Just so that you all are aware, we we did a last minute pivot on
the shows that we were going to record today.
So we were going to do the best and worst changes to Disney
parks over the years. So you can see, like, Derek
hovering off screen right now because he planned his entire
wardrobe in advance, and now we're going to film the best
changes to Disney parks over the years, and he doesn't know
whether or not to keep the shirt on or change shirts.
I think I'm going to keep it on because then it's consistent.
Or do I change it because this shirt will be associated with
negativity because I wore it on the negative show, so maybe I
should wear something more. I'll be right back.
At least he's wearing pants. That's a win.
Hey everybody. Welcome to this week's episode
of The DVC Show. I am your host Paul Krieger,
joined as always by my lovely wife, Amy Krieger.
Hello, Sales executive for the DVC resale market, Derek de
Boer. Hey now, happy Monday everybody.
The Honorable Jeff Haslam Hey everybody, and for anyone that
is a visual viewer out there, and I apologize to those audio
listeners out there, Derek has changed his shirt.
If anyone was playing the home game between.
You. I love that.
Between the intro of this show and.
On the 50th anniversary. Yeah, I like it, The baseball.
The 50th anniversary. Was that one of Disney World's
best or worst moments? That could be debated for about
an hour. Yeah, probably.
Oh, I'm going to add something to my list.
OK. Well, in case you guys tuned in
last week, if you didn't head back and check out our best
changes to Disney Parks over the years, you will quickly realize
that as that show progressed, we realized that we were going to
talk for about an hour about all of the negative things.
So probably positive wise this will be a 15 or 20 minute show.
No. And I thought, I thought, I
thought the show last week that we taped like 20 minutes ago, I
thought the show last week was not really that negative.
I think overall you can tell that we still love Disney and we
still love the product and we simply talk about things that
say, hey, we don't understand why this isn't still the same.
So I don't think it was that negative.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna put in like, comments from all the
people that said we were overly negative right here at this
moment when Derek's talking. Like.
As long As for this episode, you put the same comments about how
we're Disney apologists and never call them on the carpet
for anything because that happens too so.
Yeah, yeah, a lot of. Yeah, you got I, I, I do hope
you all know, like comment on our videos because we love it,
whether it's, you know, something that we actually love
or it's something that makes our group chat.
And for all about you that think we're mean to Derek, I'm sorry.
If for everyone that thinks. He brings it upon himself.
I'm just kidding for. Everyone that thinks that we are
mean to Derek you, I feel like, you know, have you ever truly
had a like family friend, someone that deep where you can
joke about it? Because I feel like if you
don't, if you're not on that level with your friends, like
realize that we all don't just sit here once every three weeks.
Like, we do things together. We hang out together.
We. Yeah.
If if I hated them, would we be doing this?
I know. Oh my gosh, that is such an
iconic photo. That's true love, ladies and
gentlemen. That's.
What the show is about the Lady in the Tramp style?
Sharing is caring. That was right before I had to
take Derek to the hospital for a diabetic coma and he didn't even
was a diabetic before he drank it so.
I don't want to spoil your video, but what would?
There was another picture where you had a lineup of Coke
beverages and Derek working. Just really sad.
God, that was so much, that was so much fun.
That is our Never Have I Ever with Jeff and Derek series that
if it's not out yet, it will be coming out soon and we.
We're still trying to decide whether or not it's rated PG or
PG13 before we put it up. I'm pretty sure so, well, we got
so carried away last week. We're continuing the thought
process of last week's show into this week.
Last week we did the worst changes that we've seen at
Disney Parks and Resorts over the years.
And I think we had a great conversation.
And as Derek said, we did. We did I think keep it very
mild. We could have probably gone off
the deep end a little bit further than we did, but we
tried to think of things that were a little bit outside the
box. And this week we're talking
about the best changes to Disney parks and resorts that have
happened over the years. Because equally speaking to what
has been negative, there's been a bunch of positive changes to
the parks and we don't want those to be ignored.
Before we get into it. This and all of our content as
always, is brought to you by Key Holder Vacations and the world
of DVCDVC resale market. If you're looking to buy or sell
a Disney Vacation Club contract, Monera Financial who can assist
in financing that DVC resale contract.
Purchase the DVC Rental store where you can try before you
buy. Rent some points for a fraction
of the cost as it is direct with Disney or rent out your own
points for some extra cash and unlock magic.com/DVC fan for
discounted Walt Disney World, Disneyland and Universal Park
tickets. You said you have so many
positive things for us to discuss that I, I feel like I'm
truly going to go to you first this week.
OK. And give us.
My first one, the new enhanced security screening when going
into the parks, Disney Springs, That is one of the best things
that came out of the pandemic. So easy, so streamlined, and
it's gotten better. Like overtime it's gotten even
better. Like I'm able to bring like my
external chargers and things and it doesn't go off.
I just think that that's so much easy and Disneyland needs to get
with it because they're still over there searching every nook
and cranny of every bag, every little tampon holder that you
got like they're in it so. Jeff got a lot of those.
Disney World has done a great job.
Love the security that came about what that was like 5 years
ago now but. And when we're talking about
being mean to Derek and you guys thrown me under the bus, I
listened to the totality of our Key Holder Vacations Live show
that I only could hear bits and pieces of because I was in
Raglan Rd. Man, I'm the one that should be
sad drunk and he doesn't ever come out of his room and he's
gonna dance. I don't know.
