The Worst: Beyond the Magic

Magic Kingdom By Turning Left

• Pete Morrison and Jamie McMahon • Season 1 • Episode 7

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Everyone has a favorite Magic Kingdom ride, but the real question is how you tackle the park when it’s crowded, hot, and packed with options. We kick off with what makes Magic Kingdom the most iconic Disney park in the world and why the entrance experience matters more than people admit. Main Street U.S.A. isn’t just a path to the castle, it’s a full-on mood, and we share the small details, hidden corners, and first-stop rituals that can set the tone for your whole day. 

Then we get practical and a little opinionated: our ranking criteria focuses on immersion, family appeal, re-ride value, and whether an attraction is truly worth your Lightning Lane. We debate coffee, tap water, mobile order, and snack strategy, including Casey’s Corner corn dog nuggets and how to think about dining plan snack credit value. We also explain why Town Hall buttons and Town Square Theater character meets can add surprising “Disney magic” without blowing up your schedule. 

From there, we make the case for our favorite rope drop strategy: head left at the hub. Adventureland becomes the playground, with Jungle Cruise’s skipper-dependent chaos, Pirates of the Caribbean’s iconic storytelling, Tiki Room plus Dole Whip, the viral cheeseburger spring rolls, and even the free Pirate Adventure experience for kids. We continue into Frontierland with Big Thunder Mountain timing tips, a real talk breakdown of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (you will get wet), and why buying ponchos before your trip is the smartest move you can make. We wrap in Liberty Square with Haunted Mansion love, air-conditioned break options, and a heartfelt story about how cast members can turn a simple ornament tradition into a lifelong memory. 

If you like smart park strategy, honest ride takes, and the little details most people miss, subscribe, share this with your Disney group chat, and leave a review. What’s your Magic Kingdom “first move” when you walk onto Main Street?

Why Magic Kingdom Still Matters

SPEAKER_01

Magic Kingdom has more attractions than any Disney park. Which means today we're definitely guaranteed to offend somebody. Probably several thousand people. But let's be honest, we're only going to offend those two goldfish and our 50 listeners.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome back. This is the worst beyond the magic.

SPEAKER_01

Welcome back. Um sorry we're a little late with the episode, uh, but here we go. We're going to get into why Magic Kingdom is still the most iconic Disney park. It's the most visited theme park in the world. Uh everybody has a favorite Disney attraction, and we are ready to get things get this thing started. We're going to break it into two parts, not one, but two, because uh there's a lot to talk about here, Jamie.

SPEAKER_00

There's definitely a lot to talk about, Pete. I think if our Epcot series has anything to say about it, I'd we definitely need to split this up into two parts for sure. Uh today we're gonna go right down the middle of Main Street USA as the song sings, and uh we're gonna go to the hub and we're gonna hang a left, which is the preferred way to do it. We're gonna teach you why it's the preferred way to do it.

SPEAKER_01

We're gonna offend people with that one too.

SPEAKER_00

That's fine. We're the worst, Pete. Remember? We're the worst. We're here. We're here we're here to offend people. Uh I mean, please listen. That's what I mean. I'm sorry. Uh today's ranking criteria includes uh immersion, family appeal, is it worth your lightning lane or not? Um, your the rewritability and the weight versus

Main Street Details And First Feelings

SPEAKER_00

payoff.

SPEAKER_01

Let's talk about Main Street. Um, I think we need to remind people that this is an attraction on itself. We don't want to just run right through it. We don't want to like sprint down the middle to get to your rope drop and stop without any warning whatsoever so that I smash into you behind you because you want to get a picture with the castle.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, Chin loves those people. We're walking, we're walking, we're walking, and they stop immediately in front of you. Anyway, don't be one of those people. Anyway, so like Pete said, Magic Kingdom, you walk in, you walk out of the train station, you scan your magic band, you get welcome back. Um, you can't see the castle just yet. It's there, it's almost around that little tiny mini hub there. There's a couple things to pick out right there. There's town hall, there's the firehouse, which is a favorite of mine. Why is it a favorite of mine? Just go in and check it out if you haven't already. Obviously, uh it's what I do for a living, but um in the Disneyland park for you Disneyland fans out there, that's Walt's apartment. It wasn't in the Walt Disney World, but in the Disneyland Park in California, Walt had an apartment above the firehouse. And he there's a lamp that's that signifies that he that he's in the park today. It remains on uh 365 days, 24 hours, uh, to signify that he's always there. Uh it's kind of a neat uh neat bit of history. But uh if you've ever taken a look to see uh those ride vehicles going down Main Street, you can actually ride them. Pete, what are your some other favorites on Main Street as you're coming down as you're Main Street USA?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I really like um the idea of Walt's apartment. You know, he stayed right there in the park in Disneyland as it was being built. Um so we stayed in that apartment. And it's a really cool tribute. I'd like to make it into that one one day and see what it looked like as it's you know, as it's still there. But what I want to talk to you about um real quick is what we're missing is that, you know, for us that do this all the time, and I think even the first time, tell tell me how you feel when you walk in. Like you're stepping in there, you've got the piped-in smells, you've got the um the people, the vibe, you're seeing all this main street action for the first time. How do you feel?

SPEAKER_00

I don't think there's a I don't think there's a better feeling, especially when you're with your family. I mean, you see you see it light up in your kids' eyes and you see as the castle reveals itself at the end of Main Street, um, as the kids are just beaming ear to ear, and that's that's what it's all about. It's it's that Disney Magic that he's bringing it back every single time. There's a couple other things on Main Street USA, P, that we want to talk about. Where's your first stop on Main Street USA? And do you have any hidden gems?

