All The Everything Podcast - Gone But Not Forgotten: Disney Attractions

0:00Episode 97 all the everything podcast. I'm Billy. That's Tim. What's up everybody? Billy, how you doing today, man? Man, dude, I'm good, man. I got my walk in this morning. I got my 5K. We know what we talked about it last week. I ripped my pack of Pokemon cards out for the day. So yeah, it's been a good day. I got three new cards for my collection. So yeah, nice. But I saw yesterday you did something different from a walk. You want to tell them what you did. Oh yeah, yesterday. Yeah, we on Tuesdays, you know, I know you're listening on Thursday, but you know, today's Wednesday, technically real life. But on Tuesdays, we, we I'll confuse them. Yeah. Right. Yeah. But anyhow, we, my wife has awful work and we go into a spin class. So I got my miles in doing the spin up down, you know, lots of hills, you know, quote unquote, you know, you put the tension on that bike. Oh, man, it's, it's a workout. You fill it.

1:04Spin class. Yeah, wobbly legs. Yeah, it's crazy. But yeah, we did a spin class usually. We average about six to eight miles, you know, for the 45 minute class. And man, I love it. I love it. We've been doing that for a minute. And so, okay. Yeah, that's what we can tell you my story about my first ever spin class really quick. Come on. Yeah. So this is a point where I was like in my like exercise revolution, I was losing weight, doing a bunch of different things. In my mother in law, Georgia, who's a listener, hi, Georgia. She, uh, and she always took spin classes. And she invited me to come to one. I think it was at the, um, our Mason recreational center we have here close by. And she's like, hey, come to the spin class. And I was like, you know, I had never done it before. I don't really know what to expect. She's like, don't worry about it. He's kind of do your own, you know, just do your best, whatever. I was like, all right, because at that point, I was ready for like new challenges. And so we go. And you know, I only brought like a little bottle of water. Like again, not knowing what to expect here. But Billy, this is the kicker.

2:07It was a two hour spinathon class. Do hours and no, no. So I had to raise my hand like five times asking. There was like a helper to refill my water bottle. Uh, because I'm like, I need some more water over here. You know, sweating like an animal, like more than normal people sweat. And I was dying. I was absolutely dying. Cause you know, you remember your first spin class, what it's like, to get them out of the mud that and then up down in the different changes in your difficulty on the wheel. Yep. And yeah. And then we got out, got out there. I was like, George, I'm going to kill you. You did not say it was a spinathon. She said, she said, and quote, she didn't remember that. I think she was just trying to kill me in a good way. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, 45. Yeah, ours are 45 minutes. Yeah. And yeah, it was, it's perfect. Cause it's like you, you, you feel like you've accomplished something. You feel like you've done work. And so that's a, you know, you put in it,

3:08what you get it, you know, you put in what you get what you put in. That's what I'm looking for. Come on. Come on words. Find it. I'm just, I'm ducking on the screen. It's because, but I have to tell you, Billy, you were talking about, you know, you've been killing the five Ks. You've lost 20 pounds since last year. I totally love that. And I had on my post it note on my laptop that said, when every day, it's up to you, right? I've had that up there for a while. Right. But I was like, it's time to peel that off. And when I peeled it off, I had the quote from the famous Billy parchment. This is don't let your downs keep you down. And that's kind of where I was at. I mean, we were talking, man, I was telling you that I put on some weight after sitting around from the surgery. I'm dying. I got to get moving. So on Monday, after our thing, I went and walked to 5K now. I can't walk really fast right now. Or is I heard of my leg? And then yesterday, I did 3.5 miles. So I am back in it. I can't wait to get outside. I didn't have a chance at this morning

4:09of the two busy, but I'm going to do it when we get this podcast. Nice. Get back out there. It's kind of like when you go walking wherever you go, you kind of figure out over time, like what is the 3.1 from your starting point to your wrapping up? So I used to know it because I used to do nothing but that over at the park either running or walking it. So I had to kind of remap my park and figure out what was what. So that's why I actually I didn't mean to go 3.5. I just turned out overshot. Yeah, you overshot it. Overshot it. But you know what? I feel good today. Little sore. But it's always a little sore right now. Right. It's expected. Yeah, that's expected. Yep. But I had to go back to don't let the downs keep it down. And I was feeling kind of down. So I feel you man. It's so thank you Billy for igniting the fire again so I can actually get out and use some exercise. Heck yeah man. Thanks. Yeah, I'm glad you found that. Well, we've got a great episode for you today. Was that was that was that it was that oh.

5:19All right guys, do a head of time. We worked on this queue because sometimes in the beginning, you went really quick with it. You went really quick with it. I did. I kind of jumped really quick. And I didn't say much. You went really quick and then you just stopped and then like we can't say anything else. I was supposed to. We came up with some guys ahead of time where I was going to say a certain phrase and then Billy knew to wrap it up with his next thing before we get into the normal opening of the podcast. So Billy, let me reiterate. Yeah, getting people out there to exercise do all the things. But on top of that, we do have a really great episode for him today and I'm excited to get into it. Let's do it. Well, there ain't nothing to it, but to do it. Are you ready, my friend? You better believe it. Let's get into all the everything, y'all.

6:30Way too loud about stuff that makes no sense, but we're kind of proud. Go to the madness. Well, welcome back to yet another amazing episode of all the everything podcast. As always, I'm on your co-host, Tim Saul Hook and I'm a join by my best friend, William Wesley parchment. How are you doing today, buddy? My government name, man, my government. We're going with official. I like it. I like it. We're reading out the full names. So I should have said my name is Timothy James Saul Hook. That's right. That's right. I like it. I was waiting to see your face when you're like, what is he saying? Sound like royalty. That's right. William Wesley. Very, very royal. Yep. Well, my royal friend, what are we talking about today? Oh, wow. Okay. So, yeah, this episode is something that is very nostalgic.

