On this episode, we're handing out bronze, silver, and gold medals for our 2024 Walt Disney World Olympics in a variety of categories. Today's July 26th, 2024, in this episode, 688 of The Main Street Magic Podcast. ♪ Jeremy and Rhonda, our more than a little pond of Disney World ♪ ♪ So they make this podcast to share it all with you ♪ ♪ Reports and resorts, top ten lists of all sorts ♪ ♪ Main Street Magic's bringing it home for you ♪ Hello and welcome to another episode of Main Street Magic. I'm your host, Jeremy Stein, and as always, I'm joined by my lovely wife Rhonda. Hey guys! Make sure you check us out on the web at mainstemagic.com as well as follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at mainstemagic and on TikTok at MSM Podcast. If you want to be part of the community, and join the conversation in addition to live streams from the parks and our weekly live show, head to Facebook and search for the Main Street Magic community and ask to join. And don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you can get brand new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Planning a trip to Disneyland or Walt Disney World can be overwhelming and at times just downright frustrating. But don't worry because Mouse Dining removes the frustration of booking Disney dining reservations, alerting you when they spot availability for your desired restaurant, date, meal, and time. Visit MSMFriends.com to use this free service. Alright, so for today in celebration of the Olympics, the 2024 Olympics kicking off in Paris, opening ceremony, this evening, as far as when the episode comes out, we're recording on Thursday. Happy Deadpool and Wolverine Day. Oh, yay, we're about to go see the movie. We are. And I'm just going to wear my Main Street Magic because you and Kaitlyn decided to match. I got my fancy. So I found Target has these amazing button-ups, character button. They're super soft, they're button-up shirts, men's shirts. And I got in a Captain America one a couple weeks ago, and so I was looking around for a Deadpool shirt, and I saw that Target carried one in the exact same Brandon style, but it sold out everywhere. So I found one on eBay for about the same price. It might even have been less than it was in the store, but they're like 20 bucks. So we are getting ready to go see Deadpool and Wolverine. So I don't know if this will be recording and we're going to have to break. We're going to go see the movie and then we're going to come home and we're going to pick up recording. We might have dinner at that. Well, let's see if anybody can figure out where the break happens. Let's see how good we are. Maybe nobody will know. There's no idea. Hit me with the minute marker that you think we took a break, which I'll probably end up referencing it later. So after seeing the movie, but before we get started and we explain about what today is all about, we want to give you our weekly poll in our Facebook community at Main Street Magic. If you go out to Facebook, go ahead and search for that. Join the community. And thanks for everybody joining recently. Oh my gosh. It's been so many. Yeah, tons and tons and tons. So yeah, and we do ask questions when you join just for us to be able to keep track. And I just added if you want, we're going to start a email newsletter, which will include, you know, everything. News and episodes, just all kinds of stuff. But if you want to be a part of that, there's a field when you go to join the community that asks for your email. If you don't want to be a part of that, you don't have to enter it. But that's one of the reasons we do the approval process is I go ahead and look. I grab that email and then I go ahead and improve you. But anyway, the question was from Tuesday's episode on 100 things to see and do at Walt Disney World. We asked our listeners and everybody in Facebook, how many have you crossed off the list? So if you want to see the list, go back to that episode. In the show notes, I have a link out to the AAA article. And here were the results. I broke these down in groups of 20. So people that had crossed zero to 20 off the list was only 1%. Okay. So somebody out there has a lot of work to do. Yeah, they do. It's probably something that's only gotten the chance to visit like once. At 8%, crossed off between 21 and 40 items. Okay. All right. At 52%, our leader between 41 and 60 out of the 100 items, we had to get 52% crossed off. It's really good. Because we had 82 total. Right. No, I'm sorry. We had 88 total. Right. You told me that we needed. We missed 12. Yeah. 12. And I have a list of those. We're going to start knocking them off for the next year. Between 61 and 80 items crossed off that list of 100 were 31% up in the 81 to 99. 8%. So we're part of that 8% which we should be because we go all the time. So it's not very surprising. Now, I left one final choice of all 100 items. And we had zero votes. Wow. So nobody has completed all 100. If I had to put my money on it, anybody who was in the 90 range or anybody, if somebody has 99, I bet it's because they have not gotten to experience bibby bopity boutique either because they don't have a child that was interested that, you know what I mean. So that is the one that's a little bit of an outlier. If you have 99, that's incredible, like, because that one is tough. You know, somebody did comment and they were correct. If you don't have children, bibby bopity boutique is pretty much out of it forever. Correct. In a sense. That's why we're going to borrow a kid. So who makes a kid? They'd like to let us borrow. You still have to pay for it. Yeah, because I'm like, because if I have to pay, I'll just do it myself. I know. Right. Yeah. All right. Let's get into today's episode and celebration of the 2024 Olympics in Paris. We're going to have our own Walt Disney World Olympics. Rhonda, you and I are going to hand out the bronze, the silver in the gold in a ton of different categories. Okay. I want to give a big shout out to Brinton, who's one of our listeners, a friend who never met in person, but we text a lot. And he actually, about a couple of weeks ago, he actually messaged me and said something along the lines of, I don't know what you would do, but you should give out bronze silver and gold medals because the Olympics are coming. I was like, that's really cool. That's cool. I've done that idea. And then another listener, Brandon, he suggested like kind of breaking down some of the categories. So what we did is, you know, if you go to the Olympics, you think, watch the Olympics, you got like a sport, right? Mm hmm. You have track and field, just say. So that'll be like the headliner sport we'll have. Then within that sport, you have just say for track and field, you have like the 100 meter, you've got like relays, you've got, I don't know if they still do like javelin and high jump. A whole bunch. Somebody was telling me. I was like, I can fields. Really? But even if you go to basketball, you could look at like men's basketball, women's basketball. So that's what we're going to do. Okay. So here are our air quotes sports. We're going to have resorts. Okay. We're going to have parks, we're going to have dining and then we're going to have beverages. Now we didn't want to do all the standard like generic mundane boring stuff. So we didn't want to go to resorts and be like lobby, you know, room, theme, we do those enough, right? Okay. So instead we're going to come with a little more, I don't know, fun categories, I guess. Okay. So let's start with our first one under resorts. And what is that? That is going to be the view. Yeah. So think of, think of being at the resort, whether you're in room with a special view or, you know, you're again, anywhere on that resort, you're hanging by the pool, you're, you know, what has the best view? So let's start off with our bronze. Who gets the bronze medal? Bronze medal goes to the Polynesian. Yeah. Um, it is just beautiful looking all around. And I do think that the poly does deserve the bronze medal. Um, you know, we're probably thinking, why not, why not hire? And it could be. And it could be. Um, but right now you do have, you know, the construction, um, and, you know, it's, there's construction around because of the tower. And then there's a construction across the street. So it's not very pretty coming up to it. No, it's not. I'll tell you that much. But when you get on it and get in it. It's pretty hard to beat. It is very, very awesome. Um, but did, but beating it in silver was the contemporary. Yes, it was. You know, when it, and I'll go with, I think, I think the contemporary and one look specific location has the best view in all of Walt Disney World. Where's that? And that is up at top of the world lounge in Bay Lake tower out on the viewing deck. Mm hmm. Um, you could also go with the viewing deck of California grill and the main contemporary tower, but that one specifically in Bay Lake tower, top of the world lounge, the DVC lounge, if you can get up there, you know, um, you go out there. And they're these amazing sweeping views from the left of everything with the TTC, you know, coming across the lake and seeing a Polynesian in the bungalows around to, and again, Ronna, like Ronna said, there's construction now, but coming around to the Grand Floridian, um, you get to then look into Magic Kingdom, you get to see the train station parts of Main Street, the castle, Tron at nighttime, the monorails coming across boats, ferry boats are going across the water, buses are pulling up, you know, cars and the hustle and bustle are going under that, that underwater bridge. Mm hmm. There's, there's not a better view on Walt Disney. And even inside, I feel like the contemporary where the, like, yeah, on those higher place rooms. Yeah. You know, and then like looking down and seeing chef Mickey's and seeing the monorail and like looking out, you know, and then, I mean, I always find a storm really cool. Mm hmm. I mean, something like that because of all the big, big giant windows, like a storm going over is just, that's where, that's one of the places I want to really stay in the main building because of the nostalgia from it. