Preserve, Refurb, Demolish: Our Disney Version of Kiss, Marry, Kill

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The No-Guilt Disney Podcast strives to be a little different than other Disney podcasts. And here’s one of those episodes that manage to give you some Disney info but allows us to do it in a fun and silly way. Enter the game: Preserve, Refurb, Demolish. You’ll learn that Disneyland has our favorite versions of most attractions and that Theresa doesn’t want any characters put into any rides ever. It’s not just Epcot, y’all!

Welp, first we needed to talk about the big ol’ Dumbo in the room: those ticket price hikes.

Annual Passholders got hit (again) at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

And as 3 AP holders, we have some thoughts on that matter. 

Preserve, Refurb, Demolish

We decided to give our Disney version of Kiss, Marry, Kill a go- and the results were as expected.

We fought over some things.

And we also kinda predicted something as it pertains to the refurb of Big Thunder Mountain that was officially announced yesterday.

So also: we read Imagineer minds around here. This is the podcast that keeps on giving, folks!

Tweet us and let us know what our next 3 P/R/D attractions should be.

• Ballad of Thunder Mountain

 

Find the No-Guilt Disney Podcast Team

by email at [email protected]

Patty

• noguiltdisney.com
• noguiltfangirl.com
• The No-Guilt Fangirls Podcast
• Now Streaming Disney Plus Podcast
• @noguiltlife on all socials

Theresa

• insightfulllife.com
• @gertiethedino on Twitter
• @in.sight.full.life on Instagram

Jane

• @realmousewifewdw on Instagram
• @realmousewifeFL on Twitter

Music from https://filmmusic.io
“Vivacity” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) 

Transcript of Preserve, Refurb, Demolish: Our Disney Version of Kiss, Marry, Kill

Patty 0:08
To all who come to our happy place, welcome to the No-Guilt Disney Podcast! Where we have no guilt about our love for all things Disney.

Jane 0:17
We’re Jane, Theresa and Patty, three Disney fangirls who probably know more about Disney Parks than most grown women should and we’re perfectly okay with that.

Theresa 0:27
I feel like I could probably know even more. Hello everyone, my name is Theresa and you can find me on Twitter @GertieTheDino and on Instagram at @in.sight.full.life.

Jane 0:43
And I am Jane and I can be found on Facebook and Instagram @RealMousewifeWDW.

Patty 0:50
Hey y’all, I’m Patty Holliday from NoGuiltDisney.com and The No-Guilt Fangirls Podcast, and you can find me on all socials @NoGuiltLife.

Theresa 0:59
This episode is sponsored by No-Guilt Travel, a travel agency that specializes in Disney and runDisney vacations.

Patty 1:07
Now we know that you have a choice in your Disney podcasts, and we are glad that you decided to listen to ours.

Jane 1:13
So go ahead and hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss an episode.

Theresa 1:18
And if you haven’t already done it and listen on a platform that allows it, make sure you go ahead and leave us a five-star review.

Patty 1:24
Please, because it’s so helpful to have those reviews and those comments in there so that other Disney fan girls and guys can find us, listen to us, and hopefully join in the conversation. Because that’s what we’re here for. Right?

Jane 1:38
That’s right!

Theresa 1:39
Yeah, absolutely!

Patty 1:40
All right. One thing that we needed to talk about, we have to address this. This is not gonna be the subject of the entire podcast. However, this morning, as we’re recording this, this happened today. We woke up to discover – dun dun dun! Price increases.

Theresa 1:57
Womp womp.

Patty 2:00
Well, it is February, and any of us that have been paying enough attention over the years could have known that it was going to happen. I didn’t have the date in mind, but I feel like this is earlier than it’s happened in previous years. I’m not a historian on the ticket prices, the ticket price increases. But pretty much every February they seem to go up – the annual passes as well as daily ticket increases. And that’s something we saw this morning.

