Episode 20
Unlocking 2025: New Attractions, Promotions, and More at Disney World and Universal
Looking ahead to 2025, this episode of the Wands and Wishes podcast dives deep into the exciting changes on the horizon for Walt Disney World and the broader theme park landscape in Orlando, particularly with the anticipated opening of Epic Universe. Hosts Tony Desiere and Lauren Mallard discuss how this new addition will reshape the vacation planning landscape, encouraging guests to reconsider their itineraries as they balance experiences between Disney and Universal. They explore the implications of ride closures at Disney, including Big Thunder Mountain and Test Track, and how these changes may affect park attendance and overall visitor experience. Additionally, the conversation highlights new attractions and events coming to both parks, including anticipated dining options and nighttime celebrations. With a competitive environment shaping up for 2026, the hosts emphasize the importance of planning ahead to make the most of these evolving theme parks.
Takeaways:
- The opening of Epic Universe in Orlando is set to reshape the theme park landscape significantly.
- There will be numerous ride closures at Disney World, signaling major changes in 2025.
- Travelers may need to reconsider their vacation plans as Universal adds more attractions.
- The new nighttime parade and villain show at Disney World will enhance the visitor experience.
- Universal's strategy aims to keep visitors on property longer, similar to Disney's approach.
- The free dining promotion continues to be a popular but complex aspect of vacation planning.
Transcript
Foreign of the Wands and Wishes podcast.
Tony Desiri:Thank you for joining us.
Tony Desiri: re glad to you join us in the: Tony Desiri:And that's a topic of our podcast today.
Tony Desiri: Looking ahead to: Tony Desiri:There's a lot of ride closures, there's a lot of new things to enjoy at Disney World.
Tony Desiri:There's a lot of new promotions, things like we're going to go over all that.
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Tony Desiri:How are you, Lauren?
Tony Desiri:Glad to hear back.
Lauren Mallard:Good.
Lauren Mallard:It's good to be back.
Lauren Mallard:I feel like it's been a minute.
Tony Desiri:It has.
Tony Desiri:Because I think you and I, we stopped for both Christmas and the New Year.
Lauren Mallard:Yes.
Tony Desiri:And then you were kind of ill last week.
Lauren Mallard:Yes, I had a monster migraine.
Lauren Mallard:I did not think that was a great idea to sit here and record.
Tony Desiri:No problem.
Tony Desiri: , we thought we would get the: Tony Desiri:So let's start with the big one in the room and that's Epic Universe in terms of its opening.
Tony Desiri:It's gonna reshape the theme park world in Orlando.
Tony Desiri:It's the first new park in a very long time since Animal Kingdom, I think.
Tony Desiri:Or was Islands, I think Islands of Adventure was before Animal Kingdom.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah, I don't remember.
Tony Desiri:But nevertheless, it's been 20 plus years since we've had a new, a new theme park in the area.
Tony Desiri:And so this is going to change the landscape.
Tony Desiri:Now, I wanted to get your thoughts as somebody who deals a lot in Disney.
Tony Desiri:Have you, do you have a lot of clients that say, I'm going to Disney for five days but I want to boogie over to Universal?
Lauren Mallard:So actually, yes, I have a lot of clients that will do that, that will just go over for the day.
Lauren Mallard:They won't go and stay there typically, but they will just go over for the day.
Lauren Mallard:And so I'm really interested to see what this is going to bring for, let's say that same client.
Lauren Mallard:Are they going to want to go over because right now Universal is really kind of putting some limitations on those tickets through Epic Universe.
Lauren Mallard:So I'm excited to see kind of how that evolves.
Tony Desiri:This is out of the book of Disney, right?
Tony Desiri:I mean, because if you go back into the history of the Orlando area, you have Walt Disney buying up all of this land in Central Florida and then he builds the Magic Kingdom, but he buys everything around it, acres and acres of land around it, to sort of immerse people into this, like, resort vacation.
Tony Desiri:But there was only one theme park.
Tony Desiri:So then everybody sort of all these entrepreneurs started saying, well, if he's there, I can be there with this.
Tony Desiri:And then you start getting Gatorland Zoo, you start getting SeaWorld, you start getting all of these other things, Ripley's Believe it or Not Music Museum, all of these things to sort of allow families to go, okay, cool, there's golf and there's water sports, but there's only one theme park.
Tony Desiri:Let's go do something else.
Tony Desiri:Let's get out of this and let's go do something else.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:And then Disney said, oh, no, we're gonna make more parks and leave you in the bubble.
Tony Desiri:Right.
Tony Desiri:And Universal was like, okay, we'll be the one off.
Tony Desiri:Like, we'll, we don't mind having one or two parks.
Tony Desiri:If you want to boogie over here for Harry Potter, we'll be more than happy to take you.
Tony Desiri:We'll have our own hotels.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:But there was no reason to stay at Universal for five days.
Tony Desiri:Yeah, now there is.
Lauren Mallard:And I think that that's what's really going to change things because I have so many clients that will have so many ideas.
