996 – No Egg Nog Milkshakes | Ray Day 3

Notable Language:

• A Drizzly Little Trip
• Philharmagic
• Papa Noel

Notable Culture:

• Lin-Manuel Miranda
• Weird Al Yankovic
• Eric Idle

Notable Talking Points:

• International Duvet Etiquette
• Tracking Down a Water Bottle
• People Watching at the British Invasion Show

Episode 996 – No Egg Nog Milkshakes | Ray Day 3

 

[START OF RECORDING]

 

SCOOTER:    Friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, theme park fans everywhere and my patron peeps, what up, patrons?  Time for a Ray show.

 

INTRO:    [INTRO MUSIC] Hey, are you up all night tossing, turning, mind racing?  Trouble getting to sleep?  Trouble staying asleep?  Well, welcome.  This is Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep.  We do it with a bednight…bedtime story.  Alls you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights, and press play.  I’m gonna do the rest.  What I’m going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you could set aside whatever’s keeping you awake, whether it’s thoughts, things you’re thinking about on your mind, thoughts, feelings, anything you’re feeling emotionally on the inside or the outside, physical sensations, changes in time, temperature, routine, work schedule…oh boy, do I love helping everybody who’s having a change in…you know, like I said, I’m trying to give glory to the sixth, seventh and eighth, ninth, and tenth shifts.

 

I’ve recently learned through my imagination that there’s even work shifts that are in Roman numerals, so the IV shift, the III shift, the V shift.  Those may not be actually real shifts, but to me they are because if…whatever’s keeping you awake, I guess I’d like to take your mind off that and keep you company while you fall asleep.  Now, this…a couple things to know if you’re new.  Oh, how am I gonna do it?  You’re right, how are…how do I propose to do it?  What I’ll do is I’ll send my voice across the deep, dark night here.  I’m gonna use lulling, soothing, creaky, dulcet tones.  Those are creaky dulcets, a bit like the sounds…those bugs you hear in the summertime that are nice but…I think those are called…I don’t know.  I don’t know what they’re called.  I’m sorry.

 

I don’t even know if they’re B-U-G-Ss, but they make a noise that you hear when you’re in a grassy area, different from crickets or things…it makes this humming sound.  That’s what creaky, dulcet tones kinda sound like.  That’s another sound I love but I don’t always appreciate.  You say wow, I didn’t realize that added a soothing mix to summertime.  I forget what the bugs are called.  I want to say acacia but I think that’s a kind of tree, and Arcadia is a place, so…but you know, those…you know the ones.  They’re kinda humming and it’s like, is that like, one billion beings singing in unison?  Then you’re like, have they been singing the whole time or…and I just was aware of it, or does it come and it go?  It’s really hard to track.  That’s kinda like how listening to this podcast is.

 

Then you may even say, do I even love that noise or is…am I starting to not love it?  But whatever it is, I’m glad you’re here and I’m here to keep you company while you fall asleep.  So, I’ll…I’m gonna send my voice across the deep, dark night, lulling, soothing, creaky, dulcet tones, pointless meanders; we’ve been on a few already, and superfluous tangents, all in the spirit to keep you company while you drift off, to take your mind off of stuff while you fall asleep, ideally.  Now, if you’re new, a few things to know; this…that regular listeners tell me all the time, and my regular listeners, how you doing?  Good evening.  You know what I’m talking about.  I am like that thing, or other sounds like wind in the trees.  That’s another sound.  You say wow, that’s beautiful.  Wait a second, is it…?

 

Then you kinda forget about it and then you say whoa, but that’s a nice sound, that wind in the trees in the distance.  Then you forget about it again.  It is one of those things.  I say is it there all the time or am I just…I mean, I guess the wind, they’d say…and the other…the beings, they’d say no, we’re not there all the time, but we’d appreciate it if you did appreciate us.  I say okay, that’s on my to-do list now.  My desire list…I desire to appreciate you both more.  I’m trying to use I…I don’t know how to use an I-statement yet, but the…I do desire to appreciate your sounds more and live in the moment.  I definitely desire that, and I will nod in appreciation.

 

So, if you see me pacing around, whether you’re making wind sounds or that wonderful buzzing noise you make, or you see me thinking, that may be a sign I’m appreciating your…that eventually I’ll appreciate your sounds.  Okay, so, back to the new listeners, though.  So, that was a superfluous tangent, I think.  So, new listeners, a few things to know upfront; I’m really glad you’re here and I’m so glad you’re here I want to be straightforward with you and kinda give you a little bit of a overview to try to make you feel comfortable.  So, this pod…the first thing…the first way I’ll make you feel comfortable is if you’re feeling strange or you’re not sure or you’re skeptical about this show, that’s totally normal.

 

That’s how most people arrive at this podcast, ‘cause maybe you heard about it from somebody or you saw it somewhere and you say wait a second, so, what is that?  It’s a dude talking you to sleep about nothing but kind of about something?  Someone might have said yeah, it totally works for me, but it’s a bit different.  You say yeah, it’s…I’m listening right now and I’m not sure about this.  That’s really normal and that’s how most listeners’ relationship with the show begins.  You say, I’m not so sure about this.  So, give it a few tries.  I’m just not everybody’s cup of a tea, but for most people they real…it takes just a little bit of…while to get used to how the show works, because in some sense it kinda works in the background.  That’s the next thing you need to know, is that this is a podcast you don’t really listen to.

 

You just kinda barely pay attention to it or keep it out of focus.  You can listen but you don’t necessarily…you shouldn’t feel any pressure to pay attention or…you know what I mean?  Or be…if you’re waiting around for it to get started and make sense, I guess that’s the thing; it really does…it really never gets there.  So, kinda sit back just like you’re looking at clouds or listening to wind or our forest friends in a way…those two things…you know what I love about you, forest friends and wind in the trees?  You don’t really ask a lot of me.  You say hey, you did this time.  You said hey, could you appreciate me more?  I said yeah, totally.  I’d like to.  Then you said in my brain well, that’s kinda…and I said yeah, no, I’ll do my best to appreciate you more.  I appreciate you.  I’m saying that.