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful there. But number one, or I should say gold, yeah, gold, because, you know, you can't do this anywhere else on property, yes, stared animals over at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Mm hmm. And you do completely feel like you are completely out of a part Disney situation. I mean, you're, you're looking at animals and you feel like you're kind of in a Savannah area. It's just, it's incredible. And, and then just everything with, you know, like not only looking at animals, but the pool area. And then, you know, like, literally, if you don't have a room with a view, there's so many viewing spots where, you know, we've just gone and had coffee and sat or watched a storm again, like, super cool. Yeah. And if you, if you go to either of the pools, you know, at Kadani or Jumbo House, like there's just, like you're saying, I mean, it's, it's biggest weakness is one of its biggest strengths of it being kind of far away and only having buses, transportation. And, you know, Polly's beautiful and contemporaries beautiful, all these places are beautiful, but they are outlying views, you know, there are, you got to think of breaking it up. Like if you're at the Polly sitting at the pool and you're looking at the volcano with the slide and you're looking up at the long house, you know, where the lobby is and all. And you look to your right as beautiful it is, as it is to see the castle, it does take you out of that. Like, okay, well, we're not actually in the Polynesian, you know, or in Hawaii or anything. Same with contemporary, same with any other resort. I feel like Animal Kingdom Lodge is the only one that never breaks a sight line. No matter where you are on property, it does not break a sight line. You will not see the outside world short of potentially some sort of, you know, aircraft made me find by, you know, and a lot of those are, there's a lot of no fly zones above Walt Disney World. So you're really not going to even see that. Yeah. But whether you're in a Savannah room, whether you're in a standard room and you walk out to one of the Savannah views, yeah, at the pool, I mean, it's just stunning. Every view there is a beautiful view. I think that can't be beat. All right, let's move on to what is, what's awards would we give out bronze silver and gold to the best walking paths or jogging or running? Yeah. That's your thing. Absolutely. And I believe it's pronounced yogging. Oh, I've been serious. Yeah. It's a soft jage. Yogging. Who gets our bronze? Award. Port or leans. Um, I guess Riverside or? Yeah, as a combination because there's a 1.7 mile promenade that connects Riverside and French Quarter. Okay. Right. So you can actually walk, jog, run, whatever you want, that entire area, and it's just beautiful. Oh, it is. It is. You know, between the mansions to the style of the French Quarter, which feels like the French Quarter, you know, in downtown New Orleans, the river, the sasagoula river, going right by and the boats. There's so much. I mean, you almost, with this one, you almost take in what you're viewing like the views with the walk. Oh, 100%. Plus it's a good, you know, 1.7 miles. Yeah. It's a good warm up in the morning. Get you ready for your day. It is. All right. What do we have for our silver? Um, pop century and art of animation kind of bringing them into one just like Port Orleans and the Riverside and French Quarter, because this one is a 1.1 mile resort to resort or a 1.38 mile loop. So, and then you have the gondola, um, well, the skyliner in the middle of them. So this is, and this is neat to look at too. You don't have to me the like mansion looking things like, um, hotel rooms, like Port Orleans, but it's just really cool to have the skyliner and the water and all the, you can read things along. Yeah. That's what I was going to say is really, the view, the view stinks. There's no views here. It stinks. Water's cool, whatever. You can look at water everywhere. Skyliners are cool, but you're not really taking that in. What makes this amazing, especially for a light walk is like you were just saying around pop century, there is trivia, um, or I guess you could say historic moments. There's the signage of historic moments throughout each of the decades that represent pop century from the 50s all the way up to the 2000s. And so you can read, it's almost like a history lesson going through time. Yeah. And then over on the on an art of animation sign, there is a bunch of like trivia and information about animation in the movies, uh, the animated movies that Disney's produced. So, you know, you can go and get some little facts and trivia on finding Nemo and the Lion King and the different areas as you actually walk around this path. Yeah. So that part's really cool. I still think it's pretty. I don't think they suck. It's not bad, but you're not, you're not going, you're not, you're not going for that. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like nobody now you could, you could argue views within each of the resort specific areas of art of animation, like the cars area and all, right, but you're not walking through that. You know what I mean? Yeah. You really just walking around the lake, hourglass lake. Yeah. Um, but gold, it's only 0.81 miles, it is, but it's got some of the most entertaining and beautiful views you could have. Yes. And that is the boardwalk area. Super cool at night and just so lit up. It is really pretty to walk at night. It is neat too. You have the hills, I feel like, you know, going in over to Epcot and walking around that way from B Yotten Beach and, um, you could walk it a couple of times to make miles out of it if you want to, but yeah, it is, it's neat and it's large where I think that's the best and the reason it gets the gold is because there's a lot of people that like to walk, run, jog, whatever on their vacation. And there's a lot of times if I'm walking around pop or if I'm walking around French quarter or Riverside, literally I'm like, Oh gosh, there's somebody coming and you trying to get out of their way. Yeah. Boardwalk is so large that you don't feel that way. It's wide. Wide. I think it's what you mean. Yeah. Okay. And all the paths that come in front of Yacht and beach and the bridge that goes over. Um, yeah, it's just, you know, like for, for me, like I can't do a treadmill because I can't just be like in a static place technically I got to be moving and I want to be seeing things. And there's so much to see here. And like you said, especially at night, you know, this doesn't even have to be an exercise thing. Yeah. This can be at night and you just saying, you know what? Let's go for a walk. And you go walk around here, you know, the Crescent Lake, you walk all around here and there's a nighttime entertainment going on along the boardwalk. The one thing I will say is if you are running, be very, very careful. If it's wet. Yeah. If it's wet. Yeah. And that's not even like a joke. Like you could, you can easily slip and hurt yourself tremendously in front of the actual boardwalk in an area. There can be some real slippy, slippery areas. So you got to be very. I haven't we slipped before. I don't know if we've completely fallen. I don't, I've never fallen over, but I've slipped plenty of that, especially in Crocs. When you put that rubber crock onto a slippery surface, it's just like stepping into an ice skating rink. All right. What's up next? What is our next category? Next category is nighttime vibe. Yeah. Who brings home the bronze? So we're going over to Fort Wilderness, bringing home the bronze with a, you know, the camp fires sing along, chip and Dale, the movie, they have so many new things now where, you know, the pools right there, you can mine, do some gym mining. Yeah, it's just, it's, and there's, there's snacks and food and stuff. And, and yeah, this is a fun, fun nighttime, fun place. Yeah. There's, there's just an additional, I mean, there's nothing like Pioneer Hall and that area in the evening. You know, again, like just seeing everybody that's coming in and out of Hoopty do, Crockett's tavern right there, whether you're going inside to get something to eat or drink or sitting outside, you've got the rocking chairs, you're watching the boats come in and out. You've got the beach area you can sit on at nighttime and they'll pump in the fireworks. You can watch them over the tree line there. If you are staying there and you have a golf cart going, looping at nighttime after the sunsets is amazing, especially during the holiday season of like September through December. There's just, there's such a cool vibe about that. That's just incredible. Absolutely. Who stepping up to the podium and getting our silver medal and that would be Polynesian. Just with all the activities in that lawn and all the fun stuff and then the beach and then like you said, just like Fort Wilderness, you get to watch the fireworks and they pump in the music and it's just, it's really cool and it was neat being there and just kind of watching and hanging out and get yourself a dual whip, you know, play like a two words for you. Uh huh. Tiki torches. Uh huh. And there's nothing like walking through that pool area at nighttime or really any of the pathways. Oh yeah. If you go, if you sit and watch happily ever after on the beach, which I highly, highly recommend and you're actually staying there as you walk back to your room and that Polynesian music is playing over the speakers, you know, coming out of the landscaping area, you're right along the water, the boats are still running, you know, and the sights and sounds from the ferry boats, you've got the bungalows out on the water to look at and then you've got tiki torches lining all of the pathways. I'd like to see the gas tank that those go with. Yeah. It actually would be interesting. It would be a full, I mean, there has to be a full