On this episode, we finally get to experience H2O Glow Knights at Typhoon Lagoon, as well as review the incredible keys to the Kingdom Tour at Magic Kingdom. Today is August 2nd, 2024, and this is episode 690 of the Main Street Magic Podcast. 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 mainstmagick.com, as well as follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @mainstmagick, and on TikTok @msmpodcast. 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. Okay, so on today's episode, we're doing some reviews. One, we finally made it to H2O glow nights at Typhoon Lagoon. Third time really is a charm. Yes. And we did a keys to the kingdom as part of your birthday present over at Magic Kingdom. So we will get to both of those in just a moment. First, a couple things that we forgot to talk about last episode that I wanted to touch base on real quick. One is the reopening of rack and roller coaster, which was actually set to open on July 27th. It was the whole reason we were going down like I had planned, I don't know, months ago to be like, Hey, we'll go down July 27th. And they decided to open early July 1st. And so we did go though, and we used the lightning lane multi pass. It was one of the first things I booked for that Friday morning. And we had a very interesting first time back after six months of closure and refurbishment. We had a ride like we've never had before. Yeah, and we talked a little bit about it. Yeah, unless you cut it out. But on last episode, but yeah, it was super weird. It was there was no music. And that was the weirdest thing. Yeah. People would scream every once in a while. I didn't know what to do. I'm like waiting for the whole the whole time, like maybe it to kick in. And then I was like, is this supposed to be the way it is? No, no, no. And I don't even remember how much we got in the depth to it last episode. Well, we talked about the lights we did. Yeah, because I said I stopped us and was like, can we talk about rock and roller coaster? Oh, yeah, because we were using the lightning lane multi pass and stuff like that would have been a good time to bring it up last episode. All right, I'm an idiot then you didn't listen to our episode. I don't think I listened to it while we're recording it. I think I black out. But yeah, we did. We talked a little bit about it. And I do feel like the neon I feel like there's more neon stuff. Like, I feel like there was and I don't know if I'm correct or wrong, because it's been so long since I've ridden it and I don't remember. But I felt like there was more like stuff on the ground like they really upgraded the lighting packaging package, all the lighting. And I think all the signage looks like it got new paint. But the one thing I was I was thinking about and noticing and again, you know, I'm sure we mentioned it last time. Maybe we did. Maybe we didn't. I don't know. I don't remember. Apparently, but the the first half of our ride had no lighting. It had nothing. Yeah, you did say that. And then there was no music throughout. So and that was after all those delays and everything. But the second half, everything started to light up and you could really tell how vibrant and all it was. But the and I don't think we talked about this last time. I should listen to our episodes of it. They're pretty good. It is now and I thought of this because of the way that Tiana's goes, right? And the way that Tiana's is not rotating, right? It's not constantly rotating the animatronics. It's not in a loop. It is triggered by your boat approaching. Well, this is now triggered by your rollercoaster car approaching and only lights up as you're going through those. So what it does overall for the ride is takes out all that ambient lighting because it used to be they were lit all the time. Right. You could technically almost, you know, see a head and you can see them lit. Now you don't. It doesn't light until you're approaching. And so it makes the ride darker. Yes. During those moments because the lighting and I don't know if they went from old school lighting to LED lighting. That's probably what they did. It's so much brighter that in that moment of you passing the signs and the lights lighting up for you specifically in your car, it does illuminate the track more than it used to. So you get this weird, it's almost like driving in a tunnel, a dark, dark tunnel with headlights. Yeah, I kind of agree with that. So it really gives much more feeling of you being in an actual car or vehicle as opposed to the way it used to be because if you were driving through a dark tunnel or you were driving through whatever. Yeah, you know, in real life, yeah, you're you're not going to see past your headlights. Right. And that's what this is doing. You turn your brides on. Well, yeah. But but even then there's there's an extent and think about driving at night on a very dark road. Yeah. You know, there's not street lights, there's not houses or anything. You only see that small bit that's allowed to be seen in front of you by your headlights. And now that that's what they've done here. So I thought that was I just thought that was cool when I was thinking about it. And then I honestly couldn't remember if we talked about it or not. So hopefully I expounded more you did on that you did. All right. One more thing. Okay. Did we talk about Haleo last time and our brief stop there before our little Main Street magic meetup at Splitsville? I'm not sure that we did. It's been a busy busy summer. Yes, it is. There's a lot coming up. So it was not in my notes. Okay. So we're going to talk about it. We did. We were early and it looked like it was going to start to rain and we were going to go to our meetup that night on Saturday night after being at Keys of the Kingdom. And so I said, why don't we go in to see if our friend was working at Haleo and sit at the bar and get an nonalcoholic cocktail because that's where Jeremy had his first one that was super good. Yeah, the lotus. The lotus at all Thursday. What was that called? It was so good. It was an all it was outstanding. It's my second favorite non alcoholic beverage that I've had by the heart and soul at the Edison. Yes. And that's what I was excited to sit down and get. They did not have it. Yeah, we both ordered the lotus and we sat at the bar area, which you can walk in and there's the two several, there's several bar areas. There's a couple of bars. And we went back to the one in the back left more towards the water. And yeah, we're both excited. We're like, you know what, we're just going to sit. We're going to relax. We're going to get something we know we like, we ordered the lotus and they're out of a specific item. And so they couldn't make it. No. So, but they do have, I believe there's four on the list. And I ended up looking at their grapefruit and honey. So it is seed lip growth lime, honey and fever tree, pink grapefruit soda for $12. And that was really good. But it's great fruit. And if you are known for if you know grapefruit and you like grapefruit is very tart. Yeah. But it was just a great balance. It was tart. It was not sweet, which was perfect for me. But it was still that with the honey just balanced it out or it wasn't too tart. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they make amazing beverages here in general, like anything and everything. I have. Well, one thing I want to say before I get into mind is, you know, we talked last episode about flavors of Florida, right? I do remember that. And one thing I didn't mention, because I didn't know and realize unless you were studying the little booklet, which they did have a brochure, you know, that you could get and you could look to. But again, you had to go each restaurant. Do they have something? Do they have something? Right. Haleo has a flavors of Florida, non alcoholics, specialty beverage. And that's here's my thing. If you think of us sitting down at Haleo, you think of us sitting down at Splitzville, where we did get the poppers because I had done my research and I were right where we did the burnt in tacos over at City Works. Those were the three sit down places that we visited. Do you remember a single one telling us about the special? No. Or did you remember seeing a single piece of literature or signage or anything? No. I think Disney really failed on that one. Yeah, that was really did because I can guarantee there's a lot of people that are going through these restaurants and going through Disney Springs that have no idea something like flavors of Florida exists with this menu. I mean, there's little hints around and there are brochures, but if you didn't know, you wouldn't know. Right. And you know, if they had had a, I mean, this thing ran for well over a month. Right. There's a lot to it. It's actually still going on by the time this comes out for another, what, eight, nine days. You would think that they would have printed something out for each individual location of what their specials were, or at least have the bartender, the cast member, whatever, tell you about it. Yeah. And I'm not putting that on them. That probably comes from a level of training or higher up possibly, but I was kind of, I started thinking about that when I realized that we missed out on a beverage there. Because it was not on a call it correct. Yeah. Yeah, it was. So anyway, I just want to say that, but I went with the apple and saffron. This is seed lip, garden, apple juice, lemon, saffron and fever tree club soda for $10. It's excellent. It's refreshing. You know, we've, we've talked several times about seed lip, which is the brand of zero proof or non-alcoholic spirit that Disney, Walt Disney World's using. It was free spirit on the Disney magic was the brand. Okay. And, you know, we've talked in the past a little bit about the difference between non-alcoholic, mocktails and zero proof, right? Yes. Non-alcoholic and mocktails are usually made with, you know, I guess you could say every day items, their juices or their, I mean, had non-alcoholic, you could even call sodas, right? Mocktails gets much more into like a, I don't know, usually they're doing something like, they're going to use their mid-made lemonade, but they're going to mix it with some pog, like it's not a normal typical beverage. Right. Like Nomad. Yeah. When we got this kinda henna. Yeah. Instead of Jen's tattoo. Right. That's considered a mocktail, right? Right. Because they take, they make the same juices. They're mocking. They just don't put the vodka in it. Yeah. I'm not going to lie. I only recently realized that that's what mocktail truly meant. It's mocking a regular alcoholic beverage. Really? I think that's going to be working for it. Yeah. Well, yeah. Mocktail. Right. But anyway, zero proof is when they're using one of these spirits. Okay. You know, so you think of it as a non-alcoholic liquor, for example. Right. And I'm bringing all this up because you're going to look at the price difference between non-alcoholic and mocktails. You're going to usually see a jump, sometimes