 

I say, I gotta do a better job of expressing my appreciation.  But for me, there’s…I mean, that’s pretty low-pressure anyway.  Me, that’s even lower pressure.  You just gotta play the podcast.  You could put it on a sleep timer or you could just play it all night or see how it goes.  So, this is a podcast you don’t really listen to.  It’s also a sleep podcast that doesn’t put you to sleep.  I’m here to be your bore-friend, your bore-bae, your bore-cuz, your bore-sib, your bore-bestie.  I’m here to keep you company while you fall asleep and take your mind off of stuff, so I’m here to be here for you to barely pay attention to while you fall asleep.  That’s why the shows are over an hour, so you have plenty of time to drift off and you don’t have to wonder when the show’s gonna stop or if you’re gonna be asleep by then.

 

But also if you’ can’t sleep, I want to provide reassurance that I’m gonna be here to keep you company with my nonsense and my friendly rambling.  I’m here for you, to keep you company.  So, that’s…so, a podcast you don’t listen to, a pod…sleep podcast you don’t really fall asleep to, and most people don’t like it on their first listen.  So, those are some things I want you to know.  The other things I want you to know is the structure of the show is also very different.  Show starts off with a few…a greeting; friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, theme park fans or whatever I said, so that you feel welcome and invited in and seen.  Then there’s business.  That’s how the podcast comes out twice a week for free, then there’s an intro which we’re in.  We’re about ten minutes into the intro or something.

 

Maybe eight minutes.  I just looked at my clock, but the intro is somewhere…takes somewhere around twelve to twenty minutes of introducing the show which is very counterintuitive.  You say okay, I don’t understand but I say okay, well, I try to introduce [00:10:00] the show to new people, but it takes me forever to get to any points.  But the intro also serves a purpose to let the sun set.  I’m not talking about the physical sunset, but the sunset that’s kinda keeping us up, to let the day fade away and to give you some wind-down time.  So, some people listen while they’re in bed getting comfortable, drifting off, and a lot of listeners listen as they’re getting ready for bed, but there’s…and there’s no wrong way to listen.

 

3% of people skip the…skip ahead and start the show at twenty minutes, and then some people set their sleep timers.  This doesn’t have to do with the intro, but I think it’s around the same thing.  Like, 2% of people set a sleep timer for thirty minutes.  2% of people set it for forty-five, and then I have no idea how many people set it for sixty.  Maybe another 8% of people.  So, you could kinda see as you begin to listen to the show.  There’s people that listen all night, there’s people that listen on Patreon to story-only episodes, there’s people that listen on Patreon to all-intro episodes.

 

So, at first just kinda see how it goes, but the purpose of the intro is to ease you intro bedtime, and…because for me, I’ve just never been able to instantly fall asleep, and the few times that does happen, it’s like, I’m asleep for three minutes and then it’s like, was I just asleep?  Oh, and then my brain’s like by the way, did you notice we weren’t comfortable in bed?  I said well, I looked pretty comfortable those three minutes I was asleep.  I fell right asleep.  I don’t know.  That’s just another one of those things that happens to me to keep me in touch with the podcast.  That happened last night and I think the night before, too.  I said wait a second, I fell right…I was so tired, and then…I don’t know.  Those are the kinda things you just have to throw your hands up at.  You say, what the heck?

 

What do you mean I’m not comfortable?  I just fell asleep.  There’s a part of me that’s constantly…like, would you believe this temperature you got the room at?  Would you believe the pillows are…you have your own pillows in your wrong positions?  I say, I don’t understand.  I was just sound asleep for three minutes only.  Couldn’t we have just stayed asleep?  We seemed pretty comfortable earlier.  Nah, we weren’t…you’re just…you just don’t know what you’re doing.  That’s…so much sleep advice has that undertone.  I don’t know if anybody else feels that way.  I mean, so much advice in general, that’s why ideally I try not to give advice.  I say well, you just don’t know what you’re doing, obviously.  You’re doing it wrong.  I say well, I…how was I doing it wrong, though?

 

‘Cause we did fall asleep; we just didn’t stay asleep.  I say, exactly.  Exactly my point.  That’s why we need to make some adjustments around here.  I was asleep too until I realized it.  I say, thank goodness I got you on my side.  I wish I could say where you been all my life, but I know where you’ve been; right there at the forefront of my mind.  Okay, that was a bit of a tangent, but that’s…that kinda goes into another thing which I’ll talk about in a minute.  But so, the intro is to give you some space and to ease you into bedtime.  Ideally what I’ve found for me at least is having a bedtime routine, despite all those ups and downs I have.  It gives me the best chance to get a good night’s sleep and having a wind-down.  So, I hope for some of you the podcast becomes part of a layered wind-down, whatever else you’re doing.

 

You could be polishing shoes or something, looking at pictures in a magazine, anything; doodling, remaking your bed.  That’s another thing I’ve been doing lately, is…well, why don’t I go on another tangent about…what I’ve been doing is every few days…’cause I have now…I have…’cause it’s wintertime when I’m recording this, which it probably won’t be when you’re hearing this, but so, I had gotten a weighted comforter for the holidays, and I have a regular comforter because I like my room obviously very cold.  Those both have duvet covers on them, so what I’ll do is because I do so much tossing and turning, is then my duvets…even with ropes or whatever’s in there, they get thrown out of whack, as you say in the official duvet business.

 

So, then I just…I have to…what I do is I just flip my duvets over, so I go from…this may be breaking a major rule from international duvet etiquette, so I won’t ever win that award anymore, but I’ll take my bottom of my duvets, the old back…I’ll put the back end of my duvet right up in my face, double…two back ends of duvet covers right in my face.  It doesn’t bother me one bit because then I’ll do so much tossing and turning that it’ll reset…my duvets will be bottom heavy.  Then three days later, my duvets will be top-heavy again.  It really works, and that actually…I’ve talked about this before, years ago.  I can remember that remaking my bed has become part…is part of my wind-down routine.  It really is, and puffing the old pillows and stuff.

