In this episode of the Adventures of a Disney Dad podcast, I sat down with AJ Wolfe, founder of Disney Food Blog and owner of AllEars, to talk about her new book Disney Adults, the evolution of fan culture, and what it’s like to build a career around one of the most iconic brands on Earth.
This episode is packed with insight, honesty, and a whole lot of heart, especially if you’ve ever been told you’re too old to love Disney.
Who Is AJ Wolfe?
If you’ve ever Googled a Disney snack review, odds are you’ve read AJ’s work. She built Disney Food Blog from a small passion project into one of the most trusted sources for Disney dining reviews, planning tips, and in-park strategy. She also runs AllEars, another legacy brand in the Disney planning space.
Now she’s turned her lens inward with her first book, Disney Adults, which looks at what it really means to love Disney as an adult and why so many people have strong opinions about it.
Episode Transcript
Speaker: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Adventures of a Disney Dad podcast. We’re diving into today, uh, one of the most controversial parts of Disney culture, the term Disney adults. We’re sitting down with AJ Wolfe, the founder of Disney Food Blog, the owner of All Ears, two of the biggest sites in the Disney community to talk to her about her brand new book, uh, Disney Adults, which I’ve been fortunate enough to get a preview copy, um, and read.
And it is, it is a very fun read, and we’re gonna talk about what it really means. To be a part of the Disney fandom, AJ has built the biggest media company in the space that dominates the blog and YouTube and social media landscape. She, I would call her the, the goddess of content creation. Because I, I really think that it starts there.
Um, and I mean that as the highest compliment. We’ll dive into her new book. Uh, we’ll talk to her about some of her Disney thoughts, her Disney planning thoughts, and how she built two of the biggest Disney platforms in the world. Uh, with that, aj, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for joining us [00:01:00] this morning.
Speaker 2: Thanks, Matt. Hi, chip. Good to be here, guys.
Speaker: Just to be clear from the upshot, the book is available for pre-order now. I will include links to get your pre-ordered copy, uh, in the show notes, and it is available August 5th, so it’s right around the corner. Aj like, how are you feeling about this process?
Speaker 2: I’m cr I’m super stressed and crying a lot.
No, I’m not actually crying. I’m just, um, you know, this is all new to me, so I’m just trying to figure it all out and, um, and, and get this out to as many people as possible. I think it’s, there’s so much in this book that people don’t expect to be in here. Um, there’s so much in this book, I didn’t expect to be in here.
And so, um, whatever you think it is, it’s more.
Speaker: And, and, and, and, and like, there’s not a better way to describe this book there. Uh, we talked a little bit about it before the show, the journey that I went on reading this book as I would, I would admit I’m a Disney adult and I think every Disney adult has their own experience in the [00:02:00] fandom and how they came into Disney and going on that journey.
But like some of the statistics and the studies and the details were not. Things that I expected to go, like going into it is really digging into the how and the why. Um, we kind of feel the way that we feel about this place. I thought was, I mean, it’s just really interesting is the easiest way to put it.
And some of the comparisons I think are some of the things that I really want to talk about on the show and dive into a little bit deeper. Obviously with no spoilers, uh, we want you to go and read the book, but it is absolutely worth the journey and you should definitely check it out Before we really dig deep into the book, aj, like when I reached out to, like our listeners and on social media and asked people what questions they wanted to ask you.
It was 99% of the people wanted the Disney food blog, AJ Wolfe All Ears origin story. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so I, I, and you talk a little bit about it in the book, so I, I’d love to hear a little bit [00:03:00] as to how you got started in the early days of both this fandom and how that took you into your, your DFE journey.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I, I mean, I’ve been a Disney adult, um, for. 26, 27 years now. Um, and I, of course started, it’s on my head. I, of course started, um, I loved Disney because my parents took me when I was, when I was little. You know, we would go, um, stay in a condo at Clearwater Beach or whatever for like, maybe every third or fourth spring break.
And, uh, they would take us to Disney for a rope, do a rope drop to fireworks day. And back then it was the eighties, so there were only two parks. Um, and so that’s, that was my origin story for Disney. I really bonded with my dad over the Epcot Center. Um. Background music that just became our thing. Uh, we would listen to it all the time, but then when I got into my, um, when I got [00:04:00] into like grad school, um, I was living in New Hampshire, it was very cold, it was very snowy, and I was like, oh God, I gotta get outta here.
So that’s when I started to go to Disney World. Um. It was an escape. It was something different. It was something predictable. Um, and then when I moved to New York City, started working in New York, it Disney World was just the polar opposite of New York City. Um, and I was not feeling very, you know, comfortable in my space there in, in New York.
And so I just, Disney World became my escape. That’s what I really, I think, turned into a, a. Bonafide Disney adult. I mean, I was, um, every single minute of my day that I wasn’t working was focused on Disney, um, on reading guidebooks, on reading trip reports, figuring out when I could get there again, when I would have enough PTO, um.
So yeah, that was kind of, that [00:05:00] was kind of it for me. And it started, it is, it is Parks, you know, I am, I am a Parks Disney adult, a thousand percent. You know, some people are merchandise Disney adults, some people are movie Disney adults. I am a Parks Disney adult all the way.
