Episode Transcript
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0:00
Music.
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Bucket list trips once in a lifetime destinations that we'll get to someday
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we're here to help you make your travel dreams a reality buy the ticket take.
0:38
Music.
0:39
The trip where do you want to go come on come on come on now tell me what's on your bucket list,
0:48
it's a beautiful day, Welcome back to another meeting of the Gold Key Adventurer Society. My name is Dan Leonard.
1:13
Hi, Dan. Joining me this week in the studio is Heather Strait.
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Hello. And Mr. Jeff Williams.
1:19
Hey there. Hi there. Ho there. Sorry I blew your hi, Dan. I was reading my notes.
1:25
We'll fix the timing in post. Or not.
1:28
It's funnier for me just to screw it up. We'll leave the uncomfortable silence
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for everybody to experience together. Yeah.
1:36
It was so good. I'm going to leave it. The uncomfortable silence like people have when they're listening to this show. Ouch.
1:46
It's like we've only done this like 200 times or so.
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Well, our show, as always, is brought to you by Key to the World Travel.
1:55
Key to the World Travel is a full-service travel agency specializing in theme
1:59
parks, cruising, and destinations around the world.
2:03
Head to www.keytotheworldtravel.com for more details and a no-obligation quote
2:08
on the vacation of a lifetime.
2:11
Around the world, around the world.
2:15
Damn it, Jeff. We've got to pay for the licensing now. What if I just sing that little bit?
2:21
You're getting dangerously close. We've got like 10 seconds.
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That was two seconds tops. Luckily, I sing out of tune and off key, so they'll never know.
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They claim no copyright. We'll call it a parody.
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Yes. Fair use.
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Well, if you spend any time at all hanging out with the Gold Key Adventurers... We're sorry. Yeah.
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But you also know that we've got a lot of opinions about the best places to
2:49
eat and drink around the Walt Disney World Resort.
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So many opinions. And today we're going to ignore all of those opinions because
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we're talking about restaurants, but we're not going to talk about food and
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beverage at all. Oh, that's tough, Dan.
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I know. It's kind of the whole reason for those restaurants to exist.
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Instead, what we're going to try to do is we're going to try to rate some of
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the best and maybe some of the worst eateries on Disney property based solely
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on their decor and their atmosphere.
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I have opinions. Minions. Some of them might be unpopular, but here we are. Yeah, mine too.
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Here we are. I need to get to a few of mine. Yeah, the atmosphere of a restaurant is almost as important as the food that
3:31
they serve. If the vibes are off, the meal's going to suck.
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And then when you add in Disney's, you know, they've themed the heck out of
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everything, and they write background stories for every bathroom and snack stand
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and resort hotel that they've got.
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So they really do a pretty good
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job on the atmosphere at most of the places and
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it can kind of elevate yeah i
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think so yeah there's some that there's some
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that could use a little tweaking but we'll get there so uh we're just going
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to do this kind of like a we're going to go around the virtual table and talk
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about our nominations for restaurants with the best atmosphere around Disney
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property and then at the end we'll share some spots to get dishonorable mention.
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I have five bests and five worsts.
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I didn't get quite that detailed, but I've got opinions on lots of places.
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I have like 10 of each. Perfect.
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All right. Well, Heather, how about we go with one of the best?
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I bet we have some overlap. Yeah, there probably are some overlaps.
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I prepared for that quite a bit. Heather, why don't you start us off with one
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of your best atmospheres for eating? One of my best atmospheres. Yes.
4:45
Citricose at the Grand Floridian Resort post-referb.
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Yeah. Yeah, make sure you specify that for anybody thinking,
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what the hell are you talking about? If you haven't been since COVID and the reopen, then... Yeah,
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pre-COVID, the food and beverage there has always been spectacular.
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Always. Before they redid the whole joint, it was looking rough. It was stuck in the 90s.
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Lots of that beautiful hunter green and maroon weird patterns.
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It was not good. It looked like a car lot in 1995.
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It did. But they gutted the whole place, and now it is gorgeous.
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Slightly Mary Poppins themed, but it's not an in-your-face kind of Mary Poppins at all. Not cartoony.
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Elegant, British-looking, feminine, but not too much. Really good.
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Absolutely gorgeous in there now. And it's really great views out over the resort.
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You can even watch the fireworks from in there.
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They've redone the whole thing. The bar is new.
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All the soft goods, all the tables, chairs, updated the menu a little bit.
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It's one of my favorite places for a nice, elegant evening meal.
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And the service, as always, is impeccable, which helps with the ambiance there.
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Because they don't overdo it with talking to you.
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They're not playing tricks on you and doing wacky skits and bullshit like that.
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They're just really good servers that know what they're doing.
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And the Mary Puppet stuff is so subtle.
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There's a private room for private dinners. It's like the wine room.
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And in the window, there's Mary's carpet bag and her umbrella.
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And then there's things like the some of the patterns on the chairs are kind
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of vaguely carpet baggy.
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I don't know how to put that, you know. Her little her outfit when she's dancing
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with Bert in the cartoon world, the bustier tie up front, the back of all the
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chairs have that lacing on them. Like the front of her dress is really cool. The light fixtures look vaguely
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like upturned umbrellas, which is kind of cool.
