We got a lot of questions over our most recent round of shows
about where are the dogs. Would you like to explain the
fact that the dogs are still in this room, you just can't see
them as much? I hear one licking himself at
the moment, so I know that they're still here.
I just posted this on Patreon a couple of pic.
I took some pictures because when we had showed our new
office setup there was a bunch of comments.
But what about the dogs? I don't see any dope as.
Where is there a couch? And I love that you guys worried
about them. Basically we've got we've got so
many dog beds in this house. There's more dog beds than human
beds in. Yeah, if you have dogs, just
tell me like what is the ratio of dog to dog bed in your?
Home Jeff Jeff, Case in point, little buddy.
Right behind us, we we drag their living room beds into here
and because they have to be in here.
If not, they'll be laying on the floor and.
So there's one on both sides of us at the moment, and there's
one right behind us, right underneath that that that
screen. Same is true with the cats.
There's three cats. There's like 6 beds including
our bed. Yeah, yeah.
And then Derek, where's your dog?
What's its name? Snots or what's it called?
Woody and Luna are currently downstairs and they're in there.
Okay, I think it's time to go for a.
I can't say it too loud WALK. So once we say that so they're
already kind of jacked up and I hear them so they're going to go
out on a walk soon. But I did represent my
Roosevelt's dog shirt, so we didn't even plan this.
That's how synced up we all are. It's like when we tell Derek
it's time to go for an IPA. So.
He gets real excited. I just did the math.
We have three dogs and there's nine dog beds if you don't count
everything else they sleep on, which is our couch, our bed, the
4th dog it's. Time for 1/4 dog the same.
Hey everybody, and welcome to this week's episode of the DVC
Show. I am your host, Paul Krieger,
and joined as always by my lovely wife Amy Krieger and our
three dogs that surround us. We've got John Sicari, Big Fat
Panda with us. Welcome home everyone.
The one the only Derek de Boer from the DVC resale market.
Hey now. And our friend Jeff Haslam and
his puppy left him, so he's just Jeff Haslam now.
He'll be back. Hey everybody.
All alone. Well, thank you guys, as always
for joining us for our ramblings and our fun.
What was that you you forgot the?
People like this, they keep forgetting that that's supposed
to be my thing. He's supposed to be the mayor of
Old Key West too, but you know, he sold half of your points, so.
I still own plenty. Amy threw me under the bus and
people have been ratting me in the comments.
Can't calm that anymore. He doesn't have any contracts.
I got contracts. He's.
Not have his point? He's still the mayor.
You don't have to own the whole resort to decide over it.
Well, I'm really looking forward to this, to this topic really.
Did we have topics on this show? I thought we just rambled for,
you know, at least 15 minutes before we actually got to
anything that was productive. It's about dogs.
We're just going to talk about dogs for an hour.
We could we could we? We definitely I was where were
we on? Oh, we actually, we were
featured on one of Gray's What's?
Brewing. Yeah.
You haven't had a chance to watch, so it's on the DVC Rental
Stores YouTube channel and it's Gray who has.
He was in the Yachtsman. What?
What's that Cruise Cup lounge called?
Crew Cup. He was in this Crew Cup video
with us. Really great guy.
He's doing marketing stuff and he has a new series called
What's Brewing and basically he interviews different people and
it's Jeff. Jeff was on a a mini episode
related to flower and garden I think it was.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. He's a good dude.
Yeah, he is and he brings coffee.
He the first one he did was Tim and Jen Tracker.
So that was that was an interesting one.
But anyway, we got to we got to be on it and I if you've ever
watched hot ones, which is a really cool Paul loves that that
show. We're still doing it, Jeff.
Andy, Andy got the hot sauces from it, but you know, the guy
on there does a lot of research on the the people before he
interviews them. And Grey, I was really impressed
with the things that he knew and asked about.
I just wasn't expecting them. So really, really good show.
If you get a chance to watch that, head over to DVC Rental
store YouTube channel. Actually, Jeff, recently Gray
actually agreed to do the Hot Ones thing with me and then I
was telling the other Jeff about it.
And so the two Jeff's should interview Paul and Gray as we do
the Hot Ones. I love this idea.
Just because you get out of having to try the hot sauces so.
Well, and I've always wanted to be Jimmy Fallon when I grow up,
so I'm going to start writing questions.
This is going to be great. I'm going to be a spectator.
That sounds like my my job. Well, this week on the DVC Show,
our topic is talking about two different types of Disney
experiences. And Jeff, you came up with this
topic, so why don't you kind of explain what you were thinking
related to it? Yeah, I just, I, I don't know
it. I kind of kind of felt a little
bit guilty lately because I've been really, really hard on
Disney, you know, over the course of our epic universe
shows and some of the other things, some of the decisions
they've made. I, I watch the shows back mostly
to see if I can do things to improve the way I do things, but
also just to kind of because when you're in the show, you
don't really watch the show. And so I'll watch it back one
time and I just like, man, I'm rough on Disney right now.
So I was kind of like thinking of things that we could do that
because I am still positive, I still love Disney.
And the first thing that came to my mind was, well, let's go into
something for me. Something immediately popped
into my mind that we were kind of dreading or that we didn't
want to do something that we were going to do at Disney that
we didn't really want to. That actually surprised us.
That actually exceeded our expectations.
And I'm like, yeah, but can we do a whole show about that?
So we're going to do the flip side too, which is something
that we were really excited for that kind of left us wanting a
little bit more. So we're going to, we're going
to do both, I think. Yeah.
And then your negativity one out and we get that other piece
also. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Start with that part and then do the end on the positive.
Yeah, I don't. I I'm still workshopping the
title, so I hope I came up with a good one by the time this goes
live. But I've written down like let
downs and surprises. You know what we totally got
wrong? Expectations versus reality,
surprise and delight, which sounds like the wrong type of
show, so we're not going to go with that one.
But you know, yeah, I loved, I loved the topic and I think that
we can definitely have some great conversation about it
before we get into it. This and all of our DVC fan
content, we get to do this fun stuff because of our sponsors at
the World of DVC, DVC Resale Market.
