RIO 1: Theme Park Sickos Riding the Rollercoaster of Enthusiasm

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Tyler and Jess, a married couple with a deep enthusiasm for theme parks, introduce their new podcast about theme park experiences with a focus on Universal Studios Orlando.

This week’s talking points:

• How Jess converted to "the religion of parkism" after marrying theme park enthusiast Tyler
• Navigating Universal Orlando with their toddler daughter who has already visited multiple theme parks
• The benefits of being annual pass holders and developing expertise in maximizing park experiences
• Using child swap on rides to allow both parents to experience attractions without waiting in line twice
• Their passionate opinions on screen-based rides versus practical effects attractions
• Discovering often overlooked attractions like Camp Jurassic and Dreamworks area play spaces
• The importance of appreciating themed environments beyond just the rides
• Planning strategies for their upcoming Easter weekend trip to Universal
• Why Harry Potter areas remain their favorite themed sections, complete with interactive wand experiences
• The surprising discovery that Easter Sunday may be an excellent low-crowd day to visit

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everybody.
It's Tyler.
I know you haven't met me yet,but I just wanted to put a
disclaimer here that this, whatwe're calling Episode Zero, the
podcast, has what's a good wayto put it substandard audio for
what I would want to include inan episode of this show, but
it's the first one.

(00:22):
We were working out some kinksand hopefully moving forward.
We have a better system figuredout, so take that with a grain
of salt, enjoy us talking andthank you so much for checking
this podcast out.
We love you already and I don'teven know you, but I hope to
soon.
Anyway, here's what it is.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
So, for whatever reason, I keep looking back at
our messages to try to remind mewhat the podcast is called,
because I keep doing some otherpark pun, yeah, and what other
ones are you?
Remembering I don't know.
It's write it out.
Yeah, okay, which is great,tentatively, no, I love ride it

(01:07):
out.
I just keep wanting to do likeride or die just ride with it oh
no I mean ride with me is alsofun ride with me.
I keep saying, for some reason,no, I I like because I know I
don't.
I don't know that's where myframe is going.
I like, write it Out.

(01:27):
I liked the other thing youjust said, though.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Ride.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
With.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Me Ride no.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Ride or Die, ride or Die.
Hey, welcome to Ride it Out.

(01:53):
I'm Jess, I'm Jess.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Fuck, I got it like that.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Other options.
That one's, tyler.
This is Jess.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
No, that one's already taken.
All the other cool jesses arealready out there.
Everybody has already done allthe funny, cool things who's
that girl?
It's just dang it no I'm tylerand I'm jess and we're married
Correct, and we are alsoenormous theme park enthusiasts

(02:28):
and really I am an enormoustheme park enthusiast who has
converted my wife into my ownwife.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yes, upon our marriage, I converted to the
religion of theme park ology.
No.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Ism.
Yeah yeah, parkism we can makeit a science.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
That's fine.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
That does sound like a disease, unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
No, it's kind of fun that we did the twist of being
converted, because actually ournext upcoming trip to a theme
park will take place over Easterweekend and I have been telling
everyone that that's our placeof worship it really does feel
like that to me now, at thispoint in my life.
You have such a reverence fortheme parks, so I feel like

(03:15):
that's a good way to describe it.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Theme parks, and so the the main focus, I think, of
this show is largely going to beUniversal Studios Orlando.
That's the one that is closestto us, like the closest big
major park, right, wait, yeah,orlando's closer than Tampa,
right?

Speaker 2 (03:36):
I mean you know.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Six of one, half a dozen of either Right.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yes, so it's probably the closest big one, right?
Yes, so it's probably theclosest big one.
There's a Six Flags in Georgia,right?
Is that closer to us?
Okay, no, orlando's closer,we're in.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Tallahassee for context.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yes and yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
So basically it's oh and we're pass holders for
Universal this year.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
This is a very new thing for us, though.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
So that's mostly why we'll be doing that a lot more,
and also for context.
We have a child, so if thattells you anything, we don't
have infinite amount of money togo to a wide variety of theme
parks, or time or travel staminago to a wide variety of theme
parks, or time or travel stamina.
So we will be talking about theone, maybe two that we will go,

(04:29):
although I will say our childis less than two years old and
she has been to three themeparks.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
Maybe even more than that.
She's been to Universal Studiosyeah.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
If you want to count Islands of Adventure, that's a
separate park.
It's one package deal Universal.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Orlando Resort, that's fine.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
She's been to both of those in Orlando.
She has been to Bush Gardenswith us.
She's been to our other kind ofwhat I would almost consider a
home park for me, which is WildAdventures, up in Valdosta,
georgia.
And is there anything?
Am I forgetting anything?
That's all that.
I consider a home park for me,which is wild adventures, yeah,
up in valdosta, georgia, and isthere anything?
Am I forgetting anything?

Speaker 2 (05:07):
that's all that I remember she has not been to
disney.
We were talking about doingthat for her second birthday,
but we're gonna push that backum a year because disney is
prohibitively expensive andprohibitively complicated, and
yes, and we're Floridian, so weget like discounts and stuff,

(05:28):
you know, and it's still likemore complicated than it needs
to be and that's not like toknock Disney I mean I've been to
Disney.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
It's great but kind of the strange thing is, I've
probably been to UniversalStudios.
We're gonna just say UniversalStudios.
We mean Orlando.
I would love to go to UniversalHollywood one day, but for a
lot of reasons we're going tojust say Universal Studios.
We mean Orlando.
I would love to go to UniversalHollywood one day, but for a
lot of reasons that we'redefinitely going to get into at
some point.
It is the lesser UniversalStudios to me even than some of
the international ones and I'venever been to any of those

(05:58):
either.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Well, yeah, yeah, I mean that would be really super
cool, but, um, but yeah, I meanit's, it's the original, but LA
being so restricted in terms oftheir physical space, um, they
just can't.
They can't do as much asUniversal Orlando.
And, like, I also think we'reprobably biased, because

(06:20):
Universal Orlando we we've beento several times times.
Um, you and I had both beenseveral times before we got
married, but I think, since,since we moved back to florida
in 2021, I mean we've beenseveral times yeah to um

(06:42):
universal orlando and like wehaven't even been to that many
other like theme parks, like ingeneral, like, like I said, we
went to um.
I know you mentioned bushgardens yeah, bush gardens yeah
why am I head?
I was.
I was thinking something else.
No, we just went to bushgardens and wild adventures.
I think that's the only themeparks we've been to um, I've

(07:03):
been to some others, but it waslike a long time ago no, no, I
meant like, oh, you mean liketogether in recent years, but
like last year, you went touniversal three or four times,
maybe it might have even beenfive yeah, it's quite a lot yeah
, and we've been.
We've been maybe at least oncea year since 2021.

(07:24):
So, besides wild adventuresbecause that's a, it's a
smaller- it's a smaller familypark, it's, it's easier to
memorize.
But universal orlando we've beento the most, so I feel like now
we're super familiar, like wejust went with one of my
brothers um what?
In january, and like we werelike much fun it was.

(07:45):
It was a great time.
But like I felt like we werepros, because they were like oh
okay, so this ride is here, wegot to go here and this is it.
We can do this route or we cando this route, like we we've got
the whole area like mapped outand feel really confident,
because I think that can be oneof the things that's like
intimidating about a theme park.
Is that a little bit like acruise ship, like you know that

(08:07):
there's fun stuff out there, butyou don't know how to get there
and you waste a lot of timewaiting in lines.
And so I think we can be reallylike efficient and think about,
like you know, okay, we onlyhave a little bit of time left.
How do we, how do we get themost out of it?

