May 26, 2023 • 24 mins
On today's episode of The Theme Park Podcast the guys relax after the busy week of news. Jimmy recaps his trip to Graceland and has now become a Elvis fan. Scott gushes about the fact that Figment is getting an annual passholder magnet. And in the news Universal Studios opens up the newest tribute store comemorating the 30th anniversary of Jurassic Park.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
From the theme park capital of theWorld, Orlando, Florida. Is the
Theme Park Podcast? Wait podcast?Is this radio? Why does everything got
to be so messy on this station? Anyway? Here's your host Stickerman,
Jimmy D and Scott Harris. Welcometo the Theme Park Podcast. Dickerman.
(00:23):
Here, there's Jimmy D. What'sup fellas? And Scott Harris. I
see you wearing your Universal Orlando hatthere today, and it is that's it's
Universal shirt too? Oh yes,yeah, it's a it's Ian Malcolm,
(00:44):
doctor Ian Malcolm. Or you're abig Universal guy, aren't you promo code?
Scott Yes, and the Disney Guy. Welcome into the show. I
gotta say this week maybe not ascrazy as the news week we had last
week, but um still plenty ofthings to get to. You are on
the show. But Jimmy, youactually made a trip outside the States where
(01:10):
you went considered a theme park.You know, it is a land even
though it's pronounced graceland Jimmy cross statelines. Yeah. You know, when
I went there, I thought whatit was gonna be was you went through
the house. There was like alittle tent with some like trinkets, and
you went on your way. Thatis not the case. It is you
(01:34):
know what it reminds me of.It reminds me of Kennedy Space Center.
Yeah. You park, you gointo like this Kennedy Space Center looking area,
and there's a museum with all ofits cars, a museum with all
of his records is you know,outfits. There's another museum with outfits from
artists, like contemporary artists that areinfluenced by by Elvis. And uh,
(02:00):
you know, I I'm not thebiggest Elvis fan in the world. You
know, I appreciate some of hismusic, and but I think it really
helped in I think I might bean Elvis fan. Now. Everyone that
I know that goes to this placeweaves an Elvis fan. I was listening
to a podcast a few years agoKevin Smith went and then he wouldn't stop
(02:20):
talking for Things five podcast about Elvis'smovie career. His career was crazy,
man, he did like I forgotwhat it was like, like sixty movies.
It's just like it's an insane It'sjust like his whole his whole life.
The crazy part for me though,and the idea I guess they never
realized this. The man died atforty two. I'm forty five. Yeah,
(02:44):
I was young. It was veryyoung. But I remember when you
see those pictures of him at theend of his towards the end of his
life, he looks terrible. Thatdoes not look like a forty two year
old man's face. If you livea hard life, forty two can be
a it's a hard forty two,you know. Man, You sunscreen or
something. I don't know. Yeah, I use sunscreen, you know.
(03:05):
Live a clean life. Don't dodrugs, drink water, No, what
is it? Uh, take yourvitamins, say your prayers, prayers,
take your vitamins. I don't know. I thought there was three. I'll
figure it out, all right,Helster, I tell you it was.
It was really kind of fun togo through the house too, because it's
(03:28):
like frozen in time. Yeah,and this is the late seventies, you
know, Dickerman. This is likewhen you and I were like our first
early memories are in this error andif it has that look to it,
I love. I love a seventystyle house still. When I go into
one, I'm like, I lovethis. Everybody's like it's dated, it's
ugly. I'm like, this isgreat. Give me a sunken living room.
This is fantastic. Yeah, whywhy did they do away with sunken
(03:52):
living rooms? I know in thisstate, it's probably not a good idea
because of how often it rains tohave a sunken living room. I don't
know. You know, Jeff,Jeff, when he had that place in
the Springs, it had a suckin living room. We as soon as
you walked in him like, Ilove this place. You know. Chad
Pitt had a sunken living room andhis condo that was like right across the
(04:13):
street from the radio station. Yeah, it looked contemporary to me. Yeah,
I like a sucking living room.Count me in. But yeah,
seventies seventies motif is cool. AndI could not believe the amount of merchandise
that this place had. It hadgift shops. Each museum had its own
gift shop. Like the only thingthat didn't have its like actual gift shop
(04:36):
was the house. But they takeyou in a bus, bring you over
to the mansion, You go throughthe mansion, do your thing, come
out, and they put you ona bus and you go back to you
know, the Kennedy Space Center acrossthe street. And that's where all the
other you know, his planes,and you actually get to walk through the
planes too, which is crazy tome. That's cool. Yeah, Jean
(04:58):
Simmons saw the Elvis merchant, hesaid I want to do that, and
then he did it with kiss.Yeah, there's actually a kiss display there.
I'm not surprised. Not surprised,all right, the whole the rules
of the Hulk train, eat yourvitamins, say your prayers, believe in
yourself. Oh I've never heard believein yourself part. I think he always
(05:18):
told you to do that. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's where I tuned
out, apparently. Yeah, thatwas our problem. We never believed.
We never believed in herself exactly.There you go. But you you come
out of this a bigger fan ofElvis, Is that right? James?
A bigger, a bigger Elvis fanand an owner, proud owner of an
Elvis tiki. Oh this is great. I can't believe, Lauren, lets
(05:42):
you still buy tikis? You shouldbe cut off at this point. How
should you not cut you off yet? Well? The rule is one tiki
a day. I'm not allowed aboutpurchase more than one tiki a day.
