RIO 3: Dragons, Wizards, and Butterbeer Crepes - Our Epic Adventure

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We take listeners through our experience at the Annual Passholder Preview for Epic Universe, Universal Orlando's third theme park, sharing our impressions, favorite rides, and a few disappointments from our visit before the official opening.

• Epic Universe features a hub-and-spoke design with Celestial Park at the center connecting to four immersive worlds
• The park's standout feature is kinetic energy - everything moves, from animatronic dragons to interactive Nintendo elements
• Stardust Racers in Celestial Park offers a uniquely smooth coaster experience with "ejector airtime" that feels like floating
• Isle of Berk (How to Train Your Dragon world) impressed us with its elaborate animatronics and family-friendly attractions
• Super Nintendo World successfully transports visitors into the video games with interactive Power-Up Bands and moving elements
• Dark Universe brings classic Universal monsters into a year-round spooky (but not scary) environment
• Ministry of Magic features beautiful 1920s Paris theming but lacks the kinetic energy of other lands
• Food quality throughout Epic Universe represents a significant upgrade from other Universal parks
• The standout treat is the butterbeer crepe at Café la Sirène in the Ministry of Magic area
• Technical rehearsals meant some attractions had limited capacity, particularly the in-demand Ministry of Magic ride

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If you have thoughts to share with the show, you can text us using the link in the show notes or email us at [e-mail]. We'd love to hear from you and might respond on a future episode!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, here we go Do you want to hear the intro.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Do we get to have that?

Speaker 1 (00:03):
I dumped all the files off that, so I have to
reset them back up Okay.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Can you hum it?

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yeah, here you go.
Welcome back to the Ride it Outpodcast, the podcast where we
ride all the rides and you getout.

(00:37):
I'm Tyler.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm Jess.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
And it's been a minute.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yes, so we have a little explaining to do.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Not even.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, okay, so we are fully committed to doing this
regularly.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
And we're sort of figuring it out as we go.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
And we're parents.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Look, we're busy people.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Life happens, yeah, some notable things.
Look, we're busy people.
Life happens, yeah, somenotable things.
One we had almost completelyfinished recording a beautiful
episode for you when ourequipment ran out of battery.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
And we were only we had exceeded the time limit we
wanted to do.
Pretty sure Autumn was wakingup and then, but we hadn't
gotten through the content wewanted to do.
Pretty sure autumn was wakingup and then.
But we had, it was a wholething we hadn't gotten through
the content we wanted to, sowe're gonna save that meaty
episode for you later.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
It's gonna be great.
It was a different topic thanthe one you're about to hear yes
, yes, that's, that's foranother time yeah uh, but we
also in that episode had teasedthat we had gotten preview
tickets to Epic Universe.
Yes, so we were talking all andwe were so excited and so a lot

(01:52):
of the front half of thatepisode was us being extremely
hyped and just talking about allthe things we wanted to do but
you're in for a treat todayhopefully wanted to do.
But you're in for a treat today, hopefully, because since that
time, uh, we went to fuckingepic universe we did, so that's.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
That's what we're gonna spend this whole episode
talking about.
Um, another caveat thathappened in between.
Uh, our, our last episode inthis one is I'm okay, but I was
in a school shooting, yeah, so Ihad other priorities to think
about.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Right, so uh, yeah, I mean, Jess was not immediately
directly involved, but she wasin other ways and is fine.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, but I was providing counseling to other
people who were involved, so itwas a busy couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
So time has passed, everybody's okay, we're all
doing good.
We've come back to thisrefreshed and renewed and ready
to share with you our excitementabout the trip that we had
going to the annual pass holderpreview dates for epic universe.
Do you remember what date wewent?
Shoot um it would have been afew weeks ago at this point yeah

(03:15):
, you're right.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
You're right, I think we went six, 16th oh shoot I.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
I need to double check the calendar, because I
was about to say the 19th, butthat's wrong, because that would
have been.
I could look at my email, butyou know the state of my email,
so I'm not sure that that wouldbe super helpful.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
No, it was.
It was the 19th yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
April 19th.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Okay, okay.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Time means nothing, truly so this is not going to
help opening up these annualpassholder preview events for
Epic Universe, the third park atthe Universal Orlando Resort.
It's incredible, extremelyexciting.
Lots of new stuff.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
And I think those aren't just open to pass holders
at this point.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, they're opening them up to the general public
for like a soft opening.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Right.
So the idea behind a softopening is think about it as if
you were going to see a playduring their technical rehearsal
week.
So they're still working outthe kinks.
The actors are still learningtheir lines.
You know everyone is running asif the show is previewing to a
full audience, but it's not.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Right, but sometimes pausing and having to be like,
okay, let's reset this, becausewe had a lighting issue or a
sound effect didn't go offproperly or a prop wasn't in
place in time.
So they're still figuring outthe process for how to run the
entire park, and the other thingabout that is that it's

(04:57):
operating at a really reducedcapacity.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yes, so that's the main perk is that you get to see
a brand new theme park beforethe vast majority of people.
It's actually not super dupercrowded, which I'm excited for
when we see it after the parkofficially opens Such a treat.
I know we're ridiculous, butbecause it'll be fun to compare.
Like I'm guessing the crowdsare going to be way crazier in

(05:23):
June when we go again.
Have to be.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Even in the summer heat in Florida, people Well, I
mean, it's been a thing for 20plus years at this point know to
come to Florida to engage inthe tourism and to take

(05:48):
enjoyment in coming to the themeparks hanging out.
It's hot, but even though it'sthe hottest time of the year, a
lot of people are bringing theirkids, and so that's the time of
year when they're out of school, right, they have the most
freedom to move around and to godo these large scale trips, um,
that a lot of people only getto do like once a year.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
Right, right, yeah, so it was definitely a privilege
for us to be able to go at thetime that we did, and I think it
was well worth it to go to thispark when there's, you know, so
few crowds, um, but it alsomeant we got to do a lot more
things, I think.

(06:30):
Um, I'd be curious to see, uhagain, how, how long wait times
compare, but comparatively, whatwas the longest line that you
waited in?

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Well, so the longest line that I waited in maybe is
not a great judgment of what thelines are like during these
preview days, Because thelongest one I waited in I got in
line like half an hour beforethe park closed and it was the.
And so did everybody else whowas still in the park, exactly
it was the Mario Kart Bowser'sChallenge ride, so I knew that

(07:01):
was going to be a long one.
So I was like holding offgetting into the line and it
took me like an hour and a halfto get through that line but it
was a whole thing for a popularride at a brand new park.
An hour and a half is not theworst, totally, if that was a
hagrid over at islands yeah likeI would be happy to be only
waiting an hour and a half rightnow, um, so it's all about

(07:23):
perspective, uh, but we're goingto dive into all of the
particulars about our trip.
This is all subjective.
Also, like we mentioned before,they're in technical rehearsals
.
Things are up and down, uh,things are not exactly operating
in the way that they will bewhen everything is up and
running fully, uh, and even overthe next few months, over the

(07:46):
next few years, they're going tobe adjusting things and making
little tweaks about how thingswork.
So this is all take it with agrain of salt, but, uh, if you
couldn't tell by now, we are soexcited that we got to go do
this and we are, overall,genuinely, extremely.

