Intro 0:03

Please stand clear of the doors. por favor manténgase alejado de las puertas Please stand clear of the doors.

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Alicea 0:23

Hello everyone. I'm Alicea.

Nathan 0:25

I'm Nathan.

David 0:26

And I'm David.

Alicea 0:27

Welcome to episode 241 of Adventures and Mouse Capades.

Nathan 0:30

This week's guest has quite the resume. He's a composer, lyricist, playwright, orchestrator, and actor. He's been on Broadway and toured with shows both here in the U.S. and internationally. And his songs have been performed and recorded by Tony winners, Emmy winners, and even Saturday Night Live cast members.

Alicea 0:51

He's contributed to the book, music, and lyrics to 26 original musicals, including writing Arthur Danby, The Innocence, Mr. Scrooge's Christmas Carol, and was involved in the original development of this last seasons Beaches The Musical. He's even been awarded the Stephen Sondheim Artist Citation by the Legend himself.

Nathan 1:11

He's an incredible, self-taught pianist and an insanely talented vocalist, and seems to know and have hung out with nearly every major Broadway performer we can think of. Our guest even suffers through listening to us try to sing during our vocal lessons.

Alicea 1:26

But more important than any of that, this week's guest is one of the warmest, caring, and most supportive people that we have the great pleasure to know. And with all of that, we can't wait for you to get to know him a little bit. So welcome, David.

David 1:40

You guys, come on. I'm literally sitting here blushing and like crying already, and I haven't even related a story yet. What happened?

Nathan 1:48

Thank God this isn't on video.

David 1:50

Exactly, right? I didn't do my makeup today. What?

From Disneyland Trauma To Conversion

Nathan 1:54

So, okay, we're here to chat about your recent trip to Hong Kong Disneyland. But before we even get to all that, how would you describe your relationship to Disney and Disney parks?

David 2:06

Wow. Dodgy and multi-layered. Um, I am uh uh I'm a convert. Uh I love it. I've uh I'll start from when I was a little kid, my grandma lived uh very near Anaheim, and we lived in Oregon. And so uh she would bring us down every summer and uh she uh would pay for everything. And so I'd show up at grandma's house and we weren't we didn't have a lot of money, and so I would show up at grandma's house and she would have all this stationery with my name on it, had written on it, and I just felt so fancy when I went to her house. And then at the end of the day, I knew the the piece de resistance that we're gonna end up at Disneyland.

Nathan 2:42

Right.

David 2:42

And so um the first time we went, uh, it was uh it was did not go to plan. Um there were some instances that I won't go into here that were just a little uh traumatic and required years of therapy to get over. So let's just leave that aside. Um but the day ended with my grandmother had a having a stroke in fantasyland. And so I remember very viscerally watching her fall and like everybody freaking out, and then they took us into the infirmary with and then I remember my mom had to sign all these forms and everything, and she was just so upset. And so, like after that, we never went back. So that was like my last memory of Disney, and um, I think it was five birthdays ago. Uh, my it was my would be my second birthday with my partner Nick. Um, and he had uh some really strange uh um uh childhood memories of Disneyland going with his family, where it just wasn't as joyful or as joyous as he wanted, and yeah, he felt like um that he and his two brothers were very limited in the things that his parents would allow them to do. And so he just he never really got what the hype was. And so almost as a as a joke, he was like, Why don't we go to Disneyland? I'm like, Yeah, let's go. Let's be really unhappy when we get there, just like almost on purpose. I did not say that, but I was expecting to not like it.

Nathan 4:01

Right.

David 4:02

And we got there and we walked in, and in about an hour we both started noting how um how in how inviting it was, and then how it wasn't just inviting, it just wrapped itself around you, and it was so everywhere you looked, every detail was curated and beautiful, and people were stopping us, and I had a birthday tag on, and we were being stopped by everybody, and and and it felt so foreign. And by the end of the first day, we were just holding each other's hands and crying in the middle of Disneyland because it just freed us all of a sudden to be the kids that we never got to be, and we had the best four days, and we just kept going back and we would ride the rides over and over again. The Peter Pan ride, like who would have known this? Like it's sort of old school, like there's no like bells and whistles to it, but like you feel like you're flying, and and it was mind-blowing. And we went back again like five months later, yeah, way too soon, way too expensive to do five months later. And then we went to Florida because I think there's only one thing that could get me to step into the state of Florida with my boyfriend, and that's Disneyland. And it was incredible there too. It's it's obviously so much bigger, and there's so much more to do.

Nathan 5:21

Yeah,

David 5:21

um, we had an amazing time there, and then Nick, uh, who is uh Chinese, his uh family is from Hong Kong, was uh over there and he was like, Why don't you come over? And I was like, Can we go to Disneyland? It was like, Yeah, why do you think I'm inviting you? Come on. So I flew to Hong Kong and we went to Disneyland. I met his family, and then we uh went to Tokyo next, like a year later. Yeah, and I was like, What has happened to my life? I know what's happened to all my money, but what has happened to my life? The merch has been purchased, the food has been purchased. I have a a Peter Pan uh popcorn uh holder thing that like lights up and tinkerbells on the top, and like it's incredible. And um, and then I went back to Hong Kong again just to go to Disneyland. Yeah, um, I um have never felt like I got to be a kid until now I'm middle-aged. Yeah, and it was because of that.

Nathan 6:18

That's amazing.

Why Hong Kong Disneyland Drew Him

Alicea 6:19

It is, it is what what made Hong Kong Disneyland the park that you decided to visit this most recent time?

David 6:25

That's a good question. I think the so what I now know is that it's the smallest park. And I was I was prepping for this and I was like, I'm gonna go in there with all these fact oids. And I was like, nothing, nothing I have to say is any surprise to anybody listening to this. Y'all know way more than I do. However, if you didn't know, Hong Kong Disney is built on a man-made island. And I was I was very proud of myself for knowing that

Nathan 6:50

congratulations. Gold Star.

David 6:51

Exactly. Thank you very much. A plus. Um, so I went the first time we went, I'm gonna say like 40% of it was closed down because they were doing construction on frozen land. It wasn't done yet. Uh so like um the island, which is it's not Robinson Crusoe, it's not

Alicea 7:07

Tom Sawyer.

David 7:08

Is it Tom Sawyer? Um Hong Kong?

Alicea 7:10

Oh, in Hong Kong,

David 7:11

or is it Pirates? Uh I can't oh my gosh. See, it was closed down again, which is why I don't know. Uh it's the one place that was closed down when we went back. Okay. But um, so uh there were they basically had cordoned off anything that was high enough that you could see over the fencing into the frozen land.

Nathan 7:29

Right.

David 7:29

So Nick had been there, and I was I I was honestly going to see his family and everything and just see him. Sure. But we went on our very last day, um, and everything was open again. Uh so we got to go on frozen land and uh we I ate the little Olaf ice cream, and it was so good. Like it sh it didn't deserve to be that good, but I had another one. Um, and uh what what else? Um the Haunted Mansion was so cool. Yeah. Um we when we got there, we went to the Lion King Land. Yeah and um Nick was like, oh, there's a show coming up at noon or something. And I was like, I'm not sure. I want to see a show, you know, because like I do theater for a living, and so like going to Disneyland, like I want to do stuff that I don't do. Right. You know what I mean? Like I want to get on fast-moving things that I don't know how they work and have other people be in charge of that. So we typically when I go see shows, uh it's all technical to me in a beautiful way. I still love it and I still believe in it.

Nathan 8:28

You love the art, but it's hard to see, like your brain sees everything behind the art of the technical how do you put this on and the lighting and the

David 8:37

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And not even from a critical point, but it's just like it's still magic to me. But Disneyland is still magical to me because I don't know what happens behind the scenes. And so I was like, Do I want to go see Lion King? Like, no, I've seen the Lion King. So this is gonna feel like a distillation of it.

Nathan 8:53

Right.