So okay, So we always talkabout this with Pepper Pig Park. M
hm. When we say how's thebacon? Yeah, yeah, Do they
only sell the Elvis sandwiches at Graceland. They sell a lot of food,
(06:05):
but yeah, there's you can getm like. I didn't see it per
se, but I'm pretty sure Isaw it in the menu because there's like
six restaurants in their Kennedy Space Centerarea. There'sn't even a jungle Room bar.
But it wasn't open to the publicwhen I was there, Otherwise I
would have definitely gone to that.Are there any Elvis actors in the park?
(06:26):
I don't know in personators. Ididn't see any, although they have
an auditorium there and Chelsea Handler wasplaying the night that I was happened to
be at gracelank curious that made thatmakes sense because I mean, like Dollywood's
got like the Grand Old Opery,so it would make sense for them all
to have a venue of some kind. Yeah, yeah, they were a
performance on you there. Interesting,Well, it's cool, sounds like it
(06:48):
sounds like a fun trip if you'rethat's in Memphis, right, Yes,
in Memphis, Tennessee. How isthe rest of Memphis? Is it?
Is it worth visiting or is itsimply Graceland. No, a rights museum.
Uh, you know where it's thehotel the was it the Lorraine Hotel
where Martin Luther King was shot?They they bought that hotel and turned it
(07:11):
into the National Civil Rights Museum.So it's got some very you know,
gives you education about civil rights allthrough the you know sixties and to where
we are now, well you knowfrom and then Uh, one thing I
will say about Memphis. The foodwas delicious. We went to a place
called Flight, and every single courseyou could get in a flight. I
(07:32):
got a flight of steak. Yeah, it was elk beef and bison,
and the bison was amazing. I'mdown eating competition theme part podcasts, Eating
Competition meat flights eating bison. Yeah. And then like your appetizers were flights.
If you wanted a salad, youcould get a flight of salads.
(07:54):
You could get a flight of soups, flight of desserts. Just like everything
was flights. And it was likesuch a concept and I can't believe nobody
else's thought of that. Very cool. Um. Well, a little closer
to home, it's just a quickone on a more history. I went
over to the Orange County Regional HistoryCenter because they're having a special display called
(08:15):
Figurehead Music in Mayhem, all aboutthe shows that came through in the eighties
and nineties, promoted by Jim Farty, and they had all these posters and
displays, and you know, hebrought in some big names before they were
huge names. I texted Amanda thecontract for Solo Asylum. I think they
got paid like five hundred bucks smashingpumpkins. Like if you're into music history
in Central Florida, really cool scene. But they also did have I've never
(08:37):
been to this place before. It'slike a real museum, which I didn't
know we had. But they havea great display on Central Florida theme parks,
namely Walt Disney World and how itcame to fruition and you know how
it all came to it came tobe in a lot of historical pieces there
from Disney as well. They letyou into a learning place. Yeah,
yeah, they did, they did, and it was it was like eight
(08:58):
bucks to get in, so arevery reasonable as well. Question for you,
Dickerman, you grew up in thistown and that building used to be
the courthouse in Downtowner, Orlando,that's what i've heard. Were you ever
prosecuted in that building? It's neverprosecuted in that build. I've never been
in that building until I went tocheck out the this uh this this show
and uh in the in the place. But it was a cool place,
(09:20):
anat place. Um if you haven'tbeen there, worth the trip, if
you're going to be heading downtown anyhow, Um eight bucks to get in not
a bad deal. And when Iwas, when I was in high school,
you went there, and I don'tknow if it's still there. I'm
sure it is. There was adefendant's table that allegedly had had Ted Bundy
said at it, and he hadcarved his name in the wood edge of
(09:41):
the table. And now it's likecovered in PLEXI I go there, look
for it. I went looking forit in the courtroom, but I didn't
know. I thought it would havemore of a prominent display, so I
might not have looked close enough atthe table to see if that if that
was there, like when now it'sgot plexy over it. When I was
in high school, it was justbut like you sat there and I was
(10:01):
like, oh, that's Ted Bundy'sname right there. That's how it was
back in the day, we wereable to touch things back in the day,
Now not so much. All right, Well, um, Scott,
should we jump into the news becauseI do know there has been a couple
of major announcements, one item youare both very interested in. M Well,
first we should update a story wetalked about last week about the Galactic
(10:24):
Star Cruiser Hotel, which which willbe closing. The final few voyages have
now sold out. That's a bigsurprise. Yeah, who doesn't want to
jump in? Oh, it's goingaway. Let's let's go ahead and pay
up. Well, we finally welearned a couple of weeks because that news
had just broken when we recorded lastweek. We've learned some new things that
(10:45):
basically everyone's like, why can't youjust lower lower the price. Well,
it turns out the margins on thatyou know, they lowered him. The
margins were so razor thin that becauseof how many actors performing round the clock,
it was it's it. There's areason it was an expensive endeavor.
(11:07):
Yeah, yeah, and I youknow, um, I see that.
I just I wonder if they couldhave just you know, peeled back all
the actors and just let you enjoybeing at a Star Wars steamed hotel without
without having that, but even buteven then, with how much they spent
on it, it would take solong to make your money back. It
is a small hotel, it hasa hundred rooms, so but just closing
the doors, that's a better option. I guess tax ride off is that
(11:28):
we're looking at it. It isas six bacon for her a year.
They have a three hundred million dollarrite off. Yep, So it won't.
It won't be what Jimmy said lastweek and become a spirit Halloween store
this uh incoming Halloween season. AndI learned now that that meme is everywhere.