7:38And something that we both have this common love for. But it's also hard because sometimes change is hard. Yeah. You know, nostalgia and change. They don't go together really well. But Walt Disney once said that Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as imagination is left in the world, right? Yeah. And so just a couple of weeks ago, D23 happened. And that is that is Disney's big conference that they put on every couple of years. They basically tell you everything that they have planned, whether it's movies or what they're doing in the parks and what's to come, what they're closing down sadly and what's what they're going to be putting in their place. Like for an example, they're redoing the carousel of progress.

8:39The carousel progress has been this staple. You go to Walt Disney World, the Magic Kingdom. And you need some air condition. And it's just a stage, well, it's a show of animatronics that would take you from like the 1920s and every scene was a different decade. Well, it's been like that for who knows, you know, and the futuristic scene the one that it ends with, we've outdated and is basically the past. And so what they're doing now is they're they closed it down and they're revamping it, right? And now they're starting in the 1980s and so and then they're moving forward. But it's hard when you you love something that you you have memories tied to, right? And so this is what this episode is all about. Today we are talking about those attractions, those Disney attractions that are gone, but not forgotten.

9:39Well, the good news about everything, Billy, it's always going to be, you want to sing it with me? A great, great beauty. I was like, oh, what's on it? Were you just saying? I don't know. I was, I got real panic there for a second. I thought, yeah, I was like, is that the song or do that just looks so stupid? It's a great big beautiful tomorrow. Just a dream. Oh, wait. You know what? That ride has also been called over the years. What's that? Great. Carousel of sleep disorders because some of you people going there and pass out and take a nap because it's cool after the hot day. Knocked out. Yes, you've been walking around. I'm said you've been knocked out in that ride. Oh my gosh. Oh, yeah. I've knotted off multiple times in there. Yeah. All presidents. Same way. That air conditioned man. Forget about all the presidents. Even more boring. We're not even talking to you about those things today, but, well, I guess you know that we're not doing that now anyhow. Right. Let's get out of the bag there.

10:44Spoiler. Yep. But before I spoil everything else, Billy, you want to start off with us today? We're we're going to count down three to one, right? We're going to do our top three attractions that are no longer there. They've gone the way of the Dodo bird. See a Dodo bird. But I have been hearing that the Dodo bird, they can clone it and bring it back. Which I think yeah. So that happens sometimes in different variations. We'll talk about it. But my first question, Billy, this is a side topic of all the things we could bring back. Why the Dodo bird? The Dodo bird, I guess probably because that was always the expression. Yeah. It's not a way of the Dodo bird. But it's gone the way of the Dodo bird because I guess it was so weird and it's no longer here. And that became kind of like a, I don't know what you would call it like a just an experiment. It became part of the DNA of extinction, I guess. You know, I'm just saying to the scientists, bring something cool back. We don't, no one cares about the Dodo bird. We

11:45side the whole thing anyhow. Focus. We're back. Television to Billy. Billy, what is your number three? Well, number three, we are taking it to MGM studios, right? We're taking it back. This park opened back in 1989. And part of that theme park was an attraction that was near and dear to my heart. And that was the studio back lot tour. Oh, come on. I love that. Oh, my gosh. Like, now with MGM, when it originally opened, it was actually a movie studio inside a theme park, right? Yeah, it was a working studio. Yeah. It's a working studio. They filmed different Disney channel shows, movies, animation studios were there. They filmed the Mickey Mouse Club. And you know, this, like I said, this was back in the very late 80s, early 90s. And who was on

12:50the Mickey Mouse Club in the 90s that filmed in the studio right there on property? Just some little known names. Britney Spears. Britney B and I'm back. That's right. That's right. Just in Timber Lake, Christina Aguilera, that Genie in the bottle. And crazy. Ryan Gosling. Hey, girl. The ghost rider himself. Ghost rider. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, that was filmed all right there. But they had a back lot tour. And originally when the park opened, you know, this was an opening day attraction. This tour was two hours long. Now, I don't remember. I don't ever remember going on that long of a tour. What I remember was the revamp, the revamp that they did back in 1996. That's the one that kind of, I have core memories of. It was a lot shorter. And basically, you started off with a movie scene theme, right? Pearl Harbor, when Pearl Harbor came out, they partnered with

13:56like Michael Bay. And there was this, they would pick four people out of the crowd. And they would recreate this battle scene on a battleship. And some, you know, there would be like, bombs going off. And this one person would get soaked. And why this meant so, you know, this ride was so special to me was because Michelle and I got picked to do this show on her honeymoon. Oh, that's cool. They picked this out of the crowd. And we got to kind of reenact and act like all terrified because there was a plane coming and they were going to bomb us and stuff. And so, yeah, we got to do that. And that was actually her second time to do that. She, you know, she got to do that before we ever met. So lucky. Yeah, I just remember starting off of that. And then, you know, you have, you have a tram tour. And that would take you around. And you would see like the golden girl house, right? They recreated there. And like this residential street that they would use for filming and different things like that. You would see Walt Disney's

15:01airplane, which was that awesome. And then one of the grand fiesta, if you will, the grand finale of the tour was you would your tram would go into, because Tastor Fee Cannon. Yeah. And that was always so scary. Like, it would start, your tram would start rocking and all this water would come rushing down. They were spire and explosions everywhere. And you think that if you sat on the left side where all the water looked like it was coming towards you, that you would get super soaked. But really, if you sat on the other side, you tended to get more wet. Yeah. And the silence, the wall. I was gonna say I can still feel the heat of the explosions. You can feel it on you when you're that. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yes. But sadly, you know, they did change the theme park to kind of get away from the studio vibe that they had going. And you know, they rebranded it as Disney's Hollywood studios. But what was more focused on attractions and not necessarily like the making of movies like

16:07the original purpose. Yeah. And so they did close this attraction. It had its final day on September 27th, 2014, after more than 25 years. Yeah. That land did end up becoming what is now toy story land and by two Star Wars galaxies edge. So yeah. Yeah. And so yeah, you do make way for for progress for new things. But you do lose those nostalgic. You don't lose the memories, but you lose the experience, I guess. Yeah. The opportunity to do it again now. Exactly. I remember, I remember the beginning of the end of this ride. Because at first, I don't know if you remember this. There were two twin brothers who were the narrators who would be on the actual train with you. And they were amazing. They did the thing. They did that for a lot of years. And then we came back the following year and all of a sudden, the near the real people were gone. Now it was just a recording.