Speaker: And, you know, it, it’s so, that’s so relatable too, because like, I’m not a popcorn bucket guy.
I’m not, you know, it, it, none of that stuff. The, the pin, I’ve started to buy a few pins lately.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker: And, and Chip and I have talked about that a little bit. But it’s, I’m a park guy. Yeah. So like, and there, there almost is like a subsection of how you could categorize your, your fandom. You can, yeah. Oh, you totally
Speaker 2: can.
And I, and I realized, man, I didn’t answer your question. So Disney, uh, so sorry. I, they weren working. We were gonna get there.
Speaker: I was gonna get you back to the origin story
Speaker 2: of D fb. Um, so in, in, uh, in my mid twenties, um, I met my husband. We met online, and we, uh, he was, he’s not a Disney fan. He didn’t care. Um, but we wanted to do something together.
’cause I was living in New York [00:06:00] City, he was living in Dallas and so we started websites ’cause he is a software developer. I know a lot about Disney and I was addicted to it. So we started some Disney websites. Our first one was called W DW for Grownups, which is still around, still exists. But then Disney Food Blog came around in 2009, mostly because I wanted it to exist and nobody was deep diving into food.
And I was like, okay, Disney doesn’t post their menus online. At that time, they didn’t put pictures of their food. You knew nothing about these restaurants except what they were named.
Chip: They had a book, right? Yeah. They had a little book that you could, you could see what restaurants they had. I remember that.
There was a
Speaker 2: little, there was a little burn bomb book, but even that was like two sentences. And I’m like, they want me to go to spend a hundred bucks plus in these restaurants and I don’t even know anything about them. And so, um, that’s when I started Disney Food Block. I was like, we gotta. You guys, we gotta talk about this.
Even back then there was a stigma. If you cared about restaurants in Disney World, people thought you were weird. Um, and I’m like, let’s, like if you look at the about page on Disney Food blog, it even says, [00:07:00] um, be honest. You like restaurants in Disney World as though it’s something weird. And, and you know, that was written in 2009 when it was.
So that’s kinda how I still
Speaker: feel like people think it’s weird too. I I, yeah. They just, I have a friend that ride, I have a friend that, uh, he, he goes, his, his parents are DVC members and he’s a chef. Yeah. Anytime I talk about Disney restaurants being good, he’s like, in the context of Disney, like, like as if, you know, they can’t just be good.
Speaker 3: Well, right.
Speaker: That, and that’s like, I think that, you know that it’s still a thing, which is Yeah, which is great. It’s
Speaker 2: so, it’s so weird. Anyway, that’s how, that’s how DFB started because we, we launched that and then, uh, we purchased all ears from Deb Wills, the, the icon. Of Disney sites. Um, in about 2016, she was ready to sell it and she came to us and asked if we wanted to purchase it.
So, [00:08:00] um, ’cause we’ve been good friends with her for a long time. So that’s, um, how we got all ears in the mix. But yeah, that’s, that’s basically the origin story.
Speaker: Oh, that’s, that’s fun when it comes to like, where it is now. Mm-hmm. I, I’m sure at the time in 2009, you couldn’t predict how big it would be at this point.
You run a massive multimedia company, what does your day look like? Are you still like in the trenches? Because I know you back then you were going, you know, on day trips to Disney to to get content yourself. Gosh, now you obviously have a massive team. Yeah. What, what does your role look like now in comparison to back then and, um, kind of how, like, are you still on, uh, we obviously know that you do some of the YouTube videos and the, the voiceovers, but are you still in the trenches or how do you feel about that?
Speaker 2: I still am in the trenches ’cause I think it’s really important for me to have a full understanding of, [00:09:00] you know. All the garbage you could run into when you’re in Disney and, and figuring out lightning lanes and figuring out, you know, okay, well now I’ve booked my lightning lanes and that screws up my dining reservations, and how am I gonna do this?
And how do I actually find my room again at, at at porter Riverside at night? Because everything looks the same and there’s not enough light. You know, like all of that stuff. Um, I, I am still experiencing, I’m still going. I’m still making mistakes. When I’m there. And, but I would say at this point, my day to day looks more like, you know, a CEO managing a, a company.
So I’m, I’m, I’m on a lot of meetings and, um, I am dreaming up new potential partnerships and strategies and things like that. Um, so it’s, it’s primarily, you know, A-A-C-E-O job. But I will also say that, um, I’m a perfectionist and so I’m still in. You know, the title Generation meetings, I’m [00:10:00] still in, you know, I’m still watching the videos and nitpicking all of that.
I’m still very much in the, in the mix with social media. What are we gonna, you know, from strategy to final approval? Um, because I am such a, a, a perfectionist, which is probably not great behavior for A CEO, but it is what it is. And I, you know, that’s what I’m doing. So I’m in the middle of, of all of it really.
Um. But, uh, thankfully I’m not doing the entire Epcot Food and Wine Festival by myself the way that I used to, you know, going to every single booth by myself. I think, I think I was the first one to go to every single booth on day one, um, to the point that I was starting to hallucinate by the end because I was like so full and so hot and sweat.
