October 15, 2025 • 39 mins
Join us for our Halloween Horror Nights 2025 post-trip report as Krystle takes us behind the screams of her unforgettable RIP Tour with Fantastical Vacations!
In this episode, Krystle shares insider details from the RIP experience — private tour perks, backstage access, and how it completely changes your HHN night. Was it as scary as she imagined? Will she go again? You'll have to listen in to find out!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to Wonderlust and Wishes, the
podcast where we explore theworld one destination at a time.
I'm Julie.
And I'm Crystal.
As travel agents withfantastical vacations, we are
here to share our passion fortravel and help you turn your
wonderlust into reality.
From hidden gems to bucket listadventures, join us as we dive
into the sights, sounds, andstories of our favorite
(00:20):
destinations.
So grab your passport, pack yourbags, and let's embark on this
journey together.
SPEAKER_01 (00:32):
Hi everybody, welcome to episode 73 of
Wonderlust and Wishes.
The moment we've all beenwaiting for has arrived.
Crystal is going to talk abouther Halloween Horror Nights
adventure at Universal Orlando.
She's going to give us all thedeets on that.
So we're going to just jumpright in and start talking
(00:54):
through it.
So, Crystal, can you tell me ortell the audience?
I already know what's going onhere.
Tell the audience, thelisteners, why did you decide to
do this?
You know, how did you or how didyou get like into this RIP tour?
SPEAKER_00 (01:09):
Oh, well, if you've been here a while, you heard me
like talk about my likenervousness and that this was on
the horizon.
So I'm not a scary movie person.
I like Halloween, but I likelike the cute Halloween.
I don't like the scary stuff.
So when was it?
June?
unknown (01:29):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:30):
It's been a while.
Our agency hosted a contest inbetween all the agents, and
anybody who wanted to applycould.
It was basically make some sortof social media post and it
needed to be anonymous.
And then all the entries werevoted on by all the other
(01:51):
agents.
And they were picking twobecause they were taking our
like a mentor program, and theywere taking the mentors on how
and whornights RIP tour.
So they had a couple extraspaces.
And my carousel that I made andposted was one of the winners.
(02:11):
So I was like, first of all, Iwas like, I didn't think I stood
a chance.
Oh, please.
You're so good at social media.
You're so good.
Okay, but there were a lot ofgood entries.
SPEAKER_01 (02:21):
So and to be, and also just to clarify, this was
the the social media post was toadvertise for it, it was a post
about Halloween horror nights.
So the content had to be aboutHalloween Horror Nights.
And so Crystal did an entry forthat.
I was lame and I didn't doanything.
SPEAKER_00 (02:40):
Well, that's I was actually surprised that more
people didn't.
There were still probably 20entries, but we have like 120
agents.
So I didn't think going into itthat I even stood a chance, but
I won.
And that's probably the onlyreason that I went.
SPEAKER_01 (02:57):
The thing is though, it pushed you outside of your
comfort zone, but you got toexperience something that you
maybe wouldn't have.
And now you have that, like youhave that experience, and you
have you're able to talk throughit, and especially the RIP tour.
I definitely want to like we'lldefinitely get into the details
of that.
SPEAKER_00 (03:12):
Halloween Hornets is like a very big seller for our
agency.
So just to like you say, push meout of my comfort zone, go and
do it.
And now I can say I've done it.
And just getting that firsthandexperience is always great for
like helping our clients.
So it's like we always talkabout we gotta get we gotta do
something new on our tripbecause we're like very into
(03:33):
like our routines and thingsthat we like, and just trying to
do new things to help ourclients to be able to have first
hand experience.
SPEAKER_01 (03:42):
Yes.
Okay, so walk us through yourday one, getting down there.
What did you do?
Did you happen to go to a parkthat day?
Did you do parks before the RIPtour on Wednesday?
Did you get any sleep?
SPEAKER_00 (04:00):
Well, as a mom of three young kids, leaving in the
middle of the week is hard.
So it's a very quick trip.
I dropped Reese off at preschoolat noon on Tuesday for like a
three o'clock flight.
I got to Orlando about six, andI had every intention of going
to like Islands of Adventure foran hour, but it took my Uber
(04:24):
like 25 minutes from the time Ipushed reserve to get pick me
up.
So I was at the hotel.
I stayed at Terra Luna thatnight.
By the time I got to the hotel,it was like 6:30.
So I didn't have time to do muchbecause everything closed at 7
that night.
So since I was so close to Epic,I hopped on a little bus and
(04:46):
rode the four minutes over toEpic just to say I've seen the
front gate.
I wanted a really cool picturein front of the Kronos, but I
didn't realize that they werescanning tickets so far out.
Yeah.
But I had a very sweet teammember.
She said, Come right here, comethrough, stand right here, and
I'll take your picture.
But then you have to turn aroundand go right back out.
(05:06):
So I have a cool little picture.
I wish I would have had her namebecause I would have given her
like a compliment or howeverthey do it because she didn't
have to do that.
Yeah, that was nice.
Yes.
So there was a massive stormcoming in.
So I'm kind of like we're likeplaying with fire anyway.
I think they ended up refundingMickey's Not So Scary Halloween
(05:27):
tickets that night becausestorms were so mat bad.
SPEAKER_02 (05:30):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (05:31):
So at this point, it's after seven o'clock.
I'm starving.
I'm back over at Terra Luna, andI went to their little quick
service place and ordered justlike their Smash Burger.
And Julia will know because Iwas texting her out of hangar.
It took them 45 minutes to getmy burger.
So I'm hoping it's just aone-off.
(05:52):
But they only have one kitchencompared to like everywhere else
has multiple kitchens ormultiple chefs.
And I was just by myself.
So if I would have been likewith my family, or if it would
have been like prime dinnerhour, I would have like been
fine.
But I was by myself and it wasnot busy, not prime dinner hour.
So the burger was fine.
It was nothing to write homeabout, but it wasn't horrible.
(06:12):
Then I tried to come in bed bylike nine because I had a big
day on Wednesday, but I had somenoisy neighbors.
So I got some sleep, but I wasalso up before my alarm.
So I got up and I was like readyto go.
What time I was looking atpictures.
I was fully dressed, packed.
(06:33):
I was actually sitting andfilming videos by 6:30.
Wow.
Because I was just like up andready, and I was like, I can't
do anything yet.
So trying to do some socialmedia.
So since I was up, I decidedthat I was going to rope drop
and I went over to Islands ofAdventure.
(06:53):
I was one of the first groups ofpeople, and I was going straight
to Hagrid's.
I wanted to ride Hagrid's.
I had early entry because I wasstaying at a universal property
and I booked with a travelagent.
SPEAKER_01 (07:13):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (07:14):
And so Islands of the Venture was the one that was
hosting the early entry.
That's why I picked that park.
We were let in, let's see,timestamps.
We were let in at like 7 50 for8 o'clock opening.
So they did open the gates 10minutes early.
And I went straight to Hogsmead,straight to Locker.
(07:38):
It was posted about a 20 minutewait.
And I let's see.
I wrote it down.
I got in line at 8.
I was loaded by 8.11 and I wasoff by 8.15.
Oh wow.
And it was posted 20 minutes.
When I got off, it was alreadyup to like a 90-minute wait.
(08:00):
Holy cow.
That's so it definitely jumpedquickly.
It helped.
I was in the front of the frontof the pack.
Then I just kind of wanderedaround Hogsmeade for a minute,
took some pictures in front ofthe castle.
I was playing photographer forsome families.
They saw me taking a picture.
(08:20):
Like, I got you.
Like you asked the right persontoday.
SPEAKER_01 (08:24):
She rudely sent me a picture of herself with
butterbeer in front of thecastle.
No, I'm just kidding.
She said, she said, wish youwere here.
SPEAKER_00 (08:30):
Then I was checking the map and I was shocked.
Shocked.
Velocicoaster was posted at a10-minute wait time.
I thought more people would likehead there, but I guess
everybody went to go St.
Hagrid's.
So I got in line, what is this?
8 26.
And I was off by 8 36.
(08:52):
I was back around the fronttaking pictures of it.
Wow.
It was quick.
It was super quick.
I never stopped walking like thewhole way through.
Yeah.
And then by this point, it is sohot and I'm sweating to death.
And my plan was since I didn'thave Julie with me, I was going
to do the water rides that sheswears she won't do with me.
(09:13):
So the next one on my list wasJurassic Park, but that part of
the park was not opening untilnine.
So I had like 25 minutes tospare, basically, because I was
like, well, why can't I just gocue?
So I went back over to Hogsmead.
My kids FaceTimed me becausethey were getting ready to go to
school just to say hi.
So I got myself some butterbeer,some frozen butterbeer to start
(09:35):
the morning.
And then I sat.
You remember where we had lunchwhere it was like the Jurassic?
SPEAKER_01 (09:41):
Yeah, with the big dyno.
Like dino bites or somethinglike that.
No, that's sorry.
That's that's at Disney.
I don't remember.
I don't remember.
