Summary
Highly Suspect Headline (WARNING some of these are lies!)
Magic Kingdom Railroad trains will be fully automated and piloted by old-time audio animatronics when it re-opens this fall
DINOSAUR begins long term refurbishment to fix multiple audio animatronics
FREE Refreshment Lounge coming to EPCOT for the 2022 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival presented by Corkcicle.
- Florida Blue Lounge
- Last year hummus, yogurt, aha sparkling water
- September 3, 2022 – November 19, 2022 from noon until 6 pm daily.
- All you needed to do is show the Disney Guest Pass, which was a PDF on the Florida Blue website
- Selected entertainment like complimentary henna tattoos and more.
Magic Band+ Release date announced, July 27th
- Color-changing lights, haptic vibrations, and gesture recognition. It also pairs to your smartphone using the My Disney Experience app.
- 25 different designs.
- “Disney Fab 50 Quest.” Help Tinker Bell bring the sculptures to life across all four Walt Disney World theme parks using virtual pixie dust from Tink.
- Star Wars: Batuu Bounty Hunters experience. Vibrations and lights on MagicBand+ guide you down the right path.
- Enchantment at Magic Kingdom and Harmonious at EPCOT! MagicBand+
- Lighting up and vibrating in sync with fireworks, visual effects, and music as well as Beacons of Magic!
- Disneyland Resort guests will be able to get in on the MagicBand+ fun later in 2022.
Transcription
Bruce and Connie Interview
Bruce and Connie Interview
Justin: [00:00:00] Connie and Bruce, how’s it going?
Connie: We’re it’s going well, thank you so much for having us today.
Bruce: Going fantastic, Justin. Thanks like Connie said. Thanks for having us on the podcast.
Justin: Are you kidding me? Thank you for being here.
Bruce: Of course. Our pleasure.
Justin: this is like a Sklar moment for me.
Connie: Hey Justin, wait a minute. Low expectations.
Bruce: Yeah, right?
Justin: Okay. Okay. That’s right.
Easy Diz Bot:
Justin: So you know, I’m a big listener to your podcast. I’m sure a lot of people listening also are familiar with your podcast.
Connie: Thank you.
Justin: Except for my mom. I asked my mom and she’s not familiar with you yet.
Bruce: My mom too.
Connie: Yeah.
Justin: So this, this will be good for your podcast. I think the unlocking the magic podcast kind of expose it to a new demographic, being my mother specifically
Bruce: Okay. We’ll do our best to hopefully get her to subscribe.
Connie: Right. I’m a little
nervous now actually but, okay.
Justin: [00:01:00] The stakes are high.
Connie: Yeah. Right.
like, oh no.
Justin: I’d like to hear about like your early how you got really started with Disney. Like either the movies or the parks. Was there a particular Disney movie you remember seeing as a kid that maybe impacted you in some way
Connie: Oh, I have a whole list. I know that
growing up, I always loved movies, theater, acting. And I just loved seeing performances. And to me, I think the key Disney movies that really impacted my life were Walt Disney’s older films that featured Hayley Mills. So Pollyanna, those kind of movies really just always captured my attention and from there it was just, I just loved it.
Justin: Yeah.
Bruce: I don’t have too many that I can remember from my childhood. I didn’t get to go to Disney a lot or at all as a kid. And I didn’t
really get into the whole Disney movies or parks till I had my own children, which we had, we had children pretty young.
We were
in [00:02:00] early twenties. So it wasn’t like we were really old right. Having kids. But that’s when I kind of got into it, we went to the parks. First time with my relatives. It wasn’t the best experience. So we
decided to go back again in the future and it was way better the second time. And that’s kinda what hooked us or at least me.
Justin: That’s that’s great. So it, that first trip, wasn’t your favorite, but it was enough for you to, to bring you back.
Bruce: It wasn’t great at all. And in fact, it took a lot of convincing to get Constantina over there to go back the second time.
Connie: which is wait, he’s using my
formal name because he knows that that was a real funny kind of twist to this whole story of how we got started. But yeah, I had gone to Disney a lot as a kid. I was really lucky to live. Really close to my cousin and my, my uncle. And he would get this big van and we would drive down to Disney and it
was just, yeah, the best memories ever. And for me, it was awesome. Getting to see my parents, you know, have fun.
Justin: That’s great. Yeah.
Connie: And that was the memories that stuck out. And so that was the [00:03:00] convincing part. Was that when I did finally take my kids, I didn’t have that same kind of feeling. I don’t remember letting
loose and showing my kids how fun I can be.