 

So, I hope the intro can be part of that for you and ease you into bedtime, is my point.  Then there’s business after the intro.  That’s where podcast advertisers like their business, at the mid-roll, which is just what they call it.  It just means a third of the way into the show or something.  Then after that is our bedtime story which tonight it’ll be a visit from my neighbor Ray, the most popular guest we have, so that’ll be nice.  I’m not saying that sarcastically; I’m just…Ray is…that’s all true.  Then there’s thank-yous at the end of the show.  So, that’s the structure of the show.  I think we kinda got to the reason I make the show which is pretty clear, too.  I make the show because I’ve been there tossing, turning, mind racing, trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep, trouble waking up early, all that stuff.  I deal with it.

 

So, if I can help, it’d really be my honor, is to help you out and take your mind off of stuff and keep you company while you drift off.  The other side of it is that you deserve a good night’s sleep.  You deserve a place of respite.  You deserve a bedtime that you could look forward to or at least feel good about instead of dreading, like I have in the past.  Like, if you can just at least have that thing…well, I got the Sleep With Me podcast, so if I do wake up after three minutes, I could put that back on, or oh, I have it on, so now I can listen in what Scooter’s talking about and it won’t make any sense and I don’t really have to listen, and it’s pleasant enough to keep me company.  So, I hope I can help you fall asleep.

 

Now, like I said, it doesn’t work for everybody but not only do you deserve a good night’s sleep, it’s my belief — it’s not a belief; it’s true — our world is a better place with you rested, because you can live a more fuller life, and that impacts everybody in a small way.  I really do…I don’t believe it; I know it.  I know you deserve a good night’s sleep, and this…that’s why I say this is an honor for me to make the show.  I really appreciate you checking it out.  I really hope, I yearn and I strive to help you fall asleep.  I work really hard on this show.  Thanks again for coming by, and here’s a couple ways I’m able to do it for you twice a week.

 

Alright everybody, this is Scooter, obviously, and this is a guest episode from our most popular guest, Ray Perkins, my neighbor.  You know, it doesn’t mean Ray has to be most popular in your heart.  He’s not trying to be popular.  I think that’s why he’s so popular.  That’s just the way it works.  But so, Ray Perkins is a neighbor of mine.  He’s been my neighbor in two different apartments, believe it or not.  I moved and he moved.  But he’s my friend and he’s a gentlemen who’s older in age than me, and so, we’re not of the same generation but we’ve become friends because Ray…first of all, Ray is the most adjusted…well-adjusted person I’ve ever met.  He’s very kind, he’s very outgoing, optimistic, pleasant.  He’s not perfect even though he comes…on the podcast he definitely comes across pretty great.  But he’s really great.

 

He’s a really great person and he’s really into Disney…theme parks in general, but Disney theme parks.  So, he goes along on our trips.  When I’m recording this, it’s been a long time at least anybody in my life’s taken a trip.  But so, I’m recording this…this is a interesting setup because I’m recording this in January 2021 about a trip that happened in 2019, of all things.  That was…but Ray recorded the last episode of this trip in January of 2020.  Then we took a break from this content, but Ray’s popular and we just aired the first episode of Ray’s trip, and then I listened to the second episode to get back to where we were, but I also think for Sleep With Me, this is [00:20:00] a kind of fertile exploration when you get into memory and experience and my handwriting in my notes from the trip.

 

So, it’s gonna be interesting I think, and so, Ray will talk about our trip that we took together, but I think that’s it.  He kinda…I think that’s it.  He’ll set everything else up, but this is Ray Perkins, my neighbor.  Hello, hello, hello everybody.  This is your friend Ray.  So good to be here in your ears.  Oh boy, am I glad to be here talking to all of you.  I’m glad to be talking to you, my friend.  You’re my friend and I know that means a little something different because we’re on the internet or wherever we are, ones and zeroes and such things, but my friends beyond the binary, my ladies, my gentlemen, my boys, my girls, everybody out there, I’m here to talk to you about a little trip we took and like Scooter said, it’s gonna be interesting because it’s been a long time.  It’s been almost a year.

 

I think it’s been ten days or nine days short of a year that I recorded this last episode.  So, looking back on it, I say okay…and I haven’t taken any trips.  Ray’s been here.  I’ve been taking…you know, I’ve been doing my thing locally and at my home.  I missed traveling but we’ll get back to traveling soon.  Maybe the next time you hear me you’ll have gotten more info.  But I think I’m gonna record one more episode from this trip for the public feed and then keep going for all you patrons out there.  So, the next time the public hears it, you’ll probably hear one more episode of my current trip here and then hopefully then the next time you hear me after that, you’ll hear me on the…a future trip that’ll be a past trip.  That’s exciting; time travel is exciting.

 

But I know these episodes get spread out, so I want to set everything up for you.  Wow, things have changed a bit.  But so, Scooter and I and his little one who’s not so little at the time; she was…oh boy, now I’m getting mixed up.  Twelve.  When you hear this she’ll be like a fourteen or fifteen-year-old.  But she was twelve.  It was the holiday season of 2019 and we traveled to Orlando.  I know…again, I like to say you don’t have to like Orlando or theme parks.  That’s okay.  I mean, I’m gonna talk about that, but it’s okay not to like them.  Ray realizes I’m a person of privilege and one of my privileges, among all the other ones, is that I have a opportunity to go do this, so I understand that it’s not a opportunity everyone has.  It is something I plan for.  It is my one indulgence, is going to these Disney parks.

 

I don’t really…I don’t have any other indulgences other than talking at…talking…Scooter says you’re talking my ear off, Ray.  Ray, I’m…I got stuff I gotta think about right now.  So, that’s another indulgence.  I say, how’s your…tell me about your day.  Oh boy, Scooter, never seen that shirt before yesterday, but I’m wear…it’s…in 2020 and even the beginning of 2021, we’re dressing comfortable.  I do change my clothes but I…I don’t know.  Was anybody else…now that you’re looking back on it, hopefully, do you live out a…of a…not a waste basket, but your clothes hamper?  Because I say wow, those are my comfy pants.  I have…now I have enough comfy pants in rotation.  Oh, have you seen Scooter in his yoga pants from Sweaty Betty?  They are really cozy.  But so, okay, so that’s our trip.

