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Becky Menken

Beci Mahnken, founder and CEO of MEI-Travel & Mouse Fan Travel, and frequent guest on the WDW Radio Disney podcast.

Sep 23, 2026

7:28
I genuinely can't.
7:29
We don't see it like this.
7:30
Normally, you do see them releasing near the end of the year, spring.
7:35
But to see it go all the way through summer, if you know you want to go to Disney World right now, book this offer.
7:42
Book this offer because it's going to probably be the best you're going to find.
7:46
But of course, as you know, if the rates go down later on, we're always happy to apply the savings.
7:52
They also have...

47 MINS LATER

54:54
Welcome back, Becky.
67:20
Like, I get it now, and maybe some of that sadness, disappointment, whatever it might be, starts to get washed away.
67:29
That's how I felt when I looked at the model as well.
67:31
And I, I'm, I, I am one of those people that I was sad to see the change.
67:37
But then again, there was going back in time when Disneyland used to have a big water feature, and they had a huge boat sitting in, in there in the '50s and early '60s.
67:51
We don't miss it now.
67:52
[chuckles] So I'm thinking that later on we're gonna have that same situation with this because it is so spectacular.
67:59
And talk about sight lines, looking at the mountain and looking at the different elements of the mountain, and we are getting the water feature back.

40 MINS LATER

107:48
I mean, how can they not update the Tomorrowland [laughs] in Magic Kingdom if you're gonna be updating it everywhere else? Um, and I wonder how much of Tokyo is going to potentially inform what's gonna happen in Disneyland and what's gonna potentially happen in Walt Disney World.
149:42
Mm-hmm.
149:43
Um, snacks all day long, which there were a couple of times when the lines were kind of long during the lunch times and we thought, you know what? Let's just go to concierge and grab a, a, a snack up there.
149:54
And they do have, uh, some hot meals, small plates you can get, and then there's everything from fruit to cookies to small sandwiches, all kinds of things that you can get there.
150:05
But the really thing, the things that really impressed me w- was first of all when you first walk in, on, on the right are the desks with all of the concierge desks.
150:14
On the left is a private merchandise shop [laughs] only for concierge guests.
150:21
So if you want to do your shopping, and they also had, you know, the most popular items were up there, but they also had concierge specific merchandise too, which is awesome.
150:33
'Cause you see some of that on some of the other ships, but not like this.
151:38
I'm drawing a blank
38:35
Any sort of instant thoughts that come in terms of food, dining, snacking, hacking?
38:41
Yes, I'm going to give you the logistical stuff.
38:44
So, first off, when you first book your cruise, you need to choose if you want main dining, which is usually 5.45ish, or late dining, which is usually 8 to 8.15. Now, Maine Dining, because of its focus on families here, Maine goes first.
39:02
So the earlier you book, if you really want Maine Dining, grab it.
39:06
Just breathe a little bit, though, if you really want Maine and there's late because you can waitlist.
39:12
You can ask them to waitlist Maine.
39:14
So if it does become available, it will automatically grab it and switch you over, which is incredibly cool.

28 MINS LATER

67:16
We do watch like the making of Hercules on the Destiny on the Last Cruise.
9:40
And I think it was important to list all these things because it matters, because I think a lot of Josh now at his current level and the next level CEO, I think a lot of his decisions and his instincts are, I think, are... shaped by asking the question like, how does this feel to a guest, not how does this look on a spreadsheet?
10:07
Exactly.
10:08
Now, the intriguing thing for me is this follows the same pattern that a lot of Disney management goes through, where they get a little bit of experience in different areas of the company, right? And it's great to see that he does have both sides of the coin.
10:25
He is a financial guy, but yet he's an experienced guy.
10:29
And usually you have, if you're a financial guy, you are the bean counter and you're looking at the money only, and you may not take in consideration what's happening on the very front lines.
10:40
He's got both sides equally.
10:43
And if you talk to anybody that's met him, he is such a charismatic person that talks to you, no matter where you are, no matter what you're doing, no matter who you are.

12 MINS LATER

23:11
And I think he is able to take that and turn those experiences guest experiences, those guest moments, that guest satisfaction into revenue in a variety of different ways and teams and complex systems.
10:26
[laughs]
10:26
You know what? I should have live streamed that once or twice, but I was too terrified to lift up the phone.
10:31
Um, [laughs] but I digress.
10:33
The whole, the whole Dino area, fine.
10:36
Uh, Tough to Be a Bug, I ...
10:38
Losing that was kind of like, well, I, I had some great memories o- of that, uh, attraction, but I was excited for what was coming there.
10:46
I think the one that hit me in all the feels was losing Muppet*Vision 3D.

24 MINS LATER

34:31
Mm-hmm.

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