If you're looking to become a Disney Vacation Club member
looking to buy a DVC contract, they can assist with that
process. Monera Financial who can help in
financing that DVC resale market purchase or the DVC rental store
where you can try before you buy, give a couple resorts a try
for a fraction of the cost as it is direct through Disney.
Or if you've got some extra leftover points this year and
you're looking to do something with them, why not get some
cash, rent those points out. So please, as always, you guys
do a great job of showing some love for our sponsors.
And since Amy mentioned at the top of the show also, I'll just
throw in a little plug for patreon.com slash DVC fan where
we put up some behind the scenes footage and some other fun stuff
for our Patreon community. And thank you so much to
everyone that supports us on on Patreon as well.
And I think I'll kick off the conversation with you.
Am I? Am I starting with something
good? Let's stay positive at 1st and
then take it down into the dark dungeon cellar to to round out
the show at the end. So something that pleasantly
surprised you, you weren't looking forward to it, but in
the end you were like, wow, that was exceeded expectations.
OK. I don't know if not looking
forward to it is the right, but I will say that the very last,
excuse me, the very last DVC resort that we ever stayed.
So we have officially as of last year in February have stayed at
every single DVC resort that exists.
And it took us a long time to visit Hilton Head.
And a lot of that was, you know, it was just like, OK, you know,
we've been to Vero Beach, we like Vero Beach.
It's easier to get to Vero Beach.
You know, Hilton Head is what we drove.
Is it 6 or 8 hours 6? To get to Hilton Head from here.
From here, yeah. About 5 hours, 5 hours, OK, it's
not that bad. But you know, I was like, do we
want to drive clear to Hilton Head for five hours?
We've got beaches surrounding us in Florida.
It's not on the actual beach. It's, it's in like a, you know,
back channel waterway area, you know, do we really want to go
over there? So it was something I wanted to
eventually do, but I it's just kind of like the last, the last
choice. But then we went and we went in
February, which isn't even a time to use the beach.
And I was very blown away by Hilton Head Island Resort.
I loved it. I loved that it where it was
located. I felt like it didn't even need
to be on the beach because, you know, that whole back channel
waterway was was very pretty. It was very quiet.
I love the rooms. I love the rocking chairs on the
balconies. I love the whole area and all
the restaurants and little shops and, you know, farmers market
and, and things like that. And then I thought it was just
really easy to hop on the little shuttle and go to the beach and
the beach house had everything you needed there.
If you wanted to spend, you know, time there.
There was a second pool at the beach and food and, you know,
whatever else. And I I was pleasantly surprised
by how much I really enjoyed that resort to if you had to ask
me what my favorite DVC resorts are right now, that would be in
my top five. Oh, wow.
OK. Yeah.
I really, I want to go back. We haven't had time to schedule
it this year, but. Whenever we have these
discussions, it always makes me so sad because, you know, these
are those little gems of resorts that you just know come 2042
might not might not be around anymore.
And so like I always say, people don't sleep on these things,
take advantage of them while they're here because they might
not, they might not get recycled whenever they decide to do
whatever they're gonna do with these properties.
And I'm so glad that you said that because I think you're
exactly right. And the fact of people that have
their Disney Vacation Club membership, I think I mean, for
me personally, I love obviously all the resorts in Florida are
great, but you know, it's at Walt Disney World.
So they all have different theming and they're all this,
but once you experience a Vero Beach, once you experience a
Hilton Head, you realize this is literally like the greatest
thing that you could ask for because it's amazing.
Disney team members and cast members that have been there for
years and years and years. And it's nice because it's just
family spending time or couple spending time together without
the OK, I've got my phone, I've got 84 things lined up and we
have to go to this park and this dining reservation and this
here. It's like, let's just sit in a
hammock and, you know, or let's just walk up and down the beach
So you don't have that stress of feeling the need to do 1000
things, but you're completely immersed in that magic.
I mean, I just think to me that, my God, how different my life
would be if I never had Vero Beach in it.
And it makes me incredibly sad because some of my favorite
memories of my kids who are now, you know, 20 and 16, have been
at Disney's Vero Beach in all stages of their life.
Yes, we have great memories. We just made more at the Poly a
couple of weeks ago. But there's something about
those resorts that I'm so glad. So if you haven't as a member,
if you haven't used your points to go to those, just do it.
Just don't do it when I do it because don't mess up my
availability. But other than that, you gotta
go. You gotta gotta go.
So great choice, Amy. Panda, give us give us something
that you know you weren't super excited about that kind of
pleasantly surprised you. I've always loved the Country
Bear Jamboree and I was petrified as to how they were
going to destroy it. My dad, if you've ever seen my
dad, he looks like Big Al. And we've always said that like
since I was a baby. I remember in my pic, everybody
seeing Big Al going Lenny to my father.
It's you. And I thought, oh, they're going
to ruin all these memories and everything.
I got to tell you, the more I see it, the more I love the new
version. Like love it, which is crazy
because Alexa stop every time it's 16 or she has.
And you know what? I'm thrilled seeing it crowded
every. I must have seen it 12 times in
the past two months. It's always a packed house.
Lately, the people are enjoying it and I look around and it
gives me this pride like I built it, like I have something to do
and I'm just so happy that people are back into it.
I love the way they've utilized the three heads on the wall that
they now sing, the smoothness of the animatronics, all the eyes
work. The theater looks great.
I mean, they really put love into it.
And, you know, yeah, they made a couple of such changes.
It's OK. I think it's great.
And I'm, I really was petrified that it was not going to be.
So I am very happy with the Country Bear Jamboree right now.
That's funny because I asked in preparation for the show, I
asked my Amy what she would choose.
And that was the first thing because Country Bears is her
thing, her and her reminds me, reminds her of her dad.
And to sit and watch this with her and she giggles like a
school girl, it's great. And she was devastated when they
found out that they were going to change it.
And she agrees with you that they've done a really good job.
And for me, my connection to Jimmy Buffett, you know, his Mac
Mcanally did all the music and voice is one of the bears now.