twice as much, up to a zero proof. And the zero proofs can often be almost the same price as an alcoholic beverage. And the reason is these companies, like SeedLip, like FreeSpirit, they're going through all the same process to make an alcoholic liquor. Some of them just don't either, I think it's either they don't firm in it, or they don't do something certain, so it doesn't produce alcohol, or some of them even produce an alcoholic liquor and then strip the alcohol from it. And a lot of times, those are the ones you'll see that still have like 0.5%. Okay. Right. So there's zero proof, which is truly nothing. And then there's non-alcoholic, which sometimes will be like a 0.5%. So, and I only say all that to explain the pricing, because a lot of people would go, hey, I can get an alcoholic beverage for 12 to 15 bucks at Haleo. Why am I paying 12 bucks for one that doesn't even have alcohol in it? That's why. Right. You know, and even when you look at the process of them making it, you know, they're going through the exact same things, the bartenders, as they would for an alcoholic beverage, you know, they're shaking, they're stirring, they're doing all kinds of stuff, right? It's an art form. Yeah. Yeah. So that's all the reason we brought that up. But enough about that. Let's move on to Disney H20 glow after hours at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon. This started May 25th. I was back this summer. It goes till August 31st. Okay. So we still got a couple dates left. We've got August 2nd, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st. Rhonda, what is the price on this? Give it for both standard non-passholders and then a little bit of discount for passholders. How much is this costing? So the rest of the nights that they have available is costing $85 per person. But if you are a passholder, it is only $70 per person. Yeah. And it is less when it comes out, because I think we paid like 60 per person. Yeah, we did. Yeah. So it ranges from 75 to 85 on the non-passholder side and 60 to 70. So you're getting 15 bucks off either way, which is pretty good discount for that. That's really good. Yeah. Yeah. So this is going to happen on these specific dates. It's three hours long. It's a nighttime event, a typhoon lagoon. Right as the sun is setting, starts at 8pm, goes to 11pm. You can get in at 6pm. Okay. So like after an hour's like, yeah, like one of the parties, you know, where you can get in at four o'clock for the 7pm not so scary party. Perfect. Now nothing between six and eight, nothing is happening. Correct. That would be glow worthy. That starts at eight. Yeah. But if you're going to do this, go ahead and get there at six, you know. Oh yeah. And for us as passholders with Waterpark add-on, we could have gotten there any time we wanted and then just they'd do out, which would have been, yeah, which would have think been cool at some point. But and we would have gone earlier, but we were spending the day with our friends, Karen and her daughter, Zoe, and that's when we did Animal Kingdom and Hollywood and all. And so we went back to the room. We chilled a little bit with them and then decided to go. So we got there what? Probably around seven. Yes, we did. Now, if you are not able to drive, and what is your Disney transport? If you're staying on property, what is your Disney transportation to get to Typhoon again? So this is the sad part. So if you can drive, I would. Unfortunately, where you're staying, you have to go to Disney Springs. And then from there, transfer to Typhoon, which is just across the street. So it's not a long bus ride, but still. Then when the night's over, you still have to get on another bus that takes you across the street to Disney Springs. And then you have to get on your allotted bus there. Yeah, back to your resort. Yeah. So it's a lot. It is. And it can be very time consuming. Yes, it can. Because you got to think, let's just say you're at your resort heading there and you wait 20 minutes for a bus. Well, like back to let's just talk about, unfortunately, last month, when we were going to try to go, we had our bathing suits on and everything. And I'm not sure why. And we were staying at border lanes, correct? Yeah, we're at Riverside. That is a moderate. So I don't know why, but we ended up sitting there for like 20 minutes or more. I think it was close to 30 minutes. I think it was the main bus stop and we decided, Nope, we still hadn't had a bus. And there was weather coming in. And I was like, Oh my gosh, we still have to go from here to Disney Springs and then from Disney Springs. And we were fearful, which we were correct, of the weather coming and having to cancel. So I was like, let's just go drive. So we walked all the way back to change, well, to, well, to get ready and get in the truck and drive. And that, and that was very, very smart. And then that was what we were going to do the rest of the time. Yeah. And I would, I would not use Disney transportation to get to typhoon lagoon for this specifically, but I wouldn't really use it probably for any time you're going to typhoon lagoon. I would, if you don't have a car on property, I would just uber honestly, you know, maybe that's the time to splurge for a minivan. Yeah, because you could easily, you know, Disney says, well, allow 90 minutes to get from any one place on property to another. I ain't kidding when it comes to getting a typhoon lagoon from your resort. So just a little something to think about. All right, let's talk about what you get at typhoon lagoon. We got a couple of, I'm sorry, at H2O glow nights at typhoon lagoon, you get typhoon lagoon at night, illuminated, yeah, right all throughout. So you're looking at nighttime, but then you're looking at this glow factor and certain lighting and effects and stuff. And it's pretty cool to be there. It is. And when you walk in and check in, not only do they give you a wristband, but that does not glow, but they do give you a necklace that does light up. Yeah, a little glow stick with goofy on it. And it that has a button on it. So you can a blink it fast, slower, or just have it on. It is waterproof. And that's super cool. I really enjoyed getting that. You know, it was the best. But one, we'll talk more about the lazy river in a minute. But having that little glow stick around your neck was so cool in the lazy river. Because you see just all these, and it's almost like, it's not dark, dark. No, you know, because it is still illuminated and all, but it's still almost like seeing fireflies, you know, going through. So that was really cool. And then crushing gusher. I know I felt was so cool, because there's those moments that you go through the dark tunnel. Yes, especially at night, it is, it could be pitch black in there. Oh, it was crazy. That was my, I think that was my funnest flash, right? Yeah, yeah. And that was, I thought was really, really cool. Something else you get to experience is all of the attractions are open, which is awesome. Yep. We'll talk more about those in a minute. Yep. You're gonna have, you can actually move and groove. It's Disney's where it's not mine to hot beats during a DJ dance party. Yeah. And there's characters that come out and dance with you. 45 to 55 year old is writing this description. To write, move actually, probably 65 to 75, because move and groove to hot beat sounds like something my dad would write. Yeah, I would write that probably. So that's cool. There are going to be some different meet and greets, Disney beloved characters that you can meet. Oh, yeah, we did see Ferb. Yeah. So Ferb stitches going to be out there. I think Lilo is at times. I will say this so I don't forget three hours. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's like that. So another reason, even though you can't experience, we'll get to that part in a minute. Okay. Okay. Last thing, you do get to delight, and this can be almost worth the money alone. And complimentary ice cream novelties popcorn and select sodas. And they say select because they're basically shutting down the freestyle machines. Yeah, that was super weird because it worked. And then there was a whole bunch empty. We saw them refilling it. Then we went back and it wasn't working. It wasn't working at all. I don't know. I don't know what happened. I don't either. But the standard soda fountains with your regular, you know, what you got, Coke, you got Diet Coke, Sprite, you know, a root beer, like a couple of those things, those are going to be available. And they're going to be at all those locations. They're going to have the small Coca Cola paper cups for you to use. I think giving people one of the refillable mugs who have paid somewhere between 70 and 85 dollars would have been a nice little perk. But if you already have them, let's go ahead and give that tip. If you already have it, go ahead and bring it because then you don't have to use your paper and you can actually fill it up. And I don't know the type of person you are, but if it stays cold, you could drink it in the next morning if you kind of get one on your way out. Sure. And the thing with that too is, you know, when you're going and you're getting these complimentary sodas, you're going to want to pretty much drink it and throw that cup away, because you don't want it sitting at your spot. While you go do a ride or whatever, you know, go to the wave pool or lazy river. So then you're being so wasteful, because every time anybody's going to get a soda, most likely, they're filling it up. Not only are they not drinking at all. So they're wasting that soda, but then they're causing that much more paper trash, because you're using multiple cups throughout the night. Also, if you give people, and again, if you're listening, Disney, this advice is free right now. You know, if you give people these refillable mugs, maybe it's an incentive to come back and reactivate it at another date. You can set the time on them to be done at midnight, you know? So just a thought there. What ice cream novelties are available? There is only three. It is your Mickey ice cream premium bar. It is your Mickey ice cream sandwich. And then it is your fruit bar. Yes, strawberry fruit bar. Yes. And these are very readily available. They are. There are four locations spread out through typhoon lagoon that are not only going to have the soda station near them. They're going to also be dumping box loads of each of these on a table. And if you're worried about them being out in the Florida heat, don't, because they're not going to be on the table for long before people are snatching them up. Yeah. Very, very quickly. How many did you eat, Jeremy? I ate two ice cream sandwiches, and I had a Mickey bar. I'm very disappointed I didn't do one in the strawberry bars. Really? I'm not. And then they're also filling. They're bringing out out of, you know, how many gallons is anybody's been to Costco, and you see the big bins. Yeah. But first of all, a little shout out to Costco. And I'm sure Sam's Club and some of these sell them. It