Main Street Talk: Disney News, Astro Orbiter History, and Lightning Lane Tips

Main Street Talk: Disney News, Astro Orbiter History, and Lightning Lane Tips

In this episode of the Main Street Talk podcast, hosted by Nick and recorded on May 24th, listeners are updated on the current Disney World news including the quick sell-out of Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party tickets, new shaded areas at Woody's Lunchbox in Hollywood Studios, updates on the Muppet's Courtyard closure, and refurbishments at Magic Kingdom. The episode also features a detailed spotlight on the history and features of the Astro Orbiter ride, along with a tip on using the 'burner ride' strategy for Lightning Lane booking. Plus, a special guest is teased for the next week.

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Transcript

0:07

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Main Street Talk podcast, your go-to podcast for all the latest Disney World news and updates. I am your host Nick. Thank you for joining us again this week for this new episode of Main Street Talk. I am recording on Saturday, May 24th, so all news that I will be discussing will be current to May 24th. And I just gotta say off, off topic, here it is, obviously May 24th, late May, and I live in Western Illinois. I. Or Northwestern Illinois, and the nights are still pretty cold, and it's starting to irritate me, like it's getting like between 45 and 50 every night. So I, I typically leave for work about 6 45 every day. And it is, it's pretty brisk out in the mornings now. I understand that, it's the Midwest and the weather fluctuates, but it seems to me that. It's getting pretty late in spring for it to still be getting 40, 45 degrees at night. I don't know, maybe it's just me. I mean, don't get me wrong, we've had some nice days like today out it's very nice out and a couple weeks ago we hit record highs with 93 degree days, which is crazy. Um, it was very hot for a couple days. That was actually a good thing because we turned on our air conditioner. And it was not running well. So it's, it was good. We caught that in May instead of the consistently 95 degrees days in July, 95 degrees, hot and humid. So I'm glad that, uh, that we caught that in May. We had a repairman come out and he got it fixed up and it's running great now. So. Anyway, enough about my home systems and my local weather. Let's, uh, get into what you actually tuned in for. And that's the news in Disney World. Not a lot of news in Disney World this week. Kind of a slow week. So, we're gonna get to what we do need to talk about, and of course, we'll do our spotlight on attraction segment. So let's get into the news. We're gonna start out with Mickey's not so scary. Halloween party tickets went on sale for everybody on May 22nd, and of course, Disney Resort guests could purchase one week prior to that. But after going on sale on May 22nd, just hours later, Halloween night has sold out. Now, Halloween night is on a Friday, so I'm sure that contributed to it being sold out so quick, but it, in any event, it is sold out for Halloween night. Um, usually Halloween night and opening night are the ones that sell out first. So my suggestion is if you plan on going to Disney World in the Halloween season. Disney's Halloween season, I should say, and you want to go to the not so scary Halloween party. I would get your tickets sooner rather than later. It says here, last year, all nights were sold out by September 24th, but I'm under the opinion of why wait. Let's just, get our tickets and get'em secured. The party starts on August 15th and runs on select nights through October 31st. Tickets range from$119 to$229 with the high end, the 2 29 being October 30th and 31st. And annual pass holders can enjoy a$10 discount on select dates in August and September. And we're gonna jump over to Hollywood Studios where Woody's lunchbox is finally getting some shaded areas to eat. Um, that's been a problem over there, that there was no shaded spots to eat, but now they are finally getting some covering over there. And I know people say that Animal Kingdom is the hottest park in Disney World, and yes, it's hot. It can't, all the parks can be hot, but people typically, I hear a lot of people say Animal kingdom's the hottest. I will put toy story land's, heat up against anybody else's heat in Central for that land just seems to get hot and there's no breeze. It seems like every time I've been in there, there's absolutely no breeze. We were there a couple years ago in line to meet, Woody and Jesse. And the line was long. And this was in April. This was late April last week of April. Line was long. And you know, in that line at that time, I don't know if they've changed it, there was like four or five umbrellas to stand under, like five foot umbrellas. So once you got up to the umbrellas, you were, uh, okay in the shade for a minute or two, and then you had to move on. But man, it was hot that, that might be the hottest I've ever been in my life. Definitely one of the most hottest. And that was in April. I can't imagine standing in there and. June or July or August. And then, you know, of course it's hot. The characters have to take breaks often. So you're in the line a little longer. No, I'm not complaining. I know that's, um, it's, you, you have to, it's hot and it's dangerous, but, uh, yeah, I will put Toy Story lands heat up against anybody. And also over at Hollywood Studios, the villains, unfairly Ever After show has gotten some new signage and the theater is painted. So yeah. Looking forward to that. I, that is, that's gonna be a good show. I'm, I'm really looking forward to that show. I know there's been some cast member previews going on. But, uh, I am not gonna watch anything until I see that show. We are going to Disney in December of this year., We were gonna do a resort only stay, but we might do one Park day, and I think Hollywood Studios may be the park to go to just for, the season new villain show. And as far as the Muppets go over in Muppet's Courtyard in Hollywood Studios, the attraction will be closed. On June 7th, but