Cheers 2 Ears!
Two dudes named Aaron toasting their way through the Disney resorts. New episodes drop every Monday morning
Cheers 2 Ears!
D23 Reactions With A Blackberry Bourbon Smash
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
D23 is supposed to be Disney’s biggest hype machine, but watching it from the outside can be oddly clarifying. We’re posted up with a Blackberry Bourbon Smash at Pixar Place Hotel and giving our honest, sometimes skeptical reactions to what Disney announced, what they barely teased, and what actually changes the way you plan a Disneyland or Walt Disney World trip.
We dig into the D23 experience itself, from crowd behavior and shopping chaos to the simple question of whether it’s even worth attending when you can watch every panel at home and then enjoy shorter park wait times while the convention is happening. From there we hit the entertainment slate, including Star Wars and Marvel, and the bigger issue behind both: Disney can’t build anticipation if everything is always “coming soon,” and the release calendar stretches so far out that even big announcements start to feel like homework.
Then we get into the real meat, the Disney parks announcements. We talk Villains Land, the Maleficent coaster, and the Magic Mirror attraction idea, plus practical questions like Lightning Lane, single pass rides, and why “filler rides” matter for crowd flow as much as the E-tickets do. We react to updates across the parks: Carousel of Progress getting a reboot with new voices, Spaceship Earth getting reimagined, Animal Kingdom’s Tropical Americas and the Encanto attraction concept, Monstropolis landing early at Hollywood Studios, and a few international highlights that genuinely look impressive.
We finish with Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, including Tomorrowland transformation hopes, DCA’s 2028 expansion plans, and a blunt hot take on D23 merch flipping and eBay resellers. Subscribe, share the episode with your Disney group chat, and leave a review. What announcement would actually get you to book a trip?
Intro And Blackberry Bourbon Smash
SPEAKER_01Today we're having a Blackberry bourbon smash from Small Bites at Pixar Place Pixar Place Hotel Wow. And we're having our reactions to D Place. Welcome to Tears Dio.
SPEAKER_00Old fashioned Manhattan. We'll talk back to From Future Land to the Wild Frontier. It's Disney Talk on Tears Two Years.
SPEAKER_02Yay, we're back.
SPEAKER_01I like that intro.
SPEAKER_02That that was a classic.
SPEAKER_01That was classic Aaron. So we're leaving it.
SPEAKER_02We didn't redo it. Why don't you uh tell us what was in this this drink here?
SPEAKER_01This is a Blackberry bourbon smash, and it's made with bourbon, domain de canton, blackberries, and ginger beer, and it's 20. That is spendy. It is spendy.
SPEAKER_02But I'm looking at all their drinks. That's they're pretty spindy there. They're pretty spindy there. And we went through a curveball, went with the pool side bar at Pixar Place because it was the one closest to where they did D23. That's a good choice. That's when I think of Fever Tree ginger beer, all mixed in. And this was much better than the Blackberry Bramble that we'd had, which was one of my top five worst drinks that first year. Yeah, yeah. And so this is not that. This is actually very good. The redone version. Now, can I recommend the version that they're doing it at Pixar Place? It's small bites. I don't know. Because it's not, it's not this.
SPEAKER_01Right. But like we always say here at Cheers to Ears, Aaron, that if you don't have fresh fruit, use more liquor.
SPEAKER_02More liquor. And we have Blackberry liqueur. This is because I'm not a huge fan of ginger.
SPEAKER_01But you like a lot, you say that all the time, but you've liked quite a few ginger drinks now. If they do them right.
SPEAKER_02Because if they do them right, right. And the first one was very much ginger, the first couple that we did. But see, the blackberry kind of hides that ginger. Right.
SPEAKER_01It has a ginger aftertaste.
SPEAKER_02The lemon cello mule hid the ginger, the lemon cello. So yeah, this is this is really good. Disney, you need to pay attention. Okay. So three ounces of fever tree, Jack Daniels, blackberry whiskey, one shot, and then about an ounce, half ounce, maybe three-quarters of an ounce of blackberry liqueur and three-quarters of an ounce of domain decanton or whatever ginger liqueur. There you go. There's your recipe. Just change it now. Do it on the low, on the down low.
SPEAKER_01We'll come there in a couple months and check it out. Yeah, check it out. Make sure you did it right. Give you our approval. We should go here to small bites and then order it like this. And order it like this. Can you give me a blackberry bourbon smash, but don't use any blackberries and add Jack Daniels to it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Can you make it right? Yeah. Can you do me a favor and make that drink, but make it the right way? So I'll drink it.
SPEAKER_01That's hilarious.
Skipping D23 And Crowd Madness
SPEAKER_01Today we're doing D23 reactions.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01Our own reactions. We haven't really talked about it at all.
SPEAKER_02No, we sent a few texts, but that was not like three each about stuff we were movies, I think.
SPEAKER_01We don't really talk about too much about the number. Yeah, we haven't really. I think two years ago we were the entire time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think it was more we sent each other messages about other people's responses and how dumb they were because they weren't our response.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so we did we did not go.
SPEAKER_02No, we planned on going.
