A Year in Review: The Magic, the Fun, and the Unexpected

In this special year-end episode of Going Beyond the Castle, Fred and Lori take a moment to reflect on the highlights of 2024. From unforgettable Disney moments to thrilling cruise experiences and everything in between, they share their favorite memories from the past year. Join them as they revisit the magical trips, exciting adventures, and unexpected surprises that made 2024 so special. Whether it’s a ride at Disney, a cruise on the open seas, or a special moment shared with family and friends, this episode is packed with joy, nostalgia, and a look back at a year full of magical moments. Plus, they discuss what’s to come in 2025 and what they’re most excited about in the new year. Tune in for a heartfelt recap to close out 2024 in the best way possible!

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Transcript

Fred Briley (02:31.369)
What is up? Welcome back to another episode of Going Beyond the Castle. I am super excited to be back in Louisiana tonight and live from my house. So super glad to be back. I am your host, Fred Briley, and with me as always is my fabulous co-host, Lori Talamo. And tonight we are wrapping up 2024. Hard to believe that we are, what, there's two days left in 2024?

Lori Talamo (03:01.711)
I know this year has just flown by. It's crazy to think that we're about to go into a new year.

Fred Briley (03:08.301)
Yeah, so it's exciting times as we head into 2025, but we have got a lot to talk about tonight as we cover our year in review episode. We've got a lot of exciting things lined up. We're going to talk about all the things that happened in 2024 at Disney Universal. We're going to talk about what's coming ahead in 2020.

2025. And then we're going to talk about some things that we really don't know when they're coming to the parks, but we're super excited about that word announced this year. So with that being said, let me pull up my notes and.

Lori Talamo (03:54.833)
While you're doing that, just want to say I went on live so I can watch the intro video. That was awesome. Great job on that. Love it.

Fred Briley (04:03.479)
Thanks. It didn't take much work.

Yeah, I felt like we needed something that like, kind of like cued us in, you know, learned from a past of a couple of our live streams. It's kind of an abrupt start. So I figured I'd give us something nice and easy to head into the episode with that way. It's not just like, Hey, we're alive.

Lori Talamo (04:23.633)
Right. Yeah, no, great touch. It was good.

Fred Briley (04:25.677)
Thanks. So yeah, we've got a lot of cool stuff to unpack. So if you guys are tuning in, definitely drop us some comments about, know, if you paid attention to all the stuff that happened in the parks this past year, excuse me, what you're looking forward to in 2025. So I think with that being said, Laurie, do you have anything before we just we got a lot. So do you have anything before we just like dive right in?

Lori Talamo (04:52.647)
Yeah, I feel like this has been a huge year of changes and announcements. A lot of stuff. And I'm going to wait because I know we edited the notes a little bit, so I'm not sure if it's in there. But I even I don't see it. Like I even feel like some of the things that we didn't even mark was all of the, you know, no more park hopping. I mean, no more park reservations, park hopping, opening after, you know, not having to wait until two.

Fred Briley (04:58.317)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (05:16.226)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (05:21.35)
You know, all of those things too that we really haven't hit on. So definitely a lot of stuff to kind of recap.

Fred Briley (05:29.293)
Yeah, it was hard because you and I were talking the other night about what are we going to talk about? What is the flow of this going to look like? 2024 was such a full year of things that changed. So kind of had to narrow it down to the big ones.

Lori Talamo (05:54.171)
Right, it's always, well, although Universal does have a lot of stuff too, but a lot of Disney stuff, Disney always kind of seems to dominate the conversation, so definitely have to like cut some of that stuff out.

Fred Briley (05:58.85)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (06:06.989)
Yeah. So, uh, and if we miss anything that you guys, you know, we're big fans of this past year, let's hit those in the comments. We'll give them a shout out for sure. Uh, cause I'm sure we missed something and trying to compile everything that happened in 2025.

Lori Talamo (06:21.381)
Yeah, and it's funny because I always go back and listen. I listen to, so we, well, we work out four days now, but I listen to podcasts while I'm working out. So I have our friends from the Disney crush. listen to theirs. I listen to ours and I listen to the Disney nerds. But it's always funny to me when I go back and listen to stuff and like, that was wrong. Like saying that this episode was going to go live after you were saying on January 1st and it will. But it's,

Fred Briley (06:47.629)
Hey.

Lori Talamo (06:49.457)
Yeah, it's fun. So definitely leave some comments. Because we love to I love to go back and look at those and

find those fun things that I've said.

Fred Briley (06:59.425)
Yeah. So, think, you know, we'll just dive straight in cause we got a lot to cover and, I would love to respect the whole hour podcast rule, unspoken rule, but we'll, we'll try our best to stick to it. So up first, I think is one of our favorites at Walt Disney world. Like so much happened at Walt Disney world this year. you know, I think the biggest one,

Lori Talamo (07:05.926)
Yep, let's roll.

Fred Briley (07:27.873)
possibly was the new ride of Tiana's Bayou

I never rode Splash Mountain. I had lots of opportunities to ride Splash Mountain, but I like, I'm not a wet ride kind of guy. Like I just, I don't want to go get it unless it's like July, which we never go in July. We always go on like September, October, you know, March, April timeframes. I don't want to go get wet and then walk around in wet clothes. And I'm not trying to put on a, like some of these people go extreme and put on like three, four ponchos. And I'm not about that life. So I never rode it.

Lori Talamo (07:45.053)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (08:04.871)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (08:06.913)
But I did get to ride it. See, and I heard it was a good ride for what it was worth.

Lori Talamo (08:07.229)
I wrote it once.

Lori Talamo (08:13.797)
It was. So my whole thing, and this goes back to the fear of heights. So I did it, it was a cheer trip that we did with Olivia's cheer team. This was when she was in middle school. And so we had did Universal a couple of years before, no, we did Disney first. And so one of the moms was like, no, we're gonna do all the rides with them. And so their family had done Splash Mountain multiple times. So they were like, sit here.

Well, then I realized once the ride had started that they set us up to get wet. So we were in the section that we got pretty wet, but I did have a poncho on. But the whole drop is what, I don't mind the drop, it's anticipation of the drop that gets me. And not knowing where it was gonna be at. But I did ride it it was cute. But I'm not attached to it like a lot of folks because I didn't ride it multiple times.

Fred Briley (08:47.955)
out. Yeah.

Fred Briley (08:56.94)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (09:05.964)
Yeah.

Yeah, I will say we wrote, I've written it twice now. I wrote it once in September and I wrote it once in, when we went for Mickey's very Merry Christmas party. And it's such a great ride. Like I really feel like Disney did a really job, really great job with the whole storyline of Tiana. Like it's also great to have Tiana in the parks now and really have her presence more.

Lori Talamo (09:35.986)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (09:36.949)
And they really did a great job with like, especially once you kind of go down the final big splash and you kind of go in and underground, like just the setup is really good. You know, living in New Orleans, it's really cool to experience, you know, the music and, you know, the smells and the vibe that is the Bayou. I really, I really think Disney just did a really good job with Tiana's Bayou.

Lori Talamo (09:57.095)
Mm-hmm.

Lori Talamo (10:02.097)
Yeah, I'm looking forward to, so I did Splash Mountain with Olivia and like since her and I tend to do most of those rides together, I haven't done it without her. So I'm hoping when we go in February, so the girls do one park, but we don't know which park they're gonna do. The coach picks the park. So I'm kind of hoping, even though we don't really hang out with them, but maybe I'll try to sneak in on it. But if not, when I go in the fall,

Fred Briley (10:10.476)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (10:22.208)
Right.

Lori Talamo (10:30.222)
Hopefully with the agency, I may just have to write it. I don't know. We'll see. I'm trying to wait for her, but...

Fred Briley (10:33.099)
You have to. Like, it's... It's such a good ride. Like, I would ride it multiple times.