they are planning a special sendoff on June 10th. After the park closes to regular guests, cast members will have the exclusive opportunity to enjoy Muppet's Vision 3D one. Last time. This farewell event will feature food games and the reopening of pizza brizo for attendings. I think that is really cool. I think that's really cool if Disney to do it, to, get the cast members together to send the show off. I, I know a lot of people are sad to see Muppets to go. But I am super excited for Monster, monster Ziland. I think that's gonna be a, a really, really cool and fun area over there. So, yeah, June 7th Muppets will be closed and over at Magic Kingdom. As we know, the Astro Orbiter has been under refurbishment, and it is the central post from the offshore orbiter is now reinstalled at Magic Kingdom over there in Tomorrowland. The refurbishment is expected to be completed in the summer of 2025. Sometime it is not known exactly when, but it does say through at least July 18th. So when that gets back up and running, we will definitely let you know about it here on the the Main Street Talk podcast. And there's been some updates on the, das Pass. Disney has extended the validity period for the disability access service or das pass to one full year or length of the ticket, whichever is shorter. This means that eligible guests, including annual pass holders won't need to reregister as frequently making the process much more convenient for frequent visitors. Previously, the das validity period underwent several extensions from 30 days to 120 days, then to 240 days. Now with the one year validity, guests can enjoy a longer duration before needing to renew their das registration. It's important to note that this extension applies to new das registrations. Guests with existing DA passes under the previous 240 day policy will still need to re-register upon expiration. So that's gonna do it for the, Disney World News this week. Like I said, there wasn't a lot going on, not a lot of big things happening, for sure. But, that's it for the news segment. And now we're gonna head on over to our spotlight on attraction. And since we were talking about the Astro Orbiter and the news segment with the refurbished going on, I think we're going to dive in a little bit to the Astro Orbiter, the history of it. So on the Disney website, under the Astro Orbiter, it says This is for any height. All ages is a spinning ride, a slow ride. And their description says, hold on tight. As your retro two passenger spacecraft levitates high into the air, picks up speed and begins orbiting a galaxy of planets. While the sights and sounds of tomorrow land whirl far below. You're the captain now control how high you fly by pulling or pushing the lever inside of your ship. So if you've ever been to Magic Kingdom, you've definitely seen the Astro Orbiter was spinning rockets high above tomorrow, land stationed just above the people mover. Did you know the Astro Orbiter has been around in one form or another since Magic Kingdom opened in 1971. Originally, it was not called the Astro Orbiter. It was simply known as Star Jets. Back. Then it featured a large rocket in the center modeled after the Saturn five. And the vehicles looked like little space shuttles. This was at the height of the space race era, and tomorrow Land was all about looking toward the real life space exploration. For decades, the Star just thrilled guest with its high flying views and retro space vibes. But in 1994 tomorrow, land underwent a big thematic shift. Instead of being focused on real science and space travel, Disney decided to go with a futuristic spaceport city. Something more timeless and imaginative. That's when the Star Jets were retired, and in 1994 the Astro Orbiter was born. Astro Orbiter isn't just a simple name change. The entire aesthetic was reworked. Gone with the NASA style central rocket and in its place became a beautiful golden steampunk style planetary pylon, complete with spinning orbs and rings. Designed to look like a Celestial Observatory from a science fiction novel. The ride vehicles were redesigned too now resembling sleek retro rockets with fins and flame decals. Another really cool thing about the Astro Orbiter is its location. It is a spinning ride, but unlike Dumbo or Aladdin or the, old Triceratop spins over at Animal Kingdom, the Astro orbiter is elevated. It sits on top of the People Mover platform, which gives writers some of the best omic views of Magic Kingdom, especially at night. It is a short ride, but if, if you're up there at night, above tomorrow, then wow, those are some amazing views. I would love to ride this thing during the fireworks sometime. I think I might do that, that that would just, I think be absolutely phenomenal. Let me know if you've done that before. Have you rode this during the fireworks? The attraction hasn't changed much since that time, but it did get a big refurbishment in 2014. That update focused mostly on refreshing the mechanics and repainting the structure. Everything got a, a nice refresher polish and Disney made sure it still fit in with the, uh, futuristic world of Tomorrow land. And Astro Orbiter holds a special place in Tomorrow, land's history. It's a beautiful nod to both Disney's past and it's ever changing vision of the future. But yeah, I, if you've never been on the Astro Orbiter or if you are a first time visitor to Disney, I would highly recommend writing the Astro orbiter at night. The views you get of Tron and Space Mountain and of the castle is they're absolutely beautiful. It, you know, it's, it's a fun ride. But I personally ride it for the views. It's a great view from up there. And, full disclosure here, to be perfectly honest, I don't think I've ever wrote it during the day. I've always waited till night. So maybe I'm a little biased, but I will continue writing it at night. I will do other attractions during the day time hours. And that's gonna do it for our Spotlight on Attraction this week. The, the Astro Orbiter. Go ahead. If you never wrote it, take a ride on it. You can see it towering out of tomorrow land from, from pretty much a