(08:07):
We are such universal fan boysat this point.
But even beyond that, we have alot of criticisms about some
things that we encountered.
I feel like or at least I do sowe're going to give you an
honest opinion.
We're not being paid byuniversal.
We would love to be paid byuniversal.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, uh, we will retract any negative feedback if
y'all want to pay us.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
I'll cut it right, the fuck back.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
Um, but because you're not, we get to say
whatever we want, exactly.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
So we're we're going to give you our genuine, honest
opinions.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
We are both enthusiasts and tend to love
things, but uh, there were somethings that were not so great.
Well, there's some things thatagain, they're tweaking and
working on things.
So all this, a lot of this,could be different by the time
the park actually opens.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
We don't know we don't know yeah before we get
into things.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
So I mentioned the longest wait time.
What was the shortest wait timeyou?

Speaker 1 (09:01):
had.
Ooh, I did a walk-on to Hang onAgain.
This is not a plug, althoughhit me up if you're into it.
I use an app called LogRidewhen I'm at theme parks and,

(09:22):
sorry, our cat is trying to jumponto Jess's lap.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Desperately wants to be in my multiple times.
Poor boy.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Maybe he'll come back yeah, so let me look at my trip
log book.
Uh, basically it's an app whereyou can log when you got onto
certain rides.
You can log the seats that yourode on those rides, make some
notes about your experience orwhatever.
I just use it to, at the end ofthe day, be like, wow, I walked
that many miles and I rode thatmany rides.

(09:51):
Hey, good day, you know greattime.
Um, so let me look at my logbook here.
Um, we're going to go back intoApril 19th.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
And I want to say there were several that were 15
minutes.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Oh, I can tell you right now the shortest wait that
I had for any of the rides Iwas shocked by and we will
circle back to this ride to talkabout it a little later on.
My vision for this is that Iwould go through our day as we
did it and talk about the thingswe did, like in the order that
we did them in.
My shortest wait was formonsters, unchained, which is

(10:34):
insane because that's one of thepremier in the theme park
industry.
We call these e-ticket rides.
This is comes from a Disneyterm Cause back in the day they
would sell differentclassifications of tickets that
would allow you to get oncertain rides and not others
interesting so there's like a, b, c, d, e.

(10:54):
E was the top level, you can geton anything and an e-ticket
ride is like the things thatdraw people to the park.
Your rise of the resistances,your hagrid, your um, uh, what's
like another huge insert yourfavorite ride insert your
favorite ride or the biggestbudget ride basically that you

(11:16):
can think of yeah um, that'scalled an e-ticket attraction,
okay.
um, monsters unchained isregularly, even during previews,
in the 60 plus minute range.
Uh, cause, it's massive, it'sambitious.
It does things that no otherdark ride has really done before

(11:37):
.
It's got a collection of likeanimatronics that are incredible
.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
We'll.
We'll explain more depth, we'llget into it, yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Um, but I walked onto that ride as a single rider.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
I was on the ride in two and a half minutes wow
because nobody was doing singlerider yeah, and it was down
right before I got in too, sothat was another thing right
because I I went on right afteryou and also in single rider
because you were like, oh, I gotright on like it go, go, go,
and then the ride was down.
So I did get stuck in in thesingle rider Cause you were like

(12:07):
, oh, I got right on like get,go, go, go, and then the ride
was down, so I did get stuck inin the single rider.
Um, but even so it still wasn'tas much as the advertised 85
minute wait, you were in therelike what?

Speaker 1 (12:14):
20 minutes, maybe 25.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
I think it felt longer because I was standing in
place and nothing was happeningbut it was air conditioned, so
it was a great place to hang outSuper sick yeah.
Yeah, we both missed the queueson a lot of these bigger rides,
which is a shame.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
That's kind of the trade-off with riding single
rider, but anyway.
So this is your queue now.
Thank you for hanging out withus this far.
If you don't want to know thespecifics about all of these
individual rides, maybe comeback later or maybe, uh, come
back to another episode, when,when we're not talking about

(12:53):
that.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
Can we do like overall impression?

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, let's do that first.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
Before don't leave yet.
Wait, come back.
Hey, hey, uh, okay, yeah, hey,wait, right, okay.
Overall impression of the parkas a whole.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Park as a whole, absolutely.
This is so hard for me to talkabout.
I consume a lot of theme parkcontent so I have been very
plugged into what these thingsare going to be like and I've
been following like theconstruction updates over time.

(13:36):
So, like the hype isunattainable at this point, at
least for the people who arefollowing that kind of stuff.
That being said, epic Universeis unique in the Universal
Orlando resort space for a lotof different reasons, but the

(13:57):
first reason is just the feelwhen you first walk into this
place is like possibility.
When you first walk into thegate, you are looking around at
this beautifully manicured firstarea and it's different than

(14:21):
studios and then islands,because you can kind of choose
your path.
You're not locked into a bigloop and so you kind of have to
make a decision, right when youfirst walk in, about well, where
is this going to take me?
And no matter where it istaking you, it's all new and

(14:42):
it's all exciting.
Where it is taking you, it'sall new and it's all exciting.
And, yes, that's a product ofit being a brand new theme park,
which is a really rare thing,you know, in the modern era.
But it also just leads to thislike anticipation and this like
excitement and in the way thatnone of us have felt from the

(15:08):
other two parks.
I get excited every time I goto a theme park.
Really, in general, it can be atiny little theme park, it can
be an amusement park even, andI'm like, wow, what rides they
got you know cool, what foodthey have, neat, what can I look
at?
But yeah, this one is somethingspecial and I will now pass

(15:30):
this to you to talk lessspecifically about things.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yeah, no, I would agree that it's just exciting to
be in a new park in general,new park in general, um, but I I
think everything is designedvery intentionally and
thoughtfully and it's just verybeautiful and new and the

(15:54):
consideration is insane yeah, itseems like it's built for theme
park enthusiasts.
So I I feel like when you walkin studios and islands feel old,
like this just feels very, verymodern and you know those are
still great Not in a bad way.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
We love those parks.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
Right, right, but it's very exciting and, like,
each of the lands that you go inis just incredible.
It's like a space that you wantto spend a lot of time in and
feels fully immersive.
Um, you can't see the otherareas of the park when you're in

(16:35):
each section, so it justtotally feels like you've just
dived right in yeah, and thetimes when you can like get a
little peek of something.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
It almost feels like it's like they have stood in the
spot, that you're standing andlooked at that and been like how
can we make that kind of justsort of look like it's something
in the background?

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah, how do we blend it in?
Yeah, yeah, so very impressive.
It's a beautiful park.
I had a great time.
I can't wait to go back.
It was awesome.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
It's kind of all I've been wanting to do since we got
back from here.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
I know same.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
We unfortunately had a pretty rough time at the end
of our trip for that.
That has kind of colored myperception of that trip a little
bit.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
So you had a rough time and, folks, the moral of
the story is drink a lot ofwater, drink so much water, just
drink a lot of water, drink somuch water, just drink a lot of
water.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
If there is one thing I can impart to you, it is
don't let yourself getdehydrated from going way too
hard at the theme parks over aweekend.
Just have the water, have thePowerade, have the Gatorade,
whatever you need.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
Stay hydrated, just very important, so that's not
Epic's fault.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
At all.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, Uh, yeah.
So I and and the other kind ofnice thing about the preview
week is that, because it'stechnical rehearsals, some rides
may not be running or might be,you know, paused or or whatever
.
Um, the tickets are slightlycheaper right now, before it

(18:05):
opens on May 22nd.
Not a huge difference, but likemaybe like 20, 30 bucks a pop,
but that's you know, that's a.
It adds up if you're taking alarge group of people.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
Right, and that's like you know, a soda.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Right, right, because they said a pop.
Yeah, I was just making a jokethat sodas are 30 dollars uh uh,
tariffs, yeah, truly um sotheme parks oh, bye griffin, he
doesn't want me anymore our catis left yeah, um, so it's I.