And it was stressful. We never had a plan. And finally, Bruce convinced me again. I think it was actually the state of Florida that convinced me, because I really just love palm trees.
I mean, who doesn’t right. Not so much going back to Disney World.
And then finally we did, and then I rediscovered my passion for… I guess it’s sort of like the main idea behind everything. It wasn’t like the park itself. It was like the feeling,
right? Like being able to be present and have these moments with my kids and not necessarily be worried about what others would think of me. Like I could really just let my hair down and have fun. And to me that was really special. And that’s what I continue to try to promote with others.
Justin: Love that. Disney is definitely that place, right. Where you can let go, where you can [00:04:00] be a kid, really, you know, and you can do things that might be considered silly in other places in Disney it’s completely normal.
Bruce: Yeah, a hundred percent. And I think the classic scenario for us in that first trip was we had higher expectations. We were expecting a lot out of it. And then the second
time, like Connie said, we just went down there. Not that, that we didn’t, we had a, a really structured plan. We didn’t expect it to be anything.
We just
wanted to go get out of our situation. We were in, have a good family vacation hang out together. And it just so happened that we found that connection in the state of Florida and going to the parks and we’ve been hooked kind of ever since
Justin: So Bruce, when you were convincing, Connie let’s come on, let’s give this another shot. What was your main selling point?
Connie: Palm trees.
Bruce: Yeah, I think it was not necessarily the parks itself. It was more, it was cold here. I think it
was February in, you know what, we’ve had enough of this winter and it’s only been six weeks. Let’s go down to Florida, hang out for a week. We’ll try, we’ll try to go to the parks again and see what that’s like.
But for the most part, let’s maybe even go to the beach or [00:05:00]
just sit in the sunshine for a week and hang out and see what happens. I think that’s what sold her more, the sunshine and being away from the winter.
And then it just so happened that we, we went to the park or magic kingdom and we had a great day and an experience and then it kind of took from there.
Connie: I
think for me, it was that . I never had that. I didn’t have those feelings. Like I did, I, that I remembered as a kid and I almost felt the opposite of what I saw my parents have. You know, my, like I said, it was ma my dad was a workaholic.
So whenever we were able to go to Florida and Walt Disney World was the only place where ever saw my dad, just check out of reality and just have so much fun and be goofy and not worry about bills and things like that. That bogged him down pretty much 24/7. So I got to see another whole side of my mom and dad. And my uncle who was hilarious that I never would get to see on a normal basis. And so when we were down there originally, I never got that initial feeling.
In fact, I got the opposite and it’s stressful. It’s expensive. And so with [00:06:00] Bruce trying to convince me, the thoughts I was having was it’s an expensive place. Why are we gonna even bother, you
know, fine, let’s go to Florida. Let’s just visit and see what we get. I guess maybe I had low expectations and that’s what really changed everything, but really was the meaning behind everything to me was having that kind of aha moment where it was more about being in the moment with my children and being able to kind of set my mind free.
Justin: Yeah. And so everything that you’ve, you’ve both just said really shines through in your podcast, the Unlocking the Magic Podcast. I think, and you, you talked about loading into the van when you were a kid and how that was like an experience for you.
Connie: Yeah.
Justin: And I’ll, I’ll the first episode. I think that got me hooked on your podcast on the Unlocking Magic Podcast was the episode where we talked about the road trip, my wife and I, we were, we were driving with our new daughter in the backseat and we’re like, oh, we, we let’s, maybe there’s a podcast on driving to Disney.
And that’s how we found you.
And,
you talked about that experience and I think for a lot of people. A long drive is [00:07:00] a terrible thing they don’t want, but the way you described it in such like a fun, positive way. And that’s how I feel about it too. So like, I really appreciated that. I appreciated that positive spin.
Connie: And it was, you know, the late nineties, we had no such thing as phones to
keep us occupied. I think I had a Walkman, but it mostly didn’t work, you know, regularly. So we really just kind of made the best of things and had a lot of snacks. So that’s kind of what I try to incorporate even now. Yeah.
Obviously we have newer technologies to keep the kids busy when needed, but at the same time To me, it’s like super fun. Just like coming up with road games that you have to kinda use your mind and not necessarily technology
to make it a good time.
Justin: And it’s something you’re doing together too.
Connie: Exactly.
Justin: Yeah.
Connie: I mean, we fight , it’s
not like, it’s not like there are moments where I got, and I remember even as a kid, like you get into the van the second day and it’s starting to smell a little funky , you know, there’s moments [00:08:00] like that, where you’re like, oh gosh, can we just get there?