Lauren Mallard:They're like, I'm going to go to Orlando, but I only want to go one time this year and I want to go for a week and I want to hit Legoland and I want to hit SeaWorld and I want to hit Universal.
Lauren Mallard:And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Lauren Mallard:We can't really fit all this in realistically.
Lauren Mallard:So it's really going to push people to say, okay, this time I think I'm probably going to need to just do Universal.
Lauren Mallard:Or this time I'm just going to need to do Disney.
Lauren Mallard:Because there's not going to be enough time in that five to six day window that most people want to travel.
Tony Desiri:I always everything I give people advice on Universal Studios all the time.
Tony Desiri:And I said, look for just Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.
Tony Desiri:Three days and you'll see it.
Tony Desiri:All right now this looks like a two day park too.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:And so now you're looking at five, maybe six if you want to throw in Volcano Bay.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:And now it becomes just going down there for that.
Lauren Mallard:Exactly.
Lauren Mallard:It's going to look very similar to what the majority of Disney vacations look like now, just on the Universal scale.
Tony Desiri:That's right.
Tony Desiri:And this is something that has been coming for a long time.
Tony Desiri:People have anticipated, obviously announced they were building it.
Tony Desiri:It's taken years to build.
Tony Desiri:It's finally going to open in May.
Tony Desiri:But again, this is straight out of what Disney did to all of those.
Tony Desiri:Because when I remember the first time I went, you know, with my family, my father did a tour, basically, like you signed up for a package and then they said, here's where you're going to stay.
Tony Desiri:And on Monday we're doing Disney World, and on Tuesday we're doing SeaWorld, and on Wednesday you get a free day, and on Thursday we're going back to Disney World, and then on we're going to Cypress Gardens or Gatorlands, like whatever it was.
Tony Desiri:And the bus would take you there and it would drop you back off at the hotel.
Tony Desiri:And then the time we went, my dad ditched that in his family, because that's what people do.
Tony Desiri:You.
Tony Desiri:They go, all right, I got it now.
Tony Desiri:I figured it out.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:And just figured it out on his own.
Tony Desiri:But there was still these gaps in what we were doing.
Tony Desiri:And this is where Michael Eisner was brilliant because he kind of said, even though Epcot was created in 82, he's like, I'm building a new.
Tony Desiri:I mean, Universal, like park.
Lauren Mallard:Sure.
Tony Desiri:In.
Tony Desiri:In Hollywood Studios.
Tony Desiri:Then I'll build a bush gardens, like park in the same complex.
Tony Desiri:I got all this land.
Tony Desiri:Let's build some theme parks.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:And then the Magical Express kept you there.
Tony Desiri:You didn't have to rent a car.
Tony Desiri:Bingo.
Lauren Mallard:Right.
Lauren Mallard:I'm anxious to see with Universal, you know, what's going to be their plan for upping with dining plan or something like that.
Lauren Mallard:Because if they're going to have more people that are going to be on property for longer, extended periods of time, then I think it would be beneficial to them to offer a dining plan that says, hey, if you're going to be here, eat here, and keep them on property as much as possible.
Lauren Mallard:Because right now you've still got people kind of going in and out.
Lauren Mallard:And Universal is very, very aware of the fact that people will book ghost rooms at those premier resorts for a night.
Lauren Mallard:I do that with my clients all the time.
Lauren Mallard:Because it's technically, if you have a larger family, it's cheaper to book a room at one of those three premier resorts, not even stay there.
Lauren Mallard:But get that unlimited Express pass.
Tony Desiri:That's exactly right.
Lauren Mallard:So I'm anxious to see kind of how they shift with that and how things go forward.
Tony Desiri:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:And it's, again, it really is going to change the way people pick vacations, what they want to do and how they want to do it.
Tony Desiri:You still might have the one off that kind of escapes to Magic Kingdom for a day was staying on Universal property.
Tony Desiri:And you may have the Universal people still, you know, or the Disney people booking over because their kid loves Harry Potter so much.
Tony Desiri:We got to go do at least a couple of those things while we're on our Disney vacation.
Tony Desiri:But I'm very curious about how this is going.
Lauren Mallard:Exciting year for Universal.
Tony Desiri:Very much so.
Tony Desiri:And.
Tony Desiri:Very much so.
Tony Desiri:And it.
Tony Desiri:I'm kind of glad, too, because I've really.
Tony Desiri:I've loved Universal and I.
Tony Desiri:And but to me, it was always.
Tony Desiri:It just lacked.
Tony Desiri:It's.
Tony Desiri:I don't want to say vacation appeal.
Tony Desiri:That's the wrong way to put it.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:I'm saying it always felt like when we were there.
Tony Desiri:Yes.
Tony Desiri:It always felt like we were there just for a couple of days and that was it.
Lauren Mallard:Sure.
Tony Desiri:You know, it was never.
Tony Desiri:We are immersed in the whole universe.
Tony Desiri:Like we were at Disney.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:And it was just, you know, when my wife and I go down, a lot of time was when we go to visit Disney, we do it as a kind of a combination of, we're gonna go see your dad, we're gonna go see our son at Gain in Gainesville.