David 8:53

Well, we went literally sobbing, sobbing at the end of it. The sound quality, apparently, they had just done something to the theater and like enhanced the the orchestration and just the the the surround sound, and you're in this big round, you know, rotunda thing. And I was over the moon, like people falling out of the ceiling and flying around on cables. And it was just perfect, perfect storytelling.

Nathan 9:17

Yeah,

David 9:17

it did not feel like a distillation of this glorious big giant story, it felt like a new adaptation that was told from a storytelling standpoint of a bunch of people getting together and just telling a very simple story. It was so beautiful. I loved it. That's that was my favorite thing.

Nathan 9:35

That's awesome. Yeah. So we haven't been to Hong

Hong Kong Arrival And Empty Queues

Nathan 9:40

Kong. Um getting to Hong Kong Disneyland, like first impressions, like what's it like? Like what

David 9:47

Yeah, it's cool because you take they have their own train. Okay. Um I just have to say, if you've never been to Hong Kong, it's un it's an unbelievably fabulous city. It's like New York and London got squished together and moved east.

Nathan 10:00

Oh wow.

David 10:01

And it's just, and it's odd because thanks to colonialism, everybody speaks English, like perfect English. So it's like no trouble talking to anybody. You can just get around, and it's just really sort of cosmopolitan, but then at night the lights are it's it's like Hong Kong has colors that we have we don't have. I don't even know if that's possible, but they have invented colors, and there are these boats, these huge giant boats on the water that look like they came from uh from 200 years ago. It's unbelievable. Um, so I love Hong Kong, but the train that takes you to Disneyland, um, you you basically just basically pull up to the gate and then you walk in, and that's it, this island that you're on.

Nathan 10:39

Yeah.

David 10:40

Um, and so of course it's hot and it's humid. Oh, it's muggy, and it's like you need a shower every three minutes.

Nathan 10:48

Right.

David 10:48

Uh it's really uh that bad. Uh however, um it was it was a super clear day, and we went on like a Tuesday, but there was basically nobody there. Like it was crazy how few people were there. Yeah, like no wait time, two minutes to get into almost every single ride.

Nathan 11:04

We've heard that about Hong Kong. I mean, it has its busy periods, but yeah,

Alicea 11:09

and there's always certain rides that are gonna be more busy than others, too.

Nathan 11:13

Yeah, but overall, like you don't need a fast pass or a lightning lane or a whatever for Hong Kong Disneyland because it's yeah, that's pretty much

David 11:24

the the fireworks show at the end of the night, too, was un it was so beautiful. And again, I was crying again because they just they hit all those emotions. They know, yeah, they know how they do. They know what they're doing. And in the and somehow it doesn't feel manipulative. It just doesn't, you know what I mean? They're just they're tagging all of these brilliant moments from your childhood that you remember, and if you're lucky, carry into your adulthood and can still regain that feeling of watching those beautiful movies and the incredible work that they do to make sure that they're supplanted in like a real genuine um connectivity between human beings, and they somehow just they nail it every single time. Like I was there when there's a little kid on his dad's shoulders right in front of us, and we were just done. He's just standing in awe of it, and you get to remember what it's like to be in awe of things again. It's unbelievable. So I'm a sap.

Language, Mystic Manor, Imagineering Notes

Nathan 12:13

We so does like culturally, like we've seen some stuff about Disney like in Shanghai, and where they had to uh not tweak, but like do more education about like culturally what Disney is and and who some of the characters are because they don't have that history. Yeah, was there some of that going on in Hong Kong, or because it's such a Western culture in the East, they didn't have to do that?

David 12:42

They didn't they didn't have to do that as much. I appreciated the fact that some of the rides were in Mandarin or in Cantonese, and in fact, they had three separate rides uh for three separate boats for the jungle cruise. They had the one in English, the one in Cantonese, and the one in Mandarin, which was great. And so Nick, who speaks both, he was like, Well, we'll go on the English one for you, white boy. And so we did, uh, which was very helpful and it was it was funny. Um uh, but they I don't feel like they had to explain quite as much. There is a ride there that I did not have any cultural context for, which was this archaeological, like this kind of old dottering guy and a monkey who goes kind of.

Alicea 13:22

That was Mystic Manor. That was their um that was their haunted mansion because they don't do haunted mansion in that culture because of ghosts.

David 13:30

Yeah.

Alicea 13:31

So they they do Mystic Manor, and that was their answer to that for that.

David 13:35

And is there any did they take the characters from anything or they just invented them?

Alicea 13:39

They just invented and they made a story for it.

David 13:41

Yeah. Okay.

Nathan 13:42

The um that's the one where Joe Rhode is the model, I think, for

Alicea 13:51

I know I know I know Joe's the model for one of the Tower of Terrors.

Nathan 13:56

No, I think it's on that one, too. I think he's that sorry. No, it's so Joe Roadie is a Disney imagineer who designed like Aulani. He ran Animal Kingdom, not ran Animal Kingdom, but did the design work behind Animal Kingdom, like just amazing guy. And I'm almost positive it is Mystic Manor, where that the old white guy character, yeah. Like if you saw a picture of Joe Rhode and then saw like that character like in the paintings and stuff like that on the wall, it's it's Joe Rhode.

David 14:29

So is he the guy that did is Animal Kingdom Avatar? Yes, okay, okay. Yeah, we that the whole setup and the tree. When you look at that tree, you could stand and look at that thing for hours and still see something different. It's unbelievable. Yeah, I love that.

Nathan 14:42

Yeah, sorry.

David 14:42

Tangent.

Nathan 14:43

Yeah, like we do tangents early and often around here. Early and often. Hi, it's me, future Nathan here. I was wrong, but wanted to keep this section in because Joe Rhode is absolutely a cool guy and Disney icon. Joe Rhode was the model used for Harrison Hightower the Third, who is indeed the main story character for Tokyo Disneyland's Tower of Terror. Alicea was correct.

Alicea 15:14

I'm not surprised.

Nathan 15:17

Quiet you. He is in Mystic Manor, however, in Hong Kong, in the group portrait of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers, or SEA, which is referenced across many Disney parks, rides, resorts, and even the cruise ships. And now you know

Alicea 15:41

you had mentioned before that you got an accessibility pass.

Accessibility Passes And Seizure Safety

Alicea 15:46

Oh, yeah. For um, did you do it for the entire time that you were there, or was it just for a certain day?

David 15:52

We didn't end up doing it for this trip to Hong Kong because it was it. So the my thing is I have a seizure disorder, and if I, especially when it's hot, if my heart rate goes up and then comes back down, sometimes my brain doesn't have an off switch, and so it the reason the seizures happen is because my heart rate goes up and my body still thinks, or my brain still thinks that the body's going and it's really not, so it still sends out the electrical impulses. So um it's best for me if I'm going to be walking to a place to not like stop for too long to let the heart rate come down. So staying active, especially when it's hot. So um, but we didn't feel like we needed to do that because we could set our own pace and you didn't have to like walk with the crowds because there were no crowds. The first time we went, Hong Kong was super, super easy. You just walked in on off of main street uh to the left and you walk in and you talk to them. I think they did ask to see a note from my neurologist, which I showed them uh the first time, and then they handed me one. We kept it because it's you know, it's my they have my name written in Chinese, which is you don't see that every day. It's kind of cool. I had no idea it was my name, and Nick told me. So um, but then um yeah, I found the two US parks were a little they're a little bit more challenging because um I know that there's been some trouble uh inconsistent history with being able to actually get one for a kid who is clearly gonna need one. You know what I mean? Because if you say the wrong thing, yeah, then they can they dis they discount you, which is not my favorite thing.

Nathan 17:20

We've talked about this with some folks who have some insider knowledge of how all this stuff works, and it really came down to unfortunately, too many people were abusing the system and were sucking up a lot of capacity on rides and like at a way in proportionate level.

David 17:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nathan 17:41

And so they had to get more strict on like actually doing some better validation and all the rest of that stuff. It's it's unfortunate. Like for the people who need it, like you need it, and yeah, these absolutely are situations where you should have it. And I hate that people abused it to the point where that becomes an issue for people who actually need it.