17:11Exactly. Same guys. Then now they've taken the human component out. Then it was the recording. And then it started to fade after that. It was just like the collapse of what it had been at one time. It kept getting smaller and smaller. Like yeah, it did get smaller. They cut the track when the the lights motor action came out. And then they, yeah, they took away the actual live people on the trams, which was part of the experience. And then yeah, different parts. And then finally, it was done. And they didn't get people a lot of a notice. I think cast members have not a week before, which was kind of crazy. And they couldn't do that today. People would lose their minds because it's a whole different these within the last two years. Yeah. So my gosh. Yeah, people stock. People stock construction permits at all the parks. And so if they file anything like, oh, Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind is getting some metal work done. What are they doing? You know, I saw that on the news the other day. I have no idea what they're doing. But people are stocking the courthouses

18:12trying to find these permits and all this other stuff. Well, it just shows you how much these attractions mean to people, the memories, the years of loyalty going to these rides. How many people showed up for the very end of month? Love the vision. How many people were out there singing? What they spoke was the song they were singing outside. Oh, connection, rainbow connection. Yep. The lover. I mean, I mean, there were hundreds of people who showed up for that. Oh, yes. People want to be part of something, right? They want to feel community on things they love. And that's what Disney does so well. You know, yeah, that's really cool. Yep. All right. Thanks William Wesley. You're welcome. You're like, stop calling me that. No, even my mom calls me that. I'm in trouble. You're on your busted son. You're busted. Big trouble. So I was recalling different things that I remember going with, you know, when the kids were little and we'd gone 10,000 times through Disney through the years. And I thought of a couple,

19:16and I was talking to Lauren at dinner last night, me and Leslie, and we're like, I've told them what we're talking about. And like, what were some things you remember that that we did, that maybe have closed now? And she was thinking through some things. And then she just screamed interventions, interventions. I was like, all right, calm down. Calm yourself. So my number three is in inventions. They had an east and west that opened back up in June or July 1st of 1994. Okay. Yeah. If you don't know what interventions was, one was east, one was west because one was on the east, one was on the west side of the park and located in Epcot. And inside these things, what they do, it mean, you've got a picture of these things were like grand halls. Like, you they were just, and once you got into the hall, it was broken up to a bunch of different experiences that you can do with your family. One of the big things was coming out of the heat of Florida, it was air conditioning in there. So there was always a place you'd see people come just even sit down for a few minutes. Yes. People with babies in there, like feeding their baby,

20:18rocking around. They always had bath homes. So all the things you need when you're want to try to escape the heat. But on top of that, they had unbelievable cool attractions inside. And so one of the some of the things I want to talk you about is that the things that they had, you know, I want you to see if you remember any of these rides, okay? These are the ones I remember the most, especially like is and they do too, I thought I was talking to them. The first one, it was it was part of it from 2009 to 2016. And that was the sum of all thrills. Do you remember that? I don't remember the sum of all thrills. Give me a little what it was. Sure. Yeah. So what happened is you'd go into the Villegan. There used to be like a digital touchscreen and you could pick out design a roller coaster, a bobsled, a jet track, okay? And you would put all the components you wanted to it. And then you'd get inside like this capsule on a big arm and it would you'd get in there and it would go through your course. It would do your yes. It would do your course. Yes. Yes. I know it's so sick in that ride. I could

21:24get afraid to starve. But you know, when you go in there with little kids and stuff, kids loved it. They loved making these crazy old roller coasters because I know that was going to die inside of them. But yeah, it was a really cool simulator. I mean, because that thing would twist and turn and lift you up and take you down on this big arm. It was it was really cool. Something that happened in early 2000s is they had something called Segway Central. You could come in and they would teach you they had a little drive thing teach you how to drive on one of those Segways, the standing Segways, the stand on with your handles and go through on the other stuff. Yeah. That was really cool because you could do a little test drive. Matter of fact, for Father's Day one time, we were down there with one of our friends, Brian and Diane. Matter of fact, Diane is a sister to Jessica Reemberg in our travel agency. Okay. Yeah. We were really good friends with them and we were there together. And for Father's Day, they gave me and Brian a present to go do a Segway tour through Epcot before the park even opened. And the right joke is. But before we could go, there was this guy I'd never forget him.

22:27This guy was named was Lamont. And Lamont, but he didn't suffer fools. I mean, if you were screwing up, just do with the L.A. This is before we even get to go on the park, you get to do that little Segway tour and you leave back and it's like, don't go too fast. And he'd be like, yeah, he was like a drill sergeant. And like, get off that. Stop. They're going too fast. Slow down. You're never gonna get out. You're gonna fall out of like, up right there. Rip my head out. Like, oh my god, I'm failing so miserably. Then finally, they let us get out the park. Once you're out of that little stupid test area, you could drive it easily. I mean, yeah, you couldn't go super fast. Get ahead like a governor on it. I think you could only go like maybe 20 miles an hour or something. Sure. But that was one of the coolest experiences. The World Shake Ace was closed and a bunch of workers were out there putting in new top areas or bringing up new flowers and stuff before it opened. And we got to do a Segway tour. So that's a core memory for me. That was really, really fun. It's good. I never knew that was a thing. That's crazy. Well, the Segway tours or just the whole Segway tours. Yeah. Yeah.

23:27I didn't know either until they surprised us. So like, for the other day tomorrow, you guys are going on Segway tour. Yeah. But I'm gonna go through some other fun ones they had in there. Do you remember by State Farm? It was there from 208 to 2016. It was called Stormstruck. Stormstruck. So you're in a 40 theater experience, right? And it was teaching you about what it felt like to be in a simulated severe storm, being a hurricane, teaching about weather safety, how to structurally protect your home. But that was really cool. There was one called Where's the Fire. And it was really fun. So you got like a high-tech laser flashlight. And what you do is you'd run around the house, beating it's one another to find the hot spots somewhere. The fire hazard were in the house. Okay. So the kids will absolutely love it because they get their little laser thing and they'd run all over to find out where the heat spot or where the fire could be in the house. That was a big one. There was the great piggy bank adventure. So what that was sponsored by T-Row Price. It was trying to show people like financial literacy for families and kids.