I remember exactly where it is.
Like I know exactly where it is.
SPEAKER_00 (09:51):
I remember us going in there.
So I went in because there wasnothing going on in there, but
it was nice and AC, and I couldsit and just enjoy my butterbeer
and wait for the other side ofthe park to open.
And then I went straight toJurassic Park.
I was on the ride at 9 a.m.
I was the only person on thisboat.
(10:13):
I made a bitch.
There's like there's like roomfor like 16 people on there,
right?
Or 20.
The cast members were laughingbecause I was like sauntering
through the the the queue andI'm by myself and there's no one
else in sight.
So they're like, sit anywhereyou want.
So I was like, Well, I've neverridden before.
And they're like, you need tosit front and center.
So that's what I did.
(10:35):
And then they kind of waited fora minute because two girls ended
up coming and jumping in, right?
Because they kind of held me fora minute.
And the girl was like, This ismy favorite.
She's like, You're gonna getsoaked.
But then after she's like, Youdidn't get very soaked, and
she's like, But it's becausethere's no one in the in the
boat.
Yeah.
So we didn't have the wait.
Fun little ride.
(10:55):
So I'm already wet.
Next on my list was Kong, butKong didn't open until 9:30.
I don't know why they would dothe like such a staggered.
So I kept going to Dudley Duray,Ripsaw, Falls.
Same thing.
I walked straight on, not a soulin sight by myself.
(11:19):
Sat in the front.
What was this?
I was on and going at 9.18.
I tried to record it and then itpaused, right?
I was going down the falls.
No.
SPEAKER_01 (11:31):
I was so mad.
That's the worst.
That's probably even worse thanlike when you think you're
recording and you actually likedidn't hit the button, and then
you hit the button and you startrecording like when you wanted
to stop.
SPEAKER_00 (11:43):
Yeah.
So I was off before 9:30.
I was a drowned cat basically.
I went over to Kong and rodethat just to say I had done it.
By this point in time, though, Ikind of looked at some of the
food stuff we talked about.
Like I wanted to go get a dolp.
Yeah.
This stuff's only open on theweekends right now.
SPEAKER_01 (12:00):
No.
SPEAKER_00 (12:01):
So I didn't even go over to Seuss and I didn't I
didn't do Hulks this timebecause I we did Hulks last time
and I was my mission to writethings, I hadn't.
Yeah.
So at this point, I was like,well, I'm gonna go back over to
Hagrid, over by Hagrid's, and Iwas kind of just I saw some guys
with a wand.
I was like, hey, John hates whenI do this.
(12:23):
I'm like, hey, do you mind if Itake a picture from behind just
of you doing your like littlewand motion?
And they're like, girl, you doit.
I'll take a video of you.
And I was like, oh I'm not verygood.
I couldn't get the thing to todo its thing.
But it's because you're a HarryPotter imposter.
That's why.
Yeah.
Because you haven't read all thebooks.
(12:44):
I know.
So I did that little thing.
And then by 10, I was uh loadingthe Haworth Express to head over
to the other side.
And Gringotts had been down fortwo hours that morning, and I
got off and I saw the as I'mwalking into Dygon Alley, the
dragon is like blowing his smokeor his flames.
(13:08):
And I just like, I'm just gonnawalk over here and see.
And people started cueing, and Iwas like, oh, maybe it just
opened back up.
So I ran and put my stuff in thelocker.
I just had a crossbody and thenI'd hooked a water bottle to my
crossbody.
So I could have worn mycrossbody everywhere, but
because of the water bottle, Ineeded a locker.
SPEAKER_02 (13:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:26):
I could have done single rider, but I wanted I
didn't want to miss anythingbecause I'd never done it
before.
SPEAKER_02 (13:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:32):
So I hopped in line for Green Gots.
This is probably my longest waitof the day.
They said it was posted about 25minutes.
I got in line at 1025, and I wasoff by I was probably 25
minutes, 30 minutes, but I metfour lovely ladies from the UK.
And it was very fun for them tolike hear the they were
(13:56):
comparing and contrasting likethe Harry Potter sets and the
Cottswalds to to Diagon Alley.
Uh-huh.
So that was very fun.
And then I just kind of wanderedaround.
I got a new picture in front ofthe travel agent door because
last time I was a sweaty mess,even though I was a drowned cat.
(14:16):
Let's see, what else did I do?
Oh, because of our episode aboutwhere we could eat, I ate at the
San Francisco pastry company andI got the grilled cheese and the
tomato soup.
Was it so good?
It was so good.
And it was 95 degrees, but thetomato soup actually I feel like
kind of cooled me down becauseI've heard like this whole
(14:38):
reverse science about likeinstead of trying to cool your
body down, like if you'realready warm, your body's
already like uh the whole thing.
SPEAKER_02 (14:44):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:45):
So it was very good.
By this point, I'm like gettingready to like head out.
I hopped on Mummy.
I'd never done that one before.
And the tribute store forHalloween Horn Nights is the
exit of Mummy this year.
So I got myself a little theirlittle pumpkin, boo, pumpkin,
pen, and then I startedwandering to the front of the
(15:08):
park, and they are activelytearing down Rip Ride Rocket.
I know, it's sad.
So it was crazy to see wherethey were at at 12 o'clock in
the day and then come back forHalloween Horror Nights and how
much they had taken off in thesix hours since I'd been gone.
So this is where I rode a busback to Terra Luna, grabbed my
(15:31):
bag from the luggage, hold.
I Ubered over to Aventura, whereI met up with some other agents.
I took a quick shower because Iwas still wet.
Yeah.
Changed, got re-ready.
We all had like a meetup at thepool bar around 3, 3:30.
So that was kind of fun to see abunch of the other agents and
(15:53):
friends that it's it's been awhile since we've seen.
And then we headed over, walkedover to Universal around five
and checked in for our RIP tour.
So it has like its own littlecheck-in area.
And then he took us to it's likethe NBC media building.
(16:14):
They are switching it over.
He goes, We've never done thisbefore.
We usually do it in La Bamba,but La Bamba is where they, he's
like, This is where they takethe non-private people.
The private people get to go tothis new place.
So they had hors d'oeuvres, likepre-tour reception.
So they had the little doubledeggs that are sweet.
(16:34):
They're not egg.
Have you seen those streets thatthey have at the parks?
They look like a double egg, andit's very trippy because the
texture and everything is anegg, but it's like a coconut
something or other.
So I tried one.
It was actually good.
If you close your eyes and don'trealize that it looks like a
doubled egg, because a lot ofpeople, they're like, oh, I
thought that was a double egg.
(16:55):
Like that was so wrong.
And they had pizza fries, theyhad some of like the big tots
with the spam that they'reselling at one of the booths.
So it's just like little lightbites, but if you got enough,
you could definitely make a mealout of it.
And then art from the terrifierwas hanging around, and we had
some private one-on-one timewith him.
(17:15):
And then we just started ournight.
Our guide, Paul, he wasphenomenal.
He has been with Universal sincepre-2000, and he was in some
kind of production management,and he like helped start
Halloween Horror Nightsbasically.
And he was one of the firstpeople who like trained scare
(17:37):
actors.
Oh, that's fun.
So he had like all the insidetips, all the inside tricks.
So it's still light out at thispoint.
And we had kind of given himlike a rundown of what we wanted
to do.
So we went and hit three housesright off the bat.
And it's since you're part ofVIP tour, you skip all the
(18:00):
lines.
Some of the lines were alreadyup to like 90 to 120 minutes.
SPEAKER_01 (18:04):
That's crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (18:05):
I know, and it barely even like it hadn't even
started yet.
And so right off the bat, we hitEl Artista, Terrifier, and Grave
of Flesh.
And it was very interestingbecause before each house, he
would take us over in a cornerand he would like give us like
the story of the house.
He'd give like little Eastereggs of things to look for.
(18:26):
And he's it was just veryinsightful.
And after after the first ElArtista, Dan, our agency owner,
we were talking, he goes, youknow, I was here for a media day
opening night and was on a witha VIP guide and went through
that house.
And they didn't give us any ofthat sort of backstory.
(18:47):
He's like, This is also my ninthnight, and I did not notice the
things that he told us to likelook for and notice.
That's awesome.
So I won't ruin it for anybody,but at the end, like if you look
for El Artista and you see he'slike painting at the beginning.
At the very end, before you goout, there's another painting,
the finished painting.
(19:07):
Look at what the painting is andthen look up on the ceiling.
So that's all I'll say because Idon't want to ruin it for
anybody.
So we did El Artista TerrifierGrave of Flesh.
And then we went up on top ofthe Jimmy Fallon building.
There's like a hidden bar upthere.
And we had like a 10-minutepotty break bar stop.
They had unlimited soda andwater.
(19:30):
So your girl had so many DietCokes, but it's what kept me
going that night.
And it kept us like I didn'thave to take my big water
bottle, which was nice.
And then from there, I think wewent over to the stage show,
which was like a circus theme.
(19:52):
And it's called a burlesqueshow.