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah, and even familiar enough to the point of
now, we will, depending on thetime of day, we can look at wait
times for a thing and look atthe general crowd levels and at
a glance just be like, well,that's not worth it, don't even
bother with that one.
And then also this one is amust-do.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
so no matter what the wait time is, you know, go
ahead and get on it, make yourplans although we have different
, I think, opinions about waittimes, because I think well, no,
I think you get you get alittle because we've been so
much, I think we we get spoiledand are like, well, I'm not

(09:08):
going to wait in line.
And I think another thing is,uh, also that restricts us from
waiting in line.
Usually, when it's just the twoof us going um and our daughter
um, one of us will walk aroundwith her and the other one will
do single rider Um, which, bythe way, split the party.
Do it, like you, when you guysare on the ride with the people

(09:33):
you're going to a theme parkwith, you're not talking while
you're on a ride.
You can all talk about theshared experience after you get
off.
Split the party, do singleriders so that you don't spend
your whole day in line becausenow you and I, like you know
we'll, we'll, we'll look at like, oh, mommy, 25 minutes, that's
a walk on for single rider.
Get in that line right now.
And so, because we've had somany experiences like that that

(09:57):
like, for example, when we wentwith Mike in January, he really
wanted to get on um theGringotts ride, um.
I feel like I should calleverything by its real name
instead of like can I tell younobody, because I'm like what is
it?
Escape to gringotts, escapefrom gringotts, oh yeah yeah I
mean that makes sense.
They're trapped in it, they'retrying to get out.
I understand the premise ofthat also.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
That's.
This is another real thing.
Sorry for the tangent.
Some of the rides at universalstudios are named so insanely.
The full name of the hagridride is hagrid's magical
creatures motorbike adventurethat's so bananas that is like
27 syllables let's get in linefor hagrid's magical creature

(10:41):
motorbike adventure.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
I don't think a single person has ever said its
full name ever.
It's like Hagrid.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
It's like how people just say you know, get on
Hogwarts.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
They would say the Harry Potter and the Forbidden
Journey.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
I don't think anyone calls it Forbidden Journey.
They're like get in the castle,you know, whatever, yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
So, anyway, what were we saying right before that?
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
See just the thing about having this be a
conversational uncharted formatis that we go on a little
tangent.
So we were with Mike at GreenGots.
Yes, this is fortunately my dayjob is a therapist, and so I
literally get paid to get peopleto circle back in on tangents.

(11:25):
Thank you for your service.
So, forbidden Journey.
No, green Gots.
Green Gots back in on tangents.
Thank you for your service.
So, uh, forbidden journey.
No, green guts, green guts.
Mike really wanted to do itbecause he had never done it
before.
Big, big, big harry potter fan.
And we were walking arounddiagonally and we see that it's
55 minutes and I was like, ohyeah, we should go do it and you
were like, no, no, no, no, no,that's too long, not worth it.

(11:46):
Blah, blah, blah, and likemaybe for you and I, we probably
wouldn't wait in Gringottsbecause we've done it before
it's.
I love the experience of beingin Gringotts, but the actual
ride, like the screens, I get alittle sick.
So you know it's not perfect.
Yes, screens, I get a littlesick, so you know it's not
perfect.
Yes, I don't know that I wouldnecessarily like, oh, every time

(12:07):
it's worth waiting a 55 minutewait.
But if that's your one bigthing, like he hadn't he of
course wanted to spend as muchtime.
And and again, I'm gonna callit harry potter world.
I don't care what it's called,I'm gonna go the wizarding world
of harry potter yeah, no, um sowe.
So we left, we did other thingsand then circled back and it's
up to 85 minutes.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
You know, and then I can't remember what it was when
we actually went in, but I thinkit finally went down to maybe
like 65 or something.
We're like okay, we just got todo this thing, yeah.
So I think at a certain pointyou have to like theme parks
involve waiting, they do Let ithappen, there's no way around it
, even with Express Passes.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
Yes, on a busy day, and Express Passes are pretty
pricey, yeah, and the morepeople that are there, obviously
the more the demand is, themore expensive that they are.
You know like you can paymultiple hundreds of dollars for
a single, not unlimited,Express Pass.
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
And I have had Express before I'm pretty sure,
yeah, and it's nice, butcertainly not worth it and I
think if you're going to theparks for multiple days, you
definitely don't need it.
Yeah, I think we should have.
Like I realize, as we'retalking, you know there's a lot

(13:28):
of like little tidbits we've got.
So, it'd be fun to organizethat in some fashion at some
point, yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
I can go back through and collect those.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Well, I just mean for maybe future episodes.
So we don't really have a planfor like what this is going to
look like in the future.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
But, we're just here to talk about theme parks
because we want to and it's funyeah, and if you're here and you
are listening to this, thenyou're probably down for a hang
yeah, we're just here to hangyeah, and you're probably a
theme park enthusiast.
Yeah, or.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Or my mom, Hi Mom.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
Yeah, but Jess and I approach theme parks.
Even though we both love goingto Universal together, we
approach it in slightlydifferent ways, or at least we
come to it in different ways.
Jess loves learning about theparks when I tell her things

(14:31):
about the parks, but theopposite end of that is I listen
to another.
I listen to like every themepark podcast basically, but one
in particular is for youramusement and it's great.
Don't tell the people to listento all these other podcasts
besides us.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
They're like great, turn it off.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
They've heard of that one before.
They've heard of this one, forsure.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Well, obviously, Except for my mom.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
They like to call themselves theme park sickos
Because and I fully identifywith that I immerse myself in
the world of theme parkknowledge.
I love learning about all thelittle secret details of things.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
That's just your approach to everything.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
I am an enthusiast.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
You are likely neurodivergent.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Yeah, isn't that fun.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
Which is also a fun uh um focus.
Yes, you're an enthusiast andlike when you get excited about
something, you're all in.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
And so it's just more fun to be that way.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Well, yes, it's a.
It's a great way to live life.
I enjoy writing the rollercocoaster of your enthusiasm.
Aw, cute that was a really cuteturn of phrase.
Thank you.
No, I think like so everybodygoes through phases of interest

(15:57):
in their life, like I was ahorse girl.
You know everyone has a horsegirl phase.
I feel like I mean the luckyones, I suppose.
But but like for kids, likethere is a time in your life
where you're really into themeparks and I feel like a lot of

(16:17):
our close friends have phasedout of that enthusiasm so you
don't have as many people to,like you know, ride that high
with you about it.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, so I had to force you to.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah, but I'm fully converted now.
I love it.
Um no, I, you, you help meenjoy and appreciate better
because, like you notice, likeall the little Easter eggs and
the details and like like thetheming beyond, like I think a
lot of people who look at themeparks are just like oh, I want

(16:52):
to get on the biggest rollercoaster ever.
Ah, it's a roller coaster, youknow.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
whereas you're like Biggest, fastest, yeah, whatever
.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah, whereas you're like oh, do you notice how, like
as you walk past this place,they waft this scent out?
You know and like you notice,like those little details which
I think make it fun, like thesuperhero island in Universal,
how you're like, oh, that's thisguy's signature on all the
comics you know.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah, and, like you know, just the hidden lore that
surrounds you in the mundanestuff, yeah, that is what.
Ultimately.
I think that is what makestheme parks, and really more
specifically Universal Orlando,one of my favorite places to be

(17:40):
in the world.
In the world Not just like oneof my favorite places to
vacation, not like one of myfavorite places to go on rides
or whatever, but like just toexist there, Because if you have
your eyes open for that stuff,it rewards you for paying
attention in that way, yeah,which is why your favorite area

(18:06):
of Universal Orlando is Port ofEntry.
Port of Entry at Islands ofAdventure is the best so far.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
Oh, we haven't talked about Epic yet.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Epic is opening soon We'll get into Epic, maybe here
in a minute.
Port of Entry at Islands ofAdventure is probably the best
entrance to a theme park thatmaybe that exists.
Certainly that I've been to andcertainly that I have been to a
hundred thousand times and Istill, every time I walk in,

