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Artist Rendering of Disney's Polynesian Resort Tower

Disney News (2/23) – The new tower at the Polynesian Resort, and the Haunted Mansion lounge on the Disney Treasure

3 weeks ago
Episode 1

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In this episode, Chris tells us what to expect from the new tower at Disney’s Polynesian Resort, and Kelli gives us inside details on the Haunted Mansion lounge on the Disney Treasure cruise ship.

Listen to us on your favorite podcast platform or at these links:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/supercalifragilistic-awesome-disney-podcast/id1519529786
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All music for this episode is available through a creative commons license. The background music for the News segment was created by Kevin Macleod: Fuzzball Parade by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5044-fuzzball-parade
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

For more things DISNEY (and Disney food reviews), check out our website: https://scfadp.com

Chris and Kelli, hosts of the Supercalifragilistic Disney podcast, return after a break and express gratitude for their listeners’ support. They discuss various locations that have downloaded their podcast, including Wilson, North Carolina, and Cave Junction, Oregon. They announce the start of season 10, including a special bonus top 10 episode each week, beginning with a list about the Disney treasure. They also discuss changes at Disney parks, such as the end of virtual cues for rides like Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and the potential construction of Villains World at the Magic Kingdom. Additionally, they share their experiences at the Haunted Mansion lounge on the Disney treasure and the new Island Tower at the Polynesian Resort, highlighting its features and amenities.

Show Notes:

  • According to a construction bidding site, Walt Disney World is currently targeting a March 1st start date for construction related to Villains Land and the Frontierland expansion featuring two Cars-themed attractions.

Episode Transcript:
This episode is transcribed using AI. Please excuse any transcription errors.

My name is Chris, and I’m Kelli,

Chris 0:44
and in case you didn’t know, we’re back,

Kelli 0:47
we are back. It has been a minute, and we are thrilled to be back. I was about to explode there, all of a sudden, suddenly, you just got for clipped in the intro. Oh gosh.

Chris 0:58
I was so happy to be doing this again, is with quite a few months. And this is awesome. I love it so much. This

Kelli 1:05
is fun. Oh,

Chris 1:07
okay, you’re wearing haunted mansion ears. Yeah, they’re the ones with the little singing busts, uh huh, which is on brand for me, and on brand and adjacent as for you, not even a Jason. No, no.

Kelli 1:18
It’s on topic. It’s on brand and on topic. I’m on topic. I mean, really can’t, you know, can’t beat haunted mansioneers. No,

Chris 1:27
certainly not. Um, we have had a so I went back to see where we had downloads from. Yeah, and just can’t believe how we’ve been supported throughout the whole break with the break, yeah, just downloads and downloads and downloads are so grateful. But we did have places we’ve never mentioned before. Okay, Wilson, North Carolina. It’s just 40 miles east of Raleigh. Listen to this, the volus Simpson whirly gig Park is in Wilson, North Carolina. Whirly gig, yes, these are like statues that blow in the wind and bolus. I

Kelli 2:05
did not know, that’s what they were called. I don’t know.

Chris 2:08
I mean, maybe they just made it up for that. I don’t know. But volusi gig, and vola Simpson was a person who put this, these sculptures together there.

Kelli 2:18
She founded the whirly gig. He founded whirly gigs like he I don’t really make the first break. I

Chris 2:23
don’t know about all that. Maybe. I mean, go, let’s go. I didn’t do a whole bunch of research on Volusia, Viola. Volus, oh. Volus, how you spell that? V, O, L, L, i, s, okay. Like Holly. I was like, you put too many notes. Don’t go through all these notes. And yeah, here we are. She said, viola, no. Bolis. Simpson, okay, whirly gig Park, okay. Wilson, North Carolina. Is bola still with us, sir? I don’t believe so I could be wrong. But again, I didn’t do a whole lot of research on bolis, but it seems like quite a character, okay? And,

Kelli 2:56
yeah, well, I mean, inventor of the worldly gigs. I

Chris 2:58
didn’t, I don’t say that, maybe, but I don’t think, I don’t know about that. Oh, man, we’re already in top form. Cave junction, Oregon City goes by its name by virtue of its location at the junction of redwood highway and caves highway. It’s a junction, you see, okay,

Kelli 3:19
but it’s a junction. It’s only got one half of the name. It would be like red cave junction. Cave junk. Cave

Chris 3:27
junction. Like, I feel like we are getting off on already tangents I might

Kelli 3:32
have I probably shouldn’t have eaten the circus peanuts because they are basically pure

Chris 3:37
sugar. I agree no one should ever eat circus peanuts. Circus peanuts are

Kelli 3:41
good, but they’re basically pure sugar. And I don’t know that that that’s, that’s my best move going into the Recording

Chris 3:49
Studio City, California. Oh, this is fun stone throw from Hollywood. This is the home to the massive CBS Studio Center, which was home to the Mary Tyler Moore Show Entertainment Tonight was there. That’s cool. And this is the home of the Big Brother house, which I have never watched even one minute of.

