The WDW News Today Podcast - without News Today · Tom Corless & Eric Morton

We Finished Redesigning the Magic Kingdom! - The WDW News Today Podcast: Episode 86

·1 hr 34 min·5 clips

Pirates of the Caribbean becomes a restaurant, bar, and profit center in the new plan.

The show opens in a tired, joking register. Eric Morton and Tom Corliss trade lines about drinks, sponsor seltzer, and a Starbucks cup that looks more like milk than coffee. They laugh about it. Then they explain why the podcast skipped the previous week, pointing to the Disney Destiny media voyage and the pileup of holiday content around the first Christmas party, the first Jollywood, and Disneyland holidays. It has been a busy stretch. That leads into the next marker: this is their last show before the annual 50-hour Toys for Tots marathon. The hosts treat that deadline as both a joke and a real event. Once the setup is out of the way, they move into a full redesign exercise for the Magic Kingdom. The conversation starts with Main Street and spreads outward as they sketch where a soda shop could fit and why the park is missing that kind of stop. They talk through Starbucks too, including the idea of moving it into Tomorrowland before deciding to leave it where it is. The plan gets more operational after that. They note that a change like this would force modifications to the backs of existing buildings, since stock areas would need to be reworked for guest-facing space. The second floor becomes part of the fantasy. Walt’s Restaurant is placed upstairs on the west side, with Bar Marceline attached to it. Club 33 gets a similar treatment on the east side, overlooking the hub, with fireworks viewing. The hosts frame that as a practical use of space and a way to open premium areas without making the park feel less like itself. Their jokes keep the pace loose. By the end, they are talking about article timing, a post that could publish at 10 a.m. on Tuesday the 18th, and the absurdity of trying to pack for a cruise while still on the clock. The closing stretch lands like a mess of plans, deadlines, and in-jokes, which is very much the point of the show.

As heard by us

A loose late-night park-planning chat that turns jokes into practical Disney ideas.

This late-night WDW News Today conversation pairs Eric Morton and Tom Corliss with sponsor banter and a stretch of coffee confusion before settling into a careful rethink of Main Street and Tomorrowland.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a late-night rethink of the Magic Kingdom from people sketching the corners, second floors, and hidden back doors.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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