And I would say it is definitelyan 18 plus event, but they are
so talented.
And it was captivating.
Like it was amazing.
Fire dancing, acrobatics, likethe whole aerobics in the sky
kind of thing.
Like definitely Cirque to sleightype show.
(20:13):
It was really cool.
And we had like a reserveseating.
So we just waltzed right intothat and had we were sitting on
the like fourth row, and therows in front of us were like
handicapped, roped off.
After that, we did three moreshuses.
We did dolls, hatches andchains, and the Golkin.
We might have had another barstop.
(20:34):
I don't remember.
Oh, we might have done Falloutin there too.
And then after Fallout, we wentto Dagon Alley and we stumbled
upon some Death Eaters.
They were doing a little show.
And then let's see, after that,we ended up on one of the scare
zones, which was the uh cat ladyon Crooked Lane or something
(20:58):
like that.
And he was really big onexplaining how like over the
years the scare zones haveturned into more like
experiences.
So there are like little spotsset up where it is you're just
kind of like walking through thestreet and there's like scare
actors walking out.
But this particular one, there'skind of like a whole little show
that she does, like on herporch, and there's a whole
(21:20):
backstory.
And once he like told us thebackstory, it was like, oh, that
makes so much more sense.
Where if you didn't know thebackstory, you're just like, oh,
it's like an old cat lady, andthere's cows running.
Like, I don't understand.
And then what else did we do?
Sometime in there we hit Jason,Five Nights at Freddy's, and the
(21:42):
Wyatt Six, which is the WWE one,which that was mind-blowing,
like the whole backstory.
And then in between that, we hitall the scare zones.
We had another stop at JimmyFallon's.
We had a stop for the uhdeep-fried pickle spears with
the buffalo chicken dip, whichwas amazing.
(22:04):
And I didn't take a lot ofpictures because you can't take
pictures in the houses.
Did you have a favorite house ora favorite scare zone?
I really liked the what's iteven called?
The Gaulkin one.
Uh-huh.
The monsters of the north.
And it was just like reallybeautifully done.
(22:26):
And he said that there's kind ofthree areas that they'll like
rate a house.
It's like the storyline and thebackstory, how scary it is, or
like how like beautiful it is.
And I thought the Gokkin wasvery beautiful.
And it's uh it wasn't veryscary.
Uh but he uh also told us thestory about how when he
(22:49):
sometimes would let loose in thepark with a chainsaw that 90% of
the time he could get blondewomen to scream.
And I took it as my personalmission to not scream.
So I did not scream.
I had a couple like little likejumps, like oh, like oh, that
jumped out, or they have thesethings like the windows are
(23:09):
dropping and you hear like likethe wood, like on a so that part
was scary, that made me jumpevery time.
And then there were some thingslike Jason, where there are
7,000 Jasons jump scaring you.
But I would say if you go with agroup of people, take some
people who are more scared thanyou are and walk behind them
(23:31):
because they would scream and Iwas just laughing hysterically
behind them.
So they're like a distraction.
Yes, and then I also woreearplugs, which I think helped a
lot because it took out like allof the the extra noise.
I could still hear what wasgoing on, but it wasn't anything
like over the top or likescreaming.
(23:51):
I hated the fog and I hated thestrobes just because I couldn't
see where I was going.
I hate strobe lights, yeah.
So after that, like we werewalking out of there at 2 a.m.
So we took it pretty hard.
There was rain in the forecastall night long, but we looked
out, we didn't get a single dropof rain.
Nice.
You never know.
SPEAKER_01 (24:11):
It's a crapsheet with Florida.
SPEAKER_00 (24:13):
No, and they said that the last time they did one,
it poured all night, so theydidn't have time to just kind of
like like when we sat on theside of the road and just ate
our pickles, and we could kindof meander and just kind of go
slow and we weren't like runningfrom house to house.
Yeah, and like the rooftop bar,like that.
SPEAKER_01 (24:32):
I mean, that would have been difficult, you know?
SPEAKER_00 (24:34):
Yeah.
So we definitely saw and dideverything.
We did all 10 houses, then wewent back and did Jason and
Terrifier again.
We did those two a second time.
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (24:48):
So what was the crowd energy like?
Obviously, I know you were witha group and you're we're with a
private tour, but you still werein this quote unquote streets
with other people going throughthe scare zones and the houses
and stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (25:02):
It was actually packed.
And I was surprised to see a lotof people like in costume and
like people live for this.
This is their Yeah, it's becomelike a cult classic kind of
thing for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (25:15):
Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00 (25:16):
So I was asking Paul like questions you're not
supposed to ask.
Like capacity.
I was like, what is the capacitylike compared to like the day?
And he goes, Well, to evencalculate capacity, it's like
this whole thing about like howmany restaurants and places to
eat are open, how many bathroomsare open, yeah, like how many
rides are open.
(25:36):
Like it's this whole thing.
And he goes, We shut down 10rides in the day, but we're also
opening another 10 attractions,meaning the houses at night.
So he goes, It's actuallyprobably the same.
And I think he said a number inthe 30,000s, which is wild to
(25:57):
me.
And especially with the timeframe, like it's yes, yes, and
then we got asking about thecostumes because in our episode
about Halloween Horror Nights,like you're not supposed to
dress up, yeah.
And he goes, It's kind of up tothe discretion of the team
members, but the biggest thingis they don't want you
impersonating anybody, like youcan't be like dressed as one of
(26:20):
the characters, yeah, orcarrying head paints all around.
Yeah.
And they don't want your fullface covered.
So he said, if you can do likehalf your face, he goes, I saw a
girl recently, she had her wholeface kind of painted, she was
kind of like had some clownmakeup, and then half her hair
was like green, and they had hertake off half her makeup.
(26:41):
And the way she did it, insteadof like taking off like just the
cheeks or just the nose, shejust did like a line down her
face, and he she he goes, It wasso well done.
But there are people I sawTweedledee and Tweedledum
walking around, so I don't knowif they thought they were coming
to Disney Halloween, Mickey'snot so scary Halloween party,
and then showed up to that, yougotta take it to the wrong
thing.
There were just a lot of peopleeverywhere, and it was electric
(27:04):
and it was definitely fun.
I don't know that I would standin line for three hours.
Yeah.
I know people that get expresspass, and that is definitely
worth it, but even express pass,you're gonna wait a little bit,
and we definitely went backdoorsto the front of every single
line.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:21):
I mean, I've I've seen tons, I mean, obviously,
the experiences from our agencyand also from other travel
bloggers that do, you know,similar things, and that the RIP
tour, it really is worth it.
I mean, if to get the most bangfor your buck, it's well worth
it because of you just you getto go through everything and you
(27:42):
wouldn't be able to do thatwithout having that or the
express pass.
And by the time you pay forexpress passes, if you have a
big enough group, like you endup paying the same thing anyway.
So was Jason's the worst one,like scare-wise.
SPEAKER_00 (27:57):
Yeah, probably.
Terrifier was pretty bad, but itwas more the smells of terrifier
than anything.
But they did is terror.
I don't even know.
Is it a show?
Is it a I don't even know whatit's based off of?
I don't know.
Because some of them are likethey are these plot and
storylines that they've made upthrough the years for Halloween
Horror Nights, and they likebuild off that.
(28:18):
Some are like based off of ashow, yeah.
Yes, terrifier.
There's Art of the Clown, it'slike a black and white clown,
and it kind of goes through.
I think it must be a show or amovie because they were like,
Well, why wasn't this one inthere?
Like his murders, and so some ofthem are kind of gruesome, and
they had them like displayed, sothat was oh glory, yeah.
(28:40):
Like, oh especially becausethere's a it's all women, so
that part I was like, no, no.
So I was too busy trying to likenot smell and just to get
through the house.
There's a lot of like justshuffling that I was like, or it
kind of became a game to me thatthere's like, oh, that could be
a hole, that could be a hole.
(29:01):
So I was trying to like almostfind the scare actors before
they found us.
SPEAKER_01 (29:07):
Yeah.
What about the scare zones?
Did you have a favorite, or Idon't know if you call it
favorite, but one that stood outto you most, maybe?
SPEAKER_00 (29:15):
So one of the scare zones this year was more of an
experience of just like a danceparty, which was interesting.
So they had some girls up onsome blocks dancing and they had
art through there dancing onetime, which was interesting.
The cat one was very, I don'tknow, it's like kind of like
your true Halloween.
Like it stems off of like, youknow, every neighborhood has
(29:37):
like this house that they feellike is haunted, like when
you're kids.
Yeah.
And on Halloween, you finallyget up the guts to like go ring
the doorbell, or you like goteepee it or something.
So that's kind of where thisidea stemmed from.
So the whole street has like thepumpkins and the trees, and it
was very pretty and very cool.
You had like this characterswere like kids in Halloween
(29:58):
costumes, but then you also had.
Like some cow ones, but it grewit drew such a crowd because
they were doing the show.