Lori Talamo (10:38.545)
Yeah.

Well, like you said, especially because I'm from the New Orleans area, so I'm very curious to see, you know, like how I feel because I don't research rides. I don't know if I've told you that before, but I don't look at rides ahead of time. So I kind of want to be surprised. mean, I've seen some spoilers, but we'll see. We'll see. I'm looking forward to it.

Fred Briley (10:44.695)
Right.

Fred Briley (10:50.325)
Yeah

Fred Briley (10:54.561)
Right.

Fred Briley (10:59.021)
I do think that Disney needs to work on their whole, you and I have had this conversation, their whole beignet recipe is not where it needs to be. They really should, I mean, they just had a Tiana's Bayou event here a couple of months ago. They really do need to send somebody to New Orleans and learn how to make some good beignets for in the parks.

Lori Talamo (11:09.181)
Ugh.

Yeah.

Lori Talamo (11:23.409)
Well, the whole, had, gosh, what's her name? it Dooky Chase? And that whole family was really involved in Tiana's Bayou. So I'm like, surely with all the restaurants they have, like they could give her, give Disney some tips on beignets. That's why I didn't like make it a point to go over to French Quarter side this week, this summer, I mean, when we were there, cause I knew it wasn't like.

Fred Briley (11:39.5)
Yeah.

Yeah. First quarter.

Fred Briley (11:50.497)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (11:52.615)
really going to get been used.

Fred Briley (11:54.357)
Yeah. So yeah, Tiana's Bayou. Fabulous, fabulous ride. Really impressed by that one. Journey of Water was another one that opened this year. That was, have you done that one yet?

Lori Talamo (12:07.323)
I did, we've done it a couple of times. So actually last year I think it was, no.

Now I'm questioning because, it might've been a preview. We went, yes, we went, when I went on my agency trip, we had one of the agents that was with us was a DVC member and she got to take a few folks with her. And so we actually got to go through the preview and it's pretty awesome. I took the family there when we went this summer just to kind of walk through. That is super cool area, especially

Fred Briley (12:22.508)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (12:42.413)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (12:47.837)
for little kids, you know, they're interactive with the water and they really did a great job with that.

Fred Briley (12:49.291)
Yeah.

Yeah, Raylin and Harper, like it was fabulous because that was that was our first park day in September and it was much hotter than I anticipated Disney being in September. And so that that area itself was just fabulous. Like we just hung out there for like an hour, took our time. The girls played in the water, did all the experiences. They had a blast running back and through.

that right there at the end where you come will run through the overpass or the underpass and the water stops right before you hit it. Girls had a blast with that. And then of course, taking the picture with Tefiti at the end was just like Disney crushed it with that one. again, know, Moana is really becoming such a big

Disney presence in Disney. So it's really nice to have her, and an area dedicated to, you know, Moana and learning more about the water in Epcot. Like it's just really great area.

Lori Talamo (14:05.693)
Yeah, I was just looking at, I don't know if you saw them, I was just looking at some notes. Because it looked like it might have opened a little bit at the end of 2023. I know the DVC preview.

Fred Briley (14:18.945)
I thought it... I thought it opened in 2020.

Lori Talamo (14:21.157)
I'm like questioning myself now because I'm like, so let me see, maybe that's wrong.

Lori Talamo (14:33.403)
I think it opened at the end of 23.

Fred Briley (14:35.807)
It did. Yep. Well, that's okay. We're still talking about it.

Lori Talamo (14:40.357)
Yeah, no, because it was at the very end. It was something new. I just want to make sure like I'm check them checking myself.

Fred Briley (14:49.365)
And I don't think we've talked really about a you know, journey of water yet. So it's a great time to do it.

Lori Talamo (14:54.233)
No, we haven't. We haven't. Yeah. No, it was fun. even so the first time when I did the the preview, it was raining. So like we didn't really get to I mean, we could experience it, but it wasn't, you know, it's kind of cloudy and dark when we went through. So when we went through the summer with the family, it was of course, we went in June, so was hot. And then you got to see it in the daylight and just the awesome area. It's fun.

Fred Briley (15:15.948)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (15:22.347)
Yeah, I think it's a great addition.

Lori Talamo (15:23.677)
It's a pretty nice walkthrough too, it's pretty long.

Fred Briley (15:27.029)
Yeah, I mean, like I said, it took us a good while to get through it. And then

Like it's just good to have that like not necessarily a splash pad, but like a nice splash area to just cool off. Like that even like adults can go through and interact with.

Lori Talamo (15:48.209)
Right. Yeah, and then you could take your time. I feel like it's a time filler too, where you're not pressed to get through and like a ride queue where you're just going straight through and getting on the ride and done. You can kind of take your time and leisurely walk through and spend time playing in the different areas.

Fred Briley (16:09.387)
Yeah, it's really good. I really like that. Did you see the Encanto show when you guys were there?

Lori Talamo (16:17.073)
I did not. I did not.

Fred Briley (16:21.773)
Disney really did a good job with this one too. So it's over in the new... What is that pavilion called?

Lori Talamo (16:31.195)
Is it the communicor area?

Fred Briley (16:34.537)
Yes, Communicore Hall area. So it's over in there and like, so they, the stage is covered. There's like covering over the stage and then you sit out on the lawn, but they have all these different umbrellas that are providing shade. And it's really cool. Like, so they sing, they dance, they get the kids involved. They do some trivia about, you know, the, the movie Encanto.

and it really is just a great time, you know, especially for adults to just kind of sit back or relax, and just, and let the kids just dance it out. Like it's, they did a really great job with Encanto show and I think it's sticking around permanently. thought I saw the other day, me, the other day, but I can't remember.

Lori Talamo (17:09.435)
and let the kids.

Lori Talamo (17:22.589)
Yeah, went and looked up some videos and it definitely looks pretty neat. I think when we go in February, we'll probably just have a lot of downtime. So I'm going to go check out some of these new things. But yeah, I haven't done that one yet. It's harder having practically adult children to go and sit and do those kind of things. So that's the stuff that Josh and I take advantage of when it's just he and I.

Fred Briley (17:44.044)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (17:50.923)
Yeah, it's a different experience going as essentially as adults only. but yeah, strongly recommend the Encanto celebration show, fabulous show, especially take a break from the heat of walking around Epcot.

Next up, one that I don't... I think you might have seen it. Did you see Dreams That Soar?

Lori Talamo (18:15.577)
No, actually, we saw the drone show at Universal. But by the time we went to Disney Springs, was already gone. We missed it. think it was closed a little bit before we got there, maybe.

Fred Briley (18:20.448)
Okay.

Fred Briley (18:28.843)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (18:35.189)
Yeah, it closed two weeks before we got there, maybe even a week. I think it was really cool to see Disney finally do something with drones, especially like, you know, look at Disneyland over in California, look at Disneyland Paris, like the amount of drones that they use in those parks, or that they have used in the past, like it's just been crazy. And everybody loves a good drone show at night and

From the pictures and just the reviews that I saw like it just told such a good story You know of Disney

Lori Talamo (19:04.316)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (19:12.747)
And I wish it would have stuck around.

Lori Talamo (19:13.361)
Yeah, it's right. don't know. Maybe we talked about it once before about like, I'm sure it took a good bit to get it all worked out, all the drones, and then for it not to stay. So I'm not sure if it was something that they always intended to be, you know, just for a short period of time, or if maybe it's going to be a summer thing that'll come back. But yeah, I would.

Fred Briley (19:25.399)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (19:33.612)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (19:42.351)
I wish we would have, because when we saw the one, unexpectedly saw the one at Universal, it was really neat, especially when they, you know, brought in the different characters. So hopefully they bring it back.

Fred Briley (19:51.17)
Yeah.

I think they will, especially because at this point Disney paid, assuming that they paid all the money for those drones, now they have all these drones just sitting around and unless they plan to ship them off to Disneyland Paris or another place to use.