24:32How to tell you how to invest, what you do with your money now. How could pay off for you in the future? And I think it was something with a big coin that you could put in this piggy bank at the end. And because there was a huge piggy bank, you know, named a great piggy bank adventure. That was one. There was one called the Test Delimits Lab. Our kids loved this one because what you could do is you could purposely shatter television screens. Now they didn't shatter. They were kind of pre-shattered. But you'd have big things. You could swing back and it hit the thing and smash it for you. They had crash tests, safety helmets where they drop heavy weights on every day, household products to see how they'd work and stuff like that. That was one. But the biggest thing when it first opened it in innovations back in 1944, 1944, 1994 through 1999. And I never had gone during that time except we got married in 1998. We went for a honeymoon but we didn't do this. Yeah. It hosted the Sega arcade. Now, yes. Okay. If you remember this, they had over 140 playable games there. And then the Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear, Sega CD.

25:38And they had like the very, very early on virtual reality things there. Yes. And so people would go there and play the video games forever all day long and be in a cool space. And you had access, like I said, over 140 different games you could play with. That was a big sponsor of my first open. And I think, if I can remember, they brought that back later on. Because I remember doing it with our kids at some point, but at that point it might have been like Xbox or something else. It wasn't Sega. Sega. Yeah. It's very close to snap into a slim gem if you just keep on going. Also snap into a slim gem. Oh, yeah. Yes, exactly. But sadly, like we talked about these things, they have come and gone. So back in May of 2015, innovations west closed down. And they didn't actually use that for anything else. They actually demolished it before they demolished it, turned it to a meet and

26:41greet area. But then they leveled it for like line of sight things and different projects to come. Right. And then innovations East flows later on September of 2019. But it was actually replaced by different things in that space. So some of the things it was replaced by was the connections cafe and eatery that we have now in Epcot. One of my favorite places in there to get some lunch. Great. The creation store, the shop, one of the biggest stores in Epcot. I love that store as well. And it also replaced the space with Club Cool. Oh, yeah. Now girls love Club Cool. Gosh. Yeah. So again, they were looking to the future for all these things when they had taken down the innovations. But we were bummed because innovations, the space itself was really cool. There was so many things you could do in there. So many memories and innovations. Yeah. So Lauren, shout out to you. You know, you never listened to the podcast. I'm going to make sure you listen to this one. This you can hear you being scolded Lauren. That's right. God. Now, but she gave her a shout out. She gave us the innovations thing. And I

27:42that was like going back in a time capsule for a man. I just have so many memories of this going with the kids when they were growing up. And that's what this episode is all about. Right? Yeah. Just remember that. Yeah. That's right. Man. God. Yeah. So my number three was a juggernaut one. Sorry. No, that's that's no, that's awesome. Kind of moving on to my number two. We're staying in Epcot. Right? Okay. Now this one. Oh, goodness. I have memories of this one as a child. And this attraction stayed pretty much the same for 20 something years. What was it? It was, uh, yeah, 26 years, 26 years. It was it was pretty much the same. And I'm talking about the cult classic, Maustrum in Norway. Oh, yes. Oh, my gosh. And so basically the history about this attraction, um, Norway wasn't originally planned to be

28:44part of the world showcase originally they were going to go after like a Denmark pavilion. And then it kind of turned scam and navy in and then some some business folks in Norway wanted to invest and say no, let's make it Norway. And so Disney was like, oh, that's awesome. Yeah, let's focus on your Norse god like mythology. Let's focus on trolls. Let's make it real whimsical. And they're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we're paying money. We want people to to come to Norway and just see us for what we are now. And so it was like, oh, gosh. And so Disney came along. The Imagineers came along. Um, one of which was Joe Rody. And, um, kind of towards the beginning of his career. And they worked alongside the people of Norway that were in charge. And they came up with basically a collab, a mashup of of this. And so you kind of, you know, you start off on this, this biking ship. It was really cool, right? Yeah. And yeah, you just kind of start off

29:49and you see, you see this three headed troll, right? And back, back over the falls. And like, you're traveling backwards, right? And like, huh? And it looks like you're about to go over, like, you know, this waterfall that's backwards. And then the boats, like stops and switches directions. And then you just drop forward. And then, and then you end up like, there's oil rigs and like, yeah, like all this other stuff. And then it's kind of crazy. And it's just like, it goes, they put the beginning part with like the trolls and the the Vikings and stuff like that. But then you kind of go, and then at one point, it looked like you were about to fall out of the window, because the wall, like the window opened up. And as you're coming back and you're like, oh, hold up, you know, it was, I remember that as a kid, as a kid core memories, core memories. And then, after the ride, you got off and then you had to walk through and then there was this presentation, this video presentation that I remember. And you just kind of see like how hard, how dangerous

30:51that water is like with oil rigs and the things that people of Norway had to deal with. And like, that it was like this little video called the spirit of Norway. Oh, yeah. And it just kind of played on the loop. So you might get in, you might come in there right in the middle of it. And you sit down because you're still in air condition, right? And you'd watch it. And then it would end. And then it started over. And so you kind of watch it halfway through until where you know, you came in there and it did that for 26 years. Yeah. And sadly, finally, we had a say goodbye on October 5th, 2014. And that was because we needed to make way for some other ladies from that area or an inspired by that area that, you know, kind of took on a life of their own with a popularity that is frozen. That's right. Queen Elsa Princess, yeah, I want to had to make way because, you know, that was basically their land. And, and also,

31:57even the trolls too. I'll bring you back together. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. It all comes together. And so now we get some Disney IP. And of course, at that time, Disney had already bought back their portion from the people of Norway. So they had a little bit more creative control to be like, okay, we're going to do that because that happened over time. They bought that back and stuff like that. But yeah, but now we have frozen. And so what do you think? Do you think they made the right decision? Was it time to move on or was it, you know, was that a great idea? I mean, or was that bad or good? What do you think? I think it's good if you have little girls or boys who are into frozen. But once they face out of that, then yeah. I personally, I would never, I think at last time I wrote it is because we had some insane fast pass or something because a lightning lane or whatever, because there's people who would like would stand in that line for two, three hours