I need new friends. I had, I had completely set up
during that entire live stream. I expected one or both of you to
actually call into the show because you permanently have the
link that we use for this. I had it all set up for you guys
to do so like I was very disappointed.
You didn't give them any like heads up, like hey, you could
call. Normally I don't have to.
Normally they just they they come up with their own.
I would have if I felt you could have heard me and I could have
heard you, but I was trying to listen at Raglan Road and I
finally just turned it off after my second comment.
I was like I. Right.
He did go radio silent after that so.
I agree with the security though.
It's it, it blew me away how long it took us to get to that
level of technology. Like I, I felt like we should
have gotten there a little bit quicker than we did, but now
that we're there and you see it popping up like at all different
places. Oh, I was at the Pirates game
the other day. Yeah, it's so nice.
And, and so the, the technology is improving drastically and
it's great. And, you know, you kind of learn
the little nuances of it, like hold your umbrella straight out
in front of you as you walk through.
Yeah, just so nice that I have to get searched at, you know,
every time and and it just get you in the park faster.
It does, Yep. So moves moves people quicker
through the system. Derek, take it away with our
next best change. I got a lot but so I would
rather cover a quantity verse quality, but I'm going to start
with one. Believe it or not that you may
not expect to come from me. Maybe not the most, as they say,
tech savvy person in the world, but I asked Annie and I asked
her this exact same question about hey, what's gotten better?
And she goes without even missing a beat.
She goes dining reservations. She goes to technology, the book
dining. She goes, I don't know if you
remember, I'm like, I probably don't.
She's like, there's no more. Remember when we used to have to
call four O 7 WDWEINE to book everything and you'd have to
wait, you'd have to get a hold of somebody.
You'd have to go through and say, well, this isn't available.
What about this blah, blah, blah.
She's like, that's a huge plus. She's like, make sure to remind
people that, yeah, maybe they're not going to get every single
thing they want, but it is a lot easier to book your dining and
you could see what's available. You could play with it in real
time and then click it and book it and done.
So that's my. Into branch off of derricks too,
adding the two hour cancellation window 'cause it used to be.
Was it a whole day or two days, or?
4 hours. It was 24 hours, you had to
decide and now you have until two hours that you can cancel,
which is better, you know, if you make a last minute change or
you want to be a little more spontaneous because we've
cancelled things before and decided to do other things.
And then that gives more for people who you know, let's say
we're going last minute, let's look more availability now for
others, you know what I mean? So I love that that new 2 hour
cancellation window it's. Funny because that was actually
number one on my list. Not that it's easier to book
dining, but the two hour cancellation thing because you
if you have kids or grandkids and they're prone to meltdowns
or it's just too hot. Like there was nothing worse
that you know, you'd booked this thing three months ago and then
you'd pay off and your kid has had it.
I've had it and you're like, well sorry folks, we got to go
to do the Epcot Death March because we booked chefs to
France at 4:00 and they will charges that we don't show.
Yeah. So.
It's so nice. It's so much nicer.
Jeff, keep it. Keep it going with your first
best of the night. Yeah, and I'm going to say, and
this is going to sound interesting probably because a
lot of people maybe don't agree, but I like that while we're not
getting a lot of expansion, they are addressing some of the
things that have gone bad with the rides and and the ones that
aren't getting a lot, they're they're rejuvenating a lot of
older rides. I'm thinking country bears.
I'm thinking the fact that they took the weird wild mouse roller
coaster out of Dinoland and are giving us on Konto and you know,
Zootopia got an I what I feel, and I know I'm in the minority
here, but I feel like it's a nice upgrade compared to it's
tough to be a bug. You know, they are spending some
money rejuvenating some rides that desperately needed it.
Now I'm looking at you figment. We're not done yet, but I do
feel like there's especially some money that they maybe
didn't have to, you know, fro for example, they replaced the
weird creepy projection heads with with act animatronic.
So I I like that they're they're at least attempting to make
things better. Yeah, Big Thunder should be
opening soon, right? Yeah, it's open to summer.
Yeah, Yeah. So that's going to be coming
with it's whatever it's new thing is they, they didn't fully
say that we're getting what was in Disneyland.
So kind of wait, wait to see what the full, what the full
effects look like. With that, I would I would just
kind of take that a step further and say ride technology in
general and kind of where we've seen the evolution of what is
capable of a ride go. And that moves us into what my
first best of the night would be, which is the evolution of
the concept of immersive lands. Now there's there's a blessing
and a curse. And if you listen to last week's
show where we talked about, you know, innovating and
imagineering and everything at the end of the show, this kind
of picks up where that left off left off.
But the ability to walk into your favorite movies has been
such an evolution in theme parks.
And I think no place have we seen it done better than Epic
Universe so far on the Universal side of things.
But Universal started that trend even before Epic Universe with
the the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Then we saw it evolve into Pandora and the land of Avatar,
and now we're seeing it evolve further.
You've got cars land out on the West Coast and then coming very
soon of truly a lot of things that are coming to parks.
One of my most exciting is Monsters Inc land at Hollywood
Studios, and I think that's where as Disney evolves, there's
a little bit of that disconnect of you have Piston Peak, which
is not Cars Land, but really how they're, it's kind of
Frontierland. That's where it gets confusing,
where it's like, if you want to double down on IP and you want
us to walk into these immersive experiences that we've grown up
with fully, let us do that. You know, I, I wouldn't even go
as far as saying like Toy Story Land does it, but some of these
other ones really do it very well.
