Trade City, USA with Steven Miller

MouseStation 408 – Trade City, USA with Steven Miller

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Show run time 0:50:15

On today’s show, Steven Miller talks about the Trade City, USA pin event taking place August 27-29 at Epcot’s World Showplace. Also, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Tusker House, this week’s Twitter/Facebook poll and some listener feedback.

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Feature: Trade City, USA with Steven Miller

Recently, Mark talked with Steven Miller, Manager of Disney Trading, about the Trade City, USA pin trading event.

Steven talked about what a pin event is, some of the event’s history, what takes place there, and what’s coming specifically for this year’s event. This year, guests will be visiting the town of Trade City, which contains Pin Trading University and the Museum of Pin-tiquities from the themes of the last two years. The town will be celebrating its “Founder’s Day.” There will be special entertainment featuring the residents of the town (including Scoop Sanderson), decor based on the town, pins themed to the town including a mystery set featuring street signs. One huge draw for the event is the ability to trade with guests from all over the world.

For a registration fee of $115, you’ll get admission to the event, two $15 dining coupons, an event T-shirt and other special gifts. A special breakfast reception and a dessert reception have both already sold out.

Sunday will have Vinylmation event tied into the pin event, themed as a new subdivision of Trade City, which will have lots of special events themed to vinylmation. It will also be “public day” for people not registered for the event to check it out.

There are some single-day events this year in addition to the big event, such as Dateline Disneyland 55. There are also events with special pin series created for it, such as Star Wars Weekends. There are some amazing new items coming, including Star Wars Vinylmation. Steven will be back on next week’s show to talk about Vinylmation.

For more information and to register for the event, you can go to the official Trade City, USA page on the Walt Disney World site.

Thanks to Steven Miller for taking the time to talk to Mark, and to Benjamin Thompson for setting up the interview.

Featured Attraction

This week, we look at Kilimanjaro Safaris at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Mark noted that

Review System Spotlight

This week we take a look at the Tusker House Restaurant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. MousePlanet readers love the restaurant, rating it 4.4 out of five planets. Our featured review this week is by suecoppola of Brooklyn, NY.

Sue was disappointed that the African breakfast menu did not include an omelet station. She felt that the restaurant paled in comparison to Boma, and that the character experience was not up to the level of the Crystal Palace or Chef Mickey’s, leading to her giving it a 3-planet rating.

Mark really enjoyed the new menu at Tusker House, and was surprised that Sue was looking for omelets. He felt that, while the characters were a little rushed, his family had enough time with each of them.

You can also find the Tusker House Restaurant in our Park Guide.

Twitter/Facebook poll question

Last week’s question was:

What is your favorite quick-service restaurant at Walt Disney World?

Pecos Bill’s Tall Tale Inn & Cafe actually edged out Flame Tree Barbeque 5-4, with Captain Cook’s, Harry Ramsden Fish & Chips and Casey’s Corner garnering two votes. The rest got one vote each: Beaches & Cream, Boulangerie Patisserie, Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe, Sunshine Season, Everything POP, Cooke’s of Dublin, Earl of Sandwich, The Mara, Rosie’s and Tangierine Cafe.

via Facebook:

• Beaches and Cream
• Flame Tree BBQ – does that count as quick-service?
• Flame Tree BBQ
• Pecos Bill — for the fixin’s bar
• Boulangerie Patisserie!
• Flame Tree BBQ. But we are always exploring new CS eateries that we have not yet tried.
• Cosmic Rays Starlight Cafe
• Despite the website officially calling it “Fast Casual Dining” (not sure what that means), I’m calling the Sunshine Season Food Fair at the Land Pavilion my favortie quick service restaurant at WDW based on the sheer variety of choices you have there. If that doesn’t count, I’d say Flame Tree BBQ. You can’t beat the ribs or the view. I would have said Columbia Harbor House but the last time I was there they did not have the chowder in a breadbowl.
• Harry Ramsden Fish & Chips. Love to get the fish & chips and a pint of Bass and find a bench in the garden.
• This is difficult. I would say Everything POP at Pop Century. Very wide selection and all tastes good.

via Twitter:

• Hot Dogs as Casey’s Corner – our traditional 1st and last stop of any WDW trip.
• captain cooks
• Pecos Bill’s… Not necessarily the best food, but great atmosphere and a lot of great memories there!
• Cooke’s of Dublin, Earl of Sandwich & Mara at AKL. I know they’re not in parks but they’re my favorites.
• Rosie’s at MGM
• My favorite quick-service restaurant at WDW is Pecos Bill’s, mostly because of the fantastic fixings bar.
• tangerine cafe in Morrocco pavilian
• Casey’s Corner

via email

• There are so many excellent quick service restaurants at Disney World but my favorite has to be Pecos Bills.
• My favorite quick service dining location is Pecos Bill’s in the Magic Kingdom. Can’t beat the fixin’s bar!
• Captain Cook’s in the Polynesian (I make everyone with me stop in for an Aloha Pork Sandwhich). Runner up – Harry’s fish and chips (their fish is actually better than what I ate when I lived in England).

Mike’s favorite quick-service locations are Sunshine Seasons and Everything POP, while Mark’s top choices are Flame Tree Barbeque and Pecos Bill’s.

Next week’s question:

• Where’s your favorite spot at Walt Disney World to cool off in the hot weather?

What do you think?

Listener Feedback

Wendy Neeld wrote to say that she and her husband attended opening day of Star Wars Weekends, and she took a photo that she feels really sums up the event.

A young Padawan meets Ahsoka Tano, Mace Windu and Kit Fisto at opening day of this year’s Star Wars Weekends. Photo by Wendy Neeld.

Mary Tesch wrot to say that she was just teasing about Mark stopping his singing. She and her family alos love Yak & Yeti, especially he wok fried green beans.

Wrapping up

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Thanks to our audio engineer and sound editor Steven Ng.

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