33:00to go ride that ride. I'm like, it ain't worth it. We have. Yeah, we have. We've done that. Yeah. I mean, you know, to me, it's like, it's you, but you can't ever communicate that to two little girls or family or what who's into frozen at that time. But Leslie still loves it. She'd write it. I'm like, I'm good. I write it every time it's so funny because Chloe, she doesn't do rides that are extreme. And the drop really scared her. Like she was terrified of pirates as well. Oh, yeah, the drop. And so she would be getting like, all I'm going to be like, oh, I'll buy you a toy because Lily really wanted to ride it because obviously, you know, that was frozen. And so I'd be like, okay, when we go to the gift shop, you could pick out something. If you ride it, you know, I got to do what you got to do. Yeah, you got to do what you got to do. And so you got to the point, though, that, you know, we wrote it. And then I look at the little picture that they take out of you. And Chloe has the

34:00biggest smile on her face as she's going down. I'm like, what the heck? I played you, dad. I wrote the ride had a fun and I get a toy world. What in the world? Oh my gosh, but yeah, I miss, I miss the original because I remember going, I remember that ride on my first trip in 1987 with my grandparents. Like I remember like bits and pieces. Some of my first memories came from that trip at Disney World. And same thing with the sky buckets. Like in the, you know, in the Magic Kingdom that would take you from one side to the other. Oh, yeah. One of my favorite pictures of me and my grandpa was getting on one of those sky buckets, right? And I remember telling, Oh, grandpa, this, this looks dangerous. That's what I said to him. And so, you know, and so that, you know, I lost my grandpa a few years ago and that picture and that trip means the world to

35:01me. And these experiences, just like Maustrum, you know, it's hard. But it makes way for new things, new experiences, things that are going to be nostalgic for my girls when they grow up and then they change it again. You know, it's always changing. So there you go. I will say for Frozen, there's always a new generation of people coming up and experiencing Frozen for the first time, you know, and then to go to Disney World and they see a ride that represents their favorite movie, you know, and so I understand there's always going to be a line of people who are going to line up new all over again and see it for the first time. And so I guess that. But with you, we had great memories of Maustrum too. We have so many pictures of us with our kids, either trying to pick the nose of the big troll outside, or hanging off the nose or just wrapped around. I mean, we were always doing crazy stuff. I mean, we have those pictures like for, because like the era I'm talking about is where our kids grew up, you know, we

36:01first started going to Disney as a family when the loop was two and our daughter was six months old. Right. And then we won, he's now 25. He's 25. She's going to be 23. So we have so many years of memories. I mean, they literally grew up in Disney World. Like that's the only place we went multiple times a year and like that was their vacation. So it's kind of like their world. So I have those memories, more family stuff as you had like your early memories growing up, going to grandparents. But Maustrum was awesome. And I would have to say one thing about it. I feel like it was one of the most cutting-edge things that Epcot had at the time. The ride mechanism was cutting-edge. There was nothing like that where it would turn backwards on you and then look back around and you till the window to pop up. Yeah. Yeah. There was nothing like that. So it was very, very unique. So I'm glad they still have a lot of the same ride mechanisms and prosum. So they kept the heart of it. So that's good. That's good. Now what I'm going to say, Maustrum might again, hang it. Dig a billion. All right. Well, that's a good one. A lot of good memories on that.

37:10So my second one, counting down from three to one, is a ride that opened on April 22nd, 1998 on the very opening day of Disney's Animal Kingdom. And that ride was dinosaur. Bomb, bomb, bomb. So it opened as countdown to extinction before they renamed it to dinosaur in 2000. So it changed it up a couple of years later if they had opened the park in 1998. And the funny thing is we got married on July of 1998 and we went to Disney World, but we didn't even go to Animal Kingdom. We had the weirdest, it was, if we told you what we did on our honeymoon for Disney, you'd be like, that's all you guys did. Yeah. It was pretty pathetic. Yeah, but dinosaur for me, again, it's memories with my kids growing up. It was one of the most fun rides. You know, you get in there, you know, the dinosaur, the guy comes in the very beginning,

38:12telling you he's going to help you track a dinosaur to come back and then his boss comes in, who's Mrs. Huxable back in the day. Yep. And tells her that everything's locked out. You can't bring the dinosaur back. And then she leaves and he's like, don't worry, we can do it. But then they take you back through the all the different eras of dinosaurs, all the different potacious periods and what I don't know all the names. And there's all these crazy dinosaurs. And there's some creepy ones too. Some like creepy ones. And then the big dinosaur man that keeps coming out different parts of the ride, it was straight up creepy. Maybe it was straight up creepy. And then you always end with that picture where you're like this. Yep. Looking up like the dogs were like right there on your face. Yeah. We have so many pictures of that. We're either acting or we were literally terrified. I'm dinosaur, but like that was always one of our favorite rides to go through. And it was funny. It was one time I wasn't on it, but Leslie was one of the kids. And how any got stopped and all the lights went out. It's pure darkness. But the dinosaurs

39:16sound still kept going. So she'd been the dark and like all these different noises they had rotating and like an alloped in that one area. She's like, this is like the creepiest ride I've ever been on. Oh my gosh. She could not wait to get off of that. But yeah, dinosaur, just the ride mechanism they have was actually the ride mechanism they used out in Disneyland for Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones. Yep. The same mechanism. The ride itself, the actual dinosaur ride itself was a smooth ride. It's the vehicle that mimics the bumps and the tilts and a rep up, and like you hit something and things like that. Which I thought was this really kind of unique ride vehicle. Something I had never before because I had never been in Disneyland before. All that. I didn't know anything about the Indiana Jones ride and how they got from that. Yeah. And but yeah, we used to go there every single time because we love cutting through dinosaur land back there and you know the kids would dig for the fossils in that one area. But that dinosaur land for us was always a cut through to Asia to get to every favorite rides. Expedition Everest, which they're getting rid of the