(11:50):
Now, yeah, I saw themem and Jimmy's like, I told
you that joke last week. I'mlike, oh, well, you know,
I don't remember things. I learnedfirsthand the other day that Imagineers were
working on new things for it upuntil last week. Of course, that
completely predictable right there. So it'sjust they're gonna tear it down. I
(12:11):
mean, it's no, they won't. Here's the thing, actually, do
you want to know why? Itwould be very hard for them to make
it into a regular hotel. Itis not on the bus loop at all.
It doesn't have a bus loop atall, and that is a requirement
to be a Disney hotel. Itis they would have to rebuild roads in
(12:31):
order to make that happen. Thisis basically if you look at a map,
because I've looked at the map waytoo much, because it's like,
oh, just expand Galaxy's edge.It's not close. There's water in between
galaxy. The back of Galaxy's edgein the star Cruiser Hotel. Star Cruiser
Hotel is basically situated behind cast memberparking. That's why it's so isolated.
(12:54):
Two words potentially one word because Idon't really know how you spell this,
but hyperloop. Let's just let's justdo the hyper loop to it. I
don't know. I saw Well,there was an announcement made on that guy's
platform yesterday. I'm not sure Itrust that one. I'm on the hyper
loop. Oh really, I'm oranything about the hyper loop in a while.
Well, I mean, that ishis company, So I'm gonna hands
(13:16):
off on that one. Okay,I'll try it, but hyper loop in
there, I'm in the Other bigthing is we were speculating about this and
it is now confirmed figment. It'sgetting a magnet I saw this thing online.
You guys posted it. I sawI come up on the social media.
(13:37):
Yep, yep. Uh. Finally, my guy, my guy,
my guy, Figgy Magnet. Imight actually have to go to a park
now to get this, yeah,because it won't may listen to your house,
right. I don't have the secondmagnet. Yeah, I have the
other figment. I am I refrigeratorright now. I seem to remember that.
Yeah, I think I gave you. I think I gave you mine.
(14:00):
I was gonna throw him in thetrash, and I said, now
bring him to Jimmy. Oh,I don't remember this. I also forget.
I also forget about magnets. Yeah, May thirty first through June thirtieth,
at the Creation Shop. Okay,so you gotta go to the store
together this time. I guess that'swhere they give out magnets. Now,
(14:20):
you gotta go to the store,and you gotta wait in line to get
it. Correct and there is novirtual queue this time. I want to
Doug Magnet. I'm just gonna throwit out there. I know we've talked
about this. We've had two figments. Now he's still no Doug. Come
on, guys, let's get onedog by the way, by the way
over at Disneyland. You know me, I'm always talking. I'm always talking
(14:41):
about Disneyland. They're getting a Pixarhotel this year. Oh and I was
looking at well, the Disneyland Hotelwas becoming like the Disneyland Pixar Hotel,
okay, which is like one oftheir Marquis hotels on their property. And
I was looking at the concept picturesand I know, concept here's an actual
execution can be two completely different things. There's little bits that you can see
(15:05):
of Doug in the floor, whatlike his silhouette. I'm a book.
I'm going a book now. Theythrow some balloons coming out of the chimney
and forget it. I'm booking aflight to California. I don't know if
you're allowed in California. I don'tknow if you're allowed across state lines.
It might not be allowed in California, right, M'd be correct about that
(15:26):
one. So that is going onover at Disney close to town Universal Studios.
This is the one you guys areexcited about. Our bank accounts are
not excited, but we're excited becausethe thirtieth anniversary Tribute store is about too
open and as of recording, teammembers and select people have been able to
(15:50):
experience it. You get an insiderto give us a report on this.
I got a little bit of one. Got a little bit of one today.
Actually, okay, all right,let's hear it um. So it
is for the movie that came outthirty years ago. It has different photo
ops inside of them, like there'susually like an area like um one tribute
(16:14):
store, it was like Kong likehis hand so he was like holding you
and ah, there's this like giantface. So one of them is from
a very important scene of when acertain lawyer realized he's really got to go
to the bathroom, So to thetoilet. You sit on the toilet and
the t rex is right over yourshoulder. That's fantastic, God bless.
(16:37):
So that is one of them.One of the other ones is when the
raptor pokes his head out at LauraDern at Ellie Sadler when she's flipping the
breakers. Okay, all right,that's a god arm. There no word
on if the arm is there.But also when it comes to this tribute
store, a a friend has madea return to the park. Our good
(17:04):
friend, the Triceratops is right outside. Oh nice, do you get to
listen to its breathing? No?No, it's roped off, so you
can't touch the Triceratops. I'm myguess is this is the Triceratops was that
was in the Triceratops encounter. Okay, well the Triceratops encounter they were animatronics,
(17:26):
so actually could be animatronic. Ican't, I can't tell in picture
picture form. Yeah, I wonder, like because the one from the movie,
they encased it in like a tonof lacquer, and then they gave
it to gig Give Kids the Worldand it was like on their Putt put
call. Of course, I'm wonderingif they just borrowed it back just for
(17:48):
a month or something and then they'lljust bring it right back to the Give
Kids the World. I don't think. It does not look like it's encased
in anything. It looks like it'sopen to elements. So unless they,
you know, cracked that thing openum. But there's a lot of like
behind the scenes props and sculptures fromthe making of Jurassic Park that is inside
(18:11):
the Tribute Store. These guys havereally gone all in on these tribute stores.
