May 12, 2025 • 29 mins
Highlights (and mishaps!) of Murphy and Jodi's weekend getaway at Universal Studios and Epcot with fave friends! 😁 #epcot #universalstudios
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Murphy Samonchoti after the show podcast, be
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Speaker 2 (00:14):
Just got back from a weekend get away. Man, I
cannot recommend it enough. I am so sad that it's over.
Not that I'm not happy to be here with you guys,
but I'm so sad that our weekend is over with
our friends Murphy and we did hit Universal Studios in Orlando,
and we did hit Epcot, so two days in a
row where we were on our feet. But I want
to say that my favorite part of the whole trip
(00:38):
is definitely just.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Spending time with friends.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
You know, people that you vibe with and jive with,
and people that are comfortable but you don't see very often.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
That's a special sweet spot in life.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, you know, we see them once or twice a
year and we just have so much fun together and.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Hit them a text mark. I sent them a text
this morning. So now I wish it wasn't over. But
Happy Monday.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, you know, before we went,
I was wondering, is it possible to actually, you know,
do that over a long weekend and not feel rushed
and enjoy And you actually can if you're not trying
to do with small kids or whatever. I mean, I'm
sure that that would get it, you know, get intense.
But it's an easy Honestly, it's a very easy weekend
(01:20):
to do if you just pick one thing that you want,
one park or one whatever, and then you just and
you know, take your time and be leisurely. It was
really easy.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
One day was was Universal Studios, and we had no
you know, must do this, must do that.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
We just started.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
You know. That was at one point when we were
first walking through the park, Audre leaned over to me,
she goes, see that that's what would make this tiring
for me. And we looked over and it's just a
family with you know, a million things and the kids.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
And not that you shouldn't bring your kids. We've all
done it. I've done it.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Well, that's what those parks really kind of exist for you.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
You forget how tiring that is when you're also having
to be sort of on top of managing another human
being in their bathroom breaks and are they washing their
hands and you know the you know difficulties that can
come with that.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
So we had a blast.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I do want to say I had never been to
Universal before and I am super impressed.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I had so much fun there.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
So number one, you know, I'm a Harry Potter person, right,
And when we first got there, we couldn't find diagon Alley, right, Murphy,
we you guys all had the app and you were
and I was just letting.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I never even put the app on my phone. I
don't want that.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Well, it's funny that she doesn't want that, but that
will that's one of my suggestions and recommendations. She didn't
want the app because she knew the rest of us
had the app. But I'll tell you right now, if
you try to do any of those parks without an
app these days, you're you're really going to spend a
lot of time looking, wondering and waiting instead of just
going where you need to. There's so much info and
you can get notifications and because they do all the
(02:56):
near field stuff now, it's just the apps are more
robust at those parks now than they ever have been.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Here's what's up? Sam.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
So you're walking along, minding your own through Universal and
here's the water and you can see where the fireworks
go off, and here's a ride, and you know it's hot,
and we were getting something to eat, and it's like
even Audre was like, it's right there.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Though it says diygon Alley right here. I'm like, there's
nothing here.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
And there's a brick wall, you know what, Like when
you're walking into like an airports and other public places,
there's a wall that has a side, an entrance and
exit on each side, like a bathroom. Will if that's
where it was. It was like hidden. Diygon Alley was
almost hidden, and we walked in it and it's like
lo and all of a sudden, we're in diygon Alley.
(03:40):
And I could not believe how well done it is.
You are, you are in the book, you are in
the movie, even Murphy who's not Harry Potter.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
I mean, it's yeah, it was still an immersive experience
being in there.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Did you get a walk?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
But they they actually you know, they seal it off
that way, I believe on purpose, so you don't see it,
see any of it until.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
You go in discover it that way.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Think that creates the whole wonder. You walk through and
you're in, you know, a different place. That's exactly why
they would do that. The wands aren't I didn't realize
that the wands do different things. Now. The wands are
not cheap. Oh, just so you know, the wands are like,
it's an eighty dollars wand if you want the one
that you point at things and it, you know, makes
things turn on or water.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Flow or postion bar, the upgraded wand and take it
outside in the street and do stuff with it and
it works.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Oh what you meant?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Just In diedon alley. Probably it hogs meat. I don't know.
I didn't want to buy a wind.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
We walked in almost even Mark said that we're going
to walk in every shop. I'm like, you're on. And
we walked in almost like the potions and then the
broom and you know, just all the robes. I love
the robes, you know. And I was telling Murphy, I'm
sorry I did this, but I wanted you to fully
appreciate it. I'm like, so, Murphy. At the beginning of
every school year they could get their new robes and
(04:57):
sometimes Harry couldn't afford them and things like that, and
we were like, this is what this is.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Actually, I'm glad you told me because I pretty much
I knew the ones and a handful of the things
about you know, different characters. Yeah, yeah, it's very well done.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
What did you think of the butter beer?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I loved it. Butter beer is delicious.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I did not expect to like it.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
And it was so hot the day we were there
that you can get regular butter beer or frozen, so
we went with frozen, and it's delicious.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
It's like the sert so.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
The flavoring it's root beer. It's root beer ish vanilla
is it's almost like a combo of vanilla and root
beer for the base, and then the top is a
foam that's a butterscotch kind of a foam, and so
you mix it into you. But you know what's crazy
about this is I've heard about it forever. This is
one of those trips for me. It's like you hear
about the hype because the Harry Potter Exhibit's been open
(05:46):
now for what fifteen years, it's been around for a minute,
it has it.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
I didn't realize.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
And so I've heard, you know, people fanatics who have
gone forever, you know, just talk about those things. So
being able to experience it was cool. But I'll tell
you you know, butter beer is loaded with sugar. There
is no diet version of zero. Yeah, right, so one
is the max.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
We were walking a ton, so I felt like we
walked everything off. My favorite part of Universal comes up
at this point. Though there's a lot to tell you
about Universal. My favorite experience at Universal it was this
once we were in Diigon Alley and I was just my
mouth was wide open.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I was just like, oh my god, look at this.
Oh my gosh, look at that.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Margoes, you want to ride a ride? I'm like, yeah,
I do. And I'm like, let's go escape from Gringotts.
I say it right, it's the it's the bank.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Oh well, you're in a mine car.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I don't know if it was a mine car, but
there's a mind scene. So anyway, we go inside. It's
an all indoor, air conditioned ride and we didn't want
to wait because Murphy and Audre did not want to ride,
so we didn't want to so we did single rider.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
So he and I.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
He was in front of me and I was fine,
and we just got on with carts or whatever next
to each other, and we didn't wait very long.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
So that's a trick.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
A lot of people want to experience those things together,
and I understand that. I just wanted to ride the ride.
