Fabulous Fan Site and Podcast: MouseGuest.com

Today’s feature is for a site and podcast that I have followed for a long time: MouseGuest.com and Mouse Guest Weekly Podcast. The podcast just celebrated three years of production and is a lot of fun to listen to. Recently, Eric’s wife Kathy has joined Eric and Dan and the format has changed a bit so if you haven’t given them a listen in a while it's worth checking out. The website is unique among Disney sites, for a small fee per month, members can ride the rides through first person video, see characters and collect virtual autographs and participate in the forums. Eric, who used to be the author of the Daily Dose of Disney before passing the torch to me, agreed to answer some questions.


1. Why did you start your site? and why Disney?

After returning from my trips to Walt Disney World, I would get the "Disney blues" familiar to many Disney fanatics. So I thought there should be a website where Disney fans could take virtual vacations to relive just a part of what makes the Disney parks so great. A place where they could "get their fix". After some searching, I didn't find a site that captured what I was looking for, so I decided to recruit my web designer pal Dan and create MouseGuest.com.

In an effort to promote the site, we decided to start the Mouse Guest Weekly podcast. We recently celebrated our third anniversary of the podcast and have found a wonderful audience that has led to many new friendships.


2. Do you have a site, a blog or a community that has inspired you?

I can say the first Disney site that I frequented was AllEars.net. There is just so much information there! Since starting the podcast and website, I've had the pleasure of getting to know many other webmasters and podcast hosts that I have become friends with over the years.


3. Is there anyone in the Disney community that inspired you to get started or whom you admire?

I have always been inspired by Walt Disney himself. He took risks, followed his instincts, delivered a quality product and never forgot the joy of childhood.


4. What sites do you read each day?

I'm sure I will forget some but I try to visit Studios Central, AllEars, MousePlanet, WDWMagic, Mouse Extra, 2719 Hyperion, The Disney Blog, Disney World Trivia, DVC News, Magical Mountain and Window to the Magic, among many others. I also listen to as many podcasts as I can fit into a week, which sadly is not as many as I would like.


5. What impact MouseGuest had on your life?

I get a lot less sleep now. Seriously, it has been amazing. The relationships I've developed and friends that I've made make all of the work worth it. We are hosting The Mouse Guest Experience this October at WDW, which will be a meet of Disney fans with a few special guests from other sites/podcasts, and I cannot wait to meet even more Disney fans. Our Mouse Guest community is, in my biased opinion, simply the best Disney online community around. We truly care about each other and display a kindness to each other that is unusual online, even among Disney communities.


6. Do your 'real world' friends know that you are a Disney geek?

Of course! When you go to Disney two or three times a year, it's kind of hard to hide it.


7. Is there anything else that you would like for our readers to know?

There are many ways to get plugged into Mouse Guest: we have Mouse Guest Memberships, that give you enhanced features of our virtual tours (right now we have the Magic Kingdom and Epcot running); our weekly podcast Mouse Guest Weekly; our family-friendly Mouse Guest Message Board; our weekly chats each Wednesday at 9pm ET at mouseguest.com/chat; and of course you can meet us in person at The Mouse Guest Experience this October 25-30th at WDW. For details, visit mouseguest.com/experience. We'd love to see you there! If anyone has any questions about the site, show or Experience, feel free to email me at eric@mouseguest.com.