I'm not going to take us down into the argument of Galaxy's
Edge because, you know, it was the attempt.
And I still think there's a lot of positives that come from
Galaxy's Edge, but the ones that are really wins are Pandora.
It still takes my breath away to walk in there and see the
floating mountains, you know, and it, it's just, that's why
I'm so excited for Monsters Inc, because you're going to have
that same feeling of just walking into exactly what, you
know, in your head from those movies and images that have been
painted over the years. So I think that's a big win.
And I would just encourage Disney to do more of that if
that's the direction that they want to go in 'cause that is the
easy money maker. That's the thing people are
going to resonate with. I think Encanto's going to do
very similar with Tropical Americas, so.
Absolutely. It's funny because I know you
you kind of took a little dig at Toy Story Land.
So I was just here with my sister.
She's never been to Disney World, never been to Florida.
We did four straight days in the parks.
Rope dropped off fireworks every single day.
All four parks at the end, all four parks.
OK, yeah, I'm but. If this is like this is like the
fifth time this month he's done this though.
Well, it's it's the second time, but yes, I have been very parked
head lately for sure. At the end of the trip, I asked
her, I'm like, all right, from somebody that goes all the time.
I want to hear from somebody that this is their first time.
What were your highs? What were your lows?
What did you love? And Toy Story land was her
favorite land out of all of them, which was shocking to me.
And I said, all right, I got to know why, because it's widely
considered not she goes. I just, I, I don't know, I love
Toy Story. The fact that they went to the
effort of shrinking you down all the little elements with the
Lincoln Logs and the Tinker toys and the dominoes and the Uno
cards, She says. It just, I was overwhelmed.
I thought it was really cool. I thought it.
And she says, I also really like Star Wars Land, but it's the
same as Disneyland, which I thought was weird.
I was expecting something different.
We're like, yeah, us too. And but she also really did love
Pandora. So it was, it was kind of fun to
see it from somebody that doesn't come with any kind of
frequency. You know, what I think I'm a
little bit tainted by is that growing up as a kid at Hollywood
Studios, there was the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Land.
And that is, in my mind, what I want Toy Story Land to be to a
certain degree. I mean, you had the giant Lego
brick. You had, you know, the Ant that
you could, you know, take a picture on.
I have a picture on that Ant somewhere.
And the giant blades of grass and everything like that for me
is where the bar is. And we just never, we didn't get
there with Toy Story Land. So I think that's that's where
some of like the nostalgia in me comes, comes out and sort of
says no. I I don't disagree at all, but
you sure loved it. She's wrong.
No. And Hollywood Brown Derby was
her favorite restaurant that we ate so.
Wow. Take us around for another loop.
Let me pull my list back up. OK for me.
See, I have a lot. I'm going to say the Disney sky
liner, so. That made my list.
Yeah, so, gosh, I can't. How long has this sky liner been
around? Now I feel like.
Decent number of years. Yeah, so, but I remember when it
wasn't. And so just it makes staying at
certain resorts a lot more easy. You know, I've always, I love
being able to get places without having to get in a car or a bus
or you know what I mean? Like those sorts, the things
like if it's walkable or even something like the skyline or
when you just feel like, I don't know, it just feels like less
hassle for some reason. And so I just, I love it.
I love that you can get to Hollywood studios in Epcot, you
know, easily from each other. I love that you can get to the
certain resorts, but also it just looks really cool.
Like I love it. I hope, I hope they expand it.
I I think there's a lot of potential there.
Scenic wise, you're never bored while you're riding it.
Like, you're right, yeah. It's so cool to see the parks
from that angle that you'd never really get to see him.
Like as you cruise by by Hollywood Studios or you cruise
by Epcot, you're kind of looking at it from up above.
Like that's a very rare angle that you ever get to see the
parks from, so. Yeah.
And that's not that system is very common in other places now
that we've, you know, been traveling a lot more.
We've seen it in Alaska, they have it in Europe and it's
they're the same gondolas and everything.
So I feel like I feel like they could expand it.
Yeah, I guess that's the $1,000,000 question is like is
it saving money the way that they thought or or you know, are
they not expanding it because there's something we don't know
about the maintenance and stuff that's actually costing more
money, but. It's definitely increased the
value of, you know, they they charge more and justify it for
like pop century and you know, Caribbean beach and so.
I I think it's what put Riviera on the map like.
Well, true. Yeah, that is true 5.
Percent and and if they could do it to Animal Kingdom Lodge, my
God, that would be such such. Game changer, right?
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Yeah.
DVC annual dues will subsidized
probably half the cost, so there you go.
Right, it's a no brainer. Derek, what's one of your other
best changes to Disney Parks and Resorts over the years?
All right. I'm going to say, and not just
because I went with Jeff last week, but I think Disney
Springs, Disney Springs is a trillion times scientifically
proven, a trillion times better than when it was just quote UN
quote Downtown Disney and you had Pleasure Island and then you
had that, you know, West side with Cirque du Soleil.
I think now that they made it that kind of cohesive story of
Disney Springs, which has a great story too.
So if you ever want to do research on it, for those people
that say, Oh, I miss the old Disney Village marketplace, it's
still there. Like that's still there.
Oh, I miss Miss Pleasure Island. No, you don't.
Nobody honest to God miss Pleasure Island.
You have memories of it, maybe fuzzy ones, but you don't really
miss Pleasure Island. So the fact that that area right
there has great restaurants and shopping.