To me, it’s, it’s all in good fun. And part of the whole experience, even the argument, you know, that makes you closer at the end of the day, when you can argue and get over
and get over it over the hump. I think it makes you closer.
Justin: Oh, yeah. It’s like a social skills training exercise. The, the road trip
Connie: Right? Exactly.
Bruce: The ride down’s always better than the ride back by the way.
Connie: Oh,
that’s a fact. yeah,
Justin: Yeah,
A lot shorter right?
Connie: I have, yeah, I have yet to make the ride back as interesting.
I have not, if someone could do that and make it, I know people have said, all right, well, just make it so that there’s a bunch of stops, but yeah, that means you have to leave Walt Disney World early in order
to like carve that time out and who wants to do that.
Justin: Yeah. And, and you’re also like you’re making this unpleasant experience of leaving Disney World kind of longer by dragging it out.
Connie: right.
Justin: You’re still not in Disney world.
Connie: Still trying to figure that out. Right. But maybe someday.
Justin: yeah. We’re gonna try a couple days at a beach after Disney World. We’ll
Connie: Oh, there you [00:09:00] go. Well, the sea salt cures, everything. So
Bruce: That’s for sure.
Justin: So I think from what I hear from you is that you you’re going to the Disney parks now you’ve developed a an enjoyment, a love for Disney because of the memories you’re able to make there because of the environment there that allows you to be a certain way that you can’t be in other places.
And so you have a podcast about this and it’s the podcast it’s been going for about seven years now, is that right?
Connie: Is it really, I don’t know. Bruce would have to tell me.
Bruce: I think we published our first, I don’t know when we recorded the first episode, but I definitely believe we published it in 2015. So
yeah, seven years, I think it’s right around now.
July, June, July of 2015.
Justin: Happy anniversary.
Connie: Yeah, thank you, yeah.
Justin: So I, I’m curious about like how your relationship with Disney has evolved over these last seven years, where you’ve gone from being, you know, guests to now guests that well, you’ll be producing some content. You’ll, you’ll be thinking about it maybe a little bit more a lot more in depth. How has that changed your relationship with Disney?
Connie: I think that’s a great question.
Bruce: That is a good question. [00:10:00] I never really thought of that, at all.
Connie: Do you want me to answer?
Bruce: Yeah, go cause I, you gather my thoughts.
Connie: I can talk for you, Bruce. You know that I do anyway. whatever I say, right? No, I’m just kidding. see. That’s the banter we have on the show that I hope people understand.
Well, we, we did get married very young and have kids very young. So we, Bruce and I have like basically grown up together and we also
live in Boston so that our humor is probably not for everybody, but I hope that someday will be. So back to the question, I guess really it’s a matter of now would be, I have to actually be extra mindful when we’re down there to carve out time, because I am now going down or we’re going down, filming things, trying to get new experiences and report back to our audience. But also, Try to focus the number one thing, which is why we started the podcast at all. Why we love going down so much is because of that family time, the [00:11:00] experience with friends and family or whoever we’re with at the time. It doesn’t necessarily have to be just with the kids. It could be when we go down with my sister-in-law or hopefully soon with my own sister and her kids, like they’ve, just to have a great experience where you can really be a kid again.
And that’s something that has changed, I guess, because we did fall into a trap not too long ago of forgetting. And so there was a couple of, I would say like a year where we were kind of just swooped into just getting down as much as possible and getting, trying to get as much content and possible, but then leaving with no memories. And
I,
that’s one thing that I just, that will not fly with me. I want to make sure that everyone comes back and can remember something about their vacation
or their trip.
Justin: Yeah,
Connie: And you really have to be really mindful of not being on your phone a lot or not,
you know, falling into a trap of being regimented too much on a schedule.
in order to carve out those memories, because you’ll find that some of the best [00:12:00] memories happen on a whim
while you’re down there.
So, I guess that’s I, what do you think
Bruce: Bruce is that, yeah, it’s changed in a way too, where there’s an arc, right? When you first start a podcast, you’re very excited about it.
You want to grow the podcast.
So for us it was all right. Let’s create as much content as you can to grow the podcast. That was the goal in the beginning. And then you’re down there and you, you get to a point where you’re kind of the top of the arc and you’re you think, and you’re down there and like Connie said, you kind of forget why you’re down there.