Speaker: And, and that’s why I, I kind of mentioned that you’re like the god of content creation for Disney because now the first day of food and wine is. Every single influencer, all
Speaker 3: bloggers and influencers,
Speaker: they’re, they’re all trying to [00:11:00] follow your, your footsteps, so to speak. So to the extent that you hate it, you can just blame aj, right?
Uh, exactly.
Speaker 2: It’s my, it is, it’s funny that you say that though, Matt. ’cause I do, you know, we started this before social media existed. We started this before, you know, I was in, in those restaurants with my giant DSLR, my Canon taking pictures before anybody had smartphones. Um. And getting really weird looks.
It was just not a thing to take pictures of your food. And so I, I, you know, there is an element of, of, um, of me kind of being there at the beginning. And so I do think a lot of it is, is my fault.
Speaker: No, I, I, I mean that as a compliment though. Yeah. No, all serious is from, from my perspective, like I, I think you’ve done an incredible service, so I do wanna be clear about that.
I mean that in the most positive way possible.
Speaker 2: Still the first, but you are the first day of a festival. You’re the og Kind of sucks these days.
Speaker: That’s fair. But like in terms of like the, the originator [00:12:00] of bringing information to this space, yeah. You are that person. And I mean that, you know, in the, in the highest regard.
Sure percent.
Chip: Go ahead, chip. So do you ever, uh, you’re a grinder, like everything you’re saying, you sound like you’re a grinder. You love Oh
Speaker 3: yeah.
Chip: Do you, do you ever miss those 24 hour trips where that I, that I’ve read online that you were staying up just working at a hotel and didn’t even get a room, like type of thing.
Do you miss that at all? Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, um, do I miss them? No. Um, because I’m old now, chip, I’m very old now. Um, I, I don’t, I don’t miss that because again, like you said, that is, that was an absolute grit. Based kind of thing is I was just like, no, no, no. We are gonna do it the best. Um. And it’s very, very nice to have the support and help of the, of the team.
And, and so they will let me do whatever I want. They’re, they’re like, go ahead, aj, if you wanna stay up all night and do this, you go ahead. You know, but they’re also there to [00:13:00] be like, when I’m like, I’m tired, and they’re like, okay, we got it. You know, so they’re, they’re very kind to me to let me do what I do, what I want, and, and then, and then throw in the towel when I need to.
Um, but it, it’s. It. I’m so glad that, and there are some days that I grind, you know, there are some days that I, like, I can remember, you know, galactic Star Cruiser when that dude opened and we had. You know, one day to finalize the, the, the YouTube video and all of the content we had, it was embargoed and, you know, you would set your alarm for like 12 minutes to nap for 12 minutes just to be able to function and get up and, and, and continue the edit or continue the um, you know, whatever.
Same thing with like 50th anniversary of Disney World, you know, that day was. Crazy. The opening of Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland. You know, those are when you are, you’re not sleeping, you are not going to sleep for several days. And again, it, it is literal 12 minute naps, [00:14:00] just whenever you can. Um, do I miss it?
No, but will I still do it? Yes, because it’s what, it’s what is demanded by the, by the job.
Speaker: And I think that in part, that’s what YouTube has become. Right? And I feel like that’s, it almost demands you to be first, especially at the level that you guys are at. Like, yeah, being ready to go right as soon as you can is a big part of, um, you know, the, the space and, and that’s, I guess, good or bad, right?
You get the benefit of it. Certainly. Um, but I do think that there are, there’s that rush, rush to be first that you have to feel, um, to be successful because that’s the way the YouTube algorithm prioritizes things. That’s the way it works. And it’s, I, I think it’s kind of unfortunate, but, um, you have to balance,
Speaker 2: you have to balance making sure you can get quality content out quickly.
Mm-hmm. And so there are some people who just wanna be first and they don’t care how good their content is. We want our [00:15:00] content to be actually useful and valuable and long term, and so we might not be. First, we’re gonna be close to first, but, um, but at the same time, you know, we also, you know, we’ve got people scheduled to work around the clock on when those things come out, so that we can be as, as early as possible.
But, but yeah, back in the day, that wasn’t a thing. It wasn’t a newsroom. We didn’t work in a newsroom, you know, in the, in the early two thousands. Now we do, this is absolutely a 24 hour news cycle newsroom that we work in, that when we hire people, we tell them you’re in a newsroom and it’s, you know.
Something could happen at 11:00 PM on Friday night and, and you’re gonna have to cover it.
Speaker: And, and to that, to that point of the way things have changed, do you think that if you had to start it all over in this day of the way content is made, that you could do it all again, um, from zero and, and to that end, have you ever considered doing another site?
I know you guys don’t do a ton of universal stuff, but has that [00:16:00] itch ever come about where you’re like, ah, especially with your husband, that’s a software developer like. Uh, do you ever get the itch to, to want to do another one?
Speaker 2: Um, we are, we are definitely expanding our coverage into a lot of travel coverage right now.
So I think what we’re doing instead of starting in, starting a new thing from scratch, we are kind of building on what we already have. Um, but we are going into some global travel, um. And you’ll see a lot more of that coverage and you will see some new brands pop up around our, our company, um, with some more global travel stuff.