underground area and I wonder how many there are. Right. How many sections is this broken into? Right. Um, that would actually be super interesting. Anybody knows that information. All right. Let's hand out another gold medal if, if the boardwalk area was a country, they're bringing home another gold. Yeah. Because, I mean, everything we just said, well, and yes, and I think the best part to a boardwalk is the entertainment of actual, like you've got sometimes magicians, you've got, um, just um, street performers, that's what I'm trying to look for. Whereas Polly, you know, they're trying to just have fun and do stuff with the kids and do stuff. And then, um, parents of course can, um, join in, but this I feel like, and then there's games that you can play games and there's just, you can get a drink, you can get pizza, you can get dessert. I mean, there's just so many things I feel like for a nighttime vibe. Yeah. And vibe is like the key word, you know, vibe is this feeling. Yeah. You know, we're not saying about like the best place to go for nighttime. That would most likely be Disney Springs, but we're saying like that vibe, that feel that it has. Yeah. It's usually never super crowded. And those wide walkways, you know, help with that, uh, you know, going back to one of the most beautiful places, I think a Disney world to just on property, just to sit or stand or whatever and just taking the views is right outside of, of yacht club, where the lighthouse area is looking across the lake and looking at the reflection of the boardwalk, the boardwalk in the restaurants, the lighting that's going across there, like the Edison lighting that's going across there and watching the reflection on the water on a clear night. Oh, there can't be Pete gives me chills, just thinking about it. You gotta go do that very, very soon. All right. Sticking with resorts, we are handing out medals for who has the best resort specific merchandise. This is a hard one because it's coming everywhere now. I mean, like right now, yes, it has got some legit, I got a legit spirit Jersey pop century. Yes. There's a lot of places that didn't make, that didn't qualify, we'll say maybe, that did not win, uh, but they're wonderful. So we're just going to go with the three that we, we did go ahead and give the medals to what is our bronze, our bronze goes to Coronado Springs, man, it's this, it took us 23 minutes to bring up Coronado Springs, but don't worry. They, they're going to get their do get a Coronado Springs and everything involved was a country. I don't know, they might be vying for bringing home the most metals, but, um, yeah, I mean, and what I love about Coronado Springs is not only the Coronado Springs specific gear, but the Velodalago, you know, which is, is one of the few to do it is to take a place that's within the resort and give it its own complete line of merchandise. Yes. You know, and they've got everything down from pins to polos. Mm hmm. Oh, it's getting pretty good. I mean, everything in between, you know, you've got multiple shirts, towels, blankets. You, you know, you've got, uh, we're missing a magic band, which I wish they would do. You've got all kinds of drink where like the merchandise here is unbelievable and we own a large portion of it. What is our silver winner, um, bringing home silver is Riviera, which talk about vibe. Yeah, that, the smell, I'm like, I think of like the smell for sure. Yeah. That doesn't count for merchandise. I know. Until they start selling their own resort specific candles. No, it's just really nice because they have the whole like DBC and Riviera stuff and the ears and Dunian Burks and just all kinds of neat stuff that is resort specific. And if I stay there when I stay there, I probably would like something. Yeah. And, uh, I was texting with Lucy about this idea and, and, uh, Riviera is definitely on her list. And she was the one who said like it has a vibe and she's right. And I think Riviera is one, like, okay, Coronado, if you took someone and who has never been Coronado Springs resort and you showed them the merchandise, I don't, like they could be like, okay, I kind of get, I get what this resort is about. I understand. Like I feel like if you show them Riviera merch and then you put them on property, it's just, it's like, I don't, I don't even know how to explain it. It's so perfect. It has its own feel like you could look at Riviera merchandise and our gold medal winners the same. And I feel you could picture the resort without ever seeing it based on the merchandise. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. I'll agree with that. And same with our gold who gets our gold. Gold get is Polynesian again, bring it home. And same thing talking about Villodilago with Coronado Springs, you know, Polynesian has a big, a pretty good line of trader Sam's grotto, grotto merchandise, you know. And all the like, there's lays, I mean, there's just so much that might not say the poly. Yeah. But right. But it just, oh my gosh, it just, like Jeremy just said, it screams the poly and I love how there's two stores, you know, the big giant one downstairs and then is it Moana's mercantile, I believe is the one that's called upstairs. Yeah. Good stuff. But that's where I find all my stitched up if I need something best place to shop for stitch stuff. They're going to have it all. Yep. All right. Let's move on to our next. I think you'd call them events, right? So the sport would be resorts, but then each of these individual ones would be like the event. Okay. So our next event is treats. Okay. Like what's the best, what, what place has the best treats, sweet treats within the resorts who's bringing home the books or just regular treats? Sweet. We're looking at sweet treats. Sweet treats. Um, because what is a regular treat, a savory treat? I don't think of treat like a, like a, I think of a treat as always being sweet. Yeah. I don't think, I don't think of a pretzel as being a treat. I think of it as being a snack. Okay. I personally think of something sweet. Okay. Um, yes. Bronze. Bronze is Skatkat Club from Port Orleans, French Quarter with all the bignets. Right. And when I say all the bignets, all the bignets, um, we've got what? We've got Stander, Mickey bignets, we've got a boozy bignets. They've got a bignet Sunday. Mm hmm. They've got, um, uh, seasonal bignets, you know, that might be covered in like in chocolate with sprinkles or so, I mean, you've got four or five different ways to get a treat here. Mm hmm. They feel as though they had changed the recipe since, you know, in between visits, they're still amazing. They're so good. 100%. Who's bringing home the silver, and this is mostly because of the dole whip cupcake. Uh, the Paul and Asian at Captain Cooks, and they do have some really good sweet treats there. So amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They have, they have a Moana cupcake. They have the dole whip cupcake. Um, they have a whole bunch of others. They've got cinnamon buns. I mean, they have a lot within here. But number one, which I think, you know, gold medal stands apart from anyone is La Petite Cafe at the Riviera, you know, which really specializes in treats. Yeah. You know, you've got a bunch of them. A ton. You know, and, and yeah, I don't know if they're still doing it, you know, a way around parking, um, was that you could mobile order if you wanted to go park at the Riviera. You could actually mobile order from La Petite Cafe and get some sweet treats. And then you could show your mobile order to the security guard, come in park, pick up your sweet treats, maybe go sit down in the, the quad area, I guess you could call it or the common area. Yeah. Enjoy some treats. But these are constantly changing. A lot of times, um, when you've got the specialty treats coming around July 4th, Father's Day. Oh, yeah. That mustache or Claire. That's right. With the chocolate mustache on it. Um, so they have a lot of specific stuff to there that you can't get anywhere else. Yeah. That is true. Our next sport, if you can call it, I guess, is parks and, uh, first we're going to talk about and hand up medals for themed land. Okay. So who wins our bronze? Uh, we're going to go to Magic Kingdom to adventure land. Yeah. I mean, pirates. Oh, I know. Jungle Cruise adventure, yeah, Tortuga Tavern, which hopefully is going to eventually become the pirates themed, uh, lounge, you know, I mean, just everything in adventure land. I feel like truly is it fits so well. Like any of the other lands in Magic Kingdom are don't feel as complete as adventure land. You know what I mean? Yeah. I can see that. Like even if you went in new fantasy land, we've always talked about how small world doesn't fit. So technically it doesn't really fit. I just feel like adventure land feels whole. Um, so what are, who are we giving our silver medal to? Uh, we're going to go over to animal kingdom to Pandora, which, I know, I mean, we can beat that because gold did, but still, yeah, but Pandora, I mean, day, night, yeah, gorgeous. Um, just not open as long. In my opinion, so immersive. It is. You know, it's another one of those like the transition from whether you're coming from Africa, or you're coming from where no Matt and Tiffens is, um, the transitions done so well that it just so slowly immerses you. And then once you're in there, like you're in there, like you don't think you're anywhere else. Yeah. I mean, down to them creating and being able to do the floating mountains. Oh, that was amazing. So, uh, so what then is the most immersive land winning the gold? Well, we're going to go over to Hollywood studios and galaxies edge. Yeah. I mean, no surprise. No, I mean, and, and, and not only are you in the land, and it's so immersive, but you literally have droids and, you know, that interact with things, then you can do things on your phone. It is really just, it's really, really cool. It's so well done. Oh, yeah. You know, we've talked about it so many times. Everybody talks about it. We should have this really been