It was very funny to see peoplefilming the show and then the
cats coming out of nowhere, andbecause you're on your phone,
like getting a good scare.
SPEAKER_01 (30:14):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (30:14):
So that one was cool.
There was one that's more like50s theme, and they had like a
bunch of old cars.
And since my dad was an old carguy, just to see like the cars,
and I don't know, it was kind oflike they had it set up of like
a street flower shop.
And like if you didn't know anybetter, like their scare actors
look pretty normal.
(30:35):
But then if you saw any light,they had like acid things coming
from their face because like asomething.
But so it's just very kind offun just to see, I don't know,
the what they come up with.
SPEAKER_01 (30:48):
So what was it to kind of to like try to wrap up?
Like what compared to what youwere expecting and compared to
what you actually experienced,what what would you tell our
listeners to especially thosethat are a little bit more
nervous about doing Halloweenhorror nights?
What just what are your thoughtson that?
SPEAKER_00 (31:08):
I was since we talked about it, I was on the
lookout for like the littleglowing red necklace medallion
thing in scare zones.
I didn't see a single one.
Paul said he's seen a handful,but not a lot.
But he's like, But if you'rescared, just go on the sidewalk
or just don't be on your phonebecause you just kind of like
look at them and smile andthey're like, oh shoot.
I felt like you get out of it,what you put into it.
(31:30):
So if you really want to bescared and you kind of like
interact with them, or you're onyour phone a lot and you're kind
of not aware of yoursurroundings, you're gonna get
more scared.
As far as the houses, we had oneguy with us who has played all
the Fallout games, watched theshows, watched all the things.
(31:51):
He was geeking out over thathouse.
I didn't understand it.
So I guess if some of the IUP issomething you would recognize,
you're gonna get more out of it.
But if you don't recognize it toread up on the backstory
beforehand, I feel like thathelps a ton because if not, I
just would have been, oh, likeclowns and dolls, like I don't
understand.
SPEAKER_01 (32:10):
Or and you happened to know because you had the RIP
tour and he gave you a littlebit more information, but you
would not have known.
SPEAKER_00 (32:16):
I would have had no idea.
SPEAKER_01 (32:18):
Yeah.
I mean, I think even you justmentioned with the cat lady, it
made it much more interestingfor you to know.
Otherwise, you would have justit wouldn't have really me meant
anything to you.
SPEAKER_00 (32:27):
Yeah.
I don't think it was as scary aspeople make it out to be.
Just overall.
But maybe that's just me andbecause I was laughing the whole
time and yeah, you had thedistraction.
I had the distraction, but Isome of it I just kind of walked
through and like, oh that waskind of dumb.
Or, but then some other peoplewere like, yeah, some of them
just aren't as scary as theywere last year, or so it's
(32:48):
probably like a personalpreference kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01 (32:52):
So you had people that have been before say that
some of the stuff just wasn'tquite as scary.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
I I can tell you if they do aStranger Things next year, I'm
gonna do everything I can to getthere.
I would definitely would want todo that and experience it.
SPEAKER_00 (33:10):
There was speculation among our group that
it will be back next yearbecause of the final season.
SPEAKER_01 (33:15):
Final season coming out, yeah, next month.
Or not next month, November.
I'm in I'm in October already,so but yeah.
Yeah, I would love I would Iwould absolutely love that.
And so you ended up well, youguys left at like 2 a.m.
ish.
You probably got in bed at likemaybe 4 a.m.
(33:36):
by the time you got back to theroom, and then you had to fly
out.
Didn't you fly out at like sixor seven?
SPEAKER_00 (33:42):
Yeah, my li my flight left at 8:30.
I figured I needed to leaveabout seven to make it to the
airport.
I do have pre-check.
Um, I was before rush hour, so Ididn't feel like too crazy.
And I was in the southwest wing,which is like very easy to do.
But I was afraid subconsciouslythat I was not gonna sleep
(34:05):
through my alarm.
I will say I had like 26,000steps at midnight, and then when
we got back to the hotel, I hadanother 8,000.
I was hurting, like my hips werekilling me, and all I wanted in
life was to take a Tylenol PM.
But I was like, I cannot, I willnot wake up.
Right.
And then I also had five or sixDiet Cokes plus another five or
(34:28):
six water bottles, and I wasprobably running on adrenaline.
So by the time I like actuallysettled down, gotten to bed, I
also felt like I had to go tothe bathroom multiple times,
TMI.
But then subconsciously, I justdidn't want to miss my alarm.
So I think I dozed for like 10minutes here and 10 minutes
there, but I was up before myalarm.
SPEAKER_02 (34:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (34:47):
Um, and I was sitting in the lobby waiting for
the Starbucks to open at six.
SPEAKER_01 (34:54):
It was just it's so hard when subconsciously it's
like your brain can't just can'tshut down because you're so
terrified that you're gonnasleep, you know, past your
alarm.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:03):
Yeah.
So I had everything packed thenight before.
Basically, all I had to do wasroll over and roll out of the
room because I was I also hadother agents in the room with
me, so I didn't want to likewake them up.
Yeah.
But it's a quick flight home.
Then I was back to pick up Reesefrom preschool by noon or take
her to preschool again at noon.
But then it the no, sobasically, I think I might have
(35:26):
had I don't know if I had fourhours of sleep between the two
nights total.
So Thursday I kind of crashed.
I'm sure you did.
SPEAKER_01 (35:37):
Oh gosh.
Okay, so last question would youdo it again?
SPEAKER_00 (35:43):
Well, now I'm spoiled, so I don't know if I
could do it without a VIB tour.
If I did go back, I woulddefinitely get express passed.
I would not do it without somesort of skip the line.
And I would go in withexpectations of not doing it all
just because there's no way youcan.
SPEAKER_01 (35:58):
If you don't do the RIP tour.
SPEAKER_00 (36:00):
Yeah.
Would I go just me and John?
Scary's not his thing either, soI probably couldn't get him
there.
It would have to be like anothergroup of agents or friends.
SPEAKER_01 (36:09):
Yeah, I mean, for me too, like I know that I would
there's only there's certainpeople I know that would I would
go with or would go with me.
And they're, you know, my myfamily definitely, other than
Ella, Ella would go with me.
But otherwise they would itwould be a waste of money to to
take them.
SPEAKER_00 (36:29):
Well, and that's the other thing is if I'm getting a
flight and I'm going down there,it killed me that I was so close
to Disney and I didn't step footin the bubble.
Like I was devastated.
Like it part of me was like, doI just like Uber to Disney from
the airport?
But then I was like, what do Ido with my bag?
And it's like, I don't want toUber and drop off my bag, Terra
(36:52):
Luna, and then Uber over toDisney Springs.
Well, I was like going throughall sorts of scenarios about how
I could get myself over there.
Or you could at least just gounder the sign.
Under the sign, go to World ofDisney.
I don't smell the smell,something, but I just it was
such a short trip.
I couldn't squeeze it in.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (37:10):
It all sounds very fun to me.
I love that stuff.
I was nervous for you because Iknew you were nervous, but I was
excited to hear and excited foryou to be able to experience it
because I would love to do it.
I think I've mentioned beforethat my birthday's on Halloween,
so I love all things spooky andI do love scary movies.
Um, I don't necessarily likegory movies, but I like jump
(37:32):
scare movies.
I like to torture myself withstuff like that.
So I think it would be such afun time.
SPEAKER_00 (37:38):
I would go back with you.
SPEAKER_01 (37:40):
I do think that because you know, I would be I
would be a major distractionbecause I would be screaming my
head off and you woulddefinitely be laughing at me.
SPEAKER_00 (37:48):
I think does make a huge difference.
Like it could probably make orbreak your trip.
Right.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (37:54):
Well, if you guys have any questions or if there's
anything that we didn't coverthat you want to know about, if
it's too short notice to dosomething this year, those
tickets go on sale usually inlike June or July for the next
season.
So we would love to help you outand get you prepared to get a
(38:14):
trip in.
SPEAKER_00 (38:15):
And I will say, if you want to do a VIP tour to
Epic or to Universal during theday, our tour guide does do
daytime tours.
He does holiday after hourtours, he does them all and he
is phenomenal.
And I will get you in touch withhim because he is to the point
that he's kind of to requestonly because he's been doing it
(38:36):
for so long.
So I can call him personally,send him a text because he's
like, I've done you guys, Iwould take your clients, so I
can get you the hookup there.
SPEAKER_01 (38:45):
That's awesome.
The fact that Dan gave him suchlike glowing remarks is huge
because our agency owners, Danand Leslie, are obsessed with
Halloween horror nights.
They go a lot, like a lot.
SPEAKER_00 (39:00):
I think they have like the top tier frequent fear
pass.
Yes.
Like their their son was a scareactor in the past, like they're
there all the time.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (39:08):
I mean, I think Dan said that they've own they've
already been like nine times,which is crazy.
So we hope everybody has afantastic week and we hope that
you enjoyed this episode.
We will talk to you all nextweek.
Bye.