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And there's little birds and things on the light fixtures all over in there. It's very pretty.
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Great place to grab a drink, too.
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Absolutely. The drink menu is great. The first time I've ever eaten there at
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all was post-refurb when we were there during our monorail pub crawl episode back in August.
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How were we there that night? Pub Crawl was so successful I forgot it we had
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an excellent dinner and it was definitely it struck me that it was elegant and
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beautiful but it didn't feel, uptight at all no not at all very relaxing it's just a nice place to sit and
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be in without being the way I feel about the Grand Floridian in general not
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stuffy at all it's not like It's like Victoria and Albert's next door where
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you have to be wearing a jacket. Yeah. Right. You have to do what?
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Be wearing a jacket. Oh.
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Victoria and Albert's is jacket on and Citrico's is jacket off. Yeah. Jacket optional.
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Ah, that's, yes. We'll just go with that.
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We're funny to ourselves jeff what's
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on your list are we doing all restaurants i had one that is
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i love the vibe in there but it's really just a bar no i
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have i have lounges on mine yeah so i love the abracadabra lounge uh on the
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boardwalk just outside of epcot i absolutely love the vibe in there it's speaking
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of subtle it's like it's called abracadabra because it's magician themed But it's not over the top.
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There's not up-close magic guys in your face.
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I kind of wish there were. I mean, I wish there was. They have beautifully lit
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display cases of old magic tricks and mannequins. Magic paintings.
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Yeah, magic paintings. And the whole thing is just kind of a nod to classic,
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I'd say, vaudeville-era magicianry.
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I still wish they had done some cool things with the drinks.
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The drinks, you know, made the drinks a little bit more magic-y,
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you know, something glowing or smoking or, you know, something like that.
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Yeah, they kind of started going that direction then backed off of it.
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Yeah. Definitely, it has a feel of, it's like the backstage bar where the musicians,
9:37
not musicians, the magicians would be hanging out.
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Yes. It's not a place where they go to perform magic, but it's their hangout.
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You can almost always get in there. it's it's it's
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never empty but it's never fully crowded where you
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can't squeeze in and the way the seating
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areas are they're like little rather than tables
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and chairs it's banquets and conversation uh
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setups so like little coffee tables and
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that so i always wind up talking to other people when i'm
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in there and i've met some really fun people when
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i've been in there there's two tables right at the
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front and then a nice bar you can sit at but then the rest
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of it is just lounge area and i guess that used
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to be just the waiting room for the what's
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the whatever the trattoria alforna next door they turned it into i don't really
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remember what was in there to catch a drink while the crowd disperses when you
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leave epcot and you don't want to get on the skyliner yet and it's a good spot
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there between trattoria and flying fish if you're waiting for a reservation to grab a drink. Mm-hmm.
10:41
Yes. I love the lighting and everything in there. It's all gold hues and velvet.
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It's just really pretty in there. Chill vibe. So when I was putting together my list, I was thinking about kind
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of along the lines of my rule for what I like to eat when I'm vacation.
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I don't like to... If I can get it at home, I'm not going...
11:00
I'm not going to order it or eat there when I'm on vacation. Also...
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These aren't necessarily super fancy spots that I picked up,
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but places where the atmosphere does something I can't experience anywhere near where I am. So I love.
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There's several of these, and they're not going to wow you on the menu necessarily.
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And I'll start with the sci-fi dine-in.
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Oh, yeah. I'm a sucker. I'm a sucker for any place where you go inside during
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daytime and you go through the door and you're outside at night.
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Suddenly it's night and outdoors. And the atmosphere there and the attention
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to detail where you walk past where the set changes and you can see it looks
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like backstage in a theater kind of on those sets.
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And then you walk in to the outdoors and there's even a snack stand and the
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picnic tables and the car. And I just love the atmosphere of sitting there.
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That is a huge favorite of my oldest son.
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He loves eating in the cars, watching the old crappy sci-fi movies up on the
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big screen that they've never changed the reel, but they're so great.
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I do wish they'd refresh that. Yeah, maybe make it a little bit longer so that you don't see it four times during the meal.
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Yeah, now that with all the Disney Plus stuff, they could just turn that into
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a retro ad for Disney Plus, essentially.
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Back in the day when they were still doing Star Wars weekends.
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They had a Star Wars character meal in there that was fantastic.
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They had really wacky, not just the main characters, they had the cantina band walking around.
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And they changed the, everything up on the screen was from the original Star Wars movies.
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It was one of my favorite dining experiences at Walt Disney World ever. And I miss it.
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I absolutely love that too, Dan. And I had that on my list and I debated it
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and I wound up taking it off because I don't like the seating arrangements if
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you're more than two people because I don't like...
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You can't talk at all in there. Yeah, you're sitting in single file, like in a weird rose.
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I don't love that, but I do love the whole vibe.
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And like on my list still is the sort of similar thing with the, jeez, the German one.