And you’re down there for a family vacation, whereas we don’t live in Orlando. So it is a vacation, even if it’s down there for research, it’s still not cheap to go down in Florida
and from Boston just to report on something. So you can’t do that as much as people who live in Orlando. And sometimes you forget that and you get down there and like Connie said, you don’t really have those family memories or people expect you to do things that You don’t have time to do and you feel
bad and you feel guilty and there’s a balance you have to have. A balance of [00:13:00] doing things for the podcast while also creating family memories that you want to have for the future that your kids will remember when they get older.
Connie: It’s good that we recognize that too.
Bruce: It’s
hard to recognize. Don’t recognize, like Connie said, it took a year. That was a year, probably after the third year where that was kind of like the, we were trying to figure that out. Yeah.
Justin: that seems like a tough to strike.
Connie: It is, but it isn’t, it can be very simple if you just kind of, I guess, take a step back and kind of look at the outside.
Bruce: Yeah. It’s it, you know, as your podcast grows, you get people who look forward to every episode, right? So you
try to, you try to create content because people get used to your podcast coming out every single week at that particular day and time that you release it and it becomes part of their routine. So you want.
Keep that momentum going for them, but you also wanna be able to be like, you know what, we’re here and we’re not gonna do content. We’re just gonna kind of be down here as family, because that’s why we’re down here in the
beginning.
Connie: But I also think that’s important too. It’s [00:14:00] like when Walt Disney would go to the parks and ride his rides to really understand what the guest was experiencing.
Bruce: Yeah.
Justin: You had come in through the front gate.
Connie: right. You
really do because, you know, although the goal, I think Bruce and I want together, is to somehow live down there either full-time or even part-time at some point, the one thing that we always have to remember is that it’s different. I think it it’s different experience and, maybe that’s what sets us apart too, is like, I wanna always remember that I wanna experience Disney as a guest, not so much as a
Justin: I think there is real value to that. Just in terms of content for sure.
right? We
Bruce: don’t wanna be breaking news or, I mean, we talk about the news sometimes. Yeah. But we don’t wanna be breaking news or the place where you, we’re not, we don’t consider ourselves experts. We’re just people who visit the parks and then happen to talk about it on a podcast. It’s not something that we’re, we, we think you should follow our example or we try to give you our tips and we think you should do it our way.
We’re just kinda like giving you our advice and you
can take what. [00:15:00] Like, and leave what you don’t.
Connie: Yeah. And we learn from others too. Right. You know,
it’s great to hear others’ perspective and things. And we have this wonderful group in Patreon that pays us to hang out,
which is amazing. and they, they just, they’re all so wonderful.
And it’s just a really fun, positive outlet. And it’s all done online, which is funny because nowadays, you know, that could go the other way. A lot of
people try to avoid any kind of social media, because it can be negative . I Feel really grateful that we have been able to kinda do this and, and keep this positive attitude.
Whether we, you know, some of us agree or not on certain things, pizza planet, , that’s a hot topic in the group, but you know, things like that is just, it’s fun. Fun to talk.
Justin: I actually joined the Patreon group for a month just as research for this for this interview. And I’ve gotta say what a great group of people supportive interesting, funny very positive a great place to hang out. And I think if, if that came from your podcast, that’s, that’s gonna feel [00:16:00] pretty good right there.
Connie: It’s been wonderful to see, you know, a lot of the members are now friends of the, like they’ve formed their own groups. friends,
friendships, and they meet up on their own and do things. And to me, that’s just so amazing that if anything, if I can just leave anything. At the end of the day, that to me is really special that we’ve made like connections with others.
Justin: You Built a community.
Connie: Yeah.
Yeah. It’s really special. And thank you for joining for that month.
Justin: Yeah, absolutely.
Connie: We appreciate you.
Justin: So I, you know, I, I listened to a bunch of episodes I tried to, I asked some of the people on Patreon, which ones I should listen to. And I tried to take notes on like the progression, how things have changed over the time. And I did pick up on a couple things and I’d like, I’d like you to tell me if I’m accurate or not.
Connie: Okay is getting juicy.
Bruce: Yeah. Right.
Justin: So I’m from I’m uh, native to Rhode Island but transplanted to Connecticut. So I have a special interest in accents. So would you say that your accents have changed on the podcast over the years?
Connie: Oh,[00:17:00]
Bruce: yeah, probably. I think we’re more aware of pronunciations of certain words and you’ll see it when I get hyper or we talk a little faster. You’ll you’ll hear come out a little bit, but we’re definitely more aware of how we speak and how we come across. Because we know that there are, and not that there’s anybody listening, that the accent doesn’t really matter, but you, you want to appeal to as many people as you possibly can.
