• 883 · Disney Believe: A New Ship, a Familiar Feeling
    2026/10/13
    883 · Disney Believe: A New Ship, a Familiar FeelingWhat would make you choose the Disney Believe for your next cruise? A brand-new Encanto stage show, an evening in the Haunted Mansion Parlor, or the chance to share a favorite Disney experience with someone who has never seen it?This week, we explore Disney Cruise Line’s newest ship, from its biggest announcements to the smaller details that might become your favorite part of the vacation. We were together aboard the Disney Wish for Disney’s special reveal event, following clues, comparing wildly optimistic predictions, and bringing our communities along for the fun.We talk about the Moana-inspired Grand Hall, the first Encanto stage adaptation, updated Tangled entertainment, Zootopia’s Gazelle, and new lounges inspired by Ariel, Snow White, and the night sky. There’s also Oaken’s Table, Big Hero Sips, new stateroom designs, and a conversation about why familiar favorites can mean something different depending on who’s sailing.Along the way, I share the dinner moment that changed how I felt about another Frozen experience. We also consider the personalities of the Wish-class ships, the appeal of four- and five-night sailings, and how we can experience the Believe together.Which Disney Believe experience would you head to first? Come share your answer in the WDW Radio Clubhouse at WDWRadio.com/Clubhouse.📣 Comment in the WDW Radio Clubhouse or 📞 Call the Voicemail: 407-900-9391✈️ Looking to visit a Disney Park, Disney Cruise Line, or any vacation destination around the world? Let our friends at Mouse Fan Travel help you with expert planning at no cost to you! - visit MouseFanTravel.com📬 Stay Connected:- Subscribe for email updates + get my FREE Disney book!- Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube🎧 Explore More:WDWRadio.com - Blog, archives, podcasts, and moreWDW Radio Nation - Support the show and unlock rewardsWDWRadioLIVE.com - Watch and chat LIVE Wednesday nightsEvents & Cruises - Join us for group trips and in-person meetups!LouMongello.com - Creator or solopreneur? Turn your passion into your profession with coaching, courses, and events, including our Momentum events in Walt Disney World. I am also a keynote speaker who shares how to leverage lessons from Disney on customer service, experience, and leadership.🙏🏼 Thank you for listening, being part of the WDW Radio family, and helping the show be recognized as the Best Travel Podcast for nine consecutive years - and for the incredible honor of being inducted into the ⭐️ Podcast Hall of Fame.Please subscribe, tell a friend, and join me again next week... and as always, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show!
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    1 時間 58 分
  • 883 · Disney In or Out? Do We Agree on Disney Parks, Movies and Food?
    2026/10/04
    883 · Disney In or Out? Do We Agree on Disney Parks, Movies and Food?Is The Magic of Disney Animation a bigger addition to Walt Disney World than Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind? Should the original Star Wars saga ever be remade with a new cast? And can a Disneyland churro really settle an argument about which coast has the better snacks?This week, I invite you to join me and some of our friends around the virtual table for another round of Disney In or Out? I give them (and you) a statement, we each pick a side, and then we defend our answers while you play along wherever you’re listening.The Magic of Disney Animation: Does an experience the whole family can share beat another thrill ride, or does Guardians still have the edge?A new Skywalker saga: Would a fresh cast introduce Star Wars to a new generation, or should Disney spend that creative energy on new stories?More separately ticketed nights: When is a special event worth the trade-off for guests visiting on a regular park ticket?Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets: We talk about the music, the Easter eggs, and what we hope could happen in that corner of Hollywood Studios.A day without rides: We make the case for EPCOT, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and even a little holiday wandering at Hollywood Studios.The resort and food rounds: Animal Kingdom Lodge or Wilderness Lodge, Hollywood Brown Derby, Disneyland versus Walt Disney World snacks, and a Big Hero 6 sequel we would love to see.And more!There are no points, no prizes, and apparently no limit to how seriously we can discuss a snack or attraction.Which statement had you shouting your answer at the three of us, and why? Come tell me in the WDW Radio Clubhouse or leave a voicemail at 407-900-9391.📣 Comment in the WDW Radio Clubhouse or 📞 Call the Voicemail: 407-900-9391✈️ Looking to visit a Disney Park, Disney Cruise Line, or any vacation destination around the world? Let our friends at Mouse Fan Travel help you with expert planning at no cost to you! - visit MouseFanTravel.com📬 Stay Connected:- Subscribe for email updates + get my FREE Disney book!- Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube🎧 Explore More:WDWRadio.com - Blog, archives, podcasts, and moreWDW Radio Nation - Support the show and unlock rewardsWDWRadioLIVE.com - Watch and chat LIVE Wednesday nightsEvents & Cruises - Join us for group trips and in-person meetups!LouMongello.com - Creator or solopreneur? Turn your passion into your profession with coaching, courses, and events, including our Momentum events in Walt Disney World. I am also a keynote speaker who shares how to leverage lessons from Disney on customer service, experience, and leadership.🙏🏼 Thank you for listening, being part of the WDW Radio family, and helping the show be recognized as the Best Travel Podcast for nine consecutive years - and for the incredible honor of being inducted into the ⭐️ Podcast Hall of Fame.Please subscribe, tell a friend, and join me again next week... and as always, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show!
