Inside Epic Universe: A First Look at Universal’s Most Immersive Theme Park Yet!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to all things Travel.
and his son just got home fromhis trip to Universal Orlando
and visited Epic Universe today.
We welcome his son, Caleb, as heand Ryan share all about their
trip.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (00:14):
Listen in with travel advisors and
destination experts.
Ryan and Julie, I'm your travelprofessor teaching you
everything you need to know tohave a magical vacation, and
she's a Disney loving Marylandmom of three and a specialist in
family travel.
Whether we're discussingincredible destinations, top
vacation tips, or sharingpersonal stories, it's always

(00:35):
all things travel.
We are excited to talk aboutUniversal and epic universe.
How are you doing today, Julie?

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (00:46):
I'm doing good.
We had a busy weekend, but theweather is beautiful here in
Maryland, And I cannot wait tohear about this trip.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (00:55):
Well, I've got somebody who's gonna
help us share all about it.
I've got Caleb, my 16-year-oldson here with us today.
How you doing, Caleb?

caleb-struble-hedstrom_1_06 (01:04):
I'm doing great.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (01:05):
All right.
He's actually excited to dothis.
he said several times he'sexcited to do the podcast and
talk all about Epic.
at the end of the night, helooked at me as we were leaving
the park and he said, dad, thatwas an epic day.
And then he stopped and he'slike, oh my gosh, I can't
believe that I inadvertentlymade a dad joke.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (01:25):
I was just gonna say, that's a dad
joke.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (01:28):
Well, I posted on Instagram, yes, it's
epic outside the gates.
And my college age daughter, dmdme on Instagram and she said,
dad, this is lame.
So, I get it from both sides.
All right, we are gonna talkabout this trip today.
just to give you a little bit ofcontext, this was for Caleb's
16th birthday and he reallywanted to do Universal even

(01:51):
before Epic Universe wasannounced we were excited to
kind of double dip with that.
We spent three and a half daystotal at Universal and did the
park to Parks, did Volcano Bay,did Island to Adventure, did
Universal Studios.
So we can talk a little bitabout that if you want, Julie,

(02:11):
but obviously our focus rightnow is talking about our day at
Epic Universe.
And I say day because right nowif you have a vacation package,
you are allowed one day when yougo to Epic Universe.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (02:25):
It looks like for 2026, that's not the
case.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_1904 (02:28):
Correct.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (02:29):
tickets have just said three day park
ticket.
And it's like, as opposed toright now when you're buying
tickets, when we're recordingthis, it's like two day plus one
day epic.
It's a little confusing.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_1 (02:42):
absolutely.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (02:43):
so

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (02:43):
And,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (02:44):
capacity controlled.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (02:46):
and also as of today, they have now
added Haggards to the expresspass last week it was confirmed,
but it's not public.
How's that for being cryptic?
It's confirmed but not public.
That Hagrid is part of theexpress pass.
Now, starting today,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (03:05):
So when you guys were there, it was not

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (03:07):
So for us, we used the strategy of just
going there first thing in themorning because it was not
included.
And that worked just fine, Wepretty much just walked straight
through the queue, which wasabout a 15 minute walk.

caleb-struble-hedstrom_1_06- (03:19):
we had to wait a little bit.
But yeah, we got pretty muchthrough,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (03:21):
Yeah.

we were first in line so it helped.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (03:23):
amazing.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (03:23):
Yeah.
We were first in line forislands of adventure that day.
let's talk about that and let'stalk about Epic universe.
But before we do that, if youhave not listened to last week's
episode, Julie and I break downall the things going on at Walt
Disney World this summer andgive you some 20, 25 travel
plans when it comes to WaltDisney and the options and
promos that are there now.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (03:45):
okay, so we're gonna do this as a.
Leisurely interview where I havesome questions that I think our
listeners would also have.
and you guys are gonna give me

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (03:56):
Sure.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (03:57):
and if there's things that you wanna
add on, we can certainly dothat.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (04:00):
All right.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (04:01):
I think let's back up before you went on
the trip and talk a little bitabout planning the trip.
this was a trip that wassupposed to be a couple months
ago, but then we decided to waituntil Epic opens.
I remember Ryan, us talkinglike, oh, now the Epic tickets
are available, and then, oh, nowExpress Pass is available.
going into the trip, did youhave a general touring plan in

(04:24):
mind

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (04:25):
Yes.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (04:26):
a reason you chose that day?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (04:28):
Yes.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (04:28):
did you have an idea of how you were
gonna go around the park?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (04:33):
Yes.
So when it became apparent thatEpic was gonna be open when we
were there, or that we weregonna be there when Epic was
open, Caleb and I kind ofstarted to talk about Epic
Universe.
We watched the promo videos thatUniversal put out to kind of
learn about the lands.
And then I started to do somedeep diving just a couple weeks
ago as it opened for previews.

(04:54):
what are people talking about?
What are people saying?
so we knew we had a three day.
park to park ticket plus a oneday at Epic Universe.
our ticket included, park topark access to Islands of
Adventure, volcano Bay andUniversal Studios.
And then one day at Epic, theway that it works now is the day

(05:14):
that you go to Epic, you can goin and out of Epic, but you
cannot go to other parks thatday.
So there are some restrictionsthere.
and so we kind of talked aboutwhat we wanted to do.
Then Express Pass came out, andthen the question was do we pay
for Express Pass because it wasnot inexpensive, but all of my

(05:35):
wisdom from theme park planningsaid what?
Yes, I mean, we, we had to do itbecause we didn't wanna miss out
on the things that we didn'twanted to miss out or that we
didn't wanna miss out on.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (05:46):
I remember before Express Pass
came out, you were like, ourgoal is like three rides.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (05:52):
Yeah, Caleb, when we talked about it,
it was kind of like, we're gonnado what we can do and we're
gonna see what we can see andwe're just gonna be excited
about that.
Caleb, as we talked about whatwe were most excited about with
the four Lands, what were theones that we talked about the
most?

caleb-struble-hedstrom_1_06-0 (06:07):
I mean for sure.
the Harry Potter, that was ahuge thing.
That's Universal's kind ofstaple.
You've got the.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (06:12):
Yeah.

caleb-struble-hedstrom_1_ (06:12):
Dagon Alley and universal Studios and
you've got the Hogwarts andIslands of Adventure and that
was a big thing.
How are they gonna add some moreonto that?
'cause they already have two bigpieces in the parks, so that was
really cool to see how they

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (06:25):
Yeah.

on Fantastic Beasts in the Ministry
of Magic.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (06:27):
so it's based off of the second
Fantastic Beast movie.
it's all about Paris and thenduring the ride you're
transported from Paris to London

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (06:37):
and

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (06:37):
it's amazing.
We also talked about Nintendoworld, and I know Caleb was
really excited about that withthe Mario Kart ride, Caleb was
just blown away.
And we'll talk about each of thelands here in a little bit, but
I think Caleb was blown away atthe theming when we walked in

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (06:53):
So if you had three rides that were your
must dos going into the trip,what were they?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (07:01):
Mario Kart definitely,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (07:02):
Mm-hmm.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_1904 (07:03):
monsters Unchained, which was in the,
dark universe.
And to be honest, Up until rightbefore we went, I didn't know if
Harry Potter was gonna be anoption.
and it certainly was.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (07:15):
That's awesome.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (07:16):
so yeah, I think as far as
pre-gaming, we just kind oflooked at the different lands
and prioritized.
and then, once we got to theresort, I'm kind of talking to
the vacation desk people.
Okay, what should we do withtransportation?
how should I plan this out?

