Episode 1 - Why are we Addicted to Disney

So exactly why are we addicted to Disney?

Caz and Wayne chat about how it all started, with a journey of reminisces, from records to 8 track Tapes with a bit of Betamax thrown in - we are showing our age!

Jumping back to Disney, we both started in the 1970s, danced in the 1980s (Well Caz did), and discovered Euro Disney in the 1990s. Fast forward to the 2020s and we are covering multiple parks, Disney Cruises and even Disney Vacation Club.

Join us on our journey!!

Caz and Wayne are Addicted to Disney, a podcast about the ups and downs of Disney trips, from Parts to Cruises we will try it all.

Caz collects Disney Ears, Characters and Loungefly bags. Wayne likes cameras.

Transcript

(chimes) I get to press the magic button again that time. - You get to press the magic button again, yes. - What's the episode title? - Episode title is "How did Addicted to Disney begin?" - That's a good start. - Why am I addicted to Disney? - And that's a reasonable start because you were addicted to Disney before I met you. And actually, before we go on, I will point out that I'm the other half of Addicted to Disney or the other quarter, I should say. I'm normally the person who's pressing the buttons behind the camera. So you're gonna tell us how you started getting addicted to Disney before we got married and met each other. - Okay, so back, back, back, back before I met Mr. Disney. I spent my childhood watching Disney movies,

Saturday morning watching Mickey Mouse Club. I had, back in the days when you had record players, I even had an album which was 100 classic Disney songs, which features all the songs from the various Disney films and as kids do when they're growing up, I dance around to the music. - She still does. - I still do. I still dance to all the music. I totally admit, I probably know most of the songs badly. - But we don't have a vinyl record player anymore. Kids, if you wanna know what vinyl record players are, we used to say go and ask your parents, but these days you can nip down to the local HMV and buy them because they're all back again. What's gonna be next, eight track tapes? You need to ask your dad about those ones. Anyway. - All mixed tapes. - There's a big difference when an eight track tape and a mixed tape. Do you know what an eight track tape is? - Vaguely. - What's an eight track tape? - It was a tape that went in the machine that had eight tracks.

An eight track tape was almost a cartridge that used to go into cars and very dodgy 1970s stereos, which didn't have the versatility of the old classic cassette that you and I both grew up with. Eight track tapes were sort of early 70s. My dad had one in a car and had a very strange space age type stereo system which had an eight track. But basically eight tracks were cartridges. You couldn't record onto them. And yeah, you could go eight tracks per tape and they would be naff until cassettes came along, which is where the mixed tapes came along. Because basically you were copying everything off the radio, weren't you? - I wasn't copying everything off the radio. I used to have to put my album onto an old record player, which was back in the day before he even had these things called Hi-Fi systems and then put my little cassette recorder next to the speaker and record it that way. - Okay, that's, yeah, okay, right. Anyway, anyway, going back to Disney. - Going back to Disney. 

So where was I? Listening to Disney music, watching Mickey Mouse Club. And I always wanted to go to Disney theme parks and my parents were always the, one day we will take you to Disney. And that was the same answer I got year after year after year. "Mom, can we go on holiday to Disney?" Not this year, maybe next year. It used to be the answers I got. I then grew up, sort of. I'm still growing up now. - Hold on, you then grew up. You've never grown up. - That's why I said sort of. I'm still growing up now. Although I do think I'm gonna be like Peter Pan and I'm never gonna grow up.

 ♪ I won't grow up ♪ ♪ I won't grow up ♪ 

Back in the days when the Disney films started to become more readily available, VHS and cinemas were still in more Disney movies. I went and saw Beauty and the Beast. - We have a question first before you go that far. Did you have VHS or Betamax? - Originally, we had Betamax until we discovered you couldn't get many videos. So then we went to VHS. - Yeah, we got stuck with Betamax and it was like, we're not buying anything more. Betamax is enough. It's like, yeah, but I only had one decent film, which was, I think it was James Bond film. And that was about it. Everything else was a bit naff on Betamax. And then we went to Blockbuster and you couldn't get Betamax at Blockbuster. It was all VHS. - Did you ever have a man that used to come around the house once to wait with the bags with the videos in it? You could have one video if you were good. - That sounds really, really dodgy. No.