(18:38):
jess can tell you I like my eyesare straight.
You know most people are likebeelining for the end to like
veer off into Seuss land orMarvel, but my head is up and
I'm just looking around up atthe heights of the buildings and
the fountains and hearing allthe incredible score in these

(18:59):
theme parks, like the soundtrackthat put—I guess it's a
soundtrack, no, I don't know,whatever you want to call it.
The ambient music and thesounds that they play are so, so
good.
They could get away withplaying pop songs, I think.
Wouldn't that suck, though?
It would suck so bad,especially compared to knowing

(19:21):
how good the music is no, theywouldn.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
They wouldn't want like the licensing for pop songs
, so they would be like Kidz.
Bop or something.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
Oh my gosh.
Or like the Simlish versions.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
They would all be so funny though.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
That sounds like something they would do in like
a Planet Coaster game orsomething maybe.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Or like if Meow Wolf did a theme park.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
Oh, don't get me started on Meow Wolf that's
another thing that we willdefinitely get into at a later
time is like we just love goingto themed experiences in general
.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
We love travel and just exploring.
We just like doing stuff.
We do thing.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
I don't know.
I guess that's kind of anoverview.
Did we hit?
Are we missing anything elseabout like why we're doing this?

Speaker 2 (20:16):
Uh, I like sharing.
I like sharing this with theworld.
Yeah, yeah, I think we we havea lot of.
We have a lot of like yourexperiences, your insights, and
like I think you like the ideaof having like a dedicated time
to talk about this.
I do, and like we've talkedabout doing like lots of

(20:38):
different podcasts, so I thinkthere is just something about
like having a dedicated time totalk about a shared interest,
but this is one that, like weboth got kind of jazzed about
and like didn't require eitherof us to be like experts, which
was nice, yeah, you know, so itcan just be fun.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
We are for sure not experts.
We've put in a lot of hours ofpractice of just going to the
parks, but oh, I was like oftalking.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
I talk so much.
No, you're a complete expert attalking.
Yeah, thank you I don't talkvery well.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
It's maybe not true.
I talk a lot mostly to myself.
Uh, yeah, so I don't know.
We're just going on a journeytogether and hopefully you come
along with us and enjoy.
I will have.
I'm eventually going to set upsome way for people, for
listeners you specificallylistening now.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Oh, I thought you meant me.
I'm looking at Jess, but I'mthinking of you Wow.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
You heard it here first, so not I couldn't resist

(22:10):
no-transcript up other thingswhen I'm on there.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
I don't know, maybe I can handle the yeah, social
media, we will just have avoicemail.
That's so funny.
No, no one would talk to us.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Text line Dude.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
people leave voicemails for shows all the
time, but not the youths.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
I don't know.
They certainly are not emailing.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
Well, email better than voicemail.
Now I can attest that, if I try, I work with college students.
If I try to call them, they donot answer.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Talking on the phone is scary.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
Well, I don't answer phone calls.
I don't know, so I can't blamethem.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
I barely answer phone calls, right, yeah, yeah,
everybody I need to talk to isright here.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yeah, so we're just here to chat about theme parks,
and if it's fun to listen tosome people giddily ramble on
about theme parks, then you'rein the right spot.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
It's a great thing to listen to, as you're driving to
the parks and you've got hoursto kill in the car and you're
like you know just set the mood.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
Well, hopefully, by the time you're hearing this,
you'll just be able to roll themback to back to back all the
way there.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
You know what I?

Speaker 2 (23:28):
mean yeah, yeah, however many hours and hours it
takes you to drive.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
Yeah, or fly, or whatever you're doing.
Look, we don't judge, whereveryou are out there in this great,
big, beautiful, crazy mixed-upworld we call not universal.
Great big, beautiful, crazymixed-up world, we call, not
Universal.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
However, your journey takes you.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
We're glad you're here.
Welcome.
Welcome and thank you forflying Delta.
Strike that from the record wedon't have the money to hey.
Bleep that.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
This is me talking to me.
Anyway, shall we talk aboutwhat we had initially maybe
talked about planning?
We are going on a trip toUniversal.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Very soon.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yes, so we are recording this end of March.
We are going, like I mentioned,easter weekend, which is
mid-April, so a few weeks fromnow.
Not bad, getting better everyday.
Yeah, yeah, getting closerevery day just a little bit
closer.
Um, yeah, so uh, and, like Imentioned, we are pass holders

(24:37):
now.
So, um, we went together injanuary.
You went by yourself last month, I did, and was that just a day
one?

Speaker 1 (24:49):
No, that was an overnight one, I believe.
Right, I don't know, I'mgetting this mixed up.
So I took my first intentionalsolo trip to Universal sometime
towards the end of last year Ithink, and that was just a day
trip I was.
This truly is illustrative ofhow much of a theme park sicko I

(25:12):
am.
I got up.
I don't remember when thiswould have happened, but you had
the baby, yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
I was at the beach with Jen.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
You were, yes, you were at the beach, and so I was
going to be home by myself, andwhat I did was I got up at like
5 am or something.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
And I got on the road to Orlando, which is about a
three and a half to four hourdrive ish, and I spent the
entire day at the parks, theentire day at the parks.
I didn't quite close down, Ithink I was there until like 45
minutes before park close andthen I drove right back.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
And I got in.
I got in before midnight.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
Yeah, I think you got in around like 11 maybe.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
Yeah, so anyway, that's the kind of thing that I
do, but I think that's cool, isthat something?
That you can ever see yourselfdoing Sure, yeah, yeah, you
would do that, yeah, by yourself.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
By myself?
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
I don't know, maybe.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
Some of us have it.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, I don't know, maybe, but yeah it's.
I think it's really cool thatyou did that, that you like
you're willing to make that tripand also that you can just like
enjoy being there by yourself.
I think that is such a uniquequality to be comfortable in

(26:45):
your own company and like doingyour own thing.
I'm an extrovert so I'd be likeI need to talk to someone but
like you're so fun becauseyou'll just like talk to random
people like I will strike upconversations, so funny though
it's gotta be in that type ofsituation where I'm in an
extremely familiar, comfortableenvironment.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah, jess is an extrovert, I am an introvert
you're an ambivert, I don't evenknow if I would say ambivert,
because I don't do them bothequally.
I don't think, you know, Ireally get my energy from being
alone, uh, allowing myself tojust do my own thing in quiet
time and relax.

(27:27):
But I have these little momentsof extroversion like bursts.
I've done a bunch ofperformative things over the
years.
I've played music, I've been inthe theater quite a bit, and so
I don't know I can turn it on,but then I have to turn it off

(27:49):
and let it chill.
Yeah, your battery can blast andthen it needs time to recharge
which is why it really is funnyto me that when I go to the
parks by myself, I can do thatlike I can just talk to a
stranger, and I wonder if partof it is like the anonymity,
like I'm never going to seethese people again.

(28:11):
So I'm, when I sit down next tothem on the mummy and I'm like
hey, is this your first timewriting this?
If they're like no, then I'mlike okay, yeah.
But if they're, if they're likeyes, like, and like look
excited to talk about it, thenI'll talk to them about it.
Yeah, but you know I don't doannoying garbage like oh, look,

(28:32):
in this one part that's comingup Like because that's dumb.
But I did have somebody ask meon that trip.
I think, if I'm rememberingthis correctly, it might have
been a different one, but I hadsomebody ask me when we got on
the mummy and do you rememberwhat the restraint is like for
the mummy?

Speaker 2 (28:49):
Not really.
Is it like a lap bar?