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (07:31):
So I've, one more question about the
planning.
once you did have Express Pass,did you have an idea of like,
okay, this is where we wanna gofirst?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (07:42):
the lands that we were most excited
about were our priorities.
We didn't realize, to be honest,how much we could do in the day.
we were like, we know we want todo Nintendo.
We know we want to do HarryPotter.
We know we want to do darkUniverse.
If we get to how to Train yourDragon, that's okay.

caleb-struble-hedstrom_ (07:57):
Mm-hmm.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (07:58):
yeah,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (07:58):
it's

ryan_1_06-01-2025_19041 (07:58):
Express Pass really.
So right now with Express Pass,there's only several things,
that are not included.
Harry Potter is one of them.
So we knew we had to monitorthat time because we were gonna
have to wait regardless for thatride.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (08:13):
All right, so talk to us about
transportation to Epic Universe,because it's not on the same
campus as Islands of Adventure,universal Studios and all of
those resorts.
what was transportation likegetting there?
Was it far, did you feel like itwas convenient

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (08:28):
when I checked into the vacation
planning desk, I asked the,person working there what time
the buses started, and theystarted at 7:00 AM because early
entry for a resort guest was ateight.
and so Caleb, what did we dothat morning?

We got up at maybe five o'clock in
the morning.
don't even know, but

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (08:49):
we,

FI 5 45, but

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (08:51):
yeah,

We got down there.
I mean, we

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (08:53):
we were downstairs by about,
because here's the thing, Julie,why not?
I mean, we have one shot atthis, and so

day

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (09:02):
I would rather be there.
At the beginning we gotdownstairs about six 15.
and then there was a bus rightthere waiting.
'cause the woman at the vacationplanning desk made it sound like
if you're not there at seven,you're kind of out of luck.
But it was not that way at all.

caleb-struble-hedst (09:19):
completely.
It was

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (09:20):
we wait and so the buses are at the
resorts and they're in the sameplace.
The buses for Volcano Bay wouldbe at those resorts.
We were staying at the RoyalPacific, I would say it was
about a 15 minute bus ride.
it felt a lot like Disney, goingfrom your resort to one of the
parks.
One we got off at the, at theRoyal Pacific spot.

(09:40):
We walked up and we were firstin line at one of the lanes

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (09:44):
that's amazing.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (09:45):
and I'm like, we are here, we're
ready to go.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (09:49):
what time did you get there?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (09:51):
We got there about,

six 50

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (09:55):
yeah, I would say around seven o'clock
and there were people there butover that next hour it filled up
and, I was glad that we werewhere we wanted to be,
especially'cause I didn't know alot about the directions in Epic
Universe.
in City Walk, what did we seethe night before Caleb?
They had an epic preview center.
What did they have in the middleof that?

they had a giant model of the entire
park.
we kind of got an idea from thatto see exactly where we wanted
to go

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (10:23):
Yeah,

what they kind of looked like.
it wasn't enough to prepare usfor what they actually looked

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (10:27):
right.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (10:27):
so weird to go to a park that you're not

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (10:30):
Oh yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (10:31):
where to

yeah,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_1 (10:32):
absolutely.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (10:32):
to like Magic Kingdom.
I know where everything is.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (10:35):
Yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (10:36):
That's crazy.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (10:36):
two of the four lands were open,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (10:38):
For

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (10:39):
that early hour.
And that was the, super Nintendoworld, and that was the dark
universe.
so we decided to go to the SuperNintendo world first.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (10:50):
Mm-hmm.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (10:51):
I think a lot of people went over
to Harry Potter to get in line,for the ride.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (10:57):
but

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (10:57):
all of the lands, I would say overall,
they were people, eaters.
there could be thousands ofpeople in those lands, and it
did not feel like it at all.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (11:06):
I don't love the strategy of going to
just wait in line when it's

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (11:11):
No.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (11:12):
on early entry because you might be one
of the first people in line, butyou're missing everything else

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (11:17):
Sure.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (11:18):
early

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (11:18):
since we had the express pass, we had
a little bit of privilege withthat, of knowing that we were
gonna be able to go into mostthings.
we thought we were going toMario Kart.
We actually ended up going toDonkey Kong'cause I was kind of
following the crowd.
And that ride would, that ridewouldn't start.
And so at about eight 15, I'mlike, Caleb, why don't we come

(11:38):
back?
And so we jumped out, went rightto Mario Kart, actually decided
to use our express pass and

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (11:46):
and

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (11:47):
what did you think of Mario Kart?

it proved to me that Epic universe
has a lot more technology thanwhat we were expecting in rides
and what they've been doing overthe years.
the whole point of Mario Kart isyou have goggles and you put'em
on.
They're a, they're ar goggles onaugmented reality, but you put
'em on and it, you know, theyhave images displayed and you're
shooting things just like youare on Mario Kart, and it was
really amazing.

(12:11):
It was a fun kind of interactiveride.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (12:14):
Are you in a ride vehicle

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (12:16):
Yeah.

caleb-struble-hedstrom_1 (12:17):
You're in a ride

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (12:18):
Yeah, it,

yeah.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (12:19):
It's almost like Toy story mania if
Toy Story mania was moving theentire time.

Yeah.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (12:27):
Is that fair,

Yeah, I mean, it's based off of Mario
Kart, so it's a race, you know,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (12:30):
Yeah.

wheel and you turn and your goal is to
get coins or whatever it is.
And so, you know, you're turningand you're riding in a car
essentially.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (12:39):
Caleb, what version or game system of
Mario Kart did you grow up on?

I didn't ever actually had any,
Mario Kart or anything.
I have played Mario Kart, a lotwith my friends in their houses,
but I was always a We sports.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (12:57):
but when you were playing with them, was
that on a we system for Mario,

Yes, I think so.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (13:02):
Okay.