(18:40):
It's a beautiful park, I Iwould love to go back.
I'm sitting here like, oh, Idon't know, maybe we could sneak
in one more weekend.
I've been thinking about thatevery week and you know that's a
little ridiculous because wehave season passes so we can go
to the other parks as often aswe want.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
But it's not the brand new shiny one.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
No, we want to go to the shiny one.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Okay, so now I think we can get into spoilies?
Yeah, alright.
So okay, officially, we loveyou so much.
If you don't want to hearspecifically what the parks are
like, park, then fucking bye.
Okay, but uh, come back to usafter you've seen it and then

(19:22):
let us know your, your thoughtsand yeah if you are able to uh,
get to the point where you wantto hear this, or you have any
questions about the park cause,we are definitely going to go
back to Epic Um we're actuallygoing back on next month.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
Yeah, june 14th we have, we're actually going back
on next month.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, June 14th we have.
We have plans to go for afather's day trip.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Well, that was we.
We had bought those ticketsinitially, and then they opened
up the previous, who were likeOoh.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, so, uh, happy father's day to me and between
now and then.
So that's the uh sixth.
The 17th, I think, is whenwe're going right.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Uh, june the 17th, I think, is when we're going right
.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
Uh, June 14th, 14th yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
You're saying this like you asked the wrong day off
work which is making me alittle nervous.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
I'm wondering whether or not I did.
I took the 16th off.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah, which is a Monday, the Monday, okay, so
we're going the 14th, which isthe Saturday, which is Saturday
Okay, great, okay, so we'regoing to 14th, which is the
Saturday, which is Saturday.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
Okay, great, I'll cut all that out, okay, and then
we'll say we're going back onJune 14th, and if any time
between now and then you haveany questions about anything,
feel free to text us using thelink in the show notes.
Get in touch with us via email,ask your questions, give your
feedback and we will talk aboutit, cool.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yeah, didn't we have someone text us something?
We did?
Yeah, we did.
Do you have?

Speaker 1 (20:49):
that I do.
I know who this person is.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
I mean obviously, but I mean, you know, it's like
every piece of feedback helpsfor sure.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
I mean obviously, but I mean, you know, it's like
every piece of feedback helpsfor sure.
So our first piece of fan mailwas from someone in Tallahassee,
go figure, and I know that thisperson would be okay with me
reading this.
I'm just gonna go ahead and saythis I am not a theme park
sicko or Jess's mom, but enjoyedthe show, love your energy and

(21:21):
humor.
10 out of 10 would subscribeand have in a parenthetical.
So thank you so much.
Random Tallahassee in, uh,who's not so random.
We love you and if you wouldlike your messages read on the
show or not, if you just haveany questions, uh, feel free to
send that.
Yeah, we're happy to talk.

(21:41):
So where do we start now?
Do we start at the beginning ofthe day?
Yes, how did you feel when wegot up that morning in the hotel
?
Okay, we were also staying in asubstandard hotel.
For what we want it was not onsite.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, we decided, okay, we're're gonna try and
save a little money, not stay onsite.
And I don't know you and I likeare not like bougie hotel
people like we're fine stayingin roach motels and whatever
because you know you're notspending a whole lot of time in
the hotel.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
But things have changed a little bit recently.
Well, we've.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
We have gotten a bit spoiled because we've stayed on
site at different universalhotels before and so this one
was pretty close to the parksbut just kind of shady like uh,
the keys kept not working, solike you came back from the park
after midnight and you couldn'tget in the room, and you know
like that, that kind of stuff,the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
It's worked out for us well in the past, but now
that we have our daughter, yeah,we have to kind of just have to
increase our standards slightly.
Yeah, slightly saferaccommodations, um so I will say
, we got up that morning and wewe went to islands first.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
We did, and so the reason for that is because,
during preview week, the parkopened at 11.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Yeah, during our specific one.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yes, so that could be different at other times, but
the hours were what?
11 to 9?
Yeah, okay, and I think it'sgoing to be different once it
actually opens on the 22nd.
But because you know, we got akid, we're up at the crack of
dawn anyway.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
We're like, well, we might as well go to the other
parks and because of our annualpasses we get early park
admission, so we could get intoislands at eight rather than
having to wait till nine.
So it made sense to go overthere for a couple hours first.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
Right right, I was pretty tired because I closed
down the parks the night before.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
I was so excited about this for you because you
have never had a chance to likebe in the parks at night.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Or at least not in the last 10-15 years.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Not in recent memory, I think.
Usually I will take Autumn backto the hotel and put her down
and you'll stay at the parkbecause you love me so much, I
do.
I do and I I'd like to give youthat extra time, Uh, but we've
been talking about how we wantto swap, uh doing that, so we
did this time, uh, so I closeddown studios and islands, um, so

(24:19):
that you could close down Epic,um, I know which was such a
gift.
So you, you get a little um moreto to talk about with, with.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Epic, yeah.
But I mean, like, what was your, what was that experience like
being in the, in islands andstudios at night for you?

Speaker 2 (24:34):
Oh, it was fun.
I mean it's it's fun being justa individual person on your own
, because I could just look up,yeah like, oh, the wait time for
, uh, what did I do?
I did et and mummy, and then Idid the um cine-sational show at

(24:56):
studios, at studios now, yeahand then I booked it over.
After that closed, I booked itover to islands and did
velocicoaster, um, but it was oh, and I got myself some
butterbeer treats because yeah,um so it was nice to just be
like okay, this is the wait timefor here, I gotta run over here
.
Then I'm gonna go over here andlike be efficient in doing all
that, because usually if you'rewith a bigger group, you got to

(25:18):
consider other people's needs.
Um, you know, tyler, but otherpeople may not know that I am uh
, I'm not a runner, but I feellike I could train to become an
olympic power walker yeah, dude,you book it yeah and that's
very freeing, to just be on myown and be booking it carving

(25:41):
through.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
I'm like here I go, I just so, yeah, so I I like
going at my own pace and justmaking a beeline for where I
want to go.
Um, so yeah, that was a greattime.
I did stay up too late so I wasa little sleepy, uh, but the
excitement of the day, so youknow, by the time Autumn and I
went home and left Epic, um, Iwould have stayed later and I

(26:04):
would have happy to stay later,but it was also kind of nice
being able to have a an earlynight Plus, you could, you know,
rest and gain your strength forthe day to come.
Yes, yes, which I needed to takecare of you.
Jeez Aw, um, yes, so that wasgreat care of you.
Geez Aw, yes, so that was great.
We went to.
Where did we go to studios?