Alicea 18:03

Yeah, the people who messed it up were the ones that actually didn't need it.

David 18:06

Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Nathan 18:08

We talked a little bit also about the culture and um how Disney had to adjust or not necessarily, uh at least as much in Hong Kong, uh, to the local culture. From your perspective, though, like when we're at the Disney parks, and and you've been to Hong Kong multiple times, you've been to Tokyo as well. Like, what is it like as a guest, as an American, going into Hong Kong Disneyland? Like, is the vibe the same? Like, how are the like the other people and and things like that?

Tokyo Disney Travel Reality Check

David 18:47

So I think Hong Kong felt the most like the US. Tokyo felt completely different, like we have no idea what to expect. Um, if it's okay, I can talk about Tokyo.

Nathan 18:57

Absolutely.

David 18:58

Tokyo was a completely different experience because I actually feel a little bit uh I don't think I should admit this publicly, but I literally flew to Tokyo just to go to Disneyland. Like I had never been to Japan before. I saw maybe one inch of Tokyo, and I saw every inch of every part of Disney. Um we

Alicea 19:17

that sounds like something we do.

David 19:18

Oh yeah. I mean, and I and then I left and I was like, God, I'm so white. Like, what the hell was I thinking? And no judgment from Nick, he was like, no, I get it, and let's roll. Um, but uh what was cool about that is that we've only stayed on property essentially one and a half times.

Nathan 19:33

Okay.

David 19:33

That one and a half is once in in California and we stayed on property, which was great, and I loved every minute of it. Yeah, but then this time what's cool about it is that they have um around Disney SEA and the other park, you um they have all the the Disney hotels, but then there's like a couple hotels that are literally in between them. And so near the Toy Story Hotel was uh I have a credit card for it, which is why I went there because I was like points, points. Um, and I got us this room having no idea what I paid for, but everything was sort of cheaper. Yeah you know what I mean, which is weird. The flights, everything was cheaper. And we were there for I think five or six days, yes, a whole week. And um, the room that we got, massive, huge picture of Tokyo Bay. Like you little open the curtains, it was an entire wall, the most beautiful hotel room. And Nick literally, I was talking to Nick, I was like, I'm going to Alicea and Nathan's. What memories do you have? And he's like, the hotel room, the hotel, talk about the hotel room. It was so glorious, and just every part I felt like we were on property even though we weren't, and it was not as expensive. Yeah. Um and then you just got on a train uh and it takes you right there as a monorail. The monorail was so clean and so beautiful and like perfectly maintained. And one of the best parts was we were there end of November into early December, and our final night there, we had gotten on the train, we got off at the hotel, we got back on the next morning. The entire thing had been decked out with Christmas.

Nathan 20:57

Oh, wow.

David 20:57

And like there, there were Mickey hats hanging over all the handles and uh stickers on the entire outside of the train. It was just it was it was it was just magical. I gotta think of a better word. It was a total transformation overnight.

Alicea 21:11

Yep, yeah.

David 21:12

It's insane. The one thing about Tokyo is that there's a bunch of stuff that you don't expect. Like the first thing, you have to you pay for the monorail every time. So you have to clock in, which is not a big deal, it's what it is. Yeah. But with as advanced as we know Tokyo is, it's very hard to get internet there. So inside the park, they don't have it. So if you're a tourist and you take your phone, you gotta get a local card because you will not have internet.

Alicea 21:37

Okay.

David 21:38

And with Fantasy Springs, we were there pretty much right around when it opened, I think. Do we know when it opened? I don't remember off the top of my head. So sometime within the last couple years. Yeah. Yeah. Your fact checker can check.

Nathan 21:51

Yeah, exactly.

Samantha 21:51

Fantasy Springs opened June 6th, 2024.

David 21:54

It we were there two two Christmases ago. Anyway, um, I was super excited about going to that, but they're They were very stringent stringent on how you get in. And so the um we we had gone the first three days, and then our final day, we were like, you you have to be there at a certain time because you basically have to rush into the park and go online and clock in. And so we there was like a there was a pocket of internet that was close enough to the gate because we were too cheap, I guess, to buy cards. I shouldn't be admitting to this. Good God. I'm such a cliche. Like I'm Jewish, Nick is Chinese, both cheap. It's terrible. Um, you can cut that out. So we get uh so the final day, I was like, we have to go to Fantasy Spring, mainly because Nathan and Alicea will kill us if we don't, because I have to report back. And so um we I got there at 5 a.m. And by the time I got there, there was already a line. Not a line, like 27 lines.

Alicea 22:52

I yeah, when it first opened up, actually it's probably still pretty bad now, it was like just ridiculous how long the lines are. Like it goes fast, but everybody will line up like hours ahead of time. Yeah, yeah.

David 23:05

And Nick was like, I'm not going at five. I was like, well, see, he shows up at eight, and I was sitting on the ground, and it ended up being one of those cool experiences where everybody's talking anyway. So uh so we we we're so ready because if we had missed that, it was our literal final day. Yeah, so we both run in with our phones, we're like, and we we got our tickets, and it was for like one o'clock or something like that. So that was the first thing to know is that the internet doesn't work. And then the other thing, which I I love this part because as an American, I always feel like such an American going places and like I do not expect anybody to speak our language. Yeah. Now I can't learn Japanese that quickly because we only had a couple months, and it's very challenging. However, what I love there is that they just don't speak English to you. They just don't. So you gotta figure some stuff out, yeah, which is great. And when you don't have an internet, good luck. And Nick did not know any Japanese, so we were a little bit lost at times, which was great. But um, I I'm trying to remember Disney Sea exactly because it's it it's very big. Yeah, it's big, and that what didn't feel the same is that the streets and the passageways are so much bigger, so much more expansive. So you feel you don't feel like you're being uh guided through as much. Right, you know, because they have the whole pattern, should know.

Alicea 24:18

Yeah, it's more open world,

David 24:19

yeah, exactly. And then I found out that I don't know, another factoid for you, which I'm sure everybody already knows, is that it's privately owned. And so they license the characters. And so I was like, I'm fascinated to know like, did the designers have carte blanche with how it's designed, or did they have to stick to the you know, some semblance of the rules?

Nathan 24:36

No, like Disney acted as uh and imagineering acted as consultants, and kind of what they did was they'd say, Hey, we want this ride, but can we kind of merge it a little bit with this other ride? And so I I'm I was just listening to Disney Dish the other day, and and uh, or it wasn't Disney Dish. It was one of the ones that um uh Len Testa and Jim Schull were on.

Samantha 25:03

The podcast is called Disney Unpacked with Jim Hill, Jim Schull, and Len Testa.

Nathan 25:07

And um Jim Schull, former imaginary, led imagineering, uh, was talking about because he was involved in building Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and all the rest of that stuff. And he was saying, yeah, oh yeah, like a little bit of this and a little bit of this, and plug it all together. So there was very heavy imagineering, Disney event imagineering involvement to ensure that it was authentic, that it was done the right way, and that the storytelling was there. But OLC, it's the Oriental Land Company, is the the local entity there. They pay for it, they they pay for it, and they had like, nope, this is what we want. It was it was like kind of ordering from the international menu across all the parks of what they wanted to do. And that was in 1982 was Tokyo opened.

David 25:55

Really?

Samantha 25:56

You were close. It was April 15th, 1983.

David 25:59

And then Disney Sea came later

Nathan 26:00

and Disney Sea was later.

David 26:02

Okay, gotcha. Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nathan 26:03

Yep, yep, yep.

David 26:03

Wow.

Alicea 26:04

And then they're also getting a cruise ship. OLC's also ordered a cruise line ship.

Nathan 26:09

Yeah, so

David 26:10

sailing out of Tokyo.

Nathan 26:11

Yeah. Uh they haven't announced exactly where and what the itineraries are yet, but they have announced that there's a ship, it's gonna come out and start sailing in 2029. Yeah, and it is the Disney Wish class design.