So I guess we would work.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (13:04):
That works.
I have a classic N 64, like theoriginal Mario Kart, my kids
even play it now and it's so

Wow.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (13:12):
gonna be so excited to see that.

Yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (13:15):
did you end up getting on Donkey Kong or
No,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (13:17):
We,

caleb-struble-hedstrom (13:17):
actually did

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (13:18):
we kept joking.
It was like the fates wereagainst us that day because,
once it got up, we left went toother places and then came back,
found out they were at capacity.
And then found out that wasn'tpart of the Express Pass, which
I didn't know.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (13:35):
Yeah,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (13:35):
And then it started raining, so it
was shut down for weather.
So we're like, well, I guesswe're just not supposed to ride
that ride today.
And you know what?
We did so much, Julie, that itkind of became a joke.
so we're just like, well, Iguess we're not supposed to ride
that that day.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (13:48):
And that's okay next time.
So give us an overview of whatlands you visited, the
attractions you

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (13:54):
Sure.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (13:55):
the meat of the day,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (13:57):
epic Universe is four distinct lands
with a hub called Celestial Parkthat has a carousel and a rower
coaster and several restaurantsand shops and kind of what looks
like it's gonna be anentertainment center.
Helios, the hotel, first of all,let me talk about the.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (14:17):
where's the hotel?
It's outside the park or inside

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (14:21):
it's inside you can walk straight
from Helios into Epic universe.
Yeah.
It's kind of like the GrandCalifornia and walking into
California adventure.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (14:29):
Okay.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (14:29):
I told you through a text and then I
explained it to Caleb.
I said, celestial Park seemed tome like if the Riviera Resort,
which is one of my favoriteresorts at Disney, because I
just love how beautiful and Ilove the calm theming.
I said, if that was a themepark, it would be Celestial
Park.

It was the Italian style roofing
and the white brick all aroundthat made it really feel

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (14:54):
Yeah.
four Lands, you've got the SuperNintendo world.
Caleb, why don't you talk alittle bit about what are the
things that are in SuperNintendo world?

For sure.
well, I mean, it's,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (15:04):
I.

so you've got theming all around.
There's these little, wristbandsthat you can buy that are really
cool.
You buy them, they're sort oflike magic bands, but they only
work in, one park or in the, inthe Super Mario world.
So you go around and there'sthere's three rides.
There's a Yoshi's adventure,which is sort of a,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (15:23):
A kid ride.

you don't really do much.
It's a nice relaxing

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (15:26):
It's a great way to get pictures of the
land, to be honest with you.

Yeah.
you got the Mario Kart, that'sthe one we talked about earlier.
And then you have the DonkeyKongs.
But I can't talk about

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (15:36):
Yeah.

I have no idea.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (15:38):
But the Donkey Kong ride is in a
distinct Donkey Kong area too,which is cool.
with those wristbands, there'splaces all around to use it.
And there's actually, so it'snot just, you're not just using
on the ride, you're, but you canconnect it to the rides there.
It's all over the land.
You're collecting, coins andpoints and all that kind of

(15:58):
stuff.

It's the same way

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (16:00):
Yeah.

a great job of making their lands
very interactive.
But for, food wise, there is a,toad themed restaurant, which is
very good.
We ate there, had a little snackthere.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (16:11):
Yep.

it's a nice little place.
it has, 3D kind of images on thewalls that move.
they have a few snack shopsaround.
they do not have breakfast,which we found

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (16:19):
that's one of the things I was gonna
talk about when we talked aboutdining The lands that were open
didn't have breakfast.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (16:25):
Oh, that's weird.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (16:26):
that was really different than Disney
because a lot of places willhave a breakfast menu.
and I think that's one thing Iwould say with Universal is,
especially in Epic univers, Iknow other places, I mean, we
have breakfast in the otherparks.
there weren't breakfast optionsand that almost did feel like an
oversight, we walked into theToad Stool Cafe and they're
like, well, you could have thespaghetti or the hamburger and

(16:49):
we're like, no, no, we're notdoing that.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (16:50):
Oh.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (16:51):
yeah, so we ended up having breakfast
in Paris, in the Harry Pottersection, which was a lovely
breakfast and a lovely place,but it just wasn't what we
thought.
one thing that I really likedabout Universal, I'll talk about
dining here and then I'll passit back to Caleb to talk about
the other lands.
One of the things I really likethat they do is their quick
services are table delivery.

(17:12):
So you sit down at the table andthen there's a QR code that you
can, they get you into the appor you can just use the app, you
order, and then you put yourtable number in and they bring
you your food.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (17:26):
So

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (17:26):
you can order at the counter or you
can just sit down at the table.
And that was really nice, thatfelt more relaxed than everybody
huddle up at the counters.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (17:36):
Was it only like that in Epic or

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (17:39):
All over the parks.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (17:40):
Oh, cool.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (17:41):
Yeah.
and I will say too, from thelast time I went, there was a
lot more mobile ordering optionsat Universal than there was
before.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (17:48):
Anything else about Super Nintendo World,
Caleb?

I don't think so.
I do think that it is the bestthemed, You walk in and you are
in that,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (17:59):
Yeah,

land, you're not seeing anything else.
You're seeing the sky and what'saround it.
And I think that's great becauseit's supposed to be in a video
game.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (18:05):
Yeah.

I think it really makes you think
that you're in the video game.
So I think that's a veryimportant part of it.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (18:11):
I feel like when Ryan sent me a video
of it, I was like, this doesn'teven look real.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_19041 (18:15):
doesn't look real.

real.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (18:17):
for.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (18:17):
yeah.
Totally.
So next we decided to go toParis One'cause we knew we
wanted breakfast and the, castmembers in line told us that was
a great place to go forbreakfast.
tell us about that, Caleb.

I mean like you said, it was set
in Fantastic Beasts, the secondmovie, the Crimes of
Grindelwald, so you feel likeyou're in Paris.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (18:37):
1920s Paris.

You walk in and it's very clean.
There are some side alleys thatare a little bit more dirty,
that have some pieces of themovie in them, but for

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (18:47):
So think Noc, turn alley, seedier
places, darker places.