Jane 2:28
Yeah, my annual pass used to renew in February, every year until the one year when they did that “get the 13 month free” or whatever it was. So now it’s moved until March, but I used to get it in right before the price increase. And now here I sit.

Theresa 2:48
I think they do it twice a year now, because my renewal date’s August/September, and I remember this past year, I just barely missed being able to renew before the last price increase.

Patty 3:00
I don’t think traditionally it was twice a year, I think traditionally was only once a year. But last year, we did get it twice because they were anticipating Galaxy’s Edge. And I gotta wonder if they increased as much as they did because of two parks overseas that are completely shut down, because nobody can go to it due to the Coronavirus. Maybe they’re like, “we need to get as much money as we can, wherever we can. Add an extra $50 to that hike that we already agreed upon.” “Okay. All right, Steve, let’s do that.” Anywho. I’m going to end up paying the “I waited too long tax,” because my annual pass renews every February 13. And this happened on February 11. Naturally. I was waiting though. I actually was trying to figure out the best time based on how many trips and what I had scheduled, and that sort of thing. I was kind of holding off anyway, thinking I was going to miss my renewal window. And I knew that was the risk I was going to take, so I’m not going to complain about it. But yeah, that’s what happened. How do you guys feel about price increases?

Jane 4:13
For me personally, they don’t really affect me. This particular go round they did not raise the Florida annual park ticket price for the platinum [pass.] The Florida resident rate did not go up. It did go up in the last round they did, the Galaxy’s Edge price increase. But even that, it only went up – I want to say $20 or $30 a year. So for me, the price increase isn’t really that big of a deal.

Theresa 4:50
I’m struggling with it. I looked and the price for renewal now, for the the lowest out-of-state option is going to be over $1,000. And for those of us who are out-of-state, for renewing an AP we have to pay that all up front. We can’t do what the Florida residents can and break it down into monthly installments. So having this $1000 big price tag looming out ahead of me…this might be my last year as the annual pass holder for a while. I mostly renewed last year so I could attend the Passholder preview for Galaxy’s Edge and because I typically do try to fit in 3-4 long weekends throughout the course of the year. But it’s been getting a lot harder to find short notice, long weekends for hotels. If I can find a hotel, you can almost never find the AP discount available for it anymore a few weeks out, which is how I typically plan my trips. And there are a couple other perks that I just haven’t been able to take advantage of, not being in Florida. So I have to now- I have to go back to doing math and mathing out my “what will it cost to really be able to, you know, make this worth it?” Or is it going to be better for me to go back to what I used to do, and every year and a half do one week long, or slightly over week long, trip versus several short ones.

Patty 6:16
I am with you on that level. A couple of years ago, I stopped getting passes for everyone in the family. And it became just me, particularly when, obviously, the business was tied to me going down for the race weekends and that sort of thing. So I was going much more than anybody else. But, you know, I’m a family of six. And coming up with $6,000 in one chunk to get everybody annual passes? That’s just not attainable. That’s not something that we could do. So that’s definitely out of the question. But as far as my own, I struggle with this because I know by doing math that I absolutely do still come out ahead with as many days as I go – as long as I do all four race weekends and go to the parks on all four days. But lately I have found myself going into the parks and not spending all day in the parks. I’m kind of treating them like I’m a local. I go in and I hang out for two or three hours, and I pop out. So do I need to get the annual pass? I could just come down and hang out with Jane and we can go to Disney Springs.

Jane 7:26
Or we could go nowhere, which is my favorite place to go.

Patty 7:30
That fabulous blanket on your couch. <laughter> But Jane lives right outside the gates of Hollywood Studios. I think I was in Hollywood Studios within eight minutes of leaving her apartment when I was visiting her last, and so it’s now my new home, I have moved in there. I really liked the proximity to it. So anyway, that’s where I am, and I’m trying to debate. For me, it’s not the matter of the trips and the time that I will be there, but it’s the way I’ve been doing Parks lately that I’ve got to keep in mind. Is it actually worth paying the tickets? I’ll still come down for the trips, I will still stay in the hotels, I will still be there on property. But do I need to be in the parks all the time? And maybe I don’t. I don’t know. I haven’t decided because, like Theresa, I also have to pay that big chunk of, in my case because I waited, now it’ll be $1100 or $1200. dollars. Guys. I used to get the the Coast-to-Coast Annual Pass for $1200! For less than $1200! Not that long ago, just a couple of years ago. And now it’s just the Walt Disney World option.