 

Now, we went there and we were staying at the Walt Disney World Resort Port Orleans Hotel and we…I don’t know when we got there.  It was Episode 1 when we got there early in the morning.  Then we went to some parks and we did some things.  Then we took a nap, then we got up and we did some things, then we went to bed.  Then the next day, Day 2, we went to the Disney Studios for the morning, very, very early in the morning, and spent the day…the morning there.  Then we did some touring around, and then we did some napping.  I think I took about a two-hour nap.  Scooter took an hour nap.  We were watching the Disney Channel together.  That was fun, while we were winding down for our naps.

 

So, we woke up in our hotel at the Port Orleans, and I don’t know if I talked about this; our room was really close to the bus stop and the place where Scooter would get his sodas.  But really close, so we would go out of our room.  You could go…now, the Port Orleans is a bit like a…it’s a motel themed after New Orleans.  Like, when I say motel, I just mean there’s no interior hallways, which is…it’s a very nice place.  The time I’m talking about this it’s not open, but so, we would go out our room, we’d go down one set of stairs…two sets of stairs?  I can’t remember.  We would go through a courtyard, then through the employee parking lot, and then we would get into the bus stop through the back way there.  Great…thanks to Len Testa Touring Plans for recommending the…that block of area of rooms for being very convenient.

 

Again, this is a new tip I would say; the Touring Plans has…now, Disney does not guarantee anything.  As much as I love going to the parks, they’re a corporation and they have…I would not…they have good customer service but they…I don’t think they let their employees have a lot of freedom of choice as far as choosing to give you things or promise things because they’re doing things on such a massive scale.  But you can request a room or room location.  I guess your friend Ray would say the closer you could get to the bus stop…because you’re gonna be taking a bus a lot unless you drove or something.  I would also say there’s people that pooh-pooh the buses, and you do have to plan it in, and it does have some level of inconvenience at times, but not having to drive or park the car, there is a…and there is a fun thing; I don’t know.

 

There’s moments on the bus you don’t get anywhere else.  I mean, you could say that anywhere in the world, I assume.  Now, we had a little situation here, and I’m going on Scooter’s notes and then what my memory can remember, which is not…I’ll be honest with you; I don’t know what my memory’s gonna remember from this.  But it says 4:47 was when we were done with our naps.  We were gonna go back to…we were gonna go to the Magic Kingdom which is a bit like Disneyland.  We were at the bus stop waiting for the bus, but it was running late and Scooter had to go to the bathroom which is not a good idea.  You say well, we’re already waiting for the bus, Scooter.  So, he ran off to the restroom, made it back.  He put a note here about a fourteen-year-old kid with no MagicBand, but I don’t know what that means.

 

It doesn’t remind me of anything.  Then we went into the Magic Kingdom park and one of the people we were with wanted a Starbucks.  The Starbucks line was very, very, very long.  So, we did not do that.  Then the next thing we did was we mobile-ordered our food.  You go on your application there on your phone, you find a place; oh, where do you want to eat?  Scooter’s really good about these kind of things.  I know he could rock the boat or wear thin, but he’s very…okay, where do you want to eat?  Let’s decide where we’re gonna eat and order the food, ‘cause we didn’t have any other set plans.  It was dinnertime at this point.  It probably was at least 5:15.  So, we ordered from Pacos…Picos Bill…Pecos Bill, which is a Tex-Mex-type place, and it looks like we got nachos and a carnitas bowl.

 

They have a nice place where you could serve yourself, so I’m sure that we can get more sour cream and those kinda things.  Then it says we tried to watch the castle show, which…I don’t know what that means.  I think we…it was too busy or something.  They have show…dancing in front of the castle.  Then it says delay, but it’s not connected.  It says tried to watch castle show…delay.  Seven Dwarfs mine ride.  So I think what probably happened…I don’t know.  We’ll see what the next page of notes…’cause…but that either we…the castle show was delayed or the mine ride was delayed, ‘cause it was a drizzly little trip there.  Now, there was also this big disappointment there because…so, let me see how I explain all this thing.  So, this was December 23rd.

 

I don’t know why, but so, Scooter…I don’t know what happened.  He was really looking forward to having a eggnog ice cream shake, and they did not have it.  [00:30:00] They had had it the day before.  Was that when we…?  We went there the day before.  We were already back for the…but he didn’t get it because he said I’m not hungry for ice cream right now, because we had been up all night.  So, he went to the…he said well, I’m ready for my ice cream milkshake now, but they did not have it.  So, he was a bit let down.  That would make sense; we ate at that place, then we walked to this castle show.  Wasn’t going on, then the Seven Dwarfs mine ride, maybe it wasn’t working or something.  We had us a FastPass, I’m guessing.  Then we went and got…Scooter said well, I want to get my eggnog ice cream shake.

 

Then he went to the ice cream place that was supposed to have it and they said oh no, no, we don’t have it anymore.  That was just for the holidays.  Scooter said well, it’s December 23rd.  Then they said well, we normally have it for just the…I don’t know if this is what happened, though.  This happened over the trip though, so I’m…I might as well tell you now.  They say oh, well, we have a Mickey’s Party, but this isn’t the Mickey’s Party.  So, yeah, only when there’s the Mickey’s Party do we have the eggnog milkshake.  Scooter said well, you had it yesterday.  They said yeah, ‘cause we had a party scheduled for it, so we were serving it already.  I think Scooter even said bah-hungba…Bob Humbug or something.  Okay, then…and we do take note of when…how many times Scooter goes to the restroom.

 

I wasn’t keeping track of how many sodas he had ‘cause once you’re in the park, sodas are too expensive for Scooter to drink regularly.  But we went and saw the Hall of Presidents show and that’s always good to see.  I hopefully…Lenin and Weird Al are working on a new version of it, I heard.  So, that would be cool.  Scooter also went to the restroom which is…now I’m trying to think where the restroom is around there.  I think it’s a little bit hidden because I think there’s some sort of customer service center over there, and either the restroom’s in there…it’s behind it, ‘cause I can’t picture where Scooter went.  I mean, he went to the restroom in a restroom, obviously.  Then we had…oh boy, so, this was good times.

