Looking Back on the Last 5 Years of Walt Disney World at 55 - BOGP 2972

Be Our Guest WDW Podcast

The hosts reflect on the evolution of Walt Disney World from its 50th anniversary in 2021 to its 55th anniversary. They discuss significant

Key takeaways

• The introduction of 21+ exclusive spaces like G82 marks a shift toward more adult-oriented offerings within theme parks.
• There is significant debate regarding the potential replacement of Magic Bands with smartphone or Apple Watch technology.

Main topics

• Walt Disney World 5-year retrospective
• Disney Cruise Line: The Believe

Notable quotes

I don't buy lightning lanes at Walt Disney World. I'm like philosophically against it.

Conclusion

A thoughtful look at how Disney balances modern revenue-driven changes

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) Happy Friday, everybody. Thank you so much for downloading or streaming the Be Our Guest podcast. We're going to have some fun today. It's my pals, Pam and Scott. Join me for today's show. And we are celebrating 55 years of Walt Disney World on today's show, specifically the last five years, because we were all together on Main Street USA for the 50th anniversary of the resort. We were there October 1st, 2021. It was a weird time. But we were just glad to be at our favorite place altogether. Scott was there. Pam was there. We were there with a bunch of our listeners and friends. And we just kind of reflect on what has transpired over the last five years. What have we really liked? What have we not liked so much? And the changes that have come around that maybe have us seeing things that we hope continue. into the next five years. So we just sit around and discuss how things are going down at Walt Disney World as we have moved from 2021 to 2026 and beyond. So we hope you enjoy our discussion on today's podcast. Always don't forget our podcast brought to you by the Magic for Less Travel. We're standing by this weekend to help you plan amazing Disney adventures for no additional cost to you. So check out all the details today over at themagicforless.com. There's also use that Amazon affiliate link. When you shop online, that one extra click supports everything we do throughout the year. Be our guest podcast.com slash Amazon. And thank you to our patrons. You guys are the folks that keep the show on the air. Can't thank you enough for that. You can support us as well. It's just $5 a month. And when you do that, you get a bonus show called Mike in the Midwest. We'd love it. If you think about that this weekend, come on over patreon.com slash be our guest podcast, ready Speaker 1 (1:43) to take a trip to the world. You found the Be Our Guest Walt Disney World Trip Planning Podcast. This is where your memories come front and center on our podcast stage. Speaker 1 (1:57) you Speaker 3 (2:00) Welcome to episode 2,972 of the Be Our Guest Walt Disney World Trip Planning Podcast. I'm your host, Mike Rallman from BeOurGuestPodcast.com and one of the senior agents over at the Magic for Less Travel. Happy Friday to you. Hope you're getting ready for an awesome weekend. I know I am because I'm going to be spending the weekend out in Columbia, Missouri. It is homecoming. We are taking on the Gators of Florida. We're going to spend the weekend out there with Mallory. Get to see the house decorations down in Greek town and see the big homecoming parade. Nine o'clock tomorrow morning through Columbia and then two 30 kickoff and seeing watch football game as we upset. Is it upset? We beat him three of the last four times. We play the Gators in Columbia. They're good this year though. We'll see. It's going to be a good game. We'll be there and having a good time celebrating a homecoming where that tradition was born. That's right. At the University of Missouri, we're proud of that tradition. So we're going to have a good weekend. Looks like it's going to be a nice fall weekend here in the Midwest. Hopefully it's going to be a great one for you. Again, we're not going to talk 10 minutes about the weather. I promise you at the beginning of the show, we wore it out on Wednesday. I get it. I know people like, God, please, we're not tuned in. This is not the weather channel. We don't need a sexy saxophone playing in the background. you know, like a local on the eights or anything. We're good. We get it. We're on the weather. So today joining us from must see adventures where he, I'm sure has been editing nonstop. The weekends is when he kind of gets it going to, he just gets the next episode cranked out, but I'm sure he's been working on it all week. Scotty G Scott, happy Friday, big plans. What do you got guys got going on this weekend? Speaker 4 (3:43) Oh, happy Friday. Yeah. So Emily's taking the bus from Ann Arbor back home the last couple weekends. And I love seeing her here. I love it when she comes. But like, I don't like driving back to Ann Arbor to drop her off a lot. So I think I don't think she's coming this weekend, though. So me and Liz will probably do