And I I agree with you, Panda, I think they did a nice job.
Also, show this to Amy. She has to know that.
I had no idea she would have thought of that.
But and just watching the oh, that's great.
Watching the audiences soak it up just gives me some great
happiness knowing it's probably going to stick around for a
while. Yeah.
We've never saw it. We've not seen.
It I know we. Were.
Oh my God, Amy, tell me when you're going.
I'll go. I want to see your face.
I want to see it that that. It's good.
It's yeah, and it's. And like Jeff, I don't know if
you agree with her. The more you see it, the more
you like. These were some necessary, you
know, as far as the upkeep and everything.
And it was. It's pretty good.
They did a nice job. I I I really don't have any
complaints. I think they've done a great job
of keeping something so old fresh now.
There's die hards out there that are going to want the original
version back, but they've done that with other rides.
Look at Sauron, maybe once a year we can have a country bear
rewind or something. Like that I, I, I really hope we
go back to a Christmas version also that was.
Yeah, that'd be cool. Do some sort of overlay or
something like that. Yeah, yeah.
It used to do that for for the Christmas party.
You would see a different show with different costumes and
different songs. It was great.
Yeah, that would be so cool. I really had a hard time coming
up with this in terms of a positive.
We all probably came up with 25 negatives because, you know,
that's just how we think. What in terms of something where
I was like, it blew me away or exceeded my expectations.
I I don't know, I feel like I go in with fairly realistic
expectations to a lot of things. But it's funny, on our most
recent show that was actually before this, we discussed some
news related to Disney water parks.
And I am not what you would say, a water park guy.
I'm like, if we go to a beach or something, I'm much happier like
lounging with a book on a chair or something like that.
I don't have to get into the water.
Like I'll, I'll walk the beach or something like that.
That's fun. But I'm not trying to get like
drenched or anything like that. And so with moonlight Magic
events, the water Park Moonlight Magic event at Typhoon Lagoon
was always one where I was like, you know, if we make it to it,
great. If we don't, we don't.
I will say it is aside from Epcot, which still will always
hold the number one position for me.
Typhoon Lagoon Moonlight Magic is the Moonlight Magic event
that is like the not you don't want to miss it when it comes to
these events anymore. We have gone twice now and both
I have vivid memories of first because when we went, it was in
the middle of a thunderstorm and yet Disney felt it was safe
enough to just keep the park open.
And like, we're on rides, we're on coasters.
We're in the wave. Pool and there is lightning just
everywhere and you're just like this.
Isn't safe and not just like in the distance like real bolts of
lightning. There's no way it was safe like.
I have at that moonlight magic. So that would have been 2023 in
May. If you were at that moonlight
Magic. I just want to know how it
appeared to you. You felt safe, but at the same
time you were at Disney and you were just like, it's going to be
OK, It's going to be fine. It's absolutely fine.
It was fun, but. I had an amazing time at that.
And then this past year we did Typhoon Lagoon, Moonlight Magic,
and I actually was sending Jeff and Amy and everyone that went
to that this past year pictures from it the other day because
they came out with the fact that Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard
Beach was going to be open all summer long.
And I was just going back through the photos from that
Moonlight Magic because it was absolutely hilarious.
We had an amazing time. You know, I, I love the video
that we put together for that moonlight magic.
Just Typhoon Lagoon is like, and that's why I'm so excited to go
to Blizzard beach this year. I hope, I hope that I'm not
exceeded like I'm not I, I hope that I'm not setting myself up
for failure and that Blizzard Beach will like land on my other
list here, you know, in a couple weeks or so whenever we get
there. But yeah, Typhoon Lagoon, just a
huge, huge shocking surprise for me in terms of how much I
enjoyed that part of it's the company too.
You know, you surround yourself with with fun people, you're
bound to have a good time. So.
Yeah, we had a great time. We need to get this group to
Typhoon or to Blizzard Beach. I want to get Derek in a in a
water park and I want I want Panda to go down the big slide.
I'll do it. I've done it before.
I did humonga cowabunga. That was a little crazy.
Yeah. Well, Jeff, this was your topic.
Give us, give us your surprise and delight or whatever.
I had picked 2 just in case somebody had stolen mine, but
we'll go with the one that actually probably shocked me the
most. Pains me to even say this
because I was so hard on it when they announced it, but the cake
bake shot. I wanted to hate that place real
bad. And some good friends of ours
come into town every once in a while.
Glenn Davis and his wife invited us to go last time they were
there in the group. Hey, Glenn, they invited us to
go. He's like, you got to try it.
You just got to try it. And I'm like, I don't want to
go. It was fantastic from start to
finish. The ambiance, the carousel.
We had drinks at the bar before and then had a full meal plus
cake. Absolutely phenomenal.
I was blown away at how good that restaurant is.
So, and for me, that's not a foodie to to come around on
something like that really, really should speak volumes
because. Out of everything I've done this
last year, that was the thing I wanted to do the very, very
least. What kind?
Of things did you eat there? What's that?
What kind of things did you eat there?
I had the salmon I believe, and it was excellent.
We had, we shared the Raspberry champagne cheesecake or sorry,
not cheesecake, the ranberry champagne cake.
That was phenomenal. And I think Amy just had a salad
and the French onion soup. But it was, it was phenomenal.
We all got a different dish and nobody was disappointed.
So. Panda Panda and I still have to
have our egg sandwich breakfast date.
There I want to go. I've I've never I've never been
yet I need to go. And is the carousel there all
the time? Because it wasn't there, correct
it. Wasn't it is and in?
Fact, fun fact, there's a seating inside the carousel that
I was going to bring this up to Paul that seats 8 that you have
to reserve specifically, which I think would be a really cool
opportunity I want. To eat on the carousel.
Yeah, it's like it's inside the carousel that there's there's a
special table it's. Like a chef's.
Table. How do you reserve it?
You call. There's a special number that
you call, yeah, that you can. Kind of know a guy that knows a
guy. I remember you were you were
sending like a text blow by blow the night that you went dinner,
dinner there and. And yeah, it was.