SPEAKER_01It didn't work out, it didn't work out, but I'm not mad about it.
SPEAKER_02No, and honestly, we were looking at wait times and we're thinking if we ever go in the future, we're just gonna go to the parks during that time.
SPEAKER_01I watched it all on TV, I saw everything. Yeah, all the panels. I don't know if I need to stand in that crowd. I saw you saw the crowds for the shopping.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_01And how they bum rush the stage like it's a like it's weird at the DP Diddy party.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It was weird because it's all assigned seating.
SPEAKER_01It was crazy.
SPEAKER_02Why do you rush in when you have assigned seating?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was crazy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, they rushed in the shopping area.
SPEAKER_02Oh, was that?
SPEAKER_01They were in queue for the shopping area. Oh. And there were I got an alerts. I don't know if you have the D23 app.
SPEAKER_02I do.
SPEAKER_01All the alerts saying do not show up before 5 30 in the morning. Oh my gosh. Don't not queue outside until 5 30. The queue opens at 6 a.m. You will be shown away if you show up. Oh, okay. So many alerts all day. Oh, yeah. People are showing up probably at midnight to try to get in there to buy whatever stupid thing they bought was because we talk about merchandise all the time. I'm a big merch guy. You're not too much of a merch guy. But I'm not a merch guy on opening day. I have to have it.
SPEAKER_02Yes. And I I like merch. I just don't want to buy any of it. I just, oh, that looks really cool. But I'm not gonna buy it. So with my reaction, a lot of this I think is gonna be on the rides, those announcements, some some movies, but there's a lot of it that I just didn't care about.
SPEAKER_01Right. I only wrote down a few things on the movies and shows that I kind of want to talk about. And I wrote down almost every attraction that I've found that I found when I, you know, when I I watched all the movie trailers this morning. Yeah. Rewatched all the movie trailers, and they're not a lot interesting. You want to start with movies? I think we should end with attractions. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Because we'll talk some most about that. Now, interesting. Yeah, we'll we'll get into this into attractions and stuff.
SPEAKER_01We don't need to talk about the video game.
SPEAKER_02No, because I don't care about the video game. And I don't have a whole lot about international parks, a lot about the movies and the TV shows that I didn't really care
Movie And Disney Plus Highlights
SPEAKER_02about. Now, I will say they said to get ready for Doomsday, Avengers Doomsday, uh-huh, that you needed to watch these movies. And they listed, and I'd already seen almost all of them, but I haven't watched the Loki series. Oh, so good. I'm watching the Loki series now. It's so good. Because of that. And I Shang-Chi.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Shang Chi's great too.
SPEAKER_02And I've heard it's really good. I just never got around to watching it. So I'm watching those now so that I'll be ready for when Doomsday comes out. So let's talk about these movies. Let me find where I have that written down. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Go ahead. Star Wars Starfighter.
SPEAKER_02Let's talk about that. It's been a little while. Although they just had the Mandalorian movie just came out. Mandalorian that just came out.
SPEAKER_01Looks interesting. New character.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01Played by Ryan Gosling. Is that right?
SPEAKER_02Yes, Ryan Gosling. And I can't remember who else.
SPEAKER_01As a Star Wars fan, I'm intrigued. I hope they do it right. I agree with what you said, what you said before, that there's way too much Star Wars content now.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01And so it's kind of like I'm okay with getting not doing any Star Wars for a while and just like I grew up watching three movies.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Six movies. Yeah, we watched three movies. Then six movies when my son was born. But yeah, three movies my whole childhood. And I was fine with that. That was enough Star Wars in my life. That's all I had. And I watched it constantly.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you had to watch those same three over and over again. But it there was such a long break, even between the original three, it was three years 77, 80, and 83. It really built the anticipation. And we talked about this, although it's going to be next week's episode. But we talked about this. We recorded next week's episode before this episode.
SPEAKER_01Because we're like that.
SPEAKER_02Because we're like that. Wanting to get this when it's relevant to D25. So this will be coming out the Monday after we record it. But they're killing the anticipation on movies. They are. I think. And a lot of other stuff. And they Disney needs to just slow their roll, build up some anticipation. Because are you going to do four movies that all lose money, or are you going to do one movie that makes a half a billion dollars?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, not too many hardcore Star Wars fans are saying we need more content all the time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Especially when you're talking about like the because there's Ahsoka season two, which I haven't watched season one. Oh, you haven't. Is it a good one? Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I'd heard I'm a big fan of that character.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So But yeah, Andor just came out not too long ago.
SPEAKER_02Andor was the one that I was kind of wanting to watch, and I just I sat down, I think I tried to watch the first two episodes, and I was doing other things while watching it.
SPEAKER_01It's really good.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But anyway, too much. I agree too much as a huge Star Wars fan, too much Star Wars. Yes. But I can't be mad at Disney for all the Star Wars because we have Galaxy's Edge. I keep going back to that in my mind. There's a Galaxy's Edge to go to, so I'm not mad at Disney. That's true. I'm happy that Disney has Star Wars.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01Because of Galaxy's Edge.
SPEAKER_02Yes. For that reason, because they were able to turn it into IP for the park. Right.
