Mom St USA | One Day Park Strategy: Universal Studios Florida - Chip and Company Podcast Radio Network

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome everybody to Mom Street, USA. My name is Jackie
aka Wishes Mama, and I am joined for this Hub
episode by our good friends Duck and Jess aka Bani Duck.
And today we are starting a new series. It is
something that we've touched on in the past over here
at Mom Street, but we are going to be doing
a series of one day park strategies. So we are

(00:28):
going to be highlighting all four Disney parks, in all
three of the Universal parks and kind of giving you
guys an idea of Okay, if you've got one day
in this theme park, what is a good course of
action for me to take? So this is part one
of what will inevitably be seven parts to this series.
And we are kicking off the series by starting in

(00:48):
Universal primarily because we've got Duck and Jess with us
here today and they are our Mom Street Universal experts here.
So before we jump into all of that, Duck, Jess,
how are we doing today?

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Excited to continue the Universal talk?

Speaker 1 (01:05):
They have infiltrated the Moms Streets world with all of
the Universal lingo.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
We're gonna make Universal fans out of all of is yet.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
You know, I will, I will say, on my last
trip down to Florida, I did visit Epic Universe, which
is to come. So I'm excited to give some input
and like actually have some knowledge when it comes to
because we will be covering Epic Universe in this series,
which will be exciting and something brand new to probably

(01:36):
the majority of our listeners. So that will be exciting.
But you know, Universal, I'm not I'm not completely sold
on the OG two parks yet, but like I'm sold
on Epic. So we're good. We're good there, so when
we get there, it'll be good.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
We'll take what we can get up slowly, slowly, and
that's one park at its time.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
I love this. Well, let's go ahead and hop in
because we've got a ton of notes, just some kind
of general notes about the series that we're jumping into.
For each park that we're going to be talking about,
we're going to give you kind of two courses of action,
one being if you're just walking up to the park,
planning to do stand by for everything, not planning to

(02:21):
use any sort of passes, things like that. And then
another kind of course of action would be if you
are planning to use at Universal, it's called the express
pass at Disney, it would be lightning lanes, multi pass,
single pass, those types of things. So you're going to
kind of hear some repeat of information just because we
are going to go over kind of two sides to

(02:43):
that one day plan. Basically, you're going to just have
to know going into it whether or not you're planning
to use any of those or whether your budget allows
for you to use any of those types of assistance
to shorten the weights for you and your travel party.
So you will hear us talk about that in every episode.
We're going to go over that just because we know

(03:03):
that we have a lot of people that are hardcore
one way or the other. Right, we have a lot
of people that Nope, their budget doesn't allow it, they
don't want to use that, they're just gonna go with
the standby and go with the flow. And then we
have another group that definitely budgets for those express passes
and those lightning lanes. So I want to give each
side of that some notes about what to do with

(03:25):
their day. So just like I said, general notes, and
you'll hear that in all seven and I'll probably repeat
myself about this in all seven episodes of this series.
But that's what we're dealing with. So yes, today we
are starting at Universal Studios Florida. And now this is
the part of the podcast where I'm going to close
my mouth because I do not have enough of the

(03:46):
knowledge about this, and I'm going to let Duck and
Jess take it away. So let's talk about Universal Studios Florida.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
All right, let's get.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
To yap in my favorite Let's go. So, like Jackie said,
today we're covering Universal Studios Florida, which, to anybody who's
maybe new and jumping into just the universal world, this
is not referring in general to the resort. When we
say Universal Studios Florida. There are technically three parks under

(04:15):
the universal umbrella, right, so we have Epic Universe, which
is the Brandy New one that everyone's losing their minds
over us included, and then there are the two we'll
call them the traditional Universal parks. There's Islands of Adventure
and Universal Studios Florida. And that Universal Studios Florida is
what we're talking about today. We are not suggesting a
one day strategy for all three parks. Yeah, it's probably

(04:39):
in some way doable, but no, thank you, No, thank you.
We are we are theme park enjoyers, not theme park challengers.
I'm gonna leave that to the YouTubers. That is not
our vibe. So yeah, so when we are talking about
Universal Studios Florida, we are today specifically.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Talking about that theme park.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
And if you are complete new to the Universal world,
so to speak, we did kind of a whole in
depth series about Universal not too long ago, So hop
back into our archives. If you're like, I don't know
anything about you may want to go listen to like
pause us right now, and you may want to go
listen to that first because that will give you some

(05:19):
of the background knowledge because we're not really going to
get into what rides are what and what food options
there are and all that kind of stuff because we've
covered that already. So if you are someone that needs that,
hop back to the series on Universal that we did
just a few weeks ago and then come back over.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Here and then welcome back.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yes, exactly perfect. Okay, So what are some general like
first thing in the morning thoughts that we need to
have about Universal Studios.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
So something important to know is that currently Universal Studios
Florida does not offer early admission for resort. Yes, once
upon a time they did post COVID, they haven't and
it doesn't seem like it's coming back anytime soon. And
this is purely because of the number of high volume