is a giant bin, stackable bins for like $7.99 that are so perfect for storing anything and everything. Halloween decorations, Christmas decorations. We bought four of them to organize our closet and our master bedroom. They're amazing. So they're basically bringing out something the size of this that is filled with popcorn. And then they're scooping it up in the standard cardboard popcorn containers, and they're setting those out. So we had some of those as well. We did. Awesome. You know, it's really cool that they're these things are a part of it. Yeah. You know, when you're, you really want to look at these as what additional benefits, like, and we're very much the type to say, here's the cost of this thing. Right. Here's what you're making back on it. You know what I mean? We said this a lot of times with the jewelry in. Yes. You know, well, we said, all right, you're getting, if you partake three alcoholic beverages per person per night at jewelry in, if you're over 21, even if you want to put a $10 price tag on each of those, that's 30 bucks per night. Yeah. You're talking about breakfast, you're talking about dinner. So the same thing here. Yeah. You know, what's the cost of two Mickey bars, you know, or Mickey bar and two ice cream sandwiches, and a thing of popcorn and multiple sodas. Yeah. Yeah. Because I had two ice cream sandwiches, two and a bar. Now, I will say, they're better than Mickey bars. Ice cream sandwiches are better than Mickey bars. I kind of agree with that. I don't know. I kind of agree with that. And I'm going to say that when Jeremy and I did get our Mickey premium ice cream bar, they were softer. Yeah. Because they were sitting on the table, where I think they kind of got smart because then when we went to get another sandwich, they had them inside. And now it wasn't crazy and people were coming up. But so I think it was still just a crazed time. But they also do take them away and put them back there, put them in a freezer. So I thought that was nice. Yeah. It's a great added bonus though. All right. We'll talk real quick about specialty menu. And then we'll just get into a little bit more on this. But they do have some special menu that are available only at H2O glow nights. This includes a dole whip pineapple hard cider float at leaning palms. This is dole whip float served with kireb pineapple tropical hard cider. That sounds delicious to be honest. I'm I might tonight because we have a sparkling cider, an alcoholic sparkling cider. And we still have some of the dole whip cups in our freezer from costume. Are you going to try this? I think I might try and make one with that. And I've found the brand is ACE makes a really good non alcoholic cider. Is it a tropical hard cider? It's not. I don't know if ACE makes one. I tend to get the black widow on it. Maybe we'll look. But I would like to try this because it sounds good. Okay. They have a foot long loaded hot dog at leaning palms is the foot long hot dog topped with tomatoes, onions, relish mustard, and sport peppers. This is a Chicago dog. Basically, maybe they're not allowed. Maybe they didn't like license from Chicago or something. I think you're supposed to I think you have to get approval from Mike Ditka himself. So yeah, so that's available. And their foot long hot dogs are really good. Right? I don't want that stuff on it. Yeah, I don't want it. But they got a large strawberry green matcha swirl cone. This is at the snack shack. This is a waffle cone with dull whipped strawberry and green matcha tea soft serve topped with assorted candy. I think matcha tastes like yard clippings. So I don't care for it. Okay. And with any of the sweet treats here, I mean, my thought is, look, you're getting something sweet and ice creamy for free or included. We didn't want to spend the extra money to be honest. I agree. They've got a bathtub float at the snack shack. Now this is dull whip and dull whip strawberry green matcha tea soft serve and sprite topped with whipped cream popping boba pearls, cherries and blue simple syrup and a souvenir bathtub. That sounds kind of cool. That's a lot. Yeah, but I'm glad we didn't get it. Again, you're right. Like I wouldn't want anything else other than the Mickey ice cream. Yeah. Now, um, we did not get this next one I'd plan to. But after we had gourged ourselves with tubs of popcorn and multiple sweet treats prior to eating any sort of dinner. For some reason, um, is the spice chicken strip waffle wrap at typhoon tillies the sriracha and maple spice chicken strips with bacon and coleslaw wrapped in a specialty waffle. That sounds good. But what we did get, we did split and it was fantastic. What did we get? And I have seen since either either people mentioned it to me before, or when I posted it on social, people mentioned it that they had had it. Everyone I've seen has been absolutely in love with this food item. Oh, good. Um, it is your jalapeno popper burger. This is Angus bacon cheeseburger topped with pepper jam cream cheese spread and onion rain and two jalapeno poppers. Okay. So that was an onion ring. I thought it was still a jalapeno. No, on the burger. Popper. Yeah. So in the burger was a, it was an onion ring on top. Skewered through it with a big skewer were two jalapeno poppers. And it was a pretty little skewer. It was a little loud. He has a little fireworks and skewer. Yeah. So we took those off. We cut the burger in half. Mm hmm. We took each popper off and we literally put it in the burger. At least I did. Do you get separate? Yeah. Because I thought there was one in there. No. And that's when I'm like reading and thinking, okay, so it was the onion ring and the cream cheese. And then the pepper jam that, and then because I really couldn't see because where we sat, it was a little darker. Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to really see. I thought there was a popper on top of it. But it was so good. No poppers. So good. It was it. It was awesome. Yeah. I mean, this thing was, I'm glad we split it. Because again, you have the free ice cream sandwiches. Yeah. It did. I'm just glad we split it because I wouldn't have wanted to eat a whole one by myself. I probably would have. And then I'd have been, I'd have felt sick. Yeah. Oh, 100%. And last thing you want is to be sick in the water. North end, south end, it doesn't matter. It's not going to be pretty. And if you're halfway, if you're halfway between exits on the lazy river in an emergency hits, because you ate this whole thing by yourself after devouring a tub of popcorn and three sweet treats, like you're just asking for trouble, but this thing is outstanding. It really was. Everybody that I saw was like, put this on the daytime menu. And I agree. Nice. Because typhoon, typhoon lagoon and blizzard beach have perfectly good food offerings. Yeah. But it's nothing that's going to blow you away. Like how volcano bay is doing. Yeah. Volcano Bay is doing something special with their food that I think is very well themed to the park. And I miss, I missed some of that at Disney's water parks. So that's a, that's a big reason that we recommend you bring in your own food and save some money. If you're going to typhoon, you know, bring a cooler, no loose ice, no glass. You can get all your groceries delivered from vacation grocery delivery F L dot com, you know, get some pub subs, some snacks, some some beverages, whatever you want, put them in a cooler, bring them in. But if they put this sucker on the regular daytime menu, just get this. Yeah, it's, it's so very, very good. Okay. Now let's talk about, I guess, overall, you know, me saying goes like that. Three hours goes very quickly. And like any paid hard ticket event that Disney does, they cram in way more than you can ever do in the allotted time that they're giving you. Yeah, you know, let's, let's talk, Christmas party, Halloween party, jollywood nights, like, there's so much to see and do. It's almost, it's pretty much impossible to do it in one evening. Yes, on their part, because they're hoping you're going to come back or do what you miss. And they are. But not everybody can. Well, they are correct for us. Right. But but not everybody can. And I, so I do wish I don't want to see them limit the offerings. I wish we could have more time. You know, that gets hard. Could this go until 1 a.m.? Could it go into midnight? Maybe, maybe. Three hours isn't enough. 30. But but it's eight to 11, but you can get in at six. That's a great point, Rhonda, because we were there closes at six at seven. Yeah. So we were there a little before we did. Oh, and I'm just going to touch on this. I thought this was really genius of me. I was very excited. We actually, the weather did look a little sus. And I had my rain jacket with us the end type. It's a sus. That's what the kids say. I don't think maybe you should write the descriptions here. So I had my rain jacket with me all day. And I kept watching the weather because I just, that's what I do. I'm a weirdo. And I'm like, I'm going right. I will say, you had no idea. I was. I, I, anyways, it just, I knew you were the two times before, because every five minutes, you gave me a weather update. No, I didn't. No, I'm talking the two times before, not this past time. I, okay. So this past time, I kept watching the weather and it looked like it was going to rain. And then all of a sudden, it just pushed completely like it was going to rain on 90% of the time, which was the next day at our keys of the kingdom. And I'm like, you know what, whatever. I'm like, this is amazing. So I had my rain jacket with me all day. And something told me to go ahead and put it in my little ball bag that we have and take it with us. I was super glad we did, because this was amazing. We went and we were going to put our stuff by the wave pool because we might sit and just relax for a little bit, because we didn't have children and we didn't have to, we could just relax. So it was sprinkling enough when we got there that all the umbrellas were taken because I did look around at that. And then I just sat my stuff in a chair and took my rain jacket out and just put it completely over my bog bag. So all of my, all of our towels and everything stayed dry. And it did rain enough that it just rained off of my rain jacket. So everything stayed dry. And that's a really, that's a really good tip for the water parks, regardless of this after hours event. Right. During the summer, it's going to rain while you're there, most likely. And that's another one we've been caught before, where we're in, you know, we're, we're about to get on a slide, or we're in the middle of the lazy river between exits, and it starts raining. And all you're thinking about is your bag filled with towels, which are supposed to dry you off, your phones, snack, like whatever is in that bag is going to get drained. And even if you have an umbrella, you know, we get sideways rain here in Florida, right? So it's not going to protect it. So bringing, even if you think you're in the most beautiful day, it's not a