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Beer Garden? Beer Garden. I was going to say Old Heidelberg,
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but that's a place in Alabama. Well, let's talk about that one next because that was on my list also.
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So, beer garden does the same thing to you, right? Yeah, absolutely.
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I love any faux outdoor, indoor area. It's like, you know, like I'm always blown
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away when you're in the, quote, outdoor sections of Pirates of the Caribbean.
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Same thing. Like, whoa, it looks like an outside, but I'm inside. Or inside.
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Just the whole thing that you're inside a building, but it looks like you're
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outside. And I love the vibe of it in there. It's loud.
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It's obnoxious. You sit with strangers sometimes, but that is the fun of it.
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It's like a German beer hall, and I'm here for it. And I love German food.
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It's not for everybody for sure, but give me sausages and bread.
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Stuff you're saying not everybody likes warm potato salad
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yeah i love it oh i love that
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stuff with the hot bacon dressing oh yeah out
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outside inside the one on my list from that is the san angel in in mexico the
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one inside the pyramid it's cool in there yeah and but it's the same sort of
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thing it feels like you're sitting out on a patio in front of a volcano but
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you're in a It's gorgeous back there. My favorite is to glance into that on my way into La Cava del Tequila.
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There you go. It's cool over there, but I'm going to go in here.
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But yeah, it's that indoors and you go outdoors at night.
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You get the sounds of the water and the boats.
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Yeah, even the sound effects. You get a little cricket and the whole little outdoorsy faux stuff.
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I love it. We're still talking about best ambiance.
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Yeah, let's stay positive until the end. You're not going to be shocked that
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a lot of mine are the higher-end establishments.
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Next up on my list is Topolino's. Topolino's Terrace. Hey, that's on mine, too.
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At the top of Riviera. Yes, that restaurant is gorgeous.
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And the views from up there, you're looking out over the resort,
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and it looks like you're looking out at the rooftops of Paris.
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You can see some of the fireworks from up there.
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You can see Epcot from up there. And they've done a great job with the ambiance
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in that restaurant. It's just beautiful. You can pour hot oil onto the peasants from the outdoor terrace. Yes, that's true.
15:53
The outdoor terrace has a little bar out there. And when it's a nice night sitting
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out there, having a drink is great. That's my only downside to that place is I wish they had done more with that
16:03
terrace. With outside, yeah. Yeah, like a temporary pop-up bar. I don't know. They should have done a little
16:09
more out there, I think. But I love the food is great.
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And the view of watching the skyliner's cars float over the lake there at night. It's so pretty.
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Great place. Great little bar in there. And if you can't get a reservation for
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dinner, you can always go in and sit in the lounge and have the full menu, which is fantastic.
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And it doesn't feel, the lounge area is nice and open and doesn't feel like
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you're just shoved in at a bar. Yeah, it's big. A lot of the bars or lounge areas in a lot of their higher-end
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restaurants is just like a little bitty bar. And if you're not sitting at the bar, there's no seats and all.
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But this has ample seating around the bar. They did a great job with that.
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Very similar. I also have Toledo at the top of the Grand Destino Tower on my list.
17:01
I have literally Toledo slash Topolino.
17:04
It's a similar vibe. That one, the ambiance in that one is even better because,
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again, you sort of feel like you're indoors, outdoors.
17:12
Not quite, but they've got all those trees down the middle.
17:15
Yeah, and that beautiful stained glass lit from above ceiling in there is so gorgeous.
17:23
It's gorgeous. Yeah. And, again, they have a really nice lounge right outside. The Dahlia is great.
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Great ambiance in there, too. And that place is open pretty late for a Disney
17:35
hotel thing. It's open until 1230, I think.
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And they're seating outside on the terrace next to Dahlia, which is when it's nice.
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You can look out. You're looking out over Hollywood Studios,
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so you can see if they have any fireworks going on there.
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You can see the back of Star Wars Town USA from there, which is great.
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And their food is awesome. They have the best charcuterie board on property there.
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Oh, yeah. Again, for an experience, especially since it's the closest thing
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to an experience that's now gone, and you mentioned Star Wars Town USA,
18:06
I like the Docking Bay 7, yes, in Galaxy's Edge. In Galaxy's Edge, yeah, that is a good one.
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Again, it's another one of those, it's just, you know...
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The food, there's hits and misses on the menu, but we're not talking about the food.
18:25
Just the spot where I can go in and hang out in a dirty space station hangar
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bar and, you know, sit on weird cargo crates.
18:39
There's several of the booths that are kind of in these little alcove areas
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where you can have a little moment where it feels like you're going to shoot
18:48
off Greedo's head or something. And it's just one of those successful areas. Live in your Star Wars dream.
18:55
Right. If it weren't for the annoying guests who don't want to live their dream
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the way I do, it would be the perfect immersion into the world of Star Wars.
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So I put that on my list of places that I love. Well, agree to disagree.
19:09
Again, we're not talking food. I feel like the theming is lacking.
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Like, other than the weird names, which now they've changed,
19:15
it feels like I'm sitting in that backstage place at Hollywood Studios that's
19:19
over there by the old Star Wars ride.