40:23disco Yeti and they're bringing back. It's coming back. I was always told that they couldn't do it because the foundation was broken. That's what they that was their excuse. It was so big. It broke the fountain, but how is it? How's it getting fixed now? I don't know. Maybe to put the Yeti on a diet. Maybe this world is skinny Yeti now. Gosh, man. It's like a tweaking Yeti like. Got the shakes. It's got the shape. But they made that announcement. That was just like a little teeny announcement and like everybody, it just blew up. Everyone's like, they're bringing about the same thing. I like the fact that they leaned into disco Yeti. Disco bolly. I know that Gloria Gainer come out. She couldn't get up out of her chair, but she's saying sitting in her chair, poor thing. She still look great and she's saying, I will survive. It was awesome. So it was just funny how they leaned into that. So if you only experienced disco Yeti your whole life, you never had the experience of the real Yeti, you're going to get it some time because it is awesome. I mean, it is awesome. It's amazing when that Yeti arm comes

41:28swinging down. It was, yeah. I mean, it was innovative. They're like, oh my gosh, you would never expect to see something that big. Do that. And then, and then it just turned into a strobe light. People are having seizures. This is a bill of a disco to me. Yeah, but sadly, the final operation day was February 1st of 2026, actually. That's right. Just this year. Yeah. But it closed permanently along the rest side of dinosaur, dino land USA, they closed everything down to make room for the new tropical America's land, which if you watch any of the D23, you saw a lot of the magical house that's coming from in Conto that looks so cool. But what's replacing specifically dinosaur is the brand new Indiana Jones attraction. So I think it's funny that it started with that ride mechanism from the old Indiana Jones out in Disneyland, which is so outdated. Yeah. The dinosaur and now they're having amazing Indiana Jones. And it's actually molded after

42:32Harrison Ford. Yeah. Yeah. Show the moment it actually looks like finally. Yeah, I guess, did they not use Harrison Ford for the Disney? I mean, I know he's there. I guess did they just never show his face like in that much detail? Because no, he's like, he's like, he's like, so I guess he's a rope or like he's holding a rope exactly. Yeah. So yeah. So I'm excited for that. I really, I'm like, I'm turning into Indiana Jones, where I like a different version of the one they have out in Disneyland. But still keep the same ride mechanism from what I've heard anyhow, similar to exactly. It's going to be very similar. Yeah. Well, I've always thought was cool about dinosaur was originally sponsored by McDonald's, right? And if you look when you're going through the queue, you have these like pipes. And they had one that was painted red and one that was painted yellow. And it had the, what kind of like it was, it was a secret code for or like the genetic code. I don't know if they have genetics and mustard and ketchup, but the formula for

43:35formula. It was like a formula basically for ketchup and mustard because, yeah, you know, because McDonald's had sponsored it, but it still looked like scientific and kind of like, yeah, went through the queue. So I was always like a neat little Easter egg in that queue. So but it finished, but they changed the sponsor set over sponsorship. The thing I said that first sound like I said a different word again. I did not. The sponsor ship. Yep. To I can't remember who sponsored it next. Was it, uh, I don't know, I don't know. I have no idea sponsored it after that. But they still did have the red and yellow tube. They left it. Yeah. Yep. They left it. Yeah. But it was always one of those things you get on there and be like, oh, look at that right there. Yeah. It's always right above you as you're getting arrived there. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Did you ever have any experiences with your girls on dinosaur ever? No, no, no. There is no way. I got Chloe on Indiana Jones our first trip to

44:36Disneyland. Yeah. And that that was that was that was that was because she didn't know what it was. She didn't know what it was. Oh, God. No, we never even attempted dinosaur with the guys. Okay. But me and Michelle, yes, we were took of dinosaur quite regularly when we would go on our our adventure before the girls or whenever grandma could watch when we could just sneak away. So well, I've got one little less funny story about dinosaur. It was Leslie and I went there by ourselves to Disney for some reason. And as you well know, in Disney, big storms roll in all the time. Oh, and you can get destroyed from the rain. So we were initially in line for dinosaur outside getting ready to go in. And then they're like, oh, you know, you have to get out of the rain. And so they pushed everybody like there's like an undercover area towards yeah, to the back right there. And then so we were waiting there. And it seemed like it was never going to open again. So I told Leslie,

45:39I said, that's it. Let's make a run for the gift shop. We can just run in there. And I took off in the valley. I took off with everything I had. I am spreading so hard. And it was so dark. I didn't see there was one of these chains that was blocking the walkway. I hit that chain hit it. Smack backwards on the ground. Reigns pouring on me. Leslie's dying laughing. I was like, all the people in the line were like, I'm an idiot. I'm an idiot. I mean, I was running there. Everything I had to get out of the rain. So that story. I didn't even see the rope that was tied up or whatever it was. And it slapped me back. Closed line literally. Literally, I did that close line and it was awful. It was embarrassing. But so that was dinosaur. There's so many cool things coming to that area. I cannot wait for all that stuff to open. But yeah, so that was my number two the many days of dinosaur at Aindemal Kingdom. Yes, that's very good. So that leads us to your number one. My number one.

46:42We're getting there. We're coming to the closing the finish line here. But number one. Now, I will say for my number one, thankfully, it is not super extinct. There's still been chances, especially here recently that you could kind of see this version. But this original version of this particular attraction was my favorite. Obviously, it was the original the one that I did as a child or a kid and loved. And then just the smells were so iconic in nostalgic. And I'm of course talking about soaring over California. The OG. Now, the OG. Now, the original one opened on February 8, 2001 in Disney's California Adventure. That makes sense. And you go in. And of course, you're greeted by chief flight attendant Patrick. One of my favorites. Say hello. Welcome to Soren. Nice work, pal.