Speaker 1 (26:28):
First thing in the morning I can tell you.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
Yeah, Because we did some Minion stuff which is over
in studios.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Oh, the night before, that was the night before, okay
, yeah.
So before we Parted ways, yeah,before Autumn, and I left, I
was like, hey, what's a thingthat we can get all three of us
on?
And I was like, oh, you knowwhat Jess has never done?
Villaincon, minion Blast.

(26:55):
It's not really my cup of tea,but it's fine.
It's like a conveyor belt thing.
You have a gun, you're likeshooting a bunch of stuff.
We get on this ride and itshuts down for what feels like
because we have an under twoyear old on the ride with us who
just wants to be doingsomething.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
And she can't sit still and she can't.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
And she's like falling on the ground and
they're telling us like, oh, weall have to be standing for the
ride to get back in motion andyou have to stay standing in the
same spot.
So we're there for what feelslike 45 minutes, but I know it's
probably like 10, 10, 15.
But, even that was just toolong to be standing in the exact
same place.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
So utter failure.
Never doing that right againDoesn't do anything for me the
ride kind of sucked, if I wantto get on a thing like that,
where I can shoot stuff.
I'll get a men in black.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah, it was.
Uh.
Basically, it felt like goingin an arcade and playing fruit
Ninja.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
But for you're trapped 30 minutes, forever.
The conveyor belt is very slow,not yeah.
Yeah, and none of it works.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
The aim doesn't work properly, yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
The screens are all running at like 15 frames a
second, which, if you play videogames, you understand how
acceptable that is.
Um, the minimum I will acceptis 24, uh for film, and it did
not look like film.
Um, not to disparage anybodythat worked on that ride but
it's a bad ride um.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
I don't know how old it is I mean, maybe it just
needs four years three that'snot that old.
That's not that old.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
No, they could have done a better job.
It looks like it's usingmicrosoft connect technology,
because when you go, when you'relike conveyed into the next,
there are these sensor bars andyou can't shoot anything in the
room until you're into the roomand the sensor bar can pick you
up.
So like if you're looking downthe hallway and trying to shoot

(28:49):
something on the screen it won'tsee you until you're fully in
the room.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
Wow, you were ready to go.
I was observant.
I was going to say you weremore locked in.
I was half-heartedly shootingat things while trying to
wrangle our child.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah, and it was mostly just wrangling the child,
so not recommended.
If you're curious, if you're aMinions friend, friend, fan,
friend or fan, if you're aMinions friend, go on like
Minion Mayhem, sit down, watch amovie or go eat something at
minions cafe.
Like you'll have a better timedoing that probably than you

(29:25):
would doing that.
Yeah, the queue was really funwas the problem.
So anyway, we did that, um theso that was friday night, we got
in and did that and then, uh,my daughter and I left and left
you to go to your own devicesand sounds like you had a really
good time.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
Looking at these pictures, I know you had a good
time.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
I did, yeah, but then on Saturday morning we did
islands, because that's the oneyou get the early park admission
to.
So you can get early parkadmission if you are a pass
holder or if you stay on site inthe hotel.
So that's another perk tostaying on site is the shuttles

(30:07):
will take you everywhere, so youdon't have to worry about
parking.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
It's so nice.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
If you stay on site, if you buy anything, you can
tell them to ship it to yourroom, so you don't have to carry
it around all day, them to shipit to your room, so you don't
have to carry it around all day.
Um, and you, you get the earlypark admission, which, if you're
wanting to do the two, what isit?
E-ticket, e-ticket, the twoe-ticket rides, uh,
velocicoaster and hagrid over inislands.

(30:33):
Uh, doing those during theearly park admission is the best
time to go, either that, maybearound noon, where, when
everyone's trying to have lunch,like between noon one, two
uh-huh or end of the day justsaying all right, this is the
last ride I'm gonna do, I'll sitin this line yeah, because
they'll let you get on.

(30:53):
Yeah, as long as you get inbefore the park officially
closes yeah, uh, you don't haveto complete the ride before the
park closes.
Yeah, so pretty sure you didVelocicoaster.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
That morning.
I can tell you right here I gotlog right open.
Of course you do.
I did Velocicoaster, I didForbidden Journey because and
that's the Hogwarts Castle ride.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Oh, we all did that together, so Autumn actually
went in the line.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
We were wanting to dip our toes in the water of
doing child swap more, whichwe've talked about previously,
but we did it several times onthis trip.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
Because we wanted to try it out and get her a little
used to it or at least see howshe was going to react before we
went into Epic, becausetypically you and I will just
have one of us go and the otherone hang out with Autumn, do
something else, yeah, but wewanted to see, but it's more fun
and puts less pressure on theperson just watching the kid.

(31:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
To be able to go all experience it together, as long
as that would be a thing thateverybody would be open to, and
by everyone I mean me and mydaughter.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
Yeah, yeah, but she did pretty well.
We tried to pick rides thatalready had short wait times.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
Or at least interesting things to look at.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yes, so Forbidden Journey was only like 15 minutes
.
We were moving pretty quicklyand in fact we brought a little
activity book for her, so shekind of just wanted to sit down
and look at her activity book.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
So she was actually more upset with us that we had
to keep telling her the line wasmoving faster than we expected.
So we were having to like pickher back up and move her along.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
So I kept being like oh, look this thing from Harry
Potter.
And she's like yeah, I don'tcare, I have a dinosaur activity
book that I want to look at.
I don't even know harry potter,um, so that was cute.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
But but we did that and we did uh skull island yes
uh, which you know was great,there was stuff to look at, but
most of all they have like achild swap room yeah uh, to go
sit in and whatever and look atstuff and she was not scared of
any of the spooky stuff at all.
Yeah, we, yeah, we're going tohave such a spooky baby.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
I know I love it so much.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
So then from that point we went over, we had to
pick up the shuttle because Huh,we did Spider-Man too.
Oh, I don't have Spider-Man on.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
Really On that day, yeah, well.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Unless I just oh, shoot.
I think you did Spider-Man.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
Maybe we did that on Sunday then.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
That was Sunday.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Maybe a lot of this is Sunday.
We might've done Skull IslandSunday.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Skull Island was on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
I'm glad you logged this.
Nobody cares about this, but usand we'll cut it out.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
But I wanted to get to the Epic stuff mostly.
Yeah, um, so from that point wewe had to pick up a shuttle, uh
, because there is no uh likeparking garage or lot uh that we
could use at epic.
So we were at city walk, um, wegot on the shuttle, we took it

(33:54):
over and then we got off and wewere there and the first thing
you see when you get off theshuttle and you are like walking
around the path is this uhentrance gate that they call the
Kronos, and it is this bigtower with like a bunch of
moving little discs in it andthey all represent the four

(34:19):
different worlds that are beingtied together at Epic Universe.
And it was so magical and Iteared up and it was a very
emotional thing to see for thefirst time in person a month
before the park opens you knowyeah.
It was just.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
It's really, really exciting.
It was a great thing.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
And it's got.
You know, it was just it'sreally really exciting.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
It's got you know this beautiful entrance music
and, yeah, it just hypes youright up.
So it does very exciting um sothat's the first like portal
that you walk in.
So each world has has a littleportal that you go through that
has like a little slogan orphrase over the top to kind of
let you know what you're goinginto.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
There's a whole lore and story behind it, which I
would love to get into at somepoint, but we're gonna have to
kind of just get through some ofthese things because there's a
lot to talk about.
Um, yeah, you go in and thefirst main hub area is called
celestial park.
It's the one that tieseverything together that all the

(35:21):
other portals branch off of,but in Celestial Park.
So the first thing I did thatday was apparently an hour and
20 minutes after we got in thepark, because I guess we were
just walking around looking atstuff and doing things or
whatever, or trying to get on,we had some lunch, yeah, we had

(35:44):
to get some food, um, and thenit was like rolling right up on
our daughter's nap time.
So we were like maybe we canjust like eat and then like get
her settled and maybe go do somethings.
Yeah, the first thing I didthat day was a ride called
Stardust Racers.
And you guys, it is a rollercoaster.