bad idea to pack something like a raincoat. Well, I always joke and say, if you bring it, it's not going to happen. So another thing you could do is bring a mini umbrella. In fact, Drury in sells them for $15 each. We own two of them, that's right. You can actually bring an umbrella and put the umbrella up and stick it all the way in your bag. So the umbrella portion is covering your bag and your shoes or whatever you have there. So that's a really good tip to do. But yeah, I think as far as talking about there not being enough time, like you said, you can get in at six. I would recommend getting there at six. I would also and I would spend after you get your your spot, stick out a spot and put your stuff down. And I would recommend using those first two hours to do the rides. Yeah, that's the time that you go like we said in the past, you had to crush and gusher. You make your way around to misadvent your falls. You go to the storm slides, if that's your cup of tea, you go around to key hall falls, mayday falls, you know, all of those on that side. You experience the lazy river once. You knock out those things that could really take chunks out of your three hour time. And yes, and I completely agree because as we experienced over the course of the time, I think that it almost seemed like, and correct me if you think I'm wrong, almost like a like start of the day where we put our stuff down. We got to ride. We didn't ride misadvent your falls because they would have put us with two other people. Yeah. And we just didn't want to do that. But we did a crush on gusher. We did a couple of things. And we wrote them and we're like, Oh, we're like almost done. But then we decided to thought we'd go back and ride more. And then the I don't know if they were starting to not give out as many floats. I don't know what they were doing, but the lines got a lot longer. We experienced between eight and 10. We experienced longer weights than we've ever experienced. Between opening at 10 and noon, like we usually go. Wouldn't you say? I think no, no, no, you're still what are you waiting 15, 20 minutes, probably max. But that can be significant when you're waiting five or 10 minutes during a regular typhoon lagoon, water park day, and you're getting there at rope drop. You know, it can make a big difference. So that part I found interesting. And that's another reason I think you want to knock those out prior to the actual party starting because you're going to miss out on party things. Let's talk about the lazy river. Yeah, because I do recommend go ahead and get a get a ride in. But then do this after the sun sets as well. And the lazy river never technically has a weight, right? Yeah, there's several entry and exit points. You can always get in. Yeah, there's never a weight. Now it's not guaranteed you'll have a tube. You might have to stand there and wait for somebody to give up a tube while they're getting out. Might have to see a free floating one and grab it. Or you can do what I do sometimes. I just start walking the lazy river until I come by a tube or until I see someone that is much smaller than me and I just flip them off. I don't do that. Right. Right. What made the lazy river so much fun? And this will show that two things, not only do we love Disney, but we are very simple people. Because this is one of my favorite things of the I know I was super excited. Well, all of a sudden, I see a tube coming around. I go, this stitch. Oh my gosh. And I was super excited. And not only was there a stitch pull float, but there was Kevin, there was Sully, there was Wally, there was Dory, there was Nemo, Mini, Mickey, and then that sparkly. Yeah, sparkly ones. Mini and Mickey were like a flat like where I felt like, I think you said something. If you had a tiny baby, you could put them in the ears. Yeah. You actually, you could fit two babies. If you had twins, if you had baby twins, they could each fit in an ear, just keep an eye on them. But yeah. Yeah. Anyways, it was just so, I don't know why it was so cool. Yeah. Like it was just, it was one of the things you're like, well, you didn't expect that. It was just neat. It was just a neat thing to differentiate it from your standard daytime. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, we, we, we did everything we did, but at the same time, I was thinking, I was putting together the notes yesterday. And I barely remember a dang thing about this night because, well, we'd spent the whole day running. I mean, we had a busy day. Yeah. In Hollywood studios, animal kingdom, using lightning lane multi-pass, getting checked into the room, which normally we're not checking into a room at five p.m., four p.m., or whatever it was. Yeah. So we're doing our stuff. Karen, who has a Tesla, had to go find a place to charge it. If you drive an electric vehicle, look where what charging stations are available. There's few and far between parks. I believe she said most of them only have two charging stations. A max of four. They're not available at the all star resorts. No charging stations at all stars. They're available at Coronado. The most for Coronado said they're six. So she actually needed to go because she didn't know when she'd have other time. Yeah. She had to go somewhere and get a charge. Yeah. So she'd look up on her handy little Tesla app where one was that it was available. So we took ZO with us back to the room. So again, I feel like things were so frantic and we got there after seven right around seven. Mm-hmm. We got checked in. The party was starting. But it's how we got our bearings. I felt like we were halfway through. It just moved so quickly. Yeah. For us, I think, or for me, at least. Did you to do feel that way or? Yes, because I think at one point we were relaxing and then I looked at the time and I was like, oh crap, because we were getting up for keys of the kingdom. And I really didn't want to close down the park. And when I say that, I didn't want to be there at or even after 11. Yeah. Like when they announced like, hey, you know, sorry, it's closed now because I'm sure they would have nicely said that. And wherever we were, we'd have to go back get our stuff and then walk out and then until midnight. Right. I mean, so I was like, so it was like 10 30 and I was like, oh, oh, can we start getting ready to go? But then that's when I was like, because it was like 10 45 before we really got out of there. But yeah, that's when I felt like, oh, oh, it's almost over. But I will say to being a complete 100% Floridian, I will not lie. And say that, you know, a little later when we rode a ride around nine 30 10 o'clock. And I got out of the water. I was freezing. I mean, even you were cold. So I would say, like, yeah, get there early, get all the rides done, you know, dance party, you know, and then maybe stay in the wave pool because like if I was in the wave pool up the water up to my neck, I was warm. That's fine. Yeah. So but yeah, I think that would be the way to attack this get there at six, knock out as many rides as you can before eight then at eight, you can enjoy your treats. You can enjoy some of the specialty foods if you want. You can go ahead and do the lazy river again after dark. There is literally a DJ doing a dance party, you know, so you can get up there and you can dance if you want or just watch or yeah, sit in the wave pool area. And you hear him, by the way, through out, which was really cool. Like every speaker, which was neat. Yeah, I thought I thought that was awesome. They pumped it through the entire park. Would you recommend a show of glow nights in general? And would you recommend this in place of purchasing a daytime ticket to typhoon again? Now again, that's taking people like us out of the equation, because we are pass holders with water park at on and we go several times a year. In fact, we start a lot of trips that way. So think of you coming down. This is your summer trip that you do each year with your family. You want you want water parks, you want to experience typhoon or whatever blizzard beach opens. Correct. You know, if that if that ever is open during summer again, which would you recommend? Like what are your thoughts on on that part? Part of me says yes and yes. Because it is something different and fun. And you know, and if you're taking, you know, most people like locals and I guess Floridians out of it, I feel like they won't be bothered as much with the coolness at night. I would say yes and yes, because get there at six so you can have six to 11 and you can ride some of the rides and then enjoy everything because it really was fun. Yeah. I really enjoyed it. I mean, don't get me wrong. I mean, I want to do it again next year. I do too. Now that we have one under our belt. Yeah. And even we know how to attack it. Yeah. Don't win too great. Absolutely. And we would be there but six. I mean, honestly, I wouldn't mind trying something like a whole day situation if we could get there and but I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Those things where yeah, I left with a slightly differing opinion, but I think I've come around to think the exact same way. I noticed because I remember you saying immediately you were like, I wouldn't recommend this just for somebody's like totally water park thing. No, again, I'm not saying I wouldn't recommend it. We're saying what I was saying originally was if you have the option of purchasing a day ticket to typhoon lagoon and going or purchasing this and going at night, I would do daytime. It's going to be more relaxed. You're going to get to probably accomplish more. You're going to have more time to do things. So that's what I would say about that. Yeah. Okay. As well, if you have small children, daytime, don't don't bring this. It's it's going to be late. It's going to ruin your next day. Honestly, probably there wasn't one happening July 4th when we took Lacey and her friend. There was not nature a glow. Had we taken them on a night that there was, this would be amazing to take teenagers to. Yeah. I think this would be well worth going to over a daytime typhoon lagoon ticket. If you have teens, I also just think for adults, you know, for us, for a couple for a couple couples, you know, if you've got a group of adults going, I think this would be really, really fun and be really cool to do in the evening as well. And that gives you a time during that day to have an off day to enjoy your resort to go to Disney Springs, you know, things like that resort hop, whatever it may be, is probably the way that I think I would I would look at it. But I want to do it again next year. I really did enjoy it. Me too. And I want to be able to go go at six, like you said, get some stuff done. Or at that point, go all right, like crushing gusher after sunset, right? Yeah. Lacey River after sunset. Those two had clear cut advantages to me during the nighttime. Yeah. Above anything else. I agree. You know, the wave pool. I didn't feel like, whoa, this is so cool. We're in a wave pool at night. Because it's