Podcast

Eisner Unfiltered, Disney’s AI Investment, Savannah Bananas & $449 Lightning Lanes

Dis & Hers

February 16, 2026
36 min read

Eisner Unfiltered, Disney’s AI Investment, Savannah Bananas & $449 Lightning Lanes

Michael Eisner is back in the spotlight with one of his most candid interviews in decades—sparking fresh debate about Disney leadership, park affordability, and what makes a guest feel like a VIP. This week on Dis & Hers, Lauren and Eric Hersey also unpack Disney’s major AI investment, why the Savannah Bananas are a perfect Disney match, and the eyebrow-raising reality of $449 Lightning Lane Premier Pass sellouts.

Episode Highlights

Michael Eisner’s long-form interview and his blunt comments on modern Disney pricing
Eisner’s take on the Chapek era (“a marriage made in hell”)
Disney’s AI investment and what it could mean for content, ads, and workflows
Savannah Bananas return to Disneyland (March 26) and what’s planned
Lightning Lane Premier Pass selling out—would you pay $449?

Eisner Unfiltered, Disney’s AI Investment, Savannah Bananas & $449 Lightning Lanes Transcript

Lauren Hersey: Welcome to Dis & Hers, the show about what’s happening in the Disney community from his, hers, and your perspective. I’m Lauren.

Eric Hersey: And I’m Eric and on the show today, Michael Eisner just gave his most candid interview in decades and he did not hold back. Disney is making billion dollar AI moves. The Savannah bananas are bringing banana ball back to Disneyland for one high energy day. Lightning Lane Premier Pass is selling out during one of the busiest weeks of the year. The question is, would you pay for it? That and more on the show today, but I think, Lauren, you and I are both excited about this first story.

Lauren Hersey: Yes, I read like this. You know, if you’re a Michael Eisner fan like Eric and I are, this is the stuff that makes your heart go pitter patter. So here recently, Michael Eisner sat down with Graham Benzinger on the In Depth with Graham Benzinger show, and we were watching it on YouTube. And the way we even stumbled upon it was kind of funny because, you know, Eric and I are searching, I’d say monthly.

Eric Hersey: Aha, there’s… Well, monthly is a little hardcore, but no, it’s in our saved search. A lot of times I’ll just type in Mike Wisner, especially, you know, early on, maybe years ago, because we just wanted to watch a bunch of his stuff. And we always stumble upon, like, some of the documentaries that talk about some of his stuff. What was the one we were just recently watching? It was like a seven part series. Yeah, it was basically the book Disney War, but done in a YouTube short. So we are always searching for Mike Wisner.

Lauren Hersey: for like anything new, Michael Eisner, right?

Lauren Hersey: the kings of the kingdom.

Lauren Hersey: It was nice!

Eric Hersey: It was great, yeah. But because we search for Michael Eisner often enough, the algorithm knows that,

Lauren Hersey: But this…

Lauren Hersey: Yes, and I feel like, you know, Christmas in February happened for the Hersies because Graham Benson, or like we were saying, Michael Eisner granted him a long form sit down interview. And I mean, I don’t know that we’ve really seen anything long form like this since he left Disney originally in 2005.

Lauren Hersey: Michael Eisner’s done a tremendous amount of like little interviews like promotional interviews like you know for his baseball cards or for his book like he was doing the media circuit but this was like he Graham had Michael Eisner back on the Disney campus which he had not been since he left the company

Eric Hersey: Yeah, that’s how the first one we watched. Yeah, that was the first one we watched. was like, is this I was like, wow, they got him to just show up there. And then we realized it was multi part. Like it was just one YouTube video that was three, four minutes and he’s standing out in front and he’s talking about it. And then you realize, no, he this is a this is a whole big thing. He’s he got he was with him for a couple of days.

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, I mean, he was in his home. He was talking to his wife. Like, I mean, this was a big, a big deal. But my first question, Eric, like was, I’m like, who’s this guy? Like, who’s this dude? Like, I never heard of him. So who is Graham Bensinger?