Speaker: Yeah. I’ve seen, uh, like you guys have sent a couple of the, especially the all years team members I think have done some of the international parks and stuff and they’ve done a great job. Absolutely. Bring to everybody. Yep. Yep. Yeah, which is a lot of fun. So let, let’s talk a little bit about the book. Now that we know, like where you got started.
How did this transition into the idea of [00:17:00] writing a book? Did someone come to you and, and kind of spark that interest or did you have it on your own?
Speaker 2: Well, I’ve always been a writer, so I’ve always wanted to do a book. Um, but I wasn’t, I wasn’t at a, at a point where I was getting an agent and pitching or anything.
Um, Simon and Schuster, my editor. Came to me and, um, she’s a huge Disney adult. Um, and so we met at Nomad Lounge and had some drinks and talked about, okay, if you were gonna do a book, what would you know? What would you do? Um, and Disney Adult, that’s just such
Speaker: a Disney adult story.
Speaker 2: I know. She’s, she’s so great.
And you’ll see in the, in the dedication, in the, in the book. It’s, it’s, you know, I’ve got a, a, a tribute to her and, and, and I’m like, I’ll see you at Nomad. Um, right in the book. But that’s, you know, she’s like, I think that this book needs to be written. I think it’s important right now, and it is absolutely important.
Disney adults have gotten, um, so [00:18:00] much press, so much buzz in the past five years, really since COVID and. The fact that everybody thinks they know what a Disney adult is and they really don’t have any idea. And there’s, there are extreme opinions about this subculture when people don’t really have any data to back up those opinions except for viral TikTok content.
So I, I, I was like, yeah, absolutely. Let’s dive into this. And I didn’t know what it was going to be at the beginning. ’cause I knew I didn’t want it to be a defense of Disney adults. I didn’t want it to be, you guys are mean and we’re awesome. You know? ’cause that’s not necessarily true. There’s a lot of reasons why Disney adults have the stereotypes that, that we have.
Um, so sort of digging into, everybody’s talking about this subculture, but they don’t know anything about us. So let’s give them some information about, about who we are and maybe be able to, um. Own, I guess the, uh, [00:19:00] the stereotypes that are there and why they’re there and, and dig into, um, why we are the way we are.
Speaker: It was so enlightening to me because I’ve never thought about it that way. And I do think that the last five years you, every I, I feel like it comes up like every six months. There’s like the A bars stool, sports, viral TikTok, just ripping on Yeah, the Disney community. And one of the comparisons that you make that I think really hit home for me and for Chip, because we played.
Football in college was this comparison to like, why is it okay to be a sports fan versus being a Disney fan and, you know, star Wars fans and Trekkies don’t get ripped on and made fun of the way that Disney adults do. Why is it okay to make fun of one and not the other, or, and vice versa? There’s a great section in the book about that, and I, I guess my question for you is, why do you feel personally, because I, I know what the book says and you’ve got some great.
People that back it up as to, [00:20:00] you know, why there may be those certain stereotypes, but on a, on a personal level, for you as the author, what was your opinion on why that is?
Speaker 2: The biggest reason that stood out to me, um, for why Disney adults or, or Disney as a hobby is, um. Is maligned when other hobbies are not.
’cause it’s not the money that’s spent, there’s plenty of money spent on other hobbies. It’s not the time that’s spent. There’s plenty of time spent on other hobbies. Um, it is the fact that people assume Disney is for kids. And so it’s a weird thing for adults to be interested in something that’s for kids in the same way that it’s weird if you collect my little ponies, if you’re an adult.
Um, it’s, it’s a little bit strange if you’re still building a bunch of Legos. As, as a,
Speaker: as as. I’ve got Legos in the background, to be fair. Exactly. Aj. My kids built those though, so okay. I’ll defend myself there.
Speaker 2: But see the fact that you feel like you need to defend yourself, like that right there [00:21:00] is the core of, I’m not gonna say the problem.
I think it’s fine for people to be confused by that and be like. Okay. This ev we’ve always grown up knowing that Disney’s for kids, that you take your kids there. It’s, it’s the law that you have to take your kids there at least once, you know? Um, so what’s with these adults that keep going back and don’t bring their kids, you know?
And so I think that’s, that’s the one thing that people can’t get through or can’t get over to understand why this is a hobby. When you know, if you’re a football fan, if you know, if you’re a soccer fan, if you’re super into like knitting like that, that’s okay, but going to Disney is not.
Speaker: Yeah. And, and there’s to, to the point that you just made about the Legos.
Like, I feel like as Disney fans, we have a natural reaction to defend ourselves.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. It, it, it’s just,
Speaker: it’s just immediate. Like you feel like you have to respond and as much [00:22:00] as you can say and you that you’re confident and it doesn’t bother you or whatever. Yeah. There’s still a little, there’s still a little bit of that.
Right. Like where it, it, it, it bothers you deep down and you feel like you have to kind of defend your interests, which is just, it’s sa it, it’s sad in a way, but like Chip, I, I know you’d agree. We, we deal with that from, you know, the crowd that we’ve naturally had been friends with for decades, being former athletes.