SPEAKER_01

Um so there's a lot of things on Main Street. Um if you're if you're um got a young kid that got the barbershop, you can go in there and get the pixie dust. Um it's always fun. You took mine.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah. Sorry, there's so much on Main Street. So for those of you who have never had uh who have small children, or even if you if you if you want to go yourself, they have an actual working barber shop on Main Street USA. It's in that little tiny mini hub uh just to the left. If you walk around the circle there uh by the flagpole, if it's your kid's very first time getting a haircut, which we did this with my daughter with with Evelyn, uh she had never had a haircut before. So you go in there, it costs like 20 bucks or something, or 25 bucks with a with a tip or 20, 30 bucks, whatever it is. It's as as far as Disney goes and cost goes, it's very minimal and it's totally worth it. They give you your own set of Mickey Ears, they give you a bit of pixie dust, uh fairy dust that goes on top of your kid's head, which is nothing more than glitter, which is you know stays there forever. And then they give you a certificate that says uh kid's first haircut in Walt Disney World and the date. It's super cool. It's just a great souvenir that and experience that you get for a very small fee. So it's one of the very few things that people know about walking down Main Street USA, and I think it's definitely worth it, especially if you need a haircut.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

There you go. I definitely um I I take my time down Main Street. The we try to save our shopping for the end of the day or on the way out. Oh, same. Same. No shopping for me then. Yeah. So we pass the uh we pass the stores. Uh most people are tempted for the Starbucks. I uh I the line's always really long in the Starbucks there. So unless I want a specific cup or something, I'm gonna try to pass that, maybe hit Joffrey's or something. Um so uh I don't know. I'm I'm 50-50 on the Starbucks. That's probably gonna irritate some people, but I can't.

SPEAKER_00

I'm I'm going. Yep. I'll be in line. Whatever you whatever you want. I I'm sorry, I'm gonna be there. Joffreys versus Starbucks. You only can get Joffreys in Walt Disney World on Disney property. Is it as good as Starbucks? I think it's it might be a little bit better, but all those drinks that you're know no and love and you're familiar with, of course, the main street USA version or restaurant has all your favorite Starbucks drinks, and you can mobile order from that location as well, which I highly recommend. You are a fan of the mobile order.

SPEAKER_01

Here, I'm gonna give you my hot take. I don't look, I I love Disney, but where this is called the worst, but the coffee at Disney I think is terrible.

Buttons, Mickey Meets, And Snack Strategy

SPEAKER_01

I think Joffrey's terrible. I think the coffee at the room is terrible. All the coffee they serve is the uh is the it's the made from the syrup. Um, so it's not like bean coffee. So I think Starbucks, if you're into Starbucks, is the only place to get a good coffee. I just don't want to wait in that line in there because everybody else agrees with me. Coffee at Disney's terrible.

SPEAKER_00

That's I think you're mistaking it for the tap water. The tap water adult Disney World is terrible. The Florida water is uh State of Florida. I don't know what you're doing, what you do to that, but it is gross. It is a gross.

SPEAKER_01

You know, it's flavored with gator, it's fine.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, clearly. Something. It's it's some nasty stuff. Just just mobile order or pack or whatever you have to do. Get your get your bottle water to go. Anyway, so we've we're we've right now, Pete and I are stopped on Main Street debating what's better, Starbucks for drive force. We're gonna keep going. Let's say we're saying we're hungry. We're say we want a little snack. Where are we going, Pete?

SPEAKER_01

Um, well, I mean, before I get to the snacks, uh, I'm gonna give you the we should we should hit the town hall up.

unknown

Of course.

SPEAKER_01

Let them know about the town hall. Um the town hall, you can get your first visit buttons, your birthday buttons, anniversary guest relations. Um, you know, so if you haven't gone to the resort or anything like that, and you really want to make sure that people know that you're celebrating birthday, an anniversary, or half birthday, make some event up, put it on a button and wear that button all day.

SPEAKER_00

Wear it with pride. And the cast member will congratulate you for the rest of the day for however long you had that button on.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'm gonna give you we you and you and I went, had a great experience uh there. You remember um it was late at night. We we met the boss. I do.

SPEAKER_00

We met the boss. We said hi to the boss. Where was that? We introduced ourselves as a travel mage from travel agents, and we told him that we worked for him, which he was surprised to hear about. And uh we had a we had a good meeting with the boss. I think it went well. Hopefully he liked us.

SPEAKER_01

And that's at the Town Square Theater.

SPEAKER_00

That's right. It's great, Mickey interaction. 100%. Uh, you get he's in a cool outfit, which he doesn't, I mean, he's always in that outfit at that location, but it's a kind of a special outfit designed for town hall. Um if you're going to the Christmas party, if you're going to Mickey's Not So Scary in fall, this is where you're gonna meet Jack and Sally.

unknown

All right.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah. This is where you're gonna be in the back of there as well. So you can see Mickey and Jack and Sally at Town Hall. All right. Unfortunately, uh right now there's no longer any more lightning lanes for any character meet and greets. Any further, hopefully one day that comes back. I really enjoyed that. Uh because I don't enjoy staying in the lines, but I also like to make characters with my kids. Right now, currently, June 2026, there are no lightning lanes for character meet and greets, which is too bad. But if you got some time, Town Square Theater, air conditioned, meet and greet, and it's one of the best week interactions on property.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, Jack and Sally being there. That's I couldn't find them the first time I ever did it. So here's a tip for you. If you want to find them during Halloween, there they are. They're right there. So let's talk snacks. Like you said, um, you know, the confection on uh the the apples, and we gotta save those for when we leave too, because you they they're really hard to eat. You can't walk around and just eat them. You gotta get them pre-sliced, but they are delicious.

SPEAKER_00

I like the rice prizes, dips in chocolate.

SPEAKER_01

Heck yeah. Heck yeah. And you can use your snack credits for those too. You sure can.

SPEAKER_00

If you're trying to get the most money out of them, I wouldn't, but you know, you can if you're gonna get it. Right. So so if you're on what Pete's talking about, if you're on the dining plan, if you have a snack credit available onto which everyone has uh at least, what is it, three a day per person or something like that, or is it two per person? I know, don't catch me lying on that. I have to look it up. Um if you buy a snack credit, or if you buy a snack that's over six dollars and ninety-five cents each, that's a great value for a snack credit. It used to be over five dollars, but you know, inflation is a thing. It's been a couple of years. So over $6.95, you're getting a great use out of that snack credit for sure. All right, let's move on down Main Street. I want some I want some mini core dogs, man. We've got to go to Casey's. We've gotta go to Casey's. You get like three mini core dogs. Giant hot dog. Now, listen, uh as a as a former suburban Chicago Knight, Chicago, Chicagoan, the uh the Chicago hot dog is always gonna be my favorite, right? Uh no ketchup, because you know, ketchup is for losers. Uh you want everything else on on your hot dog except for ketchup. I'm telling you, trust me on that. Look it up. Um and they have their version of Chicago Dog at Casey's Corner. They also have great French fries. They have uh and the best thing on the menu there, whether you agree or not, is the corn dog nuggets, man. They're so good.