not like going to the ocean at night where it's literally dark. Right. And you said something about if they could turn off the lights, but I don't know if they could for safety reasons. No, no, no, no, not at all. Again. I mean, I still don't understand how people aren't walking out of that thing bloodied and beaten all the time. So if it was nighttime, you really couldn't see anybody coming. But, you know, yeah, I think this was this was a this was a lot of fun. And we'll do it again next year. If they continue to bring this back, yeah, I think we'll continue to do it every year. And that's a great price. You can't do any other after hours, hard ticket event for even close to this price. Or even close. Yes. All right. Let's talk about if keys to the kingdom, this little, this little tour they're doing over at Magic Kingdom is worth it. We did this eight years ago. Yeah, we did for our 10th anniversary. Yep. And we loved it then. Yes, we did. This is a five hour walking tour at the Magic Kingdom. It explores the creation and remarkable growth of one of the most beloved parks at Walt Disney World. You get to explore secret locations you've always wondered about and get the inside scoop on some of your favorite attractions, as well as make your way through the air quote underground utiliters. During your tour, you will uncover hidden secrets of classic attractions at Magic Kingdom. Like I just said, you'll access the famed underground utilitar tunnels that allow people and supplies to travel beneath the park unseen. You're gonna learn little known facts, trivia, other exciting tidbits about Magic Kingdom and Disney history in general. Oh yeah. Disneyland as well. Yep. You get a delicious maybe lunch included with your tour price. Yeah. And you get to take home an exclusive keepsake. So we don't forget before we get into price and everything else, what is that exclusive keepsake? It is a cute little key to the kingdom and it's really. It is. It's super cute. And you also got the name tag. Oh yeah. Now it's done on a little label maker with your name. We'll have your name on it. Yep. And you get to keep that. It's a little rectangular tag with Magic Kingdom and stuff on it. And so that's that's pretty cool too. All right, Rhonda, what is the cost of keys to the kingdom? And you might want to say it twice because I don't know that people will believe you when you tell them how cheap this is. Oh, because it's a five hour and food is included. Food included keepsake, five hour tour, Magic Kingdom, utiliters, rides, 250, 250, 300 a person. It's got to be. It's got to be that much, right? No, it is anywhere from 129 to 149 a person. Now why is that like is it based on season? Okay, because I'm looking at it even like so only one and that's not tax included. So you're talking a little over 130 on a low end all the way to 150 on the high end. And I mean, that's and then because you're an annual pass holder or DBC, you get a 15 percent discount. Yeah. So were we on the high end? No, we were on the low end. We were. Yeah, we were. I believe we're at the 129 mark minus that 15 percent. And when we went eight years ago, this ran. I'm pretty sure from 99 dollars to 129. Yes, it did. Yes. I do remember that specifically. It's only. Okay. If anybody from Disney's listening, just skip ahead. It only went up $20 in eight years. That's surprising. Nothing at Disney has gone up that little. Yeah. I agree. And in two years sometimes. Yeah. So in eight years, it's only increased by 20 dollars. Yeah, that's incredible. Now, this is a little caveat. If you're not an annual pass holder. You do need a ticket. To the park. Yes. You need a magic kingdom ticket. Yes. To the park. For the day. Yes. To be allowed to spend 129 to 140. Correct. Which I perfectly understand. And when your tour is over, oh, yeah, plenty of time to enjoy the park. Absolutely. And I think it would just take too much to say, you know, the only way they could change it is to say, all right, we're going to you're going to meet your check in point is outside of the gates. Yep. Yep. And then they walk with your guide and then we're going to walk you out. Yep. Now, once you've exited those gates at the end of your five hour tour, if you're an annual pass holder, if you bought a day ticket, if whatever, you can go ahead and go back in. Right. Because now you're looking at taking that 149 cost. And you're getting to what I originally said, what is it? $300 a person? Yeah. Yeah. That's actually more. Yeah. Magic Kingdom tickets are running what 180 or something. So you're looking at well over $300. Now again, if you were doing a package, you know, if you've gone through one of our travel advisors and you were doing a ticket package, you got multiple days, whatever, no problem. You're already going, you already got it. Cool. But it is something to note. Yeah. There are a lot of people who may not realize there is one other very important detail. Yes. And we don't want to ruin it for anybody right now who's going, I can't wait to do this on the next trip. My 14 year old will love this. Nope. They're not allowed. They're not allowed. You have to be 16 years or older. I thought it was 18. So if it was eight years ago, I think it's always been 16. Okay, it's 16. Yeah. Look, if you can drive yourself here, you can go on the tour. Maybe. I think Caitlyn now and like that. Oh my gosh, she could go. Yes, she could go on this tour. Whoo. This is to help preserve the magic for children under 16. That is really the reason. Yeah. It's probably also, you know, to keep them from complaining on a five hour tour. That is that I mean, to be honest, putting a putting a 12, 13, 14, whatever your old through this, as much as you think they may love it, it's a lot. Yeah, it is. And you're on your feet for four and a half of those five hours, not counting bathroom breaks where you might be sitting on a toilet. Right. And then lunch when you're sitting, but only for 30 minutes. And I'm not going to lie. I stand all day long for a living doing hair. If somebody has long hair, I have a stool I sit on. Sometimes I do get to sit, but if it was Rapunzel, you could sit in another room on a couch. That's true. But my point is, is at the end, I was kind of like looking around like, can I sit down man? Yeah. So it is a lot. So just see where. And here's the other thing, you know, talking about that ticket. And you think, all right, I just did my five hour tour. They run at eight, eight, 30 and nine every morning. Let's just say you did eight. You're on the early end, right? That means you might have been up about six, six, 30 in the morning to get ready to get over here. Because you want to check in 15 minutes prior. Yep. Right. You're now ending at one PM. No. Yes. Eight. Okay, I was thinking nine. You're now ending at one PM. And as much as you may think, we got the rest of the day in Magic Kingdom, you're going to need a break. And this might be another one where, you know, you have this included in your ticket, potentially with maybe a park hopper or something. And you go, all right, we're going to plan when this thing's over to go back to the resort. And we're going to chill for a bit. We're going to come back to Magic Kingdom because it's open the latest, or maybe go to an Epcot or a Hollywood, they're open usually nine, 10. And then you're going to experience it, but you may not want to get back over there till like dinner time, you're going to need a break after this. Like you 100% are. And I will also say real quick, like I just said about me walking and standing and stuff. If you need a wheelchair, they allow them and you can have that on the tour. Yes. So don't be afraid. If you're like, golly, I want to do this, but I will not be able to donate 1000% wheelchair ECV accessible, including the utilodors, which you would take an elevator, but all those elevators are located next to stairs. The rest of the party will go down the stairs. And the person who's in a wheelchair ECV with somebody else will be able to go down the elevator. So that part is really good to know. When can you start booking key to the kingdom? Because it is like all other of extra paid events like this. Yeah, well, such your alarm because you can wake up at 12 a.m. And it is 60 days prior to you trekking date. If you're staying on Disney property and 60 days prior, if you're staying off property for that day for that day. For that day, let me let me just like go ahead and I'll translate Rhonda for you real quick. I was like, wait a minute. I just read the same thing. Is that correct? Like, no, because you left words out like dining. It is available. If you're staying on property, you can book 60 days out from your check in day, including your whole stay. So if you're staying for seven days and you want to do keys to the kingdom on your last day, you can technically book it 67 days ahead of time. If you're off property, it is 60 days from the day you want to do that tour. Correct. Okay. So if you're showing up on November 1st and you're staying off property, and you want to go to keys to the kingdom on November 7th, you can't book 60 days prior to November 1st. When you arrive, it'd be six days prior, November 7th. Okay. If you're off property, just a, and then like we said, eight, eight, 30 and nine and group size, which will be full, because this thing sells out quick. Yeah. It's 20 people. And you pay at time of booking. So another thing to just know, this is available on mouse dining for alerts. I got very lucky. I had been randomly checking dates for some time going all the way back to trips that we did with Chuck and Amy. Yeah. You know, back when we were there in April and all. And I think even last year, I'd been looking and one day I got really, really lucky. I looked for Friday. I looked for Saturday. I looked for Sunday and a Saturday popped up and I snagged it. And that was under the 60 day mark. So it is possible, but be ready at 60 days out for sure. All right. Where are you going to check in and what is the check in process and what is going to happen at check in? So you're going to check in at Tony's Town Square, their check in. And it literally has a sign that says this is Tony's Town Square is now or not serving or something. But it also then has a sign that says this is the check in for Keys of the Kingdom and everything. And yeah, so you check in 15 minutes prior. They tell you, you know, you can go to the bathroom. Please do. Yes, please do. Because you could be holding up 19 other people. Technically, if you think I'll just willy nilly show up at eight o'clock for my eight AM tour, they have to go through this process that Ron is about to walk you through. So yeah, because minimum 15 minutes early, I chose 30. Yeah, prior. Yeah, we did. We did good. We got on the bus. There was a bus ready. Jeremy wanted to leave the room at 730 AM. And I did fair. I wanted to be standing at the bus stop at seven. Hey, man. We did. We were at the bus stop before 730. We were walking up to the bus stop at like 728 or something. We went