19:23
It's just like a, I don't know, food court to the stars.
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The food actually is good, though. I could, well, we could do a whole other
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episode about why Galaxy's Edge is far underrated. Yes.
19:35
I think we've touched on it. Yeah, I'd rather be over there at the,
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what's the bar? What am I drawing in blank?
19:42
Oga's. Oga's Cantina. Yeah. Yes. That should be three times as big as it is and have food.
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But that's another discussion.
19:52
The ambiance in there is great when they have not shoved every living human
19:57
being they can fit in there at any one time. Yeah.
20:01
Why they made that place so little and some stuff so big, I'll never understand.
20:06
It's a ton of fun, and I love the ambiance in there. That is Star Wars to me.
20:11
But so often when I'm in there, you can't move.
20:14
You're at a stand-up table with 27,000 other people, and that part irritates
20:19
me. It's been much better lately.
20:23
But we had an experience where there were seven of us. We had my family and Heather's family.
20:31
They sit us at this table, and we're like, great, this is the first time we've
20:35
ever got one of these booths. And we kind of barely fit there.
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And then the server comes up and says, oh, you need to scoot over.
20:43
We've got to get another family at this table with you. Four more people.
20:46
What are you talking about? Eleven people at a booth fit for seven or eight.
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It was not comfortable at all. Yeah, I want to love Oga's, and my first experience there was great.
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But every time I've been back, and it's mostly because of the overcrowding,
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A, they've dumbed down the menu some, and B,
21:07
but we're not talking about menu, the waitstaff and the bartenders weren't playing
21:14
along with they want you to leave. When they do, it's fantastic.
21:18
When they do, it's great. When they do, it's great. But they have not been lately,
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and it's a real big disappointment. It's kind of like the way, yeah. My best experience there was when Jeff and
21:29
I did the Star Cruiser May it rest in peace.
21:31
We had so much fun in there that day because the wait staff got in on the,
21:38
they saw that we were on the Star Cruiser, that we were in there on a mission
21:42
and they played it up and we had a ton of fun.
21:46
Yeah, they were awesome. They were fantastic. They were like, this guy needs secret information over here,
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yelling and drawing attention to the whole thing.
21:54
And that's what that place should be.
21:57
And I don't know what the proprietor there needs to get their poop in a group
22:02
at that place because it's really kind of gone downhill.
22:05
It's so cool looking and the robot DJ is awesome and the drinks are good.
22:11
It looks awesome in there, but it's overcrowding and just total lack of playing
22:15
along. We also had a few good experiences in there.
22:19
It was not long after the COVID reopening.
22:23
They were trying to keep the number of people down to a minimum.
22:27
And so they were staying open for one to two hours past park close.
22:32
And you could grab a post-park close reservation and be in there.
22:37
And then it was spectacular. So fun. I never got to do that. That was my first experience there.
22:42
It was amazing. And again, the staff was playing along then.
22:47
They were really getting into it because it wasn't overcrowded.
22:50
They weren't trying to serve so, so many people all at once.
22:55
They could focus on your group. And it was, again, perfect Star Wars immersion in there.
23:01
And then you got to walk out when the whole park was closed and you're by yourself in Galaxy's Edge.
23:07
It was pretty spectacular. And that's just not something you can get anymore.
23:11
More wouldn't you think that oga's selling alcohol makes more money than a merchandise.
23:18
Shop i would i would guess it's not cheap especially
23:22
if you're i just don't know why they have like yeah like just
23:25
get rid of one of the two stores or three stores that sell all the same stuff
23:30
and make that place much larger i do not get why they made it they sell some
23:34
expensive souvenir mugs and stuff in there too if you wanted it to look like
23:39
it does so that it looked like like the one from the movies,
23:42
essentially, make two of them or three of them.
23:45
So when you get let in, you don't know which of the three identical bars you're in.
23:48
And then they can even still do that out the back. Just like the Millennium Falcon.
23:53
Yes. They could expand it. You're in the same exact place.
23:56
And it doesn't need to rotate or be anything complicated. You're just going to this room.
24:00
Yep. Well, here's what they've got. They've got that giant tunnel space where
24:03
the Star Cruiser guests used to come in, right? Yeah. Oh, good point.
24:07
Right now, all they're using that for is check-in for the photo memory magic
24:13
moment, whatever that special photo package is.
24:17
Expand the cantina over there. Yeah, or put a second Club 33 over there.
24:21
Or take the Star Cruiser and make fantastic Star Wars themed dining and lounges in there.
24:32
The bar inside of there was also too small.
24:36
Yeah, that would have been on my ambiance list, but it does not exist anymore.
24:42
While we're on a tangent, which is really odd for us. Did you see that they're
24:49
taking two of the drinks from the Star Cruiser and they're putting them in ogres at Disneyland?
24:55
At Disneyland, yes. Oh, which drinks?
24:59
The Mustafarian Fire one, right?
25:02
The one in the Warp Club. Fiery Mustafarian. Oh, yeah. They added the heat to
25:06
it, yeah. Yeah, and then the Silver Sea Martini.