Tony Desiri:We're gonna see my parents in Ocala.
Tony Desiri:So we've stayed outside of Orlando, close to Tampa or close to Ocala to do the business of why we're down there.
Tony Desiri:But we have said many times, look, let's just stay at Disney.
Tony Desiri:Let's see if we can stay at Disney even though it's longer.
Tony Desiri:I think people will do that with this, too.
Tony Desiri:Now they'll say, look, I might as well stay at Universal.
Tony Desiri:If I'm going to be here for two or three days, I might as well stay here.
Tony Desiri:So it becomes.
Tony Desiri:It just really does.
Tony Desiri:I'm really very curious in just the way it operates, how it's going to be effective.
Tony Desiri:All right, let's get to.
Tony Desiri:Because one of the responses to Disney was at D23 saying, All right, we've got all this new stuff now.
Tony Desiri:Here it comes.
Tony Desiri:And I was there.
Tony Desiri:26, 27th of December.
Lauren Mallard:Are you seeing it coming yet?
Tony Desiri:I saw it coming.
Tony Desiri:Is a huge crane right there by Thunder Mountain and big Thunder Mountain Railway just closed now it's gonna be closed for a complete refurbishment.
Tony Desiri:But a lot of people said it's refurbished because they're dealing with.
Tony Desiri:They're gonna deal with so much stuff over there.
Tony Desiri:Even if they did the refurbishment, they won't open it.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Lauren Mallard:And, you know, I think, too, that they do that because they don't want anybody seeing that's exactly over there.
Tony Desiri:Get the walls up.
Lauren Mallard:They know for a fact, you know, if you're going up that hill on Big Thunder Mountain, people are going to see, they're going to take pictures.
Lauren Mallard:They don't want any of that happening.
Lauren Mallard:So it's unfortunate because Big Thunder Mountain is a favorite in Mag Kingdom.
Lauren Mallard:I think it's really good for the older kids and some of the thrill seekers to have that at Magic Kingdom.
Lauren Mallard:But, yeah, it means there's some exciting things happening.
Tony Desiri:They are.
Lauren Mallard:They're all pushing.
Tony Desiri:Exactly.
Tony Desiri:So as I was.
Tony Desiri:As I said in the podcast last week, I did ride Liberty Bell and I.
Tony Desiri:I don't care if it stays.
Lauren Mallard:I don't either.
Lauren Mallard:I don't care one little bit.
Lauren Mallard:Because I was thinking, as I was listening to you on the podcast, I.
Lauren Mallard:I don't think I've ever been on it, and I don't care.
Tony Desiri:I only went on it because it was empty.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:And I went.
Tony Desiri:And the guy said, we're leaving in three minutes.
Tony Desiri:And I said, all right, let's jump on this.
Lauren Mallard:Let's.
Tony Desiri:Let me ride this for the.
Tony Desiri:Let me ride this for the first time in all my trips down to Walt Disney World.
Tony Desiri:But they are closing down rides.
Tony Desiri:They are.
Tony Desiri:They are putting together some new nighttime celebrations.
Tony Desiri:There's also test track that's going to open up at Epcot.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:This is complete refurbishment.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:I've heard rumors.
Tony Desiri:Nobody really knows exactly what this is going to look like.
Lauren Mallard:I haven't even heard any rumors.
Lauren Mallard:And I typically.
Lauren Mallard:I'm not one that's like.
Lauren Mallard:I don't try to stay spoiler free or anything before I go back down for a refurbishment or new ride, but I haven't heard anything.
Lauren Mallard:And it's so crazy to me that there's nothing really that's like, swirling about it a whole lot.
Lauren Mallard:But I'm excited for it.
Tony Desiri:Me, too.
Tony Desiri:There's supposed to be.
Tony Desiri:The rumor is.
Tony Desiri:And again, take it for what it is.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:That it's going to be a little bit of a combination of what it was back when it was World of Motion, a little bit of that sort of dark ride history of transportation as well as what it just was.
Tony Desiri:This creation of Car and.
Tony Desiri:And what a car actually is and what it does and what you can do to it when you build your own car and handling and all that other stuff.
Lauren Mallard:Awesome.
Tony Desiri:I don't know how they'll work it, but it's been down for a while, so I know this has been completely changed.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:This goes back to Thunder Mountain in your point about why it would be a long time unless you're tearing down the track and rebuilding the whole thing, which is what they're saying they're retracking and all that stuff.
Tony Desiri:But unless you're designing, it wouldn't take a year to refurbish Thunderbound Railroad.
Lauren Mallard:No, it's kind of like last year, Rock and Roller Coaster was down for almost an entire year.
Tony Desiri:Yeah.
Lauren Mallard:And I.
Lauren Mallard:I just ask myself, like, why.
Lauren Mallard:Why are we doing that when you're taking out one of these big headliners in a park that so many people might not ever get the chance to write if they don't get a chance to write it now?
Lauren Mallard:So, yeah, it's interesting.