Kelli 4:07
I think I watched, like a little bit of one episode of the first

Chris 4:12
season. I just think this means we probably get discovered.

Kelli 4:15
Oh, absolutely, absolutely, okay.

Chris 4:19
Else near Port Cheshire in the UK, in England, beautifully quaint town, port town on in Cheshire, England, on the river mercy, not far from Liverpool, like the cat. That’s where the cat is clearly from. Obviously

Kelli 4:31
they have blue cats there. That float was not blue. Cheshire Cat was not blue. It was like blue and black. Oh,

Chris 4:39
oh my gosh, so purple and blue, purple and dark purple. You are thinking of that cake that that guy made show but he made a Cheshire Cat using the colors of his favorite football team.

Kelli 4:59
Oh, that was chiggs. No, his name was chiggs. Was it chicks? Yes, it was chiggs.

Chris 5:05
Oh, why did I think it was the one that won that year? No, it was

Kelli 5:08
chicks. He wore a different pair of glasses in every episode. You never believe me.

Chris 5:13
Whole of the podcast on the Great Bridge making show, we are clearly off to a great start.

Kelli 5:18
We are right on topic. As for you. You are way over

Chris 5:22
in any case. Thank you so much to all these folks that continue to download our podcast, and thanks to these specific towns, including where we are clearly huge in the UK,

Kelli 5:31
absolutely. And this is officially the start of season 10, season 10, and we’re gonna do something really cool for season 10. Several things really cool, sort of as they come to us, we’re gonna record. The first thing is we’re gonna record, and we’re gonna do a special bonus top 10 episode every week. So something top 10. So what’s

Chris 5:51
our first top 10 bonus? The Disney treasure. Disney treasure. Why would we do that? Because

Kelli 5:56
we went on it. So our first one is this week. They’ll be released on Wednesdays, and that’s going to be the Disney treasure top 10 on the bonus bonus there. We’ll also have some 10th anniversary merch and things like that. We’re just, in general, pretty excited about, oh,

Chris 6:10
so excited, so excited. Okay, are you ready for some Main Street action?

Kelli 6:14
Let’s hear the news, honey.

Chris 6:16
All right, so at least for now, it is the end of virtual cues. Obviously, we have missed a lot of news, but we’re thinking up here right where we left off. It’s the, effectively, the end of virtual cues for now, because the two rides that still have access to virtual queue sign ups, Tiana’s Bayou adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy, CoSM rewind, are moving away from virtual cues and going to standby line and lightning lane. You can still do lightning lane,

Kelli 6:46
but Star Wars didn’t have virtual queue

Chris 6:48
that has, uh, they may have at some point, but now, Star Wars, right now, is purely lightning lane and standby. Okay, the virtual cues are used in place of standby. So these rides had no standby lines at all. Just got up early in the morning, tried to get on the virtual queue and try to get later the day, right? And so that’s going away. Now they have standby and lightning light, okay, just like all the other rides. So right now, there are no more rides with virtual cues, I’m sure if some other big right,

Kelli 7:20
like an opening attraction, yeah,

Chris 7:22
then they’ll reintroduce it, I’m sure. Okay, right now, there are no rides of virtual queues, which should simplify things for people a little bit, little bit. Yeah. Okay. Now this is just a rumor, okay, I think it’s probably part rumor, part real. But the rumor is, is

Kelli 7:39
it from w d, W N T, okay, well, then at least we can believe

Chris 7:44
it. Construction will begin on villains world around March, the first out of the Magic Kingdom, so that we know that they, they’re going to do something huge over there, some big expansion. They’re, they’re eliminating the Rivers of America. And we anticipate that there’s going to be a Cars Land, with at least two rides there, two attractions there. And we think a villains land. I think that’s the part that is rumored, yeah, that the villains world is actually going to happen.