The main area was very Paris.
It was clean.
The shops all were themed.
there was lots of spells to do,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (18:58):
I.

spells you can do with your wands.
And the cool thing about HarryPotter is they actually have a
second gen wand, which is about$20 more expensive than the
other wand, has a light up atthe end.
So when you do a spell, itlights up with an LED and also
has haptic feedback.
So when you do spells, it willvibrate in your hand, I don't
have one, so I don't know whatthat's like, but I'm sure that
that is a very cool, upgradedexperience.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (19:19):
But the cool thing is you brought
your wand from, you know,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (19:23):
you know,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (19:24):
five years ago

have

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (19:26):
three or four years ago, and it worked
just fine.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (19:29):
Oh

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (19:29):
So yeah,

caleb-struble-hedstr (19:31):
everything pretty much works.
all the spells that were around.
And they also have updated mapstoo, for the wands that have all
the spells around it.
So mine work just fine.
you're not feeling left out bypeople who have different wands.
Yours will work perfectly fine.
they have a circus show there,which is also based outta the
second movie,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (19:49):
CIR Circus, a Canis,

Mm-hmm.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (19:52):
We went to that.
And the cool thing is it's kindof a small circus tent, like it
is in the movie, and it's upagainst a building.
so you walk in and, just likethe magic of Harry Potter, it
opens up in front of you andyou're just walking through, and
then you're in a full size,theater for the show.

(20:13):
I thought it was gonna be amagic show, and it really
wasn't.
But it was still really neat.

Beasts

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (20:20):
yeah.
Think of it as a Fantastic Beastshow.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (20:23):
Like a retelling.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (20:25):
Kind of an extension, kind of a nod
to that, and, the themeing herewas just amazing, Julie.
it was so cool.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (20:33):
Ugh.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (20:34):
The restaurants, the shops, the
signage, and they had streetatmosphere characters.
they had actors dressed, like aFrench aura, that I was kind of
talking to.
He was kind of looking out forGrindle wa you know, henchmen to
try to break into the ministry,and had his wand in a holster,
like a 1920s cop.

(20:54):
it was just really, really cool.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (20:57):
So you ate breakfast there

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (20:59):
Yep.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (21:00):
were there other places to eat inside
Paris?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (21:03):
Yeah.
So, so there were, there were acouple bars, there was a main
cafe called the Cyrene.
That's where we had breakfastand a snack later.
the cast members at the check-insaid, don't forget about the
other restaurant in Paris.
I forget the name but And so wewent there for dinner that night
and had really good food.

(21:23):
Kale had schnitzel, and I hadbratwurst and salad.
it was almost German themed.
but, but yeah, very, very goodfood.
There.
There, there's no sit downrestaurants in any of the areas.
They're all quick service,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (21:39):
Okay.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_19041 (21:41):
dining.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (21:42):
table service you

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (21:43):
no table service.
it feels like table service'cause you're ordering from the
table.
there's lots of opportunities,you know, from anything having
to do with Fantastic Beast,having to do with Harry Potter,
things like that.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (21:56):
the rides?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (21:57):
yep, So let's talk about the ride.
they had a standby section, andI think when we first looked at
it, it was, what, a hundredminutes?

I thought it was 140,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (22:06):
Okay.
it was a substantial way and Iwas willing to do it'cause we
gotta do it.
they have a single rider lineand a walkthrough line, at
Islands of Adventure so manypeople wanted to see Hogwarts,
that they added a line to seethe Ministry of Magic.
I said, let's just walk through.
let's just see it.
I didn't even commit to thesingle rider at that point.

(22:27):
Caleb, why don't you talk abouthow we walked into the ride.

Yeah, so you go into what's a sort of
subway tunnel terminal in, inthe side.
It's very easy to find.
you walk in and it says metroflu on the side, which is what
they use in the movies totravel.
you wait in your line and the,park attendant tells you where
to stand.
So you start walking, you'rewalking into this chimney
fireplace.
area.
It's just like they do in themovie.
And when you start walking, I'msure it's sensors or something,

(22:52):
it picks your movement up and itstarts, shooting up green smoke
and just like they use fire inthe movie, but it's green smoke
to represent it.
And you walk through and you'rein this hallway and the brick
turns from this kind of hard,broken down to this clean,
black, sleek brick, just like itis the ministry magic in the
movie.
And the same thing happens whenyou come out.
The green smoke comes up and youcome in and it's just so well

(23:15):
themed.
I mean, the ministry, you feellike you're in it, it's like the
movie.
I was just blown away by theamount of theming

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (23:22):
So when you walk into rise of the
resistance at Hollywood Studiosand you see the stormtroopers,
it's kind of that, but on adifferent level.
I mean so much better.
we were just gonna walk through'cause you could actually just
hang out there and check it allout.
I asked where the single riderline was because if you didn't
want to go on the ride, youcould just walk straight through

(23:45):
to the exit.
we got in the single rider lineand got on the ride in like 20
minutes.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (23:50):
Oh my

Mm-hmm.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (23:52):
Yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (23:53):
That's amazing.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (23:55):
Now what's funny is we went back
later and tried the same thingand the single rider line was
actually longer than the standbyline.
our experience was great.
the whole ride is based aroundthe trial of Dolores Umbridge.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (24:07):
mm-hmm.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (24:08):
antics happen and she escapes and you
have to help, everybody find herit felt like you got into a car,
kind of like Tower of Terror,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (24:17):
Mm-hmm.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (24:17):
but then it moved around like the
forbidden journey.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (24:21):
Yeah.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (24:22):
with no motion sickness.
What did you think of the ride,Caleb?

The one thing I liked a lot was that
right off the bat I could tellwe weren't missing much of the
queue.
The single rider line, wasn't,the greatest queue But, we
weren't missing much.
You could see it if you wantedto take pictures, you could.
There were stuff on the wallsthat were always there.
I mo I agree a lot about theride.
It was not something that blewme away necessarily.
The animatronics were very good.

(24:49):
They had some new technologythat they had been using.
But the screen, it was kind oflike, Green gots in the way that
it used animatronics andscreens, But yeah, I mean, it

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (24:57):
Yeah.

it fit really well with the other
Harry Potter rides and the otherlands in the sense that, the
moving around.
So yeah, it was a pretty solidride.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (25:05):
Yeah.

yeah.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (25:06):
I think partly too, Paris felt
really good for us because therewas such low capacity.
So I will say, a disclaimer forall of this is, we had the
express pass and we were thereon the fourth day.
It was open and they were veryheavily controlling capacity.
So I hope this is everyone'sexperience, but I'm afraid you

(25:29):
can tell when you go through thelands, the cues that are set up,
they are expecting way morepeople than were there, with the
turnstiles and the switchbacksand all that kind of stuff.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (25:40):
is that the only ride in Paris?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (25:43):
so they have a ride in a show and
we both felt like it needed onemore ride.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (25:49):
Okay.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (25:50):
Yeah, it it,

caleb-struble-hedstro (25:52):
something to just,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_19041 (25:53):
because it was the largest land.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (25:56):
Oh,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (25:57):
It felt like it was the,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (25:58):
ride.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (25:59):
maybe technically it's not, but it
felt like the largest land tome.