Tony Desiri:All right.
Tony Desiri:Now also, Dino Land.
Tony Desiri:I saw them taking.
Tony Desiri:I saw the pictures taking down.
Lauren Mallard:Yes.
Tony Desiri:This is one of those things where I'm like, I didn't really care when it was there and now it's gone.
Tony Desiri:I'm like.
Tony Desiri:I remember some good times with my kids at this little park, at the.
Lauren Mallard:Little games and the things like that.
Lauren Mallard:You know, I don't think my kids ever were interested in Dino Land, so I don't have that nostalgia with it.
Lauren Mallard:So I'm really more excited to see what's gonna come.
Tony Desiri:Yeah, me too.
Tony Desiri:I'm glad.
Tony Desiri:I'm glad it's.
Tony Desiri:I'm glad they're kind of re changing it.
Lauren Mallard:Yes.
Tony Desiri:They got the Encanto house that's coming and all of.
Tony Desiri:All of the things that they've been planning in D23.
Tony Desiri:That construction underway dinosaur is continue for a while that eventually will become an Indiana Jones ride.
Tony Desiri:Very similar to what you see.
Tony Desiri:It's gonna be different, but the track is the same from the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.
Lauren Mallard:And, you know, I wish they would just go ahead and get started on that.
Lauren Mallard:Like, who really?
Lauren Mallard:I mean, yes, I know there's people that love dinosaur, but who really does?
Lauren Mallard:Because let's go ahead and close that because that seems like that would be a fairly quick fix.
Tony Desiri:Yeah, you're just changing the theme.
Lauren Mallard:They're just changing the theming.
Lauren Mallard:Which, you know, I could have said the same thing about Tiana's Bayou Adventure.
Lauren Mallard:And that took a long time.
Tony Desiri:That took a Long time.
Lauren Mallard:But yeah, let's go ahead and get something new and fresh in Animal Kingdom because right now I'm seeing less interest in Animal Kingdom than ever before.
Tony Desiri:Right.
Tony Desiri:I.
Tony Desiri:I wonder about Animal Kingdom because everybody who goes will say, look, there's just not a lot of attractions there.
Tony Desiri:It's not a full day park.
Tony Desiri:It closes early, and it's gigantic.
Tony Desiri:But it's a, it's a park you can get in pretty relatively quickly if you go on, and you can easily.
Lauren Mallard:Do it without lightning lanes.
Tony Desiri:My wife, when I.
Tony Desiri:We went down in September, we, we were done by 2:00.
Lauren Mallard:Yep.
Tony Desiri:Like, it was like, do you want to do anything else?
Tony Desiri:You want to re.
Tony Desiri:Ride anything?
Tony Desiri:I rewrote everything we wanted to ride.
Tony Desiri:If you shut down that major area, now you're talking about an even shorter day at that park.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Lauren Mallard:So my tip for Animal Kingdom is always that is our first park.
Lauren Mallard:So if we are going to a park on arrival day and we take an early flight down, that's always going to be my first part.
Lauren Mallard:Because I know for a fact, regardless of if my flight's late getting in, if it takes me a little while to get checked into the hotel, I can still get everything done in Animal Kingdom.
Lauren Mallard:And that's going to remain that way for a while.
Tony Desiri:And I know Animal Kingdom has its fans in my family.
Tony Desiri:It was never the park we wanted to hop to later in the afternoon to re.
Tony Desiri:Like, even though it would close at 6, we never left Epcot for Animal Kingdom.
Tony Desiri:We never.
Tony Desiri:We always did that first.
Tony Desiri:Did.
Tony Desiri:Made sure we got it all done and then we would go back to somewhere else.
Tony Desiri:Right?
Lauren Mallard:Absolutely.
Tony Desiri:It never became the second part of the day.
Lauren Mallard:Yes.
Tony Desiri:So even though, again, it's a park that closes pretty early anyway, but.
Tony Desiri:So they're going to be doing a lot of stuff there in terms of getting that entire land for Encanto and in the shops and the restaurants.
Tony Desiri:And then eventually the Indiana Jones ride comes along.
Tony Desiri:Over at Magic Kingdom, there's going to be a new Pirates tavern.
Lauren Mallard:Yes.
Tony Desiri:Now, this looks like fun, but is it going to be an actual tavern?
Lauren Mallard:You know, I don't know.
Lauren Mallard:I keep thinking in my mind, I keep thinking like ogres, but pirate style.
Tony Desiri:Right.
Lauren Mallard:And so I guess that's kind of what we're in for.
Lauren Mallard:But I'm like, where exactly are they going to put it?
Tony Desiri:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:It's a very crowded area over there.
Lauren Mallard:It is.
Lauren Mallard:So I'm interested to see what's going to happen there, where it's going to be, what the menu Is there going to be any food on the menu?
Lauren Mallard:And.
Lauren Mallard:And just what's going to happen?
Tony Desiri:Yeah, is.
Tony Desiri:And how many is it going to feel?
Tony Desiri:Is it there.