Kelli 8:17
I thought they had confirmed it was actually going to happen. We just didn’t know when construction

Chris 8:20
maybe, maybe that’s the case the villains world and cars will start next month. Now they just got the the go ahead on their permits to get rid of the Rivers of America. Okay, so that good is definitely about to go down. Okay,

Kelli 8:40
good. Nobody rides that. They don’t. Nobody rides it. And it’s not an actual steam thing. Y’all okay? It’s not, I’ve seen the oil that gets put into that that in quotes River, and it’s not good. It’s not good for the environment. I’m surprised there aren’t people out there picketing that they’re killing ducks. I’ve just say it. You know what your T shirt says. Rage consumes me. It does, absolutely does, absolutely does. I’ve looked over the bow of that ship, okay? I’ve seen the oil in that river, okay? That poor little, poor little ducks just swimming around in it with their little fluffy tails.

Chris 9:26
Oh, man. Anyway, villains world seems to be on its way.

Kelli 9:32
Okay, good. Oh, excited about that. Have

Chris 9:34
you seen all the videos of little baby tiger back so, oh

Kelli 9:37
my gosh, that is the cutest thing. So you know

Chris 9:41
where the name comes from. I think it’s a Thai word for meatball. What his name is, meatball.

Kelli 9:48
So I don’t want him to be named meatball.

Unknown Speaker 9:52
He’s such a meatball. I

Chris 9:58
think it’s great. You. Nearly a month after he met his debut back so the baby Sumatran tiger is not easier to spot in the Maharaja jungle.

Kelli 10:07
He’s so cute. It’s just as precious as possible.

Chris 10:11
Man. That cat is awesome. Very cuddle worthy, very much. So I think he probably would cuddle. I

Kelli 10:19
mean, I don’t know. I saw some of the like, the, what do you call them? The zoologist people like trying to get him to come to them and all. I don’t know that they encourage cuddling.

Chris 10:31
Well, his mom is like, tolerates him, knocks him down, yeah, thinks he’s a big boy. And she’s just like, okay, so super, super sad news here. Okay, Jelly Rolls. My title for this segment is Jelly Rolls. No, that

Kelli 10:55
is so sad, yep, closing

Chris 10:56
its doors permanently on April the 19th.

Kelli 10:59
That’s so sad. So we won’t get to go again before it’s closed. We’re never

Chris 11:03
again going to be able to make plans to go that we don’t follow through on well.

Kelli 11:09
And I think that’s the problem is, like, there’s so much to do at Disney, it’s hard to get there, right? Like, you really have to be staying at the boardwalk to make it a thing, right? Or you’re coming from off property somewhere specifically to do it, and there’s

Chris 11:25
and there are other dueling piano bars in Orlando, and they’ve got a howl of the moon and some other places. But, you know, we we left Epcot on our last trip. We left Epcot and went to abracadabra, and loved it. Yeah, we loved that. And that was because it was a little bit more of a end, end of the day, yeah, after a long day at the park kind of a thing, Jelly Rolls just feels more like you make a specific plan to go do that, you know, yeah,

Kelli 11:51
yeah, where we could pop into abracadabra Jelly Rolls. You got to get there. You got to get, you know, seating. A lot of this cover, yeah, I know. But man, we loved it. It was so good, such a good time. They didn’t play any of the nasty stuff, which was such a bummer.

Chris 12:07
Um, see stuff that all the you know, I know Mickey doesn’t allow it. Mickey doesn’t allow, you know, the last time I went there was when I went to Disney by myself, and I took my time. And you know what? Here’s

Kelli 12:20
what here’s what I’m gonna say. I’m sick and tired of hearing about that trip was that you took where you got up in the morning and jogged and you lounged around and didn’t kill yourself, and you went to Jelly Rolls at night. I’m tired. I’m sick and tired of hearing that trip, because every time you take me, you absolutely drag me to my death, and I’ve got blisters on my feet. I’m

Chris 12:40
sick and tired of being together. That’s blamed for that when we all know it’s

Kelli 12:44
not me. It is not me.