Speaker 1 (28:51):
It's a lap bar, okay.
They turned to me and they gohave you ridden this before?
And I was like yeah, but theylooked like very panicked and
they said Does this go upsidedown?
And I was like does this looklike the equipment that you
would need?
But people aren't thinking that.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Velocicoaster doesn't look like you, should be able
to go upside down in that.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yes, that is a really fun example of man we should do
Tyler, me later editing this.
Make a note to do an episodetopic about ride restraints,
because there's so manydifferent kinds and they all do
different fun stuff.
Make a note to do like anepisode topic about ride
restraints.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Because there's so many different kinds and they
all do different fun stuff.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
I'll get it later, it's okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,
anyway.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
I like talking to people in theme parks.
I'm passionate, I'm a dork, buta lovable dork I hope.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yeah, but I think you can make a solo trip fun by
yourself, whereas like not thatI can't tolerate being by myself
, but I just have so much morefun with other people Like going
with you would be way more funthan going just by myself.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
Yeah, well, it's definitely more fun for me to go
with you.
But when you go to a theme parkby yourself, you get to do what
you want.
You're not bitten by, like thedesign, like you know, everybody
having different preferencesfor things, feeling bad when you
like want to go do somethingand somebody's like I guess I'll

(30:16):
go because like that's not afun, totally yeah I think that's
a um attitude that I don'treally get to have, because I
grew up in a big family and soI've never had the I get to do
whatever I want.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
So, like I remember last year I had I had a Monday
off work and I was like, oh, Ithink I'm going to like take my
dog to the beach.
And then I'm like, oh, ok, okay.
Like what do I do on the beach?
And like where do I eat lunch?
and I was like this is so weird,just thinking about what I want
to do and like entertainingmyself, because, like I've
always lived with roommates,I've always had, you know, I've

(30:55):
been married, so like that's notlike a thing I do is just like,
oh, what do I just me want todo today?
Like it's just weird, so, um,so, yeah, I think, uh, I would,
I think it would be like almostlike a weird challenge for me to
be at a theme park by myself,so maybe it's something I should
do I think that is a hundredpercent.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
A goal that we should set is like planning a
dedicated time for you to haveyour own solo universal
adventure.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
But here's the thing that would mean what you could
go, but you're not, I know, canyou?

Speaker 1 (31:29):
imagine it would have to be some time where I
literally couldn't.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
Oh, you know what?
Well, I get Mondays off thiscoming summer, whoa, and it's
hot, so you're not going to wantto go, yeah, so I don't know,
maybe I'll just take myself to adeeper, that's good.
Stay tuned, listeners Maybe.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
When the daughter is in daycare and mommy doesn't
work.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
Oh, I was going to be like, oh, I could take her, but
yeah, of course I should gowithout the baby so I can
actually do stuff.
Yeah, don't take the baby, butI love her.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
I know you would never be able to do anything.
I know you wouldn't even beable to sit down to eat no, but
we'd have fun.
She's a little too young tolike fully enjoy the process,
but she's really good at themeparks.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
She's so great.
Yeah, she like, yeah.
So, like I said, we've takenher to three different theme
parks and she's probably been toa theme park like five times
yeah because she's been to.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
She's been to universal at least twice now yep
, she's been to wild adventurestwo or three times at least, and
then bush gardens once, right,right, so so she gets it.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
Um, we're still working on a lot of things with
her, like we haven't like heldher in a long line.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
Yeah, we typically sit still, we typically just
trade off, yeah.
And so, to bring this all theway back to planning for this
trip that we're about to take,and that, what is that?
Two, two weeks, two, or threeyeah something like that.
Um, when we go on this trip, oneof our goals is to try because
we've done it like one othertime before, when we went with

(33:06):
friends once is doing child swap.
Yes, on rides, and if you'renot familiar or if you don't
have a child, or whatever, youdon't have to have a child to do
this.
By the way, what yeah, like youknow, it doesn't have to be
like a baby is what I'm sayingoh okay, I was like, because I'm
baby, because I'm baby, I'mbaby, swap me.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
Well, what if you had somebody in your party who's
like, oh, I can't do this ride,I'm so scared.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
Could you go and child swap and be like?

Speaker 2 (33:34):
I'm just going to sit here.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
I'm pretty sure you can, but the other thing that
you can do is you can walk allthe way through the queue of a
ride with your group of people.
Yes and then just stand off tothe side.
Well, yeah, and whoever doesn'twant to do it, you just hop off
.
Right, you know Right.
So that's no big deal.
But yeah, child swap is a greatfeature for people who do have

(33:57):
children, and if you didn't?

Speaker 2 (34:04):
know about it.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
I think every major ride has child swap now, if I'm
not mistaken.
Uh, I don't know, I'm prettysure.
Yeah, I'll verify this laterand then tyler from the future
will cut in.
Uh, if I'm wrong about thatright here, hello, future tyler
here.
Uh, I was just letting you knowthat I checked and of the 28
rides actual rides that I couldfind in the Universal app,

(34:28):
including stuff from EpicUniverse, there were no rides
that did not have child swap.
So that's great, good optionfor you All.
Right Back to the show.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
I think it depends on your definition of major ride.
But yeah, that's true, okay, alot of them have.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
But yeah, that's true .
Okay, A lot of them have it.
A lot of them do.
Most of the thrill attractionshave child swap.
I'll say that.
So, yeah, it's just like thisside room near, kind of, where
the rides load, where if youhave a party full of people and
a child, one person you knowwhoever can go, take the child

(35:03):
into the room and just wait andhang out.
A lot of the times they havelike something to do, Like
they've got a movie playing orSometimes they're not like super
interesting Sometimes it's justa room, Like it's just a
holding area, but, like Hagrid,like they're just playing Harry
Potter movies.
Yeah, so it's a chill.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Yeah, but this is for any child that's not big enough
to ride the ride.
So like, obviously if a childcan get on the ride, like just
ride with your kid, but like, ifyou have a child in your party
that can't do that ride, theycan still be with you.
Um, the one caveat that hasprohibited us from doing this in
the past is you can't bring astroller in line.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
So this is a.
This is a big thing, and notthat I would want to be able to
necessarily, because I feel likeif the whole line was clogged
up with strollers that's true,that would be really frustrating
, I get it, it's just from a.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
If you could design a theme park around the needs of
parents.
So I don't know, maybe Disneydoes this, but imagine if
Hagrid's two hours and I'm likegreat, my child needs a two-hour
nap, fall asleep in thestroller.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Yeah, be chill, we can just hang out you know, or
like you know, I'm not going tolug in all this.
You know, part of the reason tohave a stroller when you're
traveling is to carry a baby in.
No, I'm not going to lug in allthis.
You know, part of the reason tohave a stroller when you're
traveling is to carry a baby in.
No, I'm kidding.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Obviously, that's what you do.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
But the other part of the reason is you're carrying a
bunch of shit and like throw itin the stroller.
Yeah, in the bottom of thestroller.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
Yeah.
The stroller is like women'slarge purse you know yes.
Like it starts out with all thethings you actually need and
then it just becomes thisbottomless pit of like anything.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
Despair.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
I don't know if it's that deep, but Maybe not.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah, maybe your bottomless pit purse is a happy
one.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
Yeah, Filled with happy things, happy pits, happy
pits.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
I don't like that.
No, yeah, oh okay.
We never finished explainingwhat Child's Pop was.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Damn I think that's unfortunately the format.
I'm here for it.
This is the wildest ride, Fullof twists and turns, and we
don't even know where it's goingto land.
So this is a little too chaoticand I think anyone listening to
this would be like y'all needto finish a thought before you
move on to another thought.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
See, and I'm over here thinking, anybody who's
stuck around this long is mypeople.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
That's true.
Yeah, that's true.
I'm sure most people turned offafter two minutes.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
Probably.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yeah, but child swap.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
Yeah, so anyway, what happens is you take the child
into the room.
Someone waits with them, thenthe rest of your party can ride
the ride, and when they get offthe ride, they can come to the
room and swap.
You don't swap the child, youswap the parent.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
Yes, the guardian, the child stays.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Other people in the party can go through, but and.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
Oh, and then immediately get on the ride and
immediately get on.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
Yes, you don't have to get in line again.
You've already done the linealtogether once, so you can just
cut right back.
For people who don't havechildren if you are friends with
people who do, or a family, alot of people actually like
child swap because from myunderstanding, it's not just the
one person that waited with thechild that gets to go on the
ride now it's anybody in yourparty.