within the Star Wars, you know, canon and galaxy. And for them to kind of create a new story, uh, did it work, did it not work? Doesn't matter. Right. What's here? You, you can't beat the theming and you can't beat the immersion. I agree. It's unbelievable. Yes, it is. And fun. Gold winner. And enjoyable. Yeah. Amazing. All right. Next, we're going to move on to ride merchandise. This is ride specific merchandise. We've been talking about this lately. We might still devote an episode to it and talk about all the different ride merch, but who is bringing home the bronze? So again, this is, this is merchandise that is specific to the ride. Right. You know what I mean? So yeah, which is bronze goes to Tiana's Bayou adventure and you know, it's funny because just like Tiana's Bayou adventure has a lot of stuff, Splash Mountain actually had a lot of stuff. Yeah, they did. So the ride and whole, and it's just, it is, and when it just opened and debuted, whoo-ee. They got, I guess a merch. My hand. It's the most merch at once. I think I've ever seen. Yeah. Yeah. Cooking stuff. Yeah. Like actual sauces and rubs and cookbooks and yeah. So what they did that's so good here is that we took an existing IP with Princess in the frog, but we didn't get a bunch of Princess in the frog merch. Right. Because that's what we could have gotten. Correct. All of the merchandise is based on the story of Tiana's Bayou adventure, you know, something they couldn't do over with Frozen ever after, you know, so when, because the ride retails the movie in a sense, I mean, it's, it's alongside of it. It's after the movie, but still it's like a long side. It's almost parallel to the events of the movie in the sense that it doesn't warrant brand new merch. It's just true new storyline or anything. It's just rehashing, you know, key elements from the movie in a different way. Right. And so when you go out, you know, when you exit to that gift shop in Norway, you get Frozen. Frozen movie merch. Right. Understandable. Right. But what, yeah, again, Tiana's Bayou adventure decided to not just do Princess in the frog. I mean, new characters that were created in the ride are now available as merchandise. Yes it is. So just absolutely genius. All right. Who is bringing home the silver just dropped a lot of new items. Oh, I'm so excited. Might push it to winning the goal next time around Tower of Terror. Oh, gosh, they got stitch involved now. They do so excited to go and see it in person. We've seen it. Yeah, we've seen some of it obviously on not in person, but on whatever TikToks and all the socials. But yeah, I'm super excited. I love that shopping place anyways that in, you know, our gold medal and I'll go ahead and say haunted mansion because I feel like no matter what we do, even if we don't ride him, which of course I want to ride him, I always want to go shop in those shops. I love Tower of Terror because not only is it Tower of Terror, but you've got the nightmare before Christmas stuff. And just a bunch of just neat stuff in there. It's amazing. It really is. Yeah. And you know, here you have what's incredible that they've done with both Tower of Terror and Haunted Mansion is they took an original idea because they were original. We first started, well, Tower of Terror, Twilight Zone, but still, you know what I mean? It took on its own thing. It's its own beast now. Right. They took this original idea that would become a giant, huge franchise IP, making spawning several movies for both, you know, I mean, again, merchandise, like they took this to such a whole other level and then they've got, okay, they got their merchandise to back it up. It's whole other complete line. You could wipe Haunted Mansion off the map out of everybody's existence and you could simply still sell that merch and goth people in Halloween fanatics would still be buying it left and right. Well, and I was just going to say that they still keep coming out with merch, which is super cool. It's insane. Haunted Mansion, Tower of Terror, they just keep coming up like Tower of Terror, the new stuff that dropped. That's got Stitch Involved, like you said, that's huge. I mean, it's just, yeah, it's, it's amazing. Yeah. Our final event in parks is going to be meet and greet. Mm-hmm. We don't talk about these a lot. Yeah. So, so I thought it'd be fun to put in here. Who is bringing home the bronze? This is Chewbacca in Launch Bay. I mean, nothing beats a Chewbacca hug. It's so fun too. He's like, I mean, every time we've seen him, he's so good. It's really great. It's really interactive and I'll pull up Rhonda, who likes to, you know, like the color outside the lines when we do these types of pics. I'll just say Launch Bay. Yeah. I mean, BB-8, Kylo Ren, Chewbacca, like three, all three are incredible. Yes. Including BB-8. Oh, yeah. So, just so good in there. Yeah. We need to get back in there sometime soon. Mm-hmm. All right. Who is bringing home the silver? They're bringing it home to Norway. Anna and Elsa, that's a great-- Two for-- Yes, that's a great meet and greet too. Super fun. We've done that a couple of times as just adults. Yes, we have. Yeah. Couple of times. I love it. And it's awesome because they're two different meet and greets under the same roof. Like we get a lot of places, Mickey and friends, for example, that just opened up. But they'll often interact with each other so much that it feels like you're getting one. Yes. You know what I mean? You feel like you're bringing both of them at the same time. Mm-hmm. And then usually they'll interact with you or as they're kind of-- you know, you're walking from Anna to Elsa. Right. They're interacting so just super cool. And who gets the gold? Uh, going over to-- I was only-- I took both-- I took both votes that were on then I get and I just stole them and then I said, this is it. So. Go on over to Magic Kingdom and Fairy Tale Hall. Jeremy said Tiana. And I'm like, what about all the princesses in there? She is. She's really great, but there's some really great princesses in there too. I mean, this is a hard one. You know, you could interchange any one of these including Tiana with the Evil Queen over at Storybook Dining. Yeah. You know? But the Tiana-- Tiana, every time we have met Tiana, sometimes it's been at an after hours party or like a DVC event or Mickey's not so scary or now that she's in Fairy Tale Hall every time. We met her on the cruise. Outstanding. On the cruise at 1900 Park Fair. Mm-hmm. Explorer. And her, yeah. Tiana's by you. Yep. You know? Yep. Just so good, no matter what. So that's the reason we went with that. She was amazing at 1900 Park Fair because I was like, I'm gonna mess with her and ask her about her outfit because she doesn't have her dress on. And holy moly. She just pulled that. Yes. I was like, oh. Why? That's amazing. It's funny you mentioned character dining interaction because we're now moving on to the next sport which is dining. This has a lot of events. That's specific to character dining. This is the track and field of our little game that we're playing here. Okay. And we're gonna have some weird events but we're not the real Olympics. So we're kind of-- this is kind of like us compared to the real Olympics is like in Vegas vacation where Clark Griswold and Uncle Eddie went to that little casino down the street. They're playing like war and like Uno and stuff. That's funny. That's who we are. Okay. And then the Vegas Strip and Bellagio and all that's the actual Olympics. Okay. Remove on a dining and the first one is actually character dining and this is-- you can think about food, you can think about atmosphere but this is very, very specific to the character interactions. Yeah. So who is bringing home the bronze medal? I went over to Epcot at Garden Grill, breakfast runs $47 for adults, $30 for children, lunch and dinner is $62 for adults and $40 for children. Yeah. Not only the food is amazing at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Right. But the characters over there, you get Chippendale, Mickey, Pluto. And-- We had didn't we? Goof. No, we had Pluto. Pluto. Yeah, we had Pluto. Because I don't think those interchange. Okay. I'm like drawing to think of who it was but it was Chippendale. Yeah. For sure. And we really wanted a non-vocal character dining on here. Yeah. But again, we could talk storybook. Yeah. You know? Yeah. With the Evil Queen and Snow White. But we really wanted at least one of these to be a non-verbal character overall dining because the interactions and the, you know, quote, conversations that you can have with a character that is not speaking back to you is hard to pull off and they do it better than I think any other place we've seen here. And again, we've done this a couple of times now, breakfast and dinner or lunch. I will say though, Garden Girl, I would say we'd probably beat out because of the other, well, the food. I don't know. Because I started to say Topalinas. Topalinas breakfast, those characters and actions are really, really good. Yeah. And this is a tough one. But they're only breakfast. Yeah. And this one, Garden Girl is all day long. All day long. Yep. All right. Well, let's move on then too. I will say this. Bronze is pretty interchangeable. Yeah. The votes were very, very close. Yeah. I don't think silver and at least in our experience gold are. So where are we going and handing out the silver metal to? We are going over to, um, of still an Epcot, um, over at Acre Shoe's, um, which is Norway. And that kind of food is really good. Breakfast runs 55 for adults, 35 for children, lunch and dinner, 67 for adults and 43 for children. And we've had both. Again, we've had both. Yep. Outstanding. And the, the princesses here are really cool. Um, this is where we had Tiana as well, which was super cool. Yeah. Like, I mean, yeah, they're great. And we've seen, we've seen five different total princesses in the two times because Tiana swapped out for one when we went for breakfast and they're all, they're also good. They're so, they're so quick, um, they're to tell