I mean, you know, itstarted it out as kind of a
novel, little idea, and it'sreally increased to something, you know,
massive. Um, all right,Dickerman, I know you're gonna ask what
are the molderramas? We have two? I do want to know what those
moldar ramas are because I love thatsmell. All right, I'm gonna guess
ones, t Rex, ones,raptor close on one of them. Do
(18:36):
you want to change your guests?Final answer? T Rex and Brachiosaurus.
One is the raptor claw. Ohthat's cool, and the other is the
gates like the marquis. Yeah.Yeah. How do you man like these
things? Like? How do youjust churn out a moldorm? Like?
(19:00):
I feel like that's I guess youcan use the same one. You just
get new molds inside. Is that? Is that probably what it is?
Basically? Yeah, that's that's That'swhat they do, brilliant. I look
at all of mine every single day. I have so many of them.
It's a license to print money,you know. It is you you put
something new and different in there andpeople will pay for it. The thing
is, I will say this,I love them I will. I will
(19:22):
always buy them if it's from amovie. Uh that I love. The
one problem is they're kind of cumbersometo carry for the rest of the day.
Oh yeah, and if it's reallyhot, I would worry that they
might start to melt a little.And you got like mushy face gay exactly
that is that. I'm right therewith you on that one. Um.
We got some new foods um overat Thunderfalls. We got coconut cohita,
(19:49):
uh, cahita turro. So it'sa turo infused with cal caramel, infused
with coconut flakes and caramel sauce.That sounds great. And then there's raptor
ring Raptor wings char grilled and marinatedwith olive in spices and they are tossed
(20:12):
in sweet chili sauce and served withsides of celauncher rice, black beans in
plantain chips. I guess it's likea sixty seven dollars for six wings because
wings are like outrageously expensive. Nowis that still true? That's still the
case. Yeah, I don't knowif it's still true, because I've been
having wings a lot lately at restaurants. I feel like there I can get
(20:32):
a steak for less so they canget wings. M Yeah, I don't
know. Um. And if you'rewondering about merch, two shirts that I
have seen, one is the hatand glasses of John Hammond that says spared
no expense. And there's another oneof the gates that says all major theme
parks have delays tremendous. So Iam I am right now if I'm mean,
(20:57):
completely honest, trying to decide doI just buy a new annual pass
just so I can go to this? Yeah, I've been considering. I've
been going back and forth between Universaland Sea World the last couple of weeks
and I cannot decide. And youguys know Ellen that deciding neither. But
I'm still trying to think about it. Yeah. Yeah, Like the thing
is this, there could be athere's a certain We've talked about this.
(21:19):
There is a certain level of passthat if you get it, you also
get one night for Horrnits. Yeah, and that is not a bad deal,
not a bad deal. But youknow, there's not a snowball's chance
in hell that I'm getting that pass. But does it still offer free valet
parking? They took that away Ithink it still exists, but not during
(21:41):
horrornits they open, they openly admitthat you cannot use it nights. Yeah
have You've never been able to usethe valet for either Horrornits, and I'm
pretty sure during Mardi Gras concert nightsyou can't either. But I mean that
level pass does get you the priorityparking and get you after four o'clock Express.
(22:03):
That's that's where the money's at,right there. That after four pm
Express is a deal. So ifyou think about it in a way,
you get all of those things,You get the one night of horror Nite,
and then depending on when you goto Horrornite, because it's usually the
first two or three weekends, justbuy the Express and you can knock everything
out. Did that last year.We did every house, every scare zone
before midnight. Wow. Nice.If you plan it right, it can
(22:29):
be done. Yeah. It doestake some special planning, that is for
sure. Special planning and swiping thatcredit card. There you go. I
will just really quickly mentioned that SeaWorld has been just like going crazy with
their deals for passholders. Say aredoing a major push for passholders and they're
offering tons of incentives to once youbecome a passholder. So we've talked about
it before. That is that isthe best value and annual passes around town
(22:52):
for sure. And pipeline is aboutto open fully I believe. Yeah,
people like people have been riding it. The passolders have been. I didn't
like crazy because they did it openup for them. Um, I've been
seeing people talk about it like likequite a bit. It's it's gotten rave
reviews all around. And if Ican give one more bit of merchandise update
over at Universal and maybe this isa thing that pushes Dickerman over the edge.
(23:15):
They've added some more Universal Monsters merchandisein the parks. Ah, I'm
looking at a creature from the BlackLagoon mug. Jimmy, Jimmy, look
out if it's not what if itwas a tiki, you'd I'm looking at
a creature from the Black Lagoon print. I'm looking at a creature from the
(23:36):
Black Lagoon t shirt. And there'sthere's and there's Wolfman stuff as well.
Yeah, is it not Mando tiki? But um gig ti they did a
creature creature from the Black Lagoon tikiand and for Dickerman, uh creature from
the Black Lagoon shot glasses. Thereyou go. Now you're speaking my language.
(23:57):
These are at the All Hallows EveHalloween store over in Well. I
don't really know what area of thepark to cola because it's lost content.
But what does that even mean anymore? Who knows? Who knows? Keep
in time. We'll have a namefor it. It's the in between of
Harry Potter and Susland. There yougo. All right, Well we're just
about out time, so Scott ofpeople want to get all the latest breaking
(24:19):
news. Where can they find it? You can follow us on Twitter at
theme Park Show, Facebook, Instagramand TikTok at the theme Park Podcast,
or watch at themepark YouTube dot com. And the show traditionally comes to you
from the Lauren Campbell Reeltro dot com, Tebow Gazebo Studio Sport. Jimmiedy for
Scott Harris, I am Dickerman.Until next week, we will see you
out at the parks. This hasbeen the Theme Park Podcast. Follow the
(24:42):
show on Facebook and Instagram at thetheme Park Podcast. To catch up on
previous episodes, check out the themeparkpodcast dot com, the iHeartRadio app or Apple Podcasts
From the theme park capital of theWorld, Orlando, Florida. Is the
Theme Park Podcast? Wait podcast?Is this radio? Why does everything got
to be so messy on this station? Anyway? Here's your host Stickerman,
Jimmy D and Scott Harris. Welcometo the Theme Park Podcast. Dickerman.