It was

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (26:03):
so it felt like it needed one more
thing.
overall,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (26:07):
like the wands and the spells, that's an

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (26:10):
yeah,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (26:11):
or

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (26:11):
you're definitely gonna spend a lot of
time there between eating andshopping and wand use and all
that kind of stuff.
and then we went to DarkUniverse.
Caleb, tell us about DarkUniverse.

Dark Universe was very underrated in
my mind I wasn't expecting muchof anything.
but I was very much blown awaylike I was for all the other
lands.
you kind of, you

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (26:32):
Okay.

in and you can already tell it's
kind of spooky.
It's kind of scary.
I mean, that's the point of it.
It's monsters and you see,they've got a graveyard and
they've got smoke coming outtarandom places and the trees are
dead.
And you walk in and you seeFrankenstein's mansion and

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (26:46):
you turn the corner, like you walk
in and it's kind ofunderwhelming and spooky, and
then you kind of turn the cornerand Frankenstein's mansion is
right there.

it was amazing.
we came back at night when itwas dark and it happened to be
storming and lightning, whichmade

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (27:01):
So Cool.

it was lightning in the background
and everything was lit up,especially when the, tavern was
catching on fire, which I'lltalk about later.
But

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (27:10):
Was it actually Thunderstorming or
that's part of the

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (27:13):
No, it was thunderstorming.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (27:15):
Okay.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (27:16):
we were in a downpour.
Had its snack at Toad StoolsCafe, and then walked over to
Dark Universe because we wantedto see it at night.

I wanted to see it at night.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (27:26):
Yeah.
And it was worth it.
The only thing that was badabout it storming was that the
characters weren't out becauseduring the nighttime, the
monsters come out.
During the daytime you've gotthe monster hunters.
and The invisible man.
We saw multiple times.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (27:42):
my

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (27:42):
This land has two rides.
It has a, a roller coaster curseof the werewolf.
It has a inside dark ride calledMonsters Unchained.
And then there is two, quickservice places here.
There's a, a Burning BladeTavern, and if people have seen
the, the windmill that catcheson fire, And das Steakhouse.

(28:05):
where we had lunch.
But the first thing we did waswe went on Monsters Unchained.
And how excited was I to go onthis ride?
Caleb

You were so incredibly excited and I
was making fun of you the wholetime, and I feel bad for that
because of the amazingness.
That was monsters unchained.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (28:23):
I think it's the best ride in
Orlando.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (28:26):
Okay.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (28:27):
It's not for kids.
It's not for kids.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (28:30):
the ride.
Tell me

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (28:31):
Okay.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (28:31):
Are you sitting in like a

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (28:32):
yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (28:33):
Like

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (28:33):
the whole queue is based around Dr.
Frankenstein's mansion, and hisgreat, great granddaughter,
Victoria Frankenstein is pickingup his legacy and trying to
right his wrongs by controllingthe monsters.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (28:50):
Okay.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (28:50):
one monster she can't control is
Dracula.
And so you help her try to, findand control Dracula and what
could go wrong, right?
and so what happens is you getinto a Rhine system, kind of
like, the forbidden journey,almost exactly like it.
But they've changed it sothere's no motion sickness.

(29:11):
There's been very little issueswith Itor reported in that way,
and you are up, down, all aroundthroughout the ride you get,
chased by the differentmonsters.
So you've got Dracula and hisbrides, the wolf man, you've got
the monster from the BarackLagoon.
You've even got a nod to thePhantom of the Opera playing the

(29:34):
organ as you're going into theride.
it is fast-paced fun.
scary and just so cool.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (29:44):
Was it scary?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (29:45):
it is.
Not a little kid's ride at all.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (29:48):
Okay.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (29:48):
But

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (29:49):
the height minimums,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_1904 (29:50):
Correct.
but the whole land is basedaround the classic universal
monsters.
So you've got Frankenstein,bright of Frankenstein, Wolfman,
you know, kind of all thoseclassics.
we ended up, over the course ofthe day, riding this ride three
times.
One because we loved it so much.
And two, because the wait times,I mean, 20 minutes was the most

(30:11):
that I saw.
I think part of that is sinceit's not a little kids ride,
you've got all of your familiesat different places.
it was just the best.
I loved it.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (30:21):
awesome.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (30:23):
and then we rode Curse of the
Werewolf.
That is a smaller rollercoaster.
What did we think of Curse ofthe Werewolf, Caleb?

It was about five times more
intense than we ever thought.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (30:34):
Yeah.

we had aid at do steak house and I
was coming, coming out, and wewanted to ride that.
And I was like, Hmm, I don'tknow about this.
And I was like, I'll be fine.
we got up there and it is crazy.
The cars are spinning, which Iwas going through.
There's spinning and you gobackwards.
we were not prepared for that.
I mean, you seeing it go by andthen riding it is two very

(30:54):
different things.
And after eating lunch, me andme and my dad, when we first
finished, we looked at eachother like, oh, that was
something.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (31:01):
It was a good ride.
it's a really good ride.
And we were told by cast membersto ride it at night, but we
couldn't because of the weather.

delay.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (31:09):
Yeah.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (31:10):
it's a really cool, those two rides are
strong rides in that land.
and then for lunch, we went toDOS Steakhouse, which I knew I
wanted to go to.
And again, that was confirmed bycast members, Hey, you should go
here.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (31:22):
Okay.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (31:22):
we both had the DA Steakhouse
burger, which looked black andbloody and, the whole menu was
kind of that, theming.
food was really solid.
The, the theming was reallysolid.
I was super happy with theentire land.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (31:38):
all right, so that's three lands,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (31:41):
Outta four.
And then we hit, how to TrainYour Dragon, which, you know,
the aisle of Burke.
And for me, this was the sleeperhit because I've certainly seen
the movies, when the kids wereyounger, but that's kind of left
my mind and it was fantastic.
talk about this land what thetheming was like and what our

(32:04):
experience was like here.

just like every other land you walk
in and you're in it.
you walk in, they've got a huge,river just because again, you're
on, you're supposed to feel likeyou're on an island.
So it's got a huge, kind of lakepond right in the middle.
you've got the roller coastersflying by the music, the kind of
Celtic music's playing allaround.
You've got shops, you've gotdragons.
There's dragon dragonanimatronics around the land.

(32:27):
it's not just in the rides or incertain parts.
I have a video of baby dragonson the side, fighting over fish
and animatronics and it's verycool.
we didn't eat there.
actually no, we did

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (32:38):
No, we didn't eat there, but I did
think that we might eat there.
I looked at some of the menusand there was some really solid
food options there.