It's got the boathouse, you know, one of the best
restaurants in all of Disney. And then you could stroll over
to the West side and they've got great stores and shopping.
It's just to me, it is so much better than what it used to be
like. That is a place that as a local
again, I know some people always say, well, you guys are.
Local, it's different. Even when I wasn't, I love going
to when it was, you know, the Disney Village Marketplace and
then it was Disney Springs and then it was your whatever,
Downtown Disney. I still love it and I love it
even more so I think what they've done, added the amount
of amazing restaurants and shopping.
It's your way of getting a Disney fix and a little bit of
Disney magic without having to go to a park.
So I love Disney Springs, so thank you.
Yeah, that is a good one. It's just, and you know, it's
nice that you don't need a park pass or a ticket or even to pay
for parking, parking. I can't believe they've gotten
away with that. I say that every time I drive
there. I'm always like son of a gun.
I can't believe they're not charging.
For Park, don't give any ideas. I know it's crazy.
We'll go there more often and we'll shop and spend money and
eat more often in there, you know, without having to pay for
parking. Oh, yeah.
I remember growing up that was such like just a hodgepodge area
that I just never understood, like Downtown Disney.
And of course, like I was this little kid and was like, can't
go over there. That's Pleasure Island.
I'm like, why? But yeah, it's just there's,
there's. And I think it's really elevated
the dining. And that's kind of been a theme
that we've really come back to. It has some of the best, Yeah,
yeah. Jeff.
Yeah, I'm going to say night time stuff.
You know, they've invested that. The best thing that they ever
did was bring happily ever after back after they took it away
from us for a while. That was my sister's favorite
thing that we did all week long, Happily ever after.
We did actually the dessert party for that, so that we
didn't have to sit there for three hours and get a good spot.
We spent the 100 bucks and had the desserts and watched the
fireworks front and center. I just the fact that they
reinvested some more money into Fantasmic and added some of
those scenes and and took away the stuff that wasn't working.
The even the something as simple as the, the, the projection
mapping on Grauman's Chinese Theater with what is it the
world of Wonderful world of Disney?
I don't know. I we finally saw Starlight, the
new parade. Why we are waiting for the
fireworks to start. There's a lot more to do at
night. That kind of went away for a
really long time. Now.
Is Starlight as good as the electric light parade?
No, but it's something. It's something that gets people
out of the lines and back interacting with their family
without looking at their phones. I, I don't know, I just, I'm,
I'm really happy with nighttime entertainment right now.
I still wish Animal Kingdom would bring something back, but.
No, I do. We should have talked about that
on there on the other show because I loved Rivers of Light.
I loved it. I didn't love Rivers of Light.
Oh, it was so cultural beautiful.
And the boats in the. I loved kite tails.
I did love kite tails. Kite tails Best thing.
It was a hoot. Yeah.
We loved sitting on the end when they used to crash him, you
know? Crash him right into the stand.
Loved it, yeah. If I if I could buy that Big
Blue, they were. So funny too.
Just giant. Raping over our house every
single minute of every single day.
I don't know where to go from there.
Do you have? One I do, I have I have actually
several of of mine have been taken.
I had Disney Springs transformation on here.
This one people will either hate or love, but I will just say I
love me and Epcot Festival and and I think that doubling down
on Epcot festivals has been the best decision that Epcot has
ever done because honestly, we were there I think in between
festival periods and you do have that moment of walking around
going. I really don't know what to do
with myself. I.
Miss not high festival. No, I like Go.
I will say, like it does, it does take away from immersing
yourself in the countries and really exploring what every
country has to offer. And if you've never done that at
Epcot, I highly encourage you to do so.
But once you've done that, once you're, you know, once you've
been there, done that, got the T-shirt a couple times.
The Epcot festivals, they just really are what brings
excitement to it. That being said, I do think that
Disney needs to like maybe reinvent some of these and bring
some of the things back that they've taken away from festival
every year. But the rumor that had me so
excited about a year or two ago was the idea of in that little
gap period in the summer, they were going to do like a barbecue
and brew festival. Like make it like rock'n'roll
barbecue and brew festival and just slip that into that gap
period. You'll have more money.
For me, that's the truth, no? I agree with you.
I went, I don't remember. I think it was in between, it
was last year, it was in between flower and garden and food and
wine and I got bored pretty fast.
I'm like, oh, there's nothing to eat.
If there is, you could. Go to a.
Restaurant like? Go to like a kiosk and talk to a
guy. No, I don't want to just go
through the thing. I want a beer flight.
You can't get a beer flight outside of a festival.
Right, we haven't yeah, that's true.
You can't get a beer flight or like sample a type things.
I the festivals are great. I love them, but I just miss we
I don't well, I don't remember being there in between a
festival for so long and I miss just being able to walk through
well showcase without it being so crowded and congested.
But. Yeah, but Amy, you would never
use your snack coupons at Moonlight Magic if it wasn't a
festival. That's true.
I would be struggle busting to use them.
That is true. She'd just have 3 powerades,
that'd be it. That'd be her night for sure.
How about we change it to the the bluegrass and BBQ brews?
I'm fine with that. I.
Don't care what kind of music you bring in, but yeah, that's
different. That's cool.
Let's do it. Yep, you had me at brew.
Derek's like you had. Me at brews, who's got who's got
another best I do, I do go for it, Derek.
I've won mine is the Disney Vacation Club resorts.