Chris 12:48
Lakeshore Lodge has reached third floor construction at Fort wilderness. This is the new this is the new DVC resort they’re building. Okay? It was originally going to be called, I think, reflections, or something along those lines. Then the word came down that we’re not doing it at all. Now they are building it, but it’s going to be the Lakeshore Lodge. Okay? It’s going to have waterfront like water transportation and all that fun stuff. Okay, looks like it’s going to be great. You’re building it on where the Old River Country site used to be. Is

Kelli 13:17
it going to be more like upscale living in wilderness area, like an actual, actual resort. Yeah, this will be a resort, your natural resort. It’s not going to be like, you know, roughing it.

Chris 13:32
They’ve got their rough in IT area. There’s going to be a sign out front that says, Don’t worry, Kelli, this is fine. You’re

Kelli 13:41
not roughing it here. I don’t like to rough it.

Chris 13:46
The Disneyland, it’s a small world is getting a new verse to celebrate 70 years. That’s nice, yep. So the verse was written by Richard Sherman, who we all know. The Sherman Brothers did so many things, and before he died last May, at the 95 years old, he wrote these new lyrics to celebrate the 70th anniversary. Mother Earth unites us in heart and mind, and the love we give makes us humankind. Through our wondrous land, we stand hand in hand. It’s a small world. After all, it’s really cute. It’s really, really cute. I don’t know. I think it’s aspirational, is what I think?

Kelli 14:25
Well, it is. I mean, it’s a small world. Is an aspirational ride. But what I’ll say, though, is, is it very like? Is it should we have really gone to Dick Sherman on his deathbed and been like, can you write us two more verses? Because the 70th is going to be next year, and we think you could be dead, we just don’t want to risk it if

Chris 14:48
we heal one more verse out of you.

Kelli 14:51
We just don’t want to risk it, Dick, could you just give us one more verse before you die? I mean, did they also have him write like a four? Long musical.

Chris 15:01
There’s so many songwriters out there. Hello.

Kelli 15:03
They could have read one verse, But you know what I heard, Dick could be going soon. So let’s go. He’s in his 90s. Let’s just rock by and see if he can write us another verse before he passes. That feels a little bit harsh.

Chris 15:20
Little crack the whip on he had done anything a while

Kelli 15:25
before he dies. This one’s about to go tell you what. You better buy some insurance.

Chris 15:33
Think about it that way, but I’ll let you say it out loud. I

Kelli 15:36
mean, I’m glad we do have one last hurrah from from big Sherman. I just

Chris 15:41
you know, okay, well, are you ready for Tomorrowland?

Kelli 15:47
Well, you’re doing Tomorrowland. I’m World Showcase.

Chris 15:49
Why do I keep forgetting that? I

Kelli 15:52
don’t know why you keep forgetting it. Because you wrote the notes about something that we have yet to do. Yes, that’s right. Okay. And so you’ve told me several times that I’m Tomorrowland, and I’m like, Nope, I know, but look at you. I would like to point out that you finished your new segment in 10 minutes. Music hasn’t even stopped yet. So good for you. Look at you turning over some new leaf only

Chris 16:20
did, like, a few stories. Well, good for you. All right. So we just did the Disney treasure, and which we had never done before. No, along with some of Yahoo who had never done a fork is great. And in this summer, we are going to the poly we’re gonna be staying in the new island tower at the Polynesian resort. That’s right, so excited. And so my beloved Gamecocks played in Orlando in Citrus bowl this new year, this past January. 1, sad for them, but I got to go to Orlando. I mean, kind

Kelli 17:01
of sad for us too. It was sad for us, very sad for us, specifically

Chris 17:07
against the Illinois lion, I fans, but your coach is a jerk.

Kelli 17:11
Yes, your coach is a coach is a jerk.

Chris 17:15
And so what I did was, anytime I wasn’t doing citrus bowl stuff, I was hanging out at the Polynesia as you would, as you would, who wouldn’t? I would, as you I did, and I actually had them give me a tour of the new island tower before we go stay there. So here are my favorite elements in no particular order, okay, that we’re gonna get to experience when we stay there this summer. Excited