(38:29):
So, like if you are singlechildless and you want to go
with some of your friends thathave kids, like they might only
get on the ride once, but youcould get on the ride like two
or three times, depending on howmany people are staying with
the kid.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
I hadn't really thought about that.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
Yeah, that's from what that's.
What I've heard is that they'renot counting who has gone and
be like, oh okay, the one personwho stayed.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
So if you got like a bunch of people, you could
probably like pull a multi ridething.
You could do multi.
Yes, that's fun.
Yes.
A couple of multi-ride things.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
You could do multi, yes.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
That's fun.
Did you hear this from aco-worker?

Speaker 2 (39:04):
I heard this from my co-worker, Kelly, who is a big
theme park enthusiast.
She's really into it.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Is that Kelly?

Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yeah, she's really into Universal and Disney stuff.
Oh yeah, I trust.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
That's a hot tip.
Yes, that's a hot tip.
Be careful how you, why you useit.
Don't get burned.
Ooh, is that anything?

Speaker 2 (39:23):
I don't.
I think it's too early forcatchphrases Dang.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
Okay, we'll work on that.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
It kind of has to happen organically.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Yeah, so that's a goal for this trip Is doing more
child swap, utilize more childswap.
Because we have not done thiswhen we travel together?

Speaker 2 (39:38):
really, I think that Autumn can well, when she can
walk.
Yeah, I think we have more.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
That's huge, so huge for a theme park.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
She's starting to, as you like to say, she's starting
to come online a little bitmore so that we can like kind of
talk with her and interact andlike distract her and do
activities.
She just likes looking at stuff.
I think we can engage her alittle bit more so it's not just
we're sitting, still I'm bored,I need to move, um, so we're

(40:11):
gonna try it.
I don't know, we'll see whathappens.
Um, you know, you and I havenot been able to ride rides
together in a long time becausewe've either had the child or
I've been pregnant.
Um, so, yeah, and you know, Ithink, even if we have other

(40:31):
people going with us, I wouldfeel too bad being like hi,
watch my toddler while I'm stuckin a ride for 45 minutes and
hopefully she's fine.
Yeah, usually she is, but Idon't know Bye.
So yeah, I mean, you and Ihaven't like ridden a ride
together, probably since it's atleast been since you got
pregnant, right.

(40:51):
Yeah, I was going to say so,maybe like 2021, 22.
Yeah, yeah, I think we went inMay 22.
So that was probably it.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
That's so long.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
I know, isn't that crazy.
I have not realized that.
Yeah, yeah, I hadn't like putit in those words like that.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
But yeah, um man, so we should do it with the
exception, I can think of anotable exception yes the first
ride that we, the first themepark ride we ever did with our
daughter as a family, as a as afamily, all three of us together
.
It was such an exciting.
We literally treated it like itwas her getting her first
soccer trophy or something.
It was a milestone it was.

(41:31):
We made a really big deal outof it.
That was fun.
I did a bunch of research onheight restrictions and stuff,
trying to figure out anythingthat we could all do together,
and the one thing that Ireliably could tell that was
going to be okay for all of uswas she was six or eight months
at the time.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
For context.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
Yeah, she very little .
Yeah, but we did Carousel,which is the carousel in the
Seuss land area of Islands ofAdventure.
Why did it take me so long toput that together?

Speaker 2 (42:04):
I know You're painting the scene.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
You're bringing us there.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
I'm there now.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
But it's a very cute carousel If you've never ridden
it.
I've had a much greaterappreciation, now that we have
these annual passes for thefirst time, of doing a bunch of
rides that I have never bothereddoing before in the parks, so
that was never one that I everdid, right right, but you
probably wouldn't do it unlessyou had a child.

(42:32):
Probably that's the thing now,now that I go a lot more often,
and there's stuff that I amstill finding that I have never
touched before.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yeah, which is exciting for you, I would do.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
Karasu Cell by myself .

Speaker 2 (42:46):
And it's always like a five or ten minute wait.
So why not?

Speaker 1 (42:50):
It is so in the last trip that we took, I also, for
the first time ever, rode, Iroared, roared For the first
time in my life, and it felt soliberating.
I rode Stormforce Accelotron,which is like their version of
the teacup thing.

(43:10):
Okay, yeah, it's right next toHulk.
Yeah, the wait time I havenever seen it higher than five
minutes.
One of the trips before this Ialso did another flat ride.
What was it?
Oh, flat ride the Simpson oneFlat ride is like a fair ride
kind of thing.

(43:30):
You can think about it as no,not Simpson.
Oh yeah, no, it was in.
Yeah, you're right, it was inSpringfield in Universal Studios
proper, and it's called Kangand Kodo's Twirl and Hurl.
I cannot believe you know thatname, I don't even know.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
And it's called Kang and Kodo's Twirl and Hurl.
I cannot believe you know thatname.
I don't even know.
So I guess I don't know thatmuch Simpsons, because I'm like
I don't even know who those guysare.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yeah, they're aliens, okay, and yeah, I mean, and the
ride has a really funny premiseand funny writing on the ride.
You wouldn't think of a flatride, something that essentially
just spins, would have anywriting.
But they have these reallyfunny voice lines that come over
that like feed into thisnarrative of them having a

(44:13):
thrill ride.
That's like really trying tolike, you know, suck all of the
I don't know like brain juice orwhatever they're trying to get
at.
But they have these funnylittle quips where they, you
know, say oh, nothing to beafraid of or whatever.
All the signage is really funny.
So I would encourage anybody.
If there are things that younormally do at these parks and

(44:36):
you have the time and you're notlike working on a crazy time
crunch, allow yourself to justkind of walk around and get into
some stuff that you don't everdo.
Like you know, go walk to thepretty viewing areas or, um, are
there any of those types ofthings that you have never done?
That would be maybe fun for youto do as a goal for this next

(44:59):
trip.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
So far, we have child swap we were talking about how
Autumn's been able to do a lotmore.
She's been really going hardfor Playgrounds lately and just
getting super jazzed aboutslides and swings and all.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
This has been just in really the last few months.
I feel like she.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Like she's liked them and she's gotten them, but she
can do so much more now she canclimb.
She can run she really wants tobe on playgrounds, not just
like we take her to one.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
She gets on slides and stuff.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
So there's so many fun play areas in Universal that
we've introduced her to, but Ithink she's going to get a lot
more out of it this time.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
That's really exciting.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
Camp Jurassic.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
think she's gonna get a lot more out of it this time,
so like that's really exciting.
Camp jurassic camp jurassic isone of the best kids play areas,
not just in theme parks likekind of anywhere I don't think
you need to just be a kid either.
Like it's interesting, it'scool, yeah, yeah there's all
kinds of fun little nooks andcrannies to get into the cave
areas just really yes if, yeah,yeah, look up camp jurassic, uh

(46:04):
and see if, see, if you can.
I challenge anybody listeningbecause we've done this several
times to find the caves.
Yeah, hard to get to say ittook.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
It took us a while.
Um yeah, so going on CampJurassic, uh, dreamworks is like
a new area of studios.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
That is super cool.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
We had fun introducing it to Autumn last
time, but I think she's going toget jazzed a lot more because
there's a whole Shrek swamp areathat has several slides.
She was kind of into it lasttime I took her, but I think
she's going to be like oh yeah,and there's like the Kung Fu
Panda area where they've gotlike little spinny things that
are fun.
Yeah, you know it's, it's, it'sa cool vibe, so so that's going

(46:49):
to be great, and I think herfirst roller coaster ever might
eventually be, once she's tallenough, maybe got to grow.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
Uh, is probably going to be troller coaster.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
Yeah, yeah, that one looks fun, um um there's other
fun thing.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
I've ridden that roller coaster really, but yeah,
because it used to be woodywoodpecker's nut house coaster
oh, it's just, it's the same,it's the same track, but
different theming.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
That's so funny.
Um, yeah, so I.
Um.
You were talking a lot on yourlast solo trip.
You did Kong and you weretalking a lot about it, oh man.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
So I'm a very recent Kong convert.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
Kongvert.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
I can't believe I fucking missed that.
I'm so mad that was my pun.
Yeah, oh my gosh.
Something you're going to findout Sooner or later.
And I might as well just saythis now I don't think this is a
controversial topic or opinionto have I hate.
For a long time I have hatedscreen rides.