SPEAKER_01What if, this is off the top of my head, what if they started introducing characters in the park that they were going to make a movie for like in two years? See? Wouldn't that be cool? If it became park, known for in the park first, like this new character, like the character that was there. I don't even know if she's still there at Galaxy's Edge. I forgot her name. That used to run around when it first opened.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, with the blue hair and yeah.
SPEAKER_01But if they would have turned her into a character, that would have been really cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I thought I'd done that. I had written it down. I think I took it out for the episode. That'll be next week. But I think Disney needs to do park stuff and build IP off of the park stuff like they did with Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean. Because then if they do it really well, you've built up anticipation. And Disney's just doing a horrible job building up anticipation.
SPEAKER_01They are.
SPEAKER_02So D23.
SPEAKER_01Let's go with more things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That they are trying to build anticipation for products we already know.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So one thing I was excited about the Imagineering story, season two. That was, I'm like, okay, can get behind that.
SPEAKER_01That's a show.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Zootopia 3 is officially in development. Sounds great. Good. I like that. Frozen 3. I honestly don't care because it's gonna be funny.
SPEAKER_01You know it's gonna be good. Frozen, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I like Zootopia more than Frozen.
SPEAKER_01We both do.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I will watch. But not but I'm not really excited about Frozen 3.
SPEAKER_01I'm most excited about Star Wars and then Incredibles 3.
SPEAKER_02The Incredibles. Which doesn't come out forever. I can't remember. I've watched one of Incredibles 1 or Incredibles 2, and I can't remember. Really? I need to sit down and watch both of those again.
SPEAKER_01I love the Incredibles, one of my favorites. So funny. The the D23 preview is really funny with the guy building up to the new the new villain and then and the mode popping in. Yes. I told him to not reveal the secrets. Yes. That was hilarious. And he did so well. That was one of my favorite reveals of the entire thing. But I'm not totally excited about a Lilo and Stitch 2. No, don't really care about that one. I'm kind of excited about a Coco 2. Yeah. Because I really like the first movie.
SPEAKER_02And I thought I'm excited about that ride because I think that they could do a really good job with that ride. Like the Navi River journey, as far as like visually, I think it's gonna be really cool. And so, yeah, Coco 2 is gonna be good. Now, they have the one Ghost Market coming out for big.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna write that down because it might be good. Don't know.
SPEAKER_02But what's weird is that's like Hawaiian cocoa where the boy accidentally goes into the spirit world. It's Hawaiian cocoa you're right. Okay, which is just odd that they would do, and I know it'll be different. I'll enjoy it, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like my we saw a preview for or something for it at one of the movies we went and watched this summer. There was a like a quick little thing about it. And my son Eli said that why is every animated show coming out from any, not just Disney, from anybody, you have to go to a different world. You have to portal somewhere for some reason. Everything. Yeah, everything's a portal to something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01I know Avengers brought a portal in the game, and everyone just runs with it now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Multiverse stuff.
SPEAKER_01But speaking of a speaking of Marvel, though, my my most ex the most excited thing of shows or movies to me is Vision Quest. Vision's one of my favorite characters. Yes. He gets hit so much. He does? Because he's not a he's not an intriguing, exciting character. So people don't love the character, I don't think.
SPEAKER_03Yes, he's the way that I do.
SPEAKER_01I like I like his snarkiness, I think. His dry humor.
SPEAKER_02I'd call it more dry humor than snarkiness because he's he's very virtuous.
SPEAKER_01He is, yes. And this show looks really good. It's gonna be different.
SPEAKER_02It's gonna be different.
SPEAKER_01And I like different.
SPEAKER_02So I never did watch WandaVision. I wanted to.
SPEAKER_01You're on a rule with things you haven't watched today.
SPEAKER_02Because again, they put so much crap out that like I don't want to sit in front of the TV 20 hours a day having to keep up with everything. So I usually wait till shows are done and then I binge watch the whole show. So I can be done in like two weeks, you know, watching 20 hours a day. The where was I going with this? I don't know. So they got a couple new movies, jumping jumping topics here, but Clay and Hexed.
SPEAKER_01Also, same kind of thing. Don't know. Yeah. We'll see when they closer when they come out.
SPEAKER_02It was like Hoppers. I kind of wanted to see the Hoppers, but like if I if I don't see it and I wait till it comes out on Disney Plus, I'll probably be okay.
SPEAKER_01You watched our you've watched it though, right?
SPEAKER_02What Hoppers?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, oh yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. It was good. I liked it. I liked it more than I thought I would. The only other thing I had written, well, I have the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. That might be good, but that's just a might be good. That's all I have on it. Don't know. Yeah. Don't know. And then one I'm very excited for is the Oswald.
SPEAKER_02Oswald.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That's the one.
SPEAKER_02Oswald. All for it. Something about I'm thinking I might actually enjoy that.
SPEAKER_01It may be. That's another who knows.
SPEAKER_02Who knows? It was because I really enjoyed Luca. Yeah. And it kind of makes me wonder you could almost do something with Italy. Because you got Luca, you'll have Gun Pinocchio, cars did something.
SPEAKER_01But you have three to Italy land, you can ride Senior Vespa.