SPEAKER_01

All right, let's move

Rope Drop Plan And The Case For Left

SPEAKER_01

on down. Let's want to talk to them about uh rope drop strategy, because you know people are not gonna listen to us. They're not gonna take in and absorb all of Main Street. They're gonna beat feet for that rope drop. I understand Disney lets you go in a little further now.

SPEAKER_00

They are. So if you stay on a property, which if you Pete and I are a travel advisor, we are highly gonna recommend that you do. Uh you get in a whole 30 minutes earlier. I know that doesn't sound like a lot of time, but in Disney time, that is a long time. Um, what's that 30 minutes gonna do for you? It's gonna get you deeper into the park than it ever has before. Uh, what I mean by that is so um you're gonna get the rope drops, you're gonna get there uh 30, really, you're gonna get there an hour before the park opens. They're gonna start letting you in about 30 minutes ahead of time, or sometimes a little bit earlier, and you can actually queue up to what rides you want to go to in a particular land. So before you had to stop right at the beginning of Main Street and it wouldn't let you go any further. Now you can actually go down Main Street, you can hang a left or hang a right. Today we're gonna hang a left, and you can actually go to the land that you want to go to, and there will be the rope for you to start when rope drop begins. So a little bit further. They get more people in the park that way, and they get people to where they want to go quicker.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, I think going left is uh is a bit of a cheat code in and of itself. Most of everybody's gonna go right because they want to get to Tron and the Seven Dwarfs. And I'm gonna tell you, I'm uh when we get to the seven dwarfs, I'm gonna I'm not I'm not ranking that one very high. Um, but I think you know the best thing to do is you head left, and then you've got short weights for the jungle crews, you got walk-on to Pirates of the Caribbean, easier access to frontier land and less less conjection. So everybody's sprinting towards the dwarfs, and we're casually entering pirates and acting all superior to everybody.

SPEAKER_00

That's right. That's right. No, I I couldn't agree more. I think a better option is definitely to go left. What did you call it again? What did you say was pirates of the what? Are you gonna make fun of me? Pirates of the Caribbean. The Caribbean. It's a Caribbean. It's a Caribbean. Whatever. Whatever. I got pirate.

SPEAKER_01

I'm representing today, so I know where the Caribbean is.

SPEAKER_00

But why is the rum gone, Pete? Why is rum gone? It's always gone. It's always gone. If you and I are involved, it's gone. It's gone, for sure. For those of you watching on YouTube, which you can watch us on YouTube at the worst beyond the magic. Uh, Pete has this pirate uh uh his uh skull hat on, and then this Camp Neverland shirt on as well. Uh once we get to that area, the park part Pete's gonna take over. He's gonna talk all about being a lost boy. Um, all right. So we're going left, like we said. The first ride we're gonna hit, like Pete mentioned, is Jungle Cruise.

unknown

All right.

SPEAKER_00

We've got our coffee, we've got our core nuggets, and uh, we're ready for some life advice. We're fueled for the day for sure. So uh the first land you encounter

Adventureland Rankings And Hidden Extras

SPEAKER_00

is adventureland. Uh the whole purpose of Adventureland is exploration, jungles, pirates, escapism, right? Um, so you're a pirate. I mean, automatically you walk, you cross that bridge there, and automatically you're a pirate, right? Yar. Yar. Go get yourself a margarita at the beacon barrel, right? It was on the it's on the menu. It's on the menu. Anyway, that was an adorable dad joke. I'm sorry. We're gonna get there, folks. Jungle Cruise. You love it, you hate it. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01

Oh man, I I love it. Um, but so does everybody else. And I think the jungle cruise depends on what skipper you get. Um, some of those skippers are just hilarious, and other ones, they're okay.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, this can be a 10 out of 10, uh the best, or it could be four out of 10, uh the worst, uh, depending on whatever skipper you get assigned. You think they're better in the morning or the evening? What do you think?

SPEAKER_01

Um, two different rides. I think we've said this too about a lot of the parks. You get two different rides, daytime and nighttime. 100% for the daytime. I I actually feel like I'm on a jungle adventure and the natives are throwing things at me, and I think it's yeah, it's a it's a really cool ride.

SPEAKER_00

No, it's it's so much fun. I think I think you do get a better experience in the evening. I think because the um the skippers like a bit slap happy and they want to go home for the day, and so their jokes become a bit more provocative and out there, like a bit more unhinged, right? I think it gets better as the day goes on. I've done it during the day, I've done it at nighttime. I don't know. I think it's kind of cool at nighttime. Uh the the the backside of water looks different at nighttime than it does during the day. Not everywhere you get to see the backside of water, O2H. It's incredible. Um yeah, I know, right? One of the one of the seven wonders of the world, right? Um all right, so we're getting off jungle cruise. Where are we head to next, B? The one and only Pirates of the Caribbean. The Caribbean. We're gonna go all day with this. It's fine. I'm gonna hold you to it. It's the Caribbean. So you're not gonna have these.

SPEAKER_01

I'm gonna start singing Caribbean Queen.

SPEAKER_00

Please, please no more singing. Nobody likes new sing.

SPEAKER_01

All right, uh, this is one of these most iconic attractions. Um they have their own smell. People buy candles so that they can smell people.

SPEAKER_00

People buy a candle for that smell. I don't want it. I don't want that candle.

SPEAKER_01

No thanks. It's cool though. Like the Q, um, you know, we talk a lot about the Qs. I mean, they the the the Imagineers put a lot of effort into that. Um this one has been around since the beginning. Um, the music, the storytelling, um, that connection to Walt Disney. Yeah, my question is, is it the best ride in Adventureland?