Lori Talamo (20:12.327)
Yeah, it looks like it ran from May until September. So, and when we went over the summer, we didn't really spend a lot of time at Disney Springs, because we were mostly at Universal.

Fred Briley (20:23.893)
Yeah, yeah, we we didn't spend too much time at Disney Springs.

Lori Talamo (20:30.471)
So I will want to go in February.

And then jumping ahead, we have never done the country bear jamboree ever.

Fred Briley (20:43.563)
Now. Nope.

Lori Talamo (20:45.787)
Like honestly, I mean, I know now and I've known for a bit, but I didn't even realize that there was a show in there. I mean, we'd see the bears come out, you know, kind of hang out either on the balcony or walking around in that area. But I didn't really realize it was a show until I saw so many announcements about it closing for refurbishment.

Fred Briley (20:59.233)
Yeah. Yep.

Fred Briley (21:10.677)
Yeah, it's just, it's never been, it's never been a must do for us. Like we talked about doing it this last trip, especially just as a chance to, you know, get out of the sun and just take a break from the sun.

but it's just never appealed to me to sit through Country Bear Jamboree.

Lori Talamo (21:34.514)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (21:38.299)
I'm just, curious, and I'd love if anybody's listening to, that's done it, to just kind of give some insight, know, like before and after, you know, like, I mean, we've done research, but it's always fun to hear somebody's personal experience, and you know, if they thought that it was, like if they're for the changes or if they're like, gosh, they messed it up.

Fred Briley (21:49.645)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (22:04.407)
Yeah, we'll come back if anybody, if anybody chimes in, but I just, I mean, I don't know the last time this show was updated. So, it was probably much needed for sure.

Lori Talamo (22:06.909)
Because, know, yeah, if anybody leaves a comment.

Lori Talamo (22:23.975)
Yeah, it seems like it's one of the, almost like the, gosh, what was it? You might be too young to know. Or maybe they didn't have them all over. So like they have Chuck E. Cheese here. They used to have another one called Showbiz. And it was kind of like that. Maybe it was time for it to go and get an update. The Bears needed a refreshing.

Fred Briley (22:36.037)
yeah, I remember the yeah. Yeah.

Fred Briley (22:46.401)
Yeah, yeah they did. So that's pretty much the top ones from Disney World. You want to do Disneyland next?

Lori Talamo (22:59.261)
Sure. it's almost a little bit, which this one's a little bit more, we've talked about it too, like since we haven't made it over to Disneyland yet to kind of give a whole lot of insight. But I assume that Tiana's Bayou Adventure is the same over in Disneyland, although they do have the New Orleans Square. So they have a little bit more of a New Orleans area over at Disneyland.

Fred Briley (23:11.233)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (23:17.068)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (23:22.188)
Thank you.

Right.

Lori Talamo (23:29.703)
But I imagine that I'm typing. I can't type and talk. I imagine that the ride is very similar if not exact.

Fred Briley (23:41.101)
Yeah, I think it's the exact same ride as Disney World. I know they had a little bit more issue at the opening than Disney World did. It was down quite a bit. Like I think even on launch day, like the ride didn't open until the afternoon. But I think now it's fine. And like I said, it's the same exact ride as Disney World.

Lori Talamo (24:05.617)
Yeah, yeah, that whole little area to they because they actually have Tiana's palace the restaurant.

Fred Briley (24:11.797)
Yep, which I wish we would put at Disney World.

Lori Talamo (24:13.82)
And so.

Lori Talamo (24:17.725)
Yeah, I don't know. thought of, I mean, it's all speculation, but I'm pretty sure, you know, like people are speculating, like at some point if they'll put that in there. I mean, I don't know, unless they take out like, Picko's bill or something, I don't know where they would put it.

Fred Briley (24:30.167)
Pekobills. Yeah. No, I don't

Lori Talamo (24:34.493)
But they just revamped that menu, I don't know.

Fred Briley (24:37.665)
Time to get rid of it. Never a better time.

Lori Talamo (24:40.348)
Yeah.

If they get some really good New Orleans food. Because I saw someone, I don't know, it was one of the Facebook Disney groups or whatever, and somebody was asking, she's from Louisiana, and was posting, she made a reservation at Boat Rights and was asking about the gumbo and stuff like that. And everybody from Louisiana were like, you're from here, do not go to Boat Rights. I mean, you can get gumbo at home, don't go there looking for.

Fred Briley (25:07.391)
Yeah. Yeah.

Lori Talamo (25:12.199)
food.

Fred Briley (25:12.215)
Well, and I think you and I had that conversation after we went to the French quarterback in September and I tried to get a po boy and I was just like, I don't even, I didn't even finish it. was like, I'm good. Thanks though. Good effort.

Lori Talamo (25:20.029)
Meh.

Right. Yep. So what's next? Haunted Mansion expansion. I like.

Fred Briley (25:32.321)
This one, like...

Fred Briley (25:38.453)
It's nice that Disney's added to the queue. Like, a Haunted Mansion is such a great ride. And there's so much to the story that, you know, I think it was such a great idea. I wish Disney World would expand the Haunted Mansion queue and make it a little bit more interactive. Because, I mean, I'm trying to think. I think the only thing that's really interactive is that like

Lori Talamo (25:38.695)
Were you, are you? Mm-hmm.

Fred Briley (26:07.851)
that instrument thing that you can play right towards the front of the line. That's really the only interactive thing. I think that they should bring out some more of the ghost, which is, mean, that's essentially what they're doing at Disneyland. So I think it's a really great idea that they're doing that.

Lori Talamo (26:27.547)
Yeah, ironically, I do like the ride. It is a little, it is a little creepy, I guess, if you look, if you take it literal, which we don't because it's a ride. But it is fun. I can tell you to, and I know we're talking about Disneyland, so I only have experience at Disney World, but every time we go, I'm like, OK, I know where the camera's at. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to get a good picture.

Fred Briley (26:42.721)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (26:54.981)
No, I'll have to post my pictures in the group comments. Never. I'm like...

Fred Briley (26:55.329)
Yeah. It never comes out the way you want it. I think somebody's waiting like that whole mirror wall. Somebody's waiting and they're like, all right, they're smiling. Don't do it. Don't do it. Okay. Do it now.

Lori Talamo (27:07.173)
Right? And it was like me, I was like making a face like I was getting ready to tell Josh, like, okay, the picture's coming up soon. And like, my face is all weird. And I'm like, why? That happened on every single ride photo when Josh and I went over the summer, like, could not get a good one. They're terrible.

Fred Briley (27:19.436)
Yep.

Yeah, I remember going with Matt for the Christmas party and that was one of the last rides we rode and I was like, Matt, wait, wait, wait, okay, make a crazy face. And we held it for like 20 seconds and the camera just happened to get it right after we stopped. And I was like, come on.

Lori Talamo (27:43.463)
That's, yeah, I don't know how, like I see people, yeah, I see people with these pictures and I'm like, gosh, like, you know where the cameras are and everyone, unless you like braiding and you get, which I won't say it's a good one, yes, and ruin people's pictures, I'm still salty about that. But yeah, yeah, I wanna get some good pictures one day.

Fred Briley (27:44.481)
That I'm pretty sure it's a random.

Fred Briley (27:53.728)
Yep.

You just hold up the middle finger the whole time.

Fred Briley (28:05.758)
I think it's great.

But yeah, I'm super glad that they're expanding, you know, the queue. I mean, the Disneyland Haunted Mansion is way better than the Disney World, just because, you know, that was that's the OG all day. So I think it's really cool that they're doing the expansion on the queue.

Lori Talamo (28:23.154)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (28:27.013)
Yeah, and then don't they do over Halloween? They do like the overlay. Yeah, and we don't get that.

Fred Briley (28:29.729)
They do how overly. Yeah, I think it's Christmas.