47:47You know, a crunk if you didn't know. Yeah. I love I love the man. But just it was a way to start the attraction. It was perfection. It was. And basically, this attraction came to be because of an Imagineer. His name was Mark Sumner. And he built this on an old school erector set. Which is cool. Like, you know, the little sticks that you put in like they have little circles that have the holes in them. And he basically made this attraction that would lift up. And then they would have the dangly things, you know, I love that story. Yeah. And it came from a erector set. And basically, this attraction takes you up 40 feet up into the air. And there's this big huge, almost like I max dome theater. And it would take you from scene to scene originally from different scenes in California. Now, you would start the flight off kind of flying over the golden

48:48gate bridge. This kind of gave you the intro that, Hey, you are not just watching a movie. You're you're flying through like in the movie. Yeah. You're in the movie. And and your sword and the wind is blowing on you and everything. And then the scene changes and then all the sudden, you're in the redwoods. And you start to smell this evergreen, this pine smell that's going along with this scene. And it just kind of does something to you. Then all of a sudden, you're in Napa Valley. And then there are these hot air balloons. And then as the as it kind of just goes and you kind of see like, you know, this like vineyards and different things in Napa and just like all this other stuff, it's really cool. And then you get to go to the coastline and you smell the sea breeze. And it's like, oh, it's so refreshing. And and then you kind of go over like Lake Tahoe and you go over this golf course, which they hit a golf ball. Right. On the golf ball. There's a yeah.

49:54And it kind of scares you because kind of just like, but there's a head and Mickey on that golf ball as well. And then, you know, you kind of see the mountains and the waterfalls over Yosemite, which was kind of crazy because the the they have the hardest time getting helicopter permits to go film that there. And then finally, because they're Disney, they were able to do it. But they they don't let helicopters on that park. And and so they were thankfully able to do that. But after the after the golf ball kind of scares you, you go into what makes soren over California is so iconic. And and something that just kind of represents California. Because you know, Disneyland was built on a orange tree field, right. And so you kind of go through these orange groves with all these orange maybe these trees with oranges on them. And then you just you're you're hit with that orange blossom smell. That is just my favorite park.

50:59My my favorite as well. And and it's it's what you remember. It's the first thought when you say soren over California oranges kind of on. It's kind of like, yeah, it's what hits your brain. And and that's kind of what made this ride so so special because it it's one of those it is a thrill ride. But it's it's kind of like one of those that's not like crazy. Like little kids can kind of go on it right and they have their like they're a little buckle that you can kind of buckle through. And stuff like that like their little hoop and stuff like that. But it's it's kind of like the gateway for little kids that finally get to the certain height that oh, we can do a big person ride. You're right. Yeah. But but yeah, so that that's something special about that. But then you kind of go into the desert and the Thunderbirds like these big jets come flying over. That's cool. Fun fact about that was lieutenant colonel Brian Bebop Bishop. That was his retirement

52:03flight was over the helicopter in that that Thunderbird. That was his that's how he got to end his career. She was that shot. And then they kind of got to go to San Diego and they they fly over the John C. Stennis aircraft carrier. And then you're in Malibu and then you got the sea breeze and then you're in Los Angeles and you see downtown. And then it finishes off in Disneyland. And you kind of go there and then you have the fireworks. And so you know, that's that was sworn over California. And it was so popular that you know what let's bring this attraction about California over to the East Coast and they brought it to Epcot like in May 2005 people from all over the world. More people got to experience this attraction. And it still ended in in Disneyland, which was really cool because it was the exact same attraction. Almost right.

53:03Identical. But sadly, they they I guess they came to a point they said, well, we need to kind of revamped this. Give it some fresh life. Yeah, because the screen was getting old looking the digital film was looking way old. Like that you could have a better film on your iPhone by that point quality wise. So they really need something different. And so they they did create a new version called Soren around the world that opened on June 17th, 2016. And that introduced the leaning tower of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, leaning that whole tower. Yeah, if you look at it too close, you'll see it lean to your kind of like, yeah, yeah. And so, um, yep. And so that went for years. And then right now they're doing a special just like temporary, uh, soaring over the United States or so on over America. Yeah. And I got to do that. And it's good. It's good. It's cool.

54:03You know, for the 250th birthday of America. And so, um, but nothing beats the original. Yeah. And I do miss it. I do miss it. And I will say this one time we were riding it in California. And all of a sudden, like in the middle of the ride, I just see behind the screen, this door opens in this light is coming out. So it's because you can kind of see through the screens kind of like an iMacs one. And you're up there and somebody had opened the door accidentally, but had let all that light in. So it was kind of like this magical door opening and like, whoa, that was weird. But, man, those oranges. And that's what it's all oranges. I mean, come on, come on. Yeah. The OG, I feel like it was the best too. Because when it started in 2005, that was our prime time, you know, we get kids of aged up a little bit and we went constantly. And when that rolled out in 2005, the lines were out the door for soaring. Like it was insane to get in there. But it was such a fun attraction because it was like kids felt like they were flying. Like,

55:06it's an adult you feel like you're flying. But for kids with your imagination and stuff, they really did feel like they were flying through that. So that was really cool. When they did open soaring around the world, a lot of feedback they got from people who didn't like it. It was two CGI parts. And people did not like it at all. It was cool. It was something different after what 11 years since it had opened. Yeah, they kind of try to put digital jump scares in it pretty much. That's the best way to say it. Yeah. And people were like, yeah, this seems a little off. Yeah. And it just kind of lists. It lost some of its whimsy, I guess. Yeah. You know, it is what it is. But have you been trying to work in the word whimsy this whole podcast? Yeah. I get it. No, that's all right. We're to my final one of the podcast and my number one. I'm going to take you back in history to May 1st, 1989 with the opening of the park that was then called Disney MGM Studios. One of my favorite rides of all time was the great movie ride.

