MouseStation 54 – Collected short subjects
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Run time 0:34:22
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Send in your suggestions, comments or tips via our email feedback
form or via voicemail on our toll-free feedback line (1-866-939-2278). You
can also make suggestions by replying to this post.
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then we can play your call on the show!)
Thanks to our sponsor, and a contest
Today’s show is sponsored by Owner’s
Locker, a new service that gives you a place to leave your vacation-only
stuff until your next trip to visit the Mouse. Thanks to their generosity,
we’re running a contest. Tell us what you would use an Owner’s Locker for,
either via email or voicemail (1-866-939-2278).
The best or most unique entry (in the sole opinion of the owners of Owner’s
Locker) will receive a free locker with unlimited visits for two years. Entries
are due by Friday, September 21.
Tip of the Week
This week’s tip comes from listener Dave from San Francisco.
Dave just returned from a week at Walt Disney World, and booked himself a
massage at the Mandara spa at the Dolphin after his legs, back and feet were
starting to get really sore. Afterwards, he felt completely rejuvenated and
was ready to hit the parks at full tilt once again.
Mike thinks that the best spa in the Disney area is inside Celebration Health,
which is inside Celebration Hospital. Mark has never had a spa treatment,
so he can’t really express an opinion.
Featured attraction
This week, we look at “it’s a small world” in Fantasyland at both
Disneyland Park and the Magic
Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
Aside from being home to one of the most famous earworms on the planet, the
attraction is still one of the most famous and just about everyone feels that
they should experience it at least once.
Mike convinced Mark to at least recite the lyrics. He refused to sing it,
though, not wanting people to have to deal with his singing again. While Mark
tried on the show to figure out which Disney Channel “star” did
a horrid rap version of it on a Disneymania CD, it was actually just “Fan_3.”
The horrid Orlando Brown song that he was thinking of was “Super Cali”.
Mike has been stuck on the attraction four times for an average of two and
a half hours each time. The longest incident was four hours at Walt Disney
World. He later went to Disneyland and got stuck for an hour on his first
trip. Mike has had his fill of the attraction.
Mark and Mike both pick the original Disneyland version as the hands-down
better version. While the recent upgrade to the Florida edition has improved
it quite a bit, there’s nothing like the original. From the fabulous exterior
to the flume-type ride track (vs. the Pirates-style tracked wide-path water
ride in Florida), from the different scenes (such as the mermaids) to the
portion of the ride outside the show building, the Disneyland version is simply
better.
Of course, the Florida version’s facade is under cover, rather than a huge
exterior facade as in California, because the attractions at Walt Disney World
had to accommodate queues that would keep people out of the frequent Florida
downpours.
Mark also went into the history of what led to the creation of the theme
song for the attraction and where to find the only two dolls representing
the United States in Walt Disney World’s attraction. (Does anyone know if
it’s the same in the Disneyland version?)
Mike mentioned which two Disney on Ice productions featured the attraction.
Review system spotlight
This week’s spotlight focuses on Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café in Tomorrowland
at the Magic Kingdom. The week’s featured
review was a 4-planet review by rbaadmin of Elwood, IL. MousePlanet readers
like Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café, rating
it 4.1 out of five planets on the strength of 15 reviews.
rbaadmin and their family eat there every time that they visit the Magic
Kingdom, but go just before or after meal times because of the trouble finding
a table.
Mark agrees about the difficulty in finding tables, but also notes that it
can be difficult to order for multiple people at once because each of the
three service bays only carries one type of food. If two people (or two adults
plus children) are trying to hold a table and get food from different bays,
it can be difficult to try to get food for everyone and have everyone eat
at the same time.
The entertainment at Cosmic Ray’s is provided by Sonny Eclipse, an Animatronic
alien from New Nork who sings and plays the keyboards (with his unseen backup
group, the Space Angels). Mike and Mark both enjoy listening to him.
For some reason, Mark never gets burgers at Cosmic Ray’s, even though they’re
the same as Pecos Bill’s. He always gets some sort of chicken dish. While
he really enjoys the food there, it drops in his overall rankings due to the
seating and ordering logistics.