Eric Hersey: Right, well, I didn’t know either and I just assumed as much as it was probably some news writer, you know, like I figured this was… Right, I just assumed he… Right, right, I just assumed he was working for like CNN or Fox or NBC or something like that, but it turns out, so we went online and searched. We found out he is an American television journalist and he’s best known for hosting what the syndicated interview series, In Depth with Graham Bensinger.

Lauren Hersey: Like how did he get Michael Eisner? That was the like… To me, that’s the biggest catch.

Eric Hersey: He specializes in the long form sit down conversations and he does his homework. You can just tell that he’s read books and like his questions are direct, but like they’re coming from things only somebody that did their homework would know. It’s not your canned questions. was, we ended up watching a decent amount of interviews, not just Mike Weisner from this. it, but he started what, 2011? Lauren, you said that he’s not just like a YouTuber though, right?

Lauren Hersey: I was telling this to Eric off of here is like I needed to know I’m like, why this guy like why now? And so not only is this guy a really, you know, great interviewer, he asks very thoughtful pointed questions. But like he is scrappy as all get out. And like his story is really fascinating. I would recommend checking him out. But in a nutshell, he’s from St. Louis. And I think he like started doing this little like online

Lauren Hersey: radio sports show when he was in eighth grade and like he researched all of these major league baseball athletes and got their home addresses and like reached out to see if they would be on his little like radio show and what he additionally became known for as you know a minor child I guess was he interviewed OJ Simpson and the interview got picked

Lauren Hersey: I think it was on like Good Morning America and Diane Sawyer. So he was he started out doing the sports content and then, you know, his interviews and stuff like got picked up by ESPN. So like Eric Bench and syndicated show worked with NBC Sports. And so now, in addition to the online content that you’re seeing Graham put out, he also has a syndicated interview show.

Lauren Hersey: that also is on television. So if you were wondering who this guy is, mean, but how do we think he got Michaelizer? Like, that’s the most important part.

Eric Hersey: I don’t know. mean, he interviewed people like Michael Jordan. I saw that on the list. recently, like, we saw an interview in Ron Howard. And I know they had Barry Diller, which was a former Mike Wisner protege or leader, so to speak. So I don’t know how he got Mike Wisner. I assume, I mean, I looked him up online and he’s our age. So I’m guessing he very much, if he’s in the sports, like the Mighty Ducks, like that’s, that was just…

Eric Hersey: very prominent and Michael Eisner was all over the place. So it’s interesting to say, but I did want to look him up and just be like, cause right now he has a YouTube channel and I’m thinking to myself, all right, does Michael Eisner have something to say in terms of like, did he go out and find somebody he’s trying to make a splash? And I was trying to figure out like, all right.

Eric Hersey: What kind of reach does Graham have? So there is a cool website out there that we use a lot of times called socialblade.com and it actually kind of ranks like YouTubers and online influencers. It gives them a grade and gives them where they rank and so forth. And it tells you how many views and all this stuff. So I went on there and Graham does get a B score, which is pretty darn good. He ranks fairly high. I mean, he’s not like the number one YouTuber of all time.

Eric Hersey: but he is generating about seven million views in 30 day period, a time, and probably making a decent living or at least a decent amount of money just from YouTube alone. So I think if Michael Eisner was like, hey, I’m gonna do this interview series, this guy is credible, reputable, I like his style, he seemed to really know his stuff. So I mean, I was okay.

Eric Hersey: with Graham getting this interview. And I think he did a heck of a job.