25:10
Yeah, that was like a purple. Yeah, and they're serving the martini in the glass
25:15
that the Dagobah Vimlet was in. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we have several of those. It's because they've got a warehouse
25:20
full of that crap they've got to get rid of. Right, yeah.
25:23
But only at Disneyland because Walt Disney. Of course. Why?
25:27
Walt can't have nice things, I guess. Yeah, remove it from the people that loved
25:30
it in Florida and then send the drinks somewhere else.
25:34
Disney just keeps on winning, don't they?
25:39
Well, anyway, do we have any more positives? Do we have places? I do. I have another one.
25:45
Oh, go ahead. This one might be on your list, too. Geyser Point at the Wilderness Lodge.
25:51
It's not, but I do love the vibe there. Out there on the lake.
25:56
It's covered. There's fans. I love that place so much. I have one called Trader Sam's. Oh, what?
26:05
Oh, yeah. It's just all vibes all the time.
26:10
I love that vibe. And a lot of people don't know this about me,
26:14
but I am a bit of a tiki aficionado. Huh.
26:18
Weird. This is new information. I never would have guessed.
26:21
If you can deal with the line or the comeback two hours later or whatever and
26:25
get inside that place, it's fantastic. It's worth it. It really is. The patio is also great, except for it's the only
26:30
place on Disney property that I consistently get mosquito bites outside on that
26:36
patio for whatever reason. But the inside there is awesome with the music and they play along just enough
26:42
that it's not super annoying but good servers amazing drinks good food it's
26:48
just my 100 love it love it there.
26:53
I also had another, I had a few lounges, and this one I'm being specific about a specific area.
27:00
Enchanted Rose, also at the Grand Floridian, in the library area.
27:05
Mm-hmm. It's a little quieter. It's quieter in there.
27:08
I put the Enchanted Rose, the other room, on my worst ambiance list because it's so loud.
27:16
There's no soft furnishings in there. That room that used to be the gentleman's
27:21
pants store or whatever it was. Pants and belts and haberdashery. The main room has the bar, and it's fine.
27:28
But that side room is an echo chamber, and it is awful. Oh, terrible.
27:32
But the library with all of the so beautiful in there. Yeah.
27:38
Love the ambiance there. I could sit there and have fancy champagne cocktails for hours.
27:43
It's full of soft chairs and couches and conversation areas.
27:47
Lots of heavy draperies. Is it because it reminds you of being at your home office? Yes.
27:53
It does have the same exact cabinetry. Yes.
27:57
I forgot about that. That is true. I'm looking at it right now.
28:00
It's possible that maybe where I got some of the color choices for my office.
28:06
I don't know. Another kind of off-the-beaten-path one that I love is Enzo's
28:11
Hideaway, which is sort of in a hidden tunnel-y thing down below.
28:17
A little bit of a speakeasy. This is a two-parter. So it's down below Maria
28:22
and Enzo's, which I ate at one time. And the food was pretty good at Maria and Enzo's, but it's like eating in an airport or something.
28:29
It's very big and cavernous and loud.
28:34
But the Enzo's Hideaway is everything that isn't. The whole conceit of that
28:38
is that it was a secret restaurant built in the tunnels under Disney Springs there.
28:43
Yeah, like it's a speakeasy. But it's super cool looking. The food there is
28:48
amazing. And all of the servers are genuine Italians.
28:52
And it's just a great vibe in there. It's kind of quiet. And it's,
28:57
I don't know, just a cool, cool vibe.
29:00
And if you ask where the restroom is, you have to leave that and go in this
29:03
other tunnel where you come out in my next favorite one, which is the Edison.
29:09
I love the vibe inside of the Edison.
29:14
It's like the 1920s slash steampunks slash future. Like, it's so cool in there.
29:21
And the whole thing is like it was in a—the utility works for Disney Springs
29:26
Old Town City or whatever. But they've got modern jukebox people that are playing, like,
29:33
the fun oldie times version of modern hits.
29:36
They have entertainment starting at 10, awesome drinks. I love that place.
29:41
It's a little bit loud. Live, jazz. But other than that, it's super fun.
29:46
It's really creative. I like how you're going to find things there that you can't get.
29:50
And a pro tip when you're done at Maria and Enzo's, leave and go to the bathroom.
29:54
Go in the back door to Edison and avoid that $10 cover charge, my friend. There you go.
30:01
Genius. That's what the people are coming to this show for. That's right.
30:05
Tips like that. We all have to go to the bathroom together down this tunnel.
30:10
At the same time. Yeah, you're just sharing a bathroom with the downstairs part of the Edison.
30:15
But we've sat at all the different areas of the Edison. There's so many bars.
30:19
We can see the stage. There's multiple bars.
30:21
Little upstairs corner bar is great. There's two bars downstairs.
30:26
Just, I love that vibe. The inside of Jock Lindsay's. Yes.
30:31
Where you're actually surrounded by the story and the way it feels like it's
30:35
an old place that is alive. And you're just one of the regulars there. I love that kind of look,
30:41
that feel to it. I like sitting in the diving bell.
30:46
They've got a little booth for four or so, maybe six tops. That one's always
30:51
fun. It's inside of a diving bell.