Tony Desiri:Are there going to be cast members in there to make it feel like a pirate tavern rather than just when you go into some places and you're like, oh, I.
Tony Desiri:I get it.
Tony Desiri:It.
Lauren Mallard:I see the stuff on the wall, the atmosphere.
Tony Desiri:Will there be occasionally one or two people just there sort of hanging out?
Lauren Mallard:Yeah, like a little bit of, like, character interaction in there.
Tony Desiri:Because, again, you can do a themed restaurant without cast members.
Tony Desiri:Like Star Wars.
Tony Desiri:You don't necessarily need the Star wars people dressed up as the band.
Lauren Mallard:Right.
Tony Desiri:To play.
Lauren Mallard:Right.
Tony Desiri:You gotta feel for it.
Tony Desiri:But if you're gonna have a pirates tavern and you have pirates in it, how much piratey could it be?
Lauren Mallard:Right.
Lauren Mallard:And you go into, like, the Haunted Mansion bar on the Treasure, and we've heard that the cast members in there are playing along, and so I kind of think it might be something similar to that.
Tony Desiri:Are you interested in the Epcot future world?
Tony Desiri:What is it called?
Tony Desiri:The Spaceship Earth Lounge.
Tony Desiri:What are they calling that?
Lauren Mallard:I don't even know what it's going to be called yet.
Lauren Mallard:And no, I'm really not supposed to.
Tony Desiri:Be a lounge by.
Tony Desiri:By Spaceship Earth.
Lauren Mallard:Yes.
Lauren Mallard:And I'm like, well, don't we already.
Lauren Mallard:We have Space 220 Lounge and we have Space 220 Restaurant.
Lauren Mallard:And so that kind of seemed like a little bit of a miss to me.
Lauren Mallard:I'm not really super excited about that one.
Tony Desiri:All right.
Tony Desiri:There are going to be some new shows.
Tony Desiri: ew nighttime parade coming in: Lauren Mallard:So exciting.
Tony Desiri:This one's great.
Tony Desiri:I've seen some early, like, artist re of this.
Tony Desiri:This looks fantastic.
Lauren Mallard:I cannot wait.
Tony Desiri:It's going to.
Tony Desiri:There's Peter Pan, Moana, Frozen.
Tony Desiri:There's going to be adding some real life.
Tony Desiri:The nighttime parades.
Tony Desiri:When was the Nighttime Spectacular was one of the classic parades of all time?
Lauren Mallard:Yes.
Lauren Mallard:And a hot take for me, my very favorite parade of all time is Spectro Magic.
Tony Desiri:Oh, right.
Tony Desiri:Yeah.
Lauren Mallard:Which not a lot of people will gravitate towards.
Lauren Mallard:Spectrum Magic, because you had the Main Street Electrical Parade for a long time and then you had Spectromagic for a little bit, and then they brought back the Main Street Electrical Parade.
Lauren Mallard:So I think that there's just a small group of people that have nostalgia for Spectro Magic.
Lauren Mallard:But I can still see the.
Lauren Mallard:The dancing clowns coming down the street.
Tony Desiri:You should start a little Facebook group of people who love that.
Lauren Mallard:I Love it.
Tony Desiri:And hung out with that and remember the good old days.
Tony Desiri:That would be fun.
Tony Desiri:There's also going to be a new villain show over at Hollywood Studios.
Tony Desiri:They're.
Tony Desiri:They've embraced this.
Tony Desiri:They.
Tony Desiri:This is.
Tony Desiri:I.
Tony Desiri:I think this is organic.
Tony Desiri:I.
Tony Desiri:I may be naive.
Tony Desiri:Yeah, I think this was organic from the fans at Disney went, oh, there really is an interest for the Villains.
Tony Desiri:Like a really fan group.
Tony Desiri:Let's.
Tony Desiri:Let's cap it.
Tony Desiri:Let's.
Tony Desiri:Let's jump in on it.
Tony Desiri:Rather than sort of Disney creating it and then it being embraced.
Tony Desiri:Yeah, I think people were like, started creating.
Lauren Mallard:I can see that.
Tony Desiri:And then Disney went, you know, we're starting to notice that people collect the Disney pins and they collect villain wear and they.
Tony Desiri:All right, we're gonna.
Tony Desiri:We're gonna.
Tony Desiri:We're gonna jump all over this and capitalize it.
Tony Desiri:We talked about it in, I think, our first podcast, which was the.
Tony Desiri:What was going on at D23 and the villains Land and what.
Tony Desiri:That would take this.
Tony Desiri:I mean, you don't have to be a longtime Disney fan.
Tony Desiri:I know people have been screaming for something like that for a long time.
Lauren Mallard:Absolutely.
Tony Desiri:You know, just give me a.
Tony Desiri:Give me.
Tony Desiri:Also give me something more related to the Villains.
Tony Desiri:Give me a ride that's a little bit darker.
Tony Desiri:Give me.
Tony Desiri:I love the darkness of the.
Tony Desiri:Of these.
Tony Desiri:Some of these characters.