(47:53):
Uh-huh, it is.
Nobody from Universal is evergoing to listen to this.
I don't like to insult people.
It is the laziest cash grab ofa thing to do to build a new
ride.
That is a theater where youjust watch a short film.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
It, just it takes.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
That's not a ride.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
Well, it takes away from the spirit of, like you're
going there to ride the movies,which is to have a different
experience than watching themovie.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
Yeah.
And so if I go there and I'mjust kind of watching a movie,
like I could have done that athome, yeah, or I could pay $20
to go to the movie theaterthat's down the street from our
house and my chair moves alittle bit.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
With the screen, yeah , and that's like essentially
the same experience you'regetting.
Right, it's maybe without the3d, but the 3d makes a lot of
people sick sometimes.
Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Um, anyway, that being said,I'm like the biggest advocate
for, and I know that places likeuniversal creative know I think

(48:57):
that they have fucked up inthis regard a little bit,
because there's there was aperiod of like 8 to 10 years
maybe where that's really whatthey were doing, and then they
have really pivoted hard in theother direction with incredible
rides that don't use screens atall, like Hagrid is a great
example of a ride that is somany different things and it's

(49:20):
made so much more enjoyable andimpressive and makes people want
to come back and redo it,because it's made so much more
enjoyable and impressive andmakes people want to come back
and redo it because it's allpractical things.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Even Escape from Gringotts.
While there is a lot ofscreen-heavy stuff, there's a
lot of practical stuff happeningin that ride.
Yeah, there's a lot of coolrooms that you're moving through
.
It's a roller coaster, or atleast partially a roller coaster
.
So I don't know, there's a lotof cool rooms that you're moving
through.
It's a roller coaster, or atleast partially a roller coaster
, so I don't know, there's a lotof interesting movement or
whatever.
One of the best screen rides inthe park is the Amazing

(49:52):
Adventures of Spider-Man.
Yeah, yeah, because there's somuch more happening with that
and it just was revolutionary inits ambition, like what it was
trying to do the blend of thesepractical set pieces with having
a 3D movie that is sort of likein a comic book style.
It's not exactly likehand-drawn, looking like it's

(50:14):
still 3D animated, but youalmost like buy into it more
because it's supposed to looklike something you're already
familiar with.
It's not trying to I don't knowwe can.
We will be talking about that alot more, but all of that to
say, I would love for you to goon Kong, and that is what is it?

(50:37):
What is it actually called?
Hold on, I'm blanking on thisone Skull Island.
Skull Island is what it'scalled Rise of Kong, rain, rain
of Kong, rain of Kong.
Linking on this skull island.
Skull island is what it'scalled rain, right, rise of kong
, rain, rain of kong.
Oh, my gosh, I forgot the nameof a ride skull island, rain of
kong maybe sounds right.
I would love for you to go onthat again because it does what

(50:58):
fast, and I'm so sorry to invokethis name in the first episode.
It does what the and FuriousSupercharged ride absolutely
shat the bed on better.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
I think this is something we'll talk about a lot
is how much we hate that ride100%.
It's so garbage.
We love Universal so much butEverybody knows it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
I am so amazed they didn't immediately shutter that
ride, especially consideringwhat was there before it.
But anyway, like I said, we canget into that later.
But Kong does what Fast andFurious doesn't, which is it
doesn't do all of this.
What's the right, what's theword that I'm looking for?

(51:42):
It doesn't do a bunch ofcontrived nonsense to try to get
you into the story of whateveryou're doing.

Speaker 2 (51:53):
And just as an update , it is called Skull Island
Reign of Kong TM.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
TM is so important.
If you try to look it up andyou don't put in TM, the FBI
actually comes after you.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
But it's the FBI for men in black.
Oh man, it's just a pug, it'sjust Frank.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
And he's not wearing a suit either.
No, the naked dog, yeah, he'sincognito.
Oh jeez, the Kong ride does thesame.
You're in a tram kind of thing,with the screens on either side
shaking around, moving whatever, but they got like little water

(52:40):
effects.
They have like smoke and smogeffects which, fast and Furious,
both do or also does not bothdo.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
What if there were two rides Fast and Furious?
Are you going to ride Fasttoday?
Okay, man, I'm feeling fierce.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
But what if it was a?

Speaker 2 (52:57):
dueling coaster, yeah One was.
Fast, and one was Furious.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
That'd be sick.
That'd be much better than whatit is.
A roller coaster is such abetter concept for a ride, for
Fast and the One yeah for anyride, which is why they're
building it in Hollywood, and Itold you about this.
Right, I'm not sure.
Okay, they're building a Fastand Furious roller coaster in
Hollywood.
It's going to be able to drifton the track.
Hell, yeah, yeah, can't waitfor that.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
We'll talk about that .
That's obviously what theyshould have started with.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
Duh, they did it because they ripped off the
portion of the tram tour Fastand Furious thing from Hollywood
, yeah and literally just copiedand pasted it into a building.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
And it sucks, but you're on a party bus yeah.
It makes no sense.
You're going so slow, watchingscreens of fast cars and it's
like what it's so garbage.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
Anyway, that's our.
It's going to be a recurringsegment on this show is Fuck
Fast and Furious Supercharged.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
That might be how we end the podcast.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
And, as always, Fuck Fast and Furious Sidebar, and I
can edit this out if we want tosave it for the end.
One of the outros that Ithought of is no More Screens,
oh, but I don't think it quite.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
I like ending on a protest.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
Yeah, yeah, no more screens.
Speak your truth, man, lessscreens even I would take that
that's not as punchy.
Realistic goal.
Anyway, getting back into it.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
Skull Island.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
Yep, they just do a better job.
And on top of all of that, theyhave interesting things like
every ride vehicle is different.
There's an animatronic driverin every ride vehicle.
For that there's four differentones, and they have their own
unique dialogue.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
Oh my God, that's so cute.
Yes, it's adorable, god that'sso cute.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
Yes, it's adorable.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
Okay, well, that's a goal is to go with every
different driver.
Exactly yes, and find out who'sthe best.
We'll have to report back onthat Right.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
But yeah, like they all have their own things that
they say and whatever.
Sometimes they don't work superwell, so that's fun.
But the absolute pinnacle ofthis ride is there are not just
one, but multiple animatronicson it that you pass through at
one point, some even in thequeue.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
There are these, I guess, crates of these exotic,
undiscovered species from aroundthe world.
There's this giant worm thatkind of moves around behind
glass.
There are these big batcreatures.
Also, spoilers for every singleride and every single park that

(55:25):
we're going to talk about.
If you're coming here to likefind out like I don't know,
we're going to talk about theins and outs of all of this
stuff, so just make sure to likeread through the descriptions.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
Definitely should have done a spoiler tag at the
start.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
We're going to cut that out and put it in the video
.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There are these hugeanimatronic bats towards the
beginning of the ride.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
See, I've been on this ride and I don't even
remember that.
Probably just forgot, you know.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
They've changed it a little bit, changed a little bit
.
It used to go outside.
Okay, that's.
That would be like the cherryon top is if it still had the
outside portion.
It makes it feel more immersive.
But the pinnacle of this rideis the giant animatronic kong.
It is enormous, like it's hishuge head, his big monkey head,

(56:22):
and you and I don't know ifthey've tweaked this over the
years or whatever, but you're inthere for a long time at the
end of the ride with him, likeyou're driving so slowly.
It's probably like a full 60seconds that you're just like
slowly pulling around this room.
Yeah, and he's looking at youand like it's so it's the most

(56:42):
detailed animatronic I've everseen, of something that size.
Yeah, the original Kong.
I don't think I ever got to goon Kongfrontation in studios.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
I don't believe I did .