(00:23):
Here, there's Jimmy D. What'sup fellas? And Scott Harris. I
see you wearing your Universal Orlando hatthere today, and it is that's it's
Universal shirt too? Oh yes,yeah, it's a it's Ian Malcolm,
(00:44):
doctor Ian Malcolm. Or you're abig Universal guy, aren't you promo code?
Scott Yes, and the Disney Guy. Welcome into the show. I
gotta say this week maybe not ascrazy as the news week we had last
week, but um still plenty ofthings to get to. You are on
the show. But Jimmy, youactually made a trip outside the States where
(01:10):
you went considered a theme park.You know, it is a land even
though it's pronounced graceland Jimmy cross statelines. Yeah. You know, when
I went there, I thought whatit was gonna be was you went through
the house. There was like alittle tent with some like trinkets, and
you went on your way. Thatis not the case. It is you
(01:34):
know what it reminds me of.It reminds me of Kennedy Space Center.
Yeah. You park, you gointo like this Kennedy Space Center looking area,
and there's a museum with all ofits cars, a museum with all
of his records is you know,outfits. There's another museum with outfits from
artists, like contemporary artists that areinfluenced by by Elvis. And uh,
(02:00):
you know, I I'm not thebiggest Elvis fan in the world. You
know, I appreciate some of hismusic, and but I think it really
helped in I think I might bean Elvis fan. Now. Everyone that
I know that goes to this placeweaves an Elvis fan. I was listening
to a podcast a few years agoKevin Smith went and then he wouldn't stop
(02:20):
talking for Things five podcast about Elvis'smovie career. His career was crazy,
man, he did like I forgotwhat it was like, like sixty movies.
It's just like it's an insane It'sjust like his whole his whole life.
The crazy part for me though,and the idea I guess they never
realized this. The man died atforty two. I'm forty five. Yeah,
(02:44):
I was young. It was veryyoung. But I remember when you
see those pictures of him at theend of his towards the end of his
life, he looks terrible. Thatdoes not look like a forty two year
old man's face. If you livea hard life, forty two can be
a it's a hard forty two,you know. Man, You sunscreen or
something. I don't know. Yeah, I use sunscreen, you know.
(03:05):
Live a clean life. Don't dodrugs, drink water, No, what
is it? Uh, take yourvitamins, say your prayers, prayers,
take your vitamins. I don't know. I thought there was three. I'll
figure it out, all right,Helster, I tell you it was.
It was really kind of fun togo through the house too, because it's
(03:28):
like frozen in time. Yeah,and this is the late seventies, you
know, Dickerman. This is likewhen you and I were like our first
early memories are in this error andif it has that look to it,
I love. I love a seventystyle house still. When I go into
one, I'm like, I lovethis. Everybody's like it's dated, it's
ugly. I'm like, this isgreat. Give me a sunken living room.
This is fantastic. Yeah, whywhy did they do away with sunken
(03:52):
living rooms? I know in thisstate, it's probably not a good idea
because of how often it rains tohave a sunken living room. I don't
know. You know, Jeff,Jeff, when he had that place in
the Springs, it had a suckin living room. We as soon as
you walked in him like, Ilove this place. You know. Chad
Pitt had a sunken living room andhis condo that was like right across the
(04:13):
street from the radio station. Yeah, it looked contemporary to me. Yeah,
I like a sucking living room.Count me in. But yeah,
seventies seventies motif is cool. AndI could not believe the amount of merchandise
that this place had. It hadgift shops. Each museum had its own
gift shop. Like the only thingthat didn't have its like actual gift shop
(04:36):
was the house. But they takeyou in a bus, bring you over
to the mansion, You go throughthe mansion, do your thing, come
out, and they put you ona bus and you go back to you
know, the Kennedy Space Center acrossthe street. And that's where all the
other you know, his planes,and you actually get to walk through the
planes too, which is crazy tome. That's cool. Yeah, Jean
(04:58):
Simmons saw the Elvis merchant, hesaid I want to do that, and
then he did it with kiss.Yeah, there's actually a kiss display there.
I'm not surprised. Not surprised,all right, the whole the rules
of the Hulk train, eat yourvitamins, say your prayers, believe in
yourself. Oh I've never heard believein yourself part. I think he always
(05:18):
told you to do that. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's where I tuned
out, apparently. Yeah, thatwas our problem. We never believed.
We never believed in herself exactly.There you go. But you you come
out of this a bigger fan ofElvis, Is that right? James?
A bigger, a bigger Elvis fanand an owner, proud owner of an
Elvis tiki. Oh this is great. I can't believe, Lauren, lets
(05:42):
you still buy tikis? You shouldbe cut off at this point. How
should you not cut you off yet? Well? The rule is one tiki
a day. I'm not allowed aboutpurchase more than one tiki a day.
So okay, So we always talkabout this with Pepper Pig Park. M
hm. When we say how's thebacon? Yeah, yeah, Do they
only sell the Elvis sandwiches at Graceland. They sell a lot of food,
(06:05):
but yeah, there's you can getm like. I didn't see it per
se, but I'm pretty sure Isaw it in the menu because there's like
six restaurants in their Kennedy Space Centerarea. There'sn't even a jungle Room bar.