And I say that because I was thinking when I joined, you
know, back in like whatever, like the late 90s, I basically
had four resorts that I could use my points for, right?
I could use it for the Boardwalk, which is what I
bought. We had old Key West, you had
Bureau and you had Hilton Head. So the fact that in all the
years since then that we've got this incredible portfolio of
resorts that I say all over the world, you know, stretching from
Florida, they're Hilton Head and you got Hawaii and you got a
couple Disneyland. That to me, it just is amazing
because I would have been happy with my DVC resort back then if
they told me and said, hey, you know what, this is it, you got
these four resorts, you still want to buy it.
And I'll be like, yeah, that's totally great.
So the fact that there's so many different resorts and again,
what I love, there's a resort for everybody out there.
So what I might not like or be my cup of tea, Bay Lake Tower.
That doesn't mean that others all around the world don't enjoy
it. And I love that for for them.
So I love that we've got resorts on the monorail.
I love them. We got them near Epcot.
I love them. We've got stand alone resorts.
I love them. We got tiny resorts.
I love that we have huge resorts.
So for me, I love the fact that we have so a DVC, great
portfolio to be able to pick and choose from.
So thank you. That's a good one.
That is a great. One and actually that was on my
list as well, so. Now we now we just need another
park to put all these people in because we've got too many rooms
filled with too many people all going to the same 4 theme parks.
Yeah, I wish there was more success in the parks that are
outside or the resorts that are outside the parks.
Like, I wish they had seen more success in like Vero and Hilton
Head and Milani with selling them because I would love more,
more Disney at other places. You know Disney's ski lodge,
Disney in the Caribbean, or Yeah.
Yeah, that was yeah, that's a great best essentially is is I
think those those were wins even though they didn't resonate the
way that we expected them to. Even even a more recent win in
the Disney vacation Go Spears is Disneyland Hotel.
Like that was a big win for the West Coast in adding more DVC
and making DVC accessible out there.
And I still think it's going to be a huge win long term for for
that resort, especially as we look forward to Disneyland's
expansion in the coming coming years and everything.
So yeah, Amy, what is another one on your list of the best?
OK, I'm going to save that one for the for the end.
So I'm going to say so. So back to like the mobile
mobile type things and I'm just going to group these together.
First, magic mobile. The fact that you can, you know,
we talked about this tiny bit on the last show, but the fact that
you can use your your Apple Watch and your phone.
And if you forget a magic band or you know what I mean, you
always have your ticket, your annual pass.
You always have that stuff with you because most people always
have their phone and their watch.
I love that. It's just so convenient.
And back to the mobile app, mobile check in for resorts and
dining. So instead of having to wait in
a line with my luggage or instead of having to wait, you
know, to get into the restaurant, I can just check in,
you know, Moberly, and then not even have to stop at the front
desk. And I think that that's just, it
helps eliminate, you know, your time being spent doing things
that you don't need to do. And also, like sometimes we get
our room is ready before we even leave the house.
And it's just nice, you know, just drive straight there to go
right to your room and not have to like worry about all the
extra stuff. I also love how, like the the
RFID technology is now kind of built into the phone.
So you used to have to go to the front desk to like, scan your
magic band so that it would work.
But now your phone actually does that for you.
Yeah, That is to link your magic band.
You can do it that way. Also the ability to open your
door from your phone is working a lot better than it used to
when it first rolled out. It used to be very hit or miss
and I'll take what you said a step further and say mobile
ordering for quick service restaurants.
That is just a tremendous game changer because now you're not
having to stand in a line for 30 to 40 minutes.
You can sit down on a bench and take your time and not be in a
super rush to make that order. Place it at your convenience,
tell them you're there. Like it just.
It really simplifies that entire.
And then back to them correcting those sorts of things.
They also corrected using your magic mobile for parking
scanning, you know, to see if you're staying at a resort or if
you're having annual pass. Now I do is stick out my watch
and and it works. And that used to not be the
case. So, you know, constantly
improving that technology, making it better.
This is a win for all of us. Technology's magical.
I'll go next because mine actually I had it's the exact
same thing. It's the app but none of what?
Well, I did have mobile ordering, but none of what you
said was on my list of app technology.
I actually love Photo Pass now much more than I used to for a
few reasons #1 there's a lot of options all over the parks, even
at some of the resorts now you're starting to see Photo
Pass, but like the magic shots can make that really special.
With my sister here this week, we don't ever have pictures
together. So we did everything.
We did them all. The fact that you can see your
family and friends on there and I can look at, oh, Jeff and Dan
went and got lightsaber pictures again, or, you know, Space
Mountain. I like that kind of interaction
and that overlap, but the fact that you can just add it for one
fee onto your annual pass just makes it way more accessible as
far as I'm concerned. And then I just, I don't know, I
love the fact that there there's all these things that the phone
can do that the Magic Band doesn't do that they should do.
Like the Duck Tales thing at Epcot.
That's just a thing that's free that that when the kids get
bored as you're eating and snacking around the world, you
can still see all the countries, but give them 10 minutes to go
and solve the puzzles at the UK or the pirate treasure map at
Magic Kingdom. I guess that's Magic Band, but I
think it probably could be in the phone really easily.
You know, just there's a lot of things that that app does that
we don't give them credit for. And.
I just the photo pass lenses and all those kinds of things I just
think of are are really neat. Yes.
And the fact that we can see that right now on our app is,
yeah, that's cool, yeah. I'm glad you didn't pull up the
Magic Kingdom one in front of the castle because.