you their story to any question that you have. I like how they talk. It's amazing. Yeah. It's just so dang good. And then, uh, gold around was just talking about, we're going to head over to Grand Floridian in 1900 park fair. Yeah. Um, that was great. Just here, we've not yet done dinner since reopening or anything, but, you know, as much as Aladdin and Cinderella were good there, they're very good. Yeah. But the entire weight of this character dining was carried by Mirabelle and Tiana. Oh, Mirabelle. It's just incredible. It's just unbelievable. Yeah, it was. Mirabelle was just the best. She really was. She was very good. Yeah. So, um, all right, so next we're going to move on to, uh, this is, this is really like playing war in Vegas. We're going on to the, uh, complimentary bread event and dining and again, but we didn't want to just go for, you know, best quick service or something and hand out those metals. We've done that. We have never awarded for complimentary bread because you don't get much. You don't. No, you don't. And, and I'm very glad of that. Yeah. Because if you just got it everywhere, especially if they're serving that junk on the magic, um, that bread bowl full of bricks, um, but you know, I'm glad it's not at more places because if it was as good as these three, I'd never get to my meal. I would just, I'd go to the restaurant and be like, can I order one shrimp? Can you just charge me a first shrimp or one rib? Something like that. Like give me just eat all the bread and I'll, I just want your bread. Okay. Yeah. And I mean, can I, yeah, can I have a soda in, in a brand? Yeah. Soda in red. The colony sitting down at Ohana and, and I'm just going to see, can I not pay for the meal? I won't eat anything. I promise. You're going to have yourself. I know. But our bronze only available at breakfast, they think I say, yes, now salted caramel beach thumbs. And here's the thing. We're going to call this complimentary. I'm not going to call it included because this is a, this is a buffet. So technically it comes with a buffet, but they bring it to your table as though that's true. It's free. You know what I mean? It doesn't feel free. It doesn't feel like you didn't just pay, you know, whatever, 50 bucks a person for breakfast. Like you feel like, wait, this, like I get this too. Man, that's. And then I guess you could ask for more because it's not more. We've done it. Yeah. Yeah. The salted caramel beach. I did. I said it. Unbelievable. Yeah. It's almost like a cinnamon roll. Really? Yeah. This in the boathouse, the boathouse isn't winning an award. They have enough already from actual legitimate sources, not from the mainstream magic podcast from actual publications and stuff, but for real, it's the boathouse. Okay. They're bred for brunch. Do they give that away? Yeah. And it's got a little cinnamon, it's got like a little cinnamon for the rolls for lunch and dinner. That's right. Are incredible. But they all are missing something like where I mentioned before our silver medal. Yes. Who does that go to? That is going to Ohana at the Polynesian and that bread. Purple coconut bread. Oh my, I forgot how good was Jeremy wouldn't let me take a low home. Again, it feels bad. I want to put it in my purse. You know, this is family style. It feels different. You feel like this is a added free benefit. So and again, like Ron said, there's not a lot of bread on property people. If you've got a favorite bread, let us know. We'll go check it out. Maybe we missed it. So these are our metals, but it's unbelievable. Well, this gold medal goes to over at grain flow and narcoses. And this is legitimately complimentary with the salted butter that I don't know what they're doing, but it's so good. And the Himalayan sea salt on top and that yeah, the butter is so rich and creamy knowing what knowing that they like Su V, you know, like weird fruits and veggies and stuff to make one little droplet that goes in a drink. They're probably back there churning this butter. Like that good and then the bread is just fabulous and you can literally go in and sit at the bar, get yourself a drink, Sergio will bring you as much bread as you want. It is, it's a low. Well, don't say that. Yeah. Not as much as you want, but it's a loaf of bread. Yeah. Now, if this was not Disney, would you put, would you put Texas road, gold? Would it win gold? Yeah. It might. It's still on the sweeter side. Yeah. That's the thing. I'd really like this. What about all of garden bread? Uh, yeah, there's probably bread sticks. No, but you pay for those that all of. So now it's unlimited soup, salad and bread sticks, but you pay for that combo, don't you? I don't know. You don't pay anything for it. Like the free chips and salsa and um, chilies, I don't know, we went through that whole debacle for ages. All right. Next, we're going to move on to, uh, this is a, this is a pretty big, big one appetizer. We're talking, in our opinion, the three most worthy appetizers on all of property. And let's start with the bronze medal. And of course we are going to three bridges and we are getting the roasted corn dip. This is roasted corn smoke tomato aoli parmesan tahine tortilla chips. This is plant based for $12. Yeah. I mean, we've been singing these praises since June of 2019. You know, it's funny that you say this and, you know, talking about beignets, changing, you know, it has changed. Yes, it has. It is not the street corn dip that it started as. And I almost wish it was. I do too. That was a better version. I agree. Okay. But this one is still really, really good. Oh, 100%. Really, really good. Uh, let's go to our silver. Now this does fall under soups and salad on the menu, but again, this is our, our podcast. And we've always gotten it as an appetizer. I've never thought of it. We've always gotten this an appetizer as in it is first thing. And we share it. Great. So we don't think of it as a super salad, but don't most super salads come as an appetizer. Listen, man, I ain't going over to grand flow and sitting down in our kusis having a five course meal. No, no, you'd have to take out a second mortgage on your home. Right. This is our appetizer. And we are at grand flow and our new kusis for the lobster bisque soup. Oh, this, this is talk about butter, poached lobster, vanilla coral for $19. This is like butter in your mouth. Amazing. It is. It is the most amazing soup I've ever tasted. I'm pretty sure it might be. It might be. It might be. You know, down to like, and it's a thing, like you can't, I mean, usually like if you're sitting down somewhere near at Disney, you're happy, you know, but like when you see this soup coming around, like you get giddy. Like you're just so excited and they set you full in front of you with a mound of lobster meat in the middle and then from a carafe, they pour hot lobster bisque right in front of you. So everybody in the restaurants looking. Yeah, a little bit, but how many people have we had go there recently and literally order it and it's funny, it's not funny. It's amazing to watch them and be like, holy crap, this is the main Chuck and Amy, Landon and Jessica and Lucy and Caleb, like I was like, we should probably get a cut of the soup sales. I think so, right? But it's so funny, you know, Chuck Morgette, you always like to watch people, like, you know, when we go, when you go on a ride, like if it's the first time you watch somebody experience. I finally kind of get it. I've never cared about the ride stuff, but like when we've gone in our cuisines with these people, usually unfortunately, we're just there to grab a drink and then we're moving on to a dinner or something because we want to see Chris. We sit at the bar, we get our drink and we were like, if you want something before, if you want an appetizer, go with a lobster bisque and it has been amazing to watch the people get it and go, oh, wow, you are correct. Yeah. And then you pair our, you know, what was it, gold medal winner for complimentary bread. You take that from our cuisines and you just get every last bit of that lobster bisque on that bread. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. We got to get back there. All right. I would almost say that sounds like it should have been our gold medal, but you're not going to beat our gold medal. Yeah. I mean, like I said, you know, we're going to go over to animal kingdom and we are going to yak and yeti. And we've talked about this before. We yak and yeti has so much different food and it's so cool. And you could go there and eat something different every time. I don't want to. I want to eat the ahi tuna. I would like to, I would like to live, I would like Mr. Beast to give me to try something to eat as a he tune and not change from yak and yeti, which is a sushi, sushi grade ahi tuna, Asian slaw, crispy fried wontons, wasabi, aioli, sweet, soy glaze for $21.99. I'd like him 30 days straight. No, I'd like him to be like, you eat him every day. I mean, I don't know if this is nutritionally, like, okay, but if I could eat them every day, see how long I could go. And if I went a year without getting sick of them, you think you can go one year. I don't know. But you know how, like, one year eating ahi nachos every single day, one full year. I don't know. I don't know. Two or three times I have to throw away leftovers from our fridge and you're going to eat ahi tuna nachos for a year straight. I was, I started, I was thinking, man, if you could make it a week, I'd be, I'd be shocked. Why? Because when you have too much of something you love, you end up hating it in that manner. Do you either? How do you know? Have you not heard the moon pie story? My dad, my dad bought banana moon pies when I was in ninth grade. And after six months of having them in my lunch every day, I got so sick of them. But like my dad used to do, because we belong to Price Club, which is now Costco, he, when we said we liked one thing, that was pretty good. I liked this. He would go and he'd buy like a pallet full. Oh, like we're going to buy the pallet of Jack