But it wasn't open to the publicwhen I was there, Otherwise I
would have definitely gone to that.Are there any Elvis actors in the park?
(06:26):
I don't know in personators. Ididn't see any, although they have
an auditorium there and Chelsea Handler wasplaying the night that I was happened to
be at gracelank curious that made thatmakes sense because I mean, like Dollywood's
got like the Grand Old Opery,so it would make sense for them all
to have a venue of some kind. Yeah, yeah, they were a
performance on you there. Interesting,Well, it's cool, sounds like it
(06:48):
sounds like a fun trip if you'rethat's in Memphis, right, Yes,
in Memphis, Tennessee. How isthe rest of Memphis? Is it?
Is it worth visiting or is itsimply Graceland. No, a rights museum.
Uh, you know where it's thehotel the was it the Lorraine Hotel
where Martin Luther King was shot?They they bought that hotel and turned it
(07:11):
into the National Civil Rights Museum.So it's got some very you know,
gives you education about civil rights allthrough the you know sixties and to where
we are now, well you knowfrom and then Uh, one thing I
will say about Memphis. The foodwas delicious. We went to a place
called Flight, and every single courseyou could get in a flight. I
(07:32):
got a flight of steak. Yeah, it was elk beef and bison,
and the bison was amazing. I'mdown eating competition theme part podcasts, Eating
Competition meat flights eating bison. Yeah. And then like your appetizers were flights.
If you wanted a salad, youcould get a flight of salads.
(07:54):
You could get a flight of soups, flight of desserts. Just like everything
was flights. And it was likesuch a concept and I can't believe nobody
else's thought of that. Very cool. Um. Well, a little closer
to home, it's just a quickone on a more history. I went
over to the Orange County Regional HistoryCenter because they're having a special display called
(08:15):
Figurehead Music in Mayhem, all aboutthe shows that came through in the eighties
and nineties, promoted by Jim Farty, and they had all these posters and
displays, and you know, hebrought in some big names before they were
huge names. I texted Amanda thecontract for Solo Asylum. I think they
got paid like five hundred bucks smashingpumpkins. Like if you're into music history
in Central Florida, really cool scene. But they also did have I've never
(08:37):
been to this place before. It'slike a real museum, which I didn't
know we had. But they havea great display on Central Florida theme parks,
namely Walt Disney World and how itcame to fruition and you know how
it all came to it came tobe in a lot of historical pieces there
from Disney as well. They letyou into a learning place. Yeah,
yeah, they did, they did, and it was it was like eight
(08:58):
bucks to get in, so arevery reasonable as well. Question for you,
Dickerman, you grew up in thistown and that building used to be
the courthouse in Downtowner, Orlando,that's what i've heard. Were you ever
prosecuted in that building? It's neverprosecuted in that build. I've never been
in that building until I went tocheck out the this uh this this show
and uh in the in the place. But it was a cool place,
(09:20):
anat place. Um if you haven'tbeen there, worth the trip, if
you're going to be heading downtown anyhow, Um eight bucks to get in not
a bad deal. And when Iwas, when I was in high school,
you went there, and I don'tknow if it's still there. I'm
sure it is. There was adefendant's table that allegedly had had Ted Bundy
said at it, and he hadcarved his name in the wood edge of
(09:41):
the table. And now it's likecovered in PLEXI I go there, look
for it. I went looking forit in the courtroom, but I didn't
know. I thought it would havemore of a prominent display, so I
might not have looked close enough atthe table to see if that if that
was there, like when now it'sgot plexy over it. When I was
in high school, it was justbut like you sat there and I was
(10:01):
like, oh, that's Ted Bundy'sname right there. That's how it was
back in the day, we wereable to touch things back in the day,
Now not so much. All right, Well, um, Scott,
should we jump into the news becauseI do know there has been a couple
of major announcements, one item youare both very interested in. M Well,
first we should update a story wetalked about last week about the Galactic
(10:24):
Star Cruiser Hotel, which which willbe closing. The final few voyages have
now sold out. That's a bigsurprise. Yeah, who doesn't want to
jump in? Oh, it's goingaway. Let's let's go ahead and pay
up. Well, we finally welearned a couple of weeks because that news
had just broken when we recorded lastweek. We've learned some new things that
(10:45):
basically everyone's like, why can't youjust lower lower the price. Well,
it turns out the margins on thatyou know, they lowered him. The
margins were so razor thin that becauseof how many actors performing round the clock,
it was it's it. There's areason it was an expensive endeavor.
(11:07):
Yeah, yeah, and I youknow, um, I see that.
I just I wonder if they couldhave just you know, peeled back all
the actors and just let you enjoybeing at a Star Wars steamed hotel without
without having that, but even buteven then, with how much they spent
on it, it would take solong to make your money back. It
is a small hotel, it hasa hundred rooms, so but just closing
the doors, that's a better option. I guess tax ride off is that
(11:28):
we're looking at it. It isas six bacon for her a year.
They have a three hundred million dollarrite off. Yep, So it won't.
It won't be what Jimmy said lastweek and become a spirit Halloween store
this uh incoming Halloween season. AndI learned now that that meme is everywhere.
(11:50):
Now, yeah, I saw themem and Jimmy's like, I told
you that joke last week. I'mlike, oh, well, you know,
I don't remember things. I learnedfirsthand the other day that Imagineers were
working on new things for it upuntil last week. Of course, that
completely predictable right there. So it'sjust they're gonna tear it down. I
(12:11):
mean, it's no, they won't. Here's the thing, actually, do
you want to know why? Itwould be very hard for them to make
it into a regular hotel. Itis not on the bus loop at all.