I mean, we explored a little bit
and the first thing we did, wewere a little hot and tired at
that point, but we went to theshow and that was amazing.
The show blew me away.
I was a little disappointed inthe, circus show.
it was good, but I was expectinga little bit more.
And this show, I mean, made it

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (33:00):
Yeah.

it's a show about this dragon and how
it's so untrainable and you findout some more about it later.
the dragons they use in theactors, it's all so good.
And they're flying above you andthey're doing all these things.
I could tell the little kidswere loving it.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (33:14):
Yeah,

they were cheering the whole time and
it was very well done.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (33:19):
in this land there is a boat water
ride where you're battling eachother with water guns.
there is a really good rollercoaster that goes throughout the
land.
There's another adventure ride,where you go up and around and
there is a kids play area.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (33:38):
Yeah.
rides that are there, you haveFire Drill.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (33:42):
Fire drill is the one in the water.
and so base we didn't, we'rekind of wims when it comes to
getting wet.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (33:49):
Okay.

The one thing I will say is that we
spent probably the least amountof time, and also we didn't do
as many rides in this land.
But that is not to say we didnot like it or we did not think
it was

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (33:59):
Yeah.

one of the WA rides would get wet
and the other ride looked like Iwould throw up.
So we kind of stayed away from

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:05):
Yeah.
it was the height of theafternoon, so

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:08):
Is that Dragon Racers Rally Kayla, that
you thought you were gonna getsick on?

Mm.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:14):
That looks like it.
the picture looks like thingsare flying up in the air.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:19):
Yes.

circle.
You're,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:21):
yeah.

I can, it just didn't look, you
know,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:24):
Yeah.

was the afternoon.
I was tired.
I just didn't

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:26):
A

look like something I

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:27):
and we rode the rollercoaster we
bought, we both thought that wasa solid rollercoaster.

good.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:32):
Um,

cool.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:34):
yeah,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:34):
hiccups Wing.
Delighters.
Okay.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_1 (34:37):
Absolutely.

the cool thing is it goes into the
pond, like in this tunnel underthe pond, and it comes back out,
which I thought was a very

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:43):
Yeah.

similar to how they do that in the
movies.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:46):
And then the name of the show was
Untrainable

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:49):
The untrainable dragon, right?
Yeah.
That was solid.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:52):
Awesome.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (34:53):
And then after Isle of Burke the one
thing that we hadn't done,'causewe did the carousel'cause darn
it, we're gonna do it all.
We did the carousel before goingto Isle of Burke

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (35:02):
in Celestial Park.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (35:03):
In Celestial Park, we did the Star
Just Racers, which is a duelingroller coaster.
the day before was kale's, firsttime in the velo coaster.
So he's kinda like, this isgonna be good, but it's not
gonna be, it's not gonna be anyvelo coaster.
It's gonna be fine.
that roller coaster kicked ourbutt.
It was so intense I don't knowif it's'cause we weren't
expecting it.

(35:24):
It was intense.

I

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (35:27):
It was, yeah.

the woman in front of us on the How
to Train Your Dragon Ride didtell us,'cause we were saying
out loud, we were gonna go tothat next.
She did tell us it was betterthan the veloc coaster, which we
were like, you, no, that's notpossible.
How's that possible?
So we get on and it was notbetter, but it was intense.
the ups and downs.
I mean, the steepness you were,you were definitely feeling it
and you know your head washurting after you felt like you

(35:48):
had been thrown and your bodyhad been pushed in ways it
wasn't supposed to be

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (35:52):
Caleb,

in.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (35:53):
like a 16-year-old.
You're not supposed to feel thatway after a rollercoaster.

Yeah.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (35:58):
Caleb is a theme park trooper, but he
also, understands his stomach.
Let's just put it that way.

Yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (36:05):
I hear you.
That's amazing.
I've heard that that coaster isreally intense.
So in CES Show Park, you've gotStardust resource and you've got
the Constellation Carousel.
and

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (36:15):
yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (36:16):
there's dining and shopping there

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (36:18):
So it's almost a hub.
There's several true sit downrestaurants.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (36:21):
So in Celestial Park it looks like
there's the Atlantic, which is afull service restaurant.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (36:26):
Yep.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (36:27):
The Blue Dragon Pan-Asian restaurant, is

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (36:30):
that's connected to Helios?

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (36:33):
Okay.
that's part of the hotel.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (36:35):
Yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (36:35):
there's a lot of snacks and beverage type
places throughout

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (36:38):
Yeah.
a lot of kiosks.
you can tell that it's gonna bea place for people to mill
around kind of an entertainmentspace.
There's a stage there.
and then also as we've talkedabout on the podcast, Julie Epic
Universe is in close proximityto the convention center, so
they're thinking that groupsthat come to the convention
center will buy out Epic, likein the evenings or something

(37:00):
like that.
So I think they just have a lotof open space in the middle.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (37:04):
Right.
I think that was the idea behindhaving those portals so that you

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (37:08):
Yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (37:09):
close off a portal

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (37:11):
and you completely could, I mean if
you wanted to close off theSuper Nintendo world or Paris,
you could do that and becompletely immersed in it.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (37:21):
Wow,

having a pharmacist conference in Super
Nintendo world

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (37:26):
sounds amazing.
So let me back up a minute.
We talked about what you had forlunch.
said a couple times that yousnacked at Toad Stool Cafe.
do you remember what you got?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (37:40):
So that was kind of our nighttime
snack.
'cause we were waiting out theweather and waiting for it to
get dark so we could go to toDark Universe.
we had the TMI Sioux was kind ofa, a Mario Brothers themed.
And then I got some, Garlic,Parmesan, toad stools, that you
could dip in and marinara

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (38:00):
Yeah.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (38:00):
didn't do a lot of,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (38:01):
it was good?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (38:02):
I thought everything we had there
was good that day.
what about you, Caleb?