Lauren Hersey: Well, I also think one of the things that he talked about just kind of bringing this full circle before we actually get to the juicy stuff here is that Graham or Michael did talk about the the soccer team that he bought recently with his family in the UK and they’re trying to Disney fi the soccer team and get it to Premier League status. So

Lauren Hersey: like I mean as much as Graham could have been a Disney fan and you know he’s our Walt if he’s that same age I think that like having you know an audience that is also very into sports and you know Michael Eisner did come out with the Jimmy Kimmel of it all and you know did make a comment that really got a lot of traction online so maybe that put him top of mind but

Lauren Hersey: Nonetheless, he got the interview and he’s been putting out these little like three to four minute clips, maybe a couple a day. And I’m assuming that the majority of that information, like from that sit down long form will come out. But something that he did, which the internet maybe doesn’t.

Lauren Hersey: love or at least this one person that we have a comment from was that he did drop the whole you know hour and you 40 minute interview but it is you gotta pay for it if you want everything is one video

Eric Hersey: Yeah, yeah, and we’ve been watching, we started watching a bunch of the short videos and then we noticed that, there’s this whole thing and he asked, so on YouTube you can become a member, I think it’s 699, so six miles tall on Twitter, DeBase said, no reason this should be behind a paywall. But I will tell you what, I was very happy with the $7 I spent, we got to watch it all in one swoop and we got everything early and I would say this is well worth it. So Graham did a great job, production quality’s high.

Eric Hersey: Although every now and then you will hear a random car horn in the background and it is explained in the actual video But let’s get to the juicy part Let’s talk about what actually was picked up and why we even know about and why you guys are talking about it There was a lot of juicy nuggets that Michael said so we’ll just talk about a couple of them here Lauren The first one I think we all saw as park fans is that he’s not wild about today’s park prices. What did Michael say?

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, so I mean, first you got to give credit where credit is due. He was praising some of the changes. He was talking about the new leadership and making some of these changes are necessary for growth. And then he slipped in that he’s not wild about how expensive it has become to visit Disneyland or Disney World. And then he went on to say that, like, he doesn’t love that it is harder than ever for

Lauren Hersey: every guest to feel like a VIP. And like, why did that hit different, Eric?

Eric Hersey: Yeah, he passed on it real quick. And I mean, I don’t know if he wants to ruffle too many feathers. I mean, he was speaking candidly about almost everything, but I’m sure he still doesn’t want to necessarily do any damage to Disney. I don’t know if he still has stock or not, but yeah, he did mention that it was high. I mean, right now, everything, everybody’s talking about affordability. So the fact is that is a common issue. And we’re going to talk a little bit later about the whole VIP experience a bit, but.

Eric Hersey: I found this story and I was kind of looking on the WDWNT Facebook group and Derry Bedner basically just said, we’ll miss the way Eisner ran the parks. He truly loved the park goers and cared about their experience in the parks. He was a genius in making the magical express a thing, basically immediately trapped the guests in the Disney bubble. So I mean, yeah, I was never part, I’ve never got to witness the parks under Michael Eisner. I didn’t go until 2010 when he was already gone.

Eric Hersey: but the brilliance of the bubble still lasts to this day. But that wasn’t the only thing he was talking about, Lauren. Did you hear what he said about Chapek?

Lauren Hersey: yeah, I think that the headline everybody latched on to was he described the Chaypek era as a marriage made in hell. But just to give this a little bit of context here, they were talking about because they were talking about the new CEO announcement. And when they recorded this interview, Josh Demaro had not been announced as the

Lauren Hersey: New CEO they were talking about, you know, would it make sense to have co CEOs and then the transition of power and you know He wanted to take a minute to you know Pat himself on the back just a little bit to say like how well Bob Iger worked out and Even with how they got there like he was the right guy for the job like he was a strong Number two and every area that he was leading. so it made sense and

Lauren Hersey: And then, you know, Graham went on to ask about Bob Chaypak and, you know, we got the we got his his hot take of him. It was a marriage made in hell. And he was just saying that, you know, he was the one who approved Bob Chaypack coming on board from the very beginning with the Disney company. And he did a good job. Him video where he was first, he did a fine job in the parks, but he was just not every.