(36:06):
That is a dueling rollercoaster.
So I'm sure some of youremember from back in the day
dueling dragons over at Islandsof Adventure.
That got turned into DragonChallenge.
That eventually got torn downand in its place is hagrid.

(36:26):
Stardust racers is just, like Ialmost said, middle of the road
, but that's not I.
That's not being generousenough to.
It is my favorite like rollercoaster, without any other
modifiers on that at the moment.
It is fast, it is extremelydynamic, and the interplay

(36:48):
between these two differenttracks that like roll over each
other or race right next to eachother and you can just look at
the other people in the cartnext to you as it's going at the
same time.
There is nothing else like it.
I ended up writing both uh, theyellow and the green track for

(37:08):
this one, and I think the greentrack is my favorite just
because of the specific likemaneuvers that are happening
over a few parts but you can'tgo wrong and the wait times
during previews.
I waited like 30 minutes max Ithink the first time.
The second time I basicallywalked right on.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Yeah, mine was like 15 minutes and it would have
been faster if I did the yellow,but people had kept saying that
green was better, so I waitedjust a little bit longer for
green, but even so it was notthat long, and it's such a
smooth coaster.
So like you're, you're, You'rejust very like comfortable.
And I don't know, if I sayleisurely then it doesn't sound

(37:51):
thrilling, but it is.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
Leisurely in the way of like effortless yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
You do feel like you're.
You're just like shooting offon a star you know, it's, it's
beautiful.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
And, rather than it being like a bunch of dropping
and like heart sinking moments,I feel like the majority of this
roller coaster is what's calledejector airtime, where you feel
like you're coming out of yourseat, but it's like a floating
rather than like a VelociCoasterflipping you over the water,

(38:25):
feeling like you're going todrop into the ground.
It's like you're being pushedout of your seat and you feel
like you're flying, you know.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Yeah, it was.
It was a great time.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
It was lovely.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
Um.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
I did ride.
Um oh no, I didn't quite get toride the green track at night.
It was at six, 47.
So that would have been justbefore sunset.
You wanted to ride it, I wanteda night ride.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yeah, but then there are too many other things
calling your name by that point.
Yeah, yeah, uh, the.
The downside is that the queueis outdoors, so it will.
It will be hot.
It's a little hot In season.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
They have a ton of fans and a ton of covered areas,
though, and, like canopies,domes.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
Yeah, and the queue is not otherwise exciting.
There's not anythinginteresting to look at, no,
theming.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
It's like Art Deco, vaguely kind of centennial sort
of feel.
But, other than that.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
In comparison to the rest of Celestial Park, which is
gorgeous.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
Like, the queue isn't super exciting and it does fit
the theme of Celestial ParkRight.
Right.
Yes, the ride itself superexciting.
It does fit the theme ofCelestial Park, right Right.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
Yes, the ride itself, yeah, but yeah, that one was
phenomenal.
Um, I cannot believe that thenext ride I got on was monsters
unchained yeah, I, and that wasso funny because you were.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
you were saying, like , oh, what are the two rides
that I really want to do?
And we, we also wanted to doministry, but, uh, we'll talk
about that.
I know, um, but I feel like thefact that you got to do two of
the biggest rides you're mostexcited about back to back is
pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
And at the very beginning of the day.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
I think it's going to .
I think we, we want to spend alittle more time talking more in
depth about everything.
So I think, and as you can see,like we can really just dive
into each little thing, cause we, like you, just teased about
going to monsters and change,but we haven't even talked about
all the celestial park.
I know.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
I know, and that, honestly, each individual area,
this thing could have its entireepisode just by itself.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
I feel like, based on our experience, with it, maybe
it should, and maybe it shouldand yes, it will, and maybe it
will maybe just some uh quickimpressions, yeah um, so let's
start with celestial park.
What were your otherimpressions of this?
Because mine are this is thebest park, or this is the best

(40:45):
land or world I think they'recalled worlds to hang out in, if
you are not interested in goingto ride the rides, yeah, if you
have no care about that.
If you're like being drug alongwith your family.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
Or you're pregnant, or whatever.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Or for whatever reason you are not physically
capable of getting on the rides.
Go hang out in Celestial Park.
I mean, go walk around theother lands if you want, but
they have these water shows thathappen constantly and it's so
pleasant and just so relaxing tolook at.
The food is all really great.

(41:22):
I didn't even go to any of thebig restaurants.
I went to mostly quick servicestuff, but I did the um meteor
astro pub.
I got a burger there.
It was awesome, yeah, um, I gotseveral drinks from one of the
uh meteor astro pub and then,like one other place that was
right outside, it was all great.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
Um, we want to eat at pizza moon next time, because
we just walked in pizza moon butwe I mean we had autumn- there
was like no way we couldpossibly do it.
I think it was also like aweird time.
It wasn't quite lunch or dinner.
So we didn't want to eat likean entire pizza in the middle of
the day, but they looked sogood and the theme is so
phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (42:02):
It looks like, um, what do they call those old
texts from back in the day thathad the illustrations
Enlightened or illuminatedsomething?

Speaker 2 (42:15):
I don't know, but I need a visual cue.
You don't know this.
Maybe figure this out.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
I thought the art history might know what I was
talking about.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
You know that was a long time ago.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Illuminated text is what I'm going to think that
that is called, and Tyler fromthe future will cut in right
here if I'm wrong.
So I was either wrong or right.
Put put a uh picture on ourinstagram.
I will.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
I will, um, okay, so celestial park, great stardust
racers, incredible ride themusicians, I think were one of
the best parts of celestial parktoo, like there's a dedicated
band area where, like, rotatingbands will be playing and
they're all, like, themed withcostume.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
It's really cute like on a stage with a pavilion.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
Yes, and then there's also like just kind of roving
musicians, like this woman wasplaying this electric violin.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
That like so cool the electric Transparent.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
Like I love those violins that it's like not fully
there.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
The hollow.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
Yes, yeah, I was like I don't, I can't think of the
words, but she was so cool andso that it's just a really neat
area.
Lots of lighting on the groundand cued with the water.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
And something that Jess wouldn't have seen, but I
mean she saw in the videos thatI took all of the lighting in
the entire world of CelestialPark is all synced up to the
water show.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
So as it gets to be nighttime, you'll see everything
reacting to the music that ishappening across the entire park
.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
It's insane, um so it's a very gorgeous area and I
expected it to be like theboring area that you just want
to move through quickly to getto the other stuff, but it
wasn't yeah, it was very fun.
Um, I love stardust racers, butwe also did the carousel with
Autumn and it was gorgeous.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
The Constellation Carousel.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
Uh.
So, oh, man, I'm going to tryto go so fast through all this
stuff.
Uh, we will be coming back totalk about this.
Constellation Carousel wassomething that we did kind of in
the middle-ish of the oh no, itmight've been towards the end
of the day.
Oh, it was the last thing wedid before you left.