Speaker 1 (56:53):
But that one is impressive.
But that one is impressive likeif you look at videos of it.
But this one is so articulate,like his nostrils flare and like
his lips curl up and hiseyebrows dip down and he like
wrinkles, you know, and he it'slike he's moving and swaying, so
I don't know.
It's beautiful.
It makes the entire ridetotally worth it.
The other stuff's fun too.

(57:15):
Yeah, you definitely got to geton that.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
Yeah, I think I remember going on it and liking
it, but I think you kind ofdissuaded me from you're like eh
, it's a screen one, don'tbother.
Yeah, I've really softened onthat.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
I know.
For some things I know itseemed like they make an effort.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
Right, and so I think when you were talking it up
recently, it was making meremember.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
like, yeah, I remember being like scared in
that line.
Like you know it's prettyfreaky.
Yeah, the queue.
I will say like, if you'replanning on going on that ride
with kids, maybe don't like,don't even get in the queue,
because once you got good spookykids.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
We're working on getting our kid real spooky.

Speaker 1 (57:56):
I think she is going to be pretty spooky, which is
exciting, but it's very dark,it's very ominous.
There's all these really, Ithink it's supposed to be like
whoever the native people ofSkull Island have like carved
all of these, I don't know stonelike monkey, monkey heads like

(58:18):
gorilla heads in the walls andstuff and literal skulls like
embedded into the walls andstuff.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
What if they were actual human skulls?
Wouldn't that be bananas?

Speaker 1 (58:27):
They used to have scare actors in the line.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
Yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
Yeah, and so I'm kind of glad they took that out,
because it was a little toospooky for me Too spooky.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
We're not doing HHN, but they have another incredible
animatronic of the.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
I think it's a witch.
I'm not 100% sure yeah, yeah.
In that line.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Yeah, I remember her.
Yeah, yeah, she's really goodyeah.
So that's what I want to do.
I am such a huge harry potternerd.
I'm just all about just beingin harry potter world consuming
as much butterbeer stuff aspossible.
Yes, that's always my vibe,yeah and obviously fjkr.

Speaker 1 (59:09):
But right but, but that being said, we have.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
we, the fans, have reclaimed reclaimed Harry Potter
as our own, so it belongs to usnow.
Yeah, but you got me a wandrecently because we had this
like janky, half-twisted Elderwand, elder wand.
That wouldn't quite like lineup, so it was such a pain in the
butt.
So you got me a brand new floor, one which is beautiful.

Speaker 1 (59:34):
And you know what the unfortunate thing is?
I'm going to have to get one ofthe new, new interactive ones
that they just came out with,because you bought it like two
months before they put out thesebetter ones and I couldn't have
known.

Speaker 2 (59:44):
Eh, you know it is what it is, yeah, but anyway,
but that's been a great.
I feel like our we should do awhole episode on like tips for
parents.
But like if you, if one of youis riding a ride and the other
one of you is pushing the kid inthe stroller, going to Harry
Potter World and playing withall the interactive one spots,
is so great, Like it is 100percent, Like I have a great, I

(01:00:05):
have a blast.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Another way to make that even easier now is since
they've updated everything.
They've added new magic spotsthroughout both of the parks
within the Harry Potter sections.
But there's also an app thatyou can download or it might
have.
Oh no, it's through theUniversal app.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
That makes more sense .

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
Yeah, but if you go in there you can track, almost
like quests, which of the thingsyou've done and work through
these little mini storylinethings and that's all brand new,
so that's a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
I was checking the app to figure out, um like,
where in there it has it, and Ican't find it.
But what I did find is it'sapparently butterbeer season,
which is the most hilariousthing, because I remember last
year they were like it'sbutterbeer season and it meant
nothing, like nothing wasdifferent.
Yeah, we were like are thereany new items or anything?
They're like oh yeah, this icedlolly is going to come out and

(01:01:01):
it like never did, and so itsays returning iced lolly.
So I guess it did come outsomehow.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
Is that the only difference that they do for it?

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
Oh, no, no, no.
There's a couple new Butterbeerthings that are going to be
exclusive during march 1stthrough may 31st this year 2025,
so they're coming out with abutterbeer cream puff and a
butterbeer candy bar, so I willbe eating both of those of
course I do need to try that.
Ice lolly butterbeer gummiesare returning interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
I love gummies um.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
They come with a souvenir butterbeer cart which
is very cute.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
Oh, those are the little barrel carts.
Oh, cute yeah, like they haveoutside for the drink carts.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
And then classics of butterbeer hard pack ice cream.
What is that?
I've had the soft serve.
I don't know what a hard packis.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
A hard pack is like what you get at Florian
Fortescue's right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
Soft serve is when it comes out of the machine.
Oh yeah, okay, okay.
Back is when you scoop it outyes, um, that's what you get
when you go to um like uh nothogshead, what's uh um?

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
three broomsticks and oh yeah, leaky cauldron yeah
yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
So yeah, I've had, I've had the hard pack ice cream
, I've had had the soft serveice cream the best.
The fudge is amazing and thepotted cream is also really good
Potted cream Y'all.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
if y'all are not on some potted cream when you go to
Wizarding World, eat it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Yeah, that was my journey when I went to Universal
when I was pregnant, because Iwas like I can't really write
anything, so I just ate all thebutterbeer stuff.
You enjoyed it so much, it'sgreat, it's for the baby.
So anyway, I think it's veryfunny this butterbeer season.
Like, just don't do it, timelimited, everyone's here for
butterbeer, do all of that.
So anyway, I'll be there forthat.

(01:02:48):
Um, just general vibes, I waslooking up like what's going on
at that time that we're gonna bethere.
Um, and I think the reason whylast year we just happened to go
Easter weekend because we werewe were planning a trip with our
friends who live in Coloradoand I think they were coming to

(01:03:11):
Florida for like a wedding orsomething, so they were just in
town.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
It just happened to be that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
So that's what we did , but it happened that we were
there on easter sunday and wewere worried.
We were worried it would beslammed and it turned out to be
really slow yeah for for thethat time of year.
So we were really surprised andwe're like, okay, let's see if
that was that a fluke, or isthat coming here again?
So last year easter turned outto be, I think, like this

(01:03:39):
weekend, like last weekend inmay, sorry, march, um, now it's
gonna be mid-april.
So I don't know how that'sgonna line up, because now we're
getting closer to um, I don'tknow, like spring break time or
I don't know.
So, um, so we'll see.
But I again, I think we're kindof threading the needle, good,

(01:03:59):
cause I was looking at whatevents are going on.
Um, you know, what can weexpect being at the parks at
that time?

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
Yeah, we're still doing Mardi Gras through April,
I think Right.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
I believe.
Yes, I thought Mardi Gras wasgoing to end end of March, but
it might be going through April,I'm not sure.
By the way, you can apparentlyget a reserve spot on a parade
float and toss beads to thecrowd.
You can.
That's so funny yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
I believe you got to pay some money for that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:30):
Well, yeah, I would expect.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
Because why not?