(laughing) I mean, that sounds seriously dodgy. No, we did have Blockbuster access, but yeah, we didn't have any strange guys on the other with a bag of video tapes.

 Anyway, let's get back to Disney before we get arrested - Okay, going back to Disney. So I went to see Beauty and the Beast in the cinema. Now this was at the turning age of technology. So the old style of drawing cartoons and Disney films was changing and they brought into the computer technology. That film just totally blew me away. It was just so magic how they'd done the computer graphics with the drawing and the storyline was really something. And it really just, it hit a point and it moved me. I then started to get more and more into Disney. In the following year, and I then met my partner at the time. - Who wasn't me? - Who wasn't Mr. Disney, no, that certainly wasn't Mr. Disney. And I started collecting the Disney films because they started re-releasing all the Disney films on VHS. So all the films are back in the fifties and sixties, like the classic Snow White, Seven Dwarfs. Once a month, they got released on VHS and I started collecting them and started watching them. And they sometimes did exclusive where you got the video, a Disney mug and a lipograph print. And I had all the pictures up in my room. I had the mugs, I had all the videos and I just spent hours and hours and hours watching the films. At the time also, I was studying a business studies course at college and we went on an educational trip to, I say educational trip, it was a research trip for new businesses and we went to Paris. - When you say you went to Paris, you mean you went to Disneyland Paris or Euro Disney as it was then? Or was this just Paris, Paris? - No, we went to Paris. - Right, so it was basically a jolly for the teacher. - It was sort of a jolly for the teacher. We'd been studying in the EU and we went to Paris, new businesses and as it was at the time we went to Paris was just after Euro Disney had opened. Now for me, having the opportunity to go to a Disney park was like, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going. Yep, we went to Euro Disney and I walked through the park. I stood at the top of Main Street, which is the Main Street down Disney. - I think I must have cried for about two hours. Every time I walked around the park, I was just crying. It was just so magic. - But nothing's really changed. We do that now every time we go. Yes you do. We get in through the main gates of any Disney park and we've been to two now and also on the ships when we do the Disney cruises. And yeah, it's five minutes of Kaz bawling her eyes out and it's like you've been here 28 times or some large number and you're still crying. - I'm still here when we're crying at Disney. This is just magic. I did the age old thing, married my partner and we went to-- - It wasn't me. - It wasn't Mr. Disney. And we went to Walt Disney World. I very reluctantly got on the plane home. I did not want to come home. For me going to Disney World, it was just sort of like the most magical place in the world. I loved it. I got to do all the rides and attractions. I met Mickey Mouse. I actually queued for two and a half hours to see Mickey Mouse then. - Nothing's changed there then. - I did all the attractions, nearly broke my partner's wrist on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and just absolutely loved it. We then went on to have a family of our own. My love for Disney carried on because all of a sudden I wasn't just watching Disney films on my own. I was watching them with the kids. They totally loved them. One thing led to another, things changed. And then I met Mr. Disney. - And I didn't really like Disney at the time. Well, that's not strictly true. Disney was one of those things in my life that just existed. There was no real sort of special, wow, it's Disney film. It's like, oh yeah, it's the next film. I think the first Disney film I can remember it seeing is the original "Pete's Dragon."