Lauren Hersey: the right guy for that job and he went on to talk about how Eiger maybe wasn’t just ready to like really leave yet but he had a lot of had a lot of thoughts about that

Eric Hersey: Yeah, no, and there was a lot of other items, but I think one of the last item I kind of want to talk here is Michael Eisner actually mentioned AI briefly. And I grabbed this from Boardwalk Times on Twitter. says, I understand it, for instance, for our development from 2D animation to computer generation. I understand it in ways it’s been written about. I certainly understand in health care and how it’s being used. Do I think it’s ever going to write an Academy Award winning movie? No.

Eric Hersey: So I think that’s kind of an important statement and I kind of was kind of applauding Eisner for that because I’m like, yes, he’s got it right because you know, AI is very important and we use it all the time, but I still believe in the whole the generated aspect of it is still a little murky for creatives out there. So the fact is he still and everybody else, I think, but he’s not the only one that has been talking about AI. So, Lauren, did you see just recently the whole board?

Eric Hersey: Talk it basically the board kind of initiatives for the new president Dana Walden

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, and I mean, like, everybody is talking about AI. So some of the marching orders that they gave her is, you know, exploring how to incorporate AI into movie production as more of a time saving matter than, you know, like having the

Lauren Hersey: the AI write or produce a movie, like cleaning stuff up, I’m sure. And then improving profits generated by Disney Plus, because we know that streaming is a hot button, a focus area, and finding that balance and profitability there.

Lauren Hersey: And then she went on and said that they’re intending to use AI tools together, this is important, together with filmmakers and artists. And they’re not trying to replace the human creativity. But like most companies, they want to be able to improve workflows and maybe open up some new possibilities that weren’t considered or possible before.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, and she’s not the only one that said it, because I think Josh Demaro said, the reason this company is so special is because of how creative we are in the human beings that are generating with that creativity. Let me read that again. And she’s not the only one that was saying that. Josh Demaro basically was quoted, the reason this company is so special is because of how creative we are and the human beings that are generating that creativity. In my mind, that will never get replaced. But.

Eric Hersey: But that’s the thing is there’s a lot of AI talk and we all hear AI is gonna take our jobs kind of thing. So when you hear creativity, AI, movies, I think we’re all kind of getting scared that like, all of a sudden we’re gonna have movies generated by AI and that there are no more animation. There’s nobody behind it. It’s just a show stitch running and that’s what is gonna happen. But that’s not the case. But I know we all kind of live in fear from that perspective.

Eric Hersey: But there has been a lot of announcements, right, Lauren? What is going on with the whole billion dollar investment? Because that was the first kind of AI topic I think that broke a couple months ago.

Lauren Hersey: think that was a big one, not only because Disney made a billion dollar investment in AI and they have this new commercial partnership with OpenAI and they were the first entertainment giant to make an investment like that. But people are immediately like, well, what does this mean? So for this investment and you hear a lot about them licensing 200 of

Lauren Hersey: their characters, Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, to be used in AI videos and specifically on a platform called Sora. And Sora, if you’re not familiar, is a social media platform that is 100 % AI-generated content. And so with this licensing deal, would allow fan-made AI-generated short-form videos that they could make

Lauren Hersey: and they can share on that platform. And then as a part of the partnership, Disney is looking for ways to use open AI’s technology internally for different tools and workflows. And did you hear about them wanting to add some of this AI generated content to Disney Plus?

Eric Hersey: Yeah, yeah, because that was the first, you know, I do get a little, I’m very skeptical of all AI announcements and stuff. So when they were talking about, we’re going to start creating like a fan community where you can upload content creators on Disney Plus, I’m like, well, don’t we already have something there? Isn’t YouTube where you can put that kind of stuff? So I’m not necessarily all into that, but it makes sense that if you’re going to be able to create some of this content, hey, we’ll put it over here.