He just wanted to ride the ride and not wait
sixty minutes.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah. I mean it works because if you know when
you're there with your family, you're not going to be
able to do single rider, right because you're not going
to separate from your kids, right. So I think there's
a certain percentage the line is not as long, but
it still can be along line.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
We got on that ride and I was so impressed.
It's a it's basically a hybrid. I was just it
was funny. I was telling everybody I don't love just
a simulated ride because it does places tricks on your
mind and I feel like I would rather, I would
rather actually drop and fall and move forward than to
seemingly do those things. And he was like, uh oh,
(07:38):
because it's part simulated and part you are actually moving right.
I was so impressed, Sam, I've ridden rides with you
before over the years. I was so impressed with this ride.
It was fun. Surprise drops cool indoors. There's a dragon
at one point and you feel the heat from the
fire and then I don't remember if it was Harry
(07:59):
or her mind who you know used it their wand
right in front of you and put the fire out
and you feel the water hits you. And then you
drop into and you're playing quidditch with them and you're
flying through the skies and whoa, there's there's you know,
Hogwarts Castle, and then you stop to this jerk and
everything gets dark. This is just one my one retelling
(08:22):
and this the snake, Voldemort snake. It seemingly bites your
your head off. It's like I could see how kids
would be scared of this ride. You have to know
your kids to know. And then there's Voldemort right in
front of you. It is so freaky but not. But
you're not just experiencing this stuff head on. You're you're
going sideways and backwards and like you're gonna fall. It's crazy.
(08:46):
It's a different level than I expect.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
It sounds like fun as you've never really ridden many
of those three D rides.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
I like the real rides.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, I wish for me that it wasn't that my
equilibrium thing is so bad. Three D just always just
makes me crazy queasy, And I think on top of that,
those rides are you know, they there's motions, so there's
a lot of roughness to them too, So.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
You write it's like you're in a battle with what's
real and what's not real in those rides.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
And Audrey didn't want to ride it all.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
She didn't want to ride, so that that made me
feel better.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I just went and waited in the gift shop for
them to come out, because you know, every ride ends
in a gift shop.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So yeah, the next thing, that's cool. And look, there's
a lot to this park, but I'm just superking. If
you can tell I feel like a kid.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
I can't tell.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I want to read the books again.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
That's how ridiculously well done this this part of the
park is. Then we wait in kind of a long
line for the Hogwarts Express. You go to King's Cross train,
you go to you know, platform nine and three quarters
and you wait for the train. And that took a
long time because I think only one train was running
or something like we almost forfeited that, like there were
(09:56):
this was.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
A trip of a lot of technical malfunctions.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah, maybe they're getting the Are they getting the park
ready for summer? I don't know, but a lot of
stuff was like, we're having difficulties right now.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
You have to go through a wall to get the
nine and three quarters.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I mean, no, I wish it made it.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
They I won't spoil it, but it makes you trick
you to think you're going through it the rod.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
It does. There's a there's a way to that. They
do that, but it's.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
There's a train.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
The train ride was really cool because you don't see
out of the windows of the park because that would
ruin your hair. Harry Potter experience. It's the windows are
screens and you're seeing.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I was kind of hoping I would actually see outside,
but yeah, it's screens.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
And you know, and out in the car they close.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
You're in a car just like in the books with
other people, but you you hear Harry.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
And Hermione outside of the door. It's just so cool.
They think of everything.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So the Harry Potter exhibit is really in two different
places in the park for that reason. And then you
exit back out and you keep doing.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
You exit back out into Hogsmeat. Oh and I was
not expecting that. I thought Okay, Harry Potter's on. And
we exited into hogs Meat and there is Hogwarts Castle
and I'm like, oh my gosh. And again Mark goes,
do you want to go ride something? I said, sure,
he goes, let's go single Rider right now.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Boom boom boom. And I didn't even know we were
in line for this ride. And I said, I don't
even know what this ride is.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
And the lady said, I can't remember Journey to Hogwarts
or the full Harry Potter experience. It was also the
same thing, but inside Hogwarts Castle and you're doing this
big ride and oh man, we did single Rider anyway,
I'll shut up about it, but about the Harry Potter
part of it.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
But I loved that.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And I cannot stop taking pictures for Phoebe, our youngest,
who is also a Potter person.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Well, and I would say, anybody who's a Potter you
a fan that hasn't done it yet. And what's what's
cool for me is not being It's not that I'm
not a fan of it. I'm just I'm not connected
to it right so, but watching watching people who are
I mean, there were a lot of there were actually
two different guys that I saw walking around dressed as
Harry Potter, who was Yeah, they were just visitors. Well
(12:01):
you were excited about the rides, but you know, and
it was hot and he's in his robe and the
glasses and all that. But you know, when when you
see people dressed apart like that, it's just fun. I
mean you you know that. It's the same thing with
Disney fans, right, the people who are truly fanatical, they're
all about it, and they get dressed up and they
go multiple times a year. That's that is their thing.
(12:24):
And so we saw that, you know, at Disney also
the next day that we were there.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
But I didn't get to ride Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure, which
looked really fun and are true you know legit roller coaster,
and they had a couple of other smaller rides that
would be good for kids, because realize, Harry Potter starts
at age eleven and goes up until his young adulthood,
so small.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
There's a lot more to Universal than just Harry. Sorry, right, yeah,
but you know the thing to me about comparing both
Disney and Universal and doing one one day and one
the other both parks, really Universal's come a long way
since the last time that I was. I think Sam
and I were there together the last time I went there.
(13:05):
It's I mean, it doesn't even look the same because
they had not it hadn't been long since it opened.
I'm assuming that where hard Rock is now, the restaurant
that's there used to be the old Planet Hollywood. It
looks like the same building. It's but the only thing
that I recognize, you know, in that area, but the
uh but you know, I think Disney still edges out
(13:26):
Universal slightly when it comes to the cleanliness and just
the old the overall feel, you know, in in the park.
It just it's a maybe they've just been been at
it longer, but you know, it's really it's close. I
didn't think Universal was as clean. The bathrooms weren't as clean.
I mean they were there were, it just didn't didn't
notice that.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
I don't know, I didn't notice that. If you if
I was going a third day, I would have gone
back to Universal. Not that I loved Disney, but it
was different from me the Harry Potter.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I'm not saying one's better than the other. I'm just
saying that they're you know that they've I think that
they're different parks universal I do believe caters more to
the adult crowd than it does to the you know the.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Oh yes, though, I was really sad that the Hulk
coaster was closed. That was one of the ones I
wanted to ride. It's my kind of roller coaster. It's
over water. I wanted to ride it, so did our
friend Mark. It was shut down for the day, but
we did the Spider Man, which is also very popular
and all that, and it was funny because we waited
(14:25):
in line for that and me and Mark an Audre.
She wanted to finally try one, and I'm glad she did.
But right before we were about to get on it,
they shut it down for technical reasons, and I thought, really,
and but we waited and got on it. It's like,
I'm not gonna worry about what the technical reason was.