fruit, Jack fruit from Costco, if it's still there anywhere, the Jack food trip. So he would buy a pallet full of it. So now I can't tell my dad that I hate banana moon pies, because he's bought them for the rest of the time that I'm in school and any subsequent children that I would have, I bet he still has them that we can have Kaitlyn and take so every day pretty much, then for three years, you know, who didn't get sick of them, Beth Beninati, because that's why I gave it to every single day. See? So how do you know? Like I, what I could be one of those, we were watching with our daughter, 45 days top, we were watching with our daughter and what was it, being in a grocery store. Thank you. Yeah. That was a Mr. Beast when, yeah. He was like, you got 10,000 bucks a day for as long as you, like, sky could live in a grocery store. And he, I don't know what he, I don't remember what he topped out at in a month or so. But anyways. It was crazy. I mean, it was, that's where I think it would, that's the way it would go. Like this is what you have to eat. You can eat a little bit. You can eat a lot. You can. True. Yeah. It's not saying you have to eat a whole plate every day. Correct. I think, I think you should be able to also switch it up, like, um, Rachel did and take Tahituna and switch it with chicken. Yep. Can you also get there? Um, free. And you know, I bet you can get beef. We should probably go investigate. We should investigate on that shrimp. Like I'll say, if you have a meat back there, just swap it out with the tuna and I'll be happy. But even if I had to eat the ahi tuna, I think, my whole point is, is I think I could eat that for quite some days straight and possibly not get sick of them. Yeah. This is the longest we've talked about any single item in the history of this podcast. All right. Now we're going to move on. Very, very serious events, like steak. Yeah. I can't. I can read this stuff. You can talk more about them. Well, uh, this is, this is a tough one. This is, there are a lot of wonderful competitors from all over the, the, the world of Disney. Yeah. Disney. Good way. Good way to phrase it there. Um, this is hard and these can interchange sometimes, but here's what we're going with. We are handing out our bronze medal, we're going to topolinos for their filet mignon at only $59 to steal. Uh, you can get a truffle palm puree, asparagus, uh, and a bore de las and it's just like butter. I mean, this is this, this was my favorite Disney steak for a very, very long time and you get all of your stakes, medium rare, medium rare, um, and I'll be honest, going to Disney is, is what got me to that point of medium rare. I was always like a medium, well, you are medium, medium, well type person because yeah, I grew up with my parents eating hockey pucks because they went there as well done. So, you know, um, so, but that way it was Disney because I just knew I'm getting like such more of a quality of meat and preparation and everything. That steak at topolinos is, is absolutely amazing. All right, bringing home silver a new, a new, uh, contestant, okay, the, the most recent thing. Oh, yeah, that's true. Yeah. And this knocked off this bump toe topolinos to the bronze and knocked a few off of the list. All right. And we are going over to animal kingdom and we are eating at Tiffins and getting the surf and turf. Yeah. I mean, surf a side, which makes this such a wonderful complete dish. I'm really focusing the, you know, the sides and everything that comes with it are important, but I'm really focusing on the steak, the specific steak portion and this is ridiculous. Well, it helps that the surf was your seared scallops that you love and then that little potato or that little potato thingy, what all did it come with? Well, it's the truffle, uh, pull into that. That's what it was. Yeah. That's so good. And then, so this is a South African spiced beef tenderloin actually. So this ain't no filet mignon. No. And it was very, very good. Same. Parked though. How do you know the whole thing is the tenderloin. The filet comes from, filet mignon comes from a tenderloin, like fairly sure. Okay. You're going to look it up. Look, a butcher for a summer and eighth grade, eighth grade butcher. Oh Lord. That's what they called me. Anyway. I got the ninth grade. My nickname was chops. Okay. All right. Ah, and bringing home the gold, the filet mignon from flying fish over at the bar. Yeah. This is the, this is like the USA men's basketball team of our Olympics. Okay. Yeah. It's hard to beat. Oh, you do have a truffle risotto with it, which has home, home shimmy mushrooms. That works. Uh, broccolini and then a paragordine sauce for $59. So I mean, really, I mean, I almost feel like what could not be interchangeable, but for lack of a better term and interchangeable is from topolinos or flying fish. It's both the same price. They're both fantastic. Yeah. You're not going to lose out with either one. Yeah. And there's a lot of great stakes on property still to, the next one I really need to do is shoaless because that's a dolphin, dolphin side, a swan and doll, swan side, dolphin side. I don't know. One of them. All right. Um, also bluesy. Yes. Yeah. All right. Next event we're moving on to is a burger of the ham kind. And we're going to give it our bronze signature burger, but there's two of those on this list. There's one for our bronze and one for our silver title, the signature burger, but which one is bringing home the bronze three bridges is bringing home the bronze. Um, I think this would would have probably been higher if it was the old original hundred percent agree. Yep. Um, this one's still good. I got it. And I really liked it. Um, you've got bacon, marmalade on it. You've got sun-dried tomato jam smoked gouda queso, crispy vegetables and arugula. And I love arugula served with smoked paprika fries for twenty two dollars. Um, I liked the old one, I guess better technically, um, but I heard some sadness about this one. I got it though. And I really couldn't tell you the sadness. I loved it. I thought it was fantastic. We did. I would get this time and time. Yep. We went to our silver. This again, newest contestant. Youngest contestant. This is fantastic. This is a baby. Really? Yeah. Cause it's brand new on the bariva, um, which is over at Riviera, the bar at Riviera. That is why it is called bariva. Um, this is a signature blend brisket and Chuck burger, Swiss cheese, caramelized onions and mushrooms, truffle aoli served with parmesan fried, herb fries for 1749, little less. So if you want a butter burger and you want a little less money, it's a lot more accessible. It really is. Especially with the hours, three bridges not open until four thirty and being at Coronado, which is not that easy to get to. And bariva's on the skyline. Yep. Yep. And it's open for lunch and dinner. It is. It is. This burger was really good. It really is. Again, we love their old burger. Yes. Their old burger was much more traditional and it's just a classic, really well done burger. I think this steps it up for me just personally because, eh, I love Swiss cheese, onions and mushrooms and the truffle aoli together was good. And I think the blend of the brisket and the truck burger, like it's just, it, it just all of it together works fantastically. Yeah. I mean, like going back to the old signature burger at three bridges was a blend of with chorizo. Yes. And I don't believe it is on the new one. Yeah. So that was like a game changer kind of like the way this is. But the absolute game changer, the long-standing gold medalist, Michael Phelps, I will say of burgers in our Olympics is who and where because it hasn't changed yet. But we are where we are going over to wilderness lodge at Geyser Point and the bison cheese burger. This is served with bacon, sweet crispy, onion, straws, marin berry sauce and garlic aioli for $23. And this is just fantastic. So good. Perfection. Absolutely burger. Bison is so good. Yeah. It's salty. It's sweet with that marin, marin berry sauce. Mm-hmm. I don't know what that is, but it is. Marian berry. Marian berry. It's so good. It's the little black ones that are on the, they were red first and I'm just kidding. You're looking at me. Okay. I keep thinking of the, the, wasn't anything marian berry or mayor berry that was from DC. They got in all that trouble for. I have no idea. Wanting to build a snowman. All right. Next event, very, very important one and not so easy to find on Walt Disney World property is pizza. Not good pizza, right? Yeah. No, no, easy to find pizza. Yes. You're correct. Not easy to find a Olympic, you know, contestants in pizza. So the first two are no brainers, I think, but who's bringing home the bronze? Go back to Riviera to the quick service primo piato, their pepperoni pizza. This is fresh artisan, hearth baked pizza topped with tomato sauce, pepperoni, provolume and grated parmesan for $13.29. It's nothing mind blowing. It's just good pizza on Disney property, which is hard to find. Yeah. I mean, it's really that simple. Yeah. It actually reminds me very much of when pop century tried out those artisan pizzas, which were wonderful. They were. They were so good. I wish they had not gotten rid of them and that had spread throughout property to replace their dejordo style. Yes, it was. This is going to be very controversial. And this, if it needs to go up against the committee, it can again, these, this is what we saw. There's like a photo finish. If this was track and field that they'd have to get the camera, they have to look at the camera. It's like whoever stuck their nose out the furthest, who's bringing home the silver? In Napoli restaurant and pizzeria, I mean, any of the pizzas, any, that is it that any of the pizzas, but like specifically, if you just get a margarita pizza there, it's going to be incredible. They got individuals of 21 bucks starting there up to a family up to this is where you got your prosciutto and melon, right? Street. Yeah. And the prosciutto and melon is still my favorite individual