Lori Talamo (28:35.773)
Is it? Well, they do. Yeah, they definitely do the Christmas. Because I think they had, was it Virtual Queue for a while over Christmas with this one? I don't know. I thought they did something for Halloween, but maybe not. Maybe not.

Fred Briley (28:36.589)
think it's Christmas,

Fred Briley (28:46.029)
Mm-hmm. Yeah,

Ahem.

Fred Briley (28:55.597)
Next one.

Lori Talamo (28:56.349)
So, what's the other one? So this isn't, I mean, the hotel was already there, but officially opened up as a Pixar, I'll put palace, Pixar place, hotel over, where it was, shoot.

Fred Briley (29:05.933)
Pics are a place, yeah.

Lori Talamo (29:15.857)
I what it was called before, now.

Fred Briley (29:21.857)
Yeah, I can't remember.

Lori Talamo (29:24.199)
I'm gonna remember it in a minute.

Fred Briley (29:26.965)
It's a really great hotel though. Like, it looks really cool.

Lori Talamo (29:27.623)
But I've.

Lori Talamo (29:31.581)
Yeah, it was the pictures that I've seen. like, almost when we were going to go over this coming summer, I was going to stay there just because it looks super neat.

Fred Briley (29:42.188)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (29:47.769)
I don't know. Paradise Pier. Yes.

Fred Briley (29:48.801)
Yeah, that one was a, yeah, there you go. Yeah, that was a cool switch. Like the whole Pixar theming was just really good. And it looks like such a great hotel. Like that's probably where we'll try to stay in 2026. Where we go. Cause there ain't no way I'm staying in the grand Californian.

Lori Talamo (30:07.409)
on.

Lori Talamo (30:11.503)
No, we were actually going to stay. So there was two room options that I was picking from, but it was club level at Pixar Place versus something else, I forgot, at Disneyland Hotel. But I've heard some mixed reviews on club level. Those are the only two rooms that were available for me to pick at that time. And I heard the club level wasn't quite up to par yet. I mean, guess because it was just opening.

Fred Briley (30:22.754)
Mm.

Lori Talamo (30:40.925)
So it kind of had some mixed reviews. So that's why I decided to do Disneyland Hotel.

Fred Briley (30:41.288)
Right. Yeah.

Fred Briley (30:48.537)
So yeah, not much coming to Disney. I don't feel like much was announced for Disneyland this year.

Lori Talamo (30:48.805)
we've canceled the trip so.

Lori Talamo (30:58.161)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (30:59.703)
There's a lot coming next year, which we'll talk about shortly.

Lori Talamo (31:04.849)
Yes.

Fred Briley (31:06.401)
Disney Cruise Line, this one, I think will also be another short one for us, especially because the Disney Treasure Launch will be talking about next episode. I need to email Shelly and just confirm we're good. yes, so, but Disney's new ship, the Treasure, launched a couple of weeks ago, so that is super exciting. And like we said, my boss,

Lori Talamo (31:18.493)
Next we, yes.

Fred Briley (31:36.085)
I assume she's my boss. always call her my boss. Shelly went on the Disney Treasure and so she'll be coming on next week to talk about her experience on the gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous Disney Treasure. Like, I still need to send you the Epcot room. Like it's just,

Lori Talamo (31:56.913)
Yeah, it looks great. well, I found out after the fact that my agency owner actually went on that sale in two. So jealous. Like that thing, it just, I want to go again, like the Haunted Mansion bar they have and the lounge. man, it looks so cool.

Fred Briley (31:57.677)
Gorgeous

Fred Briley (32:07.554)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (32:12.37)
the Haunted Mansion bar? Yes.

Yeah, one day I will get to go on a Disney cruise.

Lori Talamo (32:23.279)
I know my agency's going in a few weeks and on a Disney cruise, not the treasure, but we could, we didn't book it because we didn't know when Olivia, like Olivia's cheer, they either do a competition in Dallas or one in Orlando. And it's the same weekend as the Dallas one. And I didn't know, so I didn't book it.

Fred Briley (32:39.873)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (32:44.578)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (32:46.577)
but it looks super cool one day too.

Fred Briley (32:48.651)
Yeah, it's a gorgeous ship.

They did a really good job on that one.

Lori Talamo (32:52.539)
Yeah, I'm like, I'll go, Josh and I will go one time when we can leave the kids. It'd be cheaper.

Fred Briley (32:57.973)
Right? Just don't tell them. Much cheaper. Also, Lookout Key at Lighthouse Point opened up. I don't know too much about that one.

Lori Talamo (33:09.945)
It so I guess the only experience that I've had with going to like a private island was when we did the Virgin Voyages cruise and they had their own beach club at Bimini. And so it's super cool to get off the ship and not have to really like book an excursion and just go, you know, to their little private island for the day. And so I've been looking at that one and it looks. Awesome.

Fred Briley (33:19.948)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (33:39.581)
You know, just like a little splash pad with water slide area for the kids. I mean, there are things you can do, like could do snorkeling and stuff like that. And I'm sure there's some paid excursions that you can pay when you go to that port, but I like how they have that. And it's new and it's in the Bahamas. So of course, the water's beautiful.

Fred Briley (33:48.577)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (34:03.371)
Yeah, we'll have to get, I'll have get Shelly to talk a little bit about that one next week too.

Lori Talamo (34:07.89)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (34:09.997)
And then I'll let you talk a lot about this one because you got to experience a lot of it was some some big changes to Universal this past year

Lori Talamo (34:20.605)
Yes. None of my stuff got auto corrected either. I put dream world. Dream works, Lan. Look, being off. I was off last week. I only worked Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then I'm off and through January 6. The days are just all confused. I feel like I should be sleeping when I'm awake. I didn't catch the typos, but...

Fred Briley (34:27.041)
Nice! I knew what you meant.

Fred Briley (34:48.289)
I'm going back to work tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to that.

Lori Talamo (34:52.118)
yuck. Yeah, so DreamWorks land, which is, think I talked about it a little bit when we did my trip report back whenever that was. So I know Universal, we've talked about a lot how they don't really have a lot of stuff for small kids. But this area is definitely something that appeals to the small kids. They have the Trolls area, which there's a Trolls coaster.

Fred Briley (35:00.821)
Yes, we did. Yep.

Lori Talamo (35:20.773)
Which we did not ride because believe it or not, we went, the wait was like 50 minutes and we weren't really sure if it was too kiddy to wait that long. So we didn't do it. They have the...

Why is my mind going blank? Kung Fu Panda.

Fred Briley (35:42.058)
yeah.

Lori Talamo (35:43.633)
That, I think that was the thing to me that was the cutest. Cause they had, it was an interactive show just like Turtle Talk with Crush. You know, they had the little, they would doing the karate show and then it was interactive. So they were talking to the kids in the audience and super, super cute. And they also have in that area, the big water bucket. So they have like a splash pad area too. So if it's hot and you want to get

Fred Briley (36:12.877)
Right.

Lori Talamo (36:13.405)
you know, let the kids throw in a bathing suit and just play in the water. And then they have the big bucket. I don't know how many gallons I'm going to have to look it up. I don't know how many gallons of water it is, but like there's no getting around it. If you walk underneath that thing, you're getting drenched. And so we kind of stood by and watched and waited for people to get unexpectedly get wet because we saw it dumb. So that was pretty cool.

Fred Briley (36:31.137)
wrenched. Yeah.

Lori Talamo (36:41.883)
Yeah, so that area is definitely, you know, and again, they have like little seesaws. So you can just kind of sit back and let the kids run around and burn some energy in that back area.

Fred Briley (36:52.513)
Do their thing. Yeah.

Yeah, that's super nice. Anywhere that my kids can run off energy while I can observe from a distance, sign me up. Like your house on Wednesday when they're out of school. Except I won't be watching. I'm just going to drop them off and leave.