to go get coffee after we got coffee. Yes, we did go rocket and we make up on it and everything. Quietly because Karen and so we're in the room with us. And they were still sleeping. And we knew that they had a late night. They hung back at the resort while we were at Typhoon Lagoon and they had a wonderful, you know, mommy, daughter evening doing the pool and all kinds of stuff. So we had to be very quiet because we did not want to wake up. Yeah. And then, you know, we got there and it was nice because we got there prior to 8 o'clock and it was 830 was our check-in. I had to use a restroom. So we went and did that first. Definitely do that. But then when we went to go check in, this is when they tell you there's a bathroom right here. Please use it because they will let you use the restroom. But usually when the tour starts, the first bathroom break is about 45 minutes to an hour into the tour. So it's just one of those things once you've checked in and you're sitting there. I mean, I literally even was like, you know what? I just went, I'm going to try one more time. But they give you your name badge. They give you your hearing set because your cast member will wear a mic and it's nice because then somebody like me and Jeremy that are starting to be hard of hearing. You know, when they're not facing us or they're walking away, we hear everything they're talking about. Well, and you have a group of 20 people. Can you imagine these cast members having a scream to 20 people above Magic Kingdom crowds for, you know, every single day? And not only that, I'm kind of like, I don't want other people hearing what I'm paying for. Yeah, no, seriously, you really don't. Yeah, because there's moments you're right in right in Main Street, you know. So, yes, you get, it's great. You get checked in, you get your thing. There's a giant, it's actually a huge prop version of a little pen you're going to get at the end of your keepsake. You can get a photo with cast members will take your photo. At that point, they also take your lunch order. Yes, they do. So, and then because of it's being hot and stuff, and I don't know if this is just all year round, but you have a dishonor bottle of water that they are giving out, and they say, please take one because then there are times where you can refill it through the park. Yeah, during those bathroom breaks, which Rana said are every 45 minutes to an hour throughout the tour, you're going to have four or five throughout, plus you have that whole time during lunch. And so, yeah, and that's another thing, like make sure that you do before, because 15, 20 minutes in, you're going to be like, oh, that jalapeno popper burn. I should not have eaten that last night at 10 30 p.m. It is killing me this morning. Now, from what I could tell, researching, this seems to be fairly standard now, okay, lunch, place and selection is, and we did it eight years ago. It was at Tomorrowland Terrace, which has not been in operation for some time. That's why I think Tomorrowland Terrace was doing anything major during the day, was giving out a popcorn bucket, said toad the wet sprocket. What? Mr. It's a band. Mr. Toad's wild ride popcorn bucket. Remember, they were doing mobile order. They finally learned from the figment at Epcot, and they started doing mobile order. And that's where you went to pick up your mobile order popcorn bucket for Mr. Toad's wild ride. So where was our lunch thing today? And this possibly could fluctuate Columbia Harbor house. So it is funny. You have seven items of one being a lobster roll, a shrimp salad, a fish platter, chicken strips, fried shrimp platter, a plant-based crispy mushroom roll, and then uncrustable peanut butter and jelly uncrustable. And you do get french fries with all of this, except your salad. So what did you pick, Jeremy? Well, I find it so funny that it's Columbia Harbor house because if anybody follows me on social or knows me, I give Columbia Harbor house the business. Every time somebody thinks this is the greatest quick service restaurant to ever exist, I call them out and say they're wrong. Anytime somebody posts a picture of what they call a lobster roll, I gag a little because it looks disgusting. So we have not been here in a very long time. We have not. And I have it on my list of places to get back to to see if it has improved. And so it was really cool that that's where we were going. I was actually very thankful. I went with the fried shrimp platter. Okay. What did you go for? Well, I was going to go for the lobster roll, but this is July. It was very hot. I know we were going inside to eat, but- And this is 95% mayonnaise and 5% may be lobster. Well, you don't know because we haven't been there in forever. I've seen recently. So he made a face when I was thinking about getting it. But then I saw the fish platter and it looks really good. I love Disney's fish and chips. And it looks like it's smaller fish and the fried. And I was like, you know what? I don't want chicken strips. Everything else is fried. I looked at the crispy mushroom roll. But again, I think Jeremy made a face and I was like, fine. I'll just go with the fish platter. So I went ahead and did that. But I really wouldn't mind trying the crispy mushroom roll because it's mushrooms that are fried. It's a plant-based spicy tartar sauce. And then it's served with french fries and it looks really good. And I love mushrooms. And I like fried mushrooms. Let's knock our review of these food items out now. Okay. And then we can talk more about the tour. Okay. How did you like your fish platter? I loved it. It was fantastic. There was four little pieces of fish. I really, really liked it. It reminded me of almost like a little bit of the old Yorkshire, just a little more the batter was a little thicker and not as light. But the fish to batter ratio was fantastic to me because it wasn't too fishy. And the fish inside was great, flaky. I really, really liked it, actually. Good. You took a bite? Yeah. It was fine. Okay. It was fine. The shrimp was fine. I mean, all this was good. It was good. It's long john silvers. Okay. It's Gordon's or CPAC frozen up in public, which again, nothing wrong with that. And for a quick service, I don't expect them back there. frying up fresh fish and shrimp the way that they are at Yorkshire. Yeah. So for what it is, I think it's perfect. There are a ton of shrimp. They were good size. They weren't boat house size. They weren't boat house size. They're not boat house size. These are actually good size shrimp. There are a ton of them. They were flavorful. They were fried to perfection. Like I would get that again, you know, especially to place that doesn't have a lot of options. But I want to set you, you made it sound like this was amazing. I really liked it for what it is. If somebody put this in Yorkshire in front of you, you're going to swipe this one out of the way. Don't give me that. What is that? Nobody wants that. Nobody's picking. And Yorkshire is a quick service. That's all I'm saying. I'm just giving people baseline on what to expect. We can finish recording and I can go get a box of CPAC. Okay. Fried shrimp and I can cook it and I will enjoy it and it'll be very, very tasty. And that's what this was. So nothing wrong with it. You actually get to, I was going to say, let's talk about that. There's an area. There's a ghost floor. It's the ghost room and the reason it's the ghost ship room. Not shrimp. No. And the reason it is the ghost ghost shrimp interesting ship. The reason it is is because the windows face haunted nature and the roof is painted blue. So you're sailing, I'm sorry, because you're supposed to be underwater as a sunken ship. And there are ghost ships around. Yeah, super cool. And there is a condiment station in bar where you will get your, you can get it whatever you want. Tarter sauce and yeah, catch up for your eyes, you know, mustard, if you like that kind of junk. So it's a nice break. It happens roughly halfway through. And you sit that you have assigned seating with a little name back on it. So Ron and I happen to sit at a table for two. Yes. But if we'd sat at a table for four, we would have been paired up with other people. I'll be honest, because the way I am, I was so jealous of those people next to us. We've got to sit with the tour guide with Elizabeth. You were? Yeah, I was like, I wonder what they're talking about. Like I see Ronda all the time. I want to hear, I want to talk to her and I'm getting, how fun would that have been to have sat with her though? Yeah, they were talking to her and asking her questions. Yeah. So that was super cool. But yeah, the fact you get lunch during this, you know, again, if you want to talk about your pricing, you're talking 15 bucks a person easy. You also get to pick a beverage. Yes. And I want to add a soda or water or something. And because we already had the design, water with us, I went ahead and picked a Coke and then Jeremy picked a Sprite. You did say though, you wish you would have gotten a water, didn't you? I wish I got another water. Do you elaborate on why? He, you know, really, I mean, I would not, when you're going to be out and about moving around for a good three hours of this, you're above ground, you know, for good two hours of this, you're in the sun potentially, you know, and they will find shade like our tour guide Elizabeth was incredible, of course. And she would always make sure, hey, guys, let's stand off on this part and I'll talk to you in the shade. Yeah. So she was wonderful about that. But yeah, I just at that point, something sugary and carbonated just for me personally wasn't a good pick. I wish I got in water. And where you can refill your water bottle throughout, you know, that that you got your Dasani, you could bring your own. Yeah, you might want to bring your own iced, you know, water bottle again, just know that you're going to carry it. So let's get into a couple of things. I think I had mine to my water bottle. You had yours with you. Yeah. Let's get in a couple tips. And then we're not going to give away the whole tour because we want you to go experience it for yourself. And we don't get any sort of kickback on that. How cool would that be? I'd be amazing. But listen, if we had the kickbacks to what people have done because of us, that'd be nice. We would be that would be nice. We would be sitting pretty. We would be pretty good. We're not going to give away the tour though, but we will have a conversation after we go through a few tips. And we'll just go off script completely because we have nothing else note wise after this. And we'll just talk about some of our favorite parts. Yes, because also when you check in, there is a sign that you are not allowed to take to have your phone out. Like, she, she actually at one point said, and because I think a guy actually said he has to check in for his Southwest West flight. So we were actually headed backstage. And she said, I don't, I don't want to see phones out unless you're getting a Southwest, you know. And