Theresa 8:41
We can’t even get the AP magnets mailed to us.

Patty 8:43
No, we don’t even get those! Right, exactly. They don’t even send us magnets. What’s up with that?

Jane 8:49
And I’m over here like, “Could we get something other than magnets? Because I’m running out of room.

Theresa 8:53
I want them to send it to me. And it was different too when they had the ShopParks app, because you could order merch that was in the Parks and get your AP discount. But since they got rid of that and put everything into ShopDisney, that merch discount is also gone. So all the things that I could still take advantage of by not being a local, that keeps getting smaller and smaller.

Patty 9:16
Yeah, it’s hard. But when it comes to the bottom line, when I look at the price increases and keep in mind that to take my family to a Nationals baseball game, or to take my family to a Redskins football game, which we would not take them to either one-

Theresa 9:36
Go Orioles.

Patty 9:38
I don’t do sports. But basically, my point being to get good seats to go to a sporting event for a couple of hours, or to get good seats at any decent Broadway play, right? You’re spending $200 or $300 a seat sometimes. So in hindsight, a day at Disney still comes in under that, because I could spend the whole day, right? So for me when people say, “Oh, they’ve lost their minds, it’s too expensive,” I still think the value is there compared to some other forms of entertainment that’s out there. It’s just one of those things that, I think for me like if they were to dangle a payment plan in front of my face, then it would be a no brainer. But it’s just that there’s no payment plan.

Yeah. That large chunk of money that I have to come up with that I’m like, “Ahhhh, Disney. Why you gotta be like this?” Anywho, we just wanted to talk and discuss the annual pass situation, and just tickets in general. If you have thoughts on this, or something that we’re missing, send those thoughts to us. You can find us on our socials. And we’d like to hear what you feel about prices going up as they did. Two days before my renewal. Ah, well. Alright, so we are going to have some fun now. We are going to play a little game. I don’t know how this is go. We haven’t really talked about this. So we don’t know if this is going to be totally stupid <laughter>, or if the good part of the podcast is already past, that may have already happened.

Theresa 10:22
Yeah, absolutely.

Jane 11:14
Then we’re sorry. <laughter>

Theresa 11:16
But keep listening to find out!

Patty 11:19
With that excellent setup, don’t you want to hear more? <laughter> And this is harder than I expected it to be. We are going to play a Disney version of “Kiss, Marry, Kill.” Who wants to explain how the game is played? Jane?

Jane 11:35
Sure. So the concept behind this game is you’re given three choices. A lot of times it’s celebrities, and then you choose which one do you want to kiss, marry or kill. But you have to have one assigned with each thing. But we’re going to do this a little bit differently. This Disney version is called “Preserve, Refurb, and Demolish.”

Patty 12:03
And Theresa, how is this one gonna work? What’s the rules on this one?

Theresa 12:08
This is where we get to be some armchair Imagineers for a few minutes and determine the fate of three attractions that were randomly given to us. We get to preserve one, which will live on at Disney forever, exactly as it is now. One we’re able to keep, but give it a bit of a refurbishment – and we didn’t really specify what the scope of that refurbishment looks like, so it could be a complete overhaul, it could be minor enhancements. We’re going to wait and see because we have no idea what each other picked yet. And the last one, we had to pick one attraction to completely demolish. It’s gone. Bye, Felicia.