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    1 時間 4 分
  • 882 · Marvel in Disney Parks: Behind the Magic with Brian Crosby
    2026/09/21

    882 · Marvel in Disney Parks: Behind the Magic with Brian Crosby

    How does Marvel come to life in Disney Parks... and what does a little boy meeting Peter Pan have to do with it? This week, I sit down with Marvel Studios' Brian Crosby at the WDW Radio booth at D23 for a conversation about turning the characters we love into places, adventures, and memories we can experience for ourselves.

    Brian spent ten years as an Imagineer before joining Marvel, and he shares the thought behind experiences that stretch from Hong Kong Disneyland to Tokyo and beyond. We talk about the creative choices that help a story connect, whether you know every comic book or are meeting a character for the first time.

    You'll discover:

    • Why the Iron Man Experience queue had to introduce the man inside the armor.
    • How Groot became the guide to a very different kind of Marvel adventure.
    • The childhood Peter Pan encounter Brian still thinks about when creating experiences.
    • What it meant to Stan Lee to see Marvel become part of the Disney Parks.
    • How ideas can travel from comics to attractions and back into animation.
    • Which attractions Brian would want to share with Walt Disney.

    Along the way, we attempt a 55-second lightning round that goes about as well as you'd expect when the two of us start talking Disney, food, and comic books. You don't need to know the Marvel timeline to enjoy this one, just the feeling of meeting a character who means something to you.

    🙋🏻‍♀️ What Disney character encounter has stayed with you, and what made it special? Share YOUR story at WDWRadio.com/Clubhouse.

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    59 分
  • 881 · The Magic of Disney Animation: An E-Ticket Without a Ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios
    2026/09/16
    881 · The Magic of Disney Animation: An E-Ticket Without a Ride at Disney's Hollywood StudiosThe Magic of Disney Animation gives Disney’s Hollywood Studios a new way to explore how the movies we love are made. But I kept coming back to a bigger question: what makes a place feel like a studio when the movies are no longer being made there?This week, join me as we discover what’s inside, which details deserve a closer look, and why different people in your family might love completely different parts of the same experience. We’ll connect it to the original animation tour and explore why I think this is an E-ticket experience without needing to be an E-ticket ride.A studio open house: How Once Upon a Studio connects the experience, with characters taking over and artwork coming to life.Hidden details worth finding: A Lost and Found with references to Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet, plus a chandelier whose paintbrushes were individually named by Disney artists.Inside the Animator’s Office: Personal objects, familiar tools, and unexpected references that bring you closer to the people behind the films.Characters with a purpose: Why Mulan is in Story, Rapunzel is in Layout, and Goofy has somehow been entrusted with Lighting at Off the Page!An unexpected Mulan moment: The conversation that brought back a memory of my son and changed how I think about character encounters.Olaf Draws! and Eric Goldberg: The thread connecting Robin Williams in Back to Neverland to drawing Genie, and why my own attempt came with a written apology.Room to play and discover: Mary Blair’s influence on Drawn to Wonderland, and why I’d leave yourself time to wander.There’s history, humor, practical advice, and a drawing that probably raises more questions than it answers. What part of The Magic of Disney Animation would you most want to spend time exploring, and why?📣 Comment in the WDW Radio Clubhouse or 📞 Call the Voicemail: 407-900-9391✈️ Looking to visit a Disney Park, Disney Cruise Line, or any vacation destination around the world? Let our friends at Mouse Fan Travel help you with expert planning at no cost to you! - visit MouseFanTravel.com📬 Stay Connected:- Subscribe for email updates + get my FREE Disney book!- Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube🎧 Explore More:WDWRadio.com - Blog, archives, podcasts, and moreWDW Radio Nation - Support the show and unlock rewardsWDWRadioLIVE.com - Watch and chat LIVE Wednesday nightsEvents & Cruises - Join us for group trips and in-person meetups!LouMongello.com - Creator or solopreneur? Turn your passion into your profession with coaching, courses, and events, including our Momentum events in Walt Disney World. I am also a keynote speaker who shares how to leverage lessons from Disney on customer service, experience, and leadership.🙏🏼 Thank you for listening, being part of the WDW Radio family, and helping the show be recognized as the Best Travel Podcast for nine consecutive years - and for the incredible honor of being inducted into the ⭐️ Podcast Hall of Fame.Please subscribe, tell a friend, and join me again next week... and as always, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show!
