Tall Guy Talks Travel with Rick Dougherty

This week, Rick continues his conversation about Michael Eisner and the Disney Renaissance.  In this episode, he talks about the two highest grossing animated movies of the Renaissance.

Epcot's International Festival of the Arts will kick off next week at Walt Disney World.  In today's episode, Rick and Sarah Says will be talking about the performers who are scheduled to take the stage for the Disney on Broadway Concert Series, which takes place in World Showcase every night of the festival.

Happy New Year!  Rick and Maz talk about the benefits and drawbacks of all four of the festivals at Epcot over the course of the year.

In honor of the holiday and the season of giving, Rick is going to be replaying his conversation with Susan from Indiana.  Susan's family was able to have a great Orlando-area vacation thanks to Give Kids the World. 

As Rick continues his series on former-Disney chairman and CEO Michael Eisner, he turns his attention to the Disney Renaissance.  This week, he will cover the first three animated movies of the Renaissance. 

Disney doesn't want you getting too much done when you are on vacation.  The theme parks have hidden ways to waste your time when you are in the parks.  For the second straight week, Sarah and Rick discuss the different ways they waste your time.

Did you ever notice that you never get quite as much out of your Disney park day as you planned?  That is 100% on purpose.  Rick and Sarah Says talk about the different ways Disney wastes your time on a theme park day.

Rick and Maz continue their conversation about Disney movies that made over a billion dollars at the box office, but haven't had the cultural impact of some of their other films.

Disney has had a lot of movies recently pull in billion-dollar takes at the box office.  That doesn't neccesarily mean that all of those movies are building blocks for the company.  Rick and Maz will talk about Disney's "Billion-Dollar Busts" from 2015-2019 in the next two episodes.

Before Bob Iger made multi-billion dollar acquisitions for Disney, Michael Eisner purchased some smaller companies that had a big impact.  One of those companies was Mirimax.  While Disney got credibility, respect, and money from the addition, they ended up having to make a deal with the devil.  Rick will talk about that acquisition in the 250th episode of the show.

Rick and his co-host Sarah Says will talk about rare characters that guests used to be able to meet at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.  They will then move on to some of the rare characters that are showing up for special events in the theme parks.

 Rick will be joined by Jeff Gordon of Gordon Grubs for a conversation about all of the international Disney theme parks.  There is so much to discuss between Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.  

Rick and Maz discuss the movie announcements from the Destination D23 event earlier this year in Orlando, Florida.  This will include most of the major Disney releases for the next few years.  Both Rick and Maz have strong opinions on Disney's strategy.

Author Beth Castrodale has a new novel that would be perfect for people who love the Halloween season.  She also has an incredible story of overcoming a serious brain injury to pursue her dreams of becoming a successful writer.  

Rick does a hotel review for the place where he stayed on his recent visit to Walt Disney World.  After that, Rick talks about how former-Disney chairman and CEO Michael Eisner had the chance to pander to the wrong type of people, but instead stood on principle and morals. 

Last week, Rick was back in Walt Disney World after six months in the Northeast.  During his trip, he was able to experience new things that weren't there before he moved.  On today's episode, he talks with Gillian about those new attractions.

Rick will talk about the 30th anniversary of Pocahontas with a superfan of the movie; how Wicked may be integrated in the Universal theme parks; and how someone can live the life of a travelling RV driver with someone doing it.  

Eric, known as Main Street Electrical Arcade, recently visited the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, California.  Hear all about it on today's episode of the podcast.

It was a traumatic day for almost everyone who witnessed it, but the Walt Disney Company had decisions to make immediately, and in the aftermath.  Rick discusses those decisions. 

Rick is joined by his co-host Maz, as the two talk about the major theme park announcements to come out of last weekend's Destination D23 event in Orlando, Florida.  

With all of the changes happening at Walt Disney World, it is important to remember that we have already lost a lot of our favorite things, but continue to love the theme parks.  Nothing that has disappeared has caused us to turn our backs on Disney.  Whatever we are about to lose, we will still continue to find things to keep us happy in the Most Magical Place on Earth.

Michael Eisner didn't start the trend of the Disney Company acquiring intellectual properties, but he did speed up the process that was then taken to Ludicrous Speed by Bob Iger.  The Muppets characters were among those that Eisner spent years trying to bring into the Disney umbrella.  

Mouse-and-More Adam made sure to be at Disney's Hollywood Studios for the final day of public operation for Muppet*Vision 3D.  He got to meet Jim Henson's daughter, and spend time with fellow-Muppets fans to celebrate the attraction.  Hear all about that day in this episode of the podcast.

Maz is on the show this week to talk about taking a vacation to New York City to see Broadway musicals.  This is something on a lot of bucket lists, but what are the best ways to make it a successful trip?

After Rick talked about Dick Tracy with Maz earlier this year to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the movie, Sarah Says gave him a call to let him know that it is one of her five favorite movies of all-time.  Of course, we have to hear from Sarah Says about this movie if she loves it so much.