Eric Hersey: and make money off of it per se. So I mean, they’re investing a billion dollars. They’re not just doing that for their own, you know, their own like health and safety. They will want to get money back out of that.

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, but they also are not like they’re not just opening up the usage of their AI or their characters for AI usage in general because like didn’t you say that they have been really cracking down at the same time on like unauthorized usage of the Disney characters?

Eric Hersey: Yeah, I think they went after ByteDance. So there was a whole bunch of characters being unauthorized. They were being used. So yeah, I mean, if you’re going to let someone use characters and pay money into that, you certainly can’t let anybody else use it, because then it kind of waters everything down. So there has been some cease and desist letters sent to like ByteDance for the use of the intellectual property. So without their permission. I mean, to kind of sum up some of this AI talk, let’s be real.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, they’re out of the creative space. They’re really focusing. They’re going to be rolling out what some advertising analytics tools and and for someone who’s used AI for some of that, yeah, let’s take out some of this manual labor, especially when it’s things that can’t be done repetitively by a human being like you were talking a little bit about their advertising and how they can do something there, right?

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, mean, they’re like it or not. Like it sounds like they’re trying to use this technology to build a, you know, an advertising platform that is going to create more personalized advertising experiences that could never be done manually. So creating a video or ads that are targeted and based on things

Lauren Hersey: that you specifically were looking for, looking at to try to get you to buy and buy faster, to turn that creative around a lot quicker. I think that that is where this is heading. So to bring this whole thing full circle, I don’t think Disney is like anti-AI, but I think that they’re trying to.

Lauren Hersey: One, be able to monetize it and two, put some real guard rails up. So I’m assuming that there will be way more to come with this.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, and we want to hear your guys’ opinions. What’s your thoughts? AI with Disney? Is it going to be a good marriage? Is it going to get scary and icky real quick? Let us know what you think. But we have more to talk about and coming up we have some special visitors coming to Disneyland and also news about the most expensive theme park perk at Walt Disney World selling out.

Lauren Hersey: Yep. Welcome back. And are you ready to play some banana ball? I know I am. From the looks of Disneyland social media accounts, there’s a lot of fans out there looking for a chance to see the Savannah bananas this year, including me, including us. We love them, right?

Eric Hersey: Right, well the Savannah Bananas just came on my radar. Honestly, I’ve heard of them before, but I didn’t realize how big of a deal they were until just this last year. And then I caught myself watching some Savannah, some banana ball on YouTube because you really can’t get any closer unless you’re in some type of lottery. But if you are in Disneyland on March 26 this year, you will be very close. So yeah, Lauren, what’s going on with the Savannah Bananas?

Lauren Hersey: Okay, so they’re heading back to Disneyland and this is it looks like over the last couple years Disney has been you know doing some cross-promotion stuff with the Savannah bananas So like this isn’t coming out of like left field that they’re doing this collaborative

Eric Hersey: What a pun. Look at that pun you got there. You didn’t even know you made a pun.

Lauren Hersey: I did not, I did not! But anyway, so we’re talking March 26th and the Bananas are coming back and they’re gonna be having a celebration across Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure and…

Lauren Hersey: So you’re not just getting the bananas because the Savannah bananas have been so incredibly popular and kind of came out left field. I my gosh, I’m doing it again. But they’re coming out of right field, I guess. I mean, I originally saw them on Tick Tock like they were just performing like lip singing these modern songs and like and then once you watched one video like I mean, it’s been years that I’ve been watching this.

Eric Hersey: We’re coming out of right field this time.

Lauren Hersey: Savannah bananas, not even realizing that they had their own like form of baseball. But anyways, this the franchise has expanded like rapid fire and they’ve added new teams each year because they want to expand the league, just as if you were creating a traditional like if you were creating the Major League Baseball from scratch. So you can’t just have two teams.