Lori Talamo (37:08.061)
Lori Talamo (37:12.519)
My girls, I need to come bring them their Christmas presents one day.

Fred Briley (37:15.937)
Yes, we'll talk.

Lori Talamo (37:18.693)
Yeah. And then the other one was the mega movie parade, which we also missed part of this. We didn't get to see. So when we were there, there was a parade that had

Lori Talamo (37:40.793)
It wasn't this one though. I'm looking to see when the dates were because we didn't see the ghost because Josh was like, I think it started the week after we got home because Josh is a huge Ghostbusters fan and they had the XO one was in there. It was back to the future ET. So we did get to see a parade that had some some things but not the mega movie parade. That one it ended right. I mean it started right.

Fred Briley (37:48.674)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (37:54.669)
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fred Briley (38:05.079)
Gotcha.

Lori Talamo (38:09.435)
right after we left, but that one was super cool. They did have Jaws in one of the parades when I went because I made somebody take a picture of it so I can send it to Olivia because she's terribly afraid of sharks. And so that's our thing. We send her shark pictures. Isn't that nice?

Fred Briley (38:22.227)
that's what's up.

Fred Briley (38:27.981)
Thanks for letting me know. Now I'm going to get her a Christmas present and it's going to be a something sharks.

Lori Talamo (38:33.179)
Yeah, it's crazy because it all started because when she was little, I don't know why my mom let her watch Jaws. And she's like, didn't think it was scary, my mom. I'm like, it's definitely scary. it was she was very traumatic for a while. She wouldn't even want to take a bath because she would get scared. She's going to kill me for telling you all. But yeah.

Fred Briley (38:43.594)
It's fine.

Fred Briley (38:47.403)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (38:53.389)
That's awesome.

Fred Briley (38:58.029)
Hey, that's okay. We're going to make a reel out of that part right there. And we're going to make her famous for being afraid of sharks. I'm going to put a whole bunch of shark gifts in it. It's going to be fabulous. Yep. So we'll work on tonight.

Lori Talamo (39:08.081)
do it and I'm going to send it to her.

And then Hogwarts, always, we didn't, I don't know why we were such party poopers. Like when we went, we didn't stay super late for the nighttime shows. No, we kind of, the summer trip was kind of laid back too with the kids. And then we had three days at Universal, which we don't really usually spend that much time.

Fred Briley (39:21.943)
Then go see the night show.

Fred Briley (39:34.785)
I've never been impressed by the Hogwarts nighttime shows. Huge Harry Potter nerd, know, love Universal, but I've just never been impressed by their nighttime shows on the castle.

Lori Talamo (39:50.215)
So we did one time, and I think this was when we went for Olivia's cheer trip. So she must've been in eighth grade. And I think we were there at night. And so like we didn't realize when it got dark and then the castle, I guess, was lightened up. They had some lights, I think. So we did see a little bit of that, but we didn't catch this one.

Fred Briley (40:04.599)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (40:11.613)
Okay, well we are I Don't know where we're at. I didn't keep track of when we started for that We're just gonna say we're on time and we're gonna Boots scoot boogie along

Lori Talamo (40:24.827)
Yeah, well, I can't see how long we're on here for yet. yeah, let's roll. That's me, I'll stop telling stories.

Fred Briley (40:27.661)
We're at 40 minutes. So we're pushing it. Okay. Hey, no, I'm fine with it. It makes it interesting. I like it. So that was 2024. lot changed in the parks in 2024. If you have not had a chance to get out of the parks, 2025 is going to be your year to hit the parks because there's even more great things coming. So I think with that, we'll just, let's just dive right into Disney World because there is

Lori Talamo (40:39.741)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (40:53.105)
Yes.

Lori Talamo (40:58.524)
a lot.

Fred Briley (40:58.957)
But there's a couple things I'm excited about, not everything, but we've had those conversations. I'm super excited for this nighttime parade. Just cause I've always been jealous that Disneyland has the nighttime parade. And I know Disney World used to have a nighttime parade, but that was pre-me Disney. I never got to experience that. So now I want to experience that the beautifulness that is the light parade coming down Main Street.

Lori Talamo (41:18.429)
All right. You never saw it.

Lori Talamo (41:28.667)
Yeah, when we go again, we usually don't stick around too much for the nighttime parades or the fireworks. But the last two years when I've gone for the Halloween party, I've actually sat and watched the parade. And so I'm excited to see this one too, especially with having a trip in the fall. Hopefully with the agency then, you know, those a lot of them usually kind of stick around and watch those things. So I'll definitely check it out.

Fred Briley (41:28.769)
Okay.

Fred Briley (41:41.815)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (41:48.813)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (41:56.385)
Yeah. And that's coming summer 20, 25. lots of, that'll be super exciting to see the nighttime Disney starlight parade, come back. also summer, one of my favorite, excuse me, one of my favorite rides test track is going to be opening back up. Whole totally rethemed or rebranded. We're no longer Chevrolet. I think we're a GM.

Lori Talamo (42:00.849)
summer.

Fred Briley (42:26.229)
now. I love Test Track. I think I know you aren't the biggest fan of it. Yeah.

Lori Talamo (42:27.517)
Mhm.

Lori Talamo (42:34.737)
Well, I've only done it once and now because I had this feeling that it was going to make me sick. I don't know why I just imagine like going in circles, but like smaller circles, I guess, maybe. So we did it one time when we went with my in-laws in 2021 and it was fun. Like I would do it again.

Fred Briley (42:45.858)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (42:52.801)
Yeah, I can't wait for that to open back up.

So that's coming late summer 2025.

Lori Talamo (42:58.418)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (43:06.005)
the see these are the two I'm not as excited about just because yeah like you know if you're lounge person that's great I just the only time that I want to be sitting is when I'm I don't I don't I don't want to go to Disney and be like let's go sit in a lounge for an hour like I there's so much if I'm paying a hundred and something dollars per ticket I don't want to go sit in a lounge

Lori Talamo (43:10.695)
I'll just, yeah.

Lori Talamo (43:31.069)
I know.

Lori Talamo (43:36.679)
I'm the same way. Because I'm like, who actually goes and sits in lounges? However, yeah. I mean, I'm guessing like, because I know, you know, when the Disney cars did their meetup, they met at No Man Lounge in Animal Kingdom, it was like a big meetup and it was lots of people and they just kind of hung out. So I would imagine if it's, you know, things like that, or maybe, you know, like, for instance, Josh doesn't like

Fred Briley (43:42.881)
The Club 33 people.

Fred Briley (43:54.124)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (44:04.295)
to do a lot of rides. could see maybe if it's, you know, family where somebody doesn't want to do rides like, hey, I'm going to go hang out in the lounge, let me know when you're done, you know, things like that.

Fred Briley (44:06.476)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (44:13.175)
That's fair. We're like grandparents maybe that, you know, can't go ride. You know, that's fair.

Lori Talamo (44:18.299)
Right. Or if it's hot and you want to take a little break, but yeah, I'm just curious who hangs out in a lounge.

Fred Briley (44:22.637)
Go ride a ride.

all of the people that you just mentioned. But Disney is bringing two lounges. You're going to have the Pirates of the Caribbean lounge open up in late 2025 over in Magic Kingdom, and the Spaceship Earth lounge. Now, I say all that I just said. However, if you tell me that there is a singing pirate show in the Pirates of the Caribbean, I'm all for it.

Lori Talamo (44:50.842)
you're all for it. Yeah.

Fred Briley (44:53.545)
I'll absolutely go to the bar, get a drink and watch Pirate sing Yo Ho Yo Ho Pirate's Life for me. I'm all for it.

Lori Talamo (45:00.881)
Yeah. Yep. I could see you doing it. Wait, what did we say we kind of mug like a Viking mug or whatever?

Fred Briley (45:04.141)
Yeah. Now for the.