Patty 12:46
So this is going to be fun. Now, I asked a friend to give me three attractions. We decided to just start with attractions. And I didn’t give her any explanation, no hint as to why. I just said, Hi, give me three attractions.” She was like, “What are you talking about?” I said, “Three Disney attractions. Hit me with him.” She’s like, “Why?” Just answer the question already, right? So she said fine, and she hit me up with these three. Now in hindsight, I wish I’d clarified a little bit because demolishing any of these is going to hurt a little bit. But here we go. Here we gooooo. Hint. That’s attraction number one. So the first one is Peter Pan’s Flight. The second attraction is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. And the third attraction is Slinky Dog Dash. And we are going to preserve, refurb, or demolish each one of these. So are you ready for this?

Theresa 13:50
You know, as ready as we typically are. <laughter>

Patty 13:54
That about sums up this podcast.

Theresa 13:57
I think claws will come out at some point. So we’ll just wait and see if I cause it, or if I’m doing it?

Patty 14:02
Well, you know, Theresa, none of this has to do with Epcot. So there’s that.

Jane 14:11
There is that.

Patty 14:12
Alright, so we are going to start the first one. We’re gonna start with Peter Pan’s Flight. We’ll just go around and say if it’s on the preserve, refurb, or demolish list first, and then we’re going to explain why. So Peter Pan’s Flight. Jane?

Jane 14:30
Refurb.

Patty 14:31
Theresa?

Theresa 14:33
Also refurb.

Patty 14:35
I say demolish

Jane 14:39
I knew someone was going to, and I had a feeling it was gonna be you, Holliday! <laughter>

Patty 14:46
Yep. We’re gonna demolish that one. Which, funny enough, the person who sent me this, that’s her favorite ride of all time.

Jane 14:55
Once again, I’m going to go back to: her and I need a podcast. We can shuffle papers and talk about Peter Pan!

Patty 15:04
All right, so tell me what you two would refurb. What would your refurbs look like? Each one of you tell me why this needs to be on the refurb list.

Jane 15:11
I just think overall it needs an update. It definitely needs some sort of refresher. I hear it over and over again, “Why does Peter Pan have more than a 45 minute wait? Why is it so hard to get a Fast Pass for?” But there is – the nostalgia of that ride is what I love so much that I can’t get enough of it. So I would just like to see, maybe a freshened up paint job. I do enjoy Disneyland’s better, so maybe if we could get that version here in Florida, maybe that would help a little bit. But refurb.

Theresa 15:51
I was along the same lines as Jane. I couldn’t bring myself to demolish it because seeing what the wait time is like and knowing how beloved it is by people of all ages. I like that as a dark ride it’s one that does elevate you, and I think those classic dark rides are part of the charm of Disney. We’ve lost enough of those already, let’s keep the ones that are still there. And I went with the mindset we’re talking about the Peter Pan’s Flight at Magic Kingdom, and I feel like that one, it just always feels really dark to me inside. I thought that at the refurb it could do some of the touches like they have when they updated Peter Pan’s Flight in Disneyland, or like they have it the one in Shanghai now. And I know that one has the added benefit of being created from scratch and not having to retrofit technology into an already existing environment. But they have just really cool lighting and projection packages throughout the attraction that I think would be simple enough to put into Magic Kingdom’s. So that’s why I went with refurb.

Patty 16:49
All right, fair enough. Fair enough. I went with demolish, and I went with demolish because –

Theresa 16:56
She wanted to see all the kids cry.

Jane 16:59
Because she hates children, and she wants to crush dreams.

Patty 17:04
No, but you both touched on the reason why. The Magic Kingdom’s version, that was where I went too – I think I asked for Walt Disney World rides, so this is also partially my fault, I guess. But I was thinking the Magic Kingdom version and get rid of it. I don’t want it, I don’t ride it. Why? Because Disneyland’s is better. 1000 times better. I feel transported. I feel like it’s magical. I feel like that is where my nostalgia is because that was one of Walt’s rides. So this one, out of the three? This is the one I’m saying, “Bye bye. Get rid of it.” And that’s why: because Disneyland is better.

Theresa 17:48
At least we’re on agreement on that part.