So you want to try to make sure that you’re not just appealing to people in a certain geographical area.
Connie: Sometimes it wicked hard for people to understand
Bruce: yeah. you’re in Iowa, you have you just, that turns you off.
Connie: Yeah. So I am conscious of that. I’m proud to have the accent, but I definitely wanna be able, I want people to be able to understand me. It’s something that I’ve always just been mindful of, I guess, but I, I probably would agree with you on the fact that it probably has changed a little bit, although Bruce is so right. Like when we get really hyper…
Justin: Yeah, it just, it slips
Connie: It slips. Can’t help that.
Bruce: And like, we don’t, I personally don’t love [00:18:00] living in Boston, so I have no affinity for Boston.
Connie: He doesn’t like the cold winter.
Bruce: Yeah. I don’t like the cold. I just wanna, I wanna go somewhere
warm
Connie: If Boston was warm, like he would be so happy for sure. Yeah. But that’s just, it it’s mostly cold.
Bruce: I hate winters,
Justin: And you can’t spend your life in a hot tub. So,
Connie: Right? Yeah. No, that would be a little awkward.
Bruce: That would be , that would be hard. Yeah.
Justin: Another thing. So comparing it to some other podcasts that I’ve listened to. I think one of the things that makes, in my opinion, you’re a podcast like highly listenable is that you’re pretty. I, I don’t wanna say positive on Disney, but you’re not negative on Disney. You know, you’re, you’ve, you’ve got a pretty positive outlook on Disney and I, early on, I think, Bruce, what did you say?
One thing you said the Nescafe at Disney stunk, that was your words. And I think that is the most negative thing that I heard you say really? In all the episodes.
Bruce: Really, think I’m a little bit more critical, not so much critical.
I’m a little bit more negative minded than Connie, for sure. She’s very much more [00:19:00] positive minded. And I think that’s the good balance that we have is that she evens me out, whereas I’m the typical, I’m the typical dad, right? I don’t love parades or crowds or character dining, so I don’t wanna do those things.
And it’s always one person in the group, whether it’s the mom or the dad trying to convince the other to do some things that they don’t want to do to give it a chance. And I think there’s some things that Connie doesn’t like that I convince her to do, like going back for the first time. So I think there’s a good balance there.
I would say I’m definitely more of a negative person than she is for sure. But I think Connie does a great job with me of reminding me who listens to the podcast and why people listen to the podcast and our philosophy is. Like going through 2020, for instance, you know, there was a time when we were like, should we talk about this on the podcast?
Or should we put out the podcast because there’s a lot going on in the world and is it right for us to just continue to do the podcast, [00:20:00] talking about things in a positive manner? Or should we just stop for a little bit and. people would email us and remind us, “Hey, I, I appreciate you putting the positive spin I needed stop thinking about what was happening. And it, it was a great escape for me”. And, and not only that, but, you know, kids listen to our podcast and you wanna have a positive impact on people. There’s so much negativity in the world and there’s places for people to go get that if they want it. And I, we just don’t have any space in our brains available for that. So if we’re gonna put content out into the world, we’d rather it. More positive and attract those people than put out anything negative.
Connie: Yeah, I think we’re, I think you are more, I think critical is the best way to an, to describe how you’re really critical on certain things. And I’m just this I I’ve you ever watched Justin the movie Tomorrowland?.
Justin: Yes I have
Connie: It’s one of my favorite movies and the, girl, I forget her name, the main character. She says that she’s, she’s an [00:21:00] optimist.
Bruce: So what are you saying, I’m George Clooney?
Connie: You’re basically George Clooney in this. That’s why I just can’t help it.
That’s kind of how I feel like we are with it. But, but at the end of the day, we all just want hope, right? I think that’s the best thing to kind of have, and the world around you can be so negative that I always try to the bright side of things, even if I don’t agree with them. So it’s not so much like I’m so pro everything Disney does I just try to pick out pieces of why and I don’t let it bother me, even if I don’t agree.
Bruce: I think we’re pro the podcast has moved on to pro families having good times together. Yeah. Not just going to Disney parks, right? Like you can go to a Universal and have a good time as a family and I
think
Exactly, I think that’s what we want to have go out into the world. And when people listen to the podcast, yes, we happen to talk about Disney a lot, but it’s more about, you know, you’re on this planet for such a small period of time. And not only that, but your kids are with you as a parent for even shorter amount of [00:22:00] time. You know, you get 15, 18 years where they’re kind of like, want to hang out with you and do things.