Yes, yes. And I want a giant beer pitcher as big as my face that I can bring home. Now for the more exciting one.

Lori Talamo (45:19.239)
Sweet. There you go.

Fred Briley (45:25.024)
Although...

Fred Briley (45:28.767)
I still just, don't understand the whole concept of you walk in and there's a Muppets ride. You look to the right, there's a Disney Villains ride. Like it just doesn't mesh well in my head, but.

I'm not an Imagineer. But we'll see, you know, we've got the Disney villain show Unfairly Ever After coming next summer, which is going to take the place of Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy. So that one is going to be... I'm excited because they're going to show like some really great villains.

Lori Talamo (46:07.195)
Yeah, I'm just curious. Well, I'm wondering once they open Villains Land. Like if they'll keep it there or I mean, but they do have, you know, this Toy Story and Hollywood Studios and then over in Magic Kingdom. know, I mean, some things do overlap Little Mermaid. And more than one, so mean, I guess they could keep it. I'm curious if it's just like something.

Fred Briley (46:13.663)
if at all.

Move it over.

Fred Briley (46:28.45)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (46:35.729)
to get the Villains fans something now in the process of building Villains land.

Fred Briley (46:40.769)
Maybe. And then they transition it over and replace whatever was in that theater. I could see that.

Lori Talamo (46:49.041)
Yeah. But then.

Fred Briley (46:50.125)
But yeah, super excited for that. That's going to be a really great, um, that's going to be a really great show. All right. That will definitely be on the lines. We do.

Lori Talamo (47:01.681)
Yep. And then what else? another show, Little Mermaid Show at Hollywood Studios.

Fred Briley (47:05.633)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (47:09.853)
I don't know why we don't really spend a lot of time watching the shows, even though every time we're going, I'm like, okay, I want to watch the shows this time. Like, we're going to do more shows than rides. And we just never.

Fred Briley (47:27.275)
Never do it. Have it. Listen, you will go together. Our families will go together. You take the girls and you're going to do shows and Rachel and I will go do rides. Next fall. There we go. So, yeah, we got Little Mermaid coming and then Zootopia better zoo gather.

Lori Talamo (47:27.335)
We just never do.

Lori Talamo (47:38.471)
Yes.

Okay, I'm down. I'll be the in-park nanny.

Lori Talamo (47:56.509)
Together.

Fred Briley (47:57.521)
Zootopia is such an underrated movie. I'm really excited to see that replace its stuff to be a bug.

Lori Talamo (48:09.137)
Yeah, me too. have some clients that went last year to Disney. They had another Disney trip planned, but he ended up changing it over to Universal. But I'm so excited because when we first started talking last year, he was asking if they had anything Zootopia anywhere. And I was like, no. And so when I found out, I emailed him when we found out it was coming out. And I'm like, guess what's coming?

Fred Briley (48:21.845)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (48:31.66)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (48:39.159)
Time to book your trip.

Lori Talamo (48:39.446)
so yes, well, he did. He actually changed it though to Universal, which I'm not, I'm not upset about. like, booking Universal. so we'll see, but I'm curious now that, but that one says winter he is planning on going back to Disney. So he'll maybe the next year, but yeah, super fun to be able to tell people that things are coming.

Fred Briley (48:51.745)
That's fair.

Fred Briley (48:59.724)
Yeah.

There's a lot of good stuff coming to yeah, there's a lot of good stuff coming to Disney World in 2025. Moving over to Disneyland. There's been a lot of controversy behind this one and that's the magical life. Yeah, the whole animatronic of Walt Disney. Like there's been a lot of controversy behind that one this year, but Walt Disney is getting his first

Lori Talamo (49:21.009)
the animatronics.

Fred Briley (49:32.521)
Ever animatronic and that's going to be in the magical life, which is coming to the Main Street Opera House next year.

Lori Talamo (49:40.349)
Yeah, I wonder if it's, I wonder if people are just feeling like, because I don't know, I don't, maybe because he's, you know, like a lot of the animatronics are all like fictional characters. So I'm wondering if it's, well, yeah. So I wonder what, why people feel a certain way.

Fred Briley (49:52.331)
Yeah, except for the Hall of Presidents. That's like the only one.

Fred Briley (50:01.773)
I don't know. I would go see it. We'll go see it next year when we go to D23.

Lori Talamo (50:04.701)
Maybe because he wasn't here to give consent.

Lori Talamo (50:11.579)
Sounds good.

Fred Briley (50:13.549)
Um, and then now we're still working on that. Um, um, and then Disneyland 70th anniversary is coming. Um, so we're going to have to dive into, we're going to have to do an episode of all the stuff that's coming to Disneyland in 2025, just cause I mean, they've planned out the whole year. Um,

Lori Talamo (50:14.727)
Do we get that approved, Jen?

Okay, I didn't even ask, so.

Lori Talamo (50:39.729)
No, they already have like, I'm pretty sure they have the Halloween, the, what is it, Oogie Boogie Bash dates out.

Fred Briley (50:43.309)
Yup. Oogie boogie bash. Yeah. They announced it all at D23. They said, here's everything that we're doing in 2025. Get ready, because it's going to be a crazy year at Disneyland.

Lori Talamo (50:48.316)
I'm like this.

Lori Talamo (50:57.873)
Yeah. Yeah, and the celebration starts May 16th. And I'm sure it's going to go on for a good bit.

Fred Briley (50:59.031)
So that's exciting.

Fred Briley (51:05.089)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (51:09.153)
the rest of the year. Yeah. We'll have to play in an episode before so we can just kind of talk all the things that are happening at Disneyland, you know, the second half of the year.

Lori Talamo (51:20.785)
Yeah, sounds good.

Fred Briley (51:21.837)
You want cover universal we're tracking through these there's so much

Lori Talamo (51:29.021)
Sure. Yeah, we're almost, we're getting there. Which, yeah, you know, Josh and I were talking and I'm like, a lot of it though, especially because we're fairly new, so we, this is episode 12, so we've covered D23 in an episode, we covered Epic Universe already, so, you know, I mean, it's stuff that we've already kind of talked about, but just to kind of recap, you know, you know, I felt like it was good to kind of revisit those. So of course, Epic Universe.

Fred Briley (51:45.645)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Fred Briley (51:55.809)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (51:58.211)
is the big announcement, which I don't know, a lot of people feel like a lot of these announcements that Disney came out with was to kind of compete with the hype for Epic Universe. But I think it's going to be tough to compete with that, especially with the five different lands they have. It's going to be all new. Super excited. I cannot wait to go ride Mario Kart and lose.

Fred Briley (52:11.691)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (52:26.349)
I need to reshare that reel.

Lori Talamo (52:30.557)
Yeah, and there's also going to have three new hotels which you already can start booking. Yeah, so.

Fred Briley (52:36.609)
Yeah. And they're super nice hotels like the Stella Nova and the Terra Luna. Those are going to be, of course, the Helios Grand is going to be fabulous too. But just looking at those two hotels that are going to be side by side, like just the, just the concept art just looks really cool. And those open like February, don't they? January, February.

Lori Talamo (52:50.364)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (52:59.741)
I think so. And it's good because, you know, Disney has a ton of resorts, know, Universal's doesn't have quite as many. So it's good to have some new, let me see, new resorts coming up.

Fred Briley (53:03.597)
It's close to the earliest

Fred Briley (53:13.367)
Catch it up. Yeah.

Fred Briley (53:23.691)
Are is the Stella Nova and the Terra Luna are those over by the other two parks or are they over by? Universe or epic universe.

Lori Talamo (53:35.597)
let's see if it says.

Fred Briley (53:37.547)
I'm looking. Cause I'm curious now where they're going to be located at if, if they're going to be the only, if, if the Helios Grand Hotel is going to be the only Epic universe.

I think they are going to be over by the other.

Lori Talamo (54:01.723)
It says it's accessible via walking path or shuttle.