30:53
It's great. But if you know, even if you didn't know anything about the sort
30:58
of Indiana Jones lore there,
31:01
it's so well themed with the retro airplane stuff. Just a really cool vibe.
31:11
I wish they ever used, they always have the, they have a skipper or a jungle
31:16
cruise boat that is their balcony, but they never use it anymore. It's always closed off.
31:23
Yeah, that'd be a really cool place to sit. That looks awesome.
31:25
And that takes me to the other place that I had on my list, but that one also
31:29
comes with a caveat at the skipper canteen.
31:32
But I don't want to sit in the main room. I've never sat in the main dining
31:35
room there, but it looks a little cafeteria like.
31:38
A little bit, yeah. It seems really noisy and not as pleasant,
31:42
but if you can get into the back room. The library.
31:48
Yeah, the SEA members lounge area is nice there.
31:54
It's got the fun nods to story.
31:57
It also depends on your wait staff.
32:01
Some of the skippers are a little bit better at doing the shtick than others.
32:05
I will say that that main area is supposed to look like a cafeteria for the skippers.
32:11
So that is kind of part of the vibe. Which is fine.
32:14
This is not what I want. But those back rooms are much better.
32:18
Says the guy who likes the docking station over in Star Wars.
32:21
Yeah, but it's a little bit different. I could explain, but it's not worth it. You're going to give me shit either way.
32:31
I'm going to take crap either way. Yeah, let's just take it, Dan. You know us so well.
32:37
No, Skipper's Canteen was the last one I had on my list, too, for positives.
32:43
Oh, I had one more. California Grill. That is the last one on my list, too.
32:48
It's just gorgeous at every level. Yes, just pretty.
32:53
I love that you have to take a special elevator that only goes to there.
32:57
And when it opens, ding, you're just there at the hostess stand.
33:00
With that beautiful wall of wine behind them.
33:03
Wall of wine. I don't even like wine, but it's so pretty. And a beautiful bar.
33:06
Great lounge area for while you wait.
33:09
I just love it. And then, of course, the fireworks from inside and there's a
33:13
huge balcony to go outside on either side of the restaurant.
33:17
And look, it's at the very top of the Contemporary.
33:20
It is perfection. I love it. Love it.
33:25
Not sure what the vibe is. I guess California, but it's, I don't know.
33:30
It's just pretty. They have pretty furnishings and beautiful light fixtures.
33:35
Yeah, the bar is great. You can sit up there at the bar and watch them rolling the sushi. It's nice.
33:42
You got another highlight, Dan?
33:45
No, that's all the highlights on my list that I could come up with.
33:48
You ready to jump right into the crappy? Dishonorable mention.
33:52
All right, let's go to dishonorable mention. And I want to start with one first
33:55
that might get, it's going to get a little bit of outrage, but you have to remember
33:59
we're not talking about the food here. Okay. I hate Steakhouse 70. Oh my gosh, that's the number two on my list.
34:07
It is just this sterile white room. There's no soft goods.
34:12
It feels like a hospital cafeteria or something. It's not a nice place to sit. The food is phenomenal.
34:20
And this doesn't apply to the lounge. I love the lounge. The lounge is perfectly fine.
34:25
The lounge is beautiful and mid-century themed. One of my favorite bars on property.
34:29
But then you move over into the restaurant and they did nothing with it.
34:34
Nothing sucks well they didn't close long enough the
34:37
way it closed and this thing opened like a month literally
34:40
later well and they really didn't do much it looks like
34:43
it looked when it was the the wave they just change up
34:46
some of the furniture a little bit a hodgepodge of ideas going yes now that
34:50
back room is cool some of the some of the individual pieces and artwork in there
34:56
but the furniture is terrible the tables are too close together and it's not
35:00
a it's not a relaxing dining experience.
35:04
I still go there because the food is good and it's easy to get in a reservation.
35:08
I actually love to eat breakfast there because the breakfast food is phenomenal and I can overlook it.
35:14
But dinner, I'm not really interested in eating there for dinner because of the ambiance.
35:19
Right. All the food is great, but sitting in there feels like sitting in the
35:22
food court at one of the value. And I can get that spectacular burger in the lounge at the bar. Right.
35:29
They have a couple of these round booths. If you sit at that,
35:33
for some reason, it's a lot better. But everything else just feels like, yeah, like you're out.
35:37
Yeah. Food court, like you're just in the middle of this.
35:40
There's nothing to section anything off. I don't know.
35:43
Don't like it. It feels like a cafeteria, sort of. I'll sit at the bar and order
35:47
that burger with the pork belly on it.
35:49
So speaking of just zero vibe, Chef Mickey.
35:54
Oh, this is number one on my list.
35:56
This is literally like you're eating at MCO in the food court.
36:01
Right. And not the good display. It is awful. Like that whole just sitting in the middle of an open atrium style like that.
36:10
And then it's that god-awful music. It's so dated. Every time the characters
36:14
come through, the menu is like you're eating at an old country buffet in the
36:19
middle of a crowded airport. Yes. With people looking up at you from above.