lot of areas in the park. And I'm gonna get onto this week's tip or trick. This week's tip or trick has to do with lightning lane booking. I know there are a lot of different strategies out there. A lot of different ways to book lightning lanes. Maybe you do it just on what you wanna ride, what's important to you. Maybe you do it on, you want to hit the big hitters. Some people do'em on shows they wanna see however you wanna do it is, is not incorrect. You do it the way, the way. What fits for, for your goals of your, park visiting time. I'm just gonna tell you a little tip about what we did. And this worked out great for us. I know I've read a lot of people online. Don't like doing it this way, but I'm gonna tell you our story and how we did it. We, we selected burner rides, and I'll give you the example'cause it's really the only one I that's sticking out in my mind is, magic. The magic Kingdom burner ride strategy we used. So what is selecting a burner ride? Selecting a burner ride is you select a ride. That typically doesn't have a long wait. You select that right at rope drop so you can get in on it, scan into it, and you're able to open up all the tier of the park. If you're new to Lightning Lane, there are, when you pre-select, there are tier you can book. So basically you can pre-book your rides seven days prior if you're staying on as resort guest three days prior. If you're offsite, I don't know how well this would work, staying offsite,'cause the lightning lanes tend to fill up from the resort guests. So when you're three days hit, if you're offsite, a lot of rides are booked. So for this example, we're gonna use staying on site. So seven days out you can book three lightning lanes, you can book one tier, one in each park, and two, two tier twos. Tier one rides are the big rides. Um, you know, Tiana's, uh, Peter Pan Jungle Cruises, you know the lines that, the ones that lines get very, very long. I'm not gonna get into all that right now. Maybe we'll do a future show on lightning lanes, but the Burner Ride theory is So you have your one tier one and your two tier twos. Now, once you scan in to any of your rides when you're in the park. The tier system goes away. So as soon as you scan into a ride, all the tiers are open. You can hold three tier ones if you wanted to. So the burner ride theory is this, at rope drop you, you book a ride, a burner ride that typically doesn't have a long wait and you scan into it and it opens up all the tears. I'll give you an example. We are at Magic Kingdom in November. We early entered seven drawers. Mine train. We also had Under the Sea at 9 0 5. So the park open rope drop was nine o'clock. Park opened at nine o'clock. We early entered. We got on seven drawers. I think we waited 15 or 20 minutes as seven drawers. Was able to go over to Gastons, get some breakfast, and then by the time we got to Little Mermaid, it was 9 0 5. We scanned into Little Mermaid. Now all the tier ones were open, which worked out for us because our tier one we had scheduled for that day was Tiana's. We had it at like noon. So when we scanned into a little Mermaid, we were able to snag a big thunder at like 1145. And you know, Tiana's, a big thunder are right next to each other. So that worked out for us. I suggest using the burner ride theory, or burner ride strategy. Excuse me. Just because I think it, it opens up a lot more things to do because when you get to the park, your lightning lane availabilities are dwindling quickly throughout the days, especially for the tier ones. When we were at Epcot.. We didn't pre-book frozen. I can't remember what we booked, but I tried booking frozen from like nine 30 in the morning on frozen was completely booked. I tried several times throughout the day to get a frozen slot and then it would say it was open, but by the time I got in, which is, you know, a second, less than a second, it was taken. So the tier ones book up fast throughout the days, if there's even any available by the time the park opens, but that's the burner right? Theory. Um, I think it works out great. Some people are totally against it and they have different strategies, but that's the, uh, the strategy we use. And, uh, let me know and the comments send me a message if you, if you have a better strategy, you think one that's better. I'll certainly talk about it. I like to give people options. Everybody does Disney World different. Not everybody does it the same, but I think that's gonna do it for this week's show. Next week we are going to have a guest, a very special guest on the show. I'm super excited for that and I think we're going switch up the format a little bit. So, um, the show may be a little different from here in the future, but it's a good change. I'm super excited about it. Like I said, we're gonna have a guest on next week., So make sure you subscribe, get notified when our show goes live. It comes live on Monday mornings. Head over to our website, main Street talk pod.com. That is kind of the home base for everything. If you wanna book a vacation with me, I am certified Disney Travel agent. I can do that. The links are on the website under Book of vacation or get a quote and there's a free quote form there, and it'll come right to me. Our Facebook page is Main Street Talk podcast. Our main Street talk group is called Walt Disney World Tips and Talk. So go over to the group, it's an open discussion. Discuss anything you want to discuss involving Walt Disney World. We are on Instagram at Main Street Talk Podcast. Podcast. And if you wanna book a vacation with me, you go to the website, like I said, or you can email me directly at nick.Garcia@academytravel.com. And we are now a proud affiliate of the Magic Candle Company. There's a link on the website. You can use the link on the website and use the coupon code Main Street Talk to receive a 15% off of your entire order. So, like I said, we are going to have a, a guest next week, so make sure you tune into that. All the links are in the show notes as well, so you don't have to write any of this down. So that's gonna do it for this week. I will talk to you all real soon.