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    52 分
  • 880 · Tasting Disney History: The Unofficial Disney Parks Retro Cookbook with Carly Caramanna
    2026/09/08
    880 · Tasting Disney History: The Unofficial Disney Parks Retro Cookbook What if you could taste your way through Disney Parks history?This week, I’m joined by theme park and travel journalist Carly Caramanna, co-author with Julie Tremaine of The Unofficial Disney Parks Retro Cookbook: 60+ Nostalgic Recipes and Stories of Yesteryear. And while “cookbook” is in the title, this conversation becomes something much bigger: a journey through Disneyland and Walt Disney World history using food as our time machine.Carly shares how discovering a 1981 Walt Disney World dining guide eventually led to the book, why the Adventurers Club became one of her first chapters, and how restaurants can tell us what Disney was trying to become during different eras.We wander through the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship Restaurant, Casa de Fritos, Top of the World, Aunt Polly’s, Writer’s Stop, Pleasure Island, the Handwich, ABC Soap Opera Bistro, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, and more.We also explore why Disney fans become nostalgic for places they never experienced, how old recipes were adapted for modern kitchens, why Disney Legend Bob Gurr was the perfect person to write the foreword, and which Disney foods Carly believes we may someday regret taking for granted.Most of all, we ask whether the food itself is really what we miss, or whether one bite simply brings back the people and versions of ourselves connected to it.If you could bring back one extinct Disney restaurant or menu item tonight, what would it be, and why?📣 Comment in the WDW Radio Clubhouse or 📞 Call the Voicemail: 407-900-9391✈️ Looking to visit a Disney Park, Disney Cruise Line, or any vacation destination around the world? Let our friends at Mouse Fan Travel help you with expert planning at no cost to you! - visit MouseFanTravel.com📬 Stay Connected:- Subscribe for email updates + get my FREE Disney book!- Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube🎧 Explore More:WDWRadio.com - Blog, archives, podcasts, and moreWDW Radio Nation - Support the show and unlock rewardsWDWRadioLIVE.com - Watch and chat LIVE Wednesday nightsEvents & Cruises - Join us for group trips and in-person meetups!LouMongello.com - Creator or solopreneur? Turn your passion into your profession with coaching, courses, and events, including our Momentum events in Walt Disney World. I am also a keynote speaker who shares how to leverage lessons from Disney on customer service, experience, and leadership.🙏🏼 Thank you for listening, being part of the WDW Radio family, and helping the show be recognized as the Best Travel Podcast for nine consecutive years - and for the incredible honor of being inducted into the ⭐️ Podcast Hall of Fame.Please subscribe, tell a friend, and join me again next week... and as always, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show!
