Welcome to Utilidork — the podcast for people who love Disney a little too much, and the people who rely on those people to have a good time.

In our "first" episode, we're pulling back the curtain on how this whole thing started: a Disney World trip that could have been a logistical disaster, but wasn't — because one of is a grisled Disney World expert and the other one bought tickets and booked a hotel thinking it was basically a really expensive Six Flags.

Meet your hosts. Matt is a full-blown Disney adult — unashamed, encyclopedic, and the kind of guy who has opinions about park rope drop strategy. Zack (me) is an emergency manager who plans for literal disasters for a living and still somehow underestimated Disney World. Together, we are a perfect disaster and a perfect team.

This week, Matt walks us through how he helped shepherd a Disney skeptic through the parks without losing his mind or his FastPass window — covering everything from setting realistic expectations for your trip length, to why Cast Members are genuinely one of the most underrated resources on property, to the moment Zack finally got it.

If you're the Matt in your friend group, this one's for you. If you're the Zack — welcome. You're in good hands.

Then I went back to Disney World as a grown adult, and something broke loose. It started with the lighting. Then the smells — which, it turns out, are not accidental. Then the robotics. Then the Utilidors. And somewhere between my first genuine curiosity about how a theme park actually works and my 50th video about animatronics, I had to have an uncomfortable conversation with myself.

This is that story. How a return trip turned into an obsession, why I spent so long resisting the Disney adult label, and why — in a world that gives you plenty of reasons to be cynical — it turns out there's nothing wrong with being genuinely, unashamedly into something built to make people feel good.