Fred Briley (54:07.305)
located adjacent to the Universal Epic. So all three are going to be Universal Epic Universe hotels.

Lori Talamo (54:13.628)
Epic.

Lori Talamo (54:17.565)
There you go.

Fred Briley (54:19.073)
Yeah, those super cool hotels. Like I'm super excited to.

to see those in person. Yep.

Lori Talamo (54:25.489)
Yeah, I guess they just must look like sister hotels because they look the same. Yeah.

Lori Talamo (54:34.791)
Fun stuff, fun stuff. I cannot wait to go to Epic. I'm gonna wait, but I can't wait.

Fred Briley (54:40.973)
Yeah, it's going to be good. Yeah, me too. OK, so last section we'll dive into is just looking ahead of 2025, which at this point is just speculation. At the previous D23 back in 2021,

Lori Talamo (54:56.615)
Bye.

Fred Briley (55:05.633)
Disney had said that these were all ideas that were still like in the works, but they had no idea if they were actually gonna come to fruition. And so at least now at this point, we know that, you know, Disney's confirmed these, we just kind of don't know when we can expect to see them. And of course, as always, you know, with Disney.

You can almost guarantee that it's going to look somewhat different than the comps that are, that things are going to change over the time. So, we don't really know what the final details are going to be until we, you know, start breaking ground and see some stuff kick off. tropical America's coming to animal kingdom. That's going to be super cool. So glad to see dinosaur going away. but we've had that conversation before it needs to,

Lori Talamo (55:35.665)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (55:56.465)
Although it's not going away quite yet.

Fred Briley (56:01.729)
Yeah, dinosaurs sticking around for a while, isn't it? It's going to be around for most of next year.

Lori Talamo (56:05.967)
It's yeah, now it looks like it's going to be there through 2025.

Fred Briley (56:09.729)
Yeah. So Tropical America's coming to the Dino land area at Animal Kingdom, which is going to have some Encanto stuff, going to have some Indiana Jones stuff. We're going to see our first La Casita ride at Disney park. So super excited about that one. I can't wait to go inside La Casita. I can't. One day.

Probably the most controversial topic at Disney World this year was Monsters Inc. Land, which is going to be replacing Muppets, the Muppets area over at Hollywood Studios. But we're finally getting the highly requested moving door ride as well as, I think, some newer restaurants, one of which I think is going to be Japanese.

Lori Talamo (56:46.727)
Monsters Inc.

Lori Talamo (56:50.652)
Muppets.

Fred Briley (57:08.589)
I think, I can't remember. It's supposed to mimic the restaurant that Mike and his girlfriend went to on their first date in the movie. Yeah. So that'll be good. I still am intrigued to see how they're going to fit it all. But I am super excited to see Monsters, Inc. come to the parks. And we still keep Muppets. We get a...

Lori Talamo (57:16.783)
yeah. Fun.

Lori Talamo (57:29.809)
Yeah, and we still keep Muppets.

Fred Briley (57:35.37)
The main attraction that everybody still goes to, because mean, nobody really goes to the back of the Muppet area anymore, but we'll still get to see Muppets in as it replaces Aerosmith on a rocket roller coaster.

Fred Briley (57:51.149)
Villains land. I have no idea what that's going to look like or who's good at what villains are going to be there. But we do know we're getting some rides, some shopping and some dining over in Magic Kingdom at some point. So that'll be super cool whenever we get some more details on that. Hopefully we'll see some more information on that in 2025. And then the last thing, which is also interestingly enough controversial topic.

Lori Talamo (57:52.231)
Jelens Land.

Fred Briley (58:17.949)
is Cars Land, which is replacing Tom Sawyer's Island and the Riverboat of America. So we're getting two Cars rides, which are actually supposed to be pretty intense based off of some of the videos that Disney has released. So super excited to see those coming to Disney World. I'll hand off Disneyland to you.

Lori Talamo (58:39.933)
Okay, I want to say real quick hi to my fellow mouse counselor, Kim, who's joined watching us. Hey, Kim. Kim. Yes, Kim was one of the fun ones. went to, she was there when we went to Discovery Cove this last October. Yeah, she actually lives there and she's also a park nanny. So.

Fred Briley (58:47.595)
Hi Kim, welcome to the party.

Fred Briley (58:55.821)
Nice.

Fred Briley (59:01.612)
So jealous.

Fred Briley (59:05.365)
If I liked kids, I would totally do that.

Lori Talamo (59:08.667)
I'm so jealous, I want to be Kim. I want to live there and go. Although I'm sure it's probably not always pleasant. Yep. Yeah, so it looks like Disneyland, some updates. Looks like they're going to update the Avatar ride there. I don't think they gave too much details on that one. Let me see.

Fred Briley (59:12.779)
I only like my kids, so I can't do it.

Fred Briley (59:31.341)
I don't remember what the details behind that were, because I don't remember. I don't think they have Avatar, do they? They're getting...

I know they're getting a new-

Lori Talamo (59:43.085)
it says new.

Fred Briley (59:50.465)
The getting a new ride at Disney World does not.

Lori Talamo (59:53.991)
It says a California Adventure avatar update announced.

Fred Briley (59:56.161)
They don't have avatar. I didn't think they had an avatar.

Lori Talamo (01:00:01.509)
Maybe they don't, maybe it's an addition. And it was, this was part of D23, I think. This was from a Disney Parks blog. Avatar updates announced for Disney California Adventure. We're heading to Pandora in the future, you'll see, yeah.

Fred Briley (01:00:18.433)
Yeah, because they don't have Pandora. They are Avatar. So they're getting Avatar for the first time.

Lori Talamo (01:00:25.693)
That is my favorite. It doesn't look like, however, if it stays that way. It's not the same type of ride as Avatar over in Disney.

Fred Briley (01:00:38.303)
No, no, they're not getting the same concept, but they are getting us.

Lori Talamo (01:00:41.871)
It almost looks like a cross from Navi River because it looks like a boat ride going through Pandora. yeah, said that would be fun. love, Avatar is my favorite ride at Animal Kingdom.

Fred Briley (01:00:48.385)
Mm-hmm. Yeah

Lori Talamo (01:00:58.096)
And what else? They're getting a cocoa attraction.

Fred Briley (01:01:04.023)
Super jealous about that.

Lori Talamo (01:01:04.359)
So it would be the first cocoa attraction. Yes, I know. Was there, am I making this up? Was there speculation of some cocoa stuff over in tropical Americas at some point or no? Or is that people just saying that they should?

Fred Briley (01:01:07.329)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Fred Briley (01:01:22.562)
I think there was just speculation, people saying they should.

Lori Talamo (01:01:24.411)
It was just speculation. Yeah.

Lori Talamo (01:01:30.993)
Yep, that'll be fun. And then, I clicked off my notes. and then the Avengers campus is getting an expansion. So looks like two new attractions. Avengers Infinity Defense, and then Stark Flight Lab.

Fred Briley (01:01:40.715)
Yeah. Yep.

Fred Briley (01:01:51.371)
Yeah, that's gonna be... I still wish that Disney World could get some Marvel stuff, but maybe one day.

Lori Talamo (01:01:58.449)
Yeah, well I guess because people wanted villains maybe.

Fred Briley (01:02:05.357)
So the rumor, and I really should confirm this, but I'm just gonna put it out there. So the rumor that I've heard is that the reason that Disney World cannot get Marvel is because the West Coast, Disney has rights to Marvel. So they can build Marvel stuff. On the East Coast, Universal has rights, which is why you see the Marvel stuff inside the Universal parks and not in the Disney parks, even though Disney owns Marvel at this point.

Universal still has the rights for the rides and stuff. So that's why they can't. That's what I've always heard.