Yeah, the Amisu was very well themed.
It was, I don't know exactlywhat they're called, but they're
the yellow blocks with questionmarks in them.
They were themed just like that,so it was like a graham cracker
or something on the side

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (38:17):
Yeah,

good.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_19 (38:18):
everything that we had at, epic Universe
was a hit.
And you know, you and I havetalked Julie off the podcast
that, universal has some reallygood food, but in the parks is
not always where their good foodis.
I think Epic has helped withthat.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (38:35):
Okay.
you said you had breakfast inParis.
Did we say what you ordered?
Like what you remember havingthere?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (38:42):
I had a croissant sandwich with fruit.
Caleb had a ham sandwich, like abaguette sandwich, We both had
the burger and fries at DoSteakhouse.
the cafe layer De la cyrene iswhere we had breakfast, and then
we had a snack later.
I had a beer and you, had asoda.
Caleb.
I think we were just chargingour devices hanging out for a

(39:04):
while.
the bar moonshine was just a, itwas actually an American themed
bar, that was just, justcocktails and drinks.
And then we had dinner at aplace called, Le Noir or the
Black Goblet.
and that was kind of, that wasmore themed, like the, the three
broomsticks, leaky cauldron kindof thing.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (39:26):
so we talked all about the parks, we
talked a lot about food.
We talked a little bit aboutyour planning.
Tell us a, let's kind oftransition to like some tips and
what would

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (39:35):
Okay.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (39:36):
So we talked about how you got Express
Pass and how we were a littlelike back and forth, like,
should we get it?
Should we not?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (39:42):
Yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (39:42):
you think Express Pass was needed?
I know that this trip was lowcapacity, Do you feel like.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (39:48):
well definitely if we look forward,
'cause I mean spending the otherdays at Islands of Adventure in
Universal Studios, I mean wejust, because we stayed Royal
Pacific, we have the unlimitedexpress pass to be honest.
We just kind of take it forgranted.
It would be hard not to do that.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (40:05):
Mm-hmm.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (40:06):
think for me, It was still worth it
because I knew I would have theexperience of every ride, even
if I could do things multipletimes.
Like we did Mario Kart twice,Mazdas and Chain three times.
We were gonna do the HarryPotter ride twice.
to be honest, we could have donemost things multiple times if
that was really our strategy.

(40:27):
And just going into it, havingthe peace of mind of not
stressing, I think was reallyhelpful.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (40:34):
Within your trip, remind me, where did
you go the day before and theday after?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (40:40):
we did both.
We did, islands of Adventure andUniversal studios and we went
back and forth.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (40:45):
you had

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (40:45):
I.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (40:46):
three park days

ryan_1_06-01-202 (40:47):
strategically.
So we got there in the afternoonand we went to Volcano Bay, and
that was kind of our volcano BayDay.
I wanted to have a day at theparks that we were familiar with
the first full day.
then I wanted to do Epic, andfollow it up with kind of our
greatest hits.
That's kind of what we do atUniversal Studios.

(41:08):
The last days, kind of, what dowe wanna do again?
And I thought that was good.
I thought that was goodplacement.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (41:13):
Okay, so what type of planning tips would
you give future guests whenthey're thinking about planning
their day at Epic Universe?
As far as like their touringplans, that kind of thing.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (41:25):
what do you think, kale, if you were
talking to, a group of yourfriends and they said, Hey,
we're going to Epic, what advicewould you give them?

First thing I would say, you have to
be ready to go all day.
And if you're not, you're justnot gonna see everything.
The second thing is that youhave to take advantage of the
low wait times.
when you see a low wait time andyou wanna ride that ride at that
moment, I suggest you ride it.
if it's a 20 minute wait, justdo it.
It might be 50 when you comeback.
The third thing I would say isthat, even if you don't like a

(41:54):
land, every land is themed verywell.
If you're not a big How totrainer Dragon person or Harry
Potter fan, still enjoy it.
You can still eat, you can stilldo certain things.
you don't have to be a fan ofeverything that's there to do
it.
everything is so well themedthat you might a fan after you
go in the land.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (42:08):
I mean, to be honest when you say
that, Caleb, I kind of stoppedand thought, you could go into
the wizarding world and enjoybeing there and not,

and not

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (42:17):
and not have anything to do with
Harry Potter at all.

that all the time.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (42:22):
Like,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (42:22):
wondering about that because Fantastic
Beast is definitely not as wellknown as,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (42:27):
yeah,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (42:28):
seven movies

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (42:29):
if you just wanted to go into a land
that has amazing theming andhave good food and good drinks
and just relax, you wouldn'thave to do anything with Harry
Potter.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (42:41):
Okay.

the same way that I never grew up
with a, Nintendo, but I stillcan go in there and I can have
fun and I can still think it'samazing, even though it's not,
my childhood of growing up withthat.
I still thought it was amazing.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (42:53):
ama.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (42:54):
one thing I will say when planning
is when we had inclementweather, a lot of stuff shut
down.
So there was a lot of weatherdependent rides, that could
impact your day.
I agree with everything Calebsaid and I would add to that.
Get there first thing in themorning, even though.

(43:14):
The capacity was low.
It set us up to have an amazingday just'cause we were there.
We were excited.
We were first in, I mean, wewere first in line, we opened
the park and I think it was opentill 10.
I think we got back on the busat nine 30.
So I mean, we had a really fullday.
But why not?
especially because right now youhave one day, you really have to

(43:37):
do that.
it's not a day to go back andtake a nap at the hotel, which
to be honest, I kind of like thefact that it's not right there,
like the other resorts.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (43:46):
Would you recommend, like in the future
when potentially you could domore days there, would you
prefer to stay at the hotelscloser to Epic or do you think
because there's two parks nearthe other hotels and City Walk,
it still makes more sense tostay at those original hotels?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (44:05):
I think Epic is the best park, but
you have more bang for your buckstaying over by City Walk.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (44:12):
Okay.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (44:12):
what do you think,

I totally agree with that.
you've got three Parks IslandAdventure University, Stu, and
City Walk.
it's such a great night if youcome back from the parks, have a
little rest time, and then go toCity Walk that night,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (44:21):
Yeah.

an eight minute walk from all of
that, from, two parks makes itso much easier.
You're not waiting for buses,you're on your own time.
We got there early in themornings because we weren't
waiting for anything, We couldwalk and is it you wanna walk
outta your hotel and be in onepark, but then have to take
buses to every other, other,other thing, or have three parks
to your walking distance andtake one

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (44:41):
Yeah, C, because when I compare it to
Disney, that's always theadvantage of Universal the
proximity to those, especiallythe premier hotels, we tend to
stay at, and have my clientsstay at because of the express
pass.
There's just no way to changeyour trip for the better than
have an unlimited express passand have it included in your

(45:02):
stay,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (45:03):
just to clarify, when you stay at those
premier hotels, you haveunlimited express pass included
for islands of adventure andUniversal Studios.
It is not included for EpicUniverse.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (45:18):
not at this time.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (45:19):
Express Pass.
Correct.
Epic Universe's Express Pass isa completely separate purchase
and at this time it's notunlimited

ryan_1_06-01-2025_1904 (45:26):
Correct.
we were able

It's a

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (45:28):
have one experience.
Of each thing that was on theExpress Pass,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (45:33):
yeah.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (45:34):
for our day, that was plenty.