I didn't get that far this one. This one took the cake as how
quickly could I pull up a photo of you from your recent
adventures? If you could find the one like
so I had my sister and Amy on either side of us in front of
Magic Kingdom. The nice guy that was taking our
picture says Kay. Now look at each other and I'm
in the middle and I'm trying to go wait.
I can't look at both of them And I ended up with this picture of
me cross eyed. It's phenomenal.
But anyway. There it is.
That's yeah, that's 100% it is. That one I could see his cross
eyed from. I could see his cross eyed from
a cross eyed million miles. While while he's looking for
that, I also want to add this, you're right, the price of you
know, magic or Oh my gosh of photo pass, especially when you
compare it like if you're on a cruise ship and you're looking
at the photo packages, it's like 200 plus bucks for like 30
photos. You know what I mean?
And you have to have the actual photo.
Like who wants the photo? I just want it on my phone so I
can show my friends and family I'm not.
Right, yeah. And the fact that we can walk
into a park and if there's, you know, we can get hey, let's get
in line and get a photo or hey, you know what I mean?
I love that And and yeah, I it's such a good that's.
One of those things where it, it always still blows me away how
much you've got Universal versus Disney.
And yet one company does something really well and the
other one's like, Nah, we're still.
Going to make I hate I hate universe picture and and you got
to look at it once you get off the rug.
I mean, it's directly behind me. Here is our picture from the
ministry ride. I do agree Disney does photos so
much better than anyone. Still spent the money.
They're even better because like Guardians, it automatically goes
in Tower of Terror. There's nothing you don't scan
Tower of Terror. I guess you do, but a lot of
them Pirates is one that just ends up in your account of that.
You don't have to sit and fight your way to the front and they,
you know, bring that to all of them.
Splash Mountains is the worst because people never get out of
the way but. Hey, hey, we just did that
amphibic car at the boathouse at Disney Springs and we look, you
look shifty. That's one descriptor.
Couldn't focus on when I was supposed to.
Yeah, that's. Great.
That's a shifty Jeff. Yeah, go ahead Derek with your
your amp. No amp, we're just going to back
up what everyone's saying. Because then Jeff and I got off
our little car boat and of course they want to sell you a
photo package. And Jeff found out that it was
included with what he already had and he saved us like
$87,000. I mean it would be good.
And then the next day. What they wanted to charge was
kind of crazy, and I leaned over and I told Jeff as they were
taking the pictures before we left.
I'm like, do not. We're not buying a picture when
this is done. We're not buying a picture.
No. What?
He said before we get on, he's like do not let them take our
pictures. I don't want to fight with them
after about buying it. Don't and we didn't have a
choice. I'm like, get in the car, take a
picture, but yeah. So is that that's normal?
So if you have photo pass then you get the photos
automatically? Yeah, OK.
And then I was in the body show you have.
To go to the counter and scan your.
Phone. OK.
And then I was like, hey, Derek. Yeah, even I can see him.
And I showed him to him the next day.
So yeah, that's it. Yeah, stay tuned for that video
if it's not come out already. It'll be coming out very, very.
I'm excited to see it. That is that is that is going to
be a a gem of Derek and Jeff afternoon date at Disney
Experience. I'm starting.
To have regrets about deciding to do this series with Derek
because I'm pretty focused. When I go into whatever I'm
going to shoot, I've got it kind of storyboarded out in my head
and I know what's happening and derricks like a drunk toddler.
He's like, no, let's do it this way.
And like Sweden's walking down the road like, and it changes
the whole thing, which is really fun.
But I'm like, how am I going to edit this?
I don't. Know editing that is so true
that's so true because I have my own ideas and I was like listen
So what about this and how about if we flow from this to this I
go but you do what you want because you're doing all the
work on it you're. Doing all that.
That's Derek Slayer saying I have really good ideas with.
All the fancy editing behind the scenes, but here's what we
should do. So.
Eric, give us another best on your list.
Oh God, yes, I do have another one.
I want to say that that is still the best will always be the
Disney cast members. So I think no matter what park
you're in, I think a great Disney cast members, which
obviously almost all of them are, can make your whole entire
trip. You know, it's some of the best
stories that you'll always hear from people have from their trip
may not involve, you know, riding pirates for the 10
thousandth time or Haunted Mansion again, blah, blah, blah.
It's Oh my God. Do you remember when we
interacted with so and so or do you remember with our waiter
that we had at this restaurant or Jeff just told the story?
I can't remember what show it was where he went to to Beacon
Barrel. And you know, one of the cast
members there helped elevate his whole experience.
So I think whether it's in the parks, whether it's in the
resorts, whether it's in the restaurant, cast members truly
are the ones that make the difference.
So that will always remain consistent, thank God.
For sure. And while we're on that subject
of that and the app, if you have that cast member that did
something that made your trip a little extra special, they've
made it really easy in the app to give a cast compliment.
And that does benefit them. Yeah, in in ways that we don't
know. Yeah.
So if you, it doesn't. Take about a second.
Yeah, if you can try to remember their name and where they were
from on their badge, because that makes it easier.
If you don't know that, you can tell them where you were and
like what time it was. But yeah, cast compliments.
I was looking to see. So if you're on the app and you
hit the little hamburger menu, it's all the way at the bottom
under Help and feedback. So cast compliments.