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    1 時間 27 分
  • 879 · Return to Progress City: Imagining Walt Disney’s City of Tomorrow
    2026/08/31
    879 · Return to Progress City: Imagining Walt Disney’s City of TomorrowWhat if the most interesting thing about Walt Disney’s Progress City isn’t that it was never built, but that it was never really finished?Recorded live at the WDW Radio booth at D23, former Walt Disney Imagineering President Bob Weis and artist, architect, and former Imagineer Eric Robison join me to explore Eric’s extraordinary new book, Return to Progress City.What begins with Walt’s original vision for EPCOT becomes something much bigger: a conversation about imagination, architecture, storytelling, technology, creativity, and what happens when you give yourself permission to start with a blank page.Eric shares how a pandemic project to paint another 100 Mickeys ended at number 38 when his imagination pulled him back to the Progress City model that had fascinated him since childhood. Bob also reveals something remarkable from Marty Sklar’s archives: Marty’s original handwritten notes from conversations with Walt about EPCOT and the City of Tomorrow.We explore the wonderfully strange Progress City story Bob and Eric dreamed up over pastrami and martinis, how Imagineers move from rough “chicken scratch” to places filled with story and emotion, why Eric believes something human can disappear when we jump too quickly to the computer, the role of AI in creativity, and why even the most beautiful visual idea still needs a writer and a story.And then Bob hands Eric a blank card and asks him to draw the future, right there at the table.I also share something very personal from D23: the release of my new book, The Disney Interviews: Disney Legends Edition. This new 456-page collection preserves 18 in-depth conversations with Disney Legends including Julie Andrews, Marty Sklar, Richard M. Sherman, Tony Baxter, Alan Menken, Joe Rohde, Bob Gurr, Alice Davis, Don Hahn, Jodi Benson, Paige O’Hara, Dave Smith, and more, along with completely new introductions, stories, context, and artwork, along with completely new introductions, stories, context, and artwork. It is available now in paperback and Kindle on Amazon.If Walt handed you that blank page today, what would you add to Progress City?📣 Comment in the WDW Radio Clubhouse or 📞 Call the Voicemail: 407-900-9391✈️ Looking to visit a Disney Park, Disney Cruise Line, or any vacation destination around the world? Let our friends at Mouse Fan Travel help you with expert planning at no cost to you! - visit MouseFanTravel.com📬 Stay Connected:- Subscribe for email updates + get my FREE Disney book!- Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube🎧 Explore More:WDWRadio.com - Blog, archives, podcasts, and moreWDW Radio Nation - Support the show and unlock rewardsWDWRadioLIVE.com - Watch and chat LIVE Wednesday nightsEvents & Cruises - Join us for group trips and in-person meetups!LouMongello.com - Creator or solopreneur? Turn your passion into your profession with coaching, courses, and events, including our Momentum events in Walt Disney World. I am also a keynote speaker who shares how to leverage lessons from Disney on customer service, experience, and leadership.🙏🏼 Thank you for listening, being part of the WDW Radio family, and helping the show be recognized as the Best Travel Podcast for nine consecutive years - and for the incredible honor of being inducted into the ⭐️ Podcast Hall of Fame.Please subscribe, tell a friend, and join me again next week... and as always, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show!
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    1 時間 3 分
  • 878 · D23 Disney Parks Announcements: Sightlines Into Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Fantasy
    2026/08/24
    878 · D23 Disney Parks Announcements: Sightlines Into Yesterday, Tomorrow, and FantasyThe loudest cheers at D23 weren't necessarily for what Disney was building next. They were for what Disney was willing to bring back, repair, and finally acknowledge.In a presentation built on a little faith, trust, and pixie dust, Disney asked fans to believe in an ambitious future, but this time it also showed its work. Models, progress, priorities, restorations, and even the things Disney chose to address directly revealed a much bigger story than any single attraction announcement.In WDW Radio # 878, we look at the D23 2026 Disney Parks announcements through a series of "sightlines" that connect Villains Land, Piston Peak National Park, Dreamfinder, the Expedition Everest Yeti, Spaceship Earth, Tomorrowland, Monstropolis, Tropical Americas, Disney Cruise Line, and much more. And the sightlines stretch well beyond the U.S., from Disneyland Paris and the return of its Jules Verne-inspired Space Mountain to new Tomorrowland, Avengers, and Spider-Man experiences coming to Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.When you step back, it starts to look like a very Disney story of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy. Yesterday is being honored through attractions, characters, and experiences fans refused to let go of. Tomorrow is taking shape through ambitious new lands, technologies, attractions, and global expansion. And fantasy is where Disney is creating entirely new places and stories for us to step inside.We also explore what changed the perspective on some of these projects, why "no height requirement" may be one of the most important phrases of the night, why the sequence of these projects may matter as much as the projects themselves, and what Disney did not announce... and why.This isn't simply a recap of D23 2026. It's a closer look at what Disney is building, what it is preserving, what it is asking us to trust, and what all of it may mean for the way we experience the Disney Parks around the world in the years ahead.📣 Comment in the WDW Radio Clubhouse or 📞 Call the Voicemail: 407-900-9391✈️ Looking to visit a Disney Park, Disney Cruise Line, or any vacation destination around the world? Let our friends at Mouse Fan Travel help you with expert planning at no cost to you! - visit MouseFanTravel.com📬 Stay Connected:- Subscribe for email updates + get my FREE Disney book!- Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube🎧 Explore More:WDWRadio.com - Blog, archives, podcasts, and moreWDW Radio Nation - Support the show and unlock rewardsWDWRadioLIVE.com - Watch and chat LIVE Wednesday nightsEvents & Cruises - Join us for group trips and in-person meetups!LouMongello.com - Creator or solopreneur? Turn your passion into your profession with coaching, courses, and events, including our Momentum events in Walt Disney World. I am also a keynote speaker who shares how to leverage lessons from Disney on customer service, experience, and leadership.🙏🏼 Thank you for listening, being part of the WDW Radio family, and helping the show be recognized as the Best Travel Podcast for nine consecutive years - and for the incredible honor of being inducted into the ⭐️ Podcast Hall of Fame.Please subscribe, tell a friend, and join me again next week... and as always, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show!