We ended our day. We were leaving the park talking
(14:47):
about what else to eat, and we ended up there's
something there on the way out.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I can't remember what it's called now, Murph.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Well, it's just a strip of restaurants on the way
out once you get past the you know, the tickety
gate and all that, And.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
So we ate there at a place called Cowfish. It
was delicious sushi. Well, they have hamburgers and sushi and
it was delicious. Do you want to tell them about
your sushi role though?
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Well, yeah, you think it. Yours was delicious? Mind was odd? Right,
So they are basically supposed to be a burger and
sushi infusion restaurant. It's a weird combination. I mean it
sounds like a strange combination. And one of their signature dishes.
I just figured I would try, and it just was
a little bit of a letdown. They do something that
they call I'm not even gonna remember the term of
(15:31):
it now. It's like a now, but they call it
a hamburger, hamburger sushi something like that. It basically it's
hamburger sushi and they try to they make it taste
like cheeseburger, and it just doesn't work for me. It
doesn't work. You know. It's the inside is hamburger, it's
wrapped in the swy paper rice on the outside. Then
(15:53):
it's wrapped in potato strings fried, and then they put yeah,
it's I don't think so. Meanwhile, I know it's it
was the rice overpowered the you know, the hamburger part
of it.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
But again, though, my memories of that will just always
be the fun of the French.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's so much fun.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
That well, you know what I mean. It was the
first time I ever ventured out and actually tried you know,
raw yellowtail. It was delicious and it was delicious. It
really was fantastic. I am not a raw seafood person
at all, and I'm very hesitant, but I tried it
and with the soy sauce, I mean, it wasn't fishy,
it was perfect, So that part was really that was
a cool. Look.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Had a Salmontini the raw salmon, and it was delicious too.
And a drink no, no, it's called that. It was
like an appetite. It was served in a martini glass.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
But it was like like trump cocktail. Yeah, it was
very delicious.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
So it was not my first time with raw sushy,
but the yellowtail was delicious.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
When you're on vacation, I think sometimes you're willing to
take a chance on something you wouldn't do normally. I
don't know if it's just because you're throwing caution to
the wind and you're not in your regular environment.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Well what you said, you tried, I want to try
that just because it was different.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, halipenion on top and there was a sauce and we.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I was talking about the Hamburger sous show.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Okay, yeah, you would have liked that, I think, Sam, Well.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
I want to hear about the pretzel bread pudding over time.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Okay. Well, so the next day tired, as we were
sixteen thousand steps the day before, we slept in. I
think we were dragging a little bit for the second
day for Epcot, but it didn't matter. Also, take your time.
I had only ever been to Epcot once for one
hour in my life, and I barely remember it.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
So we took our time.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
And so I when we first got there, you know,
we kind of agreed the place that we most wanted
to see with the country, the countries.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
The pavilion.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
There's a lot to do there, but that's what we
wanted to see and that was fantastic. And what you're
asking about is, well, we did the Right of Twoey experience.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Which was cute and cool. That part of the park
was slammed.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
Well, what's the right of Twoey experiences?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
All right? So yeah, it's a simple right but it's
kid friendly, so it's there's not a whole lot of
there's a you're gonna you're going through the kitchen and
you're riding along and you're jumping around with the rats,
you know, so it's got to yeah, that one. It's
a fun little you know, it's it's a cute little experience.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Cute and it was nice because it was the air
conditioning inside and it was hot outside. That was a
busy part of the park, right before you get to
all the different countries.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah, and I'll tell you that. You know, the thing
about Epcot, Jody and I never really got to do
Epcot when we would go with the girls to Disney,
which we've only done twice before, because you know, it's
Magic Kingdom, it's you know, animal, it's all of that.
It's uh and I think you and I might have
had dinner. And even after going back through Epcot, I
have no idea, no recollection of where we ate that time.
But this time, you know, going in to Epcot, you
(18:41):
definitely want to use the app for starters, because the
app will also help you find your car when you're done.
But you know, if you want to, it's such a
large park that when you want to go to all
the individual countries. You need to know where, you know
where you're going, and I guess you could just kind
of be surprised as you went along. But if you
have a destiny, if you don't really have a good
(19:02):
eight to nine hours. We were in that park for
a long time, then you're gonna have a tough time
really seeing every piece of it. So the app is
just like awesome, and you can filter in the map
view and it shows you what direction you're going, and
you know, of course apps have shown weight times for
rides now for a long time, so that way, if
you're balancing the food part and the rides part, you
know kind of what you're what you're getting into.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
I feel like we made Epcot more about food for sure.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Likes since we hit France, which I think may have
been the first country. We were in line for croissant,
right and and some sort of cake.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Well the so the croissant had you say it that way, yeah,
had it had goat cheese in it. It's a little
abortion like, not that that's bad. That's what it reminded
me of. It was good.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
We ate our way through Epcot, honestly, and then then
I don't remember the order, but when we hit.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I think we had one more snack before we had
pizza for lunch.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I don't think I didn't have another snack. No, no, no,
I think Aldra and I had a billini in Italy,
you have a Yeah, So we had a billini and
we hit the Italy area and I'm just looking around
at you know, we were looking at Italian leather and
all that kind of stuff. And then Mark had made
reservations at this pizza place for like eight o'clock that night,
(20:24):
but there was the place and we were like, man,
I could eat lunch here. So he went in and
we were able to get in for lunch instead, which
is like, if you can eat here for lunch, now
do it. And so we sat down inside and it
was fantastic. Our way, our server, she was from Italy,
and she was fantastic. And the pizza was incredible, was
(20:45):
it not?
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, it was very good.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
It was good.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
It was really really thin, and she was telling us
all about the ingredients being ninety nine percent of the
ingredients came from Italy. Yeah, because they wanted it to
be as authentic as possible.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
And it was delicious and you know, That's one thing
I didn't know what to expect because it is it's
the park and it's a lot of food that you
have to make for a lot of people. Which, by
the way, that's another thing to make sure that you do.
I remember this from our first time, and I'm no
Disney expert, but make a reservation when you book your trip.
If there's a restaurant you really want to try, you
really need to book it, you know, well in advance,
(21:21):
because the walk up crowds are always huge and you
may not get into some of the specific restaurants that
are more popular because they only see so many people.
So it was a really good thing that you know,
Mark was able to do that, and it was impressive
to me that they let the reservation. It's like, we
know it's for six but if you made a reservation,
you can come in now. And so it worked. Yeah,
but you know that, I was concerned that the food
(21:43):
might be kind of the way that like cruise ship
food or you know, the mass produced stuff, right because
it's a challenging quality control right when you're feeding thousands
and thousands of people every single day, and I don't
know how they pull it off in Epcot where they're
being that specific because I'm sure they're having to be
very manufactured.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
About it intentional right too.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
But but it was, you know, it was really good quality.