(44:36):
Actually, it was the last thingwe did with Adam.
Um, so at about six ish or so,uh, you guys headed out, um, but
we got on and it is this.
I mean, you've never seen acarousel like this before
because there's there's it's notyour typical like
merry-go-round style, where it'sjust like rows and rows stacked
up and they all kind of goaround in a circle.
Um, there are like these littleturntables within the larger
turntable of the entire thing,so you're like spinning

(44:58):
independently of some of theother things, and all of the
animals are themed to animalsfrom constellations.
We got to sit on a dragon withour daughter and she loved it.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
She was like a little dragon rider and she had
learned to love dragons a lotearlier in the day yes, we spent
a lot of time at isle of burkeyeah, which is the how to train
your dragon world yeah, and she,she discovered a love for
dragons, and that's just all shewanted to talk about dragons,
dragons it was great, oh man,she kept going yeah, yeah um,

(45:33):
but yeah, no, that was anabsolute blast and uh, so okay
so the other worlds, we haveisla burke
which is the how to train yourdragon incredible yeah like
absolutely amazing.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
So much kinetic energy, uh, animatronics
everywhere.
It's, it's the best yes, andlots of.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
I think it's the largest, so I think there's the
most rides in that area um verykid friendly um, but there's
also great stuff there was acrazy playground there that
autumn absolutely loved it wascalled the like the viking
training training camp orsomething like that yeah, um,
the food was really good.

(46:19):
The got mead yeah which was funyeah, the rides were were great
, so um, so we'll do a deeperdive, but uh, what?
Uh, what was your best?
What was your favorite part ofIsla Burke?

Speaker 1 (46:32):
My favorite part of Isla Burke was, uh, I didn't get
to see it running quite a lot,um, but there was this one
particular spot where, okay, doyou remember the animatronics
which, uh, and seriously, likeI'm saying this right now,

(46:53):
listener, you are not preparedfor the amount of moving things
that are in this land, uh, thelikes of which I have not seen
in any other universal park.
But there was this one spotwhere the baby dragons are
fighting over a fish.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
yeah, yeah, love that .

Speaker 1 (47:07):
But if you're standing right there and you're
looking across the little lakethat's there with the statues,
occasionally you'll see thecoaster train for Hiccup's wing
gliders going around.
You can also see the DragonRacers Rally training little

(47:27):
flat ride going.
Racer's rally.
Uh, like training a little flatride going.
Uh, you can see uh from thatexact same spot.
Uh, you can look at fire drillwith like the boats going around
.
So just being able to see somuch happening all at once was
my favorite.
And then the other secondfavorite thing, just because it
was like the biggest oh, itactually wasn't the biggest

(47:48):
animatronic we saw that day.
There's an ice dragon and Idon't remember his name but over
near one of the food areas heis like just kind of has knocked
out part of the roof of one ofthe buildings and you can walk
up next to him and he's justdoing his thing and not talking
like words but like you know,whatever Autumn loved him,

(48:12):
thought he was great.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
He was great.
Yeah, I think that's what is soexciting.
Is that from any one spot youcan see so much of this land, so
, um, similar to the superNintendo world, like it.
You just walk in and you'reyou're just like a kid and giddy
and you're like, oh my God, Igot to look at it all.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
You just immersed and overwhelmed.
That was another world.
That, uh, my daughter and Iworked, or we worked there.
Uh, I guess kind of we did Um.
My daughter and I walked intothat for the first time, I think
without you cause you were onmonsters maybe yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
That sounds right.
Yeah, and then I met up withy'all after, yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
I mean I can look over here.
But yeah, we walked into thatworld and I was just like how
does this exist?
Yeah, it really does somethingto your mind to be looking at
this immersive world of thesegames that I have played for a

(49:13):
long time and I have neverreally looked at, uh, uh, like
especially an old Mario game andbeen like I want to be in there
, but like it just isn't.
It's stuck in my head.
You know, like I have that andcan recall that very like easily
, uh, and to be standing thereand seeing it all happening and

(49:35):
again, seeing it all in motionyes, and all the animatronics
moving.
It's so cool and all the coinsspinning and all the shells
moving around like on the cliffledges and stuff.
So cool uh favorite part of uhfavorite part of that one is
probably uh, I mean, the firstthing that's coming to mind is

(49:57):
the piranha plants- yeah they'rehuge, they're like they look
like they're 20 feet tall andthey're just like kind of
reaching down and like snappingat you and stuff.
Honestly, my favorite part ofthat land was getting the power
up band and like hitting all theblocks and stuff.
Yes, that's just a blast Autumnthought it was really funny too
.
Yes.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
So, for those who don't know, there's a lot of
interactive elements in theSuper Nintendo world.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
You can play it as a game.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
Yes.
So kind of like if you have awand and you're going to the
like spell stops in the HarryPotter worlds, this you, it's
just an elastic band you strapon and then you can be Mario and
punch bricks and go blowingyeah, yeah, and it connects to

(50:45):
an app that you can keep trackall keep track of all the points
that you're getting, so that'sreally cool and fun.
I did not get the opportunityto ride any rides in Super
Nintendo World.
So, I can't review.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
I only did the one.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
I know, because there's only two.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
Well, no, there was Yoshi.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Yeah, that's the other one.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
Minecart.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
Oh, so yeah, that's the Donkey Kong Country area,
which I didn't even see when Iwas there Right right, which is
such a shame.
We split up several times,trying to do the things that we
wanted to do, and so some of ussaw things that the other one
didn't.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
Well, and it was, you know, just never enough time,
that was also one of the onesthat was like 115, 120 minutes
regularly, so I'm like I'm notwaiting two hours.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
There are two hours that I can be going to do other
things in the parks.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
Yes, yes so.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
And, from what I've heard, not a two hour wait
worthy ride.
Well you know, but fun.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Fun and really incredibly themed.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
Yeah, mostly, it was just so fun to be in that space
I and I want to ride the ridesare you familiar with, like the
donkey kong stuff at all notsuper yeah, I didn't think so uh
, I think we played togetherlike once maybe so, but it's
still fun.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
Yeah, because everything's moving.
Yeah, it's all just like yeahno, it's very cool imagine if
you were walking around jurassicpark and you could just see
dinosaurs like coming in and outof, like the, the bushes on the
walk path, like, yeah, yeah,like you know, that would be
awesome, yeah, yeah, yeah soyeah, so that was a blast.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
Um, so I will say uh, let's see which.
Which one do you want to talkabout next?
Uh, briefly, dark, dark what isit?

Speaker 1 (52:29):
dark, dark universe, dark, more dark.
You know it's called the townis dark more, but yeah, dark
universe okay, um.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
So that is where all the universal classic monsters
live.
So, if you like, um.
What does hHN stand for?