Tony Desiri:And now there's going to be a show over at Hollywood Studios.
Tony Desiri:And of course, there is the other thing that we've talked about that.
Tony Desiri: That made it: Tony Desiri:From Muppets Land and then the eventual Muppets taking over the rock and roll roller coaster.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:So I don't know when they.
Tony Desiri: When they're at the: Tony Desiri:I think it will finally be put together.
Lauren Mallard: l of that is going to come in: Lauren Mallard:All of that.
Lauren Mallard:I think that's going to be a really, really good change for Hollywood Studios.
Tony Desiri:There's going to be, again, when you're talking about this kind of change, it's different than what Universal is doing, because Universal is building a whole new park.
Tony Desiri:So the park is over here.
Tony Desiri:You would do.
Tony Desiri:You do your stuff here.
Lauren Mallard:Right.
Tony Desiri:It's over there.
Tony Desiri:But I have to say that I think there are.
Tony Desiri:There's going to be a lot of frustrating people who go, hey, like, I remember when I first won in 82, Space Mountain was closed.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:Like, I'm a kid.
Tony Desiri:I don't know when I'm coming back.
Lauren Mallard:Big deal.
Lauren Mallard:You know, Absolutely.
Tony Desiri:And I'm going there.
Tony Desiri:And every single friend of mine in elementary school was talking about how cool Space Mountain was.
Tony Desiri:We finally go, my father and my brother, we run up there and it's closed.
Tony Desiri:And like you don't know.
Tony Desiri:And for a kid, I was eight, nine, two years or three, we didn't know when I was coming back.
Tony Desiri:But that's an eternity, right?
Tony Desiri:Might as well forget it.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:So I can, you know, when you close down a major roller coaster, like Big Thunder Mountain Railway, when you start saying this land over here is closed, that means more people are going to be over here because there's really nothing to do here.
Tony Desiri: be a lot of growing pains in: Tony Desiri:But again, when you're in the theme park business, what you try to do is you say, well, over here we got issues, but over here we're, we're doing some other stuff.
Lauren Mallard:This is nice and shiny, right?
Lauren Mallard:Yes.
Lauren Mallard:And then, you know, I think too, that's where you also have to say, you are immersing yourself in this entire resort.
Lauren Mallard:It is not just a theme park.
Lauren Mallard:Again, if you are frustrated with the theme parks, there's so much else to do for your day.
Lauren Mallard:So, you know, spend some time in the theme park, but then go over to Disney Springs or go back to your resort, have a swim, go to a character meal, different things.
Lauren Mallard:Just make it a full vacation.
Lauren Mallard:It doesn't have to just be about the rides in the.
Tony Desiri:I agree, I agree completely.
Tony Desiri:Again, that's.
Tony Desiri:You're right.
Tony Desiri:The give the complete immersion is what Disney World always has done very, very well.
Tony Desiri:It's like once you're here, you can stay here.
Tony Desiri:Everything around it, from what you, from when you wake up to when you eat to when whatever you want to do, from golf to mini golf to water recreation, anything.
Tony Desiri:Speaking of water recreation there.
Tony Desiri:So if you check in to a resort.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:You get a free water park.
Tony Desiri:Pass the day you check in.
Lauren Mallard:Yes.
Tony Desiri:Only good for the day you check in.
Lauren Mallard:That's right.
Tony Desiri:I can see people going from like one or two resorts on their stay to get a couple of.
Lauren Mallard:That's the hack that people have said.
Lauren Mallard:So if you do a split stay, you're essentially getting two days especially, you know, people might say, well, I'm not going to get there early enough on my check in day for a water park.
Lauren Mallard:Well, let's say, you know, three days into the trip you're moving from Pop Century to Port Orleans French Quarter.
Lauren Mallard:Well, on that.
Lauren Mallard:Porter, Porter Leans French Quarter day that you're checking in.
Lauren Mallard:That can be a full day of a water park.
Lauren Mallard:From the time you wake up until the time that water park closes, it's free for everybody in your party.
Tony Desiri:That's great because there is, there is always the feeling of it's in that middle zone of like 11 to 2.
Tony Desiri:My room's not ready.
Tony Desiri:Do I want to use one of the days on this ticket?
Tony Desiri:I don't want to use the day.
Tony Desiri:When I get there for a half a day.
Tony Desiri:I, I need something to do.
Tony Desiri:I may not, you know, whatever it is, I don't want to shop yet.
Tony Desiri:I just want to do something.
Tony Desiri:And there you go, you get, you get to go water park and park hack.
Tony Desiri:And I always tell people, look, if you can do it, it stay at multiple resorts, get a feel for it.
Tony Desiri:I always say, listen, I know it's tough to pack, unpack, I get it.
Tony Desiri:But if you are trying, I mean, so many of these hotels have got character.
Tony Desiri:They've got their own theming, they got their own sort of, sort of entertainment.
Tony Desiri:There's so many different things at these resorts.
Tony Desiri:If you can bang out two in a week stay, I, I highly recommend doing it now.
Tony Desiri:There's a little bit more incentive.