And I must've been about six or seven. I remember going to see that. And then we had things like "Star Wars," which "Star Wars" at the time wasn't Disney. "Star Wars" was Lucasfilm. Yeah, so I sort of, Disney was just one of those organizations enjoy it, just watching them, but nothing really special for me. So yeah, I was really boring until I met Cass. And then, yeah, I got indoctrinated within about 15 minutes, I think. "Thou shalt watch Disney films." Okay, I shall watch Disney films. I introduced "The Beauty and the Beast" first. Yeah, that was another one where you were bawling your eyes out within 15 seconds of it starting. Oh, it is my favorite film. Although I did introduce you to "Les Mis." Yeah, that's true. So you did get your own back on me with that because I did quite "Les Mis." The children grew up and we took them to Disneyland Paris. And suddenly I was back in the magic. It was bigger, there was two parks, there was a lot more going on. All of a sudden there I was, I was back being that person in the Disney magic. And my love for Disney just sort of, yep, it's still here. I decided to buy an annual pass for Disneyland Paris, go on multiple trips, and then the dreaded C word hits. And the world just came to a stop. I was getting down low, missing all the Disney magic. So I started my addicted to Disney YouTube. "Welcome to Addicted Disney YouTube channel." Yeah, that's me trying to do a dodgy voiceover. Yeah, COVID sort of changed a lot of things. And I think we got very weird because we got into astronomy at one point. We were standing in the garden at two in the morning with a big telescope trying to film stuff up in the sky. It was like, this is COVID and this has changed things. But yeah, I've still got the telescope, but I don't think we've used it. Yeah, no, the first lot of channel ended and suddenly Disneyland Paris opened back up. It was like, right, I'm going. I booked the trip on the Tuesday, on the Friday, there I was on the Eurostar going off to France. Three quarters of the way there, France was coming off the travel corridor. It was like, ah, I'm in France now, doesn't matter. So I did three full days with my daughter and then the lockdowns kicked in again. And Disney just sort of ground to a halt. And it was just so sad seeing the parks closed. So I started my addicted to Disney YouTube channel instead. And I also started posting on various Facebook groups with Disney when we were all talking about Disney and how much we loved Disney and how much we missed it. Addicted to Disney, the YouTube channel slowly started to take off. COVID came to an end, the world opened back up and the parks opened back up. The one thing that had happened during that time is as a result of being friends with people on various Facebook groups, I then became part of a group which has led to me creating some very lifelong Disney friends. And we got invited to go to Tobacco Dock in London. 2021 was 50 years of Walt Disney World. And we got invited to a party. And that was quite a magical thing. And I'd say that for me probably was when Addicted to Disney really did start to take off. - I mean, yeah, I got dragged along to it. And I've been to events at Tobacco Dock before. When you go and do corporate stuff, they sort of like, yeah, it's just gonna be a few drinks at the bar and a couple of banners or posters and things. And no, Disney had literally pulled the stops out. They had turned the entire Tobacco Dock into various zones demonstrating the new foods and various bits and pieces that were gonna appear at DLP. And I think the other parks as well. And yeah, it was quite magical. And it was very much, Disney do things properly. And that's generally, that's my impression of Disney in general. We talk about the Disney bubble. We talk about the way Disney do things. Disney don't just do castles and rides and characters. They run an ethos of how to do something in a Disney manner. So once you actually enter a park or a Disney hotel under the gaze of Disney staff, then everything is done in a particular way, which it tends to be very encompassing, very immersive. It's just the way they do things. It's nice. It's very professional. It's very polite. And it's Disney. It's a very clean environment. Yeah, again, it's Disney. That's what they do. They're very family-orientated, but not just family-orientated because a lot of people think that family equals kids. Going around the parks and talking to people, there's an awful lot of Disney adults. So it's not just families with kids. And you actually get into some discussions, shall we say, on Facebook groups, where people are complaining that people have stood in front of children, et cetera, et cetera. And the fact is that sort of thing occurs. However, people have to realize that we've all paid for tickets to go into events. We're not all influencers to get everything for free. In fact, I haven't actually come across any influencers to actually get it for free, apart from I think one or two who we just take the mic out of. Sorry, can't help it, but she needs to sort her makeup up. (laughing) I'm not saying who. - Not allowed to name names. - No, we are allowed to name names, but I'm not... If she's got this far through the podcast and listening to see if we mention who she is, then I'll be astounded because I don't think she would because she won't listen to a podcast and certainly won't listen to our podcast. Disney is about family, but family, it's not just mum, dad, two kids. It's family as in everyone is part of the family, whether you're 12, whether you're 60. And that's actually quite nice. It does, especially these days, it does allow you to switch off from the outside world, at least for a while, which is why I enjoy Disney, I think to a certain extent. I get to switch off from what goes on in the big wide world. And yeah, some of the stuff is actually quite nice. Some of the characters are pretty good. Some of the films are pretty good. She's looking at me now going, "This is supposed to be my podcast." - But also following COVID, we discovered Disney Cruises. - Oh yeah, Disney Cruises. Also, are we gonna talk about Disney Cruises on another podcast? - Well, we're gonna do more detail on Disney Cruises, but let's just say, post COVID, we got introduced to going on Disney Cruises. We've discovered a whole new area of Disney that even I didn't know existed. - And nor did I. And I was always of the opinion that only old people go on cruises, the sort of saga mentality. Either that or people who want to go and drink lots of beer and get very inebriated and gamble in various casinos. To me, that's what cruising was about because we see the big cruise ships. Now, having gone on some Disney Cruises, and we're up to six, five, six, something like that. - Six. - Disney Cruises are completely different to a normal cruise. So if you look at a normal cruise and go, oh, I'm not gonna go on a normal cruise, but you like Disney, then consider Disney Cruises. We actually did some COVID Cruises, which were basically, we left the port, went into the North Sea, spun around for a couple of days and came back again. But we still had the experience of the Disney cruise. The difference was you didn't stop anywhere. It was still technically within the UK. So we didn't breach any travel regulations or anything like that. And there was some interesting experiences trying to get on the ships when you had to get COVID tested as you got on. - We'll cover that in a later one. - And the underpass cruise in. And then Mr. Disney and I decided to go back to Walt Disney World. Saved up, flew to America, had nine days on a Disney Resort. And it was just like, wow, this is totally different to Paris. I started to fall in love with Walt Disney World even more. And then we took the brave decision and joined Disney Vacation Club.