this is where I'm super happy that I have my watch because I do have children. And that's probably something I would, I would say, and she knows to like, like people have children, but sure, sure, but they're they're major. They're major thing. You're fine. Really, is you not taking any photos and video or audio recordings backstage? You know, now technically when you're on stage, which is all the areas that are viewable to guess, I believe you technically could. No, she got onto a guy. He was taking a picture of the castle. Yeah, that's right. He was. Yeah. And I was like, oh, yeah. And I'm like, dude, don't run it for the rest of it. I know. And then, and then I did when we were a bathroom break, and I didn't actually have to go. You could take out your phone. I had my phone out and I was assuming, assuming you were on stage. Yes, we were on stage. We were on stage. And we were sitting where what's his face usually comes out. Jack Sparrow, right? Is that where he? Yeah, yeah. We were sitting on the pirates next to Tortuga Treasures. Tavern right now, Pyrotean bar. You better get that announcement next weekend, for sure. Anyways, I was sitting and I was my phone was basically in my lap. So, I mean, again, where she can visibly see that I'm not trying to do anything that I'm just looking at, you know, if I need to look at anything from a child to a family member or anything, and then I check it real quick. And then honestly, I just put it away. Yeah. So, but just just make a note of that. So, and honestly, you're as much as you would love to capture every moment. You don't want to. You just want to be in the moment. And it's nice to not have the phone. Yeah. And to be honest, the only downside is if you do like a podcast or write a blog and you're trying to mentally remember everything you went through, you know what I mean? That's really the only disadvantage. Otherwise, you want to be listening to every single word, she says, and you're going to be hooked on every single moment. Let's go through a couple tips. As we mentioned, book early. If you can book at that 60 days out, probably 12 a.m. Preferably. Go ahead and do it. What else do we have? Uh, you put do the 8 a.m. I heat more time once you're done. Okay. I think we were fine with the 8 30. We were fine. Yeah. And again, it's, it's 8 a 30 or nine. Right. But if you go ahead and do eight and get that first one, you're done by one o'clock. You know, you're, you're going to avoid a half hour to an hour more of heat. Yeah. You know, Florida sun, depending on when it is, come prepared to ask questions. Yeah. Because she questions available because she will feel them. She did. Be or she or whoever is going to be your guide will feel. And it was funny because she'd ask any questions and our tour did not have a ton because a couple times she's like, no questions. Okay. I had one. And because I'm the way I am, I never asked it. Which one? Because I might have asked it. No, because I gave you the. I'll get into it in a minute when I wanted my question to be when, because I'm going to talk about one of my favorite parts. And I thought about the question for the last. Okay. Two to two and a half hours. And I kept replaying it in my head and then I just didn't ask it because I'm not going to ask it in front of 18 people I don't know. You should have told me I don't ask it. Comfy shoes. Not new shoes. Comfy shoes. Comfy shoes. Yes. 100%. 100%. Bring potentially extra water like we said with a bottle. And you can bring a snack. And some people need that, you know, if you were to be diabetic or if you have certain dietary needs. Now again, there, of course, when we go back to Columbia Harbor House, I didn't catch what her dietary need was. There was a woman that may have been gluten. I think she had a gluten sensitivity. I don't believe it was vegan because she could have easily just ordered the mushroom roll. So I think it was something like either, you know, yeah, dairy or gluten or whatever. But of course, they had somebody come out specifically, talked to her during check in so they could everything prepared for her. I didn't see what she ended up not eating. Yeah. So a couple tips. Yep. All right. Let's throw away the thing. Let's rip up the rip up the notes. We're done with notes. Let's talk about our favorite parts without giving it all away. You start. What was one of your favorite things that you saw or one more? We rode Jungle Cruise and we rode Haunted Mansion. And you got the same thing we did last time, eight years ago. That's pretty standard. Don't go into this like, we're going to get to ride all these rides like it's an after hours or a VIP tour. It's not you're not going on this for rides. You will go on this to learn about rides, but not to actually ride rides. Okay, let's start. What was one of your favorite things? How many you want to do each? Three? I don't know. Let's do three. I don't know because I just have one right now. Okay. What's your first one? And then you can think why tell one. What am I? When we were down in the utilodors and I saw Ariel walking. I know. That was the coolest part to me. I was like, and I was telling Jessica about it and Jessica used to know Rapunzel. So when I told her I saw Ariel, I married someone who used to know Flynn. Yeah. It was super cool. But when I told her I saw her walk and I said it was super cool because she had her wig on and then she had some like hair rap, like not turban, but like a scarf or something. I can't remember, but it was big and it covered a lot of her hair, but Jessica looked at me like yes. And then I was explaining what she was wearing and Jessica knew exactly what and was like, yep. And I was like, that was so cool. And she was just on her phone walking through. And I just, I did. I felt, I felt a little starstruck. I mean, she didn't like look up or anything. And I was just like hitting Jeremy, like, Oh my gosh, there's Ariel. So and down there, you are not allowed to say it was hustling and hustling down there. We went eight years ago, we barely saw any cast members, you know, and they're checking in. They're checking out there on lunch breaks, they're getting prepped there, whatever. So that was super cool. There was even a moment where they took us through the costuming, the entertainment cost. That was cool. And that was amazing. And we were not allowed to speak. No, we were not allowed to talk. No, you had to, she said, we need to make our way through. You cannot stop. You cannot talk to anyone working, but you can walk slowly if you need to. And there are all the costuming hanging up. And there's people there, like seamstress there, like sewing and working. And she said, it was the first time in there, she had seen a full body costume of one of the country bears. Yep. That was super cool. And then leaving. You should have a person in it and jump down scared you. Oh, no. Then you would make noise and you get in trouble. Yeah. But when we were leaving on the door, it said 11 days to Halloween. And I was like, that's so cool. So. So one of my favorite things that she pointed out was talking about Cinderella Castle. Now I, I always, it's very easy to say Cinderella's Castle. A lot of people will call it Cinderella's Castle. It is not. It is Cinderella Castle. And I knew that. I knew it was called Cinderella Castle. And I always try to write or say it that way. Because I don't need somebody, you know, send me hate mail. It's Cinderella's Castle. It's Cinderella Castle. Well, the reason it is, it's actually the charming family castle. Yes. And Prince Charming, therefore named it after Cinderella. That's why Cinderella Castle. It is not her castle. It is the charming's apostrophe S castle. It is Cinderella Castle. And when you are down in fantasy land, that would be all of those folks that work in and around the castle. And that's why it's designed that way. It still has that very elegant feel. It has that same stone work throughout. As you go past those, those stone kind of walls, as you're making your way to seven doors mind train and new fantasy land enchanted tales of Bell in the left is considered the wooded area. That's where the common folk would live. And that's why it's designed that way. So there's this whole story being told simply from Cinderella Castle that I honestly never picked up on. Another one in that same vein was her talking about the way that they designed and built Magic Kingdom. You know, now we know that Walt, you know, never got to experience it. And there's a lot of that there. I'll be honest. It's it gets very emotional. Yeah. Down in the utilities. Oh, yeah. Like especially there's a whole wall of Walt in the history. And then there's the Roy got me. Yeah. And she started talking about Roy. I was just like, Oh God, like keep it together. I almost did. I'm about to know. That was amazing. I tear up a little bit. What she was saying, you know, we knew that Walt in the design and all was built where he didn't want you pulling up in your car in a parking lot and seeing anything. Right. So obviously it was designed very much where you had TTC, you take your monorail, you take your boat, you get the buses, whatever coming in. And as you, you know, kind of like start to walk up and walk in like, you know, the the ground is red. That's rolling out the red carpet, like a movie premiere. That was cool. How yes, this was designed like a movie as as you're coming in. You see the tip top of Cinderella Castle. That's your preview. That's your trailer. You know, and she just described every step from you almost like watching a movie trailer to being then put inside the movie when you finally get that incredible view, you know, coming around the train station around that that first hub and seeing Cinderella Castle and all its glory, which I thought was so cool. So my question to her was going to be, is there anything throughout the park that tells this story? Is there anything, because I've never noticed it, if there is, is there anything throughout the park that says, maybe I haven't stopped and smelled the roses enough. This is Cinderella Castle. Here's why. Here is the working folks. That is why you take the tour. And that's what I was going to ask her. That was going to be one of my questions. Oh, no, I remember my next favorite part. Have to do with a sneak peek. Yes. That's coming starting August 9th. Yeah. So this was like, yeah, like I said, so not only was there 11 days I saw on the door that said to their Halloween, but when we were backstage, it was super cool because this was, I think these were my next two favorite. I'll just go ahead and say this. First of all, we were walking backstage and all of a sudden, these characters are riding by like fully dressed Aladdin and Jasmine, Merida riding by on golf carts. And I was like, what? And then, so Mary Poppins. Yep, they waved. And she again, then was like, if they interact with you, it's fine. Don't interact with them. Yeah, please don't initiate the interaction because they're they're off stage. Yeah. So they were carrying them