It’s like the way you get ripped on in a locker room culture type of way. You have to have thick skin. A little bit about it, right? I mean,
Chip: yeah. And one of the things that I, excuse me, that I always tell everybody is I’m a large human being. I’m an offensive lineman at six six. I’m not small. I couldn’t, when I was in eighth grade, Matt, you remember going to Kings Island when we were in eighth grade with our middle school.
I was told I was too tall for a ride at Kings Island in eighth grade. I went to Disney World [00:23:00] as a junior and sat next to a fellow offensive lineman that went to Bowling Green with me. On a rollercoaster, it was Everest. We sat next to each other. I wasn’t too tall there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
Chip: People ask why I am a Disney fan.
It’s because I don’t, I can fit on the majority of the rides at Disney, Disney World. I don’t get told, told I can’t ride a ride because I’m, I’m huge. It’s,
Speaker 2: oh man, that’s so, that’s very interesting.
Speaker: But that, that comparison, you know, I, and I think. You know, one of the things that really came through in the book to me, because you have a lot of influencer and fan stories in the book, which is one thing that I was not expecting to kind of go through other people’s journey and you really start to realize that like everybody experiences that vitriol of being interested in Disney in a different way.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker: And, and you know, chip and I, I think. We get a lot of it coming from the Disney is feminine and kids. Right. So what, how are two men who are about to have 10 kids [00:24:00] combined
Speaker 3: mm-hmm.
Speaker: Interested in going to a place for kids and a place for women. Yeah. Is, is really like the stuff that we get and you know, women may get, get it from a completely different perspective.
Um, the L-G-B-T-Q community, as you mentioned in the book, gets it from a different perspective. Um, so there there’s so many different things that go into it and we all have like different ways of reacting to it. I, I think influencers as a whole are, are getting maligned. Online. Yeah. Right. For like, how are you spending so much time going and looking at the newest merch, you know, every other day or, uh, whatever the case may be.
But, you know, to, to that point, which, you know, influencer and fan story stuck with you the most,
Speaker 2: you know? Um, and I, and I, this is hard for me because they’re all in the book ’cause they all really resonated with me. Um. Honestly, your story is sticking with me a [00:25:00] lot ’cause I did not talk to a heterosexual dude for this book.
Um, because, you know, the, the, it’s just not something that I dug into and I love this. Element of it. And I’m, I’m hearing, I’m hearing this from several other folks that I’m talking to on podcasts. ’cause a lot of you guys run podcasts and I’m just like, oh my God. Yeah, that frigging sucks. Um, and that’s something that, you know, next edition I’m gonna put, I’m gonna put you guys in.
Um, but uh, but I think definitely the one that stuck with me a lot was a girl named Julia, who was an above the knee amputee and decided to run. Um, she was in a car accident and, and got, and they had to amputate her, her leg and she was, um, she decided her whole family was gonna go to Disney and run a, run a 10 k, you know, run a run Disney race.
And she’s like, okay, I’ll do that. And so she got a little blade and um, you know, talked about kind of her. Training for the [00:26:00] race and her experience doing the race. Um, and what I, and the thing that really resonated with me though about her story is that she likes to go to Disney because they don’t make her take her leg off.
There,
Speaker: which sounds, made me think, sounds
Speaker 2: story, you know, like
Speaker: exactly
Speaker 2: one place because you go to Universal and you see it says you have to remove prosthetics.
Speaker: And so when I, when I saw that in the book about Universal, it was so incredibly disappointing. Yeah. And, and, but it’s, and it’s only
Speaker 2: on a couple of rides, but you still do have to remove prosthetics for some of those because they don’t want your, your arm flying off and hitting somebody.
And I get that. I understand that there’s, you know, but, but Disney does not have, Disney somehow has created rides that, that’s not required. Um, and it’s funny ’cause you, you know, I, I had to fact check that and I sent my reporters into the parks. I’m like, can you please go over to Tron and make sure that nobody has to take off their leg to ride this?
Um, but I was like, yeah, I mean, that is gonna make somebody [00:27:00] feel. So strange and awkward to have to take a limb off to ride a ride. And what do you do with it? Do you put it in a locker? I don’t know.
Speaker 3: Right, right. And
Speaker 2: you know, and to me it’s just like, well, yeah, that’s, Disney’s gonna make you feel so much more accepted, um, with, with with that situation and that, and that just really, that really struck me.
’cause it’s not something that most of us think about.
Speaker: Well, and it, it’s, it’s interesting because of what we’ve been through in the last few years with the das program at Disney and Universal kind of. I think a lot of people wanted. Um, so they, they feel now that Universal does it better, which I think is kind of ironic because they’re very similar programs.
And my lawyer hat was going off because I’m thinking, well, there’s safety issues and legal issues and yada, yada, yada. Like, I can see, you know, in certain rides how I could be just. Ultimately it came back to like, what a horrible experience for somebody that has to feel that way. Yeah. Um, and it really kind of circles back to the Venn diagram of all the [00:28:00] stories in the middle.
The commonality was feeling accepted.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And
Speaker: having somewhere you can go and feel loved and, and enjoy and, and not feel judged, which I think was, was really great. Um, when, when you, when you sat down and you wrote like you. Was there one thing that you really hoped people took away from it? Mm-hmm. As, as an author?