36:24
Like, ugh, that place sucks on every level.
36:29
Yes. And actually, it reminds me a lot of Goofy's Kitchen out at Disneyland,
36:33
which has a terrible ambiance.
36:35
Yeah, Goofy's Kitchen is better than Chef Nick's. But better than Chef Nick's.
36:39
It is, because there's a roof. And it's its own enclosed area.
36:44
It's not open to like we just saw not too long ago a picture of somebody like
36:48
walking by and Pluto turned away from the guests that were inside and like peeked over the wall.
36:55
And it's like you're just on display. It's weird. Yes.
36:59
They hate it. It's gross. Yeah. Yeah.
37:02
You got another one? uh for me
37:05
i had we already you you guys covered my
37:08
number one and two and we talked about enchanted rose
37:11
the other room that i don't like the next
37:14
one i had is garden grill yes i it needs to be redone i mean the the shtick
37:23
of the revolving restaurant is not doing it i've eaten there before when it
37:28
turned so slowly i never even got to the part where you can look Look into the right, I like.
37:33
Yeah. Well, here's the problem, too, though, because I really love the idea of that.
37:37
But you don't, there's nothing to see unless you walk over to the railing.
37:41
You can see the top of the house and you can see the top of the tree.
37:45
Other than that, it's crowded and it's dark and it's just not.
37:49
And if you're seated on that inner circle top level, you never see anything
37:53
except the 1980s furnishings.
37:57
Yeah. It's not good. That's an awful one. It's on my list.
38:01
Also, I call this the same restaurant because I confuse which is which.
38:06
T-Rex and Rainforest Cafe. Oh, yeah. Just loud, awful. If you don't have little kids, and even if you do have little kids.
38:15
Even if you do, we were waiting for a table one time at T-Rex,
38:18
and we went there because Wyatt was a kid, and he wanted to have,
38:22
like, their version of Build-A-Bear thing. So while we were waiting, we did the Build-A-Bear and then just canceled our reservation and left.
38:30
Like, this is awful. It's so loud and so terrible.
38:34
And T-Rex is the same thing, just loud. Sadly, a lot of these on my list are
38:40
the character experiences. The next one I had is Hollywood and Vine.
38:44
Dine. Yeah, that's on mine too.
38:49
It's, again, just like a dated cafeteria buffet.
38:55
The character experience is great. They change it out seasonally,
39:00
but the ambiance in the restaurant is not good.
39:03
The food is even pretty good. Like, as far as buffets go, I've never had an
39:06
issue with the food, but it is. And it's attached to one that's pretty decent vibe.
39:11
The 50s primetime is pretty good.
39:16
Like, I don't hate the ambiance in that one, but Hollywood and Vine, uh-uh.
39:22
Yeah, and it could be cool because I like a retro diner. Me too.
39:27
They didn't lean into anything enough.
39:30
It just looks like a cafeteria. Exactly. it needed to be just a little bit more just a little bit more and it could be great yeah,
39:39
and the last one on my do not go to list that has surprisingly great food and
39:46
if you can sit on the balcony it's pretty good but Planet Hollywood just.
39:53
Okay. Absolute poop show inside of there. The last one on my list might be a crowd favorite.
39:59
I don't know, but it's Be Our Guest for me.
40:02
Don't like the vibe in there. It's just loud. It's too loud. It's just loud. Yeah.
40:05
The Rose Room is sort of cool, but it's still just concrete floors and loud. No, don't love it.
40:14
And it's like, I get that a ballroom is big and they needed to make a big space
40:19
to fit all the people that were going to be there, but it's like,
40:21
it's too big. It is too big. So you've got all of these tables.
40:24
It doesn't feel like a ballroom. It feels like a cafeteria.
40:28
Like a wedding at a barn or something. I don't know.
40:32
Yes. It feels like you're at a wedding, big wedding kind of thing.
40:37
And those spaces are essentially backstage. You're walking through a facade.
40:42
So just like we said with Oga's, there's no reason why they couldn't have made
40:45
two ballrooms that were two-thirds of the size.
40:49
Make them a little bit more comfortable and pleasant to sit in and get the same
40:55
or more people in there without having to make it so big and cavernous. Yes.
41:00
The one thing I really like about them, and this is going off on a weird tangent,
41:05
but this is talking about the wide open space.
41:07
In the new Disney ship, the Wish, they took those humongous main dining rooms
41:15
and split them into a bunch of small restaurants.
41:18
And it works so much better. So much quieter and so much nicer.
41:22
The best example of that is the Walt Disney and the Roy or 1923 or whatever
41:27
those things are called. They did a great job with that by splitting the whole restaurant into two.
41:35
And then even those sections are sectioned off. So everybody's sitting in a
41:39
little bit more intimate space. And there's sound dampening. And it's so much nicer.
41:43
Yeah, intimate. That's what you want. You want to feel like it's just you and
41:47
your party. You don't want to be in this cool theme. You don't want to be in, look, we're in a...
41:53
Kmart. That's another reason why it wasn't on my list.