Mike agrees, and thinks that it is also messier than most other locations.
Mark recommends the eating area on the patio overlooking the castle as a
nice, quieter dining location if you don’t want to listen to Sonny.
Mike also mentioned Mark’s attempt to interview Kim Barron last December
that was almost complete before they turned Sonny Eclipse on and forced them
to go outside to finish the interview.
You can also find Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café in our Park
Guide.
Ask the Kid
In this week’s segment, Mark asked his 8-year-old son: “What did you think
of the Mary Poppins musical on Broadway?”
Not surprisingly, Mark’s son loved the show. He thought that the part with
Mrs. Corry’s shop (he thought it was her house) was great, especially when
they were choosing the letters that eventually become “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”
His favorite part was Step in Time, especially when Bert tap-dances on the
ceiling.
Mark and his son also want to thank Jim
Hill for telling Mark where the best place to sit was. (Mezzanine level,
audience right/stage left. We’re not giving rows or seat numbers, though.)
That led to another favorite part of the show, where Mary Poppins flew right
in front of us.
Mark has a weak spot for Mary Poppins, and he had tears in his eyes for a
good portion of the show. Mark’s son is still talking about Bert dancing on
the ceiling and the “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” number.
Magical Moment
This week’s moment came in a voice mail from Jeany Sanchez.
Jeany’s Magical Moment happened many years ago when Merlin selected her to
pull out the Sword in the Stone. She was given a medal reading Ruler of the
Realm and a certificate.
Mark noted that the sword never really comes out of the stone, it only pops
up what seems to be 6-12 inches. Mike added that it’s still a lot of fun to
watch and a good photo opportunity.
Mark has seen the show from the audience, but never been selected to participate
as one of the adults who can’t remove the sword before a child pulls it.
Changing the feed, our contest and MouseFest
We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on the new format of shorter, more
frequent MouseStation shows. Currently, MouseStation is published three times
a week, with short subjects on Mondays, featured topics on Wednesdays and
listener feedback on Fridays; the MousePlanetWatch news is published on Thursday.
We’re still currently maintaining the series of three feeds, one for MouseStation
only, one for MousePlanetWatch only and one for both shows.
Based on listener feedback, we will be deciding whether to merge the feeds,
and return to a single feed with all shows, folding MousePlanetWatch into
the main MouseStation feed. That would still leave us with four shows per
week, but there would be only one feed. With the current listener numbers
being fairly even between MouseStation and MousePlanetWatch, it seems as if
there’s a great deal of overlap between the shows.
Please weigh in on the idea of returning to a single feed via email
or by calling our toll-free feedback line at 1-866-939-2278. Don’t forget
that we love voicemails because then we can put your voice on the show!
Don’t forget that you’ve only got until a week from Friday to get your entry
in for our Owner’s Locker contest!
We also wanted to remind you that we have now scheduled our MouseFest meet
for the podcasts. The MouseStation Hustle-tini Meet will begin at 5:30 p.m.
at Classic Concoctions in the Everything Pop food court at Disney’s Pop Century
Resort for Bluetinis to get our nerve up to get up and boogie. We’ll make
sure that we’re in the lobby before 6 p.m. so that we can do The Hustle, then
return to Classic Concoctions or elsewhere to record some more for the podcast.
For more information on the Hustle-tini or any other MousePlanet-sponsored
meet at MouseFest, check out our MouseFest
information page. If you’ve got any ideas on what might make a cool MouseStation
T-shirt for MouseFest, let Mark know!
Wrapping up
Please take a few minutes to complete our listener
survey. It helps us learn more about you and what you like most about
this podcast.
Don’t forget to go to the iTunes podcast directory and give us a good rating!
You can get your MousePlanet (or MouseStation) swag from the MousePlanet
CafePress store and the brand-new MouseStation
CafePress store.
Thanks to our audio engineer and sound editor Steven Ng.
Thank you for listening!