 

So, we went…then we went on Splash Mountain which they’re hopefully re-theming for Tiana and Princess and the Frog, but they’ll keep the drop there so it’ll splash either way.  We had a FastPass for that and Thunder Mountain which is right next door.  First it’s the Splash Mountain, then it’s the Thunder Mountain.  It was dark, so it’s always fun to ride on these rides when it’s dark out.  The Thunder Mountain is woo, woo, wee.  So, that was fun.  Then we got some popcorn.  We walked all the way back there, I’m assuming back by the President’s Hall.  Scooter…now, Scooter loves this thing.  I think I…I don’t know if we’ve talked about it before, and we had a…we…so, we couldn’t get his eggnog milkshake, so he was a little bit sad.  But he loves…they have a churro sundae.

 

It’s actually a churro ice cream sandwich, though it says churro sundae on here.  So, it’s like a churro…like a cookie that’s a churro and then another…then some ice cream and then a churro.  We’ve probably talked about it before.  So, it’s got a cinnamon sugar taste.  Scooter always thought that the ice cream was cinnamon, but I think this time it said it was vanilla.  But there’s so much cinnamon sugar on the churros that the ice cream tastes like cinnamon sugar.  He loves that sundae, or that sandwich, and it was good.  So, Scooter was then happy again.  But he said well, I would have liked to have that eggnog milkshake, but you can’t have everything, you know?  I said don’t we know it, Scooter.

 

So, then we went on…now, they have these special holiday rides when they’re having their little Mickey Party, Mickey’s Holiday Party or something.  I’ve never been to it.  Maybe one day I’ll go.  But this is like a tip; it really doesn’t save you money.  But so, that’s a separate ticket thing they have at night at the Magic Kingdom over the holiday season which they consider the day after Halloween.  They start selling tickets to this Mickey’s Holiday Party.  I don’t know how much it costs, but you gotta pay extra.  Let’s say it’s $100.  I’m guessing it’s somewhere between $75 and $150.  You know your friend Ray; I’m not…I do plan for these things but I say I gotta…I had to pay to get into the park during the day.  Hello?

 

So you want me to…so, that’s why I haven’t been…I’ve been to a Halloween one at Disneyland and I’d like to go again.  Not that I wouldn’t want to go to this party but here’s the tip that I got from someone a long time ago and I probably already shared it at some point; if you go during the week of the holidays, they have all the holiday stuff except for the eggnog milkshake, apparently.  Their…what do they call it?  They have all these special things, so I don’t think we’ve covered them yet.  The first one was this Jingle Cruise.  So, they have the Jungle Cruise, and this is the Jingle Cruise which means that everything’s decorated but they also have little special holiday songs playing and the…what do they call them?  Scout cateers?  Jungle…skippers.

 

The skippers have more…they have a different monologue that they make about the holidays.  It was fun; it was nice.  We had fun at that.  It was cool to have…say oh, this is unique for the holiday season.  So, that was the Jingle Cruise.  Then we went on the Swiss Family Treehouse, probably only Scooter and his daughter and I, which kids love it, even twelve, thirteen-year-olds.  It’s let’s go, let’s climb through here.  But you get really good views from that, so there’s a pro tip.  I don’t think you can watch the fireworks from there.  We always say let’s try to watch the fireworks from the Treehouse.  But we never managed to do that.  Then we went to Small World.  It’s a small world after all.  That’s a nice little ride.

 

I don’t know, they…at Disneyland they have a Holiday Small…it’s a Holiday Small World or something, but I don’t think at Disney World they do.  Then we went to a…so, then…this is the time of night when it’s pretty busy, right?  This is the time of year where it’s very busy as well, so you gotta kinda be open to going on stuff.  If you want to go on rides, you gotta pick and choose your rides.  But actually, because it was…I don’t know.  It was getting cleared out, so we went on PhilharMagic.  PhilharMagic, which is a 3D movie with like…Donald Duck causes all this trouble.  Spoiler alert.  That was a joke; your friend Ray was…I mean, I was telling the truth, though.  Donald Duck causes all this trouble.  He gets into a argument with all these magical instruments or something.

 

He has adventures because I think he got…him and a flute got into a disagreement and then the flute…oh no, he lost a magic hat.  Then Mickey of course has to save the day.  But it’s all in 3D, so that was nice.  Then we went on Dumbo.  Scooter and his…actually, I didn’t go on Dumbo.  Scooter and his daughter went on Dumbo which is like a little spinner ride, but they have two of them now, so the wait is not that bad.  Then right when they got done with Dumbo was the fireworks for the night.  This was a more quiet part of the park over there, so we sat there and watched the fireworks.  Now, Scooter did lose his water bottle.  I think his daughter had a drink and maybe she put it down or maybe it fell outta the backpack, but we never saw that water bottle again.

 

But you have some water bottles…I mean, everybody’s giving those things away.  It was a good one; it was from Monoprice.  So, I said Scooter, you could just go back to Monoprice and get another water bottle.  But he said well, you know.  So, he was a little distracted from that, so…but no big deal.  We did check in later in the trip at the Lost and Found, but it was not found.  But when we retraced our steps, we said it’s probably where it went missing, though it could have gone missing on a bus.  But we remember drinking water watching the fireworks.  That’s what I was saying.  Okay, then we went on the Autotopia Speedway.  The Tomorrowland Speedway I think is what they call it.  This again had another Christmas show or Christmas holiday theme to it.  I think this was new.  It was cool, too.

 

It had music, like very spacey holiday tunes, and then different things that were lit up.  It just made something fun.  That’s kind of a ride…no offense, is a little bit past its prime and could use a new…it’s a…it’s such a wide swath of territory.  But it was fun; we liked it.  Then we went and said…what does that even say, Scooter?  I know…oh, [00:40:00] Coke…Coke?  Is that what that says?  But we got a pretzel…but I can’t see this thing.  It looks like it says S-O-L-E-H-O.  It could say Coke bottle.  I don’t think Scooter would have a Coke at…that late at night, though.  So, a pretzel and a colette?  Solette?  I don’t know.  Maybe they had something else from there.  It definitely is S-O-L-E-T-T-E, but I don’t…so, I don’t know.  Maybe it’s something else there.  I don’t think there’s any ride over there that it would be shorthand for.

 

Then we watched…go home?  No.  Soleyvo?  I don’t know.  But we had a soft pretzel.  Then we watched the Castle Projection Show where they project…now, this is impressive.  They project these…what do they call it?  Digital projection mapping, and that was exciting.  Oh boy, they really did it up.  The castle was like a holiday show.  It was really beautiful.  You’re able to do that on the street there, on the main street.  Then we were able to say okay, let’s go home now.  As your friend Ray says, this is where people could have high temperatures and things, but we were able to catch a bus.  Now, sometimes you gotta wait for your bus.