Lauren Mallard:That's right.
Lauren Mallard:Absolutely.
Tony Desiri:All right.
Tony Desiri:I want to get to your, your thoughts on a promotion that's popular, that comes around all the time, and that's free dining.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:Let me just ask this, because nothing, we always know nothing's really free.
Tony Desiri:You end up paying it in some way, shape or form.
Tony Desiri:You have to stay at a certain hotel.
Tony Desiri:You have to, you have to have a park hopper passes the pack up passes to be certain amount of times in order to get this.
Tony Desiri:Do you find that this has got value still?
Tony Desiri:If you are somebody that's going, well, I was gonna stay at All Star movies.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Tony Desiri:And I wasn't gonna get Park Harper passes.
Tony Desiri:But now I might upgrade my hotel and the park hopper to get this.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah.
Lauren Mallard:So it depends.
Lauren Mallard:So I am in this every day and I'm looking.
Lauren Mallard:So what we do as travel agents and you know this, obviously, but we can go in and when we're looking for a client's vacation, we see all of the available promos at the top.
Tony Desiri:Right.
Lauren Mallard:And so what my job is, is I check every single one of those.
Lauren Mallard:I see which one is going to be the cheapest by putting all of the same components in.
Lauren Mallard:And What I found nine times out of 10 is even when adding that dining plan back, the free dining promo may not be the best, best deal.
Lauren Mallard:And so it goes back to what you're saying.
Lauren Mallard:They're going to get their money somehow.
Lauren Mallard:Now, sometimes it does work out to be in their favor, especially if you're staying at a deluxe resort and you're getting the full dining plan for free on that and you're staying at one of the less expensive deluxe resorts like Animal Kingdom Lodge, Wilderness Lodge, and you're getting the most value out of that.
Lauren Mallard:That can definitely be work in your favor.
Lauren Mallard:But there are two other promos that are out for that same time period.
Lauren Mallard:That's a room discount.
Lauren Mallard:And then there's one that's called like Stay Play.
Lauren Mallard:And I'm not even really sure what the exact components are, but I check it for you.
Lauren Mallard:So I check it with your.
Lauren Mallard:With your different components.
Lauren Mallard:So that's where we're going to come in for you, is we're going to check everything, see if we want to upgrade your tickets to Park Hoppers and see what's going to make the most sense for you.
Tony Desiri:Yeah, and.
Tony Desiri:And again, the dining plan has got its.
Tony Desiri:A lot of pluses.
Tony Desiri:A lot of people, a lot of.
Tony Desiri:It's not.
Tony Desiri:It's it.
Tony Desiri:People have always made the argument, this is an old argument, this is not mine, of if I had the money in an envelope, right.
Tony Desiri:Would I have money left over in the envelope?
Lauren Mallard:Right.
Tony Desiri:And that's the old adage, right?
Tony Desiri:Sometimes no, depending on the food.
Tony Desiri:But sometimes, yes, depending on how much food you want to eat.
Lauren Mallard:And I will say, the times that I have gone on the dining plan, I've been so happy because I don't have to think.
Lauren Mallard:And we've said it so many times because it's like, okay, yes, I paid a lot for this, but I've already paid for it.
Lauren Mallard:It's in the past.
Lauren Mallard:So when I sit down to dinner, I'm not reading the menu from right to.
Lauren Mallard:As I do so many times, because I'm like, oh, well, I don't want to order that steak because it's more expensive than that chicken.
Lauren Mallard:But I've already paid for it.
Lauren Mallard:So I am going to order the most expensive thing on the menu.
Lauren Mallard:I'm going to splurge, I'm going to enjoy.
Lauren Mallard:I might have a drink with dinner.
Lauren Mallard:You know, different things like that.
Lauren Mallard:That has already been paid for where I think so many people.
Lauren Mallard:When you're paying for a Disney vacation, it all comes down to what can I pay for ahead of time and then be able to enjoy it with my family?
Tony Desiri:And I say to people about the dining plan.
Tony Desiri:I'm like, look, look, I know some of you want to run off and get a burger real quick or you want to get a hot dog at Casey's Corner or whatnot.
Tony Desiri:And I sort of get that.
Tony Desiri:There's the quick service, and you can do that.
Tony Desiri:But if you are doing the, you know, the.
Tony Desiri:The sit down, at least one.
Tony Desiri:You get a chance to do some restaurants maybe you would not do.
Lauren Mallard:You wouldn't have thought of, right.
Tony Desiri:That you would.
Tony Desiri:Maybe you would have said, I'm not the kind of guy that wants to book a restaurant.
Tony Desiri:I know that Disney restaurants are a little bit more expensive than my normal restaurant at home, and I'd rather just get a quick burger at a place.
Tony Desiri:You can do that on the dining plan.
Tony Desiri:There's a dining plan for that.
Lauren Mallard:That's right.
Tony Desiri:But my best memories of my family trips are the times we ate at Coral Reef, for crying out loud.
Tony Desiri:And my little girl thought the aquarium was unbelievable.