Kelli 17:37
about it. I’m so excited about

Chris 17:39
it. Okay? I’m assuming that this is going to be my favorite element, but we’ll see the open terraces with these amazing views of the grounds and the fireworks. Now, you have to be staying at the island tower to use these terraces, but they have four of them, and if you look at any of the artist renderings or the photos that have been released, you’ll see these big box cutouts, sort of scattered around the facade of the building, amongst the room balconies and whatnot. These things there. Each one is themed like a different Polynesian island. Oh, I didn’t realize that. Yes, for sure, and they’re, they’ve got this, this beautiful outdoors, you know, air open, air space. And they start like on the lowest ones, maybe like the fifth floor, or something, okay, big. I mean, they’re tall enough to take up multiple floors. And they have these wonderful views of the grounds of Bay Lake. You can see the other resorts. You can see all of the poly, which is beautiful. But you can also see the fireworks that take place at the Magic Kingdom. Which thing is great, you know, Bay, uh, contemporary sort of have it has its spaces, right? You can watch the fireworks. Polly now has these spaces where you can watch the fireworks, you know, including the beach right, beach front there. But they pipe the music in from the fireworks show into those spaces so that you can really fully enjoy that Right, right? And I just again, I just think I I hope that once again, I forget that the the electrical water pageant is a thing that happens, and that I’m going to be sitting in that open space. There’s terror that one of those terraces one night, and then suddenly it goes by, and I’m going to be so thrilled with eight year old joy all over again. So these terraces look amazing. They look phenomenal.

Kelli 19:40
I love key card entry, right, or magic band, right, right,

Chris 19:44
as long as you’re staying at the right Island tower. Yeah, that’s right. Okay. The next thing is the lobby. The lobby here, that really the whole decor of this new area, but it sort of is. Concentrated in the lobby. You know, Disney has caught some flack recently over the blandification of some of its refurbs at the resorts, specifically Boardwalk. They they’ve, I don’t know that. I always agree with the, you know, the Twitter verse or whatever for Disney that says, Oh, they took out this thing that was so beautiful, and now it’s so bland. But there’s been a lot of that online. Okay, nobody will say this about the new island tower. The lobby in particular feels feels real. It feels rich, the materials, the decor, it just all looks like it’s super quality stuff with with high intention, high meaning behind everything. Yeah, they’ve got these chandeliers that hang, by the way, it’s the lobby is two floors tall, and so you can actually go up to the second floor and then look down over the lobby, which is nice. And so they have this mural that spans from the first floor to the second floor that is semi hidden Moana type, you know, all natural tags and all natural materials. And these chandeliers I mentioned are literally made of living moss inside that lobby, yeah, it’s just so yeah. Just just exudes restfulness and natural elements, and it’s just great.

Kelli 21:29
I saw a thing online, I think at some kind of a documentary, that they hired a tattoo artist to draw all of the things that they ended up carving into the columns in the lobby. It’s totally,

Chris 21:43
that totally makes sense, because those columns are beautiful. It really speaks to throwback to Alani, too. Yeah, it’s, it’s wonderful. Yeah, the rooms the same awesomeness. First of all, this is the, these are the first rooms at the poly for DVC members that have one, two and three bedroom type places, thank God for that. They also still have Deluxe studios here at this facility, but now we have the we have doors villas with doors locked in, kids out of your bedroom doors. So the same awesomeness associated with other villas, like like the bay Lake tower villas, these had two bathrooms, two full baths, even in one bedroom suites. So whereas, like, say, at the boardwalk or whatever you’re you’re sharing part of the bathroom with whoever else is in the suite, but in this facility, you had two full bathrooms in this is so nice. That’s lovely. And again, as we always say, laundry in the room, which is a game changer, game changer for packing, yes, all changes the way you fly, all of it and everything. Yes, all of it. So yeah. So the rooms are great. One thing I forgot to look for was whether or not they had ceiling fans in the bedrooms, because if they do, you’re never gonna want to leave.

Kelli 23:06
I love a ceiling fan.

Chris 23:08
I mean, that was that we felt that at the that’s why

Kelli 23:13
it made a difference. It does. We, the one we stayed in the grand Flo didn’t have ceiling fans,

Chris 23:18
right? So, so So this may be a little bit weird, but I’m gonna go with the next thing is the tower configuration, just the way they’ve aligned the towers in general. It feels like there was a lot of consideration around the building footprint and the pool and lawn configurations. The best example for why is in the afternoon the Sun sets behind the tower, so you actually get shade over the pool and the lawn areas, which make for just a delightful afternoon, even in the summer times with the shade over there. So the pool is in shade, the lawn is in shade. And you know what we learned from Riviera is what they’re doing with lawns there these days, with all the activities and the there’s just those are just really cool. They bring a lot of energy, but like, dialed down.