I think Audra thought that the beat balls and spaghetti
were a little average, but the but the pizza, you know,
was was very good.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Right. She had wanted to order pasta just because she
was there, and the only one she could do on
a side was more like the kid thing was why
that probably didn't live up, but that was delicious and fun.
Then we get out and we're walking around, the rain
comes we you know, find ponchos and then we go
to the Germany Pavilion and I had heard a lot
about that from producer Faith, from a couple of my
(22:35):
other friends, and Audra's dentist. Ironically, Audra's dentist said, you've
got to have the pretzel bread pudding, and Mark found it,
waited in line and got it. We had just eaten
pizza at an hour before, but he got to you know,
for them to share one and for us to share one,
that was the best dessert we had to me. It
(22:57):
was you know, bread pudding, but it was definitely made
out of because everybody in the Germany area had those
big fat pretzels. And if I had not been if
I had been hungry, I would have wanted that because
salty that that bread pudding was incredible. I was not
even hungry, and I was like, give me another bite.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, it was really good. Whatever the sauce was on top,
I think is what made it really good.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
It's interesting to look at the architecture too. And then
you walking through these I was walking.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
We were walking through the gift shops trying to get
out of the rain, and a lot of them are connected.
And two gift shops down I could smell something, and
then one gift shop closer, I could smell it even stronger,
and I'm like, whatever that is is killing me. It's
calling my name. And it was the helped me Murphy.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
It was like the the what the carmal corn?
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Caramel corn?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Where there's original caramel corn that they're making fresh right there.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Murphy bought a bag and I.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Wasn't going to, but it was at the cash register
I bought. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I just had to the smell of that they are
making money because it smells great.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
I mean, they deserve it. It was all really good.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
The one thing that I wondered is they have and
they've got a Christmas village in that little area too,
with ornaments and those kind of things, and some of
them are really delicate, and I mean they're pretty, and
I'm sure some people would be excited to buy them,
but that's so delicate to transport back home. I would
worry about that in my bag or however I would
get it there if it were me. You can probably
(24:25):
just ship at home. They'll probably do that for you.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Oh yeah, well yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
They had a big tree with the Christmas pickles all
over it. You could buy the people there in the
German thing. The German thing, I think my favorite pavilion though,
and surprisingly it was Japan. I love the architecture. I
loved the they were doing the drum solos.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
It was so cool.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
And I loved that gift shop and the Japan and
China gift shops were in.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Those were the largest two gift shops out there.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
And the kimonos and it was just beautiful.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
I didn't want to leave, and I could feel that
the three of you were like at the door, ready
to go.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
I'm like, okay, I guess i'll go.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Did y'all do anything in the front of the park
or y'll just stay in the countries.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Did we do anything in the front wed some of
the flowers.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Well, we tried to go into the you know, the
big Dome, the Geodesic Dome and ride that ride, but
it was it was down, it was shutting. The ride
wasn't work.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Out, and we're like, how long do you think and
they were like, it could be anywhere from fifteen days,
fifteen minutes to a day, So we have no idea.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
That was it was closed for the rest of the evening.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
We worked our way back up front. Well that's what
we were going to do last on the on the
way out.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, how to Margarita in Mexico the Mexico Pavilion.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Sure did. We sat down and.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
But we were getting rained onto so we were just
seeking cover anywhere.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
We're in ponchos, you know.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
And you know what, I didn't care because it was
well for wanting to get cooled things off and you're
at Epcot again. It's like, even if it's raining in Disney,
it's still Disney Disney.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Isn't it nice to not care? Yeah, you just go
with the flow and yeah, we do what we can.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I think to me that was the best you know
the best part of it was being able just to
do it at that pace was really really different, you know,
Disney or Universal, when you're just doing the two of
you as adults and you know, is different. You don't
get a chance to really do that, you know, very
often when when you're raising. Of course, you wouldn't trade
(26:21):
the kid experience for anything, you know. The That's the
whole thing about every single thing that I saw with
you know, some kids, the little babies that were upset,
or toddlers that were upset. Jody and I both remember
all of that vividly ourselves and you did it, but
it was never really they're fond memories when you look
back on them. It's a lot to manage. But it's
(26:42):
so different when you're going in at your own pace.
It's almost like you're an observer of those things and
you just go to if you want a Mickey bar,
If you get a Mickey bar, you're not buying power
of them if you don't have to do.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Honestly, we were sitting down whenever we felt like it too,
and you don't necessarily you know what I mean, you don't.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
You don't get the I don't want to do that.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Kids want to go, go, go go until they're so
overstimulated and then they just collapse.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
You don't have to do it that way.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
We did the Nemo Family Experience on the way out,
which was really cool, but unfortunately once we got off
the ride, I wanted to go upstairs and check out
all the aquariums because they have a lot of aquariums
in there. And that's whenever the park was shutting down,
you take your time. You missed some stuff that we
were I wanted to go see the sharks and I
wanted to go see the jellyfish, and.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
It was like, I'm sorry, we're closing for the night.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
And remember we went before Memorial Day, so you know
the park, the park's regular hours go much longer than
during the during the summer, and things won't shut down,
and and you know, we didn't do Epcot with the girls,
and there are plenty of things that kids will enjoy there.
It's certainly more adult, you know, focused culture right, culture focused,
(27:49):
but it is laid out so that there is a
kids ride really in every part of the park.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Yes, so smart. One mistake I made take this thought
with you. You can carry a backpack to the park,
which I did, so I'll have a sweet not too
big backpack. But it was just for whatever, my sunscreen,
you know, poncho's whatever. We might need our sunglasses. But
because you can also bring water bottles and you can
(28:15):
bring snacks, I don't know what it is about me.
It's the mom for everything. I did this. Audren did
this too. We had snacks in there at Epcot. You're
not gonna eat your snack mix that you bought at Walmart,
necessarily kids might you're gonna eat the pretzel bread pudding.
Like everything that we ate, and we ate our way
through that park was something special in that park. So
(28:37):
when I got back that night and I'm at one point,
I just like, why is your backpack so heavy?
Speaker 3 (28:42):
And are like, I have no idea. I started money.
I've got your sweetish fish in there, Murphy, I've got
snack mix. I'm like, that's why it was heavy. I
had ten thousand calories and.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Realized that you brought the snack mix. The sweetish fish
is a key I.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Did that sweet fish is to street low blood sugar.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
But yeah, so that's one thing It's like you can
bring one or two little things in case or they
have little kids with you and they may need something.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
The little cheerios and goldfish stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
In the park, you're going to eat the special food.
I won't do that again, but had a fantastic time.
A weekend away is a beautiful reset in life. Highly recommend,
but mainly time with friends. We really we had a
blast because of where we were, But the reason we
had a blast is because of friends.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Yeah, missed any part of the show. Get it All
on the Murphy Salmon Jody Podcast.
