of things. One, reminisce about our vacations, um, and tell people about things that we have learned on those vacations. There are things we went into, like going on a cruise for the very first time. We had no idea about simple little things that, and and frankly, we didn't know about them until after we had finished our first cruise. Things that we really would have liked to have known ahead of time. Now I know there are a lot of a lot of sources out there where you can get this information, but this is just us wanting to talk to y'all and just say, this is what we've learned, these are our experiences. Um, yeah, and pretty much just go through that. I want to go through our vacations, our memories. I'd love to get a couple people on with us as well just to talk about Disney stuff.

Nathan: 34:25

Yeah. How often do you see us putting a podcast out for people to listen? What's our goal?

Alicea: 34:32

Weekly?

Nathan: 34:33

Yeah.

Alicea: 34:33

I think. And they're not gonna be long. I have no idea how long we've been talking now, but probably weekly we can uh we can cut them down to if they get long, we can do like next time on. Yes. Um, we'll cut them up so they're not so long. So it's a nice bite-sized, easy listen.

Nathan: 34:52

Yeah, and I think we'll over time we'll introduce all sorts of new topics. Um, it's not just gonna be us talking about you know what we've done and lessons learned as we go on new trips and vacations, as we learn new things, we'll try to share that. Um, as there's big events that are happening in the Disney verse, is if I can use that as a term. I suppose. Sure. Um, you know, we'll probably throw a podcast up here or there talking about, you know, Genie Plus and what do we think about it.

Alicea: 35:25

And once we actually get to experience it, yes.

Nathan: 35:29

That's the other thing too. We're gonna try not to um just regurgitate the opinions of the folks that we see online. Um, we're not here to necessarily be, at least for right now, a news site or news podcast where we're completely up to date with stuff. Uh, and we're not gonna just um recycle what we've heard or read. We want to share what we've actually experienced and the lessons learned and and what our opinions are. Um, you know, we just like uh we always have to say, you know, we may work for Microsoft and have a blue badge, but our opinions are our own and not Microsoft's. Uh same thing with with Disney. Yes. Um, you know, we don't work for Disney, we're not affiliated with Disney with Disney. Um, we're not sponsored, we're not, you know, getting any kickbacks or anything. But we're also not here to just, you know, make stuff up or do willy-nilly. We're here to give you some advice. We're here to share our opinions, and uh um we're here to help you make good choices on what you want to do for your vacations. Um, and part of that really is um helping you do some research and pointing you in the right directions. If you have a ton of questions, find a great travel agent. We have some that we can recommend. Um uh but you know, we're not here to be your travel agents. Um, we're here to help um you just know more about what's going on in Disney and what you know, boots on the ground, what our experiences have been.

Alicea: 37:13

For okay, yes, we are occasional Disney vacationers here to let you know about our experiences.

Nathan: 37:20

Yeah. I mean, with three trips scheduled for you know the next nine months, we're we're a little more than occasional, but yeah.

Alicea: 37:29

That's not the norm though. We don't go three times a year usually.

Nathan: 37:31

No, it's usually twice.

Alicea: 37:33

Maybe okay. It's not too much. I promise you, it is definitely not too much. Nope. There's no such thing.

Nathan: 37:43

Nope.

unknown: 37:43

Nope.

Alicea: 37:44

I do want to say that if you guys have any questions or suggestions, you can email us at podcast at adventures and mouscapades.com. You can also follow us on social media platforms at our mousecapades.

Nathan: 37:59

Yep, and that's InstaTwitface.

Alicea: 38:00

InstaTwitface.

Nathan: 38:01

Yep, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, just our mousecapades. And that's where we'll post our reminiscence and ruminations and all other alliterations. Yes, exactly. Things, all these social things. So yeah, I think we should probably wrap that one up here. Yes. All right. Thanks everybody for listening. Uh, and like I said, or like Alicia said, you know, if you have any questions, give us a yell. We want this to be interactive. If there's stuff you want us to talk about, topics you want us to cover or weigh in on, please let us know. We definitely want to help out. And and we're here to be your resource, as much as it's we're here to actually force and I, Alicia and I to talk to each other. No. But uh yeah, thanks for listening for this long, and we really hope to uh see you again, talk to you again, whatever.

Alicea: 38:57

Talk at you soon.

Nathan: 38:59

We're gonna talk at you soon.

Alicea: 39:01

Something like that.

Nathan: 39:02

All right. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye. Bye bye.

SPEAKER_02: 39:05

Thank you for flying Star Tours. Bye bye.