Patty 17:49
Yea, we all said it. And as you guys were giving your answers, I was like, my answer is kind of the same as y’alls, I’m just taking a little harder stance on things.

Jane 17:58
I’m just worried though because if we use that as a reason, then we’re demolishing half our park.

Patty 18:05
Well……

Jane 18:09
That’s a subject for another podcast.

Theresa 18:11
I was going to say, that’s another episode.

Patty 18:13
That is absolutely on the list, and we will have some discussions on that. Alright, so on to the next one. The next one is preserve, refurb, or demolish, and it is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. And I’m going to go first on this one. This one we are going to refurb it so it’s just like Disneyland. <laughter> Oh my gosh, this is gonna turn into the “I love Disneyland” podcast. But anyway, I said refurb and there’s my reason, I jumped ahead. There’s my reason why, is I want it to be just like Disneyland’s version because it’s way better. Including I want my goat trick in the right place, please and thank you. Which, I know that means redoing the entire ride, but I like to see Disneyland’s goat trick. All right. What do you guys think?

Theresa 19:00
I went with preserve.

Patty 19:03
So you think it’s fine as is.

Theresa 19:05
I love it. It’s been one of my favorite rides since the very first time I went to Walt Disney World. I love Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. And yes, I no problems keeping it exactly as it is.

Patty 19:15
Jane?

Jane 19:15
Demolish.

Theresa 19:17
I knew it!

Patty 19:20
No, you cannot demolish this one. This is the best.

Jane 19:23
I mean, I can. It’s in the rules of the game!

Patty 19:31
All right. Why are you demolishing it? What is your reason?.

Jane 19:34
Okay. I love thrill rides. And I actually really do love Big Thunder and I much prefer Big Thunder to Space Mountain and some other rides that are out there. But we’re only playing with these three options. My thing with Big Thunder is I like attractions that are tied to movies.,

Patty 19:55
Okay, all right.

Jane 19:56
Big Thunder isn’t tied to a movie. So maybe they could demolish it and put something else there.

Patty 20:03
Ooh, what movie ride would you like to see there?

Jane 20:07
I don’t know, that wasn’t in the rules!

Patty 20:12
Alright, fair enough. Fair enough.

Theresa 20:18
Oh, no, I need to respond to that. <laughter> I went preserve instead of refurb because I don’t trust Disney, if there’s any refurb going, they’re going to try and add characters to it. <laughs> So preserve, keep it as it is. Keep characters away from Big Thunder Mountain.

Jane 20:36
And I’m all characters, all the time.

Theresa 20:38
Nooo. I was like, “Can they feel the tension rising in me as she’s speaking?”

Patty 20:44
So this isn’t just an Epcot thing – you feel that way about all the places? You’re the anti-IP girl.

Theresa 20:52
If it’s an attraction that’s existed for almost 30 years, and is still really popular without characters, I don’t see the benefit of adding them. There’s no need. I’m fine with a refurb like you’re saying, to add some of the enhancements that Disneyland’s has, but it’s minimal. Or adding the Big Thunder Mountain song. If they add the song somewhere to it, that would also be great. And if nobody else knows what this is, I’m going to send it to Patty to include in her post, because I’m singing it in my head, and it’s wonderful.

Patty 21:23
Okay, I’m gonna need you to include that because I don’t know the songs for Big Thunder Mountain.

Jane 21:28
I definitely agree that we shouldn’t just randomly throw characters on to Big Thunder, but demolish it. And in that space, give me another wild type ride in the wilderness. But maybe it’s with those wilderness folk or what….I don’t know, Pocahontas! She’s from the wilderness.

Theresa 21:58
I don’t think she had a mine train.

Patty 22:02
I think you’re making it worse, so we’re gonna move on. <laughter> So now we are at the final round here, and this is Slinky Dog Dash.

Theresa 22:13
I’m working through my head what everybody already chose.

Patty 22:16
This leaves preserve, refurb, or demolish Slinky Dog Dash. Jane, which you got?