(06:08):
attractions that are found within this particular park. Right, there's
a lot of people eater rides here. So while there
are a few heavy hitters in here, you know, there's
the two coasters that we'll get into that are really
like the big you know, quote unquote the big attractions,
a lot of stuff. While the weights can get high,
because of the sheer volume of people, there is less

(06:31):
need for them to do this early entry to sort
of satisfy the need of you know, oh, we have
these huge rides and there's only so much capacity that
we can have on them. So it is the older park.
It was the original Universal Studios park that opened up,
so a lot of the rides reflect that like people
eater mentality that we saw in the late nineties early

(06:54):
two thousands of sort of like theme park development. The
general rule of thumb, even though there is no early entry,
try to get there about forty minutes early. So whatever
your earliest time is, right, This is evergreen advice if
in the future, they decide, you know what, everybody just

(07:14):
loves the Mummy ride so much, we'd better start opening
an hour early. The general advice that we're going to
give throughout this series is that you want to get
there at least forty minutes before your earliest entry time.
That will give you time because even though the it's
not open open, there are times where they may let
you in up to a certain point.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Much like Disney.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Right, you can physically walk into the park up to
a certain point and then they will drop the rope,
so to speak, It will drop the dividing line and
allow you in. Universal Studios Florida is much less likely
to do that than the other park that's here Islands
of Adventure, but it does happen, especially during the summer season.
You know, they want to let people start filtering in,

(07:58):
you know, and get to the areas that may they
need to get to to avoid sort of a crowd
crush situation first thing in the morning. Because their entrance
gates are pretty narrow.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, much more narrow than most of the Disney gates.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yes, yeah, and again this is just a feature of
how they built it, where they built it, When they
built it, right. I think that when they built this
they anticipated it being popular, but I don't know that
they foresaw even the success of the park. I think
they may have designed some features of the park a
little bit differently if they kind of knew the capacity

(08:32):
that would really happen in the future. With that forty
minute rule that I was just mentioning, that is during
like general time. If you're going super popular time like
summer weekends or like around Christmas, you're gonna want to
push that to and getting there an hour before your
earliest time. Maybe it's overkill, Maybe you're gonna end up

(08:53):
with the one day where no one's there in the morning.
But we like to err on the side of caution,
especially if you only have one day. You're really going
to set yourself up for success if you give yourself
that extra buffer time to show up and start lining
up to get where you're going.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Yeah, And I think one of the big things to
remember and consider with that is that the parking is
a very different situation at Universal. Now. Some of you,
if you're staying on Universal property, you won't have to
worry about dealing with the parking situation that is over there.
But if you are someone who has a car or
is renting a car and is planning to drive. That

(09:28):
is something to consider, much like it is at many
of the Disney parks too. Right, if you're going to
Magic Kingdom, there's a whole parking thing you gotta navigate
and figure out, but you have to remember that. So
what should we remember and consider when we're navigating the
parking and getting having to go through city Walk when
it comes to that.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
So what you're mentioning city Walk we talked about in
our previous episode, right, that is sort of the nightlife
district is what it's generally thought of as it's connected
to Universal It is not physically within the theme park,
but it is still Universal property. So the way that
it works is if you're coming from off property, right,

(10:06):
you're let's say you're staying at Disney, you're driving over
for a day, or even if you're just a local
driving on, so you'll drive up. There is a massive
parking garage. It is the biggest parking garage I think
I've ever seen in my life. It's crazy. So there's
a parking garage. There is the option for like additional
VIP parking, and there are always those options, you know,

(10:28):
which I don't know if we mentioned in our previous episodes,
but I doubt I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
I think we talked about that we did either, but perspective.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
But it feels like it was one hundred years ago,
even though it was a two months ago we talked
about this, right, But uh, yeah, So there is the
option for like you know, like VIP parking and things
like that. But either way, no matter what, you're gonna
end up in this garage.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
You walk through the garage to.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
The entryway to City Walk. At City Walk is actually
where the security screening is. So if you are a
Disney person, the thing that we can compare it to
is as you're going towards Magic Kingdom by like the TTC,
where that is like a screening area as well. That's
probably the closest analogy that we have. So before you

(11:15):
physically enter Universal property, you are being screened for security,
even if you're not going to the parks, you're just
going into City Walk. They screen right there.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Ye, similar to the parking garage at Disney Springs now
that they've implemented that as well, So you literally get
out of your car as you walk in you know,
out of it's a little further removed at Universal than
it is like Disney Springs. It's like in the parking
garage at CityWalk, it's a little further out where you
have some walking to do before you actually get to that,