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Halloween Horror Nights.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
I was like haunted Haunted haunted night.
I couldn't.
Yeah, my brain isn't workinganymore.
So if you like Halloween,horror Nights and you're like
why don't they just do this allyear long?
Now there's a specific placewhere you can be spooky all year
long there is.
And it's really cool.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
And you're not not gonna get like jump scared as
you're walking around.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
No, I'm a total wimp and I was fine um.
I was fine on um monstersunchanged.
Yeah yeah and and wow.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
Well, we'll talk about that ride later that was
part of that was also that youuh got stuck on that ride for a
little bit a little bit, yeah,but you know, um yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
So I mean that was obviously the best part, but I
mean there's so much theming.
That's really great there.
There's a lot of um characteractors that are out and
musicians uh, igor's walkingaround.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
We saw in the invisible man.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
Yes, we were in there and he just wants to like roast
young children.
Yeah, dude, he's a one-manroastery yeah, like fully just
burning people as they come upto meet with him yep, um, I must
have looked really hot at onepoint because I was waiting for
um.
What's the uh restaurant thathas the windmill that lights on
fire?
burning blade tavern yes, so Iwas.

(54:05):
I was waiting there trying tosee if the windmill would light
on fire.
It wasn't, but I was standingthere for like 10 minutes.
I'm like fanning myself.
Pretty sure autumn's asleep atthat point and one of the um,
one of the team members, came upto me and he's like you know
that the the steam fountain,it's, it's, you know, it'll cool
you down, you can go over therelike.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
He was like worried about me and I'm like, oh, thank
you.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
So anyway, if you're really hot, go to the the steam
fountain in the main square whenyou first walk in, because
it'll, it's, it'll cool you down.
It's a cooling mist yeah, yeah,it's not actual hot steam, um,
but I thought I thought that wasvery funny, um.
So, yeah, that area very spooky, very cool.
All the food everywhere is justlike it's a little more

(54:51):
expensive, but I feel like whatyou get.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
The quality compared to the other two universal parks
is, like I mean, at least 20,30% better than any of the other
universal parks right.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
So instead of I'm paying 12 for a shitty hot dog,
it's, I'm paying 16 for adelicious meal for a really good
hot dog right, no, no, it's notjust hot dogs, it's like actual
, like legit food, um, like yeah, the variety is also yes all
over the place too, like they'rereally going in to try to

(55:29):
experiment and like play withwhat.
Yeah, it's not just thematicRight Right, not just regular
theme park food.
It's all really cool stuff.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
Um, so, yeah, so, uh, dark universe was really cool.
Uh, we loved it.
And last, uh, what is it justcalled Ministry or what the oh
boy, the Wizarding World ofHarry Potter.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Ministry of Magic.
Yes, which is odd because thereare so many odd things about
this land.
Look we loved it.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
It's still great.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
It's really fun to be in.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
We are conflicted about our feelings about this
world currently For reasons, forreasons, the main reason is
that, unfortunately, there is avirtual queue for the ministry
ride, which is the only ride inthat world.
So there's the Cirque show.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
Le Cirque Acunil.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
Yes, which I've heard is great.
But if you go to Epic, you wantto be sure to get to the shows
a half hour before they start,because they will fill up.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
Yeah, so we kept missing all the shows, um I
didn't see a single show while Iwas there, which is really
unfortunate, because there were,you know, the.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
There's one in isla burke.
That's supposed to be reallycool, um, but anyway.
So so we didn't actually get todo anything in.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
Well, we get to do one thing in the ministry world.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
Well, we got to eat.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Which is eat and shop , and the eating was really good
.
The eating was really good Doyou want to talk about what
we've got?

Speaker 2 (57:00):
Yeah, yeah, I'll get there.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
But, first.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
So the virtual queue for ministry.
Right now that's what they'redoing.
I had a friend who managed togo there the weekend after us
and she got her whole familywith eight people in and they
actually got two wait times.
So they got to ride it on ittwice in a row, which is really

(57:24):
super cool.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
But Tyler and I completely missed all
opportunities and I fullydrained my phone battery because
the entire day that I was thereI was refreshing, looking for
them because I had heard thatthey were dropping different
like wait times throughout theday or queue times to be able to
reserve, and then so you guysleft and I'm doing that

(57:47):
basically the entire rest oflike the two hours or whatever
that I'm there, and theneventually gave up at about nine
because I was like I guessthey're just not doing it
anymore.
Uh, but the I mean like, taketaking into consideration that
it is a technical rehearsal.
They're operating at limitedcapacity already because the

(58:12):
ride apparently is not runningvery well, so they're having to
run like maybe a 10th, a 12th ofwhat they would normally be
wanting to do in terms ofcapacity to get people through,
because it's going to be themost in-dem in the entire park.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
Right yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
Um, and it's still not functioning very well, like
that makes me a little worriedabout what it's going to be like
when it opens.
And then, because the demandwas extra high, because the
capacity was extra reduced,things were like there were two
points throughout the day whereit allowed me to go in and look
at the times for the virtualqueue, because I just happened

(58:50):
to get in there at the righttime and then every single one I
pressed no kidding, like 30different slots for times.
It would be like sorry, theslot's no longer available.
Sorry, no longer available.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
Over and over again.
So we're both a littlefrustrated about that and hope
that they're well.
First, okay, a few differentthings.
One hope the ride works, yeah,period.
And then two, hope that theycan come up with some other
system to.
What I hope they don't do isbecause of the insane demand.

(59:28):
Make it like a lightning linething where you have to buy like
a $25 thing to reserve the time, but I mean, what else are they
going to do at that?

Speaker 2 (59:37):
point.
I mean I would pay for it, butthat's the problem, Right and?

Speaker 1 (59:40):
then.
So then everybody would pay forit yeah, and then that becomes
the new standard right so Idon't want that.
I want to try to vote with mywallet in that way.
About that?
Yeah but I mean don't have agreat alternative.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
Yeah, uh, beautiful theming in the land, though it
does feel mostly like you'rejust in epic.
Uh like not epic, sorry, epcotParis.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
And also there is no connection between Paris and
London.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
The whole thing doesn't really make any sense
narratively.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
Right, so you are, you walk into.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
Granted, we're not very familiar with Fantastic
Beasts, which the land is basedon Right, but still.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
You walk into 1920s Paris, which is one of the
Fantastic Beasts movies.
It's beautiful.
It's very subtly magical.
So I feel like you know, yougot to like really look into
things and kind of see that it'smagical.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
And see the shop windows with like the brooms and
stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
At first glance, though, it just feels like Paris
.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
The murals, once you get close, though, are like, so
cool, and they all depict theselike magical creatures, and
they're yeah, it's, it's verydetailed there's almost no.
This is the other difference.
Almost no kinetic energy inthat land.
Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, incomparison to the other ones
that's.

Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
That's a good point.
Yeah, there are some likeinteractive things that are neat
.
Um we'll, we'll talk about thismore in the deep dive, yeah
just a big contrast between thatone and the rest.
Yeah, yeah, it's kind of ashame um, but we did get to eat
at um one of the mainrestaurants, seren la cafe
serena something like that likethat mermaid, french mermaid
cafe.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Yeah, um, they got a butterbeer creep there's a
butterbeer creep.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
You guys?
Cafe Serena, something likethat, something like that.
Mermaid, french Mermaid Cafe,the mermaid guy.
Yeah, they got a ButterbeerCreep.
There's a Butterbeer.
Creep, you guys, and it's sogood, it's so fucking good, it's
so good I've heard that it Ithink it is 100% my, because I,
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
I mean I like Butterbeer.
I enjoy having butterbeer but Idon't have it very often
because it's kind of heavy andlike I'm not much of a like fill
myself up on sweets kind of guy, but the butterbeer crepe, I
think, is my favorite butterbeerproduct.
Yeah, that is sold on theproperty really, really good.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
I've heard that it can sell out quick, so if you
are in the mood for a sweettreat, try to go a little
earlier.
You know it's huge, so you cansplit it between two or three
people.
Fine, so that was delicious,you know it was.
It was pretty to go in there,but unfortunately if you

(01:02:16):
couldn't get into either of theof the ride or the show of that
world, then it's just like oh,I'm kind of looking around and
I'm kind of interested in thingsLike trying to do magic with my
wand and maybe it's not workingsuper well.
Well, if you have a wand, youknow, so it the, and I don't.
I can't remember how much thepower-up band was, but I think

(01:02:37):
that's a lot cheaper than aninteractive wand, right?
It's probably like 20 30cheaper, yeah, right.
So a lot more accessible foryou to do the interactive
elements over in super marioworld.
I have to fact check that yeah,yeah, do you remember how you?

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
I don't yeah, well, anyway was just going to get it
anyway.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
basically, you just had already budgeted for that,
Um.
So yeah, I, I feel like the Ihad expected the Harry Potter
stuff to be the best, because Ilove Harry Potter so much, Um,
and I think, in comparisonusually for like studios and
islands, I just want to be inthe Harry Potter worlds and I

(01:03:20):
could.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
I could just live there and be happy there.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
But over at Epic I would say I liked it, but I
liked all the other worlds more,so I I would hang out there and
I'm super excited to doministry eventually.
Um but, uh, and it is beautiful, um, um, but it just doesn't
get me as excited and it maybeit's because I'm not as familiar
of uh like an emotionalattachment yes to that one, yes

(01:03:48):
as I do to the other ones maybeif I watch the movies, then
maybe I would, maybe but, fromwhat I've heard, irrelevant,
which sucks yeah because theride and well, like I said,
we're gonna do a part two wherewe go through all the individual
rides and we'll talk about thatthen the ride I love, I very

(01:04:08):
much identify with it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
Didn't see it, didn't ?

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
see the queue right.
So the the you walk into 1920sparis, but then you go to the
flu network and you gettransported through time and
space to 1990s London, which isthe Harry Potter that we all
know and love yeah, where like athing is happening with
Umbridge, so so and like sothat's what you know and what

(01:04:32):
you're excited about, but therest of it is different we had
to get through all that to getto there.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
I know I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
Which I get why they did it because basically, the
only other aspects of HarryPotter that you know are you
know, we already did the DiagonAlley, we already did Hogsmeade,
we've already got Muggle London, so that's it.
They don't have anything elsefor you to be in you know what?

Speaker 1 (01:04:59):
I have a quick pitch right now that I just thought of
.
That would have made a betterthird world.

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
What.

Speaker 1 (01:05:03):
The Forbidden Forest.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
Oh, shoot, yeah, oh, that would have been dope.
You have the.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
Lomping Willow.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
You got the Shrieking Shack you can bump off to you
got the whole Centaur fellowshipor whatever you could have gone
through if you had to get tothe Forbidden Forest to get to
the ministry.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Yeah, and like whatever hideout that the, the
marauders like had or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
Well, they were in the Whomping Willow.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
Yeah, I and you could have done.
Like the lake from the, theycould have done an underwater
thing with, like the mermaidsids, you know, and hey look, oh
universal.
Hey guys, get up with us forthe, for the next one, for the
fourth one, for the next one.

Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
Maybe we could just pretend like the third one
didn't do do that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
Uh, I think you know, okay, never mind, because your
idea was great and I wish theydid that.
Um, but it so I I'm glad thatthey did something different,
because if they just did anotherlondon backdrop, you've already
seen it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
I mean I can't think of any other london yeah, places
that would have made any senseright so you've already seen
that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
I mean, I guess they could have done like oh, this is
Privet Drive, but again, that'snot interesting, I don't think
so.

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
So I think if they had fully committed to have the
entire thing just be theministry, yeah, like you walk
through the portal, you're inthe ministry.
There could have been so manydifferent.
There could have beencourtyards, even if that is the
concern.
Yeah Of being like cooped upthe entire time.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
The whole place could have been the ministry and then
just one section be theministry ride.
Yeah, yeah, maybe, maybe.

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
I don't know if you live and you learn or you don't.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
But I mean, you know it's, I would just go in, I
think the whole.
I had high expectations.
I haven't dived in as much asyou have, so it exceeded and
neither of us got to do the rideright.
But but I mean for for all ofepic.
Like I didn't know everythingas much because I didn't want to
be super duper spoiled, um, orhave it be spoiled for me, um.

(01:07:08):
But then I was like, actually Iwant to be kind of prepared so
I started looking up stuff.
So, um, I was very excited.
I thought it exceeded myexpectations overall for
everything.
I think that's just the the onecaveat for the har, the Harry
Potter stuff, is that I wouldhave expected that to be amazing
and it was good and I enjoyedit and I liked it, but it wasn't

(01:07:28):
jaw dropping Fantastic.

Speaker 1 (01:07:31):
Which is what we all wanted.
Yes, obviously yes.

Speaker 2 (01:07:33):
Um, but not not to knock it by any means Um.
So the whole experience wasgreat.
We had a great time.
I can't wait to go back.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
Um and we, we are going back, which is the other
exciting thing.
It's already in the books.

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
And I don't know we might be.
We're going to go back before.
I don't know.
I've got some time off forMemorial day.

Speaker 1 (01:07:53):
I don't know We'll who's look, who's to say.
If you want to sponsor us goingon another trip, yeah, Feel
free to get in touch with us andsend it to let me get my bank
account information up here.

Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
One sec, yeah, that's 459.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
That's not any, that's not real.

Speaker 2 (01:08:11):
I feel like it was just a three digit number.
You can find me at 459.
Send it to 459.
Done.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
But thank you for coming on this journey with us.
I almost said coming on thisride with us, um, also would
have been applicable.
Uh, I love you all.
I love you.
Thanks, my wife, um, and if youwant to get in touch with us,
feel free to text us using usingthe link in the show notes or
send us an email at ride it out.
Pod pod P-O-D at gmailcom.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
Any other things you want to plug or talk about Not
really Stay tuned, for we'll doanother deep dive.
Part two coming up yeah we gotsome other good content.
I think we are likely going tobe spacing this out as an every
other week release.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
Yeah, that seems to work well for us.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
The weekly was a little ambitious.
So, um, hopefully that meansthat, uh, you will get some
really good content that we willhave time for.
Likely It'll be the same andwe'll be just as tired.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
Probably the same but at least I'll have time to edit
it.
There we go, there we go.
Um yeah, there we go.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
There we go.
Yeah, and we'll be.
Our next planned trip is goingto be in June, that we'd be
going down, but I'm sure we'llhave some fun adventures planned
in the future.
And thanks for hanging out and,as always, no screens.

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
No screens until we write a game.
It's going to be one of thosetwo for sure.
Bye Bye screens until we writeit down.
It's gonna be one of those twofor sure.