MouseStation 94 – Collected short subjects
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Welcome back!
We hope that you enjoyed your Thanksgiving weekend. We certainly enjoyed
the break.
Let us hear from you!
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.
If you want to contribute a story for our Monday Magical Moment segment (and
possible inclusion in the Cast Place column here on MousePlanet), you can
either use our email Magical Moment story
form or the toll-free feedback line. (We love it when you use the voice
mail system, because then we can play your call on the show!)
Thanks to our sponsor
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.
This week, we heard our second listener voicemail on how people are using
their Owner’s Locker. Jean from St. Paul, MN called in to say that she loves
Owner’s Locker because they can keep bulky things in Florida, without having
to take them back and forth on the airplanes. In their locker, they keep a
Stir Crazy popcorn popper and a couple of foldable camp stools that they use
when watching the parades in the parks.
If you have any other great ideas for how to use an Owner’s Locker, if you’ve
signed up and are anticipating using your locker, or if you have already used
your locker, send us an
email or call our voicemail and let us know what you think!
Tip of the Week
This week’s tip comes from listener Steve Walker. (Send
in your tip now!)
Steve recommends checking for unlisted single rider lines in the parks.such
as Splash Mountain and California Screamin’.
Mark talked about where he found the single rider line for Screamin’, and
confirmed that the Splash exit is often used for single riders. However, the
best way to do it is still to ask the cast member staffing the attraction,
because they will definitely know the answer.
Featured attraction
This week, we look at the Carousel of Progress
in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom.
The park guide calls the attraction seasonal, but it hasn’t been seasonal
for some time. We’ll have to fix that.
Mark ran down much of the history of the attraction and talked about the
history of the voice of the father and grandfather, as well as the theme songs.
Mike and Mark both love the attraction. (Mark’s son does, too.) It’s a very
“Walt attraction,” with the eternal optimism that he seemed to bring
to everything. The location where it used to be at Disneyland now houses Innoventions,
which has many progressive new inventions on display.
Review system spotlight
This week’s spotlight focuses on Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano at the
Disney-MGM Studios (soon to be Disney’s Hollywood Studios). MousePlanet readers
enjoy Mama Melrose’s, rating
it 3.6 out of five planets on the strength of 13 reviews. Our featured
review this week is a 3-planet review by mickeysgirl17 of Jacksonville, FL.
mickeysgirl17 and her husband loved the appetizers and desserts, though the
main courses were “disgusting.” Despite that, they decided that
they would go back again.
Mark thinks of Mama Melrose’s as serviceable, where he has had some good
meals in the past, but wouldn’t consider it outstanding. He also continues
to claim that he was partly responsible for the demise of the “all you
can eat pasta bowl” dish. He’s just not all that enthusiastic about the
restaurant.
Mike really enjoys the restaurant. It’s got good, but not great, Italian
food. He doesn’t feel that he would do well at if he wasn’t dining with another
person, because it doesn’t bode well for single diners because of the family
atmosphere.
You can also find Mama Melrose’s in our Park
Guide.
Three Wishes
This week, we tried out another new segment, this one called “Three
Wishes .” In it, Mark and Mike will talk about their three wishes
for a park, resort, movie, or other Disney-related topic.
This week, we talked about our Three Wishes for Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Mike’s first wish is to turn the Animation attraction into the attraction
that they have at Disney’s California Adventure, with the addition of a working
animation studio to support it.
Mark’s first wish is to expand the Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream exhibit to
include more cool artifacts from Imagineering and the history of Walt’s life.
Mike’s second wish is that Block Party Bash doesn’t appear at the Studios
or that it closes quickly. Of course, his hatred for the parade has to do
with seven straight hours of listening to the music from a kiosk while waiting
to get into Disneyland for the park’s 50th birthday. Mark got him to admit
that, if the parade’s music was changed, he wouldn’t mind it so much.
Mark’s second wish is to improve the quality of the waitstaff at 50s Prime
Time Cafe and the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater so that he can go back to those places
again.
Mike’s final wish would be to move the Sorcerer’s Hat to another location
in the park that didn’t block anything that he cares about.
Mark’s final wish takes Mike’s wish a step further. He would airlift the
hat and drop it over the Animation Courtyard without the extensions that they’ve
put onto the hat. It would shield the Courtyard from rain and it would match
the theming. Mike likes the idea, too.
To submit your opinion on whether or not we should try “Three Wishes”
again or to submit your own ideas, send
us an email or call our toll-free voicemail.
Magical Moment
This week’s moment came from listener Liana from Simi Valley.
This past April while Liana was at the Disneyland Resort with her family,
she managed to get her entire family Dream Fastpasses by overhearing someone
saying that they were being given out at a nearby location. It helped her
to get her family through all of the attractions in one day, and made her
10-year-old cousin’s first visit a wonderful time.
Mark was impressed that she was able to figure out that they were giving
out Dream Fastpasses from someone racing past her muttering “Fastpasses!”
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 coming up on our one-year anniversary, so we’d love to hear what changes
you’d like to hear us make in the show for our second year. It doesn’t matter
how radical the changes are, or how brutal the comments, let us hear what
you think!
We also wanted to remind you about our MouseFest meet for the podcast. 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. We’ll also
be at PodFest on Friday, as well as all other MousePlanet-sponsored meets.
For more information on the Hustle-tini or any other MousePlanet-sponsored
meet at MouseFest, check out our MouseFest
information page.
We’re also wanted to remind you about our contest to encourage you to donate
to Broadway Care/Equity Fights AIDS. Everyone that donates to the cause through
Mike’s
donor page will receive an entry into the random drawing for an “Anything
Can Happen” bookmark signed by Nicole Bocchi and Henry Hodges, who played
Jane and Michael Banks the night that Mike saw the show. The bookmark includes
a nickel-sized star that was part of a costume worn in the show during the
grand finale. The bookmark says “Mary Poppins, Broadway 2007.” You
can also see a picture of it in our show notes from November
21. This phase of the fundraising campaign runs through December 4, so
you’ve got until then to donate. It doesn’t matter how much you give. Any
donation
will get you entered into the contest.
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
for the combined
feed!
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!
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