 

You do have to walk a little bit to get to your bus, but when we got there…and the other thing is when you get to the beginning of the bus stops or the bus depot, we’ll call it, you can’t…you can see the other stops and you can kinda say, is that my stop for my hotel?  Is there a bus there?  So, what Scooter will do is try to guess, and then he’ll try to…he doesn’t like to run because you’re not supposed to run, but I think he did some fast walking, and it was the bus for our hotel.  We caught it and we got on there, and it was 11:30, and we headed home.  So, that’s exciting.  Then the next day was Christmas Eve.  Oh, boy.  Now, this was another one…now, we got to sleep in.  I don’t know, we must have got up about 7:30, 7:45.  We caught our bus to the Epcot Center which I presume would open at 8:00 or 9:00.

 

We split up because you have your bag there and they have to check your bag.  They want to look through everything, you know?  Now, I don’t know if this was after the bag check or before it; I guess it was after.  There’s also a coffee place right by the entrance where you’re waiting to get in.  So, Scooter said okay, let’s do this here because there’s long lines to go through the…they call it a rope drop, right?  I talk about this.  This is the most important thing.  Ray says get there five…forty-five minutes before it opens.  You could do a lot of things.  So, we had a plan; our plan was…I’m thinking this out and remembering as I’m telling you.  So, Scooter and I had the bag, and his daughter and her mother, they split up and they headed to rope drop to be at the front…as far…close to the front of the thing as they could get.

 

We were gonna go on Frozen.  At 9:00 was when the park opens.  So, then Scooter and I gotta wait in line to get your bag checked.  Then we waited in line to get some coffees ‘cause they had a coffee place, like a little coffee kiosk.  We said okay, we’ll be on the left side of Spaceship Earth.  That’s the big golf ball you see on all the marketing materials.  It’s called Spaceship Earth which we’re on, technically, I guess…here, all of us together.  So, we waited in…oh, so then everybody’s lined up because there’s…when you do rope drop at…and it’ll be different in the future when you’re hearing this maybe, but so, at the time of this recording or a year ago when we were there, when you do the rope drop, there’s three popular rides that get the most lines.  There’s the Frozen ride with Anna and Elsa.

 

There’s Test Track which is more of a faster attraction, and then there’s Soarin' which is more…now, Anna and Elsa and Soarin' most everybody could go on, though Soarin's not everybody’s cup of tea.  Then Test Track is more of a fast woo-woo ride.  So, you kinda gotta pick one of those three rides to go on before the lines start to grow.  Though if you’re efficient, then you can…as you’ll see.  So, our plan was to go on Anna and Elsa because like we had said earlier, we had tried to go on it once already and we were not able to do so.  That’s another thing about these trips; you gotta be flexible.  So then…so, we were trying to find Scooter’s daughter, and then Scooter said well, Ray, I gotta go to a restroom, so I’ll meet you right here.  There was a planter out in front of the restroom kinda towards the end of the line.

 

So, I sat there with the coffees and Scooter used the restroom.  Then Scooter sat by me and we drank some coffee.  Again, it was a wait to get…we were…we got in pretty early there.  So, we were waiting ‘cause then they walk you into the park at like, whatever, 8:45.  Then we said, where is everybody we’re meeting?  Then we found them; they were right by where we were sitting.  Then we were just drinking coffee and waiting for them to start the line, and then they walk you back and they kinda split everybody up.  You say oh, you’re going to Frozen?  Then people start walking fast and it can be a little intense.  Then people are coming from different directions and then they say no running, but people don’t listen.  Holy moly.

 

I mean, we walk fast though, so I guess you could say well, you don’t…and I’d say well, you…I guess you’re correct.  You’re correct.  But we walked to Frozen.  We got on Frozen with no wait.  I mean, you go through the queue, so that kinda slows the wait down.  Then our plan was as soon as we get off Frozen, we’re gonna try to go on Soarin' before the ride…that line builds up.  ‘Cause either of these three attractions I was talking about, after the park’s open for thirty minutes, you’re talking a hour, hour and a half wait for those rides sometimes, especially in the holiday season.  So, we went on Soarin'.  Scooter stopped to go to the bathroom, I think the bathroom right by Soarin' ‘cause I don’t know if there’s any other bathrooms, unless…yeah, that would be where he probably went.

 

Then we had a five-minute wait for that ride which is great, then we ate breakfast at the…this place is called The Land, so there’s pavilions…at the time we went, there was pavilions named after stuff, right?  Oh, because Epcot Center has a Future World and then a World Showcase.  So, in the Future World, one of the pavilions is called The Land.  It’s supposed to teach you about respect for the land, and the Soarin' ride is like hey, we’re flying over the world.  Look at how great the world is.  It’s got a bunch of land.  Let’s friggin’ treat the land nice, you know what I’m saying?  So, we ate at a restaurant.  They have a cafeteria-style restaurant and The Land is supposed to have a little bit more healthier food.  Now, Scooter did not write down what we ate there, but I’m sure it was pretty decent food.  I’m trying to look at anything else.

 

But yeah, we ate at The Land, then we went to Journey into the Imagination.  Oh boy, I don’t know if we talked about this ever before.  Scooter found a bathroom over there and holy moly, if you’re looking for a bathroom that has low traffic, Scooter has found it, at least when we recorded this.  I mean, at least when we visited.  Okay, so there’s The Land, right; that’s one place.  The next place we went to is called the Imagination Pavilion.  Believe it or not, for a long time I think it was sponsored by Kodak and it’s like these glass pyramids.  So, it used to be…now I don’t know who sponsors it.  But so, it’s a tribute to the imagination.  But so, they usually…used to have a 3D movie there; Honey, I Shrunk the Kids…the Audience, and then they have a ride with Figment about the imagination.