SPEAKER_00

You know, I I don't think so. Uh I in I think the smell in itself is comforting. Um it's it's unique for sure, because there's no other place that smells like that. Uh I don't know. I I'd rather go on jungle cruise and get a different ride experience every time instead of go sit in a slow boat.

SPEAKER_01

You know, we talked about living right living with land in the the cult following. I think pirates has another cult following. I think people just love it and they want to stick with it. Um same jungle cruise is the same way. Uh you know, some people prefer jungle cruise, some people prefer pirates. Um, so yeah, I'm with you. I don't think it's the best one um in Adventureland either. Um you know, there's a lot in there that we're sleeping on, like the tiki room.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah. Uh Walt Disney's enchanted tiki room. You know what the best part about the tiki room is?

SPEAKER_01

The dole whip.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, duh. I mean, you you I mean that's exactly it. Hey, can you mobile order a dole whip from there? I don't know, Pete. Why don't you talk about Morocco some more? Oh, give me a minute. I was getting there. Yes, mobile order your dough and go watch, go watch the the tiki room, the tiki birds.

SPEAKER_01

You have never you've you've said a couple of times I haven't done this thing. I have never done the tiki room. Okay. I think it's something you have to see at least once.

SPEAKER_00

So tell me about it. Why? It was it's one of the original things. Is it opening day, it was an opening day uh event or opening day attraction. I think it's something you just have to go see. It it's it's not new technology by any means, but it's it's kind of fun. It's fun. It's it's it's fun to watch. There's there's plenty of open scene, it's air conditioned. Um it's just uh the the songs that they sing are catchy. You've been singing them the rest of the day. Uh it's and you just have to go see at least one. I think I think it's a one and done. We'll put it that way. I think it's like the bears for sure. Oh, see, I've never I've never seen the bears. I've never seen the country bears ever that one time.

SPEAKER_01

That is uh I think that's more than a one and done. I like it. But we'll we we're getting ahead of ourselves. All right. So we we've done the we've done the tiki room, we've done uh Waltz Enchanted Tiki Room, but here's the big here's the big one. Um Beacon Barrel. You and I have done this one. Um we got a reservation, we lost our reservation, and we got another one. We didn't have to wait too long.

unknown

What happened?

SPEAKER_00

What happened with our reservation? Do you remember whose fault was it?

SPEAKER_01

I think it was probably your fault.

SPEAKER_00

It was my it was my fault. It was my fault. I uh we were running late and we ran to the back of the park and walked up to the nice cast member and uh Mr. Pete Morrison get started to give him a hard time, the poor kid. Um he's like, Well, we we booked this 60 days ago. How how easy is it to get another one? And the guy said over and over again, check the app, check the app, come back later. There's there could be an opening. And sure enough, he had canceled our reservation. We opened up the app right then and there, and lo and behold, there was another reservation available later on that night, wasn't there?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and we got it. And this is another reminder to put next to your cast members.

SPEAKER_00

That's right. Walkup availability is the thing. Okay. Yeah they don't always sell out every single reservation in 60 days out. Uh people cancel all the time, or like in Pete and I's case, you we miss it. And uh they they open it up. So it's it's a possibility that there's gonna be a spot available for you later on. Uh, but it is something that you can book 60 days out, and Pete and I can take care of that for you as well.

SPEAKER_01

All right, so we're going into Beacon Barrel. It is a uh, like you said, reservation only. Um, it's a new uh bar tavern in Walt Disney World. Um or uh Magic Kingdom, excuse me. And it's uh it's a new thing. You know, Disney didn't ever have alcohol um in the park in Magic Kingdom, and um they recently added it. Um you can get it at meals, and now they have a tavern. Um, so this is great uh for those of us that enjoy taking a mid-uh park drink. Um the question is, is it worth the hype? Well, you go in, there's some storytelling and hidden effects, one of Magic Kingdom's new experiences, and it reminds me of Trader Sam's, but I don't think it's in the same category as Trader Sam's. What did you think, Jamie?

SPEAKER_00

I think number one, Trader Sam's is better. Trader Sam's is better. It's way smaller. Uh Trader Sam's is way smaller than Beacon Barrel. The nice part about Beacon Barrel is it's it's exact for those that know have never been there before, it's just like uh it's just like the Star Wars bar in uh Galaxy's Edge. You are limited to 45 minutes, and your server is very good about halfway through that 45 minutes, reminding you that you're halfway through your journey and to finish up. So you're there for 45 minutes, you're allowed two drinks each in that 45 minutes, which both you know, P and I could do a lot more than that, but we're limited to two. Um and you're you're limited to small bites there. As far as the story goes, as far as the atmosphere goes, I think it's incredible. I think it's amazing. The engineers did

Frontierland Updates And Getting Soaked

SPEAKER_00

a fantastic job with this place. However, it depends on where you sit. You agree with that?

SPEAKER_01

I do. Yeah. I mean, you're going to be put with whomever. So you could be at a bar, you could be at a big table. We sat in the jail cell, was it? We were in the brig. The brig. It was fantastic. That's right. I think that was one of the better places to sit.

SPEAKER_00

It was. It was. I think the best place is probably at the bar because you can see the animatronic pair. You can interact with the bartenders there, who are all pirates, of course. All your servers are pirates. But for where you and I, where we sat in the brig there, it was almost to the point, it was beyond the wall, where I think is n is not a great experience for the people to get sat on the other side of that restaurant. They can't see what's going on. So it's a different experience over there. But for us, we the room that you walk into from the outside is where you and I overseed it. And I think it's probably one of the better places.

SPEAKER_01

The um the map room was gorgeous. Um it looked like you were in um the captain's quarters. Um they were there were maps on the table. It was it was really nice. You remember seeing that? It's writ it near the front?