David 26:24

Okay,

Nathan 26:25

but we don't know what they're doing with it.

Alicea 26:27

So they get to figure it out, they get to work with imagineering and you know, pay whatever they want to pay for, do their own thing.

Nathan 26:34

Right. So I'm I'm kind of imagining that that will be the absolute pinnacle of the Wish class.

Alicea 26:40

Probably.

Nathan 26:40

Because OLC will go like, yeah, that works, and that doesn't, and we're fixing it. I'm like, yes, please fix it. So I'm I'm actually excited. We're tentatively planning to go to Tokyo in 2030.

David 26:53

Wow, I'm coming.

Nathan 26:54

Okay,

Alicea 26:54

okay,

Nathan 26:55

sounds great

Alicea 26:56

Sterlings graduation.

Nathan 26:56

Yeah, it'll be Sterling's graduation.

Alicea 26:58

Oh my god, yeah.

Nathan 26:59

Yeah.

Alicea 26:59

Um, that's what's happening with the Abu Dhabi park as well.

David 27:02

Oh wow.

Alicea 27:03

It's it's um another entity is paying for it and is gonna be working with Imagineering and Disney for all the all the built building of it, yeah.

Nathan 27:13

Yeah, we'll see how that goes. Wow.

Alicea 27:15

Yeah, yeah.

David 27:17

I wouldn't want to be in those meetings. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, one thing about like uh the the Tokyo Castle.

Nathan 27:24

Yeah,

David 27:25

unbelievable. The mosaics. We I have thousands of pictures of the intricacies of the mosaics. Wow. They were absolutely stunning. Uh because I think it was Cinderella, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Is it always Cinderella? It's not.

Alicea 27:38

No,

Nathan 27:38

it's not always

Alicea 27:39

sleeping beauty. Is um the one in Paris is Sleeping Beauty and the one in oh my gosh. Which one is it? Florida or California that's sleeping beauty. I'm sorry guys, I should know this. And my brain just said, no, you don't know it right now.

Nathan 27:51

I think it's Florida, because Cinderella's LA. Maybe backwards. I don't remember.

David 27:58

I can't remember either.

Nathan 27:59

See, this is the thing, like you're like, oh, everybody knows all that stuff. Like, yes, I'm sure people do have encyclopedia knowledge of like all these things. It's not us. We go and our brain just goes, like, this is cool.

David 28:12

Exactly. Yeah. Yep.

Nathan 28:14

So it's it's fine.

Samantha 28:15

Don't worry, fam. I got this. Sleeping beauty castle is Princess Aurora's home in Anaheim, California, and she also has a summer castle in Disneyland, Paris. Cinderella has castles in Florida and Tokyo. All of the Disney princesses are honored at the Castle of Magical Dreams in Hong Kong and Enchanted Storybook Castle in Shanghai.

Nathan 28:32

This is what I actually love about the the Disney community. There are people who can like deeply nerd out about that stuff, and we can shade in that direction. And then there's also like those same very nerdy people are predominantly super welcoming of the people who just come in and have their minds blown and just kind of start jeweling in their like loving every single thing that's coming into their brain.

David 28:56

Yeah, yeah. Yep.

Nathan 28:57

It's it's something for everybody.

David 28:58

I kind of love that we didn't at any point have we ever gone online and tried to plan stuff in advance because I think we just learned right away that it's gonna take you where it wants to take you. And so, like when we we've been back to California, I think at this point, like five or six times. Like the last time we did it, Nick and I went to the Star Wars because he's very big, very big Star Wars fan. We bought the watches, and so we did the whole uh hunting of the you know,

Alicea 29:21

the bounty hunter thing. I love it. It's honestly so much fun.

David 29:24

It was so much fun, and like and and and we did the lightsaber. I I paid for the big one.

Alicea 29:29

Oh my gosh, that's such an amazing experience, though. It really immerses you in it. Yeah, I got I got chills, I may have gotten a little teary-eyed during it.

Nathan 29:38

100%. I did.

David 29:39

Yeah, and and we went to the we went to the private, you know, the the bar beforehand, not to get to get loaded, but like to have dinner and everything. You know, what's it called? Oga’s thank you. It was so and so we made it, it was so immersive, and we still have the lightsaber and it's gonna get a whole stand for it. But um, yeah, I love that part. But um, with with Tokyo, like we went to Beauty and the Beast Land, another it it felt like it felt like everything had sort of been like just amped up like 20% because like just being in the middle of that French uh village, yeah, and and the and the ride, like you start walking through, and there's the projections, and there's the and there's the animatronics and then and the music, and then they have multiple waiting lines, so they do that thing where you you feel like you're already on the ride before you're on the ride, yeah, which is so so smart. Yeah, um, that one did it better than almost anything, and I have video of all of this, and I sort of want to post it online, but also just want people to go and experience it because it's not the same thing.

Nathan 30:40

Well, that's actually the the question I want to ask you.

Fantasy Springs Peter Pan And Jen

Nathan 30:43

Like thinking about, you know, we started talking about Hong Kong, and we can the your answer can be from Hong Kong, but it can also be from from Tokyo. You haven't been to Paris, right?

David 30:51

No.

Nathan 30:52

Okay. So, like thinking of those those two Asian parks that you've been to, like what attraction or attractions do you think US park fans are seriously missing out on?

David 31:03

The new Fantasy Springs Peter Pan.

Nathan 31:05

Okay.

David 31:05

And I know I already talked about Peter Pan a little bit, so maybe I have a Peter Pan complex. I do. Middle-aged man who behaves like a child. Um, so uh we we we only were able to get on two of the three rides, and I don't know if that's still the case there, but we got on the Peter Pan ride and then the what are the other two? Fro Frozen is one and then the

Alicea 31:26

Rapunzel. Tangled.

David 31:27

Thank you, Rapunzel. We got on the Tangled Ride, which was beautiful to look at, and they do the whole lantern thing and everything, but it was uh it was that one wasn't my my favorite. Yeah, however, uh sorry, tangent, their flash is splash mountain is so cool. Yeah, it's so cool. Characters I don't recognize, but like multiple drops, yeah, like it felt like it was six different events.

Nathan 31:50

Oh wow,

David 31:51

and Nick and I freaking love that, like wanted to go back again. But the Peter Pan ride, I don't want to ruin it for anybody, but it was a mix of everything. Yeah, um, and if you think that the one in in California makes you feel like you're flying, this literally takes you into every flying dream you've ever had. And we were, I I I didn't know how Nick was responding to it until I looked over and we were like, you know, boogers, booger crying. That's where we were. Yeah. And it was so it was so profound.

Nathan 32:19

Yeah.

David 32:20

Then one of my favorite things that happened there, we went into a cafe and we were like not bemoaning the fact, but so okay, bemoaning. Um my people know how to do that. Uh, we're standing there and talking about the fact that I we weren't gonna be able to go on the frozen ride. Yeah, and this woman sitting next to her, like sitting over here, was clearly listening to every word we were saying. And she was like, those bastards. And I went, Well, what? She goes, They'll get that's how they get you. Every time you come into this park, you pay a million dollars, you save up all your money, and then they don't let you on a ride. And I was like, What is happening? What's this woman? And then, and she was like, Well, it just might be your lucky day because these bastards aren't gonna get you today. And she hands Nick a ticket to the frozen ride. She goes, There's only one of me, because frankly, none of my family can afford to come here. It's too expensive. We're going bankrupt, us bastards, and people are literally looking at us. So, over the next four days, we spend every waking minute with this human being, clearly. Her name is Jen. She's from San Francisco, she's going to grad school. She is the funniest, most angry Disney fanatic you've ever met in your entire life. She has literally gone bankrupt for this company and is thrilled and angry about it at the same time. She has pre-purchased entry tickets for like two and three years out. And she purchases them because she doesn't know if she's actually going to have any money then. So she has to front load it to make sure that she's safe. She complains about everything when she's there, and yet every piece of merch that you could possibly fathom carrying is dripping off of her body when she walks out. And she is so joyful and so angry. I'm so in love with this woman, I could die. Like we rode the bus through Tokyo with her. She's amazing, and I she's a character.