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Um, I, I, again, I think people have extreme opinions about this group, even though they don’t, you know, and that’s the case now politically, everybody has extreme opinions about what they are not. And, um, it can’t, it can’t actually be that extreme. We can’t actually be that different. Um, that’s not how humanity works.
And Sure. And so the concept of, I know that you think you know who we are, I know that you think you know Disney adults, but let me show you a really broad understanding of, of this group and also [00:29:00] niche down to some specific people, because that’s also, I think how you solve prejudice is by actually getting to know the people that you don’t understand or that are different from you.
Sure. And so that to me is a big thing to take away from it, is that this is a much, much bigger community than you think. We have a lot more power than you think. You, I mean, you figure, like, I, I make cases in the book, um, you know, that, that Disney adults are actually affecting the choices that Disney is making.
Um, and as this absolutely giant, you know, multimedia conglomerate who owns everything, the fact that this fandom. Before social media didn’t really have a voice, now has a voice. And that’s something that I think is very important for us to understand, both on the Disney adult level, but on the broader scale too, right?
That social media has done so much to affect our world economically, politically, globally, in every other way. [00:30:00] So these communities are extremely powerful and we need to start paying attention to that. But also that, you know, humans are humans. So Disney adults are sort of. Holding tight to something that makes them feel safe and comfortable.
And also at the same time trying to avoid things that are scary or fearful. And that’s, anyone can see how they’re doing that in their own life, whether that’s through their own hobbies or whatever. So I guess that the key here is, listen, we’re all very, we’re all a lot more similar than we are different.
And it’s, it’s pretty easy to see that once you actually dig into it.
Speaker: I, it’s funny, chip and I always talk like, I feel like the bars, stool sports guys of the world. I’m, I’m always like, I can fix you if you, if you, if you hate Disney guys, come with me and Chip and I promise you, you will have a good time and you’ll see it the way that we see it.
Well,
Speaker 2: it’s,
Speaker: it’s always
Speaker 2: that my husband’s a bar stool sports kind of guy and, and it’s like that’s, you know, when I first. [00:31:00] Took him to Disney World. I curated the trip for him. Right. And I’m like, see,
Speaker: you’re, I can fix you. I can fix you. Yeah. Like, listen,
Speaker 2: I, you’re not even gonna know you’re at Disney.
Speaker: Exactly.
We’ll get you, we’ll get you some drinks and we’ll do it the right way.
Speaker 2: It’s gonna be great. It’ll go put golf. Exactly.
Speaker: We’re not gonna do nine hours waiting in lines. And, and, uh, and I, but I do think that like there is, in general, the people that tend to hate Disney the most are the people that went and had a really bad time because Exactly.
They didn’t know what they were doing. Yep. Um, and we, you know, we talk about that on the podcast all the time, so I don’t wanna hammer it home, but like. There, there, there’s usually a reason why ultimately they hate the parks or whatever. But to, to, to go to your point about the power, I thought that was really, really interesting, the impact that the community has, and I do think that.
The advent of social media has led to like a rift in the community of like ISTs, originalists and purists. Yeah. Versus people that are kind of newer to the [00:32:00] parks. Mm-hmm. And this Rivers of America stuff has shown that divide more than anything. And I guess my question for you is, how do you see Disney’s changes to the parks, to the increase in prices?
Kind of a lot of the stuff that they’ve been doing lately. Impacting, um, the loyalty of this subset of the culture.
Speaker 2: So I get on my soapbox a little bit in the book about this because I am, you know, I’m just like, guys, if Disney doesn’t evolve, if Disney doesn’t change, if Disney doesn’t keep up with, you know, business practices, Disney doesn’t exist anymore, Disney ceases.
Um, and so the. It’s fine to be nostalgic about what Disney was like when you were a kid, and guess what? It’s different for everybody. So the people who are, you know, very upset about Rivers of America, there are other people who are very upset about something, about a change that was made, you know, 15 years [00:33:00] later or whatever.
Mm-hmm. You know, it’s just, it depends on your Disney when you fell in love with it, you want it to be that way. And it’s completely different to everybody else’s Disney. So I think the ranting and raving about change. You, you, you can’t, you can’t do that. Disney has to evolve or else it dies. Um, and so, but in terms of, you know, loyalty to it, I, I, Disney doesn’t care.
Like, okay, see ya. ’cause we’re gonna bring other people in, right? We are not having any trouble selling tickets. And so I think that’s the thing, like you can, you can whine and complain all you want, but Disney’s like, yeah. You’ll, you’ll get over it. ’cause you know what we, I, I feel
Speaker: like nobody in our community knows that better than you do.
’cause you actually have a line of communication on a corporate level. But I, I guess so for Chip and I, we have our own things, right? Like, I could not care less. And, and this is to your point, I could care less about Rivers of America, honestly. But if they got rid of the people mover, I would [00:34:00] be like, with my pitchfork out, you would wreck it.
Yeah. So what is your thing that you would riot if they took away
Speaker 2: at Disney? Listen, Matt, there has
Speaker: to be one. You can’t, I’ve been, you can’t, you can’t fault on this.