Lauren Hersey: They had the Savannah bananas and the party animals and this year at Disneyland on that March 26th event You’re gonna get to meet the Indianapolis clowns they’re gonna be appearing in both parks and there’s gonna be a cavalcade along with the Disneyland parade route that’s gonna be on the Disneyland parade route and then a performance in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle and I have to say like

Lauren Hersey: Disney is not sleeping on the bananas. This is like one team that they want in front of the castle.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, no, no, for sure. And they’re doing a, they’re gonna have like specialty foods. But a lot of people are there for the sweepstakes. And this is why it kind of cropped up on our radar because they’re doing this massive like follow and share and hashtag, but they’re giving away tickets. So, and it’s not just for any game, it’s at Angel Stadium. So Lauren, think, and there are some other aspects they visited last year and I think they’re also gonna be down at Walt Disney World in May.

Eric Hersey: But I mean, for those who have been sleeping on the bananas, how popular are the bananas? Like why is Disneyland and Disney the company partnering with a amateur league? Like this is even, this isn’t MLB here. This is like little, so like how popular are the bananas?

Lauren Hersey: Um, they are extremely popular. Like there are not this little tick tock like viral, um, sensation, you know, they have sold out. I think last year, 18 MLB stadiums, three football stadiums, uh, with over 70,000 people as far as capacity goes with more than 200 sellouts since they

Lauren Hersey: launch. Like they have this very fan first like mantra like that is what they’re all about. They absolutely hate that. Like these these games they sell out and then the tickets go on to these like third party selling sites. They’re going for a ton of money because they they want to keep this affordable. think ticket prices are like thirty five dollars. But like just the size and scale of

Lauren Hersey: this Forbes is estimating that the organization is going to surpass a hundred million dollars in revenue this year turning a profit of something like 11 MLB teams reportedly failed to do last season so they’re they’re giant

Eric Hersey: Right, and so owner, so of course when I found out the bananas, I ended up watching a whole bunch of documentaries and learning everything there is to know. But I remember, I believe Jesse Cole, who’s the owner, he’s the one that runs around in the yellow tuxedo or suit, so forth. But I mean, I remember him mentioning Walt Disney, I think in some of his interviews. So I think he’s been inspired.

Lauren Hersey: Yes! Yes.

Eric Hersey: kind of buy this whole fan first, like give an experience, make it fun, make it friendly. So them working together is kind of the best of both worlds. And probably when synergy speaks its loudest is you see something like, and of course, Lauren, you mentioned it first because you saw it on what, TikTok and Facebook and Instagram, and they had all these simulposts going out there. And I grabbed some, and I mean, we’re talking, you know, 30,000 likes.

Eric Hersey: Thousands of comments because right now they’re asking everybody to kind of hashtag and so they did this simul post on all but I mean My question Lauren you were always talking about you got a favorite banana. Who is it? And which what’s his name or what’s he danced to all the time?

Lauren Hersey: my gosh, can’t even like, what is, do you remember what his name is? Like I see his face literally every day on my social media. But like he is my, he’s my favorite, he’s my favorite banana here. But looking at.

Eric Hersey: Nah, I don’t know.

Eric Hersey: But it’s because of his dancing. That’s why you’re always like, yeah.

Lauren Hersey: It’s a thing. And then he just did this video that Eric and I are still unsure if it was an ad across promotional like thing. It was not Mark sponsored, but it was a beautiful tribute to it was about being yourself. And, know, he was an athlete and he thought the idea of going to like Disneyland or Disney World was, you know, kind of silly and like, what is like this Disney adulting lifestyle?