Welcome to the Murphy Samonchoti after the show podcast, be
a part of it with us. You can send us
an email, hook up with us on socials on our Socials,
or if you're listening on the iHeartRadio app, use the
red talkback. Mike pushed that little button and send us
a message.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Just got back from a weekend get away. Man, I
cannot recommend it enough. I am so sad that it's over.
Not that I'm not happy to be here with you guys,
but I'm so sad that our weekend is over with
our friends Murphy and we did hit Universal Studios in Orlando,
and we did hit Epcot, so two days in a
row where we were on our feet. But I want
to say that my favorite part of the whole trip
(00:38):
is definitely just.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Spending time with friends.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
You know, people that you vibe with and jive with,
and people that are comfortable but you don't see very often.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
That's a special sweet spot in life.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, you know, we see them once or twice a
year and we just have so much fun together and.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Hit them a text mark. I sent them a text
this morning. So now I wish it wasn't over. But
Happy Monday.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, you know, before we went,
I was wondering, is it possible to actually, you know,
do that over a long weekend and not feel rushed
and enjoy And you actually can if you're not trying
to do with small kids or whatever. I mean, I'm
sure that that would get it, you know, get intense.
But it's an easy Honestly, it's a very easy weekend
(01:20):
to do if you just pick one thing that you want,
one park or one whatever, and then you just and
you know, take your time and be leisurely. It was
really easy.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
One day was was Universal Studios, and we had no
you know, must do this, must do that.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
We just started.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
You know. That was at one point when we were
first walking through the park, Audre leaned over to me,
she goes, see that that's what would make this tiring
for me. And we looked over and it's just a
family with you know, a million things and the kids.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
And not that you shouldn't bring your kids. We've all
done it. I've done it.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Well, that's what those parks really kind of exist for you.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
You forget how tiring that is when you're also having
to be sort of on top of managing another human
being in their bathroom breaks and are they washing their
hands and you know the you know difficulties that can
come with that.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
So we had a blast.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I do want to say I had never been to
Universal before and I am super impressed.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I had so much fun there.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
So number one, you know, I'm a Harry Potter person, right,
And when we first got there, we couldn't find diagon Alley, right, Murphy,
we you guys all had the app and you were
and I was just letting.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I never even put the app on my phone. I
don't want that.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Well, it's funny that she doesn't want that, but that
will that's one of my suggestions and recommendations. She didn't
want the app because she knew the rest of us
had the app. But I'll tell you right now, if
you try to do any of those parks without an
app these days, you're you're really going to spend a
lot of time looking, wondering and waiting instead of just
going where you need to. There's so much info and
you can get notifications and because they do all the
(02:56):
near field stuff now, it's just the apps are more
robust at those parks now than they ever have been.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Here's what's up? Sam.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
So you're walking along, minding your own through Universal and
here's the water and you can see where the fireworks
go off, and here's a ride, and you know it's hot,
and we were getting something to eat, and it's like
even Audre was like, it's right there.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Though it says diygon Alley right here. I'm like, there's
nothing here.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
And there's a brick wall, you know what, Like when
you're walking into like an airports and other public places,
there's a wall that has a side, an entrance and
exit on each side, like a bathroom. Will if that's
where it was. It was like hidden. Diygon Alley was
almost hidden, and we walked in it and it's like
lo and all of a sudden, we're in diygon Alley.
(03:40):
And I could not believe how well done it is.
You are, you are in the book, you are in
the movie, even Murphy who's not Harry Potter.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
I mean, it's yeah, it was still an immersive experience
being in there.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Did you get a walk?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
But they they actually you know, they seal it off
that way, I believe on purpose, so you don't see it,
see any of it until.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
You go in discover it that way.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Think that creates the whole wonder. You walk through and
you're in, you know, a different place. That's exactly why
they would do that. The wands aren't I didn't realize
that the wands do different things. Now. The wands are
not cheap. Oh, just so you know, the wands are like,
it's an eighty dollars wand if you want the one
that you point at things and it, you know, makes
things turn on or water.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Flow or postion bar, the upgraded wand and take it
outside in the street and do stuff with it and
it works.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Oh what you meant?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Just In diedon alley. Probably it hogs meat. I don't know.
I didn't want to buy a wind.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
We walked in almost even Mark said that we're going
to walk in every shop. I'm like, you're on. And
we walked in almost like the potions and then the
broom and you know, just all the robes. I love
the robes, you know. And I was telling Murphy, I'm
sorry I did this, but I wanted you to fully
appreciate it. I'm like, so, Murphy. At the beginning of
every school year they could get their new robes and
(04:57):
sometimes Harry couldn't afford them and things like that, and
we were like, this is what this is.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Actually, I'm glad you told me because I pretty much
I knew the ones and a handful of the things
about you know, different characters. Yeah, yeah, it's very well done.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
What did you think of the butter beer?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I loved it. Butter beer is delicious.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I did not expect to like it.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
And it was so hot the day we were there
that you can get regular butter beer or frozen, so
we went with frozen, and it's delicious.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
It's like the sert so.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
The flavoring it's root beer. It's root beer ish vanilla
is it's almost like a combo of vanilla and root
beer for the base, and then the top is a
foam that's a butterscotch kind of a foam, and so
you mix it into you. But you know what's crazy
about this is I've heard about it forever. This is
one of those trips for me. It's like you hear
about the hype because the Harry Potter Exhibit's been open
(05:46):
now for what fifteen years, it's been around for a minute,
it has it.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
I didn't realize.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
And so I've heard, you know, people fanatics who have
gone forever, you know, just talk about those things. So
being able to experience it was cool. But I'll tell
you you know, butter beer is loaded with sugar. There
is no diet version of zero. Yeah, right, so one
is the max.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
We were walking a ton, so I felt like we
walked everything off. My favorite part of Universal comes up
at this point. Though there's a lot to tell you
about Universal. My favorite experience at Universal it was this
once we were in Diigon Alley and I was just my
mouth was wide open.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I was just like, oh my god, look at this.
Oh my gosh, look at that.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Margoes, you want to ride a ride? I'm like, yeah,
I do. And I'm like, let's go escape from Gringotts.
I say it right, it's the it's the bank.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Oh well, you're in a mine car.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I don't know if it was a mine car, but
there's a mind scene. So anyway, we go inside. It's
an all indoor, air conditioned ride and we didn't want
to wait because Murphy and Audre did not want to ride,
so we didn't want to so we did single rider.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
So he and I.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
He was in front of me and I was fine,
and we just got on with carts or whatever next
to each other, and we didn't wait very long.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
So that's a trick.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
A lot of people want to experience those things together,
and I understand that. I just wanted to ride the ride.
He just wanted to ride the ride and not wait
sixty minutes.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah. I mean it works because if you know when
you're there with your family, you're not going to be
able to do single rider, right because you're not going
to separate from your kids, right. So I think there's
a certain percentage the line is not as long, but
it still can be along line.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
We got on that ride and I was so impressed.