SPEAKER_02Well, I'm thinking like in the Italy pavilion, if they were to put in a ride there. Can you imagine if all of the pavilion pavilions had a ride?
SPEAKER_01I know. They should. We've talked about that before.
SPEAKER_02It would take all day.
SPEAKER_01They should have a ride where you're ride around in a Vespa. Okay. That'd be great.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But Oswald, looking forward to that. Doomsday, Avengers Marvel was kind of done. And then they come out with this. It's like, no, we gotta come up with a whole nother world's coming to an end type of thing. Oh, okay. So I'm curious. I'm really curious.
SPEAKER_01Same with X-Men. We'll see.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's all like I don't know if they're gonna keep Wolverine, Hugh Jackman, as Wolverine.
SPEAKER_01I think he didn't die. He died.
SPEAKER_02Well, he died, but I mean it's a whole new cast, I think. Yeah, but I think they kind of acted like he didn't die.
SPEAKER_01Probably they do that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So movies and shows, they announced things coming out in like 2050. Yes. Who knows when all the stuff's coming out? You got a few years. I stopped paying attention to half of when everything was coming out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like he said a Coco when what's his name? Benjamin Bratt? Oh, is that who plays Ernesto de la Cruz?
SPEAKER_02That sounds right.
SPEAKER_01He announced it. He announced Coco. Okay. And he said, it's and the exciting thing is it's coming out in like, I think he said 2029.
SPEAKER_02November 2029. So at the end of the year.
SPEAKER_01That's the exciting thing he said. The exciting thing is it's coming out so way a long time from now. We're gonna forget about it.
SPEAKER_02In 20 years from now.
SPEAKER_01Thanks, Mr. Bratt.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So let's get into attractions.
Disney World Attractions And Lightning Lanes
SPEAKER_01Let's get into the meat of it.
SPEAKER_02Let's get into the meat. Now, I wonder about with the new attractions, as I was sitting there watching this, and nobody has mentioned this yet. So this is world premiere stuff. Currently, single pass is Tron and Seven Dwarves. And they will do lightning lay or virtual cues for the new Maleficent Coaster, which they announced, and Piston Peak, uh River Run Rally. Yeah, River Run Rally at Piston Peak.
SPEAKER_01Ridge Run Rally.
SPEAKER_02Ridge Run Rally. That's right. Okay. Are they gonna stop? Because they're supposedly only two single pass per park. Will they then put Tron and Seven Dwarves into regular lightning lane and and start charging for the other two?
SPEAKER_01I mean, they they should put seven dwarves in already.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_01It shouldn't be Tron, even Tron probably shouldn't be a single pass.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Like uh I would pay for single pass for about a half dozen rides before I'd pay for it for Tron.
SPEAKER_01Ones that aren't single pass.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So should we start with the Disneyland announcements or Disney World?
SPEAKER_01Do whatever I think I'm all over the place with mine. So go ahead and I'll kind of flip around.
SPEAKER_02So it was funny. Villains Land that they named it Villains Land made sense to me because everything is land, fantasy land, adventureland, tomorrow land.
SPEAKER_01People mad about that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, people thought they should really come up with a clever name. No, no, it's just Villains Land.
SPEAKER_01And it's why would they be mad about Villains? Villains Land's a great name.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. They have they announced both the rides that they're gonna be a coaster and then the magic mirror attraction, which I think is a boat ride down in the dungeons. Sounds awesome.
SPEAKER_01That sounds great. That could be that could be amazing.
SPEAKER_02I'm looking forward to it. We like a maleficent story. I'm excited for it. I'm good with that. Now, the ridge run rally, that looks like it's gonna be a lot of fun because you're not racing anybody, but they're gonna time your lap.
SPEAKER_01This looks so good.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's because it's a four-wheel drive bouncing around.
SPEAKER_01I like a 3D model. Yes, yes, you can get a model of the land, you can get an idea of what's yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Now, Miss Fritter's Daredevil spin-along.
SPEAKER_01That's your kind of thing. No, that's not your kind of thing. That's not totally. Well, it's sort of like Maters.
SPEAKER_02Right. And I was trying to I was wondering if it was gonna be like Maters or if it was gonna be more like Luigi's. So in that in Cars 3, they did the figure eight racing, and I think it's going to be you're gonna be figure eight, so it's gonna feel like you're gonna hit other cars. That'll be fun. So I'm looking, I think it'll be a fun filler ride.
SPEAKER_01And I yeah, we do we do all those fun filler rides.
SPEAKER_02And I think I'm really glad that Disney is building more filler rides, and it's not just all e-ticket. I think that there should be more filler rides in in more of the parks. So Hollywood Studios, all of those. Because I don't think there's enough filler rides, you know, to okay, you got a three-hour wait for this ride, or I go wait 20 minutes for this other thing or whatever. Yeah, give people some options and stuff. So looking forward to both of those, looking forward to both those lands opening up. Yeah, and any lounges that they do. I don't know if they really announced any lounges.
SPEAKER_01No, they just announced one restaurant, I think, didn't they? They didn't say they said there will be restaurants, but only for the Monsters Inkland.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they went into details because it's next year. I think we'll get like destination D23 maybe next year. We'll get more specifics, I think.