Lauren Hersey: And in the video he’s like, you know, really though it’s like maybe they didn’t get it wrong maybe it’s about happiness and being yourself and Like it’s okay to just have authentic fun and enjoy yourself and he’s like going to all of the Disney Parks and like just showing how happy like the pure joy on his face and so I think this is a match made in heaven from a marketing perspective

Lauren Hersey: like Savannah bananas are hot we’ve talked about Disney wants to be wherever their target audience is that’s why they’re so focused on these brand collaborations and like if you look at who is going to these Savannah banana games and you know what their pillars of their business are

Lauren Hersey: To me, you know, Disney would be silly not to be building on that success and all of the hype around the bananas.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, so if you’re out and about in Disneyland or Disney World at that point in time, you get to see the bananas. Maybe you’ll get caught dancing with them or what have you. But we want to hear from you. Have you seen the bananas yet? Are you in one of their lotteries? I think we’re in a lottery to try to get in a game. I think, what, in Morgantown? So hopefully we’ll see that. But you know what is much like the lottery, but in this case, spending lots of money and maybe not getting what you value is…

Eric Hersey: Did you hear about the Lightning Lane pass and how that kind of sold out over this busy weekend last weekend?

Lauren Hersey: Okay, so like, let’s be clear here. We’re not talking about the Lightning. We’re talking about the Premier Pass, which is like the expensive one. And I mean, don’t get us wrong here. So we are looking at one of the busiest stretches of winter right now with Presidents Day. But this like Lightning Lane Premier Pass selling out. This is across like multiple days. Like, wasn’t this like seven days?

Lauren Hersey: in a row that the Premier Pass is selling out or has sold out.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, yeah, you sent me a screenshot from I think the Dr. Disney Facebook page and it was Lightning Lane premiere pass for Magic Kingdom has been completely sold out for seven straight days beginning on February 12th, which is kind of crazy because I was one of those at first I thought it was Lightning Lane just in general. I’m like, man, that sucks because you know, you know, you’d want to go down there. You want to buy this. But this is the heavy duty one, right? This is like what?

Eric Hersey: 500 bucks per person or something?

Lauren Hersey: This is between, well, it depends when you go. So it’s between 119 to 449 per person plus tax. And I think that during this stretch when it’s going to be busy, I think we’re at that 449 range. And so the prices are obviously highest during these holiday weeks and higher crowd levels anyways. And I know you’re like, listen, we’re in the winter time.

Lauren Hersey: is going on here. But like I said, Presidents Day was like ski week. It’s Mardi Gras. So there’s a lot of people in Orlando and then like a lot of the people that would be going to New Orleans. Those like those residents are really who is, you know, coming down to Orlando. So it is a it is a busy time. But, know, that’s we’re looking at Magic Kingdom. But we also are seeing this sell out at some of the other parks, right?

Eric Hersey: Yeah, it sold out at Epcot. I mean, I could see that happening. So you see it at Epcot, and I think Hollywood Studios during the same day. Animal Kingdom’s the only one. And it’d be a tough one to kind of say, all right, you but what is it? Basically, this is a pass where you kind of get to skip the line completely one ride per day. Is that right?

Lauren Hersey: Yeah. So it’s a flat fee like we just said, and then you can go and do each ride one time at the park that you buy it for. So from what I’ve read of people talking about it, it’s an expensive price tag, but it does help the days go more smoothly.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, and I just, so I went to the comment section and I was just trying to find out what people were saying about this because there was a decent amount of chatter. But Luanne from the Facebook said, we bought it for the Magic Kingdom on a recent trip. It’s crazy expensive, but it sure makes the day go by easier. Obviously it’s popular and the great thing is you don’t like it, you don’t have to buy it. Which is obviously true, but then we got Joseph K basically say, I’m sorry, but it’s absolutely insane. As much as I love Disney, I would not spend that much.

Eric Hersey: And then Maryann said, that’s insane. the cost to get in. Sorry the cost to get in plus, let me read that.

Eric Hersey: So, and then Vanessa G says, Universal is just as high and their express passes are regular in additional $200 per day. So I think that’s kind of the question that I wanted to talk about. Like, why are we, why is everybody kind of getting up in arms about this when Universal’s been doing this forever?