(11:46):
but it is very similar to what you find at
Disney Springs.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
Or you can ride Universal's version of the people Mover,
which is the moving walkway like they have in some are.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
The moving airport walkway. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
We call it Universal's people Mover, so yeah, so so,
but yes, you're right, there is much more distance in between, right.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
It's it's so.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
You walk into the garage, you go through your screening,
you walk down that walkway, and then that dumps you
into City Walk and then you can either go right
to go to Universal Studios Florida, or you can go
left to go to Islands of Adventure. So generally with
City Walk, if you only have one day Universal or
like one day for each park, we love City Walk,
but it is not the highlight attraction there, right, Like,

(12:29):
if you are there for the theme parks, do not
stress if you can't do anything in City Walk.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yeah, if most things there can be done at home. Yes, yes,
like escape rooms, movie theaters, mini golf, mini golf, yeah, loo,
I'm sure you have all of that in your hometown.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
So don't stress. You're not missing like Veloca coaster in
there or anything like that, right, Like there is no
I absolutely am gonna waste this trip if I.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
Don't see it.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
It's a it's fun, but it is their entertainment district, right,
so it's not a total crist says if on your
limited time with your trip you can you can't rang
out in there except for voodoo donuts you have to sell. Yeah, absolutely,
you must get vooted. It is worth the walk from
like on the way back to city walk at the

(13:14):
end of the night, get get yourself some food, a donut.

Speaker 4 (13:16):
You have to pass by it anyway, it's not right,
not out of your way, that's right.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Perfect, right, all right. So once we have arrived at
the park, yes, are we doing We're doing express first, right, yes, okay.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
You're going to talk is if you are using an
express pass. So Universal has two different versions of their
express passes. One is just the standard express pass. It's
like a single use per ride pass thing of it,
like the lightning lanes, at Disney, use it once and
you're done.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
The difference.

Speaker 5 (13:46):
I'm sorry not to cut you off, but the difference
important to know between here and Disney Disney. You like,
book your time down, you have to do you have
to do that. You don't have to do that. You
just physically walk up. They will scan your your pass
and then it's considered spent for that ride. If you
have the single use, you do not have to schedule
in advance. You can just hop in that all line whatever.

Speaker 4 (14:07):
Yeah, and there is also the unlimited Express, which is
exactly what it sounds like. It is unlimited, right, so
you can walk up to that ride and use the
express pass on it as many times as you want to.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
And I'm laughing only because we've written the Mummy like
five times in a row.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, success ride because we had the.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Express and there was nothing like I forget what it was,
a bunch of stuff was down and we were there
and we were like, you know what, let's go on again.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
Whatever.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
I see no problem with this getting the most out
of your money.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
Oh and boy, howdy do we?

Speaker 4 (14:36):
And the thing to know is that universal Express passes
can be very very expensive, sometimes even more than the
cost of your ticket into the park.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
So the single use one is.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
Usually a little bit cheaper, and then the unlimited one
is obviously the most expensive option, and that is the
one that can get like insanely pricey. So we're kind
of planning this out as if you have just the
single use you know, standard pass. But something to note
two is if you're staying in some of the more
like higher end hotels on universal property, if the unlimited

(15:12):
Express pass is included with that. So that is a
nice perk. So if you are staying on property, you
can get that included, you know, with your stay, but
otherwise it is something to kind of price out and
see if it makes sense for your family and for
your trip. So we're just kind of talking about this
as if you're just using you know, the standard express pass.
So the general kind of principle that we follow is

(15:34):
to start with your biggest ride and then kind of
going around in a counterclockwise motion. So this kind of
makes sure that you save your single express rides for
maybe the second time around, you know, on that most
anticipated ride, and it allows you to kind of get
through a park efficiently, get on all the rides you want,
and then kind of avoid the traffic because everybody kind
of like with Disney, you tend to go off to

(15:55):
the right, So kind of going in that counterclockwise motion
kind of helps with it.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
Yeah, the flowing universal if you want to pull.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Up a map.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
No, But the way that a lot of traffic goes
in Universal studios in USF is that people will you
walk right into the Minion section. So people will kind
of stop at the Minion section and then we'll continue
on in a clockwise motion around like then they'll head
back to the Harry Potter section and then so on

(16:23):
and so forth. Or they will go right to the
Harry Potter section and then they're like, well, we're at
the back of the park, so let's continue around, and
they will generally continue to go clockwise. If you go counterclockwise,
you were then generally going against the flow of the
busiest traffic. And in our itinerary we're going to talk
about it too. But that lets you knock out to

(16:45):
most popular rides in the park fairly easily. So that
is our hot take of the day is to start
in the back and then go counterclockwise.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
I mean, I always live by the rule that left
is always right. That's it, so like exactly right, you know,
and that you will find that in a lot of
theme parks, not just you know, Universal Disney. You know,
they're all set up a little bit differently, but generally speaking,
your tendency is going to want to be to go
right ish most of the time. The better option is