It was fun to kind of see you be like, Yep, it's good.
Yep, yeah, Amy had the espresso martini as she does, and the the
one at Cake Bake Shop actually has glitter in it, so it's like
it's sparkly in and of itself, which is dried up her alley.
So yeah, I didn't realize when you guys were talking about like
the carousel and the restaurant itself.
I didn't realize there was so many moving parts and
animatronics. Very subtle.
It's not like the Tiki Room, but like the the horses on top of
the carousel move a little bit and it's just a phenomenal
restaurant. It was really, really cool.
Yeah, we missed a lot because we were there really early on the.
So no carousel. Yeah, I want to.
I want to try more food and. I would go back in a heartbeat
for sure, yeah. And I've seen, I don't know if
it's new, I don't know if it's just temporary or if it's the
stay, but I've seen post everywhere this week.
Did you see they have like a cookie dough cake?
No. It's like right up my eyes.
The only posts that I've seen this week related to cake are
disgusting and it's the new carrot cake flavor that they
bought the Gideon's which just. What is it?
What's the flavor? It's like a carrot cake, which
I'm OK with a good carrot cake, but it's like a carrot cake
chocolate. Something just doesn't look
good. You know, when you take a
picture of something, I'm kind of over Gideon's anyhow, I'm
more I am. Just in that.
Summer House and the desserts that they're doing over there, I
think not. Gideon's out of the park and
they don't cost you a small fortune either.
And you? Don't have to enter a virtual
queue to get it. That's true.
Yeah, you can do. It I feel like every Gideon's
cookie is a lump and they just put different things on top of
it. But I think that lump is always
like the same, which I don't like, yeah.
Yeah. See, everybody's talking about
this. It's like a cookie dough cake.
It looks amazing. That sounds really good.
Add it, Add it to the list of must do's Derek.
Round us out with our positivity before we do what we really want
to do and talk. Maybe about that before we kill
it and feel much more cozy, yeah.
No, yeah, this was a this was a great topic and it may think.
And it made me talk with Annie, of course, my wife, when I
brought it up and I said, Jeff actually has a good idea for a
show. I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
But then I told her what it was, and she kind of nailed it.
And I was kind of glad because I was going back and forth between
different things. And she's like, no, you know
what? It was the biggest surprise.
She goes, it's our dinner that we had three weeks ago when we
did our staycation at the Polynesian just for two nights.
We went to a place that our last experience there was not good.
We know others have not had that good of experience there as
well. We know it's not cheap, but we
were like, you know what, We're here at the Poly.
Let's you know the old Disney motto, let's give it another
try. So we did Ohana for dinner and
we were so pleasantly surprised. It was great.
I mean, yeah, there was like 5 of us.
So again, it's like 80 bucks a person.
I don't know how much it is now, but it was great.
And I think the difference, and this might just be our
assumption, but we told them when we sat down that Annie
would prefer to, you know, stay away from gluten.
So therefore, I always think the biggest complaint that you hear
about Ohana, which is true because we experienced it the
last time that I think our last time there, by the time we sat
down to the time we got our check, it was like 13 minutes.
I mean, that's how fast it was. It felt like they just throw you
down there. They throw you some pot
stickers, they put noodles on the table, they bring you the
banana bread, a couple of hunks of meat, and then they want to
churn and burn you to get you out to get the next people.
I know I'm not alone feeling like that because people have
posted, I know I've read all about it.
So that was a concern of mine. But I can tell you our last time
3 weeks ago, we loved it. It must have, we must have been
there almost for like 2 hours. So I don't know if it was the
fact that maybe the gluten kind of maybe slowed it down home for
us, but it was perfectly paced. The service was great.
We didn't feel rushed at all. The food was terrific.
So I was very, very pleased to put Ohana back in the that was a
really great meal. So Ohana, thank you, Mahalo.
I'm happy to hear that actually, because I we went, in fact, it
was the night of the hurricane when you guys made me put on a
raincoat and go outside and go live.
From. Yeah, we didn't do anything.
You wanted to do it. I know it was fun.
It wasn't the bad and I think that's Ohana's biggest problem
is its consistency. It's either really, really good
or really, really bad. There's not really happy medium
and our our experience wasn't that great that night.
It had nothing to do with the pacing of the meal.
They we didn't feel rushed at all.
It's just the food itself was just kind of, you know, kind of
felt like yesterday's leftovers a little bit.
But I'm glad to hear that you had a good time.
I'm never opposed to it. I just I wish they.
Were a little more inconsistent. Yeah, we've been back twice in
the past two years I think and both experience have been pretty
good for. Us I love Ohana.
But that's, that's because we have the PTSD from the post
COVID Ohana, which if anyone got to experience that, that's when
they had like the seafood casserole, which you were, you
were like, if anything was like, if you, if you wanted to do like
the extreme thing that Amy was excited about and then extremely
let down. She was like, we're back.
We're this is when we're in West Virginia.
She's thinking about this like seafood casserole.
It's gonna be great. It's gonna be like we're on the
beach and this thing. I know we.
Went. Died in vain so.
Sad, but a listener actually reached out recently and said
similar to what you just did, Derek, that it was time to go
back and do another review at Ohana, which our our most recent
review, I think going on two years, it'll be this August,
it'll be two years old. But that was a very positive
review. But also, you know, another
viewer listener said the same thing that it was knocking it
out of the park. I will say that is if the
restaurant is functional. So about two weeks ago, we were
actually, when we did our review of Mckim's Smile House, we
actually walked over that night and had dinner at Wailulu.
And all of a sudden the, the, the walk up window like amount
of wait time just sky rocked at, at, at Wailulu and basically
went offline after a while. And we're like, what the heck is
going on? And our friends Jeff and Dan
were over there meeting us for dinner and they go, Oh yeah, we
just heard that Ohana had no gas.
So they have nothing to actually cook food with.
And so everyone's reservation at Ohana was cancelled that night.
And that's not the there's definitely some structural
things going on with the Grand Ceremonial House because there's
that recently, I think there was, you know, a pipe burst and
it leaked into boutique and that place flooded.