something fun this Saturday. Hopefully got some good weather and then big golf competition on Sunday. So there's this. I know we're going to get into the topic, but here's something like Mike in the Midwest for Scott in the Midwest. Here we go. Like, so there used to be this pizza joint by our house called Tony Sacco's and had a great Sunday special. You can get like this large pie and like a small pie and some garlic knots for like twenty dollars back in the day. So like the three of us, plus my brother was like kind of go there a lot on Sundays or whatever. It was a great deal. Great. And it was good. Like. coal-fired like pizza you know and it closed it closed like in 2018 2019 and it was like oh man it's like right by our house you know it was like a great spot to go to but then we discovered like by random one day that was still open there was another location open like uh 40 miles away or so and so now we me and my brother my friend jake who liked that pizza spot too we do a golf outing in that town like we have a golf tournament we call it the Tony Sacco's championship. So it's like been going on for a few years now. So we play golf and then we go to Tony Sacco's cause it closed in our town, but we can go there. So kind of, I kind of went long there, long story long, but we're going to be playing the Tony Sacco's championship on Sunday. Speaker 3 (5:20) But this sounds like with that tournament, even if you lose, you win. Speaker 4 (5:24) Yeah. But my brother apparently has, has got us. well he kind of told us but he bought like a spatula like a like like not the spatula like a pizza cutter the pizza that's a trophy now so like and like he's got away like he's like writing our names on the like which year we won kind of like you know like the like the world like a big cup or whatever yes Speaker 3 (5:43) but uh Speaker 4 (5:44) yeah so now we can win um now we can win the golden uh Pizza cutter. Yeah, Speaker 3 (5:49) I love it. It's Speaker 4 (5:50) like Speaker 3 (5:50) a Big Ten thing. Like, you know, like the big, you know, shillelagh or something that people, you know, pass around in the Big Ten. Yeah, it's silly. Speaker 4 (5:57) It's silly. But it's, you know, it's what we do. You know, we do silly things. So Tony Sacco's championship is this weekend. I Speaker 3 (6:04) love that. That's cool. Yeah. So while we're up at home, we're staying in the hotel where the SEC officials stay. So hopefully I'll be back on Monday if it's, you know, we'll see. Because like. Last time we were there, I was running on the treadmill that morning, and I was between one of the officials that always gets us, and Aeneas Williams, because there's three treadmills at this hotel. And I went in first. I just jumped on the middle one because the TV was dead in the middle one, right? And then in comes this guy, gets on the treadmill on my left, and I'm like, God, he looks familiar. And then, boom, a guy comes in on my right, and I'm like, God, he looks familiar too. And they start talking over me like I'm running. Speaker 4 (6:43) And I'm Speaker 3 (6:44) like, I know that voice. I've heard that voice on my left. I mean, because it's always like, because the voice always hears holding 70 offense. It's always on us. And I'm like, oh my God, that's the ref that always hates Mizzou. And so I'm like, and I'm like, oh my God, it's a knees Williams. Am I right? He's a Rams hall of famer. So yeah, who knows? There's this one ref in the sec that I cannot stand it. I know he'll be doing our game, but I doubt he'll be on the treadmill, but I'm just saying, but if it, who knows? So they always stay in the hotel. Cause we stay at this one hotel right next to the stadium, but we'll see. So yeah. Speaker 4 (7:17) I'm sure we lost Pam and half the audience already. I know. I'm just saying, Speaker 3 (7:21) I'm just hoping I'm here next week. All right. Cause again, this is a dangerous hotel. Stay. Pam Forrester she's here coding the magic for West Travel Pam I mean it could be a really nice Pennsylvania weekend who knows I know Speaker 2 (7:35) but I will say that next week I will be at an event on Disney Cruise Line Wish celebrating the Believe so they invited us a few of us on there and we'll be doing that. So we'll be learning all kinds of things. I will tell you that I received my itinerary recently and I will just say, Mike, this has you sort of written all over this Speaker 4 (8:02) because Speaker 2 (8:03) there is a, there are scavenger hunts throughout this where we will be doing stuff like that. So I was looking through all that. to like try to get myself, you know, sort of set and figured out what I'm going to do and, you know, all that kind of thing. So I'm looking forward to that. It's it's an event unlike, you know, Disney has really done before. I will be on the cruise. We have a couple of agents who are going to an event at World 2. So as you saw, they're going to be launching like some information on where the Believe is going to be going. So next week on the 7th, we'll be