Tony Desiri:Like, she could not stop watching the fish while we were eating dinner.
Tony Desiri:Or the Sci Fi restaurant where just the theming was cool.
Tony Desiri:And I got to tell my kids about drive in movies, something they don't.
Tony Desiri:They didn't.
Tony Desiri:They don't do.
Tony Desiri:Absolutely, you know, things like that.
Tony Desiri:Those are the kind of cool memories that I have.
Lauren Mallard:And not only that, it's just, you know, when you're in a theme park and it's 95, 100 degrees outside, having an hour in air condition to sit down with your family, recharge, it really, really makes a huge difference than just sitting outside for quick service for every meal of every day.
Tony Desiri:I.
Tony Desiri:I do have to say to you, because I know that you weren't here last week, but I mentioned in the podcast that I finally jumped into mobile ordering.
Lauren Mallard:I was gonna talk about that today.
Lauren Mallard:We can wait till next week.
Tony Desiri:Crazy.
Tony Desiri:I.
Tony Desiri:It drove.
Tony Desiri:I was.
Tony Desiri:I'm.
Tony Desiri:I don't know why I didn't embrace this.
Tony Desiri:Like, I don't know why I just didn't care for.
Tony Desiri:I just was like, no, I'll stand in line.
Tony Desiri:I don't care.
Tony Desiri:My wife was like, no, sit down.
Tony Desiri:I've ordered the food, and when it's ready, they'll tell us and we'll just go get it.
Tony Desiri:And I'm like, no, I'll stand in line.
Tony Desiri:She goes, you're an idiot.
Tony Desiri:Stop.
Tony Desiri:Just stay right here.
Tony Desiri:Me and Christopher will go get the food.
Tony Desiri:Food.
Tony Desiri:And now I'm like, a big convert.
Lauren Mallard:You love it.
Tony Desiri:I think it was a lot of it.
Tony Desiri:Just like, I'm on My phone the whole time doing this and checking this and checking this.
Lauren Mallard:That's true.
Tony Desiri:I just eat.
Tony Desiri:But this is, it's too easy.
Lauren Mallard:It was way too fantastic.
Tony Desiri:Plus, here's the other thing.
Tony Desiri:I was, I was kind of the woman that told me about.
Tony Desiri:It was like 60, I was gonna say.
Lauren Mallard:Was she old?
Tony Desiri:Yeah, she was like an older lady really.
Tony Desiri:It was at Casey's Corner and she, she just said, you can use the mobile order.
Tony Desiri:And I go now not really big.
Tony Desiri:Oh, it's so easy, honey.
Tony Desiri:And I go, oh, okay.
Tony Desiri:And then she was showing and my wife's like, I, I got it, I got it.
Tony Desiri:So, yeah, so I finally got into mobile ordering.
Tony Desiri:So that, that was great.
Tony Desiri:That was, that was fantastic.
Tony Desiri:So that's kind of a look, a brief look at least.
Tony Desiri: What at: Lauren Mallard:Yeah, you know, I think we've covered most everything.
Lauren Mallard:There is so much, so much coming.
Tony Desiri:Oh, the Zootopia show.
Tony Desiri:I forgot the Zootopia show.
Tony Desiri:That's coming to where it's the tough to be a bug show is inside the tree.
Lauren Mallard:So I'm excited.
Lauren Mallard:Yeah, lots of trips to plan, lots of, lots of fun to be had.
Tony Desiri:I know that again, a lot of people will be hearing about the construction this and the shutdown this.
Tony Desiri:But again, you get one ride closer, you get another one open that they, they, they don't shut everything down to rebuild everything.
Tony Desiri:They do it a little bit at a time.
Tony Desiri:They do make sure that things are open and available.
Tony Desiri:Something may be down on one end, but something may be re emerging on another.
Tony Desiri:You're going to get the test track up.
Tony Desiri:Even though Thunder Mountain Railroad of Magic Kingdom is down, that's kind of the way, way that they run that business.
Tony Desiri:So it's never going to be a day where you're going to be like 60 of everything is shut down for cleanup.
Lauren Mallard:That's right.
Tony Desiri: be a big transitional year in: Lauren Mallard:That's right.
Tony Desiri:With three parks, four if you want to count water parks at Universal Studios and then four theme parks, plus the two water parks at Walt Disney World.
Tony Desiri: So: Tony Desiri:Absolutely amazing.
Tony Desiri:All right.
Tony Desiri:So again, please subscribe and give us a five star review.
Tony Desiri:If you like the podcast, we'll be back next week with more insight information on both Disney World and Universal Studios.
Tony Desiri:I'm Tony Desiri.
Tony Desiri:That's Lauren Mallard.
Tony Desiri:You can reach Lauren Lauren at all the magic travel.
Tony Desiri:You can reach me Travel with Tony D gmail.com we'd love to hear from you again.
Tony Desiri:Please share the podcast with those that you are also interested in traveling down to the theme park world of Orlando, Florida.
Tony Desiri:This is the Wands and Wishes podcast.
Tony Desiri:Have a great day.