It doesn't have a bus loop atall, and that is a requirement
to be a Disney hotel. Itis they would have to rebuild roads in
(12:31):
order to make that happen. Thisis basically if you look at a map,
because I've looked at the map waytoo much, because it's like,
oh, just expand Galaxy's edge.It's not close. There's water in between
galaxy. The back of Galaxy's edgein the star Cruiser Hotel. Star Cruiser
Hotel is basically situated behind cast memberparking. That's why it's so isolated.
(12:54):
Two words potentially one word because Idon't really know how you spell this,
but hyperloop. Let's just let's justdo the hyper loop to it. I
don't know. I saw Well,there was an announcement made on that guy's
platform yesterday. I'm not sure Itrust that one. I'm on the hyper
loop. Oh really, I'm oranything about the hyper loop in a while.
Well, I mean, that ishis company, So I'm gonna hands
(13:16):
off on that one. Okay,I'll try it, but hyper loop in
there, I'm in the Other bigthing is we were speculating about this and
it is now confirmed figment. It'sgetting a magnet I saw this thing online.
You guys posted it. I sawI come up on the social media.
(13:37):
Yep, yep. Uh. Finally, my guy, my guy,
my guy, Figgy Magnet. Imight actually have to go to a park
now to get this, yeah,because it won't may listen to your house,
right. I don't have the secondmagnet. Yeah, I have the
other figment. I am I refrigeratorright now. I seem to remember that.
Yeah, I think I gave you. I think I gave you mine.
(14:00):
I was gonna throw him in thetrash, and I said, now
bring him to Jimmy. Oh,I don't remember this. I also forget.
I also forget about magnets. Yeah, May thirty first through June thirtieth,
at the Creation Shop. Okay,so you gotta go to the store
together this time. I guess that'swhere they give out magnets. Now,
(14:20):
you gotta go to the store,and you gotta wait in line to get
it. Correct and there is novirtual queue this time. I want to
Doug Magnet. I'm just gonna throwit out there. I know we've talked
about this. We've had two figments. Now he's still no Doug. Come
on, guys, let's get onedog by the way, by the way
over at Disneyland. You know me, I'm always talking. I'm always talking
(14:41):
about Disneyland. They're getting a Pixarhotel this year. Oh and I was
looking at well, the Disneyland Hotelwas becoming like the Disneyland Pixar Hotel,
okay, which is like one oftheir Marquis hotels on their property. And
I was looking at the concept picturesand I know, concept here's an actual
execution can be two completely different things. There's little bits that you can see
(15:05):
of Doug in the floor, whatlike his silhouette. I'm a book.
I'm going a book now. Theythrow some balloons coming out of the chimney
and forget it. I'm booking aflight to California. I don't know if
you're allowed in California. I don'tknow if you're allowed across state lines.
It might not be allowed in California, right, M'd be correct about that
(15:26):
one. So that is going onover at Disney close to town Universal Studios.
This is the one you guys areexcited about. Our bank accounts are
not excited, but we're excited becausethe thirtieth anniversary Tribute store is about too
open and as of recording, teammembers and select people have been able to
(15:50):
experience it. You get an insiderto give us a report on this.
I got a little bit of one. Got a little bit of one today.
Actually, okay, all right,let's hear it um. So it
is for the movie that came outthirty years ago. It has different photo
ops inside of them, like there'susually like an area like um one tribute
(16:14):
store, it was like Kong likehis hand so he was like holding you
and ah, there's this like giantface. So one of them is from
a very important scene of when acertain lawyer realized he's really got to go
to the bathroom, So to thetoilet. You sit on the toilet and
the t rex is right over yourshoulder. That's fantastic, God bless.
(16:37):
So that is one of them.One of the other ones is when the
raptor pokes his head out at LauraDern at Ellie Sadler when she's flipping the
breakers. Okay, all right,that's a god arm. There no word
on if the arm is there.But also when it comes to this tribute
store, a a friend has madea return to the park. Our good
(17:04):
friend, the Triceratops is right outside. Oh nice, do you get to
listen to its breathing? No?No, it's roped off, so you
can't touch the Triceratops. I'm myguess is this is the Triceratops was that
was in the Triceratops encounter. Okay, well the Triceratops encounter they were animatronics,
(17:26):
so actually could be animatronic. Ican't, I can't tell in picture
picture form. Yeah, I wonder, like because the one from the movie,
they encased it in like a tonof lacquer, and then they gave
it to gig Give Kids the Worldand it was like on their Putt put
call. Of course, I'm wonderingif they just borrowed it back just for
(17:48):
a month or something and then they'lljust bring it right back to the Give
Kids the World. I don't think. It does not look like it's encased
in anything. It looks like it'sopen to elements. So unless they,
you know, cracked that thing openum. But there's a lot of like
behind the scenes props and sculptures fromthe making of Jurassic Park that is inside
(18:11):
the Tribute Store. These guys havereally gone all in on these tribute stores.
I mean, you know, itstarted it out as kind of a
novel, little idea, and it'sreally increased to something, you know,
massive. Um, all right,Dickerman, I know you're gonna ask what
are the molderramas? We have two? I do want to know what those
moldar ramas are because I love thatsmell. All right, I'm gonna guess
ones, t Rex, ones,raptor close on one of them. Do
(18:36):
you want to change your guests?Final answer? T Rex and Brachiosaurus.