pizza on property, but, but not enough to say that Vinapoli is my favorite place to get pizza. If that makes sense, okay, because gold is my favorite and your favorite pizza and that's pizza pante at Disney Springs. Yes, it is specifically my specific favorite is the parmakata. Holy moly. This is parm, parma ham, mozzarella and ricotta cheese. And this slice is eight 95 and I would just stick it's so good. It's square. That's good. I like it square food tastes different based on the way that it is cut, squared square cut pizza tastes better. My sandwich was amazing today because you cut it cut it diagonal because you get more original surface to crust area, basically, yeah, it's the way that it's done. And if you get one of those little press outs and you do it like Mickey Mouse or something, tastes even better. That's why Mickey shaped food is so much better. Most of the time, somebody handed you a Mickey bar on the street and it wasn't a Mickey bar. You, you take things like, I don't want this crap here on my face. They hand you a Mickey bar because of that shape. You're like, it's the best thing I've ever had. All right. Next, we're moving on to pasta. Nobody come after us for this one, this gets pasta gets serious with people and I understand why. I totally understand people get serious about their pasta and I get it. But I think we found three pretty good spots. I think we did too and your bronze is going home with the lobster mac and cheese at Tiffin This is cheddar, sherry, with or cheddar pasta for $16 and this was so good. We should get it in. No, Matt. Oh my gosh. So good because like the lobster, whatever, the lobsters in every bite. Yeah. However they make it. Yep. And sometimes like, I might not get a piece of lobster, but I kind of taste the lobster. It's so good. Yeah. It's amazing. I love it. Another one of those we need to go back and get some time. Absolutely. One, bringing home our silver and again, this is photo finish. I feel like for silver and gold, it's one we do need to get back to and that it's been over a year when we got because with Robin Tina too, yep, yep. And we are talking about the rigatoni at Topalinas. Now going back to bronze, the lobster mac and cheese is good because of the way they combine the lobster and the cheese together because that is not that is not homemade pasta. That's fair. The rigatoni at tour Topalinas is handmade pasta. It's braised chicken, broccolini, pancetta, wild mushrooms and black truffle for $40. It's expensive, but it is worth it. Yeah. It is homemade pasta. It is fantastic. I love it. I want to I want to sit up there on like Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve or something and eat that. Like it is such a incredible comfort food and it's even good on the run. It took it to go one time and decided to eat it on the walk to the sky. It did. All right. Who is bringing home the gold? I don't think this will be a surprise to anybody that has listened for quite some time. Yeah. And I think it's still I think it's still all made and everything. I think all of it's homemade. I feel like grandma's back there and we are going over to Epcot and we are going down in the cellar of Tudhagusto and we are getting the spaghetti and meatballs. This is baked meatballs, pomodora, mozzarella and parmesan for $21. And I swear a long time ago and they may have changed. But a long time ago, the meatballs were specific to, I believe, lamb and beef and pork. And pork. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Yep. And I was like, and these were, this was the best, this is the best spaghetti and meatballs I've ever had. Same. So, and we've been back and we've had it. We need to get back and do it again because it has been quite some time. It has been a while. I'm so excited to go back and get that again. Yes. Okay. Next, we're moving on to one of my favorite tacos, the bronze. This was a hard one because I very much wanted to put the Kalula Pork Tacos from Trader Sam's on here. Okay. But. Why didn't you? There's a variety you can get over at Pecos Bill in Magic Kingdom, taking home our bronze is the taco trio. Okay. Now this has changed a little bit and it's missing something I wish it still had. But you get three flour tortillas served with a choice of seasoned ground beef, seasoned chicken or pork, pork carnitas, served with lettuce and tomato. You can ask for some of the additional sides and stuff. They just don't have the bar. That's right. Cause we didn't get one of each of them. You don't have to make them all beef or pork or chicken. You can get one of each. Yeah. Remember, they used to have a Buffalo cauliflower that was available and we did that. But it's just, I mean, it's, it's tacos, you would make it home. So it's nostalgic and it's familiar and it's one of those things you go, you know, my kitty, it's tacos at home. You get your kid tacos here and they're just, they're good and, and again, they're, they're create your own. There's not a lot of create your own. Yeah. And Disney in this manner. That's why everybody always loved Pecos bill and cosmic rays for the, for the toppings part. Yes. Oh, because you got to create your own thing. Yeah. Here's a plain chicken sandwich, a cosmic race. Do whatever you want with it. Yeah. Go nuts. Yeah. So, all right, let's move on to silver is over at ABC commissary, highly underrated. Yeah. You can go with any of their tacos, but I specifically love the shrimp. I love them. Tacos. So this is saute shrimp on flour tortillas topped with cabbage slaw, chipotle, mayo and mango salsa served with Mexican rice and pork, black beans topped with queso fresco for 1299. I don't know if I tasted these with you. I think you did. We were with your parents. Okay. I know that. It's been a long time then. Yeah. Because I had the, um, yeah, grilled cheese, buffalo grilled cheese. Yes, you did that time. That was fantastic. Yeah. I might have said no to you. Or I might have not offered it because they were delicious. They were delicious. Obviously. If you're bringing home the silver. Oh, yeah. So what in your opinion is bringing home the gold? Well, just like I was talking about a Pecos bills, being able to create your own flavors out of a base and some accoutrement, I think is amazing. And I had them very, very recently, uh, started the summer, bringing home the gold metal is the pork carnitas tacos from three bridges. So this is, um, going to make three tacos, actually, and it's tomatillos salsa verde, chipotle pineapple salsa, salsa baracha, cojida, pickled vegetables, black beans and rice. Now what's great is they serve you three carnitas, uh, tacos that are playing and then everything else is on the side and you mix the taco that you want a little bit of that sauce, add a little bit of that one. You know, go nuts and only have the same sauce for all three, whatever you want. And you get to build your own taco and it is a meal. The presentation is beautiful. Like it is the way to eat tacos. Yeah. And it was good. I, that I tasted and they were really good. She did. Not with all the stuff on them. Yeah. Just the pork. She just, she loved it. Now, our next event, uh, I'm going to turn over to you. I took over tacos. You're going to take over this one. What is it? Shrimp ingredients. Mm. Kind of want some now. Mm hmm. We're going to, um, to the bronze and we are going to give that to Nargusi's over at Grand flow. Mm hmm. Like killing it. Yeah. Um, this is local golf shrimp barbecue sauce, low country grits, apple, wood smoked bacon and child child for $19. This is an appetizer. It is. And, you know, I was very nervous at these at first because the barbecue sauce, um, because we had that one time, somebody put something together for me over at home. Yeah, but Jake's American bar over universal studios. Yeah. And I did not like it as much. Yeah. These, this was fantastic. Um, they just knew how to do it. Yeah. They did it right. Full portion. Yeah, this was, yeah. Great size. Yeah. Absolutely. All right. Who gets the silver? Um, we, uh, so this could be interchangeable for me. There's another photo finish of silver and gold. One of is and I'll, the reason I'll tell you why the gold gets the gold, but, um, so pig grits and shrimp from house of blues. This is cheddar and bacon grits, seared shrimp, chimichurri, basil, pesto, tomato, crispy bacon for $19. This is that like square, like cake, cake of grit. Yeah. Um, not your nice, like low country grits or anything like that. But it's, it, it was phenomenal. Yeah. Like I really want to get back here and eat it, um, because it's been probably two or three years. Yeah. I feel like. Yeah. They were outstanding. They were. Love them. And my gold. Who was bringing home the gold, got the photo finish win. And it's so funny because, you know, I was very against last place you'd expect last place. And I was very against not eating here, but, you know, ever since Lacey gets sick and we're going over to either animal kingdom, or we're going over to Disney Springs, to rainforest cafe. We were specifically at, and I don't know if they're made differently because they are in house made and everything. Um, but we were specifically at animal kingdom and it is the shrimp and grits benedict. This is, this says grit cakes, saute shrimp and cajun cream sauce, poached eggs, old beehane dae, andouille sausage, onions and bell peppers for 2099. Um, there wasn't, it wasn't really major cakes, like the house of blues. It was as much. The house of blues one is much more dense. Yes. Um, the reason I feel like I picked this, first of all, it was just outstanding. But second, the whole idea behind it, taking off, having poached eggs, taking off those. Um, muffins and pudding. Oh my God. She's brilliant. I have done this when we have gone out to eat. I've, we, you know, if I went to Craggleboro, I'd ask or, but we've tried other nice places around here. She tried to waffle house. Yeah. Right. I was like, yeah. And then I would like it with a finely poached egg. No. Like you got to leave. But like we've tried a couple of places