Jane 22:21
Preserve!

Theresa, which you got?

Theresa 22:25
So long, Slinky!

Patty 22:27
Patty’s also gonna preserve Slinky. And I’m gonna guess that Jane and I are saying preserve it because, dude, it’s brand new. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s awesome!

Jane 22:35
It’s is awesome.

Theresa 22:36
Exactly. Most guys haven’t ridden it yet, so they’re not gonna miss it.

Jane 22:39
See, and I’m like, it’s from one of my favorite movies, it’s a great ride, it takes you right through a child’s imagination how they would make this Slinky Dog. It has great views of Galaxy’s Edge, which I love.

Patty 22:55
Dude, the queue itself is a kids playground like literally. It’s a playground. I love everything about Slinky Dog Dash, so I am definitely Team Preserve.

Jane 23:08
And side note. Hot off the press today. For those who do wait in standby, although I do not recommend that – Stay Disney and Don’t Do Standby – they added a bar in the standby queue. Have you ever heard of anything better?

Theresa 23:26
Yeah, shade. Adding shade.

Patty 23:28
Wait, wait, wait, roll this back. So in Andy’s backyard, we now have a bar?

Jane 23:33
Apparently!

Theresa 23:34
That’s on theme!

Patty 23:36
Oh my word. I had no idea.

Jane 23:38
Andy’s in college now, he has priorities.

Patty 23:43
<laughs> Andy and his fake ID. He can get he can get himself a drink from the backyard now. All right. I’m down with that. I’m down with that. So. Well, that was fun.

Jane 23:56
Theresa, didn’t even get to defend it. <laughter>

Patty 24:00
That’s because we’re like, whatever, Theresa. No, we’re not. We’re not demolishing Slinky Dog.

Theresa 24:06
That’s fine. I can put all of Toy Story Land on the chopping block.

Patty 24:11
Ohhhh. Ouch. Ouch.

Jane 24:13
I mean, I’m not gonna start cuz I could just hit back with all of Epcot. But they’ve already done that for me. <laughter>

Theresa 24:21
I think it’s so underwhelming. I get what they were trying to do with the land that Andy created. But it just, to me, it feels so cheap and carnival-ish. And I just think that they can demolish, it start over, and do better. And that includes, again, giving it more shade than what I’m giving to it right now.

Patty 24:40
Where is your imagination, Theresa? I can’t believe that you don’t see how precious and adorable that whole land is. You’re hurting my heart.

Theresa 24:51
It feels incomplete. It feels very incomplete. It’s cute. It’s fine. The ride is fun. Nothing against the ride itself. The ride is very fun. I just think they could have done better.

Patty 25:04
All right, I hear you. I hear you. Yeah, so we’re gonna wrap things up. <laughter> Please let us know what you guys thought about this, and if it should make a another round of Preserve, Refurb, or Demolish, if we should bring this one back into the rotation and we’ll go from there. We’ll take your feedback into consideration. We will also take some suggestions if you have three things that we should fight over, let us know what they might be. If you’re listening to this podcast and you listen to some of the unpopular opinions in particular, you might be getting a feel for our personalities and what we like what we didn’t like. I’m sure there’s something out there that we could go to the mattresses over. So definitely let us know what you think. It’s been fun.

Theresa 25:55
And if you agree or disagree with us on any of these, let us know.

Patty 25:58
Right, if Theresa’s wrong, which she is, let us know.

Theresa 26:00
<laughter> Never.

Patty 26:04
Thanks for hanging out with us again today on the No-Guilt Disney Podcast. Don’t forget to leave those five stars, leave a review. And most importantly, share with someone that you think might enjoy a new Disney podcast, because we would love to have more listeners and to reach more folks out there with silly things like this. <laughter>

Theresa 26:28
And join us each week on the No-Guilt Disney Podcast. As Patty likes to say:

Patty 26:33
It’s no fun to fangirl Disney alone.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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