(17:17):
to go left. So firm agreement, yes, And I should
mention before we get too much further in this that
this the itineraries that we're giving are going to give
you the majority of the rides, are almost all of
the rides, if not all of the rides at these parks.
As we kind of go through this whole series. That
being said, if you get to part of this itinerary
and you're like, no one in my group wants to

(17:38):
ride that, cool, great, skip it and move on right,
like just you know, take a look at at the
order that we're we're and we'll get some graphics and
have some nice little little screenshotable little itineraries for you
after we kind of get through the series with this.
But the whole thing is like you can take this
and then cater it to your group. So if there

(18:00):
is a ride I'm here that we talk about that,
you're like, Nope, don't want to do that. Cool skipet
move on, Yeah, and I make.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
I make throughout this. We make some notes as to
possible substitutions, but also something to know as we're going
through this. It's much easier to give firm times or
you know, estimated times with the express pass. We've done
both with express and without express all three, all these
universal parks except for Epic so like so Universal, USF

(18:30):
and IOA, we've done extensively both with and without express passes.
It is much easier for us to give you a
rough estimated time for with express pass, right because we
know generally the queue takes us a half hour to
go through, it takes us five minutes to get loaded up,
so you are in and out of this ride in
forty minutes.

Speaker 3 (18:47):
Right.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
It is much much harder, I'm going to say impossible
for us to give you exact timings when it comes
to doing things without an express pass. So when we
were researching this, we're not We're not able to give
you exact times. We're giving you very rough times. So
you may find you get through a lot of this
stuff quicker if you go at a less busy time
of year, or even think factors like the weather could

(19:09):
help you, right if it's raining in the morning and
people aren't really showing up the biggest A lot of
the big attractions at USF are indoors, so they're not
closing just because it's inclement weather. So you might be
able to knock out five rides in two hours, right,
So it's very dependent on a number of factors. So
we give you a sample itenerary and we give you

(19:30):
advice as to what to follow. But do just understand
that as you're going through your day, especially without Express,
it's really important for you to plan ahead right, get
your big rides, you know, in your thoughts, and also
keep checking the app right because that app is going
to be your best friend in terms of wait times,
in terms of where everything's located, fastest route.

Speaker 3 (19:51):
Things like that.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Absolutely. Okay, So are we ready to hop into our
first little section of our eenor are you here?

Speaker 3 (20:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Let's rock perfect? So what are we doing first?

Speaker 3 (20:04):
All right?

Speaker 2 (20:05):
So again this is the with Express itinerary. So studios opens.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Right at nine o'clock.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
What you're gonna do is if you're gonna get there
between eight and eight forty. Again, depending on how busy
it is there. We said earlier, they're gonna start maybe
possibly scanning folks in kind of depends on the season,
the time, how many staff they have, et cetera. But
either way, you're gonna want to get there fairly early.

(20:32):
You have your nine am entrance, You're gonna go right
to Gringotts.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
You're gonna go.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
You're gonna book it straight to the back of the park.
You can't miss it. It's a giant brick wall that
you can enter the night buses outside. You're just gonna
haul it and you're gonna go right to Gringotts. If
this is of any interest to you at all, go
right to Gringotts, because this weight by midday, no matter
how busy or not busy the park is.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
Get it's long.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
It just does.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
If you are not a coaster person, we then recommend
going right to whatever your number one attraction is. That
way you can get at least one ride in before
you have to use that express pass right, so you
get your your one freebie ride we can call it.
If you have kids, we do suggest that you know

(21:23):
this is of interest to your kiddos, that Minyon Mayhem
ride that also gets a very long line by midday.
It's upwards of ninety minutes by midday, So you're going
to want to be line it right there and make
that your number one priority, because again, I don't think
anybody wants to wait ninety minutes at two pm with
a craigy child.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
Nope.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
No, Now are you saying that at even at nine
am the express pass should be used for greenots or
is this a standby that you're zooing first before you
start your express paths?

Speaker 2 (21:54):
That one so a standing guy, So we will tell
you when you're starting to use the express passes these
first few rides. Essentially, if the wait is a half
hour or less first thing in the morning, you are
gonna want to just do that standby. It is generally
not a half hour first thing in the morning. They
may post that time, you know, just because they got
to start somewhere, right, They got to give a rough estimate.