Kelli 24:14
I know we’ve never actually experienced that, because you drag me all over the parks, but you’re promising that on this trip that I will get to experience the resort on, I believe the word you used was multiple days.

Chris 24:27
I say, here in my notes, I say, I can easily imagine a cocktail by the pool in the afternoon on one of my many down days,

Kelli 24:34
many days, many, many down days. Okay, how many am I? And I Yeah, and why? No, I get it. I get it. I’m very excited about that. I don’t

Chris 24:43
know what y’all are gonna do, but that’s what I’m gonna do. Yeah, even the balconies allow for these expansive view the balconies of the rooms allow for for many of them allow for views of the grounds, but also of the Magic Kingdom at the same time, which is nice, yeah? Okay, the pool, you. A wonderful now, it’s pretty basic pool compared to, say, the volcano pool over at the main property, which is not a far walk, but that’s a pretty high bar to set anyway, that the poly pool is kind of

Kelli 25:16
nice. It’s that walk in type of situation. I love it walking forward because

Chris 25:20
zero entry and yes, this has a zero entry pool. Also just doesn’t have a volcano for you to slide down. Right? Okay, so, yes, zero entry pool. It’s also got one of those, like sunning shelves, where it’s like in the water, but not where you can just sit there and in the cool water, you know. So it’s got one of those. And then tons and tons of seating. Looks like there’s plenty of seating. It’s got a huge hot tub that seats like 10 people. Nice. Yeah,

Kelli 25:46
Holly had a good hot tub too, right? Literally, like an infinity hot tub,

Chris 25:50
right? And where that you can turn around and watch the Yes, I know. And then they have the Moana splash pad there, where she’s on her canoe. Yeah, though wailu Bar and Grill is there, so it’s got its own open air dining situation with a crazy, cool menu that deserves its own segment. But one note is that it’s quick service for breakfast and then sit down for lunch. Casualties.

Kelli 26:22
Good. To take a little bit, a little bit of the the weight off of Captain Cook’s little

Chris 26:28
bit, yes, for sure, because that’s a good, that’s a good. And then, like I said, the menu looks tremendous and totally worth its own segment. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, that’s the island tower. I’m super excited, and I’m sure we’ll do something fun from there. Sure we will. Okay, World Showcase, World show.

Kelli 26:47
Yes, World Showcase. That’s me, and I’m gonna do the Haunted Mansion lounge on the Disney treasure. So has anybody ever heard of this? I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s it’s been around a little bit, so we talked about it before we went but, but there weren’t a lot of details released, right? So it’s one of those things where we’ve seen a lot of pictures, yeah, right. We’ve seen some of the menu items, but I had no idea really what it was going to feel like, Sure. And so that’s what I want to cover on this segment, is like, what is it like to actually go there, right? We’ve seen tons of pictures. It’s gotten a lot of press because it’s a cool lounge. But what is it really like? You know, in practical reasons? Well, first of all, it is a ride lovers dream, like so many callbacks, so many amazing things to look at and honestly, just sit there and take in like you and I went in, sat down on one of the couches, and it was like, oh, that’s that, oh, that’s that, oh, that’s that. Like,

Chris 27:44
all around every time you go in there, there was something

Kelli 27:48
you notice something different, right? So it feels a bit like, like what I would imagine if you sat in the dining room scene of the ride, sure, you know, because, like, there’s stuff going on around you. There’s other people there. It’s not quiet, it’s loud. In fact, that’s right, yeah. And so it feels like a lot going on. And that’s what I would imagine sitting down at that table would feel like, because

Chris 28:16
you know that the ghosts that are in the rest of the mansion aren’t just gonna stay in their spot, right? They’re coming through there too. Absolutely, yeah,

Kelli 28:22
yeah. So I would say the ambiance exceeded my expectations, like even from walking in, you know that little, tiny hallway entrance area that all exceeded my expectations, like it was, it was truly spot on from from a haunted mansion, ride lovers, dream, I would say the sound loop is about 15 minutes long. Okay, so what you’re hearing also sort of spotlights things around the room, like the chair. You call that the Donald Duck chair,