SPEAKER_01Maybe we go to that. We could because that's a little more low-key.
SPEAKER_02I think it is. I think it's a lot more low-key.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I like the crowds. And I'm a Disney guy that doesn't mind a crowd. Yeah, but not a crowd for no reason, like looking for a spirit jersey.
SPEAKER_02I I'd be good with going, maybe looking into going to D destination D2. Let's look at that. Now, the only other thing at Magic Kingdom was the carousel progress, Brian Cranston and Jamie Lee Curtis.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_02Fantastic choices. I love this. I'm super happy about the re-theme. Uh-huh. 60s, 80s, the aughts, and then the 2020 of what is the future's supposed to be looking like, or what the 2020 is supposed to look like. I think it's perfect. Yep. Actually, it's gonna be off-world, so the last scene will be what they're guessing. Right.
SPEAKER_01One of my favorite rides, love a reboot, I'm telling you. Yes, excited for it.
SPEAKER_02This is going to be a good reboot reboot for it. Brian Cranston. At first, I was like, oh, well, I guess you can't have John, the same John voice because he's dead. Right. So, but Jamie Lee Curtis, who is a Disney kind of an icon.
SPEAKER_01She's a legend, I think.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, she should be. And so, and Brian Cranston, because just to hear his voice for the next 20 years when going on that ride and stuff, that's gonna be a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_01We're gonna have a meth lab as one of them.
SPEAKER_02So, my response was with Brian Cranston. You're say my name. Right.
SPEAKER_01Carousel of Progress. We get to that.
SPEAKER_02I want Carousel of I want Brian Cranston. This is the future.
SPEAKER_01Carousel of Progress Narcos edition. I want somebody history of marijuana fields at a meth lab with Walter White.
SPEAKER_02But I want somebody to ask Brian Cranston, his character, is this really the future? Or this is the future. You're GD right. You know, I want to pull some some lines out of Breaking Bad and put in there. So they need like a blooper's reel. So anyway, I think that was great casting for that. Love it. Yeah, but look, really looking forward to that. Epcot, they had a couple of quick ones. Good with the spaceship Earth reimagined. Yes. Human communication, human connection. So I think it'll be good. It's been a while. Like you said, stuff needs to be redone.
SPEAKER_01It's been 20 years, and they said it. They said very clearly it's gonna change, but it's gonna be classically Epcot. Yeah, I hope they said that.
SPEAKER_02I hope they can get Judy Dench to uh voice it. And I hope they improve on the audio because the audio really sucked on that one.
SPEAKER_01It does. It's old.
SPEAKER_02Journey into imagination, bringing back the dreamfinder or whatever his name is.
SPEAKER_01Meh. I don't know. I think I think it's gonna be good.
SPEAKER_02I think it'll be good, but I it wasn't. One that, like, it's about time because people were losing their minds. But I think it's people who grew up going to Epcot.
SPEAKER_01I don't think it's about time that he comes back because I just watched this morning. I watched the original ride, and it's so early 80s.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That if they open that same ride now, no one would like it. You might say you liked it back then as a kid and want it back, but you wouldn't like it. You're fooling yourselves. You're kidding yourself.
SPEAKER_03Yes, you're living. It's not that good.
SPEAKER_01But they could redo it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And Figment could be more figmenty than he was in that ride. Because he's more of a he's more of the character. It should be figment driven. So they should change the original ride where it wasn't. It was Dreamfinder driven. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So Animal Kingdom. Yeah, looking forward next year to. Oh, if we did go next year. Will it be open? It should be open.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we probably should.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Because Puebla Esperanza and Tropical Americas. I'm looking forward to all of that. I think it's going to be just a really cool land.
SPEAKER_01And they have your favorite thing: a carousel. A carousel. You like a carousel? I like a carousel. I know. They have a look like they have a hey hey.
SPEAKER_02Did they have a he?
SPEAKER_01They didn't look like it.
SPEAKER_02I saw one. I couldn't, it I wasn't sure if it was a rabbit or a capabera.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I I just I glanced at a picture, I didn't really study it. And then they're bringing back the Expedition Everest.
SPEAKER_02You were excited about that. I didn't really care.
SPEAKER_01You don't care either way. Oh, I thought I thought you would be very excited.
SPEAKER_02Oh, it's my one of my favorite rides, but it's not one of my favorite rides because of the Yeti.
SPEAKER_01Right, but if he had a more active role, it'll make it better.
SPEAKER_02It yes. I think it they should make him really terrifying. But it's they're doing it because the technology caught up, so they don't have to rip out the entire mountain and rebuild it. Right. Which is basically what they had to do with the old Yeti. Yeah. So I think at most, because they'll have it built and ready to go, it's only going to be down for a couple of months to redo that, I think. Maybe three months. And they should be all done. So looking forward to that. Animal Kingdom next year. That was one of the great things. Next year, that's going to be ready to go. And for Hollywood Studios, Monstropolis is ready to go a year early. Which honestly, I thought it was going to be ready in 2027 anyway, just because of how they've already broken ground and their and the timeline that they usually follow.