to the floats because the little parade. Yeah, the one at noon, the cavalcade was getting ready to start, right, which starts off there in Frontierland. So at this point, we are behind Pirates and Tiana's, the show buildings, along with the trash, which is the second fastest ride action. You can't call it a ride. It's a ride for trash. It shoots the trash from all areas in the park to the central location at 35 miles per hour. It used to be the fastest, because Space Mountain only goes 33, but Tron, since it opened, is now number one, trash shoot is number two fastest attraction. And it's nice because it doesn't smell like trash by now. No, not at all. But so not only are there some floats, but there was a Halloween float. There was a and this is all for practice. And then there actually was on the very end of Christmas float. We saw Maleficent's dragon getting their teeth did. Yes, we did. But so seeing the characters getting on the floats and stuff, that was my next favorite. And then my last favorite was when we were back there with all of this and seeing the Halloween float and everything, they were starting to practice. And we had. For booty you and Halloween party. Yes. Thank you. We had a sneak peek of the girls that will dance in front of the Nellopy. Boo to you parade. And I mean, God bless them. I mean, it was hot. They were in the sun. But what was amazing to me is it wasn't like a small little like soundtrack. I mean, this thing was bleen blasted. Dude, it was like a it was like a combination. There was this custom built following them. And they got their batons and they're twirling them and they're in sync and they got the music and all because yeah, behind them, it is like a customized like golf cart slash go cart that somebody's driving that is surrounded by speakers that are blaring the booty you parade soundtrack for them to go along to. The thing goes on top of it after because I think that's what she was saying. Oh, okay. Yeah. So the candy, the whatever that is that the Nellopy is like on and that goes on top of what was following them. And that's the float. I think that's cool. Okay. Well, anyways, I'm. You're telling me that this little makeshift car that I believe was specially designed for practice. They outfit it by putting a float basically over top of it. I think so. Yeah. Because the other one was it was sitting over there. Yeah, it's not. I don't think that's how it went. I could be wrong, but I don't believe that's how well, but it was really cool. It was really cool. And it was really even cooler because not only are they practicing right now and the heat, but she said there are times closer to that they practice all night long. And I'm like thinking, oh my god, I'm thinking, well, first of all, these girls got to be young. And then second of all, I guess they sleep all day and then they just like practice all night, but they look perfect to me. Because they're entertainers, this isn't their one thing. I know. That's the thing that's crazy. It's not like they're just brought in for Halloween to get ready. And this is all they do. They're entertainers, entertainers year round. Yeah. And it was just it. It's so I'm a very behind the scenes guy. I love behind the scene stuff. It fascinates me to see how things operate and work. You know, whether it's machinery or it's human beings. And to see what goes into this in the detail in the practice, because, you know, think of you as a guest. How long do you see these? Botanis, botanis, what do we call it? Does anybody know what they call themselves? You're going to sit in the parade and you're going to see them for a minute tops. And that one minute that you as a guest view them, took them. God knows how many hours, not just them, the float drivers, the handlers, the, you know, the ones you should tell us about on the floats that there's, there's, you know, emergency buttons. There's several emergency buttons. Based on what just the amount of time and effort and attention to detail that goes into every tiny thing that Disney does. And I know the same thing's happening over, you know, down the street at Universal and, you know, to an extent places like SeaWorld and Bush. And, you know, that happens anywhere. Right. You know, I mean, it would fascinate me to see behind the scenes of a Broadway play, any of it. Right. But it's just incredible to see what goes into all of this. A hundred percent. I thought that was one of the coolest parts. One more, right? Anything, anything, Walt, you know, you're agreeing with me than on that. Oh, it's so cool. Yeah. That was just fascinating. That was my. Anything with Walt and Roy, I thought was so cool. One of them being, you know, as you walk down Main Street, and you can look these up on the internet, you know, if you want, right, you know, and a lot of people know how all this land was acquired, you know, the Florida project. And then it was found out, which you say went from a hundred and eighty. It was like a hundred and eighty bucks a square, a square acre or an acre. Yeah. To like 80,000. I think it was 80,000. 800,000? No, I think it was 80,000 when they found out what was happening, that it was the Walt Disney Company buying this stuff up. Yeah. Because they were going to build a theme park. Because and luckily they had already secured. Yeah, he couldn't lie. And again, there's a great story there we won't share, but basically they'd already acquired like 95% of the land. Yep. So that last 5% cost them a lot. And because it costs him that, I think total ended up, I think she said roughly about five mill. Yeah. Yeah. Which to imagine what that would cost today. I mean, back then, right back then was crazy. But I'm like, also like, they have well over made up their money. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Every day. But he was walking down Main Street. A lot of fake companies and names were used for the purchase of this land. And they point all that out. And the reason they had those names, why they're placed on the windows that they are, you know, and then finally when you get above the Plaza ice cream parlor is Walt's window. Yeah. And it's because it faces Cinderella Castle. Yep. And he gets to kind of overlook his park that he never got to experience. So all that stuff was just so cool. But yeah, the shining moment for me was hearing those stories about Roy. That was so cool. That's awesome. So would you recommend this to anyone? Absolutely. I will say, I will say the one thing that was super cool that she does is the Tiki room when we talk about that and the thatched roof. I don't have to participate. Yeah, because you were tall and she was shorter. It is not it is a metal yeah recycled recycled aluminum. Yes. And so then we were over. This was really a good question that Jeremy asked. But I asked because we were over and it was in the tangled and it looked thatched over there because she did explain that back in the time. Tiki room they could not do that. Whereas now over an animal kingdom, there are true real thatched roofs. So when we were over in Magic Kingdom and by the tangled because it's newer and I looked up and Jeremy asked, I wonder if this is so when he asked me, I went to ask her, she said, that is a very good question. She said, but that is not. And it is all in Magic Kingdom. It is all the aluminum. So over by fires milk, I think there's some there as well. This, this is the this is the best priced and the best valued thing I think you can do on Walt Disney World property, you know, outside of getting a park ticket and going to the park, you know, I mean, the price of this compared to what you get out of it is unbelievable. And much like, you know, again, it was eight years ago, I vaguely remember some of the stuff, but not all of it. I remember some beyond it. And each tour guide is going to be different. Each is going to have some of their own stories. I could easily do this once a year. I think easy once a year, you know, and and and still be so enthralled and pick up so much more, you know, because as we're sitting here talking about it, I'm remembering back. That's right. That's right. There's this. And we've always done it just as friends, just as friends, just us. I would like to do it with friends. And I know we were looking for, you know, with Chuck and Amy and it just never happened, but like, I think with more people would be just so fun group of this. And then, you know, you, I know you had lunch or whatever, but you plan like an early dinner or you plan like afterwards, you just go, you know, we're going to go, we're going to go to Polly, and we're just going to hang out at Tambu. And we're just going to talk about everything we just saw and learned. And like, would be so cool. Yeah, I'm so glad we got to do it. Yeah, like, it was just absolutely amazing. Yeah, we'll do it again next year. Thanks, babe. You're very, very welcome. All right, I think that's it. Okay, if that wasn't enough. Yeah, that's a good one. That was good. Yeah, hopefully, hopefully you got a lot out of that. Highly recommend the tour. You know, you can always look actually go to the ears to each other group on Facebook, if you want, which is all current and former cast members that were either laid off or furloughed or whatever during the pandemic have businesses and there are nannies and babysitters on there. So if it is something that you wanted to do and you have kids with you, there is that opportunity to reach out on that page and find someone that might be able to come and sometimes actually take your kid through the park or, you know, come to your room, whatever it may be, they're licensed, they're everything, you go out there, find some of them because you don't want to miss out on this. And I wouldn't, you know, if you have the ability to do it when you're there with family or children, and you can find somebody to watch them or whatever, I would do it. You know, it's one, you're a big Disney fan, you're going with the grandparents, and maybe they don't really want to do it. They just want to spend some time with the grandkids. Boom. Take the grandkids for five hours on this morning, meet us up, you know, meet up with us at Magic Kingdom later and go do this thing. It's unbelievable. So, so good. All right. That's all I got to say about that. Thank you all so much for joining. If you want to hear these episodes every Tuesday and Friday, go ahead and hit subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. And of course, around and I would be super thankful if you could please 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 make this podcast to share it all with you. Reports and resorts, top 10 lists of all sorts. Main Street Magic's bringing it home for you. [Music] [ Silence ]
Rhonda and Jeremy finish of their recent trip review and talk about finally getting attend H20 Glow Nights at Typhoon, giving tips and tricks to make the most of the event before diving deep into one of the best values in Walt Disney World, the 5-hour Keys to the Kingdom tour at Magic Kingdom.