Chris 28:56
Donald Duck chair, or the face chair, face chair,

Kelli 28:59
right? Whatever. Okay, so there’s that chair, there’s part of the sound loop highlights that. There’s a sound loop with like a box that opens and close. There’s a sound loop with some of the portraits on the wall. Sound loop of the clock, you know, that goes around and around. And then also behind the bar is what looks like a big mirror, but it’s really a screen, a big screen, and part of the sound loop will have images there, specifically Leota. She shows up there behind the bar. I think maybe the hitch hiking goes, yeah, the ghost and stuff. So the whole room is part of the sound loop. Is the best way to describe that, like you are immersed in the environment, and part of that sound loop, it does repeat, because I, I said, in there, sat there

Chris 29:45
for a little while, long enough so, you know, you, you, you don’t recognize that it is looping. No for when you had to be in there for quite a while, quite a while, to really recognize

Kelli 29:56
Yes, well, and when I went back to get the souvenir mugs and. Had to order multiple drinks to get the souvenir mugs I was in there for a while. So anyway, so 10 of 10 would recommend, from an ambience perspective. Side note, kids can come into the Haunted Mansion lounge. So there are lounges on the ship that are adults only, but kids can come into the Haunted Mansion lounge, not after a certain time of day, but for the most part, they can come so they do have kids drinks. They also have a mocktail menu. Now here’s what I will say. Is having kids in the lounge, in any lounge, really is less than ideal for those of us who take the Haunted Mansion very seriously. You take it very serious, yes, okay, we’re talking about death and damnation, and I can’t have children laughing in such a such a moment, such a somber place. Yes, and I feel like, you know, out of respect for the dead, we could at least tone that back a bit. Um, another side note is the lounge is dark, like you’re not reading a book in here. You’re not reading a book, no, because it’s too dark. I did take one in the first time, and I was like, yeah, that’s not gonna happen here. Too dark. You’re not reading a book in here. I mean, maybe if you took an itty bitty book light,

Speaker 1 31:17
okay, but, but you would need to plan ahead for that. That’s a

Chris 31:22
brand, by the way, small lights in our family, itty bitty book lights,

Kelli 31:28
not sponsored, but hey, it’d be the book light. If you would like to sponsor, please let me know. Open to it for sure. So you’re not reading a book, okay? It’s dark and the reception is horrific, so you’re not gonna just lounge in there forever, because you’re really cut off from the outside in a dark way. So it is set up that you’re gonna enjoy the ambiance, but eventually you’re gonna be like, Okay, we’ve got to go all right. You’re not gonna stay there all day, which was one of my stated goals on the cruise. So that’s it. Ambiance. Fantastic. 10 of 10,

Chris 32:01
whatever you love the Haunted Mansion. There’s no rating scale that, right? No, no, no. They hit every

Kelli 32:07
note they do. So second of all, the drinks. Yeah, right. So folks have said that they’re all like, sickly sweet, and I would agree with that. I was not super impressed with the drinks. Now, look, y’all, this is a bar. Order whatever you want. You don’t have to order off of the special menu, okay, this is a bar. And what I will say is the bartenders on the cruise, all of them are phenomenal, and they can make whatever you want. So order what you want. Don’t get focused so much on what’s available. I think the menu they looked at as, let’s go really creepy weird with it and see what we can do. And some of it is almost too savory, and so they added a ton of sugar in there to try to even that out. And it ends up just being sort of a sickly sweet concoction that you’re not super thrilled about. There’s one thing I will say is they have a challenge on the menu called the Chilling Challenge. And if you can unlock that portion of the menu, it actually unlocks a drink for two people that served on a candelabra, and it is the restless spirits experience for two and it is. It’s special looking. And everybody that I talked to was like, we won’t be able to drink this and walk out of here because I sat next to the bar. I mean, I sat at the bar when I went in the second time, and people on both sides of me ordered it, and they were like, we’re not going to make it through this. So I’ll go over a couple of the drinks. All of them I thought were very tequila forward, and I’m not. I don’t do tequila. So I actually struggled to find some stuff that I would like on this menu. But you’ve got regions beyond which is absolute raspberry, Blue Curacao, bubble gum, cream and black cherry. It’s just as sweet as it sounds. That sounds very sweet, just as sweet as it sounds happily never after, which is gray goose. Gray goose, lemon, Apple and black cherry. Still, it’s got some of that sour bit to it, but think of it as like a, you know, like the taste of a nerd, right? It’s still sweet. It’s just got the sour nerd candy,

Chris 34:24
your candy, not an actual nerd, an actual nerd, nerd candy, the final