And then they’re kind of adults and they have their own opinion. Not that they don’t have their own opinions, a lot younger. But they’re, they can make their own opinions legally, right? Like on their own.
Connie: I did my Google search by the way, Tomorrowland, the girl’s name is Casey. All right. And she says “There are two wolves and they’re always fighting, one is darkness and despair. The other one is light and hope. Which wolf wins?” That’s my favorite favorite part. I love that movie for so many reasons. It’s not a fan favorite but I love the philosophy behind that.
Bruce: Yeah. So that’s kinda what we try to do on the podcast. Yeah. We just want you to have a good time. Enjoy the time you have with your family.
Connie: Yeah.
Justin: I love it. And I think you’re pretty successful with it.
Connie: Thank you. I hope so. I don’t know. I hope you like it. Yeah, we still don’t even we’re like, who’s even listening.
Bruce: It’s it’s awkward. Believe me. We, we just do the podcast because we like doing it and it’s awkward with all the emails and messages.
We get not awkward, awkward in a good
Connie: way.
He meaning like, wow. I can’t believe people actually listen to what? Yeah. I mean I’ve always had that growing up too [00:23:00] is like I’m the youngest of my family. I was brought into this, you know, I, my family’s huge. I have this huge Greek family. My mom has six siblings my dad had five. So if you can imagine, and I was the youngest and so growing up, I would speak and speak and speak. That’s why they call me Team Talks. Cause I love to talk, but no one would ever listen to me. So even to this day, I, I take a step back. I’m like when someone quotes something I said, or whatever, I’m like, wow, they were paying…
Yeah. That’s kind of like this thing I’ve always had. And it, I guess I’m never gonna change.
Justin: No, I think that’s, that’s a real thing. The kind of like a, not, not unrelated to like an imposter syndrome, right? You’re you’re in this position. One of, if not the biggest Disney podcast, depending on, you know, what metric you use and here you are having a hard time, believing people are listening to you.The human brain is interesting.
Bruce: Yeah, it is. It’s very interesting. You know, we, I don’t look, we used to, I used to like monitor the download numbers because you kind of wanna see how you’re gauging and your podcast is growing, if you’re moving in the right direction, We used to check like the download [00:24:00] numbers in the reviews all the time, and now we don’t check any of that.
Not that it doesn’t matter, but it doesn’t matter. We just do the podcast that we like to do. And we found a little bit of when you read reviews or you see download numbers, it tends to influence you, not in a way you want to be influenced. And you tend to go more for that click bait. Or if someone says…
Like, as you grow and do anything, the bigger you get, the more trolls and haters you’re gonna find on the internet, especially because it’s very easy to do that.
Connie: I mean, some of the things that they’ve said in the past that were not necessarily positive, I didn’t necessarily disagree. I was like, yeah, that was a bad, bad day.
Bruce: Right. But you can’t listen to all of those because if you listen to what everybody else says, it’s gonna influence what you started the podcast for. Right. So at some point you have to kind of tune that out. Not, I’m not saying don’t take feedback. Right. But don’t let it influence you a hundred percent.
Connie: Well, it can stop you. I think sometimes you get embarrassed. Like I’ve have had this like funny thing where I’ve said in the past. Whereas like I [00:25:00] pick a word of the show. I just, for some reason I, I repeat the same word over and over one episode and it’s not until we’re done. And it’s. It’s Bruce doesn’t even catch it while editing because he barely edits anything we say,
Bruce: oh yeah, we don’t edit anything.
Connie: Yeah. And so I’ll like happen to listen to it or someone will email us, like you said, “fantastic” 38 times. I’m like, I’ve turned it into like, oh, well, you know what, it’s the, it’s the word of the show? like, you know, do some squats while you hear that. Or I know, reward yourself with a goldfish. So I mean, I, and there’s been some negativity on that as well. And you know what? It is, what it is. So I just try not to let it bother me. You do have good days and bad. And, but like Bruce said, it’s you find yourself once you kind of let that negativity in your life, as long as it doesn’t stop you, but you grow from it then.
Yeah.
Bruce: It’s easy to say. Don’t let it bother you. When someone nitpicks you for a word you say wrong, or your accent, or, oh yeah. Inaccurate [00:26:00] information that you gave out, not on purpose, you know, we’re not trying to influence anybody like that. It’s easy to say, don’t let it bother you, but it bothers you it bothers everybody. If you’re a human being, you take negative information about yourself and it makes you feel bad for a second, but then you gotta get over it.