56:13Come on now. Absolutely love that ride. So you got to set the stage, right? But when you go to get in the queue, it was rose upon rose that you'd have to work through this queue. But the cool thing is while you're waiting there, they have this massive movie screen and they're playing clips from all these classic movies and funny scenes and things that happen throughout them. So it was really cool to kind of keep your interest by your waiting in line. But so once you got into the great movie ride, they took you through all these amazing different scenes of movies, right? You would start off coming in. I don't know if I have that in right order, but you know, there would be the Wizard of Oz and there's a big scene with the witch that comes up from the ground. Yeah. And then you have all the munchkin singing, you know, Follow the Olympic Road, all that kind of fun stuff. But then there were scenes from like the dead scenes from Costa Blanca at the very end. Here's looking at you, kid, Tarzan, eight man going back and forth, Raiders of the Lost Dark. One of the ones of my kids were

57:15always scared to death of was the sci-fi scene of Alien. As soon as you, because you'd always stop and then you had some Gourney Weaver over there, like looking back and forth with this gun in her hand. And all of a sudden the alien would come out from the ceiling and drop down like right in front of you. If you were lucky, you'd be like right in front of you and like it's like it was going to kill you. Kids freaked out about that. But they took you through Westerns like the Good, the Bad, the Ugly, the Searchers. They had all the kind of, they had the gangster area, the public enemy movie. And I'll get through a couple parts of that coming up for musicals that had footlight parade, singing in the rain, Mary Poppins. And they also had an animation part where they showed Fantasia and different parts of that in the ride. And it was just such a fun ride because each part you went through was so immersive, right? And it was kind of a longer ride too. So you're again, out of the heat, you're into this amazing ride. And we rode that for years and multiple times on trips.

58:16And we would always, and we didn't know this for a long time, but we would always be in the gangster scene. And what happened isn't the gangster scene is these gangsters would come out and actually like hold up your car and I would shoot this like cap gun and get on saying he was going to rob everybody and he'd pass your jewels up and all this different stuff. And then he'd get caught up with the Raiders of Lost Ark and turn into a skeleton and anything. But we got that all the time. And then there was a time we heard, you know what, there's actually a Western scene on the great movie ride. And we're like, oh, there's a Western scene like that you don't go to the gangster thing. They're like, yeah, totally different. And so literally for years, the kids were young. We'd go and wait, in wait, in wait, in wait, we always get the gangster scene every single time. So finally, I asked the lady, is there any way, how do you get into the Western scene? She goes, oh, you just take that cue on this side. I was like, oh, you kidding me? All these years, all I had to do was go in that cue. And I would have been to the Western scene. And the Western scene school because you finally get in there and there's a shootout between all these gunfighters and the house catches on

59:16fire. Do you remember this? The Western scene. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The whole house catches on fire. You feel the flames on you. It was so cool and different. Luke and I, that was always our goal as he was growing up. That Luke and I were finally going to get the Western scene. And when we did, it was like all smiles around. It was so, so great. But he said that was something we rode multiple times and then like even multiple times on one trip. We'd always keep going back and see if we can get in it as all good things. They come to an end. Right. And the show ran, Bill, do you have any idea? I guess how many years? Well, if it's, it was over 20, right? I'm going to let you guess. Oh gosh. I'm going to say 23 years. You were close. It ran for 28 years. Eight years. It's final day was August 13, 2017. And it took its final ride that night at 9.30 pm.

1:00:19Yep. And it was, I think pretty much it was tons of fans, but it was also tons of casts. Cast them were serious. They went back and they all rode it together for the last time, which I must have been so special for them to be able to go do that and how cool that would have been. But you know, as in Disney, you know, they don't always just tear something down or tear it down, but they replace it with something else, right? And it's always about innovation. When Billy talked about from the very beginning, you know, these things would always be changing as long as there was what? Imagination left in the world. Imagination left in the world. And luckily for Disney and all the Imagineers, they have plenty of imagination for all of us. And they came up with one of the cutest new rides that people love. And that is Mickey's and Minis run away rail raid. Yeah, it was hard for people, like, especially me. I love that. Yeah, I wanted to do the final ride. Yeah, I loved it. And it's something I never got bored of. And again, it's because, you know, everything that you love in life usually ties back to a memory. And for me, it was with the kids. That was our area growing up with them and going all the time.

1:01:23And so that was hard to see, but you know, they replaced it with something really cool also. Yeah, and that was my number one. The great movie ride. This was awesome. And when Billy pitched this to us, it was just like, yes, this is like nostalgia, like all day long. For Disney. It was really hard to pick just three to be honest, Billy. Exactly. We didn't even mention like the aliens last stitch, you know, that was always one that we would, it's gone the way of the Do Do bird as well to bring that back. You can keep going on and on and on and on about all the different attractions. Mr. Toad no longer being at the Magic Kingdom. And now Mr. Toad is up in the pet cemetery at the Onnith Mansion. Yes. But if you do want to do Mr. Toad a while ride, they still have it in Disneyland. They do. They don't have the California. And if you guys want to go to Walt Disney World or Walt Disney Land or Disney Cruise or anything, you can reach out to us at exclusive travelpartners.com. We have bunch of amazing agents can help you get there. And especially one of our special agents, his name is

1:02:28Billy Parchman. And he can help you get the Disney as well. So hit us up if you want to go to Disney. Plenty of fun things to see. But yeah, I think this is going to have to be a part two show. Well, to do this at some point. We have so many. Yes. So many. Yeah. And just relive the magic. Yeah. We live in the magic. So feel in the magic. I'm still dying of what they said at the beginning of great movie ride. Yeah. Hey, why don't y'all go look it up and just let us know on Facebook. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Facebook. Leave a comment. Yeah, leave a comment somewhere. Follow us. We loved it. Have you joined us for our conversation and our community, if you will. And so yeah, be part of the conversation is what I'm trying to say. Yeah. And we, if you join our secret, not secret, secret group chat, we can discuss it in there as well. That's right. That's right. That group chat has been really fun for me. It's been really. I really want to add more people to it, but it's been really cool. And thank you to our new listeners,

1:03:29by the way, we recently talked about we hit 30,000 downloads. We have new listeners every week. We hear for some people. We appreciate you guys listening and following along. You know, this is something Billy and I get to do a couple of times a week. We love it. It's a great. It's a great way to get out there. And as Billy said many times, we are the number one non-neished podcast in the market. Everyone else has a niche. Not us. We're the non-neished. No niche. That's right. We'll bring you random things every single week. This was really a lot of fun today, Billy. And I appreciate you sharing where they can connect with us at. And I just want to say, we can't wait to have you back next time for yet another amazing episode of all the everything podcast. Listen, I hope you guys have a great week and we'll see you next time. Bye, y'all.