A Collection of Short Subjects

Featured attraction

This week, we look at the Disneyland Monorail.

Mark talked about riding the Disneyland Monorail with George McGinnis and
his daughter Shana. George was pointing out some of the changes that he had
to make while designing the train, and Mark watched the face of the monorail
pilot as he slowly realized who was sitting in his cockpit. On the return
trip from Downtown Disney, they had a mother and son join them in the cockpit,
and the son turned out to be a huge monorail fan and was thrilled to ride
with George and asked for his autograph when they all got off. George wrote
a two-part series for MousePlanet on the design of the Disneyland
and Walt Disney World monorails.

Many people think that, during the redesign of the Disneyland Hotel and the
creation of Downtown Disney and the Grand Californian Hotel, the monorail
station was moved away from the Disneyland Hotel. Actually, it’s quite the
opposite. Since the building adjacent to the monorail station was demolished
to help pave the way for the new construction, it could be said that the hotel
was moved away from the monorail station.

Review system spotlight

This week’s spotlight focuses on the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater at the Disney-MGM
Studios. MousePlanet readers are luke-warm on the Sci-Fi Dine-In, rating
it 3.3 out of five planets on the strength of 26 reviews. Our featured
review this week is a 2-planet review by Chicago Wookiee, better known as
Anthony Uriaus of Chicago, IL.

Anthony didn’t really think highly of the service or the food. He used the
word “dry” a lot. He brought a first-time Walt Disney World visitor
to experience an unusual dining option. He still wasn’t thrilled.

Mike has a love-hate relationship with the restaurant. He loves the atmosphere
and hates everything else. Well, he has had some great service there, but
the food is really kind of “eh.” He’s also disappointed that the
loop of movie trailers isn’t longer. While the car booths are fun, it can
make it difficult to have a conversation. He recommends going for an appetizer
and a dessert and leave it at that.

Mark as always heard that the desserts are the best part of the meal, so
he was surprised at Anthony’s description of one of his desserts were dry.
Mark really used to love the names of the dishes (like “the Burger that
ate Cincinnati), but they’ve removed those names from the menu. That really
won’t make much difference, though, as he wasn’t likely to go there to eat
again anywhere. Of course, there’s a lot to be said for sitting in the back
seat of a convertible watching the trailer for Robot Monster.

Mike also noted that it’s not a good date restaurant.

You can also find the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater in our Park
Guide.

Last week, Mark & Mike forgot to talk about the fabulous decor at Pizzafari,
so they very quickly revisited the restaurant. It has six differently-themed
rooms. The Home Room has animals that carry their homes with them, such as
turtles, snails and kangaroos. The Nocturnal Room features animals that stay
awake during the night. The Upside Down Room has animals that live upside
down, like opossums and bats. The Camouflage Room features animals that blend
in with their surroundings. The Four Seasons Room is kind of a catch-all.
The Bug Room features all kinds of bugs. The rooms are really cool, with decor
pretty much everywhere. Even if you’re not going to eat there, you owe it
to yourself to stop in and take a look around.

Ask the Kid

This week’s question comes from listener Jason, who asked: “If you could
have any movie be put into the Great Movie Ride, which would it be and why?
Would you take out one of the movies in there to make room for yours?”

Mark’s son would take out Alien because he wouldn’t want to have to deal
with the smoke. He’d replace it with Over the Hedge, though it’s not Disney.
(They have Wizard of Oz, and Wizard of Oz isn’t Disney!) If he had to do a
Disney film, he first suggested Mary Poppins. When advised that Mary Poppins
was already in there, he’d pick Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He then tried to
verbally recreate the chase scene with Eddie and Roger in Benny the Cab after
escaping Judge Doom at the bar.

To submit your own questions for “Ask the Kid,” send
us your question to ask Mark’s son.

Magical Moment

This week’s moment came from listener Rickey.

A Guest Relations cast member gave Rickey and his friend Magical Moments
certificates proclaiming them Honorary Princes for the day after telling her
how much they loved Disney and how they wanted to make Walt Disney World an
annual vacation. Rickey framed his certificate so that he can remember his
great trip.

Mike loved being able to give Magical Moments certificates to guests, and
was always able to find Mickey Mouse to sign the certificate whenever he needed
him.

Feedback and MouseFest

Send us feedback 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!

We’re trying to decide what to do on holidays when the main MousePlanet site
is not publishing new content for the day. The next instance will be Thanksgiving,
when MousePlanet will not publish on Thursday or Friday that week to allow
staff to enjoy the holidays. Should we publish the show on those days anyway,
or should we take the days off with the rest of the site? In that particular
instance, it will be a MousePlanetWatch show and a Listener Feedback show
that will be skipped, though we would miss Short Subjects on Christmas Eve
and New Year’s Eve in December. Obviously, it’s not a common thing. There
are a very limited number of days that MousePlanet does not publish. It’s
pretty much just Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Memorial Day and Labor
Day. We did do a show on Labor Day this year, but we don’t know whether that
mattered to anybody. What do you think? The show is for you, so we’ll follow
your lead. Do you want us to publish shows during the holidays, or is it OK
to miss shows? Let us know via email
or by calling 1-866-939-2278.

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

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Thanks to our audio engineer and sound editor Steven Ng.

Thank you for listening!

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