SPEAKER_00 (39:31):
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Wonder
Lust and Wishes.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe and
leave us a review on yourfavorite podcast platform.
And remember, the world is fullof wonders waiting to be
explored.
Until next time, happy travels.
Bye for now.
Welcome to Wonderlust and Wishes, the
podcast where we explore theworld one destination at a time.
I'm Julie.
And I'm Crystal.
As travel agents withfantastical vacations, we are
here to share our passion fortravel and help you turn your
wonderlust into reality.
From hidden gems to bucket listadventures, join us as we dive
into the sights, sounds, andstories of our favorite
(00:20):
destinations.
So grab your passport, pack yourbags, and let's embark on this
journey together.
SPEAKER_01 (00:32):
Hi everybody, welcome to episode 73 of
Wonderlust and Wishes.
The moment we've all beenwaiting for has arrived.
Crystal is going to talk abouther Halloween Horror Nights
adventure at Universal Orlando.
She's going to give us all thedeets on that.
So we're going to just jumpright in and start talking
(00:54):
through it.
So, Crystal, can you tell me ortell the audience?
I already know what's going onhere.
Tell the audience, thelisteners, why did you decide to
do this?
You know, how did you or how didyou get like into this RIP tour?
SPEAKER_00 (01:09):
Oh, well, if you've been here a while, you heard me
like talk about my likenervousness and that this was on
the horizon.
So I'm not a scary movie person.
I like Halloween, but I likelike the cute Halloween.
I don't like the scary stuff.
So when was it?
June?
unknown (01:29):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:30):
It's been a while.
Our agency hosted a contest inbetween all the agents, and
anybody who wanted to applycould.
It was basically make some sortof social media post and it
needed to be anonymous.
And then all the entries werevoted on by all the other
(01:51):
agents.
And they were picking twobecause they were taking our
like a mentor program, and theywere taking the mentors on how
and whornights RIP tour.
So they had a couple extraspaces.
And my carousel that I made andposted was one of the winners.
(02:11):
So I was like, first of all, Iwas like, I didn't think I stood
a chance.
Oh, please.
You're so good at social media.
You're so good.
Okay, but there were a lot ofgood entries.
SPEAKER_01 (02:21):
So and to be, and also just to clarify, this was
the the social media post was toadvertise for it, it was a post
about Halloween horror nights.
So the content had to be aboutHalloween Horror Nights.
And so Crystal did an entry forthat.
I was lame and I didn't doanything.
SPEAKER_00 (02:40):
Well, that's I was actually surprised that more
people didn't.
There were still probably 20entries, but we have like 120
agents.
So I didn't think going into itthat I even stood a chance, but
I won.
And that's probably the onlyreason that I went.
SPEAKER_01 (02:57):
The thing is though, it pushed you outside of your
comfort zone, but you got toexperience something that you
maybe wouldn't have.
And now you have that, like youhave that experience, and you
have you're able to talk throughit, and especially the RIP tour.
I definitely want to like we'lldefinitely get into the details
of that.
SPEAKER_00 (03:12):
Halloween Hornets is like a very big seller for our
agency.
So just to like you say, push meout of my comfort zone, go and
do it.
And now I can say I've done it.
And just getting that firsthandexperience is always great for
like helping our clients.
So it's like we always talkabout we gotta get we gotta do
something new on our tripbecause we're like very into
(03:33):
like our routines and thingsthat we like, and just trying to
do new things to help ourclients to be able to have first
hand experience.
SPEAKER_01 (03:42):
Yes.
Okay, so walk us through yourday one, getting down there.
What did you do?
Did you happen to go to a parkthat day?
Did you do parks before the RIPtour on Wednesday?
Did you get any sleep?
SPEAKER_00 (04:00):
Well, as a mom of three young kids, leaving in the
middle of the week is hard.
So it's a very quick trip.
I dropped Reese off at preschoolat noon on Tuesday for like a
three o'clock flight.
I got to Orlando about six, andI had every intention of going
to like Islands of Adventure foran hour, but it took my Uber
(04:24):
like 25 minutes from the time Ipushed reserve to get pick me
up.
So I was at the hotel.
I stayed at Terra Luna thatnight.
By the time I got to the hotel,it was like 6:30.
So I didn't have time to do muchbecause everything closed at 7
that night.
So since I was so close to Epic,I hopped on a little bus and
(04:46):
rode the four minutes over toEpic just to say I've seen the
front gate.
I wanted a really cool picturein front of the Kronos, but I
didn't realize that they werescanning tickets so far out.
Yeah.
But I had a very sweet teammember.
She said, Come right here, comethrough, stand right here, and
I'll take your picture.
But then you have to turn aroundand go right back out.
(05:06):
So I have a cool little picture.
I wish I would have had her namebecause I would have given her
like a compliment or howeverthey do it because she didn't
have to do that.
Yeah, that was nice.
Yes.
So there was a massive stormcoming in.
So I'm kind of like we're likeplaying with fire anyway.
I think they ended up refundingMickey's Not So Scary Halloween
(05:27):
tickets that night becausestorms were so mat bad.
SPEAKER_02 (05:30):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (05:31):
So at this point, it's after seven o'clock.
I'm starving.
I'm back over at Terra Luna, andI went to their little quick
service place and ordered justlike their Smash Burger.
And Julia will know because Iwas texting her out of hangar.
It took them 45 minutes to getmy burger.
So I'm hoping it's just aone-off.
(05:52):
But they only have one kitchencompared to like everywhere else
has multiple kitchens ormultiple chefs.
And I was just by myself.
So if I would have been likewith my family, or if it would
have been like prime dinnerhour, I would have like been
fine.
But I was by myself and it wasnot busy, not prime dinner hour.
So the burger was fine.
It was nothing to write homeabout, but it wasn't horrible.
(06:12):
Then I tried to come in bed bylike nine because I had a big
day on Wednesday, but I had somenoisy neighbors.
So I got some sleep, but I wasalso up before my alarm.
So I got up and I was like readyto go.
What time I was looking atpictures.
I was fully dressed, packed.
(06:33):
I was actually sitting andfilming videos by 6:30.
Wow.
Because I was just like up andready, and I was like, I can't
do anything yet.
So trying to do some socialmedia.
So since I was up, I decidedthat I was going to rope drop
and I went over to Islands ofAdventure.
(06:53):
I was one of the first groups ofpeople, and I was going straight
to Hagrid's.
I wanted to ride Hagrid's.
I had early entry because I wasstaying at a universal property
and I booked with a travelagent.
SPEAKER_01 (07:13):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (07:14):
And so Islands of the Venture was the one that was
hosting the early entry.
That's why I picked that park.
We were let in, let's see,timestamps.
We were let in at like 7 50 for8 o'clock opening.
So they did open the gates 10minutes early.
And I went straight to Hogsmead,straight to Locker.
(07:38):
It was posted about a 20 minutewait.
And I let's see.
I wrote it down.
I got in line at 8.
I was loaded by 8.11 and I wasoff by 8.15.
Oh wow.
And it was posted 20 minutes.
When I got off, it was alreadyup to like a 90-minute wait.
(08:00):
Holy cow.
That's so it definitely jumpedquickly.
It helped.
I was in the front of the frontof the pack.
Then I just kind of wanderedaround Hogsmeade for a minute,
took some pictures in front ofthe castle.
I was playing photographer forsome families.
They saw me taking a picture.
(08:20):
Like, I got you.
Like you asked the right persontoday.
SPEAKER_01 (08:24):
She rudely sent me a picture of herself with
butterbeer in front of thecastle.
No, I'm just kidding.
She said, she said, wish youwere here.
SPEAKER_00 (08:30):
Then I was checking the map and I was shocked.
Shocked.
Velocicoaster was posted at a10-minute wait time.
I thought more people would likehead there, but I guess
everybody went to go St.
Hagrid's.
So I got in line, what is this?
8 26.
And I was off by 8 36.
(08:52):
I was back around the fronttaking pictures of it.
Wow.
It was quick.
It was super quick.
I never stopped walking like thewhole way through.
Yeah.
And then by this point, it is sohot and I'm sweating to death.
And my plan was since I didn'thave Julie with me, I was going
to do the water rides that sheswears she won't do with me.
(09:13):
So the next one on my list wasJurassic Park, but that part of
the park was not opening untilnine.
So I had like 25 minutes tospare, basically, because I was
like, well, why can't I just gocue?
So I went back over to Hogsmead.
My kids FaceTimed me becausethey were getting ready to go to
school just to say hi.
So I got myself some butterbeer,some frozen butterbeer to start
(09:35):
the morning.
And then I sat.
You remember where we had lunchwhere it was like the Jurassic?
SPEAKER_01 (09:41):
Yeah, with the big dyno.
Like dino bites or somethinglike that.
No, that's sorry.
That's that's at Disney.
I don't remember.
I don't remember.
I remember exactly where it is.
Like I know exactly where it is.
SPEAKER_00 (09:51):
I remember us going in there.