Nathan 34:18

That is the first person the descrip the the first time I've heard a Disney adult described perfectly. Yeah. Like that is that is Jen. Like, like it's magical, it's amazing, it's hell.

Alicea 34:33

Yeah, yeah. That's how it is.

David 34:34

God. Oh, and the main, oh, the main street. And they had done the thing that they did with the train to Main Street. So you walk in and Christmas exploded. Yeah. And it's just these giant trees. But the cool thing is, it feels like um, it almost feels like a train station, like a or a like a like uh the Harry Potter train station. Because it's sort of like it doesn't feel like a normal Main Street because it's not open air.

Alicea 34:56

It's like got the greenhouse type thing over it. I forget what that's called. Like the um

Nathan 35:00

Pergola?

Alicea 35:01

Pergola, thank you. Yeah, yeah. I was thinking copula, but I was like, no, that's that's somebody nope, that's not it. Pergola, yes, like a pergola.

David 35:08

And then what's I I'm I this is my aged memory. There's a it's a a land question mark to the left as you walk in, and it's like, is it San Francisco? What am I thinking of?

Alicea 35:19

San Fransokyo?

David 35:20

No, that no, it's so there's now I know that's not the what's in Tokyo, but there's a it it's some American thing, and there's a train that goes through there, and we all the only reason I'm having trouble remembering it is because we went there last minute at the end of it. But just the design of Tokyo, you you have to go. Like if you're gonna choose one out of the two that I've been to that are in uh are in Asia proper, go to Tokyo. Yeah. Um, because it's just it does not feel anything basically like the other parts. You still feel the same feeling, yeah. It's still immaculate. Yeah, um, Disney Sea, I think was maybe a little bit oversold to me because everyone was like, oh my god, your mind is gonna melt out of your ears. So I was ready for that, and so I'm not gonna do that. So when you, dear listeners, go to see it, you'll be amazed because David said it was terrible. That's not what I'm saying, it's magical. But they have the 10 20,000 leagues under the sea. Yes, that's a thing, and then there's another ride adjacent to that, which was no memory, no clue.

Nathan 36:24

Sweet.

David 36:25

Yeah, yeah.

Nathan 36:26

It was a great one.

David 36:26

It was great. That was the best ride, actually, the one that I can't remember. Yes. Yep, yep. Um, I do have to take a lot of dramamine with me, though, because mama cannot handle twists. Mama gets real sick on those.

Nathan 36:39

I'm I'm getting there. Yeah.

David 36:41

Oh boy. Yep.

Alicea 36:43

Well, on the flip side, did anything not quite hit for you?

David 36:48

Um, I I'm hard pressed. Yeah, that's the that's the line. That's like seven o'clock. That's outside.

Alicea 36:56

Yep, yep.

Nathan 36:57

So David showing us a video on his phone of a very long line to get into

Alicea 37:02

everybody just sitting down on the ground waiting for the park to open.

Nathan 37:04

Hey, but the ground is very clean.

David 37:06

It is so clean, it really is. Um, what I mean, no? Yeah, the flying, maybe their version of flying was not

Nathan 37:17

soaring.

David 37:18

Soaring, thank you, thank you. Terrible. Please edit that out. Don't let me sound like an idiot. No, it's like flying. What the hell is he talking about? Um that maybe that one wasn't as good. I don't know. Um I I loved it. Yeah. You know, uh, what am I thinking of in uh in Florida? The the their version of the old timey mountain ride. The the Big Thunder Mountain? Big Thunder Mountain, thank you. Is that the one? Because Nick and I have been arguing as to which one goes up and then you think that you're gonna go up, and then an explosion happens and they end up taking you backward. Is that Florida?

Alicea 37:53

No, no, that doesn't happen.

Nathan 37:55

That is in one of the Asia parks.

Alicea 37:56

Yeah,

Nathan 37:56

I don't remember which one.

David 37:57

he was right. Yeah, damn it. I'm not letting him listen to this because I never because I was like, no, it was in Florida. I'm certain of it.

Nathan 38:05

Nope, that's not Florida.

David 38:06

It was in Hong Kong and it was Big Thunder Mountain, and it definitely makes you go up, and then they have an explosion and you fall backward. And it's really cool. That's awesome. Um, oh, I do have not one about the Asian parks, but I maybe I'm gonna be sued for this, but the Tron ride,

Nathan 38:21

yeah,

David 38:22

too short.

Nathan 38:22

Yes,

David 38:23

I'm still angry about that.

Nathan 38:25

It is very, very short.

Alicea 38:27

I mean that's in Shanghai, right? Is it in Shanghai?

Nathan 38:30

Yes, it's there. It's in Shanghai first, and then it was a literal copy and paste into Disney World and the Magic Kingdom, in Florida.

David 38:37

Yeah,

Nathan 38:38

and it is agreed, it is way too short.

Alicea 38:40

Under one minute.

David 38:41

Yeah. I I I I was ready. Like, if you're gonna make my butthole pucker that much by putting me on a motorcycle with nothing around my body, at least torture me for 60 seconds. That was only 30 seconds of torture, and it was not enough. Because the buildup was actually worse than the ride. Oh, yeah. Because the you're going up, you're watching those people flying upside down as you're waiting, and you're like, I'm literally gonna die. I'm gonna my luck is actually so bad that I would be the guy who would be on the one that falls. You know what I mean?

Nathan 39:08

Like sorry, that's that's Alicea's brain, too. So yep. Oh, yeah. Yep. Uh if you do get a chance to do that again, because I a hundred percent agree with you. Yeah, and Kaitlyn and I, when we were there uh a month or so ago, a couple months ago at this point, um, we waited a couple extra trains and did the very first row. Yeah, so there's nobody in front of you.

David 39:32

Oh, on the tron ride.

Nathan 39:33

Yeah, and it's that

David 39:34

We did that yeah,

Alicea 39:35

you did

Nathan 39:35

like that. Was like this is way too short, but that was freaking cool.

David 39:39

It was, it was, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I love that. I love that. We always asked to go in the front because, like, oh, oh, actually, I have another complaint. I heard, but it's all American parks. So, like, is this David having a problem with America? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe edit that out. Um, is the um the Incredicoaster used to have two flippy hoos, right?

Alicea 40:02

No, no,

David 40:02

it never had two flippy hoos.

Nathan 40:04

Is Nick right again?

David 40:08

It used to be faster, it did, and then a guy got whiplash and they slowed it down. Oh, man. And at least when we went on it again, they did there was no music.

Nathan 40:18

No, that's just a broken. That was just broken.

David 40:21

I was certain there were two tourny who's doo-doos. No.

Alicea 40:26

Just one. Because they'd have to redo the entire track and they didn't do that.

Nathan 40:29

Yeah. Okay, so I'm gonna lead us in a different direction.

Reclaiming Childhood Through Disney

Nathan 40:33

Well, maybe it's kind of the same direction. Because I mean, we're nitpicking here and having a little bit of fun, but you also started off like your Disney journey with a little bit of trauma.

David 40:44

Yeah, a little bit.

Nathan 40:45

Like, how do you reconcile to yourself today loving you know, the the Disney and and the parks? Um but it's something that like you have this conflict of like there's a clear dichotomy between, you know, kid David and adult David and your relationship to Disney. Like, yeah, how how do you hold that in your brain?