41:57
But Ohana, the same thing where it's like, I understand why they decided the
42:02
most efficient way to bring those giant platters out and serve everybody was
42:06
put everybody at one giant long table. That's the length of the room.
42:10
But it just sucks for feeling, for that intimate feeling.
42:15
It really sucks the atmosphere out. Yeah, they need some sweeping redesigns
42:19
of a lot of the restaurants that are older there.
42:22
Mm-hmm. For sure. Well, I think that might be a part of a lot of the problem
42:26
is they were designed for crowds in 1984 or whatever.
42:29
And now they're trying to figure out how to retrofit them, make them work to 2024 crowd.
42:36
And taste. Yeah. And it just doesn't work anymore.
42:42
Yeah. They were built at a time when people loved Chuck E.
42:46
Cheese and showbiz and that sort of just big, loud, themed thing.
42:51
And that's just not what people like anymore. So unexpectedly, I wasn't planning on coming here, but we've come back to kind
42:58
of this theme that we've had a lot of times.
43:01
We've talked about the Walt Disney World Resort is like more so than Disneyland
43:07
actually is they need, they've sat back on their laurels too long.
43:13
Yes. And they haven't continued to evolve and stay ahead of things.
43:19
I'm hoping maybe the competition coming down the road when Epic opens, which we keep seeing...
43:27
Absolutely mind-blowing stuff that's coming
43:30
for epic and just what
43:34
is this week all the announcements about about isle of burke it looks incredible
43:40
right i would hope that though it would have an effect but what like so universal
43:46
showed us uh burke and then the same day disney Disney showed us a bus with a rat on it.
43:52
We've got new wraps on our old buses. Yeah.
43:56
But you get a free water park visit only the day you check in.
44:00
So that's good. Or like it leaks that Universal is testing a drone show for Epic Universe.
44:08
And then two weeks later, Disney announces that they're doing a drone show at
44:12
Disney Springs just for a few months. Yeah.
44:16
We have that too. We're catching up. Stop catching up.
44:20
Stay ahead of things. It's time to start focusing on Imagineering again.
44:25
It just really is. Hopefully that's happening because I see they got Joe Rohde
44:30
out of retirement to teach some master classes to a new wave of Imagineers.
44:35
So hopefully. Well, yeah. Well, I mean, obviously his space hotel that he was working on isn't going to
44:44
be happening anytime soon. So he decided to come back to the mouse.
44:47
Oh, but I'm here for it. If he can pass on some of that knowledge and creativity
44:54
to a new class of Imagineers, they need it. They just really do.
44:58
Because we all know they can do extraordinary things when they put the effort in. And it's time.
45:06
They need to throw money at things. And they just keep not doing it.
45:10
Beyond Big Thunder needs to come out of blue sky and into actual reality.
45:18
Building. Soon. Sooner rather than later. Yeah, get some shovels in the ground.
45:23
100%. They keep on telling you these things they want to do,
45:25
but they're not digging any dirt.
45:28
We've said all this nay. We are naysayers sometimes, but even the places that
45:33
don't have my favorite ambiance, so many of those places are even still good to eat.
45:40
Just not great with the ambiance, but still really good food and good experiences and all that. It's true.
45:48
Yeah, there are very few, I mean, there's a few places that I don't need to eat at again.
45:54
I mean, you'll never catch Jeff Williams and Chef Mickey's, I can promise you that.
46:00
No, they still owe me for a crown. Yeah, that's true. I broke a tooth on a bolt. Yes.
46:08
Oh, yeah, that's when the bolt incident.
46:11
That happened. Distressing. What did that bolt come out of? And it was the handle
46:17
to, so on the buffet they have all those serving dishes.
46:21
And it was the bolt that held the lid or the handle to the lid or something.
46:25
It was one of those rivets that goes in and the rivet had gotten hot and the
46:29
bolt came out and it was in my egg snack.
46:33
Did someone at least lift it up and it hilariously fell apart in their hands
46:37
and you didn't even get the kind of payoff on that? I didn't get to see the hilarious part.
46:42
I got to see the part where they were like, we don't really care.
46:46
They didn't really care. Yeah, that was... Sad.
46:53
But generally, and in fact, worst case scenario, I probably would still eat there again.
46:59
Chew lightly. It might not be my favorite, but there's nothing really wrong with it.
47:05
It's still better than Applebee's. A hundred percent.
47:10
Yeah. If only because you're not at home when you're there. That's right.
47:15
That means you're at Walt Disney World. When you're there, you're family. family.
47:18
Oh, also that new Italian place at Disney Springs.
47:22
It's basically Olive Garden. Terralina. Yeah, that's it. That's unfortunate.
47:28
Nobody wants to be Olive Garden. Olive Garden doesn't even want to be Olive Garden.
47:34
All right. Well, thanks for hanging out with us again this week.
47:37
No problem, Dan. Oh, you meant the audience.
47:41
Well, you too. It's always nice to hang out with you, Jeff Williams.
47:46
But if you're ready to eat and some of the most beautiful, interesting,
47:49
or exciting spots around Walt Disney World Resort. I am.
47:52
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48:27
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48:31
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Music.
49:19
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49:24
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