 

Eric Idle is the scientist or the bureaucrat or something.  But if you’re facing that building about to go on the Journey to Imagination ride and you go right, to the right side of the building is a restroom.  No one knows it’s there.  I mean, some people do; it’s not like no one’s using it, but for Disney World, holy moly, because sometimes the bathroom’s open fifteen minutes, you say, what are people…what were people doing in here?  But this one…if you need to have a quiet moment, if…that’s all Ray will say, in a place that feels relatively clean, because I say what [00:50:00]…did you get any pee in the toilet?  Oh my goodness.  Or, you know, did you get the…so, this bathroom, especially at 10:00, 11:00 in the morning, was very spotless.  Because Disney has a…oh boy, don’t get me started.

 

You’ve heard me talk about this; both in Disneyland and Disney World, they lost their reputation for cleanliness.  Whenever I went to Disneyland, a few years ago now…but Disney World as well.  I say oh, they must have done some cutbacks on the staff, because you’ll see paper towels everywhere…it’s just not…they have that…they like to keep that image, I’m sure, but it’s not true.  Oh, everybody polishes everything every five minutes, Ray.  I say listen, reality called.  Was that ever true or was it just an…was it just a myth the whole time?  But this place will feel like it’s clean.  Then you go on Journey to Imagination.  I think we found the bathroom afterwards.  But the Journey to Imagination ride, it’s a little dated.  It’s cute.  It has Figment who’s a little figment of someone’s imagination.

 

He’s playing around with Eric Idle, and it’s got a nice song that’s catchy.  I mean, I don’t want to…if you don’t gotta wait in line for it longer than fifteen minutes, go on the ride.  Longer than fifteen minutes, your friend Ray would say oh boy, I don’t know.  It does seem like…the times we’ve gone, it does have a bit of a line.  Like, it’s not super-efficient.  Okay, then we went to…so, and I…Ray’s talked about this before, so forgive me, but so, they have the World Showcase, right?  It has different pavilions themed after different countries.  But then in the holiday season…not every pavilion, but a lot of them have…I think at maybe every pavilion, they have performers performing something about a myth of the holidays…the holiday myth or holiday story from that nation.

 

I think it’s Julenissen at Norway and it’s a very funny, very well-done story.  It involves two performers normally, and it’s very good.  It’s a very good story.  I really like that one.  So, we watched that story.  Great stuff.  There was also a game called Agent P.  This has nothing to do with the holiday season.  They’re replacing it I think with a Duck Tales game that’s interactive.  So, we went to China and we played the Agent P game there where you try to find little clues.  Then we went and…oh, they also have craft stations at every little nation or pavilion and…where you do a craft.  They usually have a super…like, someone supervising and helping.  They call those Kidcot Stations, so we went to the Kidcot Station which was fun.

 

Then we went and we stopped at a place and they had Cinnamon Coke which I’ve seen…I never seen it in the Bay Area where we live; I’ve seen it in one other place since then.  Talk about a holiday treat.  It was really good.  I don’t know what that says after Cinnamon Coke, but the Cinnamon Coke was very, very good.  Oh, Cinnamon Coke float, someone got.  I think that’s what that says.  Interesting.  But yeah, the Cinnamon Coke by itself is good.  I don’t know what the Cinnamon Coke float tasted like.  That’s intriguing to me.  Then we went to Germany and we played more of Agent P.  Really good in Germany.  I don’t know what they’ll have for the Duck Tales thing, but like, where you’re interacting with machines and things, and a lot of special effects.  Then we went to Italy and we watched La Bellafina perform.

 

Now, this year, 2020, Scooter gave his mother two La Bellafina dolls from Etsy that he bought from a creator there.  La Bellafina gives a show where she talks about La Bellafina and Italy and the…I don’t want to ruin it for you.  You should go see it.  Then they also have a pizza window that’s not always open in the back of Italy.  Like I said, I think the last time we went, we went at dinnertime and they don’t have it open.  But this was lunchtime, so we went there and oh boy, was it good.  Now, Scooter has a lot of…oh, I think ‘cause it was out of order here.  Okay, that makes sense.  Now I understand.  So, that’s interesting to me.  I was just…sorry about that.  I’m looking at Scooter’s notes here.  So, we watched Bellafina and then Scooter got a slice of pizza.  The pizza there is very good, Scooter said.  It’s not New York style.

 

It’s a square slice and you can get ‘roni, a non…I don’t know, usually they have two or three choices.  I don’t know, so, it’s very messy.  I remember Scooter, getting him to sit down is an effort.  He’ll watch the show, but I think the Bellafina show had already ended.  I said, can you sit down with that pizza, please?  It’s gonna…I can’t have you dripping grease all over my theme park, here.  So, we sat down, we had some pizza which was nice, then we walked to France.  I don’t know how you say this; LaPair?  So, they have the…oh, Papa Noel.  That Papa Noel.  Le Papa Noel was a little show, and…another holiday show, and that’s another good one.  I’m just trying to think, ‘cause there’s another good show in France that’s not related to the holidays that we’ll probably talk about another time.  But we enjoyed that show.

 

Papa Noel was very cute.  Not as good as Julenissen, but…Pair Noel…I don’t know what…but I think Papa Noel would make sense.  But very good storytellers.  This is where I would say if you lose these things, Disney, it would be a shame.  I’m just saying, these professional performers, treat them well, please.  They also have a ice cream place, Glacier Artiste or something, like a ice cream place in France there.  Scooter got the gingerbread ice cream which he said was not good.  I think he means not great.  Like, maybe just not enough gingerbread flavor.  I would say yeah, they’re up against…it’s a tough one because you got…there are more gingerbread ice creams now, or with that cookie, biscotti cookie or whatever, or the…what is it called?  Trader Joe’s cookie butter.  Those are gingerbready-type flavors.

 

So, maybe Scooter was expecting something like that.  Or maybe he meant…oh boy, so that’s where we went out of order.  So, I’ll…okay, then…or maybe he meant the pastrami on rye was not good, which would make sense.  So, that must have been his lunch or his dinner.  It was a little tiny thing from one of the food stands, and I think maybe…I’m remembering; I had some of it.  I think it was just a little bit…I don’t know if you really want to eat a…a pastrami on rye really comes down to the bread and is it…because sometimes if the bread is dried out, which is the case in this one, it’s just not gonna be as good.