That was still a free, you know, get
on the ride So having itmultiple times would've been
nice, but you know, it's notlike we're going back to the
rides every ride three times,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (45:45):
a good point.
to clarify, for the hotels thatare near Epic, only Helios is
walking.
The other ones Terra, Luna,ANOVA, are not walking

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (45:56):
Right.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (45:57):
I feel like when I saw them I was
driving to the airport and itfelt like they were kind of like
in the middle of nowhere.
Anything you would've donedifferently?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (46:05):
I don't know.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (46:06):
It doesn't sound

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (46:07):
I,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (46:07):
it.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (46:08):
to be honest, our timing all worked.
I wouldn't have gone any later,even though we were there super
early.
I wouldn't have chosen to dothat differently.
We took advantage of the parksthat were open.
We stayed and saw everything wewanted to.
other than not having downpourrain for an hour or so, yeah.
what would you have donedifferently, Caleb?
After seeing everything

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (46:29):
we saying?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (46:29):
during the day, is there anything you
would've done differently thanwhat we did?

we didn't get on the My cart, which
was my only kind of regret forthe day.
when it comes to Epic,obviously, we had no idea that
it would've not used the expresspass, or it would've been rained
out.
So I think just taking advantageof going and doing it, even if
it was a, 30 or 40 minute wait.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (46:48):
Yeah.

to know.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (46:49):
the ride was at capacity,

I.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (46:51):
the line was so long they cut off the
line?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (46:54):
And it was posted at 45 minutes and the
guy said it was at capacity andI kept watching and it was
always at 45 minutes.
So I'm like, I don't wanna walkall the way over there.
it was kind of odd, so that'swhy I just said about halfway
through the day we're just like,I guess we're not gonna be on
this ride.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (47:09):
well, that's because with it being so
new, they're not sure like, isit gonna

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (47:14):
yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (47:14):
they don't wanna clear a two hour

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (47:16):
Yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (47:17):
okay.
But I have one more question andthis isn't on the outline.
So

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (47:20):
Okay.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (47:22):
What do we think about the park for
kids?
What would you say?
The minimum age to enjoy thepark.
And I don't mean they have to doeverything.
my kids are currently six, four,and two.
mind.
I'm not gonna take them untilthe youngest is like six.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (47:38):
Yeah.

I agree on that for sure.
One of the reasons why I pickedUniversal was that it's more of
an upper age.
you know, there's still familiesthere, but I think the rise are
a lot more.
I.
upper in age.
what I told dad was that, inepic universe, there's a lot of
intense rides and I wish therewere some more that were less
intense.
Mario has a good

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (47:58):
Mario.
Yeah.
Mario

yeah,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (48:01):
I Burke are really the only areas
that are kid appropriate,

I mean,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (48:06):
they have a carousel.

it's a lot of intense rides and
that's fine for someone my age,someone maybe a little bit
younger, especially adults, butit's a lot more of an intense
kind of park and area.
And I would agree with you onthe, six year olds, there's
still lots of things they cando, but I just don't think for
the two year olds and

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (48:23):
Yeah.

younger toddlers

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (48:26):
I mean,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (48:26):
the other universal parks.
Like I wouldn't take them to anyuniversal park until they're
like minimum six, I think.
But I was just wondering yourthoughts on the Epic.
'cause like Dark Universe,there's no way they're going
there.
don't even

Yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (48:38):
husband in Dark Universe, with Ministry
of Magic being the only ridethere.
Like, they're not necessarilygonna appreciate, I mean,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (48:46):
right.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (48:46):
Would kids like that show?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (48:48):
they would, and I think part of it
too is when you go through Hog'sMeet and Diagon Alley, no matter
what type of Harry Potter fanyou are, you're gonna love those
areas.

Mm-hmm.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (49:00):
may not know what is going on with
Fantastic Beasts,

Yeah,

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (49:04):
so, what I'm thinking is do you feel like
there's enough going on in Isleof Burke and Super Nintendo
World to like make that dayworth it, is that a place that
they could just hang out inSuper

I don't necess.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (49:15):
Isla

I

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (49:16):
Iowa of Burke, they definitely could.
I think there's enough for ahalf day there for kids if they
take advantage of everything.

another thing is that for me, when you
come back to Paris, I reallyenjoyed going around and seeing
all the places that you couldshop and eat.
Little kids don't like to go instores and look at products.
me and Dad were in the samestore probably four different
times.
I enjoyed that It's one of myfavorite things, going around
seeing all the different thingsyou're not gonna necessarily get
a 2-year-old to stand and dothat.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (49:43):
but I guess like you said, there's the
playground at Love Burke,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (49:46):
Yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (49:46):
they would be able to do that stuff

Yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (49:48):
the interactive stuff and Mario,
while one parent goes off anddoes

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (49:53):
But yeah, it'd be hard.
cause you're not even gonna walkinto dark universe.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (49:57):
I have a lot of clients that want to do
Epic and I'm kind of like, Ifeel like we should wait a
little bit, on ages, so that'sgood to know.
so wrapping up, what was yourfavorite ride, if you had to
pick one?

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (50:07):
What do you think Caleb?

caleb-struble-hedstrom (50:09):
probably monsters unchained.
three times in one day kind ofgives it away.
I agree.
I think that's an obvious choicefor me.
I really liked Mario Kart a lot.
I thought that was really coolin the technology they used.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (50:19):
Ryan,

ryan_1_06-01-2025_1904 (50:20):
Monsters Unchained absolutely a hundred
percent.
everything was good.
There were no duds at this parkthat we experience.

j_1_06-01-2025_19041 (50:28):
Everything was good.
I think kind of what Caleb said,it would be nice if there was a
little more mild rides.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (50:34):
A hundred percent.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (50:35):
But we know that there are at least
three sites in Epic that theywill be developing.
We don't know what it's gonnabe.
The thought is that are gonna besome more.
Moderate rides.
but obviously they haven'tannounced plans yet, but we're
hoping that

Mm-hmm.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (50:53):
soon because we know they'll need it
for capacity.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (50:56):
Caleb, thank you so much for coming on
today and giving us yourthoughts.
It was definitely fun to go onthis trip and spend this epic
day with you at Epic Universe.

j_1_06-01-2025_190417 (51:05):
world is full of wonder.
And your next at Great Adventureis waiting at Wonder and Beyond
Travel.
We work with you to create a oneof a kind journey, taking the
stress off your plate so you canfocus on the joy of exploring
and the memories that will staywith you forever.
ready to start planning or justwanna dream a little bigger,
head over to Wonder and Beyondtravel.com.

(51:26):
We'd love to help you getstarted.
You can reach out to us atWonder and beyond travel.com.

ryan_1_06-01-2025_190417 (51:31):
We look forward to talking to you
next week on All Things Travel.
When we discuss yachtingvacations,

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Inside Epic Universe: A First Look at Universal’s Most Immersive Theme Park Yet!

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