EarzUp!

If you are anything like us, you have large therapy bills as well, but in addition to that, you are interested in taking your first trip to Walt Disney World.  To help us learn about the differences between the two parks, we talk with Kristi, who wrote a book called ... A Tale of Two Resorts But first ... Jason professes his love of great cinema, recommending The Love Guru (again!) and the runaway hit of the year, WolfCop!  Yes, WolfCop.  It's on Netflix, check it out. We talk about Beverly's pending blog, and her fantastic new way of writing out her thoughts.  Taren hits a little feedback, and then it's time for Kristi! A Tale of Two Resorts is a great book for those of you looking to journey to Walt Disney World for the first time - or vice versa.  Kristi lays out the core information that you need in an easy-to-understand style.  Since we are more Disneyland-focused, we talked a lot about what to expect from going to WDW for our first time.  

We all understand how large a place Disneyland is, but we've never heard just what it takes to keep a huge operation like this up and running.  Today, Taren dives into .. Disneyland By The Numbers But first ... Taren, Jason, and Beverly get excited for their upcoming trip to Disneyland - 5 days in the Magic Kingdom!  Of course, Terrence was supposed to come along, but once again his real life got in the way of his magical one. We received some great feedback from a listener over on iTunes asking for us to crank out a show a week!  While an amazing and heart-warming request, it's pretty much impossible for us to pull off .  Sorry! Beverly explains her new workout routine, which just constitutes laughing a lot and calling it good, and then we get into the heart of the show - Disneyland By The Numbers - what it takes to keep Disneyland running.  Pay close attention, because Taren actually invents an entire unit of measure in this show, one that we pretty much beat to death moving on. A little Disney News, and that's a show!  

They say you should get a job doing something you love, that way it will never truly feel like work.  Well, where else can that be but in Disneyland? If you have ever wondered what it takes to be on stage in a Disney Park, then you'll want to pay close attention as we learn ... How to be a Disney Performer But first ... Jason starts the show by expressing his love of Stitcher Radio and it's free podcasts (of which EarzUp is one of), including his new favorite, Welcome to Night Vale.  If you are into sci-fi/comedy/bizarre things, then you'll dig Night Vale. Greg the Donator took advantage of our new policy that allows reoccurring donors to give us things to say on the air by penning a "poem" for Terrence and Jason to read.  He did have directions for the boys to do numerous interpretive dances, but Terrence's leotards were at the cleaners, so we opted out of that portion. Taren and Jason announced their new venture, Covears! They are cute little covers for your Mickey Mouse ears that allow you to dress up your hat while in the parks.  They slip on and off with ease and will not damage your hat in any way.  A cool way to add some personality to your favorite ear hat. Finally, we get our guest on the line.  Steve has been performing at Disneyland for a number of years, and had some really great tips on how to land a job entertaining guests for a living.  He does live performances and song-and-dance numbers, and does a great job diving into detail about what it means to work at a place like Disneyland.  It was a great interview, and Steve did a wonderful job making Terrence cry as well as letting us know how to be a Disney performer. Before we exit the show, Taren and Terrence hash out their thoughts on the movie Frozen.  "The Frozen Throwdown" came about from Taren hating Frozen, and Terrence challenging that thought.  They got together and hashed out their thoughts in the only way they know how ... on the air.  

Disney California Adventure is one of the more polarizing topics for Disney geeks.  Some hate it, some love it, and other still really don't care either way.  Terrence digs in and gives us ... The History of Disney California Adventure Angry Bekah is in the studio again to make sure that Terrence doesn't mess anything up.   She tries to fight her nickname of "angry", but then caves to peer pressure and finally accepts who she is. Dan (AKA Mousebrew) is back to talk about some new drinks over in DCA that have been added due to the Frozen overlays peppered throughout the park.  The overall consensus is: stick to beer. Then we jump into some feedback from Larry, and segue into Terrence and his History of Disney California Adventure show!  Terrence covers a lot of things here - how the park looked when it opened, what has changed since that fateful opening day, and how it looks now.  It's a pretty good example of how over-thinking a theme park can really be a bad thing sometimes.  Considering how many restaurants there were on opening day ... Our friend and audio master Charlie (AKA PushEject - who makes really awesome videos with his kids, BTW) was up from LA, and chimed in, too.  We never really introduced him in this show, so when you hear an mystery voice ... that's our pal Push! Then we close the show with more odd stories of Terrence's eating habits in the parks and how he chased a young lady down for a bit of her turkey leg, and we get to the Fact of the Show. Also, Jason lost the video for this show, sorry about that! See you in the parks!  