SPEAKER_00

I do, yeah. That was it was pretty cool. I think I think the bigger the party you have here, I think at least what you would just say five to six people or more, maybe a party of ten. I think I think the better chances you are gonna have to be able to sit with each other and again have a bigger space available to yourselves rather than have a having to sit share a table like what Pete and I did. Now, for all those listening, I mean, Pete and I are decent guys, and the people we got sat with where it just happened to be cast members. We all got along, we enjoyed ourselves, right? Absolutely. Uh but we're sociable dudes and we like to have a good time, and we want to make sure that everyone else feels comfortable. Uh so we make it we make it a good time. So, but that may not always be the case, depending on um whoever you get on the other side of your table. So just something to be aware of.

SPEAKER_01

If you're a bit of an introvert, you might uh you might want to know that ahead of time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, for sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_01

All right, let's talk snacks, man.

SPEAKER_00

For some reason, um just as you're crossing Adventureland here, just before you get, there is a spring roll cart that's there, and there's there's a that's super viral online. Everybody has to have them. It's a cheeseburger spring roll or egg roll cart right there as you as you enter Adventureland. Is that uh uh is a cheeseburger spring roll worth the hype, Pete? Are you stopping there? I'm stopping. If you can mobile order it, by the way. You're stopping there. Okay, so I'm gonna have a BSR box. They don't. They don't have them in Morocco. No, they don't.

SPEAKER_01

Um, I think they're great. They're they're yummy, they're a great snack. They're not too filling. Uh I I think for Adventureland, um, that's your best. And of course, there's the very iconic, which we've already talked about, Dole Whip, which is probably one of the more famous snacks in in all the kingdom.

SPEAKER_00

Staff, it's a must-have. And of course, nothing says adventureland like eating the cheeseburger and somehow ended up inside an egg roll, right? Right. That's that's a very, very obvious adventureland. I don't know how, but it is. In the Mount Rushmore of Disney snacks, the Dole Whip reigned supreme. 100% it does. 100%. Um and like Pete was saying, um, it wasn't until recently that this Disney started to open up more alcohol in Magic Kingdom. For a long time, Magic Kingdom was a dry park, and then they started to serve it at Cinderella's Royal Table, was the only place you could get it. And then the beacon barrel came along, and slightly before that, you could start making boozy dull whip floats. Did you know that? They'll put remnant for you, too. For sure.

SPEAKER_01

All right, before we we before we move out of Adventureland, I want to talk a little bit about all these little extras that we didn't talk about. Um, you know, there's a camel, spits water. If you can get your friend to stand in just the right spot, that camel's gonna spit water on your friend. It's amazing. I love it. I try to do it every time. Jamie caught on before I could get him. It was no bueno.

SPEAKER_00

Jamie's been there a few hundred times. I I knew about it. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01

Jamie, do you know about the pirate experience for the kids?

SPEAKER_00

I don't know anything about it.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. So as you're getting to the end of Adventureland and you're heading towards Frontier Land, um, on the left side,

Liberty Square Classics And Quiet Breaks

SPEAKER_01

um, there's a kioska, a little room, and you can do the pirate adventure. They'll go in there, you get a map, and you get a compass, and you can go around uh Adventureland and do little follow the map. Um at one point in time you could get um I forget what the free thing. I think you could get a fast pass to pirates, but um we took advantage of that. The internet took advantage of it, and so Disney said, now we can't do that anymore. However, it is a lot of fun. There's some interactive things you go and you can make um things jump out of the water, you can make the tower bell ring. Um it's really, really great for kids. If you've been doing Magic Kingdom for more than one day and you're like, I don't, you know, we've ridden the rides. Um, this is the time to really get into the deeper sections of things. Um in that pirate adventure is a really great thing, especially for kids who might not like uh thrill rides or whatever for the younger kids. Sounds super cool. All right, you got anything great for yeah, and it's free, which is awesome. And you get to keep the map too. It's a nice little souvenir. So best attraction for you in Adventureland P. Um, the best attraction is um if I is the camel spitting, if I can get someone wet because of that. And then it's gonna be jungle cruise. How about your stuff?

SPEAKER_00

I I agree. I 100% agree with you. It's definitely gonna be a jungle cruise for sure. That's a difficult lightning lane to get, by the way. So uh for those of you uh seven days out on property, it's one of the very first ones you should try and get. And if Peter, I are your travel advisor, we're definitely gonna get that one for you. Of course, we'll we'll get whatever you tell us to, but um, if I had any recommendation, that's definitely one I would get for sure. Most underrated attraction and or snack and or area in Adventureland. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

I think you just named it.

SPEAKER_01

No, we got to talk about it. No, we gotta talk about it. We got to talk about the Swiss family treehouse. This thing is it is still open. It's an original opening day in Magic Kingdom in 1971. Um, guests climb 116 stairs through six-story treehouse. It got some uh work done in 2024 and 2025, and uh, it does not use the lightning lane. It rarely has much of a weight because uh after all those steps you're putting in 116 stairs becomes a lot. Um so a lot of people walk right by it, they skip it. When I was a kid, I was amazed by this. I always wanted to live in a tree house. I wanted to, you know, get stranded on an island and have the most epic tree house known to man. Um, and it's got some of the most underrated uh views of of Magic Kingdom while you're up there. Um, I think this is a lot of people skip it, but I think it really captures the exploration and adventure spirit of the early Disney park. Uh, so I think it's very underrated.

SPEAKER_00

Never done it. No. Never walked walked walked right past it a hundred times or more. Never to do it. I well, I mean, that is the title of the show.

SPEAKER_01

Look, Jamie, when when we said, hey, let's be Disney fans together and let's do this podcast, I thought you had some Disney experience. If you haven't been in the tree, then I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

Can we go back to talking about mobile ordering again?

SPEAKER_01

You can't mobile order anything from the tree.

SPEAKER_00

Um I'm glad that you find your inner child and you still experience that and you climb 116 stairs. You and I are different from each other, man. I I climb 116 stairs when I have to, okay? Not when I want to.

SPEAKER_01

Uh, I'm gonna be honest with you, my daughter drags me up there now. Um I am I have uh the magic has is waned for me a little bit on 116,000 stairs.