One is the raptor claw. Ohthat's cool, and the other is the
gates like the marquis. Yeah.Yeah. How do you man like these
things? Like? How do youjust churn out a moldorm? Like?
(19:00):
I feel like that's I guess youcan use the same one. You just
get new molds inside. Is that? Is that probably what it is?
Basically? Yeah, that's that's That'swhat they do, brilliant. I look
at all of mine every single day. I have so many of them.
It's a license to print money,you know. It is you you put
something new and different in there andpeople will pay for it. The thing
is, I will say this,I love them I will. I will
(19:22):
always buy them if it's from amovie. Uh that I love. The
one problem is they're kind of cumbersometo carry for the rest of the day.
Oh yeah, and if it's reallyhot, I would worry that they
might start to melt a little.And you got like mushy face gay exactly
that is that. I'm right therewith you on that one. Um.
We got some new foods um overat Thunderfalls. We got coconut cohita,
(19:49):
uh, cahita turro. So it'sa turo infused with cal caramel, infused
with coconut flakes and caramel sauce.That sounds great. And then there's raptor
ring Raptor wings char grilled and marinatedwith olive in spices and they are tossed
(20:12):
in sweet chili sauce and served withsides of celauncher rice, black beans in
plantain chips. I guess it's likea sixty seven dollars for six wings because
wings are like outrageously expensive. Nowis that still true? That's still the
case. Yeah, I don't knowif it's still true, because I've been
having wings a lot lately at restaurants. I feel like there I can get
(20:32):
a steak for less so they canget wings. M Yeah, I don't
know. Um. And if you'rewondering about merch, two shirts that I
have seen, one is the hatand glasses of John Hammond that says spared
no expense. And there's another oneof the gates that says all major theme
parks have delays tremendous. So Iam I am right now if I'm mean,
(20:57):
completely honest, trying to decide doI just buy a new annual pass
just so I can go to this? Yeah, I've been considering. I've
been going back and forth between Universaland Sea World the last couple of weeks
and I cannot decide. And youguys know Ellen that deciding neither. But
I'm still trying to think about it. Yeah. Yeah, Like the thing
is this, there could be athere's a certain We've talked about this.
(21:19):
There is a certain level of passthat if you get it, you also
get one night for Horrnits. Yeah, and that is not a bad deal,
not a bad deal. But youknow, there's not a snowball's chance
in hell that I'm getting that pass. But does it still offer free valet
parking? They took that away Ithink it still exists, but not during
(21:41):
horrornits they open, they openly admitthat you cannot use it nights. Yeah
have You've never been able to usethe valet for either Horrornits, and I'm
pretty sure during Mardi Gras concert nightsyou can't either. But I mean that
level pass does get you the priorityparking and get you after four o'clock Express.
(22:03):
That's that's where the money's at,right there. That after four pm
Express is a deal. So ifyou think about it in a way,
you get all of those things,You get the one night of horror Nite,
and then depending on when you goto Horrornite, because it's usually the
first two or three weekends, justbuy the Express and you can knock everything
out. Did that last year.We did every house, every scare zone
before midnight. Wow. Nice.If you plan it right, it can
(22:29):
be done. Yeah. It doestake some special planning, that is for
sure. Special planning and swiping thatcredit card. There you go. I
will just really quickly mentioned that SeaWorld has been just like going crazy with
their deals for passholders. Say aredoing a major push for passholders and they're
offering tons of incentives to once youbecome a passholder. So we've talked about
it before. That is that isthe best value and annual passes around town
(22:52):
for sure. And pipeline is aboutto open fully I believe. Yeah,
people like people have been riding it. The passolders have been. I didn't
like crazy because they did it openup for them. Um, I've been
seeing people talk about it like likequite a bit. It's it's gotten rave
reviews all around. And if Ican give one more bit of merchandise update
over at Universal and maybe this isa thing that pushes Dickerman over the edge.
(23:15):
They've added some more Universal Monsters merchandisein the parks. Ah, I'm
looking at a creature from the BlackLagoon mug. Jimmy, Jimmy, look
out if it's not what if itwas a tiki, you'd I'm looking at
a creature from the Black Lagoon print. I'm looking at a creature from the
(23:36):
Black Lagoon t shirt. And there'sthere's and there's Wolfman stuff as well.
Yeah, is it not Mando tiki? But um gig ti they did a
creature creature from the Black Lagoon tikiand and for Dickerman, uh creature from
the Black Lagoon shot glasses. Thereyou go. Now you're speaking my language.
(23:57):
These are at the All Hallows EveHalloween store over in Well. I
don't really know what area of thepark to cola because it's lost content.
But what does that even mean anymore? Who knows? Who knows? Keep
in time. We'll have a namefor it. It's the in between of
Harry Potter and Susland. There yougo. All right, Well we're just
about out time, so Scott ofpeople want to get all the latest breaking
(24:19):
news. Where can they find it? You can follow us on Twitter at
theme Park Show, Facebook, Instagramand TikTok at the theme Park Podcast,
or watch at themepark YouTube dot com. And the show traditionally comes to you
from the Lauren Campbell Reeltro dot com, Tebow Gazebo Studio Sport. Jimmiedy for
Scott Harris, I am Dickerman.Until next week, we will see you
out at the parks. This hasbeen the Theme Park Podcast. Follow the
(24:42):
show on Facebook and Instagram at thetheme Park Podcast. To catch up on
previous episodes, check out the themeparkpodcast dot com, the iHeartRadio app or Apple Podcasts
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