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, I mean like I don’t know Obviously they’re selling out so they’re doing something right, but is this unintentionally creating a class system? You know, like you got your first class citizens that you know are going on every ride and then you get your 25 to 35 dollar option, you know where you could get a couple At a time or is this just something that you know, it’s it’s inevitable

Lauren Hersey: and that we need to deal with because I mean we were annual pass holders for a long time and like we hardly ever got Lightning Lane and we still had a great time in the parks like we kind of would know you know what rides to go on and for like what like we saw that the Haunted Mansion was more than you know 25 minutes a half an hour like yeah you know we’ll wait we’ll come back later so I mean like

Lauren Hersey: What are your thoughts, Eric?

Eric Hersey: I mean, I just couldn’t find myself. We have yet to buy the Express Pass at Universal because I’m like, I just don’t see us needing to do that. mean, but the thing is, if you got one day, you got to get it all done. You know, we take long vacations. So it is all about how much, how long you’re there and how you want to optimize. Do you want to wake up early? And if it comes down to convenience and what’s best for you, some people have more time than money and some people have more money than time. So it comes down to what makes sense and truth be told.

Eric Hersey: Some families are big, some families are small. Lauren and I went out to eat the other day and the price tag for the dinner was a lot higher than I normally would, but it was just her and I, so I’m like, I would do this all the time. I would do character meals at Disney if I didn’t have to pay for three extra kids. So we’re not all created equal in that aspect. So I mean, I’m not gonna judge other people. The one thing that does kind of suck is a matter of like, when you can’t talk equally with other individuals of their experience with Disney because

Eric Hersey: If you go down there and you don’t plan on paying for any of this, you’re going to wait in a bunch of lines and you might be grouchy about it and they might hate Disney for this. Where somebody buys something like this and it was just walk on every single line, then you’re like, that was a great experience. So you almost have to ask some prefacing questions to be like, all right, what did you buy? How did you do this? To kind of see before you gauge how you like Disney. So, or any, you know, any…

Eric Hersey: Any theme park for that matter. Every place has some type of fast pass now and yeah, no one wants to really wait in line. So if you can skip the line and get right on, it’s great. You’re just not going to find that naturally organically now at any of these theme parks. It’s all going to be made.

Lauren Hersey: I mean, like, we go to Kennywood or whatever locally and they have an option or Cedar Point, like they all do. But I just go back to where all of this started, not by a mouse, but with a Michael Eisner interview and him saying, you know, he’s he is not thrilled that of the prices today and how hard that it has become for everyone to feel like a VIP. But he also said,

Lauren Hersey: several times during that interview that like he thinks he would do this, whatever it is, but he doesn’t know because he doesn’t really know what’s at stake.

Lauren Hersey: I don’t see this going away anytime soon and like if you look at it like it gives people more options and how they want to tour and how they want to experience the parks and who knows maybe they’re gonna try to cram it all in in a couple days and then you know head over and try universally like you you just don’t know but it is it is newsworthy that they sold out this premier pass for seven days in a row so something’s working

Eric Hersey: Yeah, it is supply and demand. The thing is you vote with your wallets. If you don’t buy it, then they won’t keep it up. And unfortunately, if we keep selling out, they’re going to keep it up and they’ll probably raise the prices as well. So it’s up to you guys. It’s up to whoever buys it. And you know what? If there’s enough people out there that says, you know what’s well worth it for us and they justify it, that’s great. So it is what it is. And I will tour the parks how I like to tour the parks.

Lauren Hersey: Yes, but we want to hear from you. I mean, would you spend $449 on Lightning Lane Premier Pass? Would you, you know, rather that there’s that and then, you know, a regular standby line experience? Let us know your thoughts. But on that note, that does it for this week’s episode of Dis and Hers. For more, make sure that you hit up DisandHers.com. That’s where you’ll find articles, episodes, and all of the updates.

Lauren Hersey: If Disney’s your vibe, make sure you hit subscribe here.

Eric Hersey: And remember, watch what you post. You might end up in next week’s episode. Talk to you soon.