Justin: And I think to a large degree, we, we prioritize that negative information over positive information. We, we hold onto that longer and, and look for it
Bruce: Yeah, well, I mean the world sensationalizes the negativity, right? If you look at the news or social media, the more negative comments a post on social media gets the more it reaches people. So it’s, kind of like, we try to be the opposite.
Connie: Even though i do like controversy. No, I’m just kidding. Yeah.
Bruce: Yeah, we try, we try, we try our best.
Connie: I have two, two very different, I think personalities that battle each other on their daily. Justin, I have my good versus evil.
Bruce: Yeah. But your evil is like more, more in a fun manner. Okay. Yeah. Not an evil way. You’re not trying to hurt anybody.
Connie: I’m haunted mansion evil.
Bruce: Exactly.
Connie: Okay.
Bruce: Should I be worried actually?
A little [00:27:00] No, not at all.
Justin: All right. So I’d like to I’d like to finish up with a game if that’s okay.
Connie: Yeah,
Bruce: Let’s do it.
Justin: All right So one of the things
Bruce: Wait a What kind of game?
Justin: It’s a it’s well, one of the things I do here is I, I rip off other podcasts. So I’m gonna rip you off a little bit.
Bruce: Okay. Oh gosh.
Justin: And this is kind of like my version of, In or Out?. We do like challenges often I’ll present Autumn challenge and I’ll try and balance this challenge with like very positive things and very negative thing and, and to make it a hard decision. So I have one for the, each of you
Connie: Oh, gosh.
Bruce: All right
Justin: who would like to go first?
Connie: Let’s let Bruce go first. All right, I’ll go first. I’ll take one for the team., more quick witted than I am. I’m working on it What is called? Improv? I need work on that. Okay, go ahead.
Justin: All right, Bruce. So Disney wants you to take over Alien Pizza Planet in Disneyland.
Bruce: okay, great!
Justin: you get complete control over the menu, staffing marketing. They’re gonna assign you like a small team of Imagineers that you’re gonna collaborate with. The salary is gonna be at the top of the top of the range for the industry standard. Sound good so far?
All right. There’s a, there’s a [00:28:00] couple stipulations though. It’s character dining.
And you have to do one shift per week as a character attendant.
Bruce: Hmm. Can I pick any character?
Justin: Uh, Yeah. Yeah. You have creative control.
But, uh, you you’ll, you’ll be the attendant. So you have to help this character, like interface with the
guests
Yeah
Bruce: So am I in or out that?
Justin: It’s
Bruce: I might take one for the team and go in. Pizza Planet is so bad. The pizza’s so bad and I could fix it so easily.
Connie: You think?
Bruce: With my knowledge of the pizza business?
Connie: So easily? That’s really… okay.
Bruce: I could easily fix Pizza Planet, the quality of the pizza, by the like, okay, that’s all that really needs to be fixed is the quality of the product they serve
Justin: So you like the decor in there? It’s pretty cool.
Bruce: Yeah, the decor’s great. I love Pizza Planet themeing. I love the decor, the layout, how they serve people all fine. The only thing that’s bad products that they serve
Connie: The food. Yeah.
Bruce: So I could [00:29:00] easily fix that. And I think I would take one for the team to actually say Disney has great pizza at at least one location, and I would do that.
Connie: Wait, so what exactly would you do? That’s taking one for the team? You’d have to be in the care.
Bruce: So I work at Pizza Planet basically, and I have to be an attendant to help characters
Justin: yeah
Bruce: with guests for a day, yeah. A shift, one shift. I can do that
Connie: oh, okay. You can do that. I think you could do that.
Bruce: I could fake it for a little bit.
Connie: Yeah. I think that you, you could recharge your social battery. Like if it’s just one shift, that’s plenty of time.
Bruce: Yeah. Like if you said this about any other restaurant and food, I would be out in a second. not worth it, but this. I need to help.
Justin: Thank you. Oh, once again, we appreciate that because I went through, I went to Disneyland last year with a pizza friend of mine and we just took a walk through, the, just to see the inside. We didn’t order anything, but we did look at the tables and that was enough information.
Connie: Yeah.
Bruce: you see the piece pizza on a, a slice of pizza on the plate that they’re serving for, you know, eight or $9. Thats all you need to know,
Connie: Which is weird [00:30:00] because we do have this weird, this little secret that we do have this local pizza shop in our area that is technically like not great. P let me it’s junky pizza.
Bruce: What is it? The Greek pizza.