So I went in because there wasnothing going on in there, but
it was nice and AC, and I couldsit and just enjoy my butterbeer
and wait for the other side ofthe park to open.
And then I went straight toJurassic Park.
I was on the ride at 9 a.m.
I was the only person on thisboat.
(10:13):
I made a bitch.
There's like there's like roomfor like 16 people on there,
right?
Or 20.
The cast members were laughingbecause I was like sauntering
through the the the queue andI'm by myself and there's no one
else in sight.
So they're like, sit anywhereyou want.
So I was like, Well, I've neverridden before.
And they're like, you need tosit front and center.
So that's what I did.
(10:35):
And then they kind of waited fora minute because two girls ended
up coming and jumping in, right?
Because they kind of held me fora minute.
And the girl was like, This ismy favorite.
She's like, You're gonna getsoaked.
But then after she's like, Youdidn't get very soaked, and
she's like, But it's becausethere's no one in the in the
boat.
Yeah.
So we didn't have the wait.
Fun little ride.
(10:55):
So I'm already wet.
Next on my list was Kong, butKong didn't open until 9:30.
I don't know why they would dothe like such a staggered.
So I kept going to Dudley Duray,Ripsaw, Falls.
Same thing.
I walked straight on, not a soulin sight by myself.
(11:19):
Sat in the front.
What was this?
I was on and going at 9.18.
I tried to record it and then itpaused, right?
I was going down the falls.
No.
SPEAKER_01 (11:31):
I was so mad.
That's the worst.
That's probably even worse thanlike when you think you're
recording and you actually likedidn't hit the button, and then
you hit the button and you startrecording like when you wanted
to stop.
SPEAKER_00 (11:43):
Yeah.
So I was off before 9:30.
I was a drowned cat basically.
I went over to Kong and rodethat just to say I had done it.
By this point in time, though, Ikind of looked at some of the
food stuff we talked about.
Like I wanted to go get a dolp.
Yeah.
This stuff's only open on theweekends right now.
SPEAKER_01 (12:00):
No.
SPEAKER_00 (12:01):
So I didn't even go over to Seuss and I didn't I
didn't do Hulks this timebecause I we did Hulks last time
and I was my mission to writethings, I hadn't.
Yeah.
So at this point, I was like,well, I'm gonna go back over to
Hagrid, over by Hagrid's, and Iwas kind of just I saw some guys
with a wand.
I was like, hey, John hates whenI do this.
(12:23):
I'm like, hey, do you mind if Itake a picture from behind just
of you doing your like littlewand motion?
And they're like, girl, you doit.
I'll take a video of you.
And I was like, oh I'm not verygood.
I couldn't get the thing to todo its thing.
But it's because you're a HarryPotter imposter.
That's why.
Yeah.
Because you haven't read all thebooks.
(12:44):
I know.
So I did that little thing.
And then by 10, I was uh loadingthe Haworth Express to head over
to the other side.
And Gringotts had been down fortwo hours that morning, and I
got off and I saw the as I'mwalking into Dygon Alley, the
dragon is like blowing his smokeor his flames.
(13:08):
And I just like, I'm just gonnawalk over here and see.
And people started cueing, and Iwas like, oh, maybe it just
opened back up.
So I ran and put my stuff in thelocker.
I just had a crossbody and thenI'd hooked a water bottle to my
crossbody.
So I could have worn mycrossbody everywhere, but
because of the water bottle, Ineeded a locker.
SPEAKER_02 (13:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:26):
I could have done single rider, but I wanted I
didn't want to miss anythingbecause I'd never done it
before.
SPEAKER_02 (13:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:32):
So I hopped in line for Green Gots.
This is probably my longest waitof the day.
They said it was posted about 25minutes.
I got in line at 1025, and I wasoff by I was probably 25
minutes, 30 minutes, but I metfour lovely ladies from the UK.
And it was very fun for them tolike hear the they were
(13:56):
comparing and contrasting likethe Harry Potter sets and the
Cottswalds to to Diagon Alley.
Uh-huh.
So that was very fun.
And then I just kind of wanderedaround.
I got a new picture in front ofthe travel agent door because
last time I was a sweaty mess,even though I was a drowned cat.
(14:16):
Let's see, what else did I do?
Oh, because of our episode aboutwhere we could eat, I ate at the
San Francisco pastry company andI got the grilled cheese and the
tomato soup.
Was it so good?
It was so good.
And it was 95 degrees, but thetomato soup actually I feel like
kind of cooled me down becauseI've heard like this whole
(14:38):
reverse science about likeinstead of trying to cool your
body down, like if you'realready warm, your body's
already like uh the whole thing.
SPEAKER_02 (14:44):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:45):
So it was very good.
By this point, I'm like gettingready to like head out.
I hopped on Mummy.
I'd never done that one before.
And the tribute store forHalloween Horn Nights is the
exit of Mummy this year.
So I got myself a little theirlittle pumpkin, boo, pumpkin,
pen, and then I startedwandering to the front of the
(15:08):
park, and they are activelytearing down Rip Ride Rocket.
I know, it's sad.
So it was crazy to see wherethey were at at 12 o'clock in
the day and then come back forHalloween Horror Nights and how
much they had taken off in thesix hours since I'd been gone.
So this is where I rode a busback to Terra Luna, grabbed my
(15:31):
bag from the luggage, hold.
I Ubered over to Aventura, whereI met up with some other agents.
I took a quick shower because Iwas still wet.
Yeah.
Changed, got re-ready.
We all had like a meetup at thepool bar around 3, 3:30.
So that was kind of fun to see abunch of the other agents and
(15:53):
friends that it's it's been awhile since we've seen.
And then we headed over, walkedover to Universal around five
and checked in for our RIP tour.
So it has like its own littlecheck-in area.
And then he took us to it's likethe NBC media building.
(16:14):
They are switching it over.
He goes, We've never done thisbefore.
We usually do it in La Bamba,but La Bamba is where they, he's
like, This is where they takethe non-private people.
The private people get to go tothis new place.
So they had hors d'oeuvres, likepre-tour reception.
So they had the little doubledeggs that are sweet.
(16:34):
They're not egg.
Have you seen those streets thatthey have at the parks?
They look like a double egg, andit's very trippy because the
texture and everything is anegg, but it's like a coconut
something or other.
So I tried one.
It was actually good.
If you close your eyes and don'trealize that it looks like a
doubled egg, because a lot ofpeople, they're like, oh, I
thought that was a double egg.
(16:55):
Like that was so wrong.
And they had pizza fries, theyhad some of like the big tots
with the spam that they'reselling at one of the booths.
So it's just like little lightbites, but if you got enough,
you could definitely make a mealout of it.
And then art from the terrifierwas hanging around, and we had
some private one-on-one timewith him.
(17:15):
And then we just started ournight.
Our guide, Paul, he wasphenomenal.
He has been with Universal sincepre-2000, and he was in some
kind of production management,and he like helped start
Halloween Horror Nightsbasically.
And he was one of the firstpeople who like trained scare
(17:37):
actors.
Oh, that's fun.
So he had like all the insidetips, all the inside tricks.
So it's still light out at thispoint.
And we had kind of given himlike a rundown of what we wanted
to do.
So we went and hit three housesright off the bat.
And it's since you're part ofVIP tour, you skip all the
(18:00):
lines.
Some of the lines were alreadyup to like 90 to 120 minutes.
SPEAKER_01 (18:04):
That's crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (18:05):
I know, and it barely even like it hadn't even
started yet.
And so right off the bat, we hitEl Artista, Terrifier, and Grave
of Flesh.
And it was very interestingbecause before each house, he
would take us over in a cornerand he would like give us like
the story of the house.
He'd give like little Eastereggs of things to look for.
(18:26):
And he's it was just veryinsightful.
And after after the first ElArtista, Dan, our agency owner,
we were talking, he goes, youknow, I was here for a media day
opening night and was on a witha VIP guide and went through
that house.
And they didn't give us any ofthat sort of backstory.
(18:47):
He's like, This is also my ninthnight, and I did not notice the
things that he told us to likelook for and notice.
That's awesome.
So I won't ruin it for anybody,but at the end, like if you look
for El Artista and you see he'slike painting at the beginning.
At the very end, before you goout, there's another painting,
the finished painting.
(19:07):
Look at what the painting is andthen look up on the ceiling.
So that's all I'll say because Idon't want to ruin it for
anybody.
So we did El Artista TerrifierGrave of Flesh.
And then we went up on top ofthe Jimmy Fallon building.
There's like a hidden bar upthere.
And we had like a 10-minutepotty break bar stop.
They had unlimited soda andwater.
(19:30):
So your girl had so many DietCokes, but it's what kept me
going that night.
And it kept us like I didn'thave to take my big water
bottle, which was nice.
And then from there, I think wewent over to the stage show,
which was like a circus theme.
(19:52):
And it's called a burlesqueshow.
And I would say it is definitelyan 18 plus event, but they are
so talented.
And it was captivating.
Like it was amazing.
Fire dancing, acrobatics, likethe whole aerobics in the sky
kind of thing.