SPEAKER_01We glazed over the Anton Antonio's Fiesta Dianto.
SPEAKER_02The Encanto, yes.
SPEAKER_01Kind of glazed over that because that's going to be sweet.
SPEAKER_02Now I like the ride cars in that.
SPEAKER_01Those look really the concept of when it is.
SPEAKER_02Yes. On his birthday. On his yeah, on his day.
SPEAKER_01Right. Yes. The day he gets his door.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, which is his fifth. Right. Fifth or sixth birthday.
SPEAKER_01All the animals.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01It's going to be cool.
SPEAKER_02Oh, totally looking for that whole thing. In fact, I'm looking.
SPEAKER_01I don't want to glaze over something that's so cool like that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I actually forgot about that. Right. But yeah. It's it's going to be good. And I like the mismatch of the way the car ride cars look. Yes. How it's like just doors and piano and yeah, all kinds of weird stuff making up the ride cars. So I I'm wondering if it's going to be trackless.
SPEAKER_01Ooh.
SPEAKER_02Because it looks kind of like the trackless ones that they use for Mickey A Minis.
SPEAKER_01With the it might be a Mickey A Minis type ride when you get inside. It could be. That'd be really cool. Or it'd be more immersive with everything you see around you.
SPEAKER_02And it'll feel like you're going upstairs in the cars, but it's supposedly just an optical illusion. Wow. That's that makes you feel like you're going upstairs. Which I kind of wondered if it if it'll tilt back the car ride car, like the frontal lift up for so it feels like you're going up and it'll maybe do a little bounce, like it's bouncing up the stairs. So I'm excited about this. Yeah. I'm just going to do that. I just want to walk, I want to walk through that whole land and check every little detail out. Yes. So because I think they're going to be able to put amazing details into that one. Yes. Because I don't think so. The the problem with like the Asian Africa Pavilion is it the look is a little run down. That is the authentic look. So it feels like you're walking around kind of a run-down park to an extent. Whereas you walk around like Pandora, and it I think it's going to feel like Pandora, that awe of wow. Hopefully. Yeah, they really did a good job with this. So okay. Now can we move along to Hollywood? Yeah, sorry. Yeah. No, no, that was actually that was a good catch. So Monsteropolis opening up early.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so they keep talking. Yeah, I think when they don't open a ride and they just have a land.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I thought the ride was gonna be open too.
SPEAKER_01They said the rides open at a later date.
SPEAKER_02Oh, well, that sucks.
SPEAKER_01So the restaurant's gonna open. They'll have restaurant and shop.
SPEAKER_02The whole the whole area will open in the show.
SPEAKER_01Right in the show. Yeah, but not the ride will open at a later date.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's kind of lame. What's weird is they talked about it's gonna launch you up 40 feet in four seconds, and I'm like, okay, that's not really that impressive. One, two, three, four.
SPEAKER_01It'll be more impressive when you're doing it, probably, because uh the way you're sitting in the middle of the year. Yeah, it's because it's gonna pull you out, and then yeah, it's gonna be impressive.
SPEAKER_02It'll be impressive, but it's like that's 40 in two seconds. Yeah, that'd be terrifying. That would be impressive. That's Knott's Berry farm stuff. That's yeah, that's the park up north going on there through the door warehouse. I looking forward to that one. The Glob Theater, Randy Newman song with the show. You think you'll ever go to Harry Housen's?
SPEAKER_01Will I?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, to eat.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. Maybe it depends on the pricing, I think. If it's way too expensive, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'm wondering what they're gonna do.
SPEAKER_01I don't I don't do a sit-down restaurant anyway. And if you pay a bunch of money, I'd rather buy some merch. Yeah. It depends. I might go there, but we like we talked about, we don't really do the sit-downs in a park too often.
SPEAKER_02No, it because it has to be like we're going two days to a park, or it's gonna be pouring down rain and we get in like the last minute type of thing. So if it's not if it's sushi, I don't know if I'll necessarily go, but I think from what I understand, it's gonna be different food. So I don't know if they're gonna do like weird, kind of gross thinking monster food if that's the idea, but it's gonna be like noodles, a noodle dish, but they'll call it something like worms or whatever.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And that's the shtick. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I'm either way at it right now. Yeah, I'm not excited to go there. We'll see what happens.
SPEAKER_02It'll be more the experience and also to see the octopus animatronic. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So we'll see. I'm not saying I'm gonna go that I want to go. Someday the menu eventually the the menu and how it looks. I'll watch a I'll watch a YouTube on it first.
SPEAKER_02Oh, we'll see. Yeah, we'll definitely see a couple three.
SPEAKER_01I'm not all in for like I don't want to know anything about it until I walk in the door. Yeah, no, I'm gonna know everything about it before I walk in the door if I do.
SPEAKER_02Because that'll determine whether or not you want to spend an hour and a half on uh on a park day, because yeah, maybe you don't want to. So merchandise locations, it's human day, so humans are visiting, that's the whole theme.
SPEAKER_01It's human day. I like that, I like that concept.