(22:16):
They gotta do what they gotta do in terms of
their own logistics as a park. But generally speaking, we
have seen half hours posted for Grngotts and then it
ends up being twenty minutes, right, So it is always whatever,
your number one priority is to make sure that you
get on that first ride as soon as possible. You
were gonna want to go right there and get right

(22:37):
in the standby line, and then later if you enjoyed
it as much as we think you probably will, because
if it's your most anticipated ride, nine times out of time,
you're gonna have a good time, right, So then that
will later in the day, let you use that express
pass when the line is longer.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
Perfect. Yeah, And you'll find this is the case at
almost every theme park that we're going to talk about.
Generally speaking, the first hour ish, maybe two hours at
some parks are really just a great time to rack
through standbyques and get those in. So that way, like
Duck mentioned, if you want to go back to these
rides again, you still have the ability to do that using.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
That express pass. Yeah, agreed.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
And like we said, you may get in and out
of these rides in twenty minutes. We have budgeted for
some of these about forty minutes. So if you can
find that you get out of Gringot and it's still
at that twenty minute mark right again, you know what
I mean, Like, this is a great time again for
you to check the app for you to keep an
eye on the wait times and if it's low enough,

(23:39):
just get right back in line and go ahead and
knock it out one more time, because then usually by
like you said, about an hour in, we see those
wait times start to climb. As people are filtering in,
they're ready to go. A lot of people don't want
a rope drop, but they'll go for opening an early morning.
So this is a good time for you to knock
out your number one ride and then maybe do it

(24:00):
a second time, even before you need to burn that
express pass.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
Perfect.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Okay, So we have ridden Gringots, we are exiting the queue.
We decide that we're gonna go do something different next
where we headed after that, So you were going.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
To expeditiously head to the right. You're gonna just exit
Harry Potter and hook a right and you're gonna go
for the Mummy. That is, Gringots and the Mummy are
the two biggest attractions within USF. They are the coasters
in there. Uh And while there are other great rides, these,
because they are coasters, they just inherently have lower capacity

(24:38):
than some of the other rides in here. Right, So
like we're gonna talk about like something like Men in
Black and a little Bit. That ride moves like eighteen
trillion people in an hour, Like it's unbelievable how fast
they move people through it, like breaks quantum physics, how
quickly you can go through that. So coasters have just
by nature of what they are and the spaces in

(24:59):
which thesesters are built, our lower capacity, so you know
you are there is going to just be inherently a
higher line.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
Time for them.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
So by knocking these out first thing, you are a
setting yourself up for a really great day, because nothing
feels better than just like dashing into a theme park
and knocking out your most anticipated rides, Like you feel
you're like, immediately, I'm good, no matter what else happens
the rest of the day, I am riding the high
of the fact that I knocked out my most anticipated ride, right.

(25:29):
But more than that, you really feel like you know
you're you're getting your experiences worth when you can knock
out these larger attractions and then later you can go
back and ride them again with express and you could
just basically walk right on with a minimal weight.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
Perfect love this, so you get in line for the Mummy.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
Right roughly, we're thinking nine o'clock ish you got in
line for Gringotts, say nine point forty you get out right,
We'll give you some time for loading things like that.
Then you're going to be able to walk over to
the Mummy about ten am. You're gonna get in line
for the Mummy. Between ten and eleven. The wait time
usually hovers between a half hour and forty five minutes.

(26:13):
Anything more than that. If you want to use the Express,
you can go ahead and do that. If you want
to wait a little bit later in the day to
see where the plan is taking you, you can do
that too, because don't forget, you can use that express
at any time of day. There's no reservations to make,
there's no planning that you need to do other than walking.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Up and scanning your ticket. That's all.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
So depending on what you're feeling, we suggest, if it's
forty five minutes or less, just go ahead and hop
in the queue. It usually moves pretty quickly. I know,
I just said it's like a lower capacity ride, but
they are very efficient with their loading and unloading, so
you move through pretty quickly. So we're going to say,
let's say it takes you about an hour right to
get in through the Mummy that brings you at eleven o'clock.

(26:56):
If you're feeling a little hungry, right across from the
exit of the Mummy is an Antian's Pretzel Place. We
recommend stopping there because also right next to that and
around eleven o'clock is the Blues Brother Show. So, like,
you've just knocked out the two biggest rides in this park,
you need like a little bit of a victory snack
and like some vibes, a little treat, a little snack, right,

(27:18):
everyone loves a little pretzel nugget.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
So that is.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
A great option because it's all it's all right there.
It's literally you exit the Mummy and you look at
the building physically across from you and it's the anti
Ens And it's a little deceptive because it does look
like like just like a New York corner store. And
then you read the banner and it says anti Ans
and you're like, well, now wait a second, I know that.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
And that's perfect because those are two of your top
thrill rides, right, So like if you're someone that's like
I'm gonna wait to eat until I've done those right,
perfect timing.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
That's me and that's why, and that's why I'm so
hungry by eleven o'clock and I'm looking for those pretzels
because I'm a human who uh, I can't eat and
then go on a right. I commend everybody who can.
I need to wait. It's a swimming like. I need
to wait like a half hour before I get.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
On the ride.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
So I'm not eating a big breakfast or anything like that, right,
Like I might have a pastry, might have a couple
steps of coffee, and then I'm off on the rides.
Believe me, that's enough to wake me up. But you know,
I can't eat a lot before we get on rides.
So that's a really great point. And by that time
I'm usually starving, So that's like a good break time.
I can have my little pretzel snacks, we can watch

(28:27):
the Blues Brothers show, and we can just sort of
relax after sprinting into the same park.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Perfect, all right, So we grabbed a snack, we caught
some vibes. Where are we headed next?