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
But all the other events that are coming up.
For example, grad bash is notthat weekend, which is great.
That's really good, because weaccidentally were there during
the what's the christian oneyeah, rock the universe and it
was, and I was like why arethere so many people here,
unfortunate?
So anyway, we threaded theneedle with that.

(01:04:53):
Um, there's a couple otherthings that are going on that
are like the weekend before, theweekend after, um, so I don't
think they they.

Speaker 1 (01:05:03):
They didn't introduce anything new and special
happening easter weekend, Ithink, assuming that you know,
most people don't spend thatweekend at a theme park yeah
suckers so, and hey, if you'relistening to this later on and
this turns out to be a goodthing, yeah, don't, don't go
there, it's just us.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
Yeah, we want to share our knowledge, but don't
act on it not the good stuff,not while we're there, um so
yeah, so if we go and it's chillagain, that's going to be a new
every year thing.

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
Which I feel bad about, cause, like Easter is
kind of like a time for familyand egg hunt and blah, blah,
blah blah, but like if the parksare going to be slow, then
that's what we're going to do.
So so, yeah, I think, hopefullyjust spending some time.
Um we, we have different, uh,approaches to how we do things,
just depending on um our budgetand time.

(01:06:07):
So I think this time we'regonna try to do two nights.
Um we are, um we're staying ata cheap hotel that's nearby
because, as pass holders, wehave early park admission.
We do Huge, huge park, which isgreat.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
For the specific level that we have.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
Yes, so early park admission is fantastic to get on
some of the biggest rides thatotherwise have exorbitantly high
wait times, like Hagrid orVelocicoaster, and those are
pretty much like the only onesyou can get on with it they,
they open more and more.

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
Yeah, recently, it seems like so.
Now you can pretty much get ona lot of the stuff that's in.
Uh, you can get on almostanything in hogsmeade.
That's cool, um, and you can.
Maybe they open up hulk alittle early too.
They seem to do these littlerolling openings in the mornings
like that now, which is reallynice, but it used to just be

(01:07:04):
Hagrid Right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
But it's definitely worth it because you actually
get on some of these big rideswithout a huge wait line.
Yeah, like you might be waiting50 to 60 minutes for something
like a hagrid versus three hours, three hours, yeah, um, plus

(01:07:26):
the budget, on-site hotels are agreat deal, yeah, um, in
comparison to like we're.
We're not big like bougie hotelpeople, so like we're like
barely there, we'll pay.
We'll pay like for cheaper stuff, but because you know it's a

(01:07:48):
big tourist attraction area,like if you want to be within a
mile of the parks, everything'skind of expensive and so it like
almost becomes worth doing theon-site.
And then, if you do, you getextra perks, like you get the
early park admission.
If you buy merch in the parks,you can have them send it

(01:08:10):
directly to your room so youdon't have to lug around like
all, all the stuff you buy allday, um, so, and, and you get
the um.
Uh, I was like you get thetrolley do, what is the term I'm
thinking of?

Speaker 1 (01:08:24):
the shuttle.
Yeah, you get the shuttle, uh.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
So you don't have to do with parking.
That's another thing now withwith our um annual passes, that
we get free parking.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
So so, like there are a lot of these perks are adding
up, especially for us now.
It was not always this way.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
And we have spent a lot of time living off of just
getting the even like a singleday ticket staying wherever, and
you know, having to figure itout as we go, so it's like felt
very special that we've beenable to level up in that way
Totally.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
Yeah so, and that's that we also get.
Not everybody can do that, andwe'll try to level up in that
way.
Totally yeah so, and that'sthat we also get.
Not everybody can do that, andwe'll try to be mindful of that
too yes, yes, if yeah, becausewe have the luxury of being
annual pass holders and we knowwe're going to come back in a
month or two we can slow downand take our time a lot more and
just think of, like, what arethe big highlights that I want

(01:09:17):
to do, and not jam packeverything, which is, you know,
a really enjoyable way to do it.
Um, I don't really rememberwhere I was going with that, but
anyway, I, I, I like the slowerpace, I like kind of taking our
time with things.
Um, and I think, having twodays, that we're going to be

(01:09:38):
able to do it.
Depending on how late we get inFriday, one of us may be able
to get in for an hour or two.

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
I'm really hoping that that's you.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
Yeah, well, we've been wanting to see their night
shows.
Yes, I have still not.

Speaker 1 (01:09:54):
Yeah, so we finally saw the new light show that
happens on the Hogwarts castleExtremely good, and I think we
even saw the.
It was the Christmas themedversion.

Speaker 2 (01:10:04):
Oh, they do a different one.
Yeah, I think they do adifferent one, cool.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
But yeah, we have not seen what do they even call it?
It's kind of it's man.
They are really kind of beefingthese names lately.

Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
I think it's called.

Speaker 1 (01:10:16):
Cinesational, cine, like cinema.
Yeah, yeah, that's sounfortunate.
Yeah, but it's not the worstname they've come up with.
But yeah, that show is insane.
It's on the lagoon at studiosand laser light show water

(01:10:39):
screens like huge fountains thatthey project light onto, and
also drones in the sky makingshapes.
It's amazing.
I haven't seen it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
I would love to see it next time, when we get on,
we're going to talk about EpicUniverse and what that's going
to look like.
Maybe we'll have a morecohesive narrative in our
discussions, but probably not,probably not, I don't know.
And what's the point of that?
We don't have any time to planand organize any of this, so
it's going to be off the cuff.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
We might, if I'm assuming we're probably going to
have another one of these outbefore we go to the park, but we
will present our finalized listof goals for this trip.
Yeah, I think would be fun.

Speaker 2 (01:11:27):
Yeah, because I've got some too.
Uh, getting to working on likea bucket list for us to make
each experience interesting,because otherwise, you know, we
are very familiar with and we'vedone a lot of the things, so
it's kind of fun to have a fresh, unique take we don't have
different little challenges oryeah, you know, yeah, so I don't
know, we'll, we'll, uh, we'llsee what happens.

(01:11:50):
But um, this is fun.
This was a blast.
I did enjoy talking in thecloset with you about theme
parks.

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):
I also enjoyed talking in a closet with you
about theme parks.
You couldn't tell we're in acloset.
If I get to this later and itsounds like we're in a closet to
the extent where it's likeunlistenable, I'm still going to
put it out.
I just want everybody to knowthat, because I've had so much
fun doing this.
Aww, I'm so glad and we cancall it episode zero or
something and make it like ahidden track.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
I like that I like that.

Speaker 1 (01:12:20):
Yeah, but this is great, is there a?

Speaker 2 (01:12:21):
word for like a, you know, like a track of a roller
coaster that, like you, don't goon anymore.
Switch track.

Speaker 1 (01:12:29):
Oh yeah, oh man, that's amazing.
Yeah, this one might be aswitch track.
We'll see what happens, allright, but this was a blast.
Thank you, my wife, for sittingdown here to do this with me.
Thank you, the listener,whoever you are out there, I
love you and you're beautiful.
Aw, and here I don't know weneed to.

(01:12:53):
This is we were talking earlierabout no more screens?
Yeah, we were talking about whatwe say at the end of these.
I pitched no more screens, buteven that, I feel like, is a
little too aggressive for myenergy.

Speaker 2 (01:13:06):
Thanks for writing it out with us.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
Thanks, for writing it out and until we write again.
That's good.
Until we write again.
Good night, good night, cut.
Good night, good night, cut.
Print it, print it, print it.

(01:13:37):
Hey there, did you have somethoughts that you wanted to
share with the show?
Well, you can, if you want.
In the show notes for thisepisode you'll find a text link
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(01:14:00):
and feel free to tell us we'renot going to be mad you can send
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Thanks for sticking around andwe'll see you in a future
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