Disney Magic Story And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_00

I can imagine. I can imagine, especially in in summertime when it's a thousand degrees and surface of the sun hot and magic in all right. If we don't move on, this is gonna be a three-part series. All right, yeah, we don't want to do that. All right, let's move on. So we're going, I think we've conquered Adventureland. We're pirates. We went to Beacon Barrow, we got the margarita, uh we we we ate the cheeseburger egg roll. We had I mean, we ate all, we had Dol Whip, right? We climbed the going now.

SPEAKER_01

All right, you know, yep. The next one on is Frontier Land. The American Frontier, one of the fastest changing lands in Magic Kingdom.

SPEAKER_00

Currently under construction. And by the time this episode actually airs, again, we're a little behind. Disney will probably announce a part of this area of the park was another construction project. Yeah, well, uh the good news is Big Thunder Mountain is open again. It is open. I'm um excited to hear all about it when you go here in a couple of weeks. Um from what I've heard, and not to spoil it for anybody, from what I heard, it is not a rickety old train car ride anymore. Have you heard that?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, they have it. They said they smoothed out the tracks a little bit.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Are you disappointed by that? Um, I love rickety roller coasters. Um so definitely.

SPEAKER_00

That adds to that adds to the ride, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So I'm hoping I'm hoping it still has that feel. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. It was always one of my I I preferred this one over Seven Dwarf Mind Train.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, 100%. I think this one's underrated. I think this is a is a great ride. And again, the Q is really great. Um, it has a lot of good theming. Um, it's uh one of those ones that you get a uh for me, I think it's actually better at night. I think it's a you know that you get two different experiences, but it's really great at night.

SPEAKER_00

I I couldn't agree more. I think it's a I think a lot of these rides, and especially Magic Kingdom, you're gonna get different experiences with the daytime versus nighttime. As we go on as we get into uh Future World, um, or Tomorrowland rather, on the other side of the park. Um, we're gonna talk about Tron and how why Tron's way better to ride at nighttime when it is during the day. But I think you're gonna that's a common theme throughout Magic Kingdom, is the rides are different experiences through the daytime and nighttime for sure.

SPEAKER_01

I know your favorite is uh Guardians, um but this is definitely one of those sleepers. Um it could secretly be one of the best roller coasters at Disney.

SPEAKER_00

I think for Magic Kingdom it's up there. I think it is. It is. I think for my money, I think Tron is probably uh it I think I think um Tron's a lot of fun, but it's only what 61 seconds altogether, I think maybe, maybe just over a minute. Um certainly Big Thunder Mountain's a lot longer than that. So you're gonna get more bang for your buck out of out of Big Thunder Mountain than you are out of out of Tron for sure. Um our next one on uh as we're moving down uh down the street here in Frontierland is Tiana's Bayou Adventure. And we had quite the experience when we went back in January together with our wives on Big Thunder Mountain. I'm sorry, on Tiana's Bayou, didn't we? I don't know if we had the picture to prove it.

SPEAKER_01

We did. I'm gonna put it in the podcast. So if you're on YouTube, you can watch it or take a look at it. She was very angry.

SPEAKER_00

Um I said, don't worry, honey, it don't get that wet. She was there wasn't a dry spot on this woman by the time we got off that ride. She sat we sat in the very first row, which is a no-no if you want to stay dry. Um first of all, you're not gonna stray dry at all. Right? It doesn't matter where you sit in that boat. But if you're sitting in the front row, forget it. You're gonna be drenched by the time you exit that thing. And for in her case, she was. She was soaked from head to toe, and she was livid with me because I lied to her. I honestly thought that she wouldn't get that wet, but she did. She was just like a wet dog coming off of that thing, just like getting out of a bath. Like she was just covered head to toe and just just fire in her eyes. Fire. She's a redhead, so you can you know, understand the the fire, the fire reference.

SPEAKER_01

In the words of your uh in the words of my favorite cast member and your sister, you will get wet.

SPEAKER_00

You will get wet for sure. Uh if you have us if you have a poncho, have you ever bought a poncho on this ride? Uh I had a raincoat, yeah. I think it's a smart thing to do. Yeah. Don't quick tip don't buy your ponchos in Walt Disney World. Why? Because how much they are. A lot. A lot, right. So buy them buy the cheap ones off Amazon. Absolutely. They're gonna do the exact same thing, and they're gonna be pennies of the dollar versus what you're gonna pay in Magic Kingdom for a rain poncho. So buy them ahead of time before you get there. Highly recommend that if you don't want to walk around soaking wet for the next hour or two hours, however long you're gonna be there to wear a rain poncho, would you go on this ride? What do you think of the re-theme? Uh it's my first time being on that.

SPEAKER_01

So I like the re-theme. You know, it you know, I was gonna talk about this with Tom Sawyer's Island. Um you know, for some, I don't I don't think Tom Sawyer or um Splash Mountain was um in a in any way an offensive experience that had to disappear. Um, you know, for most of us, Tom Sawyer was a giant is a giant playground and and and splash mountain was, you know, a log flume wide, you know. Um, but Disney has to uh justify every square foot of Magic Kingdom. And I think it needs to remember, like I say this a lot with things evolve or die, right? And Disney has to connect with the next generation. And you look at stuff like um Splash Mountain, the story, um, and you look at Tom Sawyer. It you know, 30 years ago, people connected with it. Um and now kids don't even know really about either of those stories. So it gives a new generation um a chance to connect and build that nostalgia and build that connectivity with it. Um so I think this theming was smart. Um, you know, like there's an argument, I'm sure, for um, you know, the social uh need to change. But I think from just a more of a marketing and business standpoint, I think they were smart changes to connect to new audiences and keep continuing to connect with generation after generation for Disney. And I think that's a lot of reason why Magic Kingdom is one of the um premier parks, right? Why Disney is the premier parks is because they continue to find ways to connect with people.