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    2 時間 48 分
  • 877 · Disney Worldbuilders Interview with Leslie Iwerks
    2026/08/10
    877 · Disney Worldbuilders Interview with Leslie IwerksDisney Worldbuilders asks a question most of us have never thought to ask... where does a Disney world actually begin?Not the land. Not the ride. The moment before any of it existed, when it was still just a feeling inside one person's head.This week I sit down with Leslie Iwerks, director of The Imagineering Story and Disneyland Handcrafted, to talk about her ambitious new documentary. Disney Worldbuilders brings together Bob Iger, Josh D'Amaro, James Cameron, Kevin Feige, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Pete Docter, Jennifer Lee, and Jared Bush for a series of remarkably candid conversations about how deeply personal ideas become stories, characters, and physical worlds that millions of people can walk into.I had the privilege of screening the film before its release, and it is even better than I hoped.In our conversation, Leslie shares:Why so many of today's most influential creators were Disney fans first, and what that says about the parksHow personal struggles and childhood memories shaped stories like Frozen, Inside Out, and ZootopiaThe brutal note Jared Bush received on an early version of Zootopia, and what pulled it back from the edgeWhy Kevin Feige's favorite detail in any Disney land is a construction wallWhy story and technology have always worked together at Disney, going back to Walt and UbWhat creative failure, uncertainty, and rejection can teach the rest of usHow great leadership protects storytellers and creative riskWhy honoring Disney's history cannot mean being afraid to evolve itThe moment Leslie filmed that became the emotional heart of the filmLeslie also reflects on her grandfather, Disney Legend Ub Iwerks, and her father, Disney Legend Don Iwerks, and how their legacy of combining storytelling and technology continues through Disney's worldbuilders today. She does not just study world builders. She comes from them.Disney Worldbuilders premieres at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event on August 16 and begins streaming on Disney+ on August 20.Subscribe to WDW Radio so you never miss an episode. Then tell me this: What Disney story, character, attraction, or world first made you believe that something impossible could become real? Share your answer in the WDW Radio Clubhouse at WDWRadio.com/Clubhouse, or leave me a voicemail at 407-900-9391.📣 Comment in the WDW Radio Clubhouse or 📞 Call the Voicemail: 407-900-9391✈️ Looking to visit a Disney Park, Disney Cruise Line, or any vacation destination around the world? Let our friends at Mouse Fan Travel help you with expert planning at no cost to you! - visit MouseFanTravel.com📬 Stay Connected:- Subscribe for email updates + get my FREE Disney book!- Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube🎧 Explore More:WDWRadio.com - Blog, archives, podcasts, and moreWDW Radio Nation - Support the show and unlock rewardsWDWRadioLIVE.com - Watch and chat LIVE Wednesday nightsEvents & Cruises - Join us for group trips and in-person meetups!LouMongello.com - Creator or solopreneur? Turn your passion into your profession with coaching, courses, and events, including our Momentum events in Walt Disney World. I am also a keynote speaker who shares how to leverage lessons from Disney on customer service, experience, and leadership.🙏🏼 Thank you for listening, being part of the WDW Radio family, and helping the show be recognized as the Best Travel Podcast for nine consecutive years - and for the incredible honor of being inducted into the ⭐️ Podcast Hall of Fame.Please subscribe, tell a friend, and join me again next week... and as always, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show!
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1 時間 8 分