So they're having all kinds of issues over there.
But I, yeah, Ohana has, has done well.
I've not been to breakfast there ever or it's been a long time.
The last one was really bad. I've never been to.
Breakfast I've never been there for.
It was powder, it was fake eggs and I I can't imagine that they
do that all the time. There had to be a problem that
they couldn't get eggs and they were like a powdered egg thing.
And that flipped me. I couldn't believe for the.
Amount is it really character breakfast it.
Was still characters, yeah. Is it sad that I've resorted to
not ordering scrambled eggs out just because I'm always scared
of powdered eggs anymore? Like I always basically kind.
Of and you, you, you shouldn't be after, you know, $40 or more
for breakfast. You should be getting a real
egg. I can't walk into Ahana and not
eat noodles, so I refuse to go to breakfast there until they
start serving noodles. Maybe they have breakfast
noodles? They're going to noodles that
are noodle egg casserole that you're going to get really.
Excited about that should be a thing.
That actually that it does sound good.
Breakfast pasta casserole. I've heard like isn't there like
a breakfast carbonara or something?
I think someone. Has carbonara is with eggs, so
it could and. Bacon already?
It pretty much is. You guys are making me hungry.
It's bound to happen. It's it's midway through show
two of the night. Yeah.
So all right, let's turn this around again.
Negative. Panda, you're so excited for it
gets off, man. Take us into the gutter.
We want to go along, but I, I. I feel like what I picked might
be other people, people's picks as well, but I thought about
what was like the biggest let down and it's the transformation
of Epcot. It really is.
And the more I think about it, the more I want to strangle Mr.
Epcot or whoever's responsible. I can't believe.
The. Thank you.
I can't believe the Odyssey building and that wrap around
beautiful video that was all around you and it just showed so
much promise of every. I don't think anything from that
ever really happened at all. None of it between not Alice in
Wonderland, wow, Mary Poppins and everything.
It was I just, I just and I can't believe what we got.
What we got is just like 4 walls and a space.
I'm just blown away by the the when they said that with this,
the transformation of Epcot is complete.
I just, I thought that was a joke.
I really did. I still do.
I'm still disappointed in their vision of that park and I still
think it needs an overhaul still.
Remember the whole when you went in and saw that?
That's what, Yeah. The Odyssey, that's.
What? It was, yeah.
OK. Do you?
Remember, it was like 20 minutes of what's coming and it was like
wondrous. They should just bring that back
so that we can like just feel like.
The Cherry Tree lane part was so cool, like with all the like.
Yeah, remember the pink, the pink flowers blowing around?
Yeah, 'cause I think we got that because.
That's what my Amy said too. And you know, I I would even say
less, less or so just that front part of Epcot.
I know we didn't get Mary Poppins and I know that stuff.
But the Moana thing is A1 and done.
It took him 16 years to build a fountain with some picnic
tables. Like the whole thing was such a
let down. I'm I'm with you there, man,
that that was Amy's choice. The front with the small
monolith. It's cute, but that does not
make Epcot. I mean, Spaceship Earth needed
their overhaul too. That never happened.
God in. The festival center that we lost
the the two store Festive 2 store.
Center. Were you on the roof?
It's turned into a permanent Moana Sing along.
Cafeteria. And yeah, I got literally a
cafeteria. Oh, that the Encanto show
outside to me is just. Oh, what?
Oh, no, it's so loud. It's so loud.
Like I, I heard it the other day.
I, I think I was in Germany and like you could hear it all the
way like across the water. Oh, because.
It's two people with a soundtrack.
Not even really. Yeah.
Well, and and and that weird fake Cirque du Soleil show that
they do in the cage with the strippers, I don't know, the
whole thing is just weird. I've tried to watch that thing
like 3 times. Hold on, where was that show?
What I'm talking about right where each ones like I don't
even know what it. Is.
I know what you're talking about, but I've not actually
watched it. I've only seen like pictures of.
The Soleil meets nature, and it's right by.
They they, they took the small Illuminations globe and they
just like outfitted it to have people on it, I feel like.
It's yeah, that was a good pick, Panda that.
Was a good one. Good choice.
That was a good. Choice.
I didn't even think. Of that but it really it's just
such a big let down still I can't get over it I.
Can't hey, but we're getting Polynesian in Canada.
So that right Amy, what is what topped your list of let downs
all? Right.
Well, I'm changing mine a little bit because I thought about it a
little harder and and and it's similar, but so originally I was
going to say the opening of Big Pine Key because we went to the
opening and it was it was it was such a let down like nothing.
And Panda, you were there. Yeah, nothing happened.
It was like they. Didn't even have the shrubbery
it. Was like they're still putting
in shrubs and it took until like 5 till your room was ready and
then it was like your room's ready.
Tada. Anyway, But then I thought about
it even more and I'm probably gonna like make some people mad,
but Derek doesn't know where we live yet.
So that's that's good. I, I think big Pine Key in
general was kind of a let down for me.
You know, overall, if you really look at it, it just felt like a,
a cheaper remodel. You know, the the walls and the
door frames and the doorways and the baseboards.
And you can just tell that they're all the old, you know,
materials that were already there and they didn't do
anything to like, improve. You know, the walls are made out
of Graham crackers. They didn't do anything to
improve the sound quality. You know how loud it can be in
that building, which was always a complaint.
Yeah, they didn't even improve the electric at first.
They were concerned about putting microwaves in there,
right? Yeah.
And and so I just was kind of disappointed by that edition.
And I don't know what it is. I've said this before, but when
we bought Grand Floridian, I felt like this is like, I am a
Grand Floridian owner and I love owning this resort and it's so
hard to get into, but I've got my Grand Floridian points.
And then adding Big Pine Key kind of like cheapened it.
It diluted kind of the ownership there a little bit.
So it's not as special anymore because everybody owns Grand
Floridian. And I just offended like a whole
wave of people. I'm sorry.
But at the same time, I'm glad it's there.
I'm glad that you know that DVC members have more options.