David 41:12

That's an interesting question. Because I like despite the experience at Disneyland, I have been the first person in line at every single Disney movie on the planet because it other than because growing up in rural Oregon, we grew I grew up in a double-wide mobile home that I was terrified everybody was gonna find out that I lived in a double wide mobile home. Because like it I f like my mom was the it was this like this unbelievable human being who never let me understand just how poor we were. Yeah, I never knew because I was in middle school, I was voted best dressed because I wore ties to school, because my mom would save up all this money, and then she would take me to this bougie in my head, bougie-ass store in uh whatever the mall was in Eugene. Right, and which was a drive for us. So going to Eugene was like fancy people land, because the main source of industry in the town that I grew up in was a chicken plant, which the whole town stank like chickens, and like the thing that you would grow up to be is a chicken plucker. Yeah, and I didn't want to be a chicken plucker. I mean

Nathan 42:11

that's in that clearly the the origin story of a Broadway star.

David 42:15

Yeah, it is and the funny, so like we grew up in this mobile home, and I um uh I was obsessed with musicals because I watched the Macy's Day Parade when I was six and it and I saw this thing happening, and I think it was Falsettos, which is like a real rando show because it's definitely about AIDS. Right and like what six years old? Yeah, I gotta do that. Um, and I remember I will never forget watching that. And so my mom used to take me to movies to go, this little rental store in Cresswell, where we'd have to drive into town, which was not really a town, um, to rent a Betamax machine. Yes, drive that home in a dump truck because it was that heavy. And I would rent uh Man of a Mancha, Annie, uh, and uh Oliver and on repeat and just watch them over and over again. So I knew I wanted to do it. And so I wrote my first musical when I was 12, and it was called Children of the Shadows, and it was a very bold three acts that came in a not under three and a half hours.

Nathan 43:08

Wow,

David 43:09

it was very long about homeless kids living under a bridge in Atlantic City and then child slavery. So that's the 12-year-old David that I was.

Nathan 43:17

Wow, there's a lot to unpack there.

David 43:19

So much to unpack

Alicea 43:20

lollipops and rainbows.

David 43:22

All lollipops and rainbows and child slavery, yes. Wow. Um, so and then I wrote a vampire musical, and uh my mom was just like, What do you want to do next? I'm like, I want to write musicals. And so for my 16th birthday, I have no idea how she did it. I needed a piano because I was writing on this tiny little stunky keyboard. Yeah, and she got me a very used car and a keyboard, and I literally never drove the car. I was such a nerd that I remember for hours being hunched over that piano and never once drove the car because, like, why do I need that? Why do I need to leave the piano for any reason whatsoever? So most of my 20s were spent hunched over a piano writing musicals. So Disney was. The only thing that was adjunct to Broadway that I could get. So I remember getting the Little Mermaid tape and watching Part of Your World. And then what's so beautiful about life, one of the many beautiful things, is that I obsessed over the structure of Little Mermaid from the time I was like very young. Yeah. Because it's perfect, it's perfect. Like when you literally look at it, like you have the you have the introduction to the world with the fathoms below, and then you go underneath and you see the problem, which is the sisters are conformists, and dad is a titan and triton. And there's one girl who's a rebel, and then she gets in trouble, and then she sings. The third song is I want this. And she literally says, I want to be. Yes. And I want this. And then I grew up and I got into this program in New York called the BMI Layman Musical Theater Writers, Lehman Engel Musical Theater Writers Workshop. And all of these people from all over the world apply each year, and they only take 20 people. And my year they only took 18. Um, and I got in and um, so let me back up. I had applied. I was living in uh Seattle at this time because we'd moved and I applied, and I had no idea of whether whether or not I was gonna get in because I moved on September 7th, my audition was on September 9th, and I was like, let it ride. So I sold everything I owned and moved to New York, and I was terrified because I grew up on a farm, a tiny little farm in Oregon. And I was like, I'd been to New York one time and a guy pulled a gun on the subway. Like, that's my memory of that. It was crazy. And it was

Nathan 45:25

so the 80s, okay.

David 45:27

No, don't I am not that old. I am a bitch.

Nathan 45:30

I am.

David 45:32

Um, they it was a great experience, but like uh I was terrified, and I only knew a couple people, and of course, I was like, I'm not gonna call those people because I don't want to bother them because I'm that guy. Yeah, so I got there and um and it changed my whole life, and I luckily got into the program, and then I got to work with the people who were who wrote Little Mermaid, and like the the Bobby and Kristen who wrote Frozen were like uh members of the class that came right before me, and like uh and then Jeff uh Jeff Whitty, who wrote the book to Avenue Q, he was in a class above me, and like just all these beautiful connections, and that's another story for another time, but just what BMI did to change my life, and they taught me that what I was watching is Little Little Mermaid is actually the structure of the foundational structure of all musicals, and Disney just understands that, yeah, sort of develop that. Um, and so um so my changing relationship back to the point, back to the point, dear, dear listeners, was that my relationship had to change because I loved it, um, and I needed to incorporate that kid who never got to be one. Because I have been an adult since I was like eight, yeah, because I just had to be. There was there was some stuff that is really intense to happen, and I had to uh I had to move through the adult world. And I think the thing about Nick is that I finally met another person who had his childhood taken and we got to take it back.

Nathan 46:58

Yeah,

David 46:59

and uh holding his hand and walking through Disneyland is the most uh profound uh experience. Feeling safe to do that is something uh quite remarkable and integrating.

Nathan 47:13

Yeah,

David 47:14

so it will always be that to me. And I've thought about leaving my life behind and literally living in Disneyland at this point because I want that, I want my time back.

Nathan 47:23

Yeah,

David 47:23

and every time I go there, I do I get it, I get it back every time.

Nathan 47:27

Oh okay. Uh everybody take a break. Um get a tissue, we'll be okay. Uh all right.

Alicea 47:35

There is something special about Disney, just about how it makes you feel, yeah. And they know that too. Like they build it like that, but it's not it's not just a corporate thing to it, too. They want they want people to feel this way, to feel happy, to know they're safe there.

Nathan 47:55

Yeah.

Alicea 47:55

Um, one of the reasons we go back and like we'll go back and we won't even do rides, because it's the vibe of it all, it's the feeling.

Nathan 48:04

For us, just driving onto property in Orlando, because it's it's huge. It's it's I forget how many, like a hundred square miles, or no, it's more than that. It's it's like thousands of acres. It's it's it's ginormous.

Samantha 48:15

Disney World in Florida covers about 27,500 acres or 43 square miles. It is about the size of San Francisco or twice the size of Manhattan.

Nathan 48:24

And there's these signs on the main roads, these big arches, I think there's three of them on the main entrances, and it's like, welcome to Disney World. And we drive under those signs every single time our bodies have a visceral reaction. It is just like our blood pressure drops 20 points. Yeah, like if there was stress on the drive over from I-4, because it's a parking lot,

David 48:48

yeah.

Nathan 48:48

If there's like you had a rough flight, if whatever it is, you get into that bubble and it's more there than it is in Anaheim

Alicea 48:56

because it's a bubble.

Nathan 48:58

It literally is a bubble in Florida, which is the whole reason Walt bought all the that property to make the bubble to be isolated from everything else. It's such a magical place, and it is a magical feeling.

Alicea 49:12

Yeah, that's yeah, it's it's a stress reliever going there. It's one of the reasons we like to go there so much. Yeah, um, and the cruises honestly are like that too for us.

Nathan 49:22

100%. Yeah. We'll go in, we just did one and uh on the destiny is a brand new ship. We had all of these things we wanted to do, all these new things that are unique to that ship. We chose a seven-night itinerary. It's usually been doing fours and fives. We did one of its first seven-night itineraries, like we will have more time, we'll be able to do all of the things. Nope. Our brains shut off.

Alicea 49:43

Yeah,

Nathan 49:44

and instead of rope dropping and doing this and standing in line for an hour and a half to do whatever event, it was just like, whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen. And we had the best cruise. We still did a bunch of stuff, yeah, but it was yeah.

David 49:59

And lit you're explaining exactly what's been happening for us lately because it's like, how many times are we actually gonna go back? And the answer is all. We're gonna go back all. Yeah, and what we started doing lately is that so what's beautiful about the dynamic between Nick and I is that we we both have significant ADHD, like almost debilitating to that degree. So executive functioning happens either with in one of us, and the other one is like in a hole in a ditch by the side of the road, and and then the other one is executive functioning to a degree that is like superhuman.