Speaker 2 (28:38):
So you're now going to be entering the illumination area
right if we're continuing our counterclockwise motion, you're going to
go back into that Minion's area that you just sort
of sprinted through before. So this is eleven thirty, and
especially if it's a busy time of year, now is
when you're going to start wanting to use the express pass.

(29:00):
Keep an eye on wait times. Of course, like we said,
the general rule of thumb is half hour or less.
Don't even bother with the express pass. You can save
it for later. So if the either of the Minions
rides are of interest to you, I would knock those
out now, like I said, just use the express and
pop right on because around now is when the wait
times start to go up, because now you really have

(29:22):
everybody in there, right, maybe some of the not so
mourning people are rolling in, some parents who maybe their
kiddos just did not want to get in the park
that early, right, maybe they slept in a little bit,
they're planning on staying late. This is now when the
height of.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
The day really starts.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
So this is roughly when you're going to want to
start using express passes if anything's a half hour or more. So,
if you are not interested in doing the Minions rides,
you could grab lunch now at eleven thirty instead of
maybe having the snack at eleven, you could alternatively grab
lunch if if not if Minions is of interest to you,

(30:03):
we definitely recommend grabbing a snack and then waiting until
about one fifteen for lunch because basically between like eleven
forty five and one is when everybody else also thinks
it's a good idea to have lunch.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
How true?

Speaker 2 (30:18):
How dare it all hides sane?

Speaker 1 (30:20):
So true? That's true everywhere everybody all decides to eat
at the same time.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, And first off, that's offensive that everybody also gets
hungry at the same time that I get hungry. But
truly and Universal does a good job. They have the
mobile ordering and it's like basically available everywhere and it's
pretty efficient. But like the truth of the matter is,
it's just a busy time. You may not find seating,

(30:47):
you know, so if you can eat early or eat late,
and I feel like this is gonna be the general
principle across the board for all of these to try
to eat outside of peak time if you can avoid it,
please do, even if you have to grab a snack,
excuse me, even if you have to grab a snack
to kind of like hold yourself over or your kiddo's over.
It's worth it to have that stress free dining experience

(31:09):
by waiting that little bit now.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
Also, just the caveat to that, don't wait too long either,
like don't don't get angry, don't make your kiddos angry.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
That feels targeted.

Speaker 4 (31:23):
It was not a promise, all right, but I just
snacked on it.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
The snacks are crucial. So if you know that you're
going to wait until one thirty or two to eat lunch,
you have got to make sure that you plan at
least two snack breaks in your morning block before lunch. Yeah,
because you're.

Speaker 4 (31:41):
Going to be cheez its or something in your back
bang for the kiddo.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
Just make your slow eat yeah yeah, because you you are,
you're walking more, you're more active there, You're you need
more sustenance to keep you.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Hiding thousand degrees.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yep, just at least two snack breaks if you're going
to do a late lunch, and I'd still contemplate a
snack break even if you're doing an early lunch too,
depending on your your preferences with your group.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yep, firm agree. You know yourself and your kiddo's best.
It's always good to have, like Jess, it like backup you,
just a backup cheese it or something right, like a
singular cheese it in fair bag. But it's gonna be
one of those really large ones like taco bells. Nearly,
that's it, like the like the toastatas that Taco bell
sold that were just giant cheese its. It's those just one,

(32:30):
just one, one per person in your group.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
Yes, excellent, Okay, So you have planned your lunch and
figured out timing with that. So this now we're gonna
give you still times with the afternoon, but they may
or may not be awful little if you take a
later lunch earlier lunch. So keep that in mind, figure
that out, do some math in your brain. You can
do it, I promise you can. But where are we

(32:55):
headed after lunch?

Speaker 4 (32:57):
So after lunch around like one thirty one forty five
is a good time to find a spot for the
two pm parade.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
So this starts.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
But Jess, what time does the two pm parade start?

Speaker 1 (33:06):
I don't know. I think it's four.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
Oh, I knew it. I knew the trading. That's just
two pm parade.