SPEAKER_02I think you know it'll be fun. It'll they're doing more with it than they did with the Muppets, which was unfortunate, but overall I think they're improv they've improved Hollywood Studios, yeah. So I didn't write a whole lot about
International Parks Upgrades Worth Watching
SPEAKER_02the other parks. I have a few. Now, the Space Mountain improvements at both Tokyo and Disneyland look good. Yes, and the one in Paris, yes, Space Mountain in Paris De La Terra a la Luna, it's restored to its original form, uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01And it looks really cool. I watched a ride-through today, uh-huh. It's gonna be pretty cool. Yeah, Lion King, yeah, that's gonna be audio animatronic. Yeah, Scar Animatronic, a Disneyland Adventure World in Paris. Yeah, and I'm excited for it. I watched part when you got here, when you got to the studio today, that's what I was watching. Yeah, Cheers to Ears Recording Studio.
SPEAKER_02So Tokyo Disneyland, Earthrise, you know what they didn't mention anything about Dubai?
SPEAKER_01They didn't, not at all.
SPEAKER_02I don't think they they want to talk about it.
SPEAKER_01Maybe it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02I just think that there's we should look up an update.
SPEAKER_01We're doing that after this episode.
SPEAKER_02I don't think they want to talk about it at the moment. What looks really cool, the coolest thing to me for the international parks was Hong Kong Disneyland, the new Avengers Pavilion. That just looks awesome. And they're doing a Tower of Terror type uh ride, Guardians, but with the Avengers themed. But it looks like that tall cement, it looks themed correctly. Whereas actually Guardians looks good because it's all that kind of steampunk look, but it fits with like the whole land. It's gonna be good. Yeah. So Shanghai, they're building a second park.
SPEAKER_01I don't have my other notes there, but yeah, I think my I think my visa's still good for a few years.
SPEAKER_02Oh, is it? I wonder if I should go to that is it one of those 10-year visas? Yeah, okay, China, real quick.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and the only other thing I had was our favorite thing, a fireworks show.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Coming to me.
Disneyland Future Tomorrowland And DCA Plans
SPEAKER_01Oh, this is Disneyland, so we're moving on Disneyland.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, let's let's move on over there.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so that fireworks show, let's talk about that first because it's a lesser of the things we're gonna talk about. Yeah, it's remember dreams come true.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I did not include anything about fireworks or shows or breaks.
SPEAKER_01I include this because I watched it today.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And it's pretty cool for a fireworks show. Now we'll never me or you will probably never watch it. Yeah. We'll walk by and glance.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01As we're going somewhere else.
SPEAKER_02As we're going to a ride.
SPEAKER_01But Julie Andrews does the beginning and ending of the show.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01If they bring back her voice and everything to do it. And the fireworks have projections on the castle of all the different rides at Disneyland.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So it's pretty cool. It changes colors. And it's like a Space Mountain color.
SPEAKER_02So with the parades and the and the fireworks show, I'd always watch those eventually once, and then I was good, and I never really felt like I needed to watch them again. I don't even do that. Where for some people it's a must-do. Right. And I get that. But it's just I don't care. Everybody has their way they do Disney. Now, I do want to watch fireworks on Big Thunder, not Railroad.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, because why not?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because you're right in Big Thunder. But if you love, I mean, if you love a firework, you would like that kind of stuff. But yeah.
SPEAKER_02Before we get more into the Dis talking about Disneyland, so I think because they teased Tomorrow Reimagining. Barely. Barely. They teased it. Now, but they didn't and they mentioned what's coming up, and we'll talk about it in a minute here. But I think stuff that's already kind of all in the works that they mentioned before at DCA. I think this was more about announcing everything else. I think D28 will give us opening dates for Villains Land, Piston and Peak, things like that. If it's not already open in 2028, but I think in 2028 it's going to be about announcing Disney forward and a lot of stuff. It's going to be more Disneyland.
SPEAKER_01Right. And that's what this was something to throw out there for Disneyland. Yeah. The Tomorrowland re-theming. What they're going to do is all they're changing is they're going to put some Galactic Girl kiosks around.
SPEAKER_02Everywhere else.
SPEAKER_01You can do a plastic burger every 10 feet if you like.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. They announced a major transformation of Tomorrowland. It's about freaking time. I talk about that they need to, there's a lot that they re need to redo. But that includes Autopia needs to go away, Finding Nemo needs to go away, and they need to build a whole nother land in that whole area, including Matterhorn. They're not going to do any of that. It's not going to happen.
SPEAKER_01Autopia's staying.
SPEAKER_02They're not. I don't, you know, it has to close down like next year. By February next year, they either have to close it down or they have to be fully battery operated.
SPEAKER_01Right. That's what their plan is.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I think they shut it down.
SPEAKER_01You think so? I don't think they will.
SPEAKER_02I think they'll shut it down.
SPEAKER_01I think the the visuals of like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis riding it are still in the lore with Walt Disney opening it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's nice. It sucks. And I think it needs to be a good one. I agree with that. Actually, I mean it doesn't really suck, but I think it's just it's time. It's it's one of those things that just has a shelf life and the shelf life is over.
SPEAKER_01I agree, but we'll see. We'll see. We'll see.