Speaker 2: I’ve been so much this I have, I have nashed my teeth and you know, so many times that I’m just, you know, it’s like. Oh man. It’s like when you’re a parent and your kid just like, does it again and you’re like, forget it.
I don’t, I give up. So,
Speaker: but what, what is I, and or maybe it’s one that they already took away. I’m not gonna let you fold on this one. What, what would be the one thing either still in the parks or like in the past that’s that really bother? I am very,
Speaker 2: I am very nervous about spaceship birth and, and changing Spaceship Earth.
Spaceship Earth is, you know, that is my core. Just comfort ride and people. People mover is my core comfort ride as well. Yes. If they ever take that away, I’m gonna die because, um, I am the, I am the president of the unofficial People Mover fan club. I don’t know if you know that. Um,
Speaker: but I’m gonna run against you in that [00:35:00] next election, but that’s okay.
We’ll see. We’ll see what
Speaker 2: happens. Um, but I, I absolutely love the rides that everyone else just rides when they can’t ride anything else. So, like, living with the land people mover, um, and, and, uh, and Spaceship Earth, which at this point is a, is a, is a meme for, you know, weird old Disney fans. But it is, I love those.
But at this point, I’m even trying to think of a food that I would be mad if they took away. I mean, we were upset when they messed with the waffles at Sleepy Hollow. Luckily we brought ’em back. Um, I shouldn’t say we sure it wasn’t me, but I’m
Speaker: sure that was a part of it though. They’re back like.
Speaker 2: Um, you know, and stuff like, like little things like that.
But usually I feel, I kind of feel like I’m just tired now and I’m like, oh, okay, well there goes that, you know, enjoy it while you have it. Um, but yeah, I think, I think spaceship, birth people, mover, those are, those are my core. I would just ride those and nothing else, you know, [00:36:00] I’d go on guardians a couple of times a year, and then everything else just can be these two.
Speaker: I literally was down Sunday for Starlight for 24 hours and I rode the people mover twice and I rode trod and that was it.
Speaker 3: That’s it.
Speaker: And the only reason why I rode Tron is ’cause it was shockingly 20 minute wait. So I was like, I, I can’t not ride Tron.
Speaker 3: Right. It’s 20 minutes. It’s a requirement. Yes. No, I totally understand.
Yeah. I
Chip: wanna, what, what’s your resort? What’s your favorite resort?
Speaker 2: Uh, so because, because I don’t live in Orlando because I, you know, I, I only, I live in Dallas and so that’s another thing that I think helps out a lot with our content is that I’m still, you know, I’m still very much a travel to Orlando and get as fit as much in as you can.
You know, it’s not a situation where I live there and I can go whenever I want. Um. But when I go, it’s, it. I stay in whatever resort is going to give me the easiest access to get places the quickest for what I need to do on that trip. So usually it’s gonna be like [00:37:00] an Epcot resort, like a beach club, or a swan and dolphin or something like that, so that I can get to two parks very quickly and all the skyliner resorts and like, it gives me, you know, I, I have to travel.
You know, the as, as, as little as possible to get places less. Yeah. So that’s usually what I will, and also I can usually get a good annual passholder discount at those resorts. Um, whereas, you know, I’m certainly not gonna stay at like, you know, island Tower at Polynesian ’cause it’s gonna cost me 700 bucks even with a discount.
So, um, yeah, that’s, that’s usually where I end up. There was
Speaker: a question that was asked of Bob Iger the other day that I thought was really interesting and I wanna start asking a lot of our guests. And, and I think it’s even more fitting for you because you are in that kind of CEO role. That’s, that’s seen a lot of this planning for a really long time and he was asked if, and you may have heard this, I’m not sure, but it was about Disneyland.
If you had one private hour in Magic Kingdom with a family going for the first time [00:38:00] with no other guests in the park, but everything is open, what would you do with them in that hour? At Magic Kingdom?
Speaker 2: At Magic Kingdom,
Speaker: at Magic Kingdom. He was asked about Disneyland and I, yeah, I think, I think it’s more for a Disney World person.
I think for Magic Kingdom, for a first timer is like where you’d wanna spend that hour. You have to
Speaker 2: it. Yeah. It’s, it’s a requirement. Yeah. Uh, I would probably go to Cinderella’s world table for breakfast. Um, so they can, because I’m, I’m a completionist and I wanna see. Inside everything that I can. I, I, you know, and if, if there is a restaurant in there, if I can go in the castle, I wanna go in the castle.
So I’d probably do Cinderella’s Royal table for breakfast, then I would probably do. Um, I’ve got one hour.
Speaker: One hour.
Speaker 2: Oh crap. Then I can’t go to Cinderella’s world table for Brian.
Speaker: We’ll, we’ll, we’ll say it. We’ll, we’ll say that. That was, we’ll include that at the beginning. We’ll, we’ll include that as like a, as
Speaker 2: a quick note.
We’ve still got time before we start. Okay. Yeah. Um, and then [00:39:00] I would probably do Pirate to the Caribbean Haunted Mansion, people mover. I think we could fit all those in, in an hour. Yeah. Maybe Jungle Cruise. I think that would be my, I, I honestly, I wouldn’t even, you know, forget, forget Tiana’s. Forget, you know, Tron.