Nathan 50:31

Right.

David 50:32

And so it just so happened that the first time we went to Disneyland, it was my birthday's birthday. So he was a control freak in the best way, and I'd never seen that side of him. So he was like, We're gonna do this. And he was like, You don't look at anything, don't map anything out on your phone. And so I would we would get off a ride, and he'd be like, Look, here our next ride is ready for you. So we'd be walking across the park this way, and it was just unbelievable. But at the end of the day, we realized that uh after three or four parks, we were always looking for the next thing. We were always like, What's our next event? We gotta make sure we do that thing.

Alicea 51:03

Yeah,

David 51:03

and what happened the last time when we were in Hong Kong is that it was for Nick's birthday. I went there for Nick's birthday, and so it was my chance to do that for him. And I don't know if it's laziness that made me not want to, or it was the fact that no part of me needed to be like really rigid about what we did. So we sort of just wandered and let it take us. And then at the end of the day, there were like three or four things that I hadn't gotten to do yet because he had been back with his niece, Charlotte, who's itty bitty. Yeah, and that that was a different. He called me after, he was like, It's such a different experience with a little kid.

Alicea 51:36

Yeah.

David 51:37

Because it's you do a quarter of the things, uh-huh, and it's a lot of handing hold holding of hands, and it's a lot of this didn't go the way that we wanted to, so there's a meltdown, it's all that stuff. But he was like, it's so beautiful because you see it through their eyes again.

Nathan 51:51

Yes,

David 51:52

and it was he said it was profound. And this is not a person who easily is swayed by uh the things that typical uh neurotypical people are. He he doesn't he doesn't go like super emotional on autopilot, like like I just did five minutes ago. Sorry, but he just doesn't do that. So for him to go there, it was really profound. So when we went there last time, I had this checklist where I was like, I really want to do this one thing. But he wanted to do it, it was the last day of a passport thing where you you you go to the land, you get your passport stamp, and then at the end of the day, you get a token. And he was like, It's the last day, yay! But we hadn't done any of it, and he hadn't filled out the book. So he so I was like, give me the book, and I'm like filling stuff out, and we are running, running. And he's like, What about your rides? I don't care about the rides, shut up. And we we got it done, we got it done.

Alicea 52:43

Yeah,

David 52:43

even there were a couple places that are already closed, and so we were like begging people, can we please get a stamp? And we got the thing, and at the end of the day, we got the final token. We went to the gift shop on the way out, on the way out of time, and they were like, We literally they're closing the gate, and they hand him his token, so he still has that, and that is a prize possession that is going nowhere.

Nathan 53:02

But it's beautiful. This is perfect because uh kind of almost in closing, at least for this, talking about Hong Kong Disneyland. If you had to sum it up, does Hong Kong Disneyland feel more authentic or less authentic or just just different than than the other parks that you've been to?

David 53:23

The only it feels it feels similar in my soul and in my child heart. Yeah, and I I think it's very worth doing, and I don't need to go back to that one again.

Alicea 53:38

Okay.

David 53:39

Because it's small, yeah, and part of the magic for me is that I want it to, I want this to be a multi-day experience, and I don't know that that needs it to be. You know what I mean? Yeah, I don't know that I would have been going back a second time, I'm glad, and I knew that I wanted to because I hadn't seen a bunch of stuff, but now that I've seen it, I'm like, I think I'm good. But I also love Hong Kong, and I'm like, can if I can move there, I'm gonna go, unless I get if I live there, I'm going every week. Like, I won't be bored of it then. It no part of it was boring, it was just it was intimate. Yeah, and uh yeah, yeah. I hear they're expanding it though. Is that true?

Nathan 54:16

That is I was just trying to think of the details, and I can't place the exact details of what has been announced, but uh basically the scuttle butt that I've heard is they're going to build another park.

Alicea 54:28

I don't they haven't announced that. There's other there's other lands that they're building.

Nathan 54:34

Okay, maybe that's what's in my brain.

Alicea 54:36

Yeah, there's yeah, they're gonna do like Pixar stuff, they're gonna do Marvel expansions and a revamp of Tomorrowland and Space Mountain.

Nathan 54:43

Maybe it's like almost doubling the footprint or something like that with expansion. I don't be there's something in my brain is like they're going to do something major is is on the plans for Hong Kong.

Representation Questions And Park Futures

David 54:54

So I what was so fascinating is so I remember when we first went to Epcot. Yeah, is that they're still calling it Epcot, right? Okay, great. Sorry, just I'm so old, I'm like, maybe they changed it. I don't know. Uh what was so interesting about that is that uh it what an incredible experience, obviously. But like you go to the separate lands and the different countries, like you go into China and it's that big movie theater, and they show this incredible video. Yeah, and then you you make your way through, and then Africa, which is a very, very large place with lots of countries in it, was tiny.

Alicea 55:25

Yeah, and it's just like a kiosk.

David 55:27

Yeah, it's like a pat you pass through. And what was so profound about it is there's this man there who's literally carving these walking sticks by hand, and they cost $30. Uh-huh. A hot dog costs $30. So why is the thing that it's being carved by a person, a human being in front of you, only $30? I want to pay $170 for that. I want but I couldn't. They wouldn't even let me. And then you go, but then you go to Hong Kong, Disneyland, and in the middle of China, they have Lion King, and it's just this big experience. You know what I mean? So I I want to know what the head is behind. Like, are in Abu Dhabi, are they gonna have Aladdin? Like, what why it is it is there a more representation of Mulan in Shanghai? Yeah. Yeah. Where is the Hunchback of Notre Dame? Like, I understand that some of these things have to get axed because frankly, it's they're so dark.

Nathan 56:20

Right.

David 56:20

Like seeing Hunchback the first time in the movie theater, I was like, yes, entirely my jam. Yes, would have given me nightmares as a child. Like if Maleficent, first time I saw her, girl, I was under the seat. I was I slept by my mom's bed for a week. Oh my god. But let me tell you, I slept by my mom's bed after seeing E.T. and the moment in the shed for two weeks. My mother had to talk me into going back to understand that that moment was not terrifying. So Maleficent, I was screwed. You know what I mean? Like this big dragon lady. Yeah, come on. But like hunchback, like I understand, like it's not very jovial. You know what I mean? Like where do we go on the jovial ride through like hellfire? You know, right. What?

Nathan 56:57

Um yes, anyway.

Disney Torture Test Favorites

Nathan 57:00

Well, David, um you've it's been amazing having you on. Yes. Uh I I have some unfortunate news for you though. It's now time for Alicia's patented Disney torture test.

David 57:15

Yes, oh God.

Nathan 57:16

And um you're a professional though. You've been to lots of different parks. You have the emotional fortitude to work through this.

David 57:26

Oh my god.

Nathan 57:27

Um, I believe in you.

David 57:28

Thank you. Thank you.

Nathan 57:29

But damn, dude, good luck.

Alicea 57:32

A, it's not patented, and two, it's not torture. This is just your Disney favorites from everything under Mickey's umbrella. So that includes like Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel. Yeah. Anything you can choose from anything there. Your favorite character.

David 57:48

I I don't know, I don't care if it's a cliche. I love Stitch, yeah, mainly because just just joy and weirdness and neurodivergence and but love underpinning everything. Yeah. And also like I can I can do the voice. Ohana means, family,. It's so cute. Sorry, I'll stop now.

Nathan 58:10

Um, yes, yeah, we don't want to get a uh takedown notice from Disney.

David 58:14

Exactly, right? Yes, copyright infringement, or maybe a contract. Who knows? Oh, maybe I'm that good. Maybe who knows? Um, yeah, I do love some stitch. Um, and I I'll be uh another cliche, like Peter Pan makes a lot of sense to me. Yeah, he just does. Yeah, yeah.