I just was personally a little disappointed with the building
I. Know so funny because Panda and
and Amy have stolen the top 2 that I have on my list here.
Oh, you put that down. I put Big Pine, well, I said
what I said was my stay at the Grand Floridian OK, Because I've
only stayed there once and it was at Big Pine Key.
And that's really was the beginning of the end for me as
to why I don't understand why people love that resort so much.
Now I understand I understated the actual Grand Floridian so.
We'll get there and I've ruined my mind.
But to Amy's point, you could hear the neighbors as if they
were in your room with you. Yep, you have to walk a mile to
get anywhere. I just didn't like it.
It was not for me. It was so overrated.
Derek, for the audio listeners, Derek's just waving.
Waving his hand, Derek is, I think he shouted.
He's. Quitting.
He's quitting. He's quitting the show.
No, I, I, I mean, we don't have to go into it, but I couldn't
disagree with all of you more and I love all of you.
I couldn't. No, I I liked my room at Big
Pine Key. I did.
Thank you. I absolutely loved my room.
I loved the layout, I loved the decor.
I love the little simple Disney touches that itself.
I loved that location. If I have a choice now and if I
want to stay at the Grand and if any and I look and it says OK,
do you want a studio in the original DVC building or do you
want one of the new ones? I will always pick the new one.
The location is closer. I love it.
It's right next. It's got the best pool.
I don't like the main pool. It's too loud, it's too small,
it's too crazy. But that main quiet pool they
have is fantastic. Perfect location, right by the
boat docks, by the pool, by the main building, the Decor
Insight. And it's still the Grand.
So it's like if it allows more people to experience the Grand.
And I think to me, I love it because for 20 some years of
talking to folks about Disney, the number one resort, people
would always tell me that have never stayed there is like,
yeah, we're not going to go to the Grand yet.
You don't understand. We're not Grand Floridian people
there. That's just not our speed.
We're not that. I've had so many folks that
finally have stayed there and been able to stay there because
of these studios that they fell in love with it.
And they're like, Oh, my God, I don't know why it took us so
long. It was so relaxing and it felt
so upscale. And the location was so perfect.
So for me, yeah, you guys couldn't be more messed up with
this, but. Amy, do you remember?
My room was a little different and there was like some night
light in the wall. Yeah, you were in like I.
Loved that. Yeah, turret, the turret room,
it had more like height to it and you had a much bigger
balcony off the side. Yeah, but not one of those
doesn't have a balcony at all. The one on the 5th floor I don't
think has one at all. No.
And you had like a little sitting area, too, where it's
like you could entertain. It was adorable, but the night,
the night light panel or something was like a almost like
a stained glass night light and I loved that addition.
Look, it's great if you want to feel like you're staying in a
hostel and hearing everybody and I.
Didn't go that. I didn't go that dark.
When I was in college, I went to a hospital.
I work for housing. No, I work for housing
maintenance department. And so in the summers I would
help like repaint dorm rooms. And it's a call.
It's a, it was a State College at the time, you know what I
mean? So they were cheap and we just
repainted over like old doors and old crap.
And that's what it reminded me of when we first went into one
of those rooms, just like repainting over old wood and
stuff. Like some of them, they didn't
even scrape well enough. I, I will agree with that.
And it's funny when you were talking earlier, I, I never
thought about this during the entire Big Pine Key flip.
But it's, is it coincidental that this happened right after
the year when the NBA stayed there and they blocked off all
of Grand Floridian and the NBA stayed there.
Forgot about that. Did they trash Big Pine Key?
And then we're like, what do we do with it now?
Think about that. That's.
Funny, I know. It's.
Probably there's some truth to that.
I had never even put that together.
And we followed with that one of the one of the players that did
like. A YouTube vlog throughout the
entire. And I will tell you in his vlog
he like like he took apart the furniture and wanted to lay on
the floor instead on his mat like it was.
It. Was.
Probably pretty interesting so. Yeah, that, that brings back
some memories. Well, Speaking of that time
frame, which was kind of pandemic, post pandemic, that is
for me where the biggest excitement, which I I think it
was just the build up around it. But for me, the 50th anniversary
of Walt Disney World, specifically that day, the day
of the 50th, October 1st, that day for me, there was so much
build up for so much time. Granted, we had, you know, the
pandemic come in the middle of all of that excitement and a lot
of the original plans I think kind of got canned.
But what we ended up with that day was just chaos merch lines
and really kind of mediocre merch originally that came out
for that that initial day. I loved the 50th celebration.
It actually got better maybe about 6 to 8 months later.
But the experience on October 1st was just kind of mediocre at
best. After all of us enchantment for
the first time, we were kind of like what?
And it was just, yeah, I, I, I think it was just like, you set
your, I, I, I try not to do this too much in life, but it's like
you set your expectations and you get so excited for this
moment and it's like 50 years of Walt Disney World.
Like, you know, I. Nothing really happened that
day. Yeah.
And then it's just kind of a womp, womp like it.
Just you compare that to, you compare that to what they did
with Disneyland's 50th. And I remember that very vividly
because that was one of my favorite vacations.
But it wasn't just, I mean, Disneyland was the one that
started it all. So that was the focus of the
celebration, but all of the parks worldwide also
participated, which to kind of curtail on to what Paul said,
the 100th anniversary of the Walt Disney Company.
I was expecting some pretty big things that we didn't get
anything out here. It was all focused.
But like Disney World got, they brought the car show over the
stunt car show from Paris as a celebration.
And they, they got, each park got a little something to help
celebrate that. And it was a resounding thud.
You're right, I had forgotten about that.
But. And the fact that enchant good.
Yeah. That enchantment didn't have any
like Walt starting it or classic movies.
It was all current. It was like, what anniversary
like? They added Walt later to it.
Because the the outcry was ridiculous.
And it just goes to show too, that love it or hate it, if you
were around or experienced the 25th anniversary of Walt Disney
World, again, love it or hate it, what they did to that
castle, their songs that they had remember the magic, remember
the magic. Like that's that's.
Still. Resonate.
Cake Castle. Yes, that was the Cake Castle.