Like definitely Cirque to sleightype show.
(20:13):
It was really cool.
And we had like a reserveseating.
So we just waltzed right intothat and had we were sitting on
the like fourth row, and therows in front of us were like
handicapped, roped off.
After that, we did three moreshuses.
We did dolls, hatches andchains, and the Golkin.
We might have had another barstop.
(20:34):
I don't remember.
Oh, we might have done Falloutin there too.
And then after Fallout, we wentto Dagon Alley and we stumbled
upon some Death Eaters.
They were doing a little show.
And then let's see, after that,we ended up on one of the scare
zones, which was the uh cat ladyon Crooked Lane or something
(20:58):
like that.
And he was really big onexplaining how like over the
years the scare zones haveturned into more like
experiences.
So there are like little spotsset up where it is you're just
kind of like walking through thestreet and there's like scare
actors walking out.
But this particular one, there'skind of like a whole little show
that she does, like on herporch, and there's a whole
(21:20):
backstory.
And once he like told us thebackstory, it was like, oh, that
makes so much more sense.
Where if you didn't know thebackstory, you're just like, oh,
it's like an old cat lady, andthere's cows running.
Like, I don't understand.
And then what else did we do?
Sometime in there we hit Jason,Five Nights at Freddy's, and the
(21:42):
Wyatt Six, which is the WWE one,which that was mind-blowing,
like the whole backstory.
And then in between that, we hitall the scare zones.
We had another stop at JimmyFallon's.
We had a stop for the uhdeep-fried pickle spears with
the buffalo chicken dip, whichwas amazing.
(22:04):
And I didn't take a lot ofpictures because you can't take
pictures in the houses.
Did you have a favorite house ora favorite scare zone?
I really liked the what's iteven called?
The Gaulkin one.
Uh-huh.
The monsters of the north.
And it was just like reallybeautifully done.
(22:26):
And he said that there's kind ofthree areas that they'll like
rate a house.
It's like the storyline and thebackstory, how scary it is, or
like how like beautiful it is.
And I thought the Gokkin wasvery beautiful.
And it's uh it wasn't veryscary.
Uh but he uh also told us thestory about how when he
(22:49):
sometimes would let loose in thepark with a chainsaw that 90% of
the time he could get blondewomen to scream.
And I took it as my personalmission to not scream.
So I did not scream.
I had a couple like little likejumps, like oh, like oh, that
jumped out, or they have thesethings like the windows are
(23:09):
dropping and you hear like likethe wood, like on a so that part
was scary, that made me jumpevery time.
And then there were some thingslike Jason, where there are
7,000 Jasons jump scaring you.
But I would say if you go with agroup of people, take some
people who are more scared thanyou are and walk behind them
(23:31):
because they would scream and Iwas just laughing hysterically
behind them.
So they're like a distraction.
Yes, and then I also woreearplugs, which I think helped a
lot because it took out like allof the the extra noise.
I could still hear what wasgoing on, but it wasn't anything
like over the top or likescreaming.
(23:51):
I hated the fog and I hated thestrobes just because I couldn't
see where I was going.
I hate strobe lights, yeah.
So after that, like we werewalking out of there at 2 a.m.
So we took it pretty hard.
There was rain in the forecastall night long, but we looked
out, we didn't get a single dropof rain.
Nice.
You never know.
SPEAKER_01 (24:11):
It's a crapsheet with Florida.
SPEAKER_00 (24:13):
No, and they said that the last time they did one,
it poured all night, so theydidn't have time to just kind of
like like when we sat on theside of the road and just ate
our pickles, and we could kindof meander and just kind of go
slow and we weren't like runningfrom house to house.
Yeah, and like the rooftop bar,like that.
SPEAKER_01 (24:32):
I mean, that would have been difficult, you know?
SPEAKER_00 (24:34):
Yeah.
So we definitely saw and dideverything.
We did all 10 houses, then wewent back and did Jason and
Terrifier again.
We did those two a second time.
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (24:48):
So what was the crowd energy like?
Obviously, I know you were witha group and you're we're with a
private tour, but you still werein this quote unquote streets
with other people going throughthe scare zones and the houses
and stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (25:02):
It was actually packed.
And I was surprised to see a lotof people like in costume and
like people live for this.
This is their Yeah, it's becomelike a cult classic kind of
thing for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (25:15):
Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00 (25:16):
So I was asking Paul like questions you're not
supposed to ask.
Like capacity.
I was like, what is the capacitylike compared to like the day?
And he goes, Well, to evencalculate capacity, it's like
this whole thing about like howmany restaurants and places to
eat are open, how many bathroomsare open, yeah, like how many
rides are open.
(25:36):
Like it's this whole thing.
And he goes, We shut down 10rides in the day, but we're also
opening another 10 attractions,meaning the houses at night.
So he goes, It's actuallyprobably the same.
And I think he said a number inthe 30,000s, which is wild to
(25:57):
me.
And especially with the timeframe, like it's yes, yes, and
then we got asking about thecostumes because in our episode
about Halloween Horror Nights,like you're not supposed to
dress up, yeah.
And he goes, It's kind of up tothe discretion of the team
members, but the biggest thingis they don't want you
impersonating anybody, like youcan't be like dressed as one of
(26:20):
the characters, yeah, orcarrying head paints all around.
Yeah.
And they don't want your fullface covered.
So he said, if you can do likehalf your face, he goes, I saw a
girl recently, she had her wholeface kind of painted, she was
kind of like had some clownmakeup, and then half her hair
was like green, and they had hertake off half her makeup.
(26:41):
And the way she did it, insteadof like taking off like just the
cheeks or just the nose, shejust did like a line down her
face, and he she he goes, It wasso well done.
But there are people I sawTweedledee and Tweedledum
walking around, so I don't knowif they thought they were coming
to Disney Halloween, Mickey'snot so scary Halloween party,
and then showed up to that, yougotta take it to the wrong
thing.
There were just a lot of peopleeverywhere, and it was electric
(27:04):
and it was definitely fun.
I don't know that I would standin line for three hours.
Yeah.
I know people that get expresspass, and that is definitely
worth it, but even express pass,you're gonna wait a little bit,
and we definitely went backdoorsto the front of every single
line.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:21):
I mean, I've I've seen tons, I mean, obviously,
the experiences from our agencyand also from other travel
bloggers that do, you know,similar things, and that the RIP
tour, it really is worth it.
I mean, if to get the most bangfor your buck, it's well worth
it because of you just you getto go through everything and you
(27:42):
wouldn't be able to do thatwithout having that or the
express pass.
And by the time you pay forexpress passes, if you have a
big enough group, like you endup paying the same thing anyway.
So was Jason's the worst one,like scare-wise.
SPEAKER_00 (27:57):
Yeah, probably.
Terrifier was pretty bad, but itwas more the smells of terrifier
than anything.
But they did is terror.
I don't even know.
Is it a show?
Is it a I don't even know whatit's based off of?
I don't know.
Because some of them are likethey are these plot and
storylines that they've made upthrough the years for Halloween
Horror Nights, and they likebuild off that.
(28:18):
Some are like based off of ashow, yeah.
Yes, terrifier.
There's Art of the Clown, it'slike a black and white clown,
and it kind of goes through.
I think it must be a show or amovie because they were like,
Well, why wasn't this one inthere?
Like his murders, and so some ofthem are kind of gruesome, and
they had them like displayed, sothat was oh glory, yeah.
(28:40):
Like, oh especially becausethere's a it's all women, so
that part I was like, no, no.
So I was too busy trying to likenot smell and just to get
through the house.
There's a lot of like justshuffling that I was like, or it
kind of became a game to me thatthere's like, oh, that could be
a hole, that could be a hole.
(29:01):
So I was trying to like almostfind the scare actors before
they found us.
SPEAKER_01 (29:07):
Yeah.
What about the scare zones?
Did you have a favorite, or Idon't know if you call it
favorite, but one that stood outto you most, maybe?
SPEAKER_00 (29:15):
So one of the scare zones this year was more of an
experience of just like a danceparty, which was interesting.
So they had some girls up onsome blocks dancing and they had
art through there dancing onetime, which was interesting.
The cat one was very, I don'tknow, it's like kind of like
your true Halloween.
Like it stems off of like, youknow, every neighborhood has
(29:37):
like this house that they feellike is haunted, like when
you're kids.
Yeah.
And on Halloween, you finallyget up the guts to like go ring
the doorbell, or you like goteepee it or something.
So that's kind of where thisidea stemmed from.
So the whole street has like thepumpkins and the trees, and it
was very pretty and very cool.
You had like this characterswere like kids in Halloween
(29:58):
costumes, but then you also had.
Like some cow ones, but it grewit drew such a crowd because
they were doing the show.
It was very funny to see peoplefilming the show and then the
cats coming out of nowhere, andbecause you're on your phone,
like getting a good scare.
SPEAKER_01 (30:14):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (30:14):
So that one was cool.
There was one that's more like50s theme, and they had like a
bunch of old cars.