Kelli 34:30
vowel. Now, this is one served in a souvenir mug. Now here’s what I’m going to say about the souvenir mugs. Okay, y’all, these are nice. These are nice souvenir mugs. So this is the type of quality stuff that you would get from, like trader Sam’s, okay? These are, like, porcelain. These are, these are nice mugs. Okay, these are the real deal. And they’re tall, they’re big and so almost like the tiki things that you get from Trader Sam’s again. These are crap. Specifically for Disney. Okay, so the final val is $50 and that comes served in the bride souvenir cup that is mezcal, which is basically tequila, amaretto, strawberry, mango, lime and hot sauce. Now, I ordered that that comes also with, like, two dried orange slices on it. I struggled to make it through that because of the hot sauce. It just, it kind of turned my stomach. I didn’t like it, but also the tequila, not a huge fan, but I ordered it because I wanted the cup. Now, when they say the bride, it’s not the bride like you think. It’s not Constance, okay, she looks more like a siren on a ship. You know what I mean? Like, almost

Chris 35:47
like the like

Kelli 35:48
she’s attached to the bow of the ship. Oh, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah. The other one is called the last catch that served in a mariner souvenir cup. That’s old forester statesman monin rose mango and Marigold, lime and pineapple, I could not drink hardly any of that. I didn’t like either of those, but, but we got souvenir cups. They have some zero proof stuff, sympathetic libations. They have spirit free bottled soda that they call potions, that are $5 each, some mocktails. And they also have a hat box ghost sipper. Now this sipper is supposed to come with one of the specialty potions. What are the $5 bottled potions? They get pretty adamant that you that you get both of those things. So don’t think you can go in there and say, I want the sipper, but I don’t want a potion. They’re gonna say you you need to order a drink, like, I have to give you a drink with this. Yeah, and drink

Chris 36:46
it out of that sipper, right? It’s a thing which, by the way, you can get that sipper other places you

Kelli 36:50
can. Yes, yes. So finally, just a few important notes. Number one, go there for the specialty portraits. It’s a must do, absolutely. Go there for the portraits. Avoid peak times, like between meals or just before dinner with too many people, it’s crazy loud and you miss the ambience. So I recommend all peak times I was sitting at the bar highly the second time. Highly recommend you sit at the bar if you can, those seats have the best views, especially of what happens at the screen behind the bar, right? So sit at the bar. Also, you’ll notice the bartenders giving things in certain drinks, like a glow cube or a specific coaster or whatever. You know, you can just ask for those, like I did, and you may leave with a couple of glow cubes and a few coasters that you didn’t buy a drink for. They’ll give them to you, especially if you’re sitting there with two specialty mugs and you’re not drinking. I recommend going at least twice to really get the ambience. If you are a huge haunted mansion fan, go three times. Make sure easter eggs. One of them is for the portraits you oh yeah, the portraits, yeah, absolutely, highly recommend. It exceeded my expectations. It’s, it’s a unique lounge unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. And I loved everything. They

Chris 38:16
nailed it. They could have, they could have really missed the mark when it comes to haunted mansion, but they totally nailed it. They did. They nailed it, you know

Kelli 38:23
what? So did you? Oh, thanks, honey,

Chris 38:27
folks. That is today’s show. Hope you enjoyed it. Hope you were as glad to be back as we are. And you know what you do now, you go out to wherever you get your podcast, because we’re all over them. We’re everywhere. If you go to where you get your podcasts and leave us a rating, that is super helpful. If your podcast service, like, say, your apple podcast allows you to leave a review, leave that because that’s some real good Google juice to help people find the show

Kelli 38:58
absolutely and if you’re looking for more things, Disney. Visit SCF, adp.com, that’s s for Super, C for Kelli, F for fragileistic. A for awesome, D for Disney, P for podcast. And be sure to tune in Wednesday of this week for our top 10 favorite things about the Disney treasure.

Chris 39:15
That’s right. Look for us out there on Instagram. That’s really the only social service that we’re hanging out on these days, and Kelli promises she’s going to do a much better job of that great at the socials. Let’s just be honest. But we’re going to try to hope springs turn to be great on it, and we’d love to hear from you in that case. So if you see us out there, join us for the conversation. Let us know what you think, and the more the merrier. Absolutely, and with that, we will see you real soon. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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Episode 1
Disney News (2/23) – The new tower at the Polynesian Resort, and the Haunted Mansion lounge on the Disney Treasure