Speaker 4 (33:13):
So this starts in Hollywood next to Cafe Obamba, and
then it goes down through Illimination and then around the
New York area and then it you know, kind of
comes back the way that it came. So the parade
route is also available on a map on Universal's website,
so if you want to kind of see where it
stops and kind of figure out where you guys want
to be on that route. So the parade takes about

(33:34):
twenty minutes to go by, so it kind of depends
on where in the route you are. You know, obviously,
if you're towards the end of the route, it'll take
longer for that parade.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
To get to you.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
I am shocked by this.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
The time works.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
This also buys you a little bit of extra time
if you're doing the late lunch, Yes you can. So
what happens a lot with this parade is that people
will be where it starts and then clear out once
it's past, not realizing it makes that loop back.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
So that is a good.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
Place to sort of, you know, if you're running a
little bit late, maybe you were just finishing up lunch,
that where the parade starts is also where it ends,
so that is a good place too. If you think
the parades about halfway through exactly just sort of like
loop right back, and you know you can usually get
some good, good spots to view.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah, I didn't realize that it literally makes a circle.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
Yeah, you know what, most people don't because it's very
different than how Disney does things, right they Disney, It's
just like it's down Main Street. It's also true for
Universal that it's down there two main streets, I guess
three main streets, but it makes just a circle around
the block. Basically because of how Universals set up, they

(34:47):
have to store their floats and such only in that
one area, and there's no real room for them to
sort of, you know, bring it through the backstage area.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah, right right, Yeah, that makes sense. And Victoria's saying
in our chat something that's important to think about with
the parade two. She said she once got stuck in
the loop once and couldn't get out to get to
like et or something like that. So keep that in
mind where you're watching the parade two, so that way
as it loops back around, you don't get caught on
the wrong side of the parade route depending on where

(35:17):
you're going next, which is where are we going next? Chess?

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Speaking of ET, Hey.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
So speaking of ET.

Speaker 4 (35:25):
So after the parade around two forty five, you can
start making your way back towards ET. This ride does
get a pretty long wait if it is peak season,
so you might want to use your express pass, But
if it is a short wait, like twenty minutes or so,
see the express pass for later when it might get
a little bit busier.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
So this is another people eat to ride. It goes
through people like you would not believe. Everyone is seeing
that freaky little alien while they're riding their bikes the faster.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
Than you believe.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
However, it is one of the most family friendly rides,
so a when it's a billion degrees out, it's an
air conditioned queue, everybody wants to go there. Be when
it's peak season and there's a lot of families there,
everybody's going to want to go there because it is
one of the most family friendly attractions in the park,
So it will move fast. But there is a high

(36:16):
volume of people that are there. So we've seen waits
for ET be like four minutes, and then we've seen
them be ninety minutes. So yeah, it's very dependent on
what else is going on in the park. What if
anything else is down, if it's very hot or raining,
if there's a lot of people, so just keep that
in mind. If it's like twenty minutes or less, just
get right in line and you know, like just said, otherwise,

(36:37):
go ahead and use that express pass and move on.

Speaker 4 (36:40):
Yeah, So there are a couple more kind of kiddo
friendly attractions here. There is the playground that they can
you know, play around on if you're looking for just
time for them to kind of run around and get
some energy out. And then there is also the troller
coaster if you have any kiddos that are interested in that.
So those might be some good things to hit up
while you're over here as well. And then there is

(37:00):
also the Born Stunt Tacular show that is in this area.
So if that is interesting to you, then you can
you know, kind of set aside some time around now
to you know, go and watch that show as well.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
If that's of interest to you at all, I recommend it.
If you are a Disney person and you like the
Indiana Jones Stunt Show, you will love the Born Stunt
Tacular Show. It is very good. It is widely regarded
as one of the best stunt shows at a theme
park in the US period, So it is it's a
really good show.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
So if you have teenagers that are maybe like not
super into some of the other uh you know, like
the dream Works stuff over there, the Born Stunt Tacular.

Speaker 4 (37:38):
Is it's a great show, all right. So this kind
of all puts you around like four o'clock ish that
you'll be arriving to the Simpsons area. So there are
a few rides in this area. There is a motion
simulator ride Matt for me and then map for.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
Until it's the Whorld ride.

Speaker 4 (37:56):
So if you are motion sensitive, much like Duck over here,
this would be a good time to have another you know,
snack stop or drink stop. You can go into most
Haven and have yourself a little meal and a duff
beer if you are of age.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
You can also have a Flaming mo if you are
of age.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
Drigano if that is so, might be a good time
for that. If the rides in the Simpsons area are
not something that floats your boat.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
Pack it up, pack it up. I'm good.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
And there are also if you have kiddos and you're
in this area and you're not wanting to do the rides.
There are like little carnival games and stuff that you
can do too, so that is something else to kind
of eat up the time and keep the kids entertained.
If like the Simpsons just really isn't necessarily their vibe wrong,
everyone loves it, everybody's vibe. It should be everyone's bob.
But you know, bye, doctor Nick. You can also just

(38:46):
like go into most tavern and have dinner too. You
can get like a full meal in there if you want.
You can also buy like those big donuts and like
all that. So the Simpsons area has a lot to
offer even if you're not doing the rides. So this
will puts us to the Men in Black ride around
five o'clock, so you can go on that ride. It's
usually never more than like a ten minute wait because,

(39:07):
like Duck said, it really just eats through people like
it's it's insane raplely it moves there and like it
is like a stop and you have to load people
like things. So I don't like it defies it. I'm
telling you to be this quick, but it is. Time
works differently in the Men in Black ride, it does
they use the flashy thing you bring up out.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
It's the deneralizer, but it truly it's it's high capacity.
There's many It's basically like three groups of nine on
two different sides, So it's a lot of people very
quick that are moving through. So or three groups of
six sorr. I can't count, but is it. It doesn't

(39:48):
really matter. It's a lot of people moving really fast
and I can't count. We've established this.