And since my dad was an old carguy, just to see like the cars,
and I don't know, it was kind oflike they had it set up of like
a street flower shop.
And like if you didn't know anybetter, like their scare actors
look pretty normal.
(30:35):
But then if you saw any light,they had like acid things coming
from their face because like asomething.
But so it's just very kind offun just to see, I don't know,
the what they come up with.
SPEAKER_01 (30:48):
So what was it to kind of to like try to wrap up?
Like what compared to what youwere expecting and compared to
what you actually experienced,what what would you tell our
listeners to especially thosethat are a little bit more
nervous about doing Halloweenhorror nights?
What just what are your thoughtson that?
SPEAKER_00 (31:08):
I was since we talked about it, I was on the
lookout for like the littleglowing red necklace medallion
thing in scare zones.
I didn't see a single one.
Paul said he's seen a handful,but not a lot.
But he's like, But if you'rescared, just go on the sidewalk
or just don't be on your phonebecause you just kind of like
look at them and smile andthey're like, oh shoot.
I felt like you get out of it,what you put into it.
(31:30):
So if you really want to bescared and you kind of like
interact with them, or you're onyour phone a lot and you're kind
of not aware of yoursurroundings, you're gonna get
more scared.
As far as the houses, we had oneguy with us who has played all
the Fallout games, watched theshows, watched all the things.
(31:51):
He was geeking out over thathouse.
I didn't understand it.
So I guess if some of the IUP issomething you would recognize,
you're gonna get more out of it.
But if you don't recognize it toread up on the backstory
beforehand, I feel like thathelps a ton because if not, I
just would have been, oh, likeclowns and dolls, like I don't
understand.
SPEAKER_01 (32:10):
Or and you happened to know because you had the RIP
tour and he gave you a littlebit more information, but you
would not have known.
SPEAKER_00 (32:16):
I would have had no idea.
SPEAKER_01 (32:18):
Yeah.
I mean, I think even you justmentioned with the cat lady, it
made it much more interestingfor you to know.
Otherwise, you would have justit wouldn't have really me meant
anything to you.
SPEAKER_00 (32:27):
Yeah.
I don't think it was as scary aspeople make it out to be.
Just overall.
But maybe that's just me andbecause I was laughing the whole
time and yeah, you had thedistraction.
I had the distraction, but Isome of it I just kind of walked
through and like, oh that waskind of dumb.
Or, but then some other peoplewere like, yeah, some of them
just aren't as scary as theywere last year, or so it's
(32:48):
probably like a personalpreference kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01 (32:52):
So you had people that have been before say that
some of the stuff just wasn'tquite as scary.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
I I can tell you if they do aStranger Things next year, I'm
gonna do everything I can to getthere.
I would definitely would want todo that and experience it.
SPEAKER_00 (33:10):
There was speculation among our group that
it will be back next yearbecause of the final season.
SPEAKER_01 (33:15):
Final season coming out, yeah, next month.
Or not next month, November.
I'm in I'm in October already,so but yeah.
Yeah, I would love I would Iwould absolutely love that.
And so you ended up well, youguys left at like 2 a.m.
ish.
You probably got in bed at likemaybe 4 a.m.
(33:36):
by the time you got back to theroom, and then you had to fly
out.
Didn't you fly out at like sixor seven?
SPEAKER_00 (33:42):
Yeah, my li my flight left at 8:30.
I figured I needed to leaveabout seven to make it to the
airport.
I do have pre-check.
Um, I was before rush hour, so Ididn't feel like too crazy.
And I was in the southwest wing,which is like very easy to do.
But I was afraid subconsciouslythat I was not gonna sleep
(34:05):
through my alarm.
I will say I had like 26,000steps at midnight, and then when
we got back to the hotel, I hadanother 8,000.
I was hurting, like my hips werekilling me, and all I wanted in
life was to take a Tylenol PM.
But I was like, I cannot, I willnot wake up.
Right.
And then I also had five or sixDiet Cokes plus another five or
(34:28):
six water bottles, and I wasprobably running on adrenaline.
So by the time I like actuallysettled down, gotten to bed, I
also felt like I had to go tothe bathroom multiple times,
TMI.
But then subconsciously, I justdidn't want to miss my alarm.
So I think I dozed for like 10minutes here and 10 minutes
there, but I was up before myalarm.
SPEAKER_02 (34:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (34:47):
Um, and I was sitting in the lobby waiting for
the Starbucks to open at six.
SPEAKER_01 (34:54):
It was just it's so hard when subconsciously it's
like your brain can't just can'tshut down because you're so
terrified that you're gonnasleep, you know, past your
alarm.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:03):
Yeah.
So I had everything packed thenight before.
Basically, all I had to do wasroll over and roll out of the
room because I was I also hadother agents in the room with
me, so I didn't want to likewake them up.
Yeah.
But it's a quick flight home.
Then I was back to pick up Reesefrom preschool by noon or take
her to preschool again at noon.
But then it the no, sobasically, I think I might have
(35:26):
had I don't know if I had fourhours of sleep between the two
nights total.
So Thursday I kind of crashed.
I'm sure you did.
SPEAKER_01 (35:37):
Oh gosh.
Okay, so last question would youdo it again?
SPEAKER_00 (35:43):
Well, now I'm spoiled, so I don't know if I
could do it without a VIB tour.
If I did go back, I woulddefinitely get express passed.
I would not do it without somesort of skip the line.
And I would go in withexpectations of not doing it all
just because there's no way youcan.
SPEAKER_01 (35:58):
If you don't do the RIP tour.
SPEAKER_00 (36:00):
Yeah.
Would I go just me and John?
Scary's not his thing either, soI probably couldn't get him
there.
It would have to be like anothergroup of agents or friends.
SPEAKER_01 (36:09):
Yeah, I mean, for me too, like I know that I would
there's only there's certainpeople I know that would I would
go with or would go with me.
And they're, you know, my myfamily definitely, other than
Ella, Ella would go with me.
But otherwise they would itwould be a waste of money to to
take them.
SPEAKER_00 (36:29):
Well, and that's the other thing is if I'm getting a
flight and I'm going down there,it killed me that I was so close
to Disney and I didn't step footin the bubble.
Like I was devastated.
Like it part of me was like, doI just like Uber to Disney from
the airport?
But then I was like, what do Ido with my bag?
And it's like, I don't want toUber and drop off my bag, Terra
(36:52):
Luna, and then Uber over toDisney Springs.
Well, I was like going throughall sorts of scenarios about how
I could get myself over there.
Or you could at least just gounder the sign.
Under the sign, go to World ofDisney.
I don't smell the smell,something, but I just it was
such a short trip.
I couldn't squeeze it in.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (37:10):
It all sounds very fun to me.
I love that stuff.
I was nervous for you because Iknew you were nervous, but I was
excited to hear and excited foryou to be able to experience it
because I would love to do it.
I think I've mentioned beforethat my birthday's on Halloween,
so I love all things spooky andI do love scary movies.
Um, I don't necessarily likegory movies, but I like jump
(37:32):
scare movies.
I like to torture myself withstuff like that.
So I think it would be such afun time.
SPEAKER_00 (37:38):
I would go back with you.
SPEAKER_01 (37:40):
I do think that because you know, I would be I
would be a major distractionbecause I would be screaming my
head off and you woulddefinitely be laughing at me.
SPEAKER_00 (37:48):
I think does make a huge difference.
Like it could probably make orbreak your trip.
Right.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (37:54):
Well, if you guys have any questions or if there's
anything that we didn't coverthat you want to know about, if
it's too short notice to dosomething this year, those
tickets go on sale usually inlike June or July for the next
season.
So we would love to help you outand get you prepared to get a
(38:14):
trip in.
SPEAKER_00 (38:15):
And I will say, if you want to do a VIP tour to
Epic or to Universal during theday, our tour guide does do
daytime tours.
He does holiday after hourtours, he does them all and he
is phenomenal.
And I will get you in touch withhim because he is to the point
that he's kind of to requestonly because he's been doing it
(38:36):
for so long.
So I can call him personally,send him a text because he's
like, I've done you guys, Iwould take your clients, so I
can get you the hookup there.
SPEAKER_01 (38:45):
That's awesome.
The fact that Dan gave him suchlike glowing remarks is huge
because our agency owners, Danand Leslie, are obsessed with
Halloween horror nights.
They go a lot, like a lot.
SPEAKER_00 (39:00):
I think they have like the top tier frequent fear
pass.
Yes.
Like their their son was a scareactor in the past, like they're
there all the time.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (39:08):
I mean, I think Dan said that they've own they've
already been like nine times,which is crazy.
So we hope everybody has afantastic week and we hope that
you enjoyed this episode.
We will talk to you all nextweek.
Bye.
SPEAKER_00 (39:31):
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Wonder
Lust and Wishes.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe and
leave us a review on yourfavorite podcast platform.
And remember, the world is fullof wonders waiting to be
explored.
Until next time, happy travels.
Bye for now.
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