It's a it's basically a hybrid. I was just it
was funny. I was telling everybody I don't love just
a simulated ride because it does places tricks on your
mind and I feel like I would rather, I would
rather actually drop and fall and move forward than to
seemingly do those things. And he was like, uh oh,
(07:38):
because it's part simulated and part you are actually moving right.
I was so impressed, Sam, I've ridden rides with you
before over the years. I was so impressed with this ride.
It was fun. Surprise drops cool indoors. There's a dragon
at one point and you feel the heat from the
fire and then I don't remember if it was Harry
(07:59):
or her mind who you know used it their wand
right in front of you and put the fire out
and you feel the water hits you. And then you
drop into and you're playing quidditch with them and you're
flying through the skies and whoa, there's there's you know,
Hogwarts Castle, and then you stop to this jerk and
everything gets dark. This is just one my one retelling
(08:22):
and this the snake, Voldemort snake. It seemingly bites your
your head off. It's like I could see how kids
would be scared of this ride. You have to know
your kids to know. And then there's Voldemort right in
front of you. It is so freaky but not. But
you're not just experiencing this stuff head on. You're you're
going sideways and backwards and like you're gonna fall. It's crazy.
(08:46):
It's a different level than I expect.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
It sounds like fun as you've never really ridden many
of those three D rides.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
I like the real rides.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, I wish for me that it wasn't that my
equilibrium thing is so bad. Three D just always just
makes me crazy queasy, And I think on top of that,
those rides are you know, they there's motions, so there's
a lot of roughness to them too, So.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
You write it's like you're in a battle with what's
real and what's not real in those rides.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
And Audrey didn't want to ride it all.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
She didn't want to ride, so that that made me
feel better.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I just went and waited in the gift shop for
them to come out, because you know, every ride ends
in a gift shop.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So yeah, the next thing, that's cool. And look, there's
a lot to this park, but I'm just superking. If
you can tell I feel like a kid.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
I can't tell.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I want to read the books again.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
That's how ridiculously well done this this part of the
park is. Then we wait in kind of a long
line for the Hogwarts Express. You go to King's Cross train,
you go to you know, platform nine and three quarters
and you wait for the train. And that took a
long time because I think only one train was running
or something like we almost forfeited that, like there were
(09:56):
this was.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
A trip of a lot of technical malfunctions.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah, maybe they're getting the Are they getting the park
ready for summer? I don't know, but a lot of
stuff was like, we're having difficulties right now.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
You have to go through a wall to get the
nine and three quarters.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I mean, no, I wish it made it.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
They I won't spoil it, but it makes you trick
you to think you're going through it the rod.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
It does. There's a there's a way to that. They
do that, but it's.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
There's a train.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
The train ride was really cool because you don't see
out of the windows of the park because that would
ruin your hair. Harry Potter experience. It's the windows are
screens and you're seeing.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I was kind of hoping I would actually see outside,
but yeah, it's screens.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
And you know, and out in the car they close.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
You're in a car just like in the books with
other people, but you you hear Harry.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
And Hermione outside of the door. It's just so cool.
They think of everything.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So the Harry Potter exhibit is really in two different
places in the park for that reason. And then you
exit back out and you keep doing.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
You exit back out into Hogsmeat. Oh and I was
not expecting that. I thought Okay, Harry Potter's on. And
we exited into hogs Meat and there is Hogwarts Castle
and I'm like, oh my gosh. And again Mark goes,
do you want to go ride something? I said, sure,
he goes, let's go single Rider right now.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Boom boom boom. And I didn't even know we were
in line for this ride. And I said, I don't
even know what this ride is.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
And the lady said, I can't remember Journey to Hogwarts
or the full Harry Potter experience. It was also the
same thing, but inside Hogwarts Castle and you're doing this
big ride and oh man, we did single Rider anyway,
I'll shut up about it, but about the Harry Potter
part of it.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
But I loved that.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And I cannot stop taking pictures for Phoebe, our youngest,
who is also a Potter person.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Well, and I would say, anybody who's a Potter you
a fan that hasn't done it yet. And what's what's
cool for me is not being It's not that I'm
not a fan of it. I'm just I'm not connected
to it right so, but watching watching people who are
I mean, there were a lot of there were actually
two different guys that I saw walking around dressed as
Harry Potter, who was Yeah, they were just visitors. Well
(12:01):
you were excited about the rides, but you know, and
it was hot and he's in his robe and the
glasses and all that. But you know, when when you
see people dressed apart like that, it's just fun. I
mean you you know that. It's the same thing with
Disney fans, right, the people who are truly fanatical, they're
all about it, and they get dressed up and they
go multiple times a year. That's that is their thing.
(12:24):
And so we saw that, you know, at Disney also
the next day that we were there.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
But I didn't get to ride Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure, which
looked really fun and are true you know legit roller coaster,
and they had a couple of other smaller rides that
would be good for kids, because realize, Harry Potter starts
at age eleven and goes up until his young adulthood,
so small.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
There's a lot more to Universal than just Harry. Sorry, right, yeah,
but you know the thing to me about comparing both
Disney and Universal and doing one one day and one
the other both parks, really Universal's come a long way
since the last time that I was. I think Sam
and I were there together the last time I went there.
(13:05):
It's I mean, it doesn't even look the same because
they had not it hadn't been long since it opened.
I'm assuming that where hard Rock is now, the restaurant
that's there used to be the old Planet Hollywood. It
looks like the same building. It's but the only thing
that I recognize, you know, in that area, but the
uh but you know, I think Disney still edges out
(13:26):
Universal slightly when it comes to the cleanliness and just
the old the overall feel, you know, in in the park.
It just it's a maybe they've just been been at
it longer, but you know, it's really it's close. I
didn't think Universal was as clean. The bathrooms weren't as clean.
I mean they were there were, it just didn't didn't
notice that.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
I don't know, I didn't notice that. If you if
I was going a third day, I would have gone
back to Universal. Not that I loved Disney, but it
was different from me the Harry Potter.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I'm not saying one's better than the other. I'm just
saying that they're you know that they've I think that
they're different parks universal I do believe caters more to
the adult crowd than it does to the you know the.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Oh yes, though, I was really sad that the Hulk
coaster was closed. That was one of the ones I
wanted to ride. It's my kind of roller coaster. It's
over water. I wanted to ride it, so did our
friend Mark. It was shut down for the day, but
we did the Spider Man, which is also very popular
and all that, and it was funny because we waited
(14:25):
in line for that and me and Mark an Audre.
She wanted to finally try one, and I'm glad she did.
But right before we were about to get on it,
they shut it down for technical reasons, and I thought, really,
and but we waited and got on it. It's like,
I'm not gonna worry about what the technical reason was.