(laughing) - Yeah, DVC.(...) Okay, DVC very brief. Again, we'll probably do a podcast about DVC. DVC is basically timeshare on steroids. It's a Disney timeshare. And for most people in the UK, if you say timeshare, they remember the 1980s when timeshare sales into Spain, et cetera, was a really bad thing. DVC is a very big thing in the States from a Disney perspective. Quality is outstanding. And I think they last around about 50 years, depending on what you've got. We did a Disney cruise and decided that, yeah, we wouldn't bite the bullet because looking at the last five or six years, all of our holidays have been Disney. So it's not a case of where are we going to go that's not Disney. Every single holiday is Disney's. So why not buy into DVC? Because it makes the American holidays a lot, lot cheaper. In fact, it makes the American holidays, once you've got DVC, effectively free, because you have that number of points that you can use in various establishments within the Disney environment. And you can pick and choose. The facilities are actually pretty good. When you actually get there, hotels are all above what you would expect. And I think we were quite surprised as to what actually the quality was like. - We liked it. (laughs) - We liked it. I hope so, considering how much it costs. Anyway, yes, so we decided that DVC was the way to go. So we bought into DVC. We've now done our first DVC trip, which was probably coming up at the podcast at some point. - First video is if you go to Addicted to Disney on YouTube, the first couple of days of videos are actually live. So if you want to go and see exactly what the DVC resort was like that we stayed in, there's a room tour on there, but yeah, we liked it. - And we'll probably be doing a podcast about it, because this is supposed to be a podcast channel. - We are podcasting. We're waffling now. - We're waffling now. That's where we are at the moment. We've got another trip to Disney Paris, booked in something like 42 days, according to that thing over there. - And we're driving. - And we're driving, yes. Normally we go by Eurostar. This time we actually decided to drive, because we're going down with some friends. And then we've got another trip to Disney in Florida in... - We're doing some trip announcements. So you'll see what's coming up. - And then there's another one coming in September. So there's a few. - And a cruise or two. - And a cruise or two. Yeah, there's a few cruises stuck in there as well. - So yeah, so welcome to us. We are Addicted to Disney. - Well, she is. - And he is, especially Olaf. - We shall not mention the Olaf. - We will cover Olaf in a later podcast.

(laughing) - That sounds so wrong. This is supposed to be a family friendly podcast. - Oh yes, it is gonna be family friendly. Let's just say Mr. Disney has a love hate relationship with Olaf and Frozen. - I love to hate him, yes. Anyway, thanks for listening. And we're gonna aim to do probably one episode a week. If you like what we're doing, please click on the various links, subscribe.

You know the things that podcasts do. You probably do more podcasts listening than we do. But anyway, thanks for listening. - Bye bye bye for me. - And bye for me.

(imitates explosion)(...) I'll be waffling. (chimes)