At least. It was one of those, yeah, oh,
right. I mean, they did something with
it. Whereas I know it was like the
the 50th, I would have thought because we got married right
around the 25th. I was like, Oh my God, the 50th,
it's going to be insane. It's going to be great.
And then you go, so what's happening for the 50th?
And you're like, I don't know, there's like a phone app and we
got to find like a golden Groot in like a, a shrub somewhere.
And it's supposed to like make a noise.
And you're like, what are you serious?
Like that's it for the 50th like.
To this day, I absolutely love those things because you see
people walk by them in the park and no one to this day really
understands what to do with them.
But everyone in front of them is just like this and they have no
idea if it does anything or if it works.
And then truthfully, the random guy that's not even trying to
get it to do anything walks by and his magic band vibrates and
it does something like that's that's how they function.
So but yeah, and, and again, I don't want to again, I love the
50th anniversary. I was extremely sad when it was
over, like after those 18 months.
And then there was none of the 50th music or none of the 50th.
Even what they did to the Electric Water Pageant, Like I
did, love that, love the glow up that they did to that show for
the 50th and thought that they needed to somehow keep it.
Around that's gone. It feels really short.
Yeah, it feels short. It feels a little bit empty.
I loved how they they, there was, there was an announcer that
talked about the history of the Electric Water Pageant so that
people could understand. Nowadays, you just hear the
music and unless you actually know what's going on, you're
just kind of like, what's that? Who's playing loud music?
And then you kind of see this out on the water.
So you really don't know what's going on.
On a more positive on a more. This is Derek's long show.
On a more positive note, I think that the best part of the 50th
is still with us. Yeah.
What do you think that is? I would have.
Painting of the Castle. Yes, Spaceship Earth Points of
Light that was, yeah, which is the name of the little lights
that are all over Spaceship Earth.
That was added for the 50th and they kept it around and I think
that's the best thing that came out of the 50th.
Kudos to that one that when the entire castle is white, it's
green. I want to be that light when I
grow up. I want to be that.
Yeah, right. Everybody knows which one I'm
talking about, too. All right, Who's who's next?
Derek, to talk us into what? What really let you down?
So this is kind of a different one perhaps because it's nothing
that maybe anybody else obviously might have
experienced. But when we talked about it,
we're like, OK, So what about a disappointment, something that
you had huge hopes for and it turned out maybe not to be so
great and you were disappointed. And mine is a very specific one
that I will say with the disappointment, but then I will
follow it up quickly with a how it redeemed itself.
So disappointment came when it came to Disney Cast members.
And I say this because we all know the hidden gem, the key to
Walt Disney World. What difference it from any
other place and the Disney parks are the cast members so they are
truly what makes the magic happen.
My personal experience, my biggest disappointment was when
it was my 25th wedding anniversary.
We had got married at Walt Disney World on May 13th, 1996.
We knew that our 25th was coming up, so we were able to get a
room at the Grand Floridian right next to the wedding
pavilion on the exact same day that we got married 25 years
ago. So when it came to this trip, I
was like, OK, let me do some research because I have a little
bit of a room request and I know everyone does, but I just want
to be able to maybe to look at the wedding pavilion, like have
a balcony that we could look at the wedding pavilion.
We didn't want an upgrade or anything like that.
So I had looked into, you know, what's the best way to do it?
And I swear to God, I think I did everything possible.
I was faxing smoke signals. I had a horse drop off something
at the resort with like a cake, anything to just try to get my
room request to say, listen, we're going to be there on the
actual day. Is there any way that we could
get just a nice view? You know, we had paid for a
Lakeview, so we just want haven't look at the cat because
how often is it 25 years ago that day someone's right there,
got married right next door. We had then got there, we
checked in and we explained to the lady, this is such a big
day. My God.
It was literally almost at this exact same time.
We had just gotten married 25 years ago.
And she's like, oh, that's so great.
Let me check you in and your room is ready.
So we're like, OK, this is either really good or they're
just going to throw us into like the first available room.
And they threw us into the first available room that overlooked
the parking lot. And it was, it was just one of
those things where it was like, and I even called like from the
room and I was not looking for any sort of an upgrade.
It was just a, you know, we barely saw the lake.
It was a lake view. So we talked to them and I was
like, listen, I'm not trying to be difficult, but I got 125th
wedding anniversary where I'm right next door to where I got
married. Is there any way that there's
another room may be available that could have a little bit
better of a view than like a sliver of the lake and the
parking lot? And they were like, no, I'm
sorry. No, that was it.
So we're like, OK, let's just make the best of it.
Which of course, we obviously did.
But we went out to dinner and we came back that night and we're
so used to Disney service after so many years that we're like,
OK, I think everybody on property cast member wise knows
because we've told everyone that it's our 25th wedding
anniversary today. Surely we're going to get back
to the room and there's going to be like a cookie or there's
going to be something like a little hey, congratulations,
blah, blah, blah. Got back to the room.
Nothing, not one thing. So there was no sort of
acknowledgement of this monumental that for us, again,
it was such a huge, huge deal. And that's if we didn't expect
it because it's happened before where Disney cast members go
above and beyond. We wouldn't have been so kind of
disappointed. Which then segways me into
staying at the Boardwalk for my wife's 50th.
We had just let them know in a simple way nothing is crazy
because it was like, oh, that's our 50th.
Hey, if we could get a cool like Boardwalk view room, that would
be great. This was just a couple years ago
and we checked in out of nowhere, didn't even say
anything. They upgraded us to a one
bedroom boardwalk view room. We had checked into the room and
they had a set of these coffee mugs from the boardwalk.
They had a whole little like cookie platter with a big happy
50th birthday sign on it. A little thing from the
characters. You know, we hope you guys have
a magical 50th birthday blah blah blah.
And I was like, that's what I'm used to.
Like that kind of service that, you know, kind of going above
and beyond. And, you know, it didn't cost
them anything, but it meant the world to us because it was like,
well, we don't expect anything on this trip based on what
happened on our 25th. But we were so pleasantly
surprised. And we're like, that's the magic
that I, you know, cast members need to have that ability to be
able to, in those circumstances, do those little things that
don't cost them. Honest to God, it doesn't cost
you anything, you know, but it means the world to people when
they do those kind of out of nowhere little experiences.