There are literally hundreds of Disney-related websites out there, but none as interesting the one Chris has put together.  Why?  Well, sit back and find out as we have ... An Interview With DisneyChris.com The show starts with a discussion about loveliness and who has more of it. Taren or Terrence.  Which is very, very important stuff.   Taren and Jason recap their recent trip to Disneyland to check out some of the new Frozen attractions in DCFrozen, and we read (and react) to some feedback about our show only being worthy of two stars on our iTunes page because we were not Disney historians.  Something we never have claimed in the first place, but ... we are still glad that person wrote in. DisneyChris joined the conversation then, and our interview began.  In case you are unaware, Chris runs DisneyChris.com, and audio site dedicated to the sounds of Disneyland's past.  Seriously, the guy has loads and loads of classic audio that most Disneyland fans have never heard, including some pieces of Walt Disney's TV shows that were shot during the construction of Disneyland. It's amazing stuff, and we highly recommend playing around on his site.  You can also follow him on Twitter, where he posts lots of clips and old, color-corrected photos of Disneyland. Chris talks to us about his love of Disneyland, how he gets his audio, and some of the steps he does to restore and clean the pieces up.  It's all very time-consuming. Then we do some Disney News and our Fact of the Show and, once again, it's time to leave the studio!   See ya' in the parks! The EarzUp Crew  

Terrence is the parent side of EarzUp!  In addition to having two kids under the age of 5, he has navigated Disney with children in tow, and is the best to take us through ... What to do with kids 5 and under at Disneyland This was a pretty crazy show, by our standards.  Terrence pulls us around to tell us what there is to do with kids 5 and under at Disneyland and DCA, and has some really cool tips to give.  Beverly was on hand to give us her own tips for new mothers at Disneyland, and to give us some much-needed comic relief. Also in the studio were Taren's parents who were kind enough to share an embarrassing memory from Taren's Disneyland past.  It was both sad and amazing ... trust us. Listener and friend-of-the-show John sent us our first ever bit of snail mail, which included some pretty neat old-school Disney flyers, that he just happened to find on the street.  Thanks John ... we didn't catch anything after all! We do some Disney News, Taren comes up with our new tag line, and our Fact of the show will have you dancing a little jig!    

 Believe it or not, some people visit southern California for reasons beyond going to Disneyland. I know, it may sound a little weird but there are actually a lot of (other) ... Things to do near Disneyland   Taren gives you a massive list of cool places you can visit outside of the parks. She's broken it down by distance to Disneyland--so think of a big dartboard with Disneyland in as the bullseye: Within 100 Miles of Disneyland: Sea World (96.9m) http://seaworldparks.com/ $86 adult / $80 child San Diego Zoo (94.6m) sandiegozoo.org $48 Adult / $38 Child Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Square (96.8m) stonelibertystation.com Food, Beer, Beautiful gardens LEGOLand (65.2m) http://california.legoland.com/ 3 parks: Legoland, SEA Life Aquarium, LegoLand Water Park 3 park hopper: $109 A / $104 C -- Leogland only $80 / $74 (save up to $15 if you pre order tickets online) Within 50 miles of Disneyland: Getty Museum (44.6m) http://www.getty.edu/museum/ Free Admission $15 parking Santa Monica Pier (43.6m) http://santamonicapier.org/ Free admission Free historical walking tours 3rd Street Promenade LACMA (41.3m) http://www.lacma.org/ Admission: $15 adults / $10 children Universal Studios Hollywood (35.6m) http://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/ $92 / $84 1-Day pass $109 / $101 2-Day Eagle Rock The Public House (34.1m) http://eaglerockpublichouse.com/ Food and Beer! Staples Center (33.8m) Lakers, Kings, Concerts, Grammys Hollywood Walk of Fame (32.6) http://www.walkoffame.com/ Free to walk around Shopping Philippe’s The Original French Dip Sandwich (26.9m) http://www.philippes.com/ Old school sandwich shop claims they made the very first French dip sandwich. Mmm! Within 25 miles of Disneyland: Beachwood BBQ & Brewing, Long Beach (23.3m) Great BBQ and Beer! Pretend City Children’s Museum, Irvine, CA (18.7m) pretendcity.org $12.50 A/C Giant playland for kids to use their imagination be grocers, doctors, dentists, firefighters, musicians, etc. South Coast Plaza (14.7m) http://www.southcoastplaza.com/ high end shopping: Bloomingdales, Saks 5th, Chanel, Dior, Roberto Cavalli, Hermes, Fendi, Tiffany & Co., Jimmy Choo, Armani, etc… Within 10 miles of Disneyland: Pirate’s Dinner Adventure (8.3m) http://www.piratesdinneradventureca.com/ $59.95 / $36.95 The Bruery, Placentia, CA (7.0m) http://www.thebruery.com/tasting-room/ Sour, Belgian Beers Knotts Berry Farm (6.7m) knotts.com $44 / $35 online ($65 at the door) Thrill rides, character meet and greets, water rides, kiddie rides Medieval Times (6.6m) http://www.medievaltimes.com/ $59.95 / $36.95 Honda Center (4.8m) Anaheim Ducks Flight Deck Flight Simulation Center (4.4m) http://www.flightdeck1.com/ Minimum Age: 11, Minimum Height: 4’11” Make reservations, walk-ins not guaranteed a space Open Tue-Sun 7 Flight times per day Fighter Jet: $59 / Boeing 737: $89 - $199 30-90 min Angel Stadium (4.3m) Angels Game  Within Walking Distance to Disneyland: Downtown Disney (0.4m) World of Disney