Connie: It’s like a Greek. Yeah. It’s not really the pizza that we, I be proud to just share and or talk about. So that’s kind of what I thought Pizza Planet could be, because it actually, we craved Yeah. Every once in a while we crave that of junky feeling pizza, but it’s still, it’s not even the,
Bruce: You know what it is, it’s not necessarily the pizza is terrible because everybody likes or has that memory of either a microwave pizza or a home frozen pizza or Dominoes Pizza Hut from when they were kids. Right. So it’s not necessarily that it’s, that it’s so so expensive. Yeah. If it was a dollar for a slice, you’d be like, oh great. Go to pizza planet. You’re gonna get crappy pizza, but it’s a dollar.
Connie: Right. Or the serving was huge. Like
Bruce: I know that, or was a big, giant slice. It’s the way it’s presented and the price and everything that goes together. Pretty [00:31:00] much everything. Exactly.
Justin: Alright so we are fixing Alien Pizza Planet, excellent. All right, Connie, are you ready for yours?
Connie: I think so you might have to explain it a few times and I, it how my mind is right now okay.
Bruce: I’ll help you out.
Connie: All right. thanks Bruce. I need bullet points thanks
Justin: All right, so you, you’ve got a day long. V I P tour.
All right You get to bring 10 of your closest friends or family, whoever you want. Meals are included. You get to pick the place anywhere you want to eat your whole fam.
Connie: whole fam…
Justin: They’re gonna cap it off. If you want with a fireworks cruise.
Connie: Ooh.
Justin: Here’s the stipulation though. Um, Connie, you can’t talk, can’t speak.
Connie: Bruce is definitely in he’s like, can I be invited?
Bruce: Can I host it?
Connie: Yeah. that’s his like best day ever. Wow. Okay. So immediately I’m thinking of my sister and her kids because they haven’t gone to Disney since they were toddlers and they [00:32:00] are now. They’re close to 30 years old, both of them. So I think that would be who I’d
not being able to speak…
Justin: You can still emote. You can like pantomime act things out…
Connie: Oh,
Bruce: What about text?
Justin: uh, We’ll give you a pad, a pad and paper.
Connie: kind of like, so we’ve been watching Stranger Things a lot and it’s fresh in my brain, but Max wrote a note and she was like, instead of writing the words, she just drew a picture
Justin: Okay. That’s the rule! No text, but you can do Pictionary style
Connie: I’m in. know what, a full day with them being able to see their smiles and excitement going on.
Everything. I. I would be overjoyed and maybe not talking would be a good thing because then I could just really absorb what they’re feeling.
Bruce: Yeah. I mean, listen, my stipulation. I know you’d try. But what happens if she fails?
Justin: Oh you’d have to pay.
Bruce: Oh yeah. then I’ll be there to make sure she
doesn’t
Connie: He would be like, okay, where do we find tape? Yeah. put that over you.
Bruce: We’re gonna make sure she can’t talk.
Connie: Yeah, exactly. You know, I think that. [00:33:00] Yeah, that’s a good rule, Bruce. You have to be along with me. You’re invited.
Bruce: Okay. Thank you. I’m one of the 10?
Connie: Yeah. one of the 10.
Bruce: Fantastic.
Justin: Oh, that’s great. And you might even Get a, a couple interesting memories there. The time we went to Disney world with aunt Connie and she was very quiet
Connie: She was quiet actually.
Bruce: I don’t know if I want to go. Why? Because if you can’t talk, they’re all gonna look to me to talk.
Connie: True.
Bruce: And then that may put me in an awkward position.
Connie: My sister’s team talk.
Bruce: That’s true. I can hang out with them.
Connie: She can handle it
Justin: all right, so you’re both good sports here. You both, uh, excellent. Took the, took the challenge. Congratulations.
Bruce: Thank you those were good ones.
Connie: Pretty much do anything. If it involves like something free,
Bruce: you picked the two things like, yeah, she wants to go on all these tours and I wanna fix Pizza
Connie: Yeah,
I’m in, I’ll figure it out.
Justin: All right. Well, again, thank you so much for taking the time, to talk to me today. I appreciate it. A great deal. uh, it’s been a lot of fun.
Bruce: Thank you Justin, for having us this, this was really fun.
Connie: yeah, you’re awesome. And I really appreciate you having us and I love it. Had a great time.
Justin: Everyone out there, if you haven’t [00:34:00] already definitely check out the Unlocking the Magic podcast, definitely check out the Patreon community over there, great people. The podcast, is, it’s definitely one of my favorites.
Connie: We hope you like it.
Easy Diz It 