Lori Talamo (01:02:42.885)
Okay, so I just looked it up and it says Disney World can't have a full-fledged Marvel section like Avengers Campus because of a pre-existing contract with Universal Studios, which granted them exclusive rights to use most Marvel characters in theme parks located east of the Mississippi River where Disney World is situated. So, you were right.

Fred Briley (01:03:00.555)
Yep. That was right.

So yeah, maybe one day. We need to work on this. And then last minor thing, but exciting thing. We don't know any details, but Disney Cruise Line is, of course, expanding their cruise line. So we're going to be seeing four ships in the future get added to the fleet. So trying to build, so trying to keep up with those other cruise lines like Royal Caribbean.

Lori Talamo (01:03:08.999)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (01:03:35.635)
and Norwegian and them.

Lori Talamo (01:03:36.807)
I wish they would, yeah, I wish they would bring, not that jump on one and go, but I wish they would bring one back to New Orleans. It would have been so much easier to try to convince the fam to go if we could pull it right out of here.

Fred Briley (01:03:46.347)
Yeah, because it just doesn't come here that often.

Fred Briley (01:03:52.267)
Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Lori Talamo (01:03:56.985)
And one thing, I guess I must have took it off the notes. One thing that I just recently saw this week is that Universal is gonna be taking down the Rip Rocket.

Fred Briley (01:04:07.853)
Yeah. Which they've been talking about that for so long. Like, um, when we were there in 2020, 2021, 2021, they are, we, Rachel and I didn't get to ride it and we were super bummed because, uh, we were like, Oh, it's getting torn down. They're going to close in, they're going to replace it. And here it is 20, 25, and it still hasn't been replaced. But I know that they're finally, you know,

file the permits to tear it down and stuff.

Lori Talamo (01:04:41.213)
It's no hard break for me. That is one. I'm telling you, that just the going up, again, I don't mind drops, I don't mind going upside down, but just the initial going up, because my fear is getting stuck. And I've been there and have seen the ride stopped and those people are just hanging there. And I'm like, mm-mm, there's no way. Not happening.

Fred Briley (01:04:44.072)
Of course not.

Fred Briley (01:04:52.821)
It's the anticipation. Yep.

Fred Briley (01:04:58.975)
Ha

Fred Briley (01:05:06.561)
Yeah.

So that, that is 2024, 2025 and beyond. So lots of great things happened slash happening in the parks across Universal and Disney and Disney Cruise Line. So super excited for the future. I think it's been a really great year. I got a lot of Disney in this year, which was super cool. And, you know, I really got to do Disney as a dad for the first time this year.

Lori Talamo (01:05:09.517)
I'll take my chances.

Fred Briley (01:05:39.501)
course we did it before when the girls were younger, but now with them being older, 2024, going and just seeing Disney through my kids' eyes this year was probably just my favorite part of being a Disney dad. And so I'm looking forward to the years to come, just to where I can watch them grow and just fall in love with Disney and everything that Disney means. So yeah, I'm excited for the future.

Lori Talamo (01:05:44.274)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (01:06:09.105)
Yeah, when I think of you with your girls and Rachel, it's like, I don't know if you've seen the TikToks where it's like, I'm raising my kids, my daughters to be princesses. So some chum doesn't try to take them to like the little six flags, not six flags, but the little county fairs.

Fred Briley (01:06:21.036)
Yep.

Fred Briley (01:06:25.121)
Facts.

Whoever they marry needs to agree needs to understand that they're going to have to are going to expect Disney trips on a regular basis like. And I'm not funding it once they turn 18.

Lori Talamo (01:06:37.019)
Yeah, it's funny because yeah, like you see it now through your kids eyes, but my kids aren't that interested. So I'm like, I'm the one who's excited every time we go. Well, and I'm not going to I don't want to say too much because I don't want to put that business out. But Braden has a new friend who has never been. So like, as soon as he told me that, like I was like, OK, maybe we will go this summer, even though it keeps saying we're not we're not.

Fred Briley (01:06:48.117)
You can take my kids.

Fred Briley (01:06:57.869)
Uhhhh, yes!

Fred Briley (01:07:04.161)
There you go.

Lori Talamo (01:07:07.261)
Or maybe in the fall, we'll see. Because I love taking people who haven't been. So that's fun. Yeah. And hopefully get another agency trip. I have different experiences. Going with my kids is great. I love going. It's something that Olivia and I share. We both love it. She loves it just as much as I do.

Fred Briley (01:07:11.149)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (01:07:26.7)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (01:07:34.557)
And then I have the fun trips when Josh and I go, you know, it's a little different experience when it's just he and I, you know, just to get away in my happy place. I'm very thankful that I have a husband who, even though he doesn't love it as much as I do, will still entertain my addiction. And then I have my agency trips, which are so much fun because those are all like-minded people. We all crazy about it the same, you know, so we're all gung-ho to do the things. But then we also get to share best practices about, you know,

Fred Briley (01:07:34.7)
Right.

Fred Briley (01:07:47.671)
Go. Yep.

Fred Briley (01:07:55.66)
Yeah.

Lori Talamo (01:08:03.963)
what makes our travel agent business side successful or things, know, sharing practices of things that we can do differently and getting ideas. So I just, I enjoy all the different experiences that I get to get. And this, this was a fun year because I got to do something different, you know, like going to Discovery Cove with some of those ladies and I got a family trip and a Josh trip. So 2024 was good. So yeah, I'm hoping,

Fred Briley (01:08:22.561)
Yeah.

Fred Briley (01:08:27.179)
It was a good year for

Lori Talamo (01:08:34.193)
to have as many, speaking of, my daughter's calling me, speaking, yeah. But hopefully we get some more trips in 2025, because there's lots of new things coming out that I want to get to experience.

Fred Briley (01:08:35.885)
2025.

Fred Briley (01:08:49.773)
Yeah. Well, that wraps it up for today's episode. So if you guys are watching later or listening later, definitely give us feedback. us what you're looking forward to in 2025 and even further going into 2026. Lots of great things coming. So let us know what you're looking forward to in the years to come. Next week, January 5th, we will be back live.

And we have got, as we mentioned earlier, my boss, Shelly from EnchantAway Travel coming on. And we're just going to have a good time talking with her about her time on the Disney Treasure and let her give us some feedback and what you can expect when you go on the Disney Treasure. So that's going to be a really fun episode. Laurie, anything before I close this out? We wrap it up.

Lori Talamo (01:09:43.057)
No, I think that's it. It'll be fun. It'll be interesting to hear her take on the new ship. So I'm excited for that episode. Yeah.

Fred Briley (01:09:50.733)
Yeah. Yeah. And for those who listen on Wednesday, happy new year. Welcome to 2025. We've got a lot planned for 2025, so definitely stay tuned. Some last announcements before we wrap up. Exciting news for going beyond the castle is that we now have our own website. So if you were looking to find out more about myself or Lori, if you're looking to get a quote on a

Disney trip, universal trip, a cruise, whatever it may be. Or if you're just looking for a way to listen to our podcast, you can head over to www.goingbeyondthecastle.com. The best way to get ahold of us on social media and just to have access to all of our quick links, it's going to be our Beacons channel, which has changed as well. That is going to be beacons.ai forward slash going beyond the castle.

And then of course, as always, which I'm super excited that I now have access to after months of not having access. You can always reach out to us through email. If you're looking to come on the podcast, we're always looking for people to join us on the podcast. If you're looking to request a specific topic on the podcast, or if you're looking to get a quote for a trip, definitely reach out to us through email, info@goingbeyondthecastle.com

And so as always, thanks for joining us on this episode. We love doing what we get to do. Love going beyond the castle with you guys. So with that being said, we will talk to you guys next week and happy new year.

Lori Talamo (01:11:30.397)
Bye, happy new year everyone.

Fred Briley (01:11:32.141)
Bye bye!

Lori Talamo (01:11:34.333)
Bye.

Fred Briley (01:11:36.886)
stop. I forgot how to stop it for a second.