Adventureland remains one of the least refurbished lands in Disneyland today, but still has quite a bit of history to uncover.  Join us as Terrence runs us through the ... History of Adventureland But first, we talk about all of the  cool things have happened over our Christmas break - like Terrence taking a family trip to Disneyland, and Taren and Jason both getting some new Disneyland shoes for those long park days. Terrence starts off his rundown of his trip by admitting that he had mis-judged Fantasyland, and after watching all of the movies that are represented there before his trip, he is now a huge fan of that section of the park. We do our usual banter about random things, and Jason comes up with another million-dollar idea.  Well, it's an idea, anyway. Then we move into the history of Adventureland.  Terrence hates Adventureland, so he decided to take this show and see if learning more about the history would make him appreciate it a bit more.   We also tease him a bit, because he dressed his kid up as Prince.  Terrence says the costume is really Captain Hook, but we know better.  

We all have things we want to do before we die, but not all of them are related to Disneyland.  In this episode, we change all of that, and get into the mouse-filled specifics of our ... Disney Bucket List! This show was a lot of fun for us, personally.  We start by reading feedback from a listener who wanted to let us know how the disability passes work now, or rather how they don't work.  Then we go over how you can get all 7 of the cool Disneyland Buttons, something we posted on our blog awhile ago, and finally ... the Disney Bucket Lists! In case you don't know, a bucket list is just a list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket.  It could be anything, really - sky's the limit.  We decided to keep it semi-realistic for this show, even though we broke the rules a couple of times!  This was a really fun exercise, and we challenge you to give this a shot and let us know what your Disney Bucket List would be! After that, we had a call from Mary, a long-time listener and fan of the show, who called up with a very special surprise for her kids, and we hit the Fact of the Show!   So come on ... what ten things would YOU do?

We are pretty certain that most Disneyland fans dream of being an Imagineer, getting to help create magic that will be enjoyed by millions of people.  The Earzup! crew are no different, as we sit down and jump into ... EarzUp! Imagineering The show starts off with Jason complaining that nobody on Twitter cared much about his scoop that the Muppets 3-D show is being torn down in favor of a Frozen sing-along, which is his favorite thing over in DCA.  Naturally this lead to lots of Frozen bashing. Then we cover Taren and Jason's recent trip to Disneyland, where they got to go to the Salon Nouveau Jazz Club as well as 1901 - both exclusive to Club 33 members.  It was a great time, and one that warrants it's own blog post, which will be posted shortly. All in all, we came up with some pretty good ideas for Imagineering.  Probably none that are actionable, but still - the exercise was fun, and we challenge you to do something similar.  What would you do to Disneyland or DCA if you had the ability? Our Disney News segments brings us more lawsuits against Disney, which appears to be par for the course these days, and our Fact of the Show has to do with the rumor of the Matterhorn Basketball court, which is an actual thing.  Or it used to be, at any rate.  

Taren's favorite time to go to Disneyland is during the holiday season, so she decided to helm this show and explain what actually goes on during this magical time of ... Holidays in Disneyland In our second live show ever, we start the show debating on if we should renew our Annual Passports in favor of saving that money for Disney World (with a quick jaunt to visit Harry Potter, of course).   As of yet we are still undecided ... After a quick round of feedback, Taren takes us into the world of Holidays in Disneyland.  She loves this time of year, and with good reason - there is so much to do and see during this time, it's almost hard to do it all!  We talk about some special treats that are only around during the holidays in Disneyland too! Then it's time for some Disney News, where we discuss so many things within the Disney universe, like the latest plagiarism suit against Disney for the Frozen movie ... *sigh* ... we check in on the fundraising being done by the good people at the Walt Disney Birthplace as they try to get some funding to restore and preserve this historic building, and much more. And last but not least - the Fact of the Show.  Here's a hint: it has to to with this photo here: Thanks for listening!