 

It really depends on a marriage of the bread, the pastrami which also maybe doesn’t…especially in a please-everybody-type situation might be a little lean where you need it…you need a pillowyness to the rye and then a fattiness to the pastrami along with a generous supply of mustard for it to taste good.  So, I think that was probably what was not good.  So, then we went…well, we’ll have to back up.  Before we went to France, we went…or before…yeah, before we went to France, we went to the American Adventure which was not working, but we did stay for the carolers, and Scooter said that the…he was like oh boy, the carolers…only problem was they made some eye contact with Scooter and smiled at him, and that kinda…he said, what do they…why…Ray, I can’t handle this.  Please just sing.

 

But they were beautiful.  Oh, what singers they have there.  So, that was a little bit out of order.  I think that was before Papa Noel.  Papa Noel…does Papa Noel preach?  Then we went to Germany and they had a little trio band, [01:00:00] Germany singers, and they were very good.  They were kinda singing holiday-type tunes in German.  Scooter enjoyed it.  He loves the performances.  I also enjoyed it, but I like doing some people-watching as well.  Then we went to China and we were gonna see the show at China, but it was canceled or there wasn’t a show ‘cause it says China No Show.  Then we went…wow, we were busy here at this park.  Apparently we didn’t take a break, I guess because we slept in there.  That’s interesting.  I wonder; we never took a nap this day.  So, we got…I mean, I guess we got up at 8:15.

 

Oh, I guess it was ‘cause it was Christmas Eve maybe and we just said can’t stop, won’t stop?  But so, we went to Norway so Scooter could use the restroom, and…which he did.  Now, that’s a busy restroom over there by Norway, because one of the problems is you got no restrooms…so, it goes Mexico; I think they have a restroom indoors.  Then China; no restroom in China.  Oh, Norway is between those two.  They have a restroom outdoors.  I mean, not outdoors outdoors.  You know what I’m saying; accessible from the outdoors.  China; no restroom.  Then they have a little open area, then Germany, then a restroom after Germany.  So, they could use some more restrooms there.

 

Then we went to Canada and got more of the maple popcorn which is a bit like kettle corn, maple kettle corn popcorn ‘cause we had the refillable popcorn thing which, yeah, turns out that was definitely a bargain there.  We enjoyed that.  I think I remember this; Scooter sat on a bench and he returned messages from patrons.  I can remember this like it was yesterday.  The sun was still out, so this must have been after lunchtime, I’m guessing.  We were just enjoying it.  We were talking to the person that sells the timeshares while Scooter was making videos, and we were just eating popcorn ‘cause we were waiting for a show to start called The British Invasion.  This is a cover band.  Not everybody likes these things as much as Scooter, but the people…oh boy, the people love it.  Holy moly.

 

So, this is a show I highly recommend going to just to watch the people.  This is…was a highlight of our trip every time we stopped at this show, because our friends from the UK, they love it.  It’s in the UK, in Epcot Center, and so they play different…they play some Beatles songs, I think they play some Who songs, they probably play a couple other songs, maybe a Monkee song.  But people are dancing along like you would never believe it.  Oh, and laughing, and multi-ages; three, four generations.  Just so much fun watching the people dancing to the live music.  Again, this is where Disney can excel, so don’t miss out on this stuff.  Then we had had so much fun that we said let’s go on that Skyliner again.  So we said, let’s walk over there ‘cause Epcot has a back entrance where you could go out and you could walk.

 

Technically you could walk to the boardwalk which is…has a hotel, the boardwalk, but they also have some restaurants and a boardwalk set up there.  Then they have the Yacht and Beach Club Hotels, and then they have a Marriott Swan and Dolphin, and then you could go…you could also catch a boat to Disney Studios or to any of those hotels.  That’s where the Gondola Skyliner…there’s also a station there that you could take to Caribbean Beach Resort and then switch to go to the Disney Studios or whatever.  We had loved it so much we said okay, let’s catch the Skyliner but it was not working, so we said huh, I guess the Skyline…they said Skyliner’s not working.  So we said, what a bummer.  So, we said okay, let’s go to look at the resorts of the Beach Club.  I don’t think we made it to the Yacht Club, I don’t believe.

 

I don’t even know if they have separate lobbies.  Maybe they do.  I don’t know.  I’m gonna have to ask Scooter.  Scooter, have you been to the Yacht Club lobby?  Because these two hotels, they kinda look like Atlantic seaside resorts, very fancy looking.  The Beach Club has kind of like a bright blue and then the Yacht Club’s a more stately grey or something.  I don’t know, they look like you’d go…a high class resort you’d go to in Maine or on the Cape Cod.  So, we went there for two things; soda for Scooter, of course, but also to look at…and to take a break to get away from the park.  So, we walked there.  We went in, we went in the lobby there, and they have these gingerbread houses.

 

Now, I don’t know if this is new this year or it was there…like this in the past, but all the gingerbread houses also have hidden Mickeys on the gingerbread house.  I think this was a gingerbread carousel.  So, we looked at the hidden Mickeys on the gingerbread carousel, we all used the restroom there, then we actually sat down and drank some soda because that was like the…Scooter has his unlimited soda cup that works at all the resorts there.  I think we bought some cookies, so we had some cookies and some soda which was really nice, and maybe something else to drink; water, hopefully.  Also, we had a laugh because that’s where the seafood buffet is that Scooter, when he goes with his extended family, they always want to eat there.  He says well, I’m allergic to shellfish and everything’s here is steamed in shellfish.

 

They say okay, well, you could…but Scooter, you know how he can be.  So, we had some soda and then we said okay, well, what are we gonna do now?  What should we do next?  Because it was like, I don’t know what time it was.  I’m guessing around 2:00 or 3:00 ‘cause I can kinda remember it.  9:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00…yeah, probably around 2:00 or 3:00.  The sun was still out.  I don’t think it was raining at this point.  Then we said okay, well, let’s take a bus to the Animal Kingdom.  Let’s not go home; let’s just ride this out there.  So, that’s what we did and then the next time I talk to you, we’ll be on our way…we’ll be waiting for the bus to the Animal Kingdom.  Thanks everybody and goodnight.  This is your friend Ray.  So good to be in your ears again.  Goodnight.

 

[END OF RECORDING]

(www.leahtranscribes.com)