SPEAKER_02But I but I think, yeah, in 2028 is about Disneyland. So they've got that, but they didn't they didn't really go into anything about Disneyland beyond that. And then California Adventure, the original world of colors returning an updated form. Avengers campus expansion opens in 2028. Infinity Devent Infinity Defense 2028. Start Flight Lab in 2028. And Coco Attraction. Was that next year or is that 2028?
SPEAKER_01They're all 2028. There's nothing going on next year.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I thought that maybe it is a little further.
SPEAKER_01I think probably where everything seems like if it's two years away still.
SPEAKER_02We're hyping up. I think it's going to be earlier than 2028.
SPEAKER_01We're hyping up things we just talked about two years ago.
SPEAKER_02Yes, we're stuff because that was one that was early. That was an early episode that we did. Uh-huh. Was talking about D23 because we started this show right after or right before D23 a couple of years ago, and which we swore we would never miss another D23 and we missed D23. But they made some vague announcements. They got a little more specific. I think they're going to be very specific. Hopefully. And that's the whole thing. I think they're going to be more specific with the Disney Forward stuff in 2028 because they're going to have Avengers Campus done. They're going to have DCA done. So they're going to have more on Tomorrowland. They will probably be a year out from the parking structure, the new parking structure being done, because they've broken ground on that. And that new walkway over in between the good neighbor hotels across the street. So you're completely walking over whatever the Harbor Boulevard. They did talk about Avatar and that ride. Right. And that it is going in there where Monsteropolis was. I was watching somebody and they were talking about how they rotated it. I couldn't. He explained it really horribly, so it didn't make a whole lot of sense, but it is going in there. And the buses, the Toy Story buses. So they have to find a new place for the Toy Story buses to go.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
Merch Scalping Hot Take And Verdict
SPEAKER_01Let me give you a preview of a hot take episode coming up with a hot take from D23. Okay. This is crazy. They need to ban selling merchandise on eBay, Disney merchandise on eBay after it comes out. Like what do you mean? People were selling those stupid hats. From D23? Those stupid little D23 Mickey ears you got for free. Really? For two hundred trying to sell them for like $200 on eBay that same day.
SPEAKER_02That's lame.
SPEAKER_01And people were all the internet saying, I can't get a hat. I want a hat. Well, people were probably going back through and getting hats. They're just little cheap white. Mini ears. Mickey ears. They're Mickey ears.
SPEAKER_02People were were getting too many of them. It wasn't just you get your one pair and you keep going.
SPEAKER_01Probably.
SPEAKER_02They were taking a bunch extra.
SPEAKER_01They were probably. Somehow they were they were they did it all the time with the shopping.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01People complaining about the shopping kiosks there. The people like would throw stuff on the floor and go through it and find out what they wanted and buy a bunch of stuff and have like bags full. I mean, we'll we we'll go on eBay after this and we'll look for things.
SPEAKER_02That's lame. I'm glad I don't shop because of that stuff, and I understand it ticks a lot of people off, but I don't have to worry about that stuff because it's and I mean for the most part you won't either because you don't feel like anything for more money than you don't feel like you need to have that stuff.
SPEAKER_01I don't need to have anything.
SPEAKER_02Yes. So you will just but I need to have things. You will just buy whatever when it's there, when it's available.
SPEAKER_01I don't care about the new popcorn bucket coming out or the new sweatshirt or the yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Okay. So there we go. There's D23, kind of our takes on it. Overall, a bit of a dud.
SPEAKER_01I think I think it was too. I was kind of disappointed. I'm pretty glad we didn't go, except for going to the parks with those little short lines.
SPEAKER_02Short lines, 30 minutes max for anything. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Five-minute Big Thunder for a while. We've got Big Thunder six times in a row, baby.
SPEAKER_02I would have too. I know. That's when it says five minutes, that's where they don't kick you off. They just say you want to go again, stay in your seat.
SPEAKER_01It's awesome. Maybe we go to D23 in two years and don't even care about D23.
How To Support Us Closing Toast
SPEAKER_02If you'd like to support us, send us a check and pay for our trip. No, you don't have to do that. We'll pay for our own trips.
SPEAKER_01You could.
SPEAKER_02You could.
SPEAKER_01It's not against I mean.
SPEAKER_02Hey, if you want to book a room for Aaron and Aaron at cheer for under Cheers to Ears at the one of the parks for D23, destination D23 next year, feel free. I think they have it at Coronado Springs. I'll go back to Coronado Springs. Let's do it.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. Thanks for thank you.
SPEAKER_02Yes, thank you for thinking of us in that way.
SPEAKER_01But you can also support us other ways just by getting in contact with us, just by liking us.
SPEAKER_02Like, subscribe, give us a review, a five star review. And if we're not five star, email us at cheers to number twooutlook.com and tell us how we can improve. Yes, sir. And we might try to do that. But until next week.
SPEAKER_01Until next week. Cheers.
People on this episode
Podcasts we love
Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.
Cheers 2 Ears!
Aaron & Aaron
Enchanted Ears: A Disney Adults Podcast
Angela & Joe: Your Disney Friends
Disneyland 4-Ever
Disneyland 4-Ever