SPEAKER_00

Younger generation for sure. And they keep it going. That's right. Uh I yeah, I I think that they did a great job on Tiana's. I think the story of that ride, like we all know, we've all seen the movie, right? We understand Tiana and the story, the theme behind the movie. Um, I think as far as as a ride goes, I think they could have done a really better job of explaining it as where you where you go along in the ride, like how it's tying in. Um it just it it seems a bit broken up and a little bit all over the place in places. Like it doesn't really uh the whole theme of it doesn't really make sense all the way through the ride. You understand what I'm saying? It doesn't go from you go from scene, yeah. You go from scene to scene to scene, and then it doesn't really connect. It doesn't really connect. So I think I think that's the that's the hard part there. But as a whole, I think it's great. Like the animatronics are great, I think the music is great. Um you do you get soaked. I'm sorry. You will get wet. You will get wet for sure. Get wet. Oh man, that's such a great picture. I will forever love that picture of her. She is so mad. So mad. You gotta frame it. I've only seen her like we we we've been married uh 15 years, been together what 16, almost 17 years. Um, I've never seen her that angry. That was like one of the very first times I've ever seen her that angry at me. Uh so good. So good. I couldn't stop laughing afterwards. That probably didn't help any. Um I think it's I think it's a must you ride. What about for lightning lanes? You think it's worth it to get it? Um I do. I think it's a good thing. Is it a tier one attraction for you?

SPEAKER_01

Um if you can get it on the lightning lanes, I wouldn't um buy one specifically for it. Um, but it is worth it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think I think it's I think it's 100% worth it, especially if it's the summertime. Yes, you're gonna get wet. No, you're not gonna be soaked the rest of the day if it if it's if it's summertime in in Orlando. Um you're gonna dry up. Um you're gonna it's it's gonna help you out. Um it's especially if it's thousand degrees out there. You want to get a little wet and uh feel nice and cool for a little while at least. But uh we last time we went out that was in January. It was a little chilly. So that's it, that didn't really help things at all.

SPEAKER_01

If it were me, I would hit Pirates first, um, then Tiana and save Thunder Mountain for nighttime.

SPEAKER_00

Cool, I like it. That's a good strategy. So take us on to the next place.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah. So I've been excited about this. Yes. You have admitted that you haven't been, um, but we got to talk about the country bear musical jamboree. Um take it away, Pete. It's been updated. It's a great show. It's very funny, it's air conditioned. Um, you know, it's uh classic Disney. I mean, most people are gonna skip this one too. So it's another one of those places in the park where you can get that midday uh get out of the sun, cool down, get that nap in there. Um and it's either a treasured Disney institution or a fever dream. I'm not really sure.

SPEAKER_00

How long is it? Was it 20 minutes or something like that?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_00

Somewhere it's a good air-conditioned 20-minute nap.

SPEAKER_01

It really is.

SPEAKER_00

That's what it what that is. I don't know. I can't speak to it. Never been on it. Never really saw any interest. I never saw in the it way back when it was the old version versus the new version. I can't compare the two. You seem to like it, so I think I think you have to see why you're there, right? Yep.

unknown

All right.

SPEAKER_00

You should drag me on it next time. I will. I definitely will.

SPEAKER_01

Let's talk about um let's talk about food.

SPEAKER_00

Best food in Frontier Land.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So I'm gonna tell you the snack, it's a go-to snack. Do you know what this one is?

SPEAKER_00

I know what you're gonna say. Go ahead, tell the people.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, it's the bacon. It's the bacon. Right there at the corner by Tiana's is uh the most delicious piece of bacon you'll ever find. That magic on a stick, mind you.

SPEAKER_00

On a stick. It's it's wonderful. It's so good. The other um the other big uh food item here is of course is the infamous turkey legs. Uh you see people walking around like they're like their Neanderthals, like chopping on those things in one hand, uh screaming toddler in the other arm, right? Uh it's uh I've never I've had like a couple of bites of those things. I couldn't, I don't think I could finish one myself. I do remember I have a vivid memory as a as a child walking in the area of the park and watching this man in front of me uh walking with a uh and he was about to take a bite out of his trick-a-gg and a seagull swooped down and snatched this thing right at right out of his hand and flew off. That's amazing. I thought it was hilarious. I was like eight or nine or ten years old, maybe at the most. I thought it was hilarious. He didn't think it was very funny. Um if I was that man, uh today I think I would have marched myself right back to this thing and had demanded I get another one. But yeah, right. Some some hunt hungry seagull uh got a turkey leg for uh that day.

SPEAKER_01

The turkey leg or the six six with me. The turkey leg or the ham hawk, whatever. It tastes like a big chunk of ham. I for me it's a skip every time. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. Not for you. We don't like it. Save it for the red and fair. I think the uh Okay. All right. See, I don't like Ren Fairs either. I know you're kind of the magical kind of guy that likes us.

SPEAKER_01

I don't like Ren Fairs, that's why I'm not eating it.

SPEAKER_00

But the bacon, the bacon, we're gonna get it.

SPEAKER_01

The bacon's the way to go. And um the the tacos, uh the what I think it's a great quick service right there at the corner too. Um Pecos Bills.

SPEAKER_00

No, yeah, Pecos Bills, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, great quick service, lots of space in there. Um it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00

They're not the best tacos you've ever had in your life, but there if you want something that's a Mexican flair, uh they got it. They have the rice, they have the rice and beans and the tacos, and uh they have chips and queso, right? It's it's just it's gonna it's it's theme park food, uh slightly elevated a little bit.

SPEAKER_01

It scratches the itch.

SPEAKER_00

If you need food and you don't want to wait, it's the place to go. Yep. I agree. I agree for sure.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. All right. Let's walk on down to Liberty Square then.

SPEAKER_00

All right, what's our first stop in Liberty Square?

SPEAKER_01

Um, one of my favorites in all of the parks is Haunted Mansion. Foolish mortals.

SPEAKER_00

Is this room really stretching? You've been working on that, haven't you? I can and I have I can quote the whole thing. I know like the whole thing. This is a top five Disney one. Oh, yeah, absolutely it is. Every single time, too. And I think I think do you agree? Like going through that ride, number one, I've been stuck on this ride I don't know, multiple times and different spots in each part of the ride. So I could I I'm pretty good about picking out where stuff is now because I've been stuck so many times on it. That being said, I think it's still a great ride to go on.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. And you know it's funny, um the amount of people who try to bring their cremated remains relatives and dump them off the ride there is incorrect is insane. Don't bring your cremated remains to Haunted Mansion, please.