reporting on the information that we get from this, which I think will be very interesting because as much as we sort of love learning about all the new things happening at Disney, we don't have a ton of information on the Believe. at this point um did you know by the way Speaker 3 (9:01) did you know today's podcast today's podcast is brought to you by calci yes Speaker 2 (9:07) i'm just kidding Speaker 3 (9:08) i'm just making speculation on all these things you can throw right bucks down just kidding so Speaker 2 (9:16) i mean it's just it's gonna be so interesting we do know that tinkerbell is gonna be on the um the front of the ship right or at the back Front or the back. Or Speaker 3 (9:27) she's riding on one of the smokestacks. She is. Speaker 2 (9:30) And in the grand hall, we're going to see Moana. So that's some of the things that I know, but I'll be really interested to see what they share with us in this. And it's kind of weird because Steve keeps saying, wait, we're going to be on the wish, right? We are. And he's like, but this is an event for the belief. And I'm like, it is. Speaker 3 (9:52) Is he excited? Is he excited to hear the performance by Cher? Speaker 2 (9:55) by Cher do you believe that's gonna be awesome she's Speaker 3 (10:02) gonna pop out in the main grand hall do you believe in magic oh Speaker 2 (10:08) yeah Speaker 4 (10:09) there Speaker 2 (10:09) you go I wonder like I wonder if we'll get to know like who the godmother is going to be I don't know Speaker 3 (10:16) Cher I mean because honest to god like Mariah Carey's the godmother of the fantasy Speaker 2 (10:22) Yeah, we were there for that. And Steve was very happy to be so close to Mariah. She walked right by us. So anyways, it'll be, yeah, it'll be interesting. It'll be an interesting event. I'm looking forward to it. We can't wait to see what Disney has in store for us. So yeah, the Believe next week at seven and on the seventh at 430, I think is the, the, the webcast that they're going to be doing for everyone. So we'll see how that works. And Speaker 4 (10:55) before we get attacked, it's Woody and Buzz on the back. And I remember this now because the Believe, like on the artist, like rendering the text looked weird. Like it looked different because it was like in the Toy Story spot. Oh. Versus like the normal Disney Cruise line, you know. Yes. I'm curious what that's going to look like on a ship. Speaker 2 (11:14) Yes, you're right. They're on the back and tanks on the front. So, yeah, we'll see that. I know it'll be very interesting to see. I mean, I'm always excited when we get a new ship. It is just that kind of thing. So I'll be interested to see what they have. And maybe, well, we're going to get sailing dates and itineraries and where it's sailing from. That's so Speaker 4 (11:35) cool. That's going to be cool. Are people that are on that cruise going to be able to go to some of these things? Because people had this itinerary booked ahead of time. That's what's going to be weird. I know. Speaker 2 (11:47) It will be. They probably have us in different spaces at different times when they're doing that. But I don't know. And the scavenger hunt thing, we will see. I'll have to put Mike's game face on. I was about to say, Speaker 3 (11:58) you've got to win. Speaker 2 (12:02) That's a lot of Speaker 3 (12:03) pressure. Exactly. I mean, maybe you'll get one Speaker 4 (12:06) of those cool things you used to have on the back of your bookcase there. Like a prize. Yes, Speaker 2 (12:13) right. I think you know the one I'm talking Speaker 4 (12:15) about. Speaker 2 (12:16) The whole thing. Yeah, I know. It will be interesting. And the scavenger hunt takes place on Castaway Cay, too. Speaker 3 (12:24) Oh, man. That's awesome. Yes. Well, Speaker 2 (12:27) you know, if it takes snorkeling, that I can win. Speaker 3 (12:32) That's true. Speaker 2 (12:32) That's in my wheelhouse. Speaker 3 (12:34) Scott and I did one all over Cozumel. We won it so bad. We downed a pitcher of margaritas and a plate of nachos before second place came in Speaker 4 (12:45) on the Amazing Race in Cozumel. That's how dominant we were. It was the most dominant victory in Cozumel history. We crushed Speaker 3 (12:50) it. I mean, because it was us and Paige. Paige did the water portion of it where she had to get down to the water out in the ocean. We killed it. I mean, this plate of nachos Speaker 4 (13:02) was so good. Speaker 3 (13:02) We were speaking Spanish to Speaker 4 (13:03) people. And Speaker 3 (13:04) I Speaker 4 (13:04) don't even speak Spanish. For real. I was like, great. We were, I Speaker 3 (13:06) know dude. It was like when buzz in toy story, I got hit that button and he started speaking Spanish. That was us. We remember that was one of the things we had to Speaker 4 (13:13) talk to a local and they all like spoke Spanish in that area. And like, we had to like get information out of them. And I'm like, I just like, see, I just pulled it out. Like, Speaker 2 (13:23) I don't know how I did