The magic at Disneyland is everywhere - including the plant-life!  Today, we run you through another tour at the park ... it's the - Cultivating The Magic Tour Review But first, we have some special feedback on this show.  After our spotlight on Club 33 a few shows back, a few listeners wrote in to clarify a few things that we were incorrect about, such as membership requirements and guest limits.  In the interest of passing along correct information, we run through the feedback for you. Then it's tour time!  Taren and Jason took the Cultivating the Magic tour, and give you the info you need to decide for yourself if it's worth the $49 price tag.  We did learn some pretty neat things about the park plant life, like there are over 800 different species of plants in Disneyland, and the flowers on Main Street get replaced about every 6 weeks. We got to walk on to The Jungle Cruise, where we learned about Bill Evans, who was the horticulturist for Walt and for the park.  Bill designed the plants within The Jungle Cruise to represent the various jungles that helped to inspire the ride.  At one point, he took some orange trees that were still on the land and turned them upside-down so that their large root systems were sticking out of the water to look like old jungle vines.  There is only one of these trees left in the ride, and here it is: Since this was our first show broadcast LIVE over on our brand new Livestream page, we were able to do a live game of Disneyland Trivia that Jason cooked up.  We got three live listeners on the phones, and they played to win a really awesome painted skull, hand-made by our good friend Push Eject.  Not just any skull, this was sculpted after those creepy Nightmare Before Christmas ones in The Haunted Mansion!  Push has them for sale, so please swing by his Etsy page and grab some while you still can.

If you go to Disneyland often enough, the day eventually arrives where a friend or relative says "We are going to Disneyland for one day - what should we do?" - what would you tell them? We have thought long and hard about this question, and have come up with the Official EarzUp! Top Ten list!  Not only do we each list out our own recommendations on what to do in both Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure, but we collect them into one overall, must-do, Magic Kingdom list! Of course, we fill you in on how we got there, with each of us giving our own brand of personal advice of what rides to hit above all in between both parks. Plus we do another round of Disney News, run through some new Disney-related comic books that are on the market, hear some great feedback from Peter, and a rare in-studio appearance from Angry Bekah. Here are our final lists, since the individual lists would be too long to read and are probably best delivered in audio format.  So grab a pen, take some notes, and get ready to agree (or disagree) with the EarzUp! Official Top Ten list! Our Top Ten things to do in Disneyland and DCA: 1 - Race along Radiator Springs Racers 2 - Toy Story Midway Mania 3 - Ride Pirates of the Caribbean 4 - Eat at the Carthay Lounge 5 - Ride Indiana Jones 6 - Jet off into space on Star Tours 7 - Eat a Churro in every land 8 - Ride the Haunted Mansion ... at night! 9 - Walk the Sleeping Beauty diorama in Sleeping Beauty's castle 10 - Hang out and watch the World of Color  

Fantasyland is a sort of love/hate thing for many people. It contains some of the most wonderful rides, and yet it is so packed all of the time.  Taren digs deep into this polarizing section of Disneyland, and brings us ... The History of Fantasyland In the land of princes and princesses, flying elephants and boat-guzzling whales, of mad tea parties and endless songs, we leave the familiar world that we know and understand and move into the wondrous mind of Walt Disney. Many have said that Fantasyland was Walt's favorite land. In his initial concept for Disneyland, Fantasyland was at the center of everything.  As is generally the case, Walt's attention to detail is part of what makes this land so special--from the fact that each horse on the King Arthur's Carousel is jumping (Walt didn't want stationary horses) to making sure that the Casey Jr. Train looked identical to the one in Dumbo (even when this caused extensive logistical problems), to plating the spires of the castle with 22 karat gold (much to Roy Disney's chagrin). The Fantasyland of 1955 was very different than what we see today--although, most would argue that what we see today is much closer to Walt's original vision. It didn't always have the beautiful European "Storybook" facades that we know and love, these only came after a major renovation in 1983, when the "New Fantasyland" opened, which also brought us a better layout of the land, new rides, new restaurants and important upgrades to the existing rides.      Come with us on a journey from the past to the future in the History of Fantasyland! And make sure to stay tuned for our Fact of the Show--you'll love keeping this one in your back pocket to impress your friends!  

Taren jumps into the fascinating - and expensive - world of the most famous restaurant at Disneyland ... Disneyland's Club 33 We can honestly say that there are no other things within Disneyland that are surrounded with an air of mystery than the famous Club 33.  Originally planned as a place for Walt to wine-and-dine the park's many investors, it remains a space that many current park guests are unaware of. Taren and Terrence dive into the history of Club 33 - how it got that name, what kind of menu items you could find both before and after the renovation (like the famous Chateaubriand), the dress code, and what the place looks like now.  And for those of you who have that kind of money, we give you the contact information to get on the waiting list for a membership to Disneyland's Club 33. We also hear from Angry Bekah as she confronts Terrence during the Feedback segment, and of course, the Fact of the Show!