Always a good idea. I want to take us back with one
that's on my list and it's Disney Vacation Club related
because there are still people to this day that think it's the
only way that you can book a reservation.
But when Disney Vacation Club first launched, you had to call
to make every single reservation.
And I would never have bought the product if that was still
the case when I when I came in. Because that sounds like a whole
lot of work, but there's no people in this club and a part
of this the vacation club that think that you have to call
every single time that you make a reservation or make a change
to a reservation or do anything or even check DVC availability.
But the the introduction of the interwebs and the ability to
check availability on the website and book a reservation
on the website and even most of the technology on the website
and bless the chat on the website because that saves you
call. Has been a lot better.
Yeah, been a. Lot better they've, I believe
that they've upgraded kind of the chat engine that they're
using on the website. So it's I actually just had to
do a chat earlier today and it was a lot easier to do So just
that ability to make booking easier for a DVC member.
It just, I feel like we should just call this the best
technological improvement show because that's the trend that
we've been on. Good, Derek.
I can tell you, just adding on to that is I remember when I
became a Disney Vacation Club guide forever ago, they
obviously have, you know, files on every single family that they
talk to and maybe put notes of conversations they've had so the
vacation guides can remember who they've talked to and whatnot.
So I remember because I was already a member, because we
joined, then I became a vacation guide like 10 years later.
And then I thought to myself, I'm like, I got to look up
myself. Like I want to see, you know,
what did they say about me? And I go in there and I type in
the notes and I look up, you know, Derek Bohr and it goes
into the whole thing. And there was a conversation
from I think it was in like the late 90s, like maybe 97 or
something like that and said Derek called in, wanted to know
if we had a website, which of course we do not.
I don't know if we ever will because there was not a DVC
website at that time. Like you, like you said, you had
the call and that's back in the days when if you if you wanted
info, there was no online stuff. It was like we're mailing you
what they called like a dream book and they were like
hardcover books that you could learn about the club.
But yeah, they've come a long. Yeah, waivers.
Call 1-800-800-9800. So yeah.
Even even from the time that we've joined, like the amount of
like paperwork that someone requesting information receives
is a whole lot less. Like now it's like put in your
put in your address and receive a free key to the magic and you
get the key and it has AQR code. It just sends you online rather
than sending you 75,000 pieces of paperwork, right?
But they do make sure that you acknowledge that you've read the
75,000 pieces of paperwork still.
So that's always that's always a fun one.
Jeff, what else has made your list?
I want to say this is going to sound weird but I think the
Murphy beds if we're going DVC route.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a good, that's a big one as.
Far as as making those rooms a little more livable rather than
having to throw suitcases under queen beds and stuff.
I just, I like that you can fold it up and it's the couch, but
then you fold it down and there's charging ports inside
and reading lamps. I just, I do, I think the Murphy
beds, the refurbishments in, in general now we know that there's
been some misses, but as a whole, I would say the
refurbishments that we've seen over the last seven years have
been a good win. Especially for the studios,
they've just really increased the livability of those rooms.
Like you can convert it from 2 beds into kind of a bedroom
living room situation and have the ability to some of the
coffee tables like pull up so that you can actually sit on the
couch and you know, use that as kind of your office for the day.
I've, I always say I'm more inspired to work from a Disney
Vacation Club room than anywhere else in the world.
So, you know, just put me in one of those rooms and I'll be twice
as productive as I am today, so. Yeah, no, I agree though.
Like you're getting a real mattress versus do you remember
when we slept on the couch bed at Jambo House for a whole week?
Yeah, so because we love our moms and gave them the bedrooms.
Yeah, you could feel the bar. So I have one more that before
we if before you end, but. Yeah.
I have a question I want to go around the room with, but I'll
let you shoot us off one more and if you guys have any more,
we can do that. But I do have a question to go
around the room with. OK, I just want to do my last
one because I think it is the best thing to come out of the
50th. They kept it.
I love it. I love seeing it.
I bet you know exactly what I'm going to say.
The technical term for it is called Points of Light, and that
is when they put the lights on spaceship Earth and for and
furthermore, doing the, the music that the, you know, the,
the songs and things that they do with it moving around during
the festivals, especially Rainbow Connection.
But yeah, I love, I love Points of Light.
I'll even say that they've kept the technology at all of the
parks to a certain degree. The Tree of Life still does its
nighttime shows. Those were introduced really I
believe around the 50th. Hollywood Tower of Terror still
does overlays. Yeah.
They don't do some of the specialty stuff that they were
doing on the the castle. But yeah, I mean, you still get
it with the projections that they're doing for happily ever
after and other stuff. But Oh yeah, it that's just
where we're going with the with the technology is great, except
for that one light. Everyone knows where it is.
Oh my gosh, right. The top middle right.
When you're coming in the park, yeah.
Kudos to it. It likes to be different.
It wants to be just a little bit outside the box.
I mean, don't change it. There has to be the one, but
that's a that's a big one. Any other best of from you guys
before I ask a a question around the room?
No, I'm good. I think we've covered it.
Super quick one that's kind of an intangible one, but again,
it's I discussed all this with Annie.
It's what's gotten better is all.
You'll always have the nostalgia, like for me,
attractions come, attractions go, but it's the memories that
you make with your families that I think the ones that you're
able to make at Disney and on Disney vacations are just some
of the best memories that you'll ever have.
And I, I think, you know, as it, you know, changes and as your
life changes and, you know, maybe if you have kids out there
and you've gone to Disney, taken Disney vacations with your kids
when they were, you know, babies and maybe toddlers and then
cringy teenagers and then adults.