Alicea 58:28

Favorite movie.

David 58:30

Oh. I mean, I'm gonna say Mermaid is up there, but like with time and having musically directed it so many times, like I don't necessarily need to see it again. So repeated viewing. I think hunchback is is stunning. I think it's so stunning. Um oh wow, that's tricky. Um Mary Poppins.

Alicea 58:51

Okay.

David 58:51

Yeah, Mary Poppins.

Alicea 58:53

Favorite ride.

David 58:55

Oh I love an Incredicoaster, although they slowed it down. I'm still mad about it. Um I'm gonna say Tokyo Peter Pan.

Alicea 59:04

Okay. Nice. Yeah. Disney World or Disneyland.

David 59:09

Oh god, this is torture. It is actually torture. So not not like uh not to get dark again, but like Disneyland, I never felt a twinge of not being and to be clear, let me preface this by saying I never felt unsafe. Yeah, but definitely in Disney World, when Nick and I were walking through it, sometimes I felt the eyeballs on this. Yeah. And those eyeballs did not have kindness necessarily behind them. Yeah. Never once felt that in Disneyland.

Nathan 59:40

Yeah.

David 59:41

And I will say, in all of the parks, we have the we've always been we're pretty easy to clock as a little bit different. Um, but we we've been beautifully clocked by the people who understand and see us as part of their community. So like we there was uh there was a trans uh performer, uh cast member who was uh dressed as Cinderella who came up to us because they understood. Yeah, and they always made touchdowns. So like I'm not even joking. Nick and I uh always talk at the end of the day about every single time, every day we go, we have these weird, odd, magical experiences, like with Jen, who was profound. She's still in our life. I talks, I text with her all the time, and the the and the trans performers, and like uh, and and and and we just feel so welcomed. And so that did not, it's not that we felt unwelcome in Disney World, but in Disney World, what I love another difference between Nick and I, other we have we have there's an age difference between us, and my generation knows what it is to be othered in a very scary way. And Nick's has had those experiences, but in a in a very different way. The bullying is all electronic at this point, and so he wasn't clocking it, and I was so that sort of altered the experience too, but it wasn't it wasn't pervasive, it was just a few people, and and it was okay, but because of that, I will say Disneyland.

Nathan 1:01:09

Okay, and it's not Disney, it is people, it is the guests.

David 1:01:13

It is the fellow guests who are there, and it's been it was like three or four of them, so that's it.

Nathan 1:01:18

That's it. No, I I I rem I remember distinctly. I think I've told this story on the podcast before. If not, I don't care. Um, I went to Disney World for a tech convention 20 years ago, and I was staying off property, and I got to the airport and got a ride to the hotel where I was staying, uh, next to downtown Disney at the time. I think it was the Hilton over there. Anyhow, Sheraton, something. And I walk into the lobby, and there is this gentleman from somewhere in the south just berating the hotel manager top of his lungs. I can't believe you would expose my family to this. I'm like, what the heck is he gonna? And there's these two guys like six foot seven, six foot eight, very tall, ginormous, just ripped black guys in like speedos and on roller skates. Yes, just it was like it was like the closing weekend or the closing like of the weekend of like gay days in Disney World. And so you can just imagine. Yeah, and I was just like, that is the most fantastic purple like sparkly speedo I've ever seen. And good on you, and this guy can go pound sand.

David 1:02:43

Yep, yep, yep, yep, yeah, yeah. Yeah, my friend Amy was just at the at the Pride event this year with her gaby, yeah. And uh, and and she's not a member of the community, but she's like she she gets a free pass, you know, because we're all her friend, and she said it was just we want to go, we want to go because it also feels like neurodivergent pride at the start.

Alicea 1:03:05

Disney Pride is amazing. Um we Kaitlyn and I got to do that in Paris. Oh there were we got to attend the Pride Night in Paris, and it was so cool. Yeah, yeah.

David 1:03:19

I'm sure. I mean, if you want to talk about me bawling my face off, that's the way to do it. Like all the colors, how they chant. Like come on, come on. Yeah, yeah.

Alicea 1:03:27

Okay, we've got a little tangent here. Um out of all of the individual parks that you've been to, which one's your favorite?

David 1:03:36

Tokyo. Tokyo.

Nathan 1:03:37

Tokyo, Tokyo Disneyland.

David 1:03:39

Tokyo, here's a toss-up. Tokyo and and Disney World.

Nathan 1:03:44

Okay.

David 1:03:44

Which is weird because Magic Disney Kingdom. Magic . All? Maybe?

Alicea 1:03:49

No, no, no, no. No, only individual.

David 1:03:52

Oh, individual. Damn it.

Alicea 1:03:53

Park Park.

David 1:03:54

You're so mean, to me. Um, um, yeah, Magic Kingdom.

Alicea 1:03:58

Magic Kingdom.

David 1:03:58

Yeah. Okay. I just I think it's just the love of how much there is to do in Florida. It's never ending. Yeah. Like, I will wait, I will wait in those lines. And the ratatouille thing, we got on, and it we we we tried to get in line uh three separate times. And every time we would get there, it would break down right as we got there. And so they kept giving us free the free get on passes. And then the final time they gave it to us, it they didn't know that they had done this, but it was like get on all rides without having to wait thing. And we're like, yes, totally worth it. Um yeah, but um, yeah, it's just there's so much to do. And we went to a Disney World water park too in Florida, right? Is that we did that? Yes. Two of them. So good.

Alicea 1:04:39

With the shipwreck or with the snow?

David 1:04:43

Just snow question mark. We've been to a few water parks, uh, dead drop, like straight, almost straight down. And oh my god, two grown ass men, like standing at the top, and we had to climb all these stairs and we get there. We're like, I don't know. I don't know if I can do it. There's a six-year-old girl who literally went, Oh, just get out of my way. Shot down that thing, and still she went down. We're like, nope, still terrified. Absolutely. Who's going first? Yeah, ridiculous.

Alicea 1:05:09

Okay, last one. Yes, I'm ready. Your favorite Disney snack.

David 1:05:12

Oh. Uh corn. The corn. It's the corn. It is the corn.

Nathan 1:05:19

Like popcorn or

David 1:05:20

no, the actual corn on the cob. Oh yeah, so good. I do love the popcorn, and in Tokyo, you buy the bucket and you go around and it's free. Like you get refills of any flavor that you want, which is great. So I did like that, but we're very big on the corn, like a lot. But there was one park that didn't have it. Oh, and they need to get on top of that stuff because we're coming back.

Nathan 1:05:42

David, you survived. I'm proud of you.

David 1:05:45

Thank you so much. PTSD, just a little bit.

Nathan 1:05:48

Thank you so much for coming over and and chatting.

David 1:05:51

My pleasure. Fabulous. I really like it.

Alicea 1:05:53

It is it is so good to talk to you.

David 1:05:55

Good seeing you too. Yeah.

Wrap Up And Listener Requests

Nathan 1:05:58

Well, as we wrap up off that magical conversation, a reminder that we are not affiliated with Disney or any of its subsidiaries. Everything you hear on this show is based on personal experiences, opinions, and questionable snack choices. We are, however, proudly affiliated with fun.

Alicea 1:06:15

And the short Tron ride.

Nathan 1:06:17

And the short Tron ride.

Alicea 1:06:19

If you're planning a Disney vacation, we recommend working with a travel advisor or reaching out to Disney directly to help make the magic happen. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please take a second to rate and review the show. It really helps other Disney fans find us.

Nathan 1:06:33

If you have a question, a topic suggestion, or a Disney story you'd love to share, please send us an email to podcast at our mousecapades.com.

Alicea 1:06:41

You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads. We are at Our Mouse Capades and on YouTube at Our Mouse Capades Pod. Don't forget to share us with your friends, your family, and Disney fans of all ages.

Nathan 1:06:52

Thanks for listening. We'll be back in your ears next week.

Intro 1:06:56

Thank you for flying Star Tours. Bye bye.