We ended our day. We were leaving the park talking
(14:47):
about what else to eat, and we ended up there's
something there on the way out.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I can't remember what it's called now, Murph.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Well, it's just a strip of restaurants on the way
out once you get past the you know, the tickety
gate and all that, And.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
So we ate there at a place called Cowfish. It
was delicious sushi. Well, they have hamburgers and sushi and
it was delicious. Do you want to tell them about
your sushi role though?
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Well, yeah, you think it. Yours was delicious? Mind was odd? Right,
So they are basically supposed to be a burger and
sushi infusion restaurant. It's a weird combination. I mean it
sounds like a strange combination. And one of their signature dishes.
I just figured I would try, and it just was
a little bit of a letdown. They do something that
they call I'm not even gonna remember the term of
(15:31):
it now. It's like a now, but they call it
a hamburger, hamburger sushi something like that. It basically it's
hamburger sushi and they try to they make it taste
like cheeseburger, and it just doesn't work for me. It
doesn't work. You know. It's the inside is hamburger, it's
wrapped in the swy paper rice on the outside. Then
(15:53):
it's wrapped in potato strings fried, and then they put yeah,
it's I don't think so. Meanwhile, I know it's it
was the rice overpowered the you know, the hamburger part
of it.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
But again, though, my memories of that will just always
be the fun of the French.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's so much fun.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
That well, you know what I mean. It was the
first time I ever ventured out and actually tried you know,
raw yellowtail. It was delicious and it was delicious. It
really was fantastic. I am not a raw seafood person
at all, and I'm very hesitant, but I tried it
and with the soy sauce, I mean, it wasn't fishy,
it was perfect, So that part was really that was
a cool. Look.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Had a Salmontini the raw salmon, and it was delicious too.
And a drink no, no, it's called that. It was
like an appetite. It was served in a martini glass.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
But it was like like trump cocktail. Yeah, it was
very delicious.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
So it was not my first time with raw sushy,
but the yellowtail was delicious.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
When you're on vacation, I think sometimes you're willing to
take a chance on something you wouldn't do normally. I
don't know if it's just because you're throwing caution to
the wind and you're not in your regular environment.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Well what you said, you tried, I want to try
that just because it was different.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, halipenion on top and there was a sauce and we.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I was talking about the Hamburger sous show.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Okay, yeah, you would have liked that, I think, Sam, Well.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
I want to hear about the pretzel bread pudding over time.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Okay. Well, so the next day tired, as we were
sixteen thousand steps the day before, we slept in. I
think we were dragging a little bit for the second
day for Epcot, but it didn't matter. Also, take your time.
I had only ever been to Epcot once for one
hour in my life, and I barely remember it.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
So we took our time.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
And so I when we first got there, you know,
we kind of agreed the place that we most wanted
to see with the country, the countries.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
The pavilion.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
There's a lot to do there, but that's what we
wanted to see and that was fantastic. And what you're
asking about is, well, we did the Right of Twoey experience.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Which was cute and cool. That part of the park
was slammed.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
Well, what's the right of Twoey experiences?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
All right? So yeah, it's a simple right but it's
kid friendly, so it's there's not a whole lot of
there's a you're gonna you're going through the kitchen and
you're riding along and you're jumping around with the rats,
you know, so it's got to yeah, that one. It's
a fun little you know, it's it's a cute little experience.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Cute and it was nice because it was the air
conditioning inside and it was hot outside. That was a
busy part of the park, right before you get to
all the different countries.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah, and I'll tell you that. You know, the thing
about Epcot, Jody and I never really got to do
Epcot when we would go with the girls to Disney,
which we've only done twice before, because you know, it's
Magic Kingdom, it's you know, animal, it's all of that.
It's uh and I think you and I might have
had dinner. And even after going back through Epcot, I
have no idea, no recollection of where we ate that time.
But this time, you know, going in to Epcot, you
(18:41):
definitely want to use the app for starters, because the
app will also help you find your car when you're done.
But you know, if you want to, it's such a
large park that when you want to go to all
the individual countries. You need to know where, you know
where you're going, and I guess you could just kind
of be surprised as you went along. But if you
have a destiny, if you don't really have a good
(19:02):
eight to nine hours. We were in that park for
a long time, then you're gonna have a tough time
really seeing every piece of it. So the app is
just like awesome, and you can filter in the map
view and it shows you what direction you're going, and
you know, of course apps have shown weight times for
rides now for a long time, so that way, if
you're balancing the food part and the rides part, you
know kind of what you're what you're getting into.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
I feel like we made Epcot more about food for sure.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Likes since we hit France, which I think may have
been the first country. We were in line for croissant,
right and and some sort of cake.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Well the so the croissant had you say it that way, yeah,
had it had goat cheese in it. It's a little
abortion like, not that that's bad. That's what it reminded
me of. It was good.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
We ate our way through Epcot, honestly, and then then
I don't remember the order, but when we hit.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I think we had one more snack before we had
pizza for lunch.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I don't think I didn't have another snack. No, no, no,
I think Aldra and I had a billini in Italy,
you have a Yeah, So we had a billini and
we hit the Italy area and I'm just looking around
at you know, we were looking at Italian leather and
all that kind of stuff. And then Mark had made
reservations at this pizza place for like eight o'clock that night,
(20:24):
but there was the place and we were like, man,
I could eat lunch here. So he went in and
we were able to get in for lunch instead, which
is like, if you can eat here for lunch, now
do it. And so we sat down inside and it
was fantastic. Our way, our server, she was from Italy,
and she was fantastic. And the pizza was incredible, was
(20:45):
it not?
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, it was very good.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
It was good.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
It was really really thin, and she was telling us
all about the ingredients being ninety nine percent of the
ingredients came from Italy. Yeah, because they wanted it to
be as authentic as possible.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
And it was delicious and you know, That's one thing
I didn't know what to expect because it is it's
the park and it's a lot of food that you
have to make for a lot of people. Which, by
the way, that's another thing to make sure that you do.
I remember this from our first time, and I'm no
Disney expert, but make a reservation when you book your trip.
If there's a restaurant you really want to try, you
really need to book it, you know, well in advance,
(21:21):
because the walk up crowds are always huge and you
may not get into some of the specific restaurants that
are more popular because they only see so many people.
So it was a really good thing that you know,
Mark was able to do that, and it was impressive
to me that they let the reservation. It's like, we
know it's for six but if you made a reservation,
you can come in now. And so it worked. Yeah,
but you know that, I was concerned that the food
(21:43):
might be kind of the way that like cruise ship
food or you know, the mass produced stuff, right because
it's a challenging quality control right when you're feeding thousands
and thousands of people every single day, and I don't
know how they pull it off in Epcot where they're
being that specific because I'm sure they're having to be
very manufactured.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
About it intentional right too.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
But but it was, you know, it was really good quality.