And then to see everybody grow is, I think what Disney has and
what they're able to do, I think can't be replicated anywhere
else. I'm sorry.
I, you know, Universal's great epic is super cool, but I, it
just, I don't think we'll ever have that same emotional
gravitas per SE that Disney does, and only Disney can do.
So that's me. That's great.
I feel like we should have a word of the night gravitas.
That was just like the word of the day.
I feel like for this show that was didn't, that was the word
through through that conversation that I didn't
expect. It's the only I like.
To go off it's like and everything but so my question
that I did not prepare you all for, but just curious if anyone
has any thoughts related to this is when we think through some of
these best changes to Disney parks and we think forward
taking us all the way back to the show that we did two weeks
ago. Or if you're us two hours ago,
which is Disney's about about to embark on a new adventure.
You have Josh tomorrow moving in as CEO.
You have Thomas Maslin moving in as head of YEAH, Parks, chairman
of Parks and Resorts. What is the next best change
that could come to Disney Parks and Resorts?
If you could name what that next best thing would be?
Go ahead, Derek. Stop raising the prices.
Just, I mean, truly, I, I, I know you have to have increases
on various things from time to time, but I think if there's a
#1 complaint that I hear and I think anybody that when they
talk about Disney is it's just gotten too damn expensive, you
know? And that to me is something that
I think that they can combat like they can combat maybe if
they've got some rides that aren't working 100% or maybe
this line is too long or what not.
But when you're constantly raising the price of food, when
you're constantly now charging for fast passes, when you're
taking away things that used to be free and now charging for
them, I think something they can do is not just stop, just stop
doing that because I think the amount of good press you'll get,
Go Google it. How many, how many stories from
media outlets all over the world can you find that says Disney
World has gotten too expensive? There's countless of them.
So I think for them trying to combat that would be a huge,
huge plus. They're they're, they're never
going to reduce prices, but stop overcharging and stop charging
for stuff that used to be free. Well, and it's kind of like I
said in the last episode, you know, it's it you keep raising
the prices, you're pricing out the families that got you to
where you are. And if you're only going to
cater to those that can afford it, Meanwhile, bringing home a
$35 million a year salary and Kylo Ren doesn't work every
time. Like all those things just kind
of aren't In Sync with each other.
You know, the people that would come and, and, and like my
family, we would do Disney once a year.
We would spend an ordinance amount of money on that one trip
because we could. Now it's gotten so expensive to
even get in there that the other stuff that we used to spend
money on, the fireworks parties, the the merchandise, the
souvenirs, you know, you might get one Mickey pretzel for the
week rather than one every day. You're missing what got you
there because the, the extreme wealthy that can afford to do
$450 fast passes are going to do that once and then they're going
to go do something else. They have that ability where
people love Disney. They want Disney to be
accessible. It's always been a family, you
know, park it. It's making it really hard
because my kids take their kids to Disney because I brought them
to Disney and my parents brought me to Disney.
Teenagers and and and Gen. Z this they like the experience,
but they like it Once you're not, you're leaving the
nostalgia behind. I've kind of feel like with with
making it so expensive because you can't build those memories
as frequently. It's a one and done for a lot of
families, if that. So I kind of agree with Derek.
That wasn't what I was going to say, but that's I agree with
Derek. Mark, Mark the day Jeff and
Derek agree. Exactly.
Re say the question again, it's what the.
Question would be what? Is the next good?
What's the? Next best change they could do
to Disney Parks and Resorts. Not necessarily change, but I
think that they have to go full in and knock out of the park
what they have in hello, what they have in progress.
So Monsters Inc land needs to be a home run, Radiator Springs,
you know, Piston Peak needs to be a home run, Tropical Americas
needs to be a home run and villains land needs to be a home
run. And so we we shouldn't walk in
and see like, oh, it was supposed to be like this, but
they had to cut it back. And you know what I mean?
I want to see like, wow, that's, that's really amazing.
This is the response to Epic Universe and it has to be
everything that people are and and there will still be doubters
and I'm sure that we'll be on this, you know, show kind of
saying, Hey, I wish this was there or that was there.
That'll always be the case. There will always be critiques
of what they do, but they're just has to be the jaw-dropping
aspects of things that everyone is expecting for the sheer
amount of money that they're going to spend.
And I will say for mine, which kind of summarizes most of
these, which is for every 10 things on the balance sheet that
makes sense that you know, are going to make you money, do one
thing that is a bit of a risk, challenge yourself.
You know, believe in what has been true to the Walt Disney
World Company or the Walt Disney Company for so many years, which
is that you can, you can do amazing storytelling, you can
create amazing things. Trust in your ability to do
that. And at least every once in a
while, take that risk. And I guarantee you, yeah, some
will fail. It's, it's the, it's the motto
of don't be afraid to fail. Some of them are going to fail,
but that's OK. Some of them are going to be so
much bigger and better than you ever could have imagined.
And I think we've seen that in the history of the parks.
And I hope we continue to see that in in the future as well.
So that is going to do it. I hope you kind of stuck with us
for these two episodes. They were fun.
They were fun shows to record, you know, both on both sides of
the fence. So hope they were as fun to
listen to, watch and enjoy as they were for us.
But that'll do it for this week's episode of the DVC show.
We will see you next month. See everybody?
See, it's next Monday because it's the Monday that's coming.