Tall Guy Talks Travel with Rick Dougherty Rick from Ear to There Travel

The D23 Expo is on the way August 9th-11th in Anaheim, California.  There will be a ton of announcements at the event; specifically about the theme parks.  Today and next week, Maz joins Rick to discuss what they hope to hear at D23, and whether they think things will actually come to fruition this time.

Rick's former-boss Phil Gramlich has taken his knowledge of Disneyland, and he has put it together into his new book "Walt and His Park: Stories You (Probably) Haven't Heard."  Phil will talk about the book; his time as a Disney cast member; his travel agency; and so much more.  

There have been rumors, and even official plans for changes to Spaceship Earth at Epcot in Walt Disney World.  This refurbishment of the ride was scheduled to start in May of 2020, but a global pandemic intervened.  With a new D23 Expo on tap for August of this year, Rick has fun speculating if there will be a change to the attraction.  In this episode, he plays a little armchair-imagineering for the anchor attraction for his favorite WDW theme park.

Rick and Maz continue their conversation about how to pick a place to stay on a Walt Disney World vacation.  Today, they focus on Disney's moderate and deluxe resorts.  Rick also congratulates a friend on becoming a published author.

Eric, also known on Twitter as Main Street Electrical Arcade, is on the show this week to talk about Disney video games and the possibility of Avatar coming to Disneyland in the near future. 

Maz joins Rick on the show this week to start the conversation about how to pick where to stay on a Walt Disney World vacation.  There are a lot of choices between on or off property, and between values, moderates, and deluxes.  Also, Rick addresses the controversies regarding the changes to the DAS pass system at Walt Disney World, and more importantly the toxic way a lot of the Disney community has been talking about disabled people.