I think Audra thought that the beat balls and spaghetti
were a little average, but the but the pizza, you know,
was was very good.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Right. She had wanted to order pasta just because she
was there, and the only one she could do on
a side was more like the kid thing was why
that probably didn't live up, but that was delicious and fun.
Then we get out and we're walking around, the rain
comes we you know, find ponchos and then we go
to the Germany Pavilion and I had heard a lot
about that from producer Faith, from a couple of my
(22:35):
other friends, and Audra's dentist. Ironically, Audra's dentist said, you've
got to have the pretzel bread pudding, and Mark found it,
waited in line and got it. We had just eaten
pizza at an hour before, but he got to you know,
for them to share one and for us to share one,
that was the best dessert we had to me. It
(22:57):
was you know, bread pudding, but it was definitely made
out of because everybody in the Germany area had those
big fat pretzels. And if I had not been if
I had been hungry, I would have wanted that because
salty that that bread pudding was incredible. I was not
even hungry, and I was like, give me another bite.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, it was really good. Whatever the sauce was on top,
I think is what made it really good.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
It's interesting to look at the architecture too. And then
you walking through these I was walking.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
We were walking through the gift shops trying to get
out of the rain, and a lot of them are connected.
And two gift shops down I could smell something, and
then one gift shop closer, I could smell it even stronger,
and I'm like, whatever that is is killing me. It's
calling my name. And it was the helped me Murphy.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
It was like the the what the carmal corn?
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Caramel corn?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Where there's original caramel corn that they're making fresh right there.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Murphy bought a bag and I.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Wasn't going to, but it was at the cash register
I bought. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I just had to the smell of that they are
making money because it smells great.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
I mean, they deserve it. It was all really good.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
The one thing that I wondered is they have and
they've got a Christmas village in that little area too,
with ornaments and those kind of things, and some of
them are really delicate, and I mean they're pretty, and
I'm sure some people would be excited to buy them,
but that's so delicate to transport back home. I would
worry about that in my bag or however I would
get it there if it were me. You can probably
(24:25):
just ship at home. They'll probably do that for you.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Oh yeah, well yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
They had a big tree with the Christmas pickles all
over it. You could buy the people there in the
German thing. The German thing, I think my favorite pavilion though,
and surprisingly it was Japan. I love the architecture. I
loved the they were doing the drum solos.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
It was so cool.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
And I loved that gift shop and the Japan and
China gift shops were in.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Those were the largest two gift shops out there.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
And the kimonos and it was just beautiful.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
I didn't want to leave, and I could feel that
the three of you were like at the door, ready
to go.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
I'm like, okay, I guess i'll go.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Did y'all do anything in the front of the park
or y'll just stay in the countries.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Did we do anything in the front wed some of
the flowers.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Well, we tried to go into the you know, the
big Dome, the Geodesic Dome and ride that ride, but
it was it was down, it was shutting. The ride
wasn't work.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Out, and we're like, how long do you think and
they were like, it could be anywhere from fifteen days,
fifteen minutes to a day, So we have no idea.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
That was it was closed for the rest of the evening.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
We worked our way back up front. Well that's what
we were going to do last on the on the
way out.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, how to Margarita in Mexico the Mexico Pavilion.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Sure did. We sat down and.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
But we were getting rained onto so we were just
seeking cover anywhere.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
We're in ponchos, you know.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
And you know what, I didn't care because it was
well for wanting to get cooled things off and you're
at Epcot again. It's like, even if it's raining in Disney,
it's still Disney Disney.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Isn't it nice to not care? Yeah, you just go
with the flow and yeah, we do what we can.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I think to me that was the best you know
the best part of it was being able just to
do it at that pace was really really different, you know,
Disney or Universal, when you're just doing the two of
you as adults and you know, is different. You don't
get a chance to really do that, you know, very
often when when you're raising. Of course, you wouldn't trade
(26:21):
the kid experience for anything, you know. The That's the
whole thing about every single thing that I saw with
you know, some kids, the little babies that were upset,
or toddlers that were upset. Jody and I both remember
all of that vividly ourselves and you did it, but
it was never really they're fond memories when you look
back on them. It's a lot to manage. But it's
(26:42):
so different when you're going in at your own pace.
It's almost like you're an observer of those things and
you just go to if you want a Mickey bar,
If you get a Mickey bar, you're not buying power
of them if you don't have to do.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Honestly, we were sitting down whenever we felt like it too,
and you don't necessarily you know what I mean, you don't.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
You don't get the I don't want to do that.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Kids want to go, go, go go until they're so
overstimulated and then they just collapse.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
You don't have to do it that way.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
We did the Nemo Family Experience on the way out,
which was really cool, but unfortunately once we got off
the ride, I wanted to go upstairs and check out
all the aquariums because they have a lot of aquariums
in there. And that's whenever the park was shutting down,
you take your time. You missed some stuff that we
were I wanted to go see the sharks and I
wanted to go see the jellyfish, and.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
It was like, I'm sorry, we're closing for the night.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
And remember we went before Memorial Day, so you know
the park, the park's regular hours go much longer than
during the during the summer, and things won't shut down,
and and you know, we didn't do Epcot with the girls,
and there are plenty of things that kids will enjoy there.
It's certainly more adult, you know, focused culture right, culture focused,
(27:49):
but it is laid out so that there is a
kids ride really in every part of the park.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Yes, so smart. One mistake I made take this thought
with you. You can carry a backpack to the park,
which I did, so I'll have a sweet not too
big backpack. But it was just for whatever, my sunscreen,
you know, poncho's whatever. We might need our sunglasses. But
because you can also bring water bottles and you can
(28:15):
bring snacks, I don't know what it is about me.
It's the mom for everything. I did this. Audren did
this too. We had snacks in there at Epcot. You're
not gonna eat your snack mix that you bought at Walmart,
necessarily kids might you're gonna eat the pretzel bread pudding.
Like everything that we ate, and we ate our way
through that park was something special in that park. So
(28:37):
when I got back that night and I'm at one point,
I just like, why is your backpack so heavy?
Speaker 3 (28:42):
And are like, I have no idea. I started money.
I've got your sweetish fish in there, Murphy, I've got
snack mix. I'm like, that's why it was heavy. I
had ten thousand calories and.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Realized that you brought the snack mix. The sweetish fish
is a key I.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Did that sweet fish is to street low blood sugar.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
But yeah, so that's one thing It's like you can
bring one or two little things in case or they
have little kids with you and they may need something.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
The little cheerios and goldfish stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
In the park, you're going to eat the special food.
I won't do that again, but had a fantastic time.
A weekend away is a beautiful reset in life. Highly recommend,
but mainly time with friends. We really we had a
blast because of where we were, But the reason we
had a blast is because of friends.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Yeah, missed any part of the show. Get it All
on the Murphy Salmon Jody Podcast.
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