I don’t care. You’re gonna go on the classics. You’re gonna go on the ones they brought over from Disneyland.
Speaker: Yeah. I, I honestly, like, I, I think it’s a harder question to answer, especially for Disney adults than it is, um. For just about anything else, like I think that, that’s a difficult question. Yeah. And I thought Bob Iger, when he was asked about it at Disneyland, kind of, um, avoided it a little bit.
He’s like, he has
Speaker 3: to. He can’t. Right. He can’t.
Speaker: I, I, I get it, but I, I think that, like for guests of our show, we used to do a Mount Rushmore, right? So if you had to pick four things that you would include on Mount Rushmore from Walt Disney World, and I, but I think that this is a more. Intriguing question.
’cause it does get a little bit deeper onto what you love and what [00:40:00] you would recommend to other people. And so I think it’s fun, um, from that perspective. I
Speaker 3: think so too. I love it. I love that question. I think you should do that for all the parks. That’s great.
Speaker: I I, I, I think, I think we, I think it’s something that we’re gonna keep for sure the, the.
One of the most common other listener questions that we got that I have to ask you because of your expertise in the food space is what would you say is the most overrated Disney restaurant and what do you think is the most underrated Disney restaurant? ’cause that’s what people planning these vacations, they wanna know where should I not go?
Where should I avoid and where do I really need to go that other people maybe are not hyping up on the internet?
Speaker 2: And what sucks is that this changes. All the time because the, because the, um, the menus change regularly. The chefs change regularly. The servers change regularly. And so you really can’t go on what you read last year, you know what I mean?
And you can’t go on what’s in the guidebook. That doesn’t get updated. Mm-hmm. You know, for 12 months. [00:41:00] Um, which is why I think DFE does, what we do is we go to these restaurants multiple times a year. We’re gonna give you, here’s what’s changed, here’s what’s updated, here’s the new menu. Um, right now I think Ohana is really on its way down.
Um, I am, I am getting email after email from people who are like, they’re cutting corners, they’re buying low quality meat. Um, you know. Lots of it’s, it’s on its way down for sure. Um, which is sad and I hope they change that ’cause it’s such a, a joyful first night experience. Um, so Ana’s on its way down. I wouldn’t prioritize it anymore.
If you can fit it in, great. Uh, especially if you can get a fireworks view table, but I wouldn’t prioritize it anymore. Something that I think is super underrated is Steakhouse 71. Um, yeah, you know, not a good atmosphere. I, I still contend that it looks like a, um, uh, a. Re a reuse car [00:42:00] dealership, like a, like I, I hate that restaurant.
It just, it’s, it was much, much worse when it was the wave, when it was like burnt orange in there. But it’s, it’s not a good atmosphere. But the food is excellent and the burger is so good there. So that one is really underrated. Uh, skipper Canteen’s pretty underrated. Um, the food can be, can be. Mediocre. Um, but at least it’s different.
And there’s, if you are a Jungle Cruise fan, there’s so much in there to, to look at and it’s so much fun. And I’m a, I’m a big fan of, of a lot of imagineering in a restaurant. I love that. Yeah. So those are a couple of restaurants that I think are underrated for food quality and for immersiveness, um, uh, respectively.
Speaker: I, you know, the bar at Steakhouse 71 is a better vibe.
Speaker 2: It’s great. It’s, it’s good. It’s very, I love the bar
Speaker: there.
Speaker 2: At least it’s not as blue as it used to be. It used to just have blue lighting. Like you’re like, like you’re in a Yeah. [00:43:00] European public restroom where they don’t want you to like find your veins, but.
This, this is, um, it’s the bar’s. The bar’s fun. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. It, it, it feels very sterile, like you’re going to a doctor’s office to me. Um, but I do love the, the photos that they have in the hallway there. Yeah. Going to the bar and the food like that burger is just, it’s just so good. It’s so good.
Speaker 2: And you know what else is a good burger, if you guys haven’t had it?
Is, is over at, um, island Tower, the Wayfinder Park,
Speaker: Lulu.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes. WI has a great burger. Um, I did not, I was expecting to be annoyed that people liked it as much as the Stack Burger. Uh, but I was not, I loved it.
Speaker: I, I, I, I’ve, we’ve, chip and I have talked about that. Like I felt the exact same way. It’s still like, just below Steakhouse 71 to me.
Yeah. Um, but it is the, that volcano sauce is fantastic. It’s so good.
Speaker 2: I know. So good. I know. I love, I love a spicy aioli. It’s just, oh.
Speaker: But that, that’s gonna wrap it up. Make sure you get the book, pre-order it, uh, Disney Adults by [00:44:00] AJ Wolfe. It is going to be a link to get a pre-order. It is gonna be in the description.
Um, best of luck, aj. Thanks so much for, for joining us. Uh, we hope you had fun, um, chatting Disney. Yeah, this was awesome. Thanks guys. Thanks. Thanks for opening my eyes to it in,
Speaker 2: in event, you know, another maligned, uh, part of our community that, that we need to start talking about.
Speaker: Well, I, I like, I don’t want to feel like too maligned, but you know, it’s a, it’s a, it’s definitely everybody has their own experience for sure.