SPEAKER_00

Nope, don't do that. Don't do that. Lifetime ban.

unknown

Lifetime ban.

SPEAKER_00

I think if you're gonna go for lifetime ban, it's more fun to take your Trail and try and climb the Mexico Bazilion. I mean, that's that's that's going out in style, really. We do not encourage that. Do not climb the pyramid. Drink responsibly. Listen. Yep. Uh don't don't start in Mexico. People we've talked all about it. Don't do it. Um, I think I I couldn't agree more that this ride is is one of the top five. Um, I think as far as the ride goes, as many times as I've been on it, you see something different every single time. You experience something different every single time you go on it.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. So let's talk about um the Hall of Presidents. I understand you you've talked about this one. This is something you like.

SPEAKER_00

It's in, yeah, it's for great, it's a great 20-minute nap. It's what it is, is the air conditioned nap. That's what that is.

SPEAKER_01

We're gonna do an episode on all the places at Magic Kingdom where you can get a nap, including here, Mickey's Fillhard Magic, uh, the bears.

SPEAKER_00

I think we're gonna pair that with a very special request from an email that we got. We got some mail, Pete.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, we did, we finally got mail.

SPEAKER_00

We finally got a couple pieces of email, a couple different emails. And this is from my Sean, my uh my good friend Sean Wilson in Charleston, South Carolina. He wants to hear about the best bathrooms in Walt Disney World. So I think one best place to take a nap, and we're gonna pair that up with our best bathrooms. What do you think? That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

But just don't take a nap.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's gold. Don't don't do that. Don't do that. You're probably gonna get narcans. Anyway.

SPEAKER_02

There's that firefighter.

SPEAKER_01

I'm sorry. Uh so is this a must-do or a skip, or just if you're hot?

SPEAKER_00

Uh yes to all other questions, I think. Depending on the mood. I yeah, I think I mean you have to it gives a little bit of history, right? If you like do you like it, you clearly like history, right? Yeah, I like history. Absolutely. Um every single president that we've ever had in our country's history 250 years now, um, is there as an animatronic, including the current administration, he's there as well. Um though he's not as orange as I thought he would be uh in attraction as he isn't really. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, not to get political. But uh yeah. Uh I I think I think it's a one and done. I think it's a one-and-one. But it is again, if you're looking for if you're looking for air conditioning, if you're looking for a little entertainment and having just rest your rest your your feet from walking 30,000 steps, I think it's something that you you should you should do.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. We gotta we gotta talk about some other hidden gems. Harbor House um is a great place to get food. You can go upstairs. Um, there's always space up there, you can see views from there. Um Harbor House is a hidden gem. Um I want to talk about the ornament call on the ornament store. Um you can go to Disney Springs and get ornaments, but uh, you know, we've been cle since my daughter and I started going when she was five. We have been um getting an ornament every year. So we have our own Disney tree because we're Disney nerds. We have our own Disney tree that has uh an ornament for every time we've gone to um whether it's Disneyland, uh Disneyland Paris, here uh Magic Kingdom, everywhere. Uh every year we have an ornament. Um so it's it's it's worth it. And I I have a little story I could tell um about the magic of Disney. Um we went into that store for the first time when she was, I think, if it was the first time, I mean it might have been the second time, so she was like six years old, right? And so we walk in and we're we're hunting around for an ornament, and and um it we used to go in the fall, and there was a spot there you could write a letter to Santa. So she's got the little pen and she's writing a little letter to Santa, and I'm helping her, and I'm talking to the cast member, talking about what kind of ornament to get. Cast members paying attention to us. Mia writes her letter, um, signs it, and I'm like, that's great. You know, she puts it in the box for Santa. We talk to the cast member of some more, we buy an ornament, we bounce. We are home in December. We went in October, we're home in December, and a box from Florida shows up from Walt Disney World from Santa, and in that box is the letter that Mia wrote to Santa with a response saying, you know, thank you for visiting the shop. I got your letter. Here's some Disney merchandise. We have a they sent us a Disney stocking, a Mickey Stuffy, and I think there was one other thing in there, and it was just the most incredible thing. And it's one of the reasons that we continue to go back every year is just because some of those things, you're not always gonna find that level of Disney magic. But if you're looking for it, you're open to it, and you're nice to the cast members, um, Disney magic can happen. And um, just one of my my favorite stories for for that. And one of the reasons we're we're Disney fans forever.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's that's such a cool memory. That's that's also that you gotta experience that. That's really neat. Uh that is the Christmas store in uh yeah. Um I don't know if you remember when we had Alice, my sister, on she used to manage the Christmas store. Take a guess, not to ruin your your cool, cool like emotional story. Take a guess how much the the Disney or the uh Christmas store brings in a revenue a day. Take a take a while take a while, I guess. Now, this is six years ago when she was a cast member there.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I don't know. I want to go high because I mean I feel like everybody wants an ornament. Go high. All right. Disney um I'm for per a day, I'd say 50,000.

SPEAKER_00

You're close. It's around forty, forty-five thousand dollars a day. That that store alone brings in merchandise sales. That's insane. And again, that was that was six years ago now. So I'm sure I'm sure it's gone up. It's it and I'm I'm 100% it didn't go down. Right. Uh it definitely it definitely went up. So yeah, yeah, just little intricacies like that. Um, and that's such an awesome heartwarming story for your that young daughter got to experience. That's that's the Disney touch that you're not gonna get anywhere else. It's there's no other theme park or no other company in the world you can go to. Um, you're not gonna find that universal up the street. I'm sorry. You're just not um that you to get that to get that touch, that Disney, uh, that Disney magic that Pete's talking about for sure.

SPEAKER_01

So we've uh recently started our own little Instagram handle, and that is the worst beyond the magic. Um you can find us there. We've got 18 whole followers so far. It's fantastic. Thank you to those 18. Uh most of them are us. But you can um you can always send us mail, and we love that. Uh, and you can find us at the worst beyond the magic at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_00

This has been the worst beyond the magic.