So that's my my disappointment followed by a redemption.
I guess you could kind of say that's it.
Yeah, Yeah, that can really that that would be very disappointing
to me, especially if I had gone through all of that work.
Like, you know, even to this day, a lot of people like look
at us and they think we get special treatment when we go to
the rooms and resorts. And it's like we do not, you
know, and we don't ask for that either.
Like we want to be treated like every other Joe Schmo.
I want you know, you, all the listeners, the viewers out there
to be able to celebrate your special events and your trips in
a unique way here. And I want Disney to use that
extra Pixie dust on all of you because we could live down here
in the magic that's, you know, that that's special enough as it
is for us. But to go through everything you
went through but you just had to be famous on some mediocre
podcast on the Internet and then finally they acknowledged you
when in previous month apparently.
Right, but but that's just it. And that's how important cast
members aren't and, and, and why we all love them so much and why
we go because so many of the greatest stories that we tell
our friends and tell our family, like why are you going back to
Disney World again? My God, go, go somewhere else.
So much of that is because of our interaction with the cast
members, you know, So that's why we do have such high
expectations of them and they're when they're left to doing what
they can do best, it's life changing.
It's awesome. Yeah, Yeah, for sure.
Well, Jeff, round us out, I think, I think I've got everyone
else on their negative so far, so.
Just let's kill this puppy. Take us all the way into the
darkness. My two really good ones, Panda
and Amy, already stole but we don't need to talk about them.
So I had a backup. And this is going to sound like
a weird flex, but believe it or not out of all the attractions
that were built at Walt Disney World, the one that was the
biggest let down for me and still remains to be is Remy's
Ratatouille Adventure. And the reason for that is, is
we rode that in Paris when we went in 2017 and loved it at the
time. And then it was announced it was
coming to Disney World for the 50th anniversary.
And we got super excited cuz I kind of thought that maybe they
would update that ride and make it cool for us down here in
Disney World. It's the same technology as Rise
of the Resistance, but it's just a universal ride with screens.
And I just, I think I was just so let down.
They punted with something for the 50th anniversary, to Paul's
point that I I wrote it the last time we had some friends in
town. This has been about three months
ago and I still don't get why it's a 90 minute wait all the
time. That ride just sucks.
It sucks almost as a figment and that's saying.
Something wow this I. Hit it.
There is no upgrade to it there. It's just they took Paris and
brought it over here and did nothing to it.
So it's already dated compared to Rise, compared to Mickey and
Minnie's runaway Railway that all uses that same, you know,
technology. You look at what you can do with
that type of ride vehicle. Even SeaWorld has a better
trackless ride vehicle than Remy.
And so I was just so disappointed that it's just
screens with like a physical set that you look through, but the
car doesn't do anything. I don't know, I just that was a
Epcot needs rides so badly to suck up some of these guests
that we talk about and for them to just kind of go, yeah, we're
just going to bring this one over from here.
We're going to bring Tron over, which is also the exact same
clone. Like make them a little
different, do something that makes U.S. special.
Not We're just getting everybody's leftovers.
Yeah, yeah. I don't know how that sounded to
anyone else, but it sounded like an admission of guilt that Jeff
started the fire behind Epcot the other day to try to actually
get. Off Remy's.
Ratatouille Adventure. Yeah, Tron was.
Tron was in my head the whole time you were talking.
We we never ride the Ratatouille ride because it it.
Was a one and done. It's it's not that I dislike it
to Jeff's level, but it's not exciting enough to warrant the
wait time. Right.
And I'm sorry but 3D technology for me that is so outdated
anymore. It's jumped the shark.
I know, stop making me wear glasses.
When they tried to get everyone on board with the 3D televisions
for your house. And I'm just like, I hate 3D
movies in general. Just make my television better
and make my viewing experience at home better.
Like why do we have to go 3D like?
No, it and you look at these and I like, I'm not saying that
everything has to be a rise of the resistance, nothing.
It doesn't have to be that epic of a scale every time, but you
can do more with an attraction that you've already made that
all. Right.
We could have got an extra scene.
An extra scene would have been great, like a big extra scene.
Do something other than make them instead of the screen,
making it feel like you're doing something.
The cart The cart tilts a little bit, but it's not enough to.
But not like the dancing scene in Mickey and Minnie's Runaway
Railway. This is what I'm talking about.
You know, the the technology's there to do a lot with.
All you're doing is watching snippets of the movie inside a
little rat car and like, at least the Paris one exits into
their French restaurant. Yeah, yeah, You know what I
mean? Like that?
Was a huge mess. I just, I don't know, I was
really disappointed in their lack of updating for that.
Although Jeff's left, if it if it makes you feel better, I did
hear that they're working on it now and it's supposed to be
ready like in a a year. So the car, the little rat cars
going to somehow go over to Canada and right into the
Polynesian stale. So it's going to be a perfect,
perfect slip. Well, one of the big things that
I think he jumped off the page when Jeff came up with this
topic for us was that we are super excited to hear about your
experiences. What are things that have been a
pleasant surprise in the Disney barks that you have experienced?
Try to stay positive like we did early on in the show.
Think about those those things that really surprised you,
whether it be related to the parks or Disney Vacation Club.
And then of course, yeah, we want to hear about the things
that really disappointed you as well because those things
empower us and give us show topics for future discussions to
to ramble on about. But please leave those in the
comments of this video. Or if you're listening to this
on an audio podcast, you do have the ability to comment there as
well or joining the conversation over in the DVC fan Facebook
group. But we really look forward to
engaging you in those comments and hearing what you have to say
and those things that have either surprised or disappointed
you over the years when it relates to Disney and Disney
parks. That's going to do it for this
week's episode of the DVC Show. We hope you enjoyed it, or if
you didn't enjoy it, then maybe this is your disappointment for
the week. But until next week, we will see
you next Monday.