and I was like, ooh, let's see, eggs benedict. And we do that and take off the bottom and just put some grit. Cause if they'd had grits and, and most people on the south know how to do grits and I just, this was fantastic. So good. So just amazing. Yeah. Awesome. Good for you. Rainforest cafe. All right. We're going to finish out a couple more. We're going to go to beverage. This is a brand new sport. Our first event. This is, this is all Rhonda. We had to put it on here because of Rhonda and that is the espresso martini. Who is bringing home the bronze? Um, I'm going to say, no mad lounge. We've gone there a couple of times and recently because of the way to get in there, um, you have to be there like first thing in the morning. So, um, and I say first thing in the morning, I mean, it opens at 11 correct. So you know, we're there at 11.05 pretty much, um, and I have gotten a espresso martini there and I really, really enjoyed it. Um, I can't tell you what's really in it, um, because I think I was looking on the menu. I don't believe it is. And I asked if they could make one and they said, yes, we sure can. It was really good. Like coffee's there and espresso is there that I'm sure they're really good. And yeah, I remember that being one you really, really, I really did, who's going to, who's getting the silver? Mm. This was hard. Um, but. But silver is going to narcoses their mascarpone espresso martini. This is brand new. Um, this is Greg, who's vodka, kalua liquor, Joffrey's coffee, Italian espresso, cane sugar with a mascarpone disarrono original liquor foam. Yeah. They make cheese foam in house. Cheese foam. Mm hmm. Great. And this is a phone cheese phone with Disarano. This is an $18 and it does come with a cheese crisp. Mm hmm. It's very cool because, um, and, and the alcohol in the foam was so minimal, um, and pretty much probably cooked out too because it is a cheesy foam. Um, it was neat to take the Parmesan crisp and scoop it up and even let Jeremy taste it. Yeah. So, but who's went in my gold espresso martini to me is, oh yeah, um, space 220 at the bar up all night. This is absolute vanilla chilled espresso, kalua, creme de cow for $18. And I think it has a little like shortbread thing frozen. Oh, it sure. Yeah. I remember something. Yeah. I don't remember if it's. Yeah. Chris, Chris up there is amazing. Yeah. I don't remember if it was the frozen, like dried ice cream thing. Oh, the ice cream. It was something. Maybe that was what was in there. It was something. Vanilla, vanilla astronaut. But it is fantastic. Yeah. And I kind of want one now, not that I'm going to drink it tonight. I'm tired. Right. And it's later. I love astronaut ice cream. Mm hmm. All right. We're going to move on to a non-alcoholic. Now this is, we're going to have two, two final events, non-alcoholic and mocktail, um, or zero proof, you could say, like I was saying in the past, like there's a difference kind of like saying, here's a non-alcoholic, which is really geared towards kids. Yeah. You'd say, and then you have your, your mock tails or your zero proof, which are handcrafted like a regular, um, alcoholic cocktail. But in the non-alcoholic, bringing home the bronze, we're going to go talk to Mike at baseline, tap house and Hollywood studios. And for four dollars and 59 cents, you can get the burritos strawberry, hibiscus soda, and that is on tap. I'd like to get one of these tomorrow when we hop over. We haven't seen Mike in a minute, um, bringing home this silver, uh, at the barefoot pool bar over at Polly. And I believe it is available in other locations, especially like, uh, pretty much any pool bar. I think it's actually available. This is where I have it. And that's the hat at the lava smoothie. This is raspberry puree blended with flavors of coconut and pineapple for six 29. And it comes in a cute little clear cup with characters on it. Yeah. Um, this is so, this is like, if you're going to have it, Polly's a pretty good place to have it. Oh, 100 percent. Like it feels like the Polynesian feels like Hawaii, it's so dang good. Yes. Uh, and then finally with the gold, I've been making these at home now. Yeah. I got the recipe. Yes, you did. From our friend over at Barriva, that is the Mediterranean mint lemonade. Uh, there's a minute made premium lemonade with honey and mint and it is just, it's so good. It's refreshing. Mint, the lemon, they work together so well, that bit of honey. Um, it's literally honey, a minute made lemonade and you can get one that sugar free is what I was using. Yep. And then, um, you add the mint, make sure you smack it. At least those oils and you top it off, scare me every time you do that. Oh, yeah. That's right. It makes it fun for me. But yeah. And you top it off with some club soda. I actually gave it instead of splash of Sprite. It's magnificent. So good. And if you want, if you, if you drink add, I say a light rum or vodka to this and it would be outstanding. All right. We're going to move on to mocktail or zero proof, um, and bringing home the bronze is actually available all over the grand Floridian. And then I saw it come up on some other menus. Yeah. So it's, it's actually throughout property, you might be able to find that. And it is the pink London spritzer. This is liars, pink London spirit, grapefruit soda, pomegranate, green tea, lime and mint for $12. Again, just that, that lime and the mint flavor, that citrus and that mint work so well. And this thing is really, really good. It's refreshing too. Yeah. Nice little pink, pink London spritzer, bringing home the silver over at Helleo is lotus. Mm. This was fantastic. Yeah. This was one and one, but it's $12. Yeah. This, I think this was the first, yeah. I think this was the first true zero proof or mocktail that I had on Disney property after getting sober. Mm hmm. So this one has a very special place in my heart. It's got seed lips, spice, London essence, white peach and jasmine soda with vanilla syrup. Like Ronna said, $12. Oh my God. It's good. I know. Let's go get one. Okay. I do want to learn how to make this. Yeah. Jasmine, I want some. You might be able to help us out. Jasmine soda. Yeah. Who? We know someone. Oh, we do. You remember. Yeah. And the vanilla, the vanilla just adds. Yes. So good. Oh, yeah. Most recently, getting the gold, this again is for us, the very new contestant at the Edison is the heart and soul. Mm hmm. This is seed lip grow, 42 seed lips, spice, 94 house made cinnamon cordial pineapple or yet and fever tree ginger beer for $12. Mm hmm. This is the one where we both got mocktails that night and I had one and we both tasted each others and Jeremy was like, I got the right one and mine was mine was great, but it was yours was better. So if like, yeah, if out, if you were going and you were like going to get one, the heart and soul was. Yeah. I mean, and there's not a better place to get a zero proof or a mocktail. I mean, I think between the Edison and Narcusis is what they're doing over there. These right now are the two that I hope will maybe set kind of the precedent for everywhere else. Yeah. Like you could go down to city works or the boat house or house of blues or whatever and get these. So we'll see what happens, but that is congratulations to all the metal winners. Yeah. Narcusis, really, really, I think Narcusis probably brought home the most metals. I'd have to go back and count, but as always, this is, you know, we love when you guys play along. We'd love to hear some of your picks. What you think we got right? What you think we got wrong? Yeah. Probably got a couple of things wrong. If you are listening to this and you are in the Walt Disney World area, we're having a little Main Street magic meetup tomorrow night. That's Saturday night at Splitsville, 6 p.m. right out there in that outdoor kind of bar area. And then, yeah, hang out there for a little bit, maybe have something to eat or drink or whatever, and then watch the dreams that soar. Yay. So that'll be a lot of fun. That's exciting. So we'd love to see you out there. Should be fun. Yeah. And we'll have now some trip reviews coming up because we are going and going to do H2O glow, rain or shine, right? I know. It's going to be rain. I'm not a meteorologist. That's what Alan is for our friend on Facebook. I know, I need a look to see if I even need a text. I'll just message him. Hey, what's up? How are we looking tomorrow night? Okay. But yeah, and then we're doing keys to the kingdom on Saturday. So excited. I'm already tired thinking about this weekend because not only do I have to be up early tomorrow at 7 a.m. to hopefully leave the house by 7.30. We then are going to be in a park all day. Yep. Then we are going to H2O glow. All night. Hopefully not say until it closes at 11. We'll see. It depends on how it's going. Because then I have to get up and be at Magic Kingdom by 8.30 at the latest because that's when this tour starts. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So we need to be there by 8. Yes. I would like to I would like to be standing at a bus stop at all star music at 7.30 a.m. Okay. That's going to be fun though. I'm so excited for that. I'm already tired. You're going to see the country bear musical Jamboree. Yay. So excited for that as well. If you want to hear all this, of course, you can hit that subscribe button, get brand new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. And Rhonda and I would be very, very thankful if you could also leave us a rating and review. Because it helps our show grow. That's all we've got. We'll see you real soon. Jeremy and Rhonda are more than a little pond of Disney World. So they made this podcast to share it all with you. Reports and resorts, top 10 lists of all sorts, Main Street Magics bringing it home for you. [music] [music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
Jeremy and Rhonda pay tribute to the Olympics with their own Walt Disney World version where they hand out the bronze, silver, and gold to dining, beverages, merchandise, views and scenic walks, and so much more.