Speaker 4 (39:54):
It's all right, we don't have to count. So yeah,
I mean, this ride typically is not a very long wait.
But if you want to, you can u your express pass.
If you want to save it and do another lap
around and come back to it, you absolutely can do
that too. But honestly, it's usually never a very long wait.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
If you want to feel like you've used your express pass,
you can use the express pass, but there's like no
need to do it.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
For men in black and brighticular, maybe up down your
walking distance a little bit.

Speaker 4 (40:19):
Yeah, this is a yeah, that would be the perk.
So this all kind of puts us around five thirty
ish and we are kind of back near the Hogwarts area.
Somebody did comment in the chap before about it's not
really labeled. It is not really labeled where the Hogwarts
area is, but there is the night bus right outside,
and there is the King's Cross station that is like

(40:40):
right by it, so there is it's kind of the
entrance is hidden away because it is Dian Alley, so
it is hidden away, but it's kind of right in
that area, and then you can kind of just go back.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
It looks distinctly British.

Speaker 4 (40:52):
It does look distinctly British. Yeah, you're in New York
and then all of a sudden you're in London, so
that is like your hint that it's nearby. So you
can go back to the Hogwarts area or the Harry
Potter area. Ride Gringotts again using your express past this
time because the ride or the line I am sure
will be very long. And then when you're done there,
that puts you about six fifteen ish, head back over

(41:13):
to the Mummy and use your express pass on the
mommy if you didn't have to use it in the morning,
and then that puts us at dinner around dinner time.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
Okay, So now that you've made your full loop back,
this will put you about in New York or San Francisco,
so there's two good options there for dinner. I would
also say caveat good options with it's still theme park food, right.

Speaker 4 (41:37):
Like we're not it's not it's not uh madelon Stard,
that's right, Farish and Star.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
Dining because I said one time it was good food
and I got yelled at in a chat, and I
just want to say, like I want a caveat it.
It is good for theme park food, but it is
you are still in the theme park, Like I want
to make that clear.

Speaker 4 (41:52):
Let's manage your expectations.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
That's right, Let's be clear what this is theme park food.
But yeah, so there is uh Louise, which is an
Italian adjacent restaurant, and then there is richter Berger in
San Francisco. So those are two good quick options. And
if you need to like sit down, there's Lombard seafood Grill.

(42:13):
We haven't eaten there. We've sat down in there during
like our tours for HHN. We have not personally eaten there.
But again, like I don't imagine there's anything necessarily wrong
with it. I haven't heard anything horrific about it, and
I would recommend Finnigans is also a good place that's
more like a bar vibe. We've talked about that before. However,

(42:35):
it is closing this upcoming year for extensive renovation, so
through most of twenty twenty six.

Speaker 3 (42:41):
I believe it will be closed.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
So if you're listening to this very soon or in
the far flung future, go ahead and have go ahead
and go to Finnegans, but just know that it is
for most of twenty twenty six. There's a planned renovation
for it. It sorely needs it. I love that place,
but it needs the update. So sad it'll be closed,
happy that it's getting the update.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
Yeah, and just a note about that again. If you
need more advice on where to eat, we talked about
kiddo friendly options especially already in our previous episodes, So
look back in our archives that are all available anywhere
you're listening to us right. Our archives exist on YouTube,
on chip and Co, on Spotify, on all the places,
So head back there. And if you can't find something,

(43:26):
please reach out to us and be like, hey, I'm
looking for this. You said it was there, I can't
find it. I'm happy to help you. Just send us
a message.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
I again am thrilled to chat about Universal, So any
question you have I'm happy to answer.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Who loves this? Okay, so we had a wonderful relaxing
meal inside the air conditioning, ready for our third, our
third wind of the day, for our evening plans. Where
are we headed?

Speaker 2 (43:54):
So this is going to put you about seven o'clock.
The park can close anytime between nine o'clock and one am.
It super depends on the time of year. It super
depends on the night, if there's anything else going on,
if there's a special event, what have you. So just
keep an eye on that, Just check the app. If

(44:15):
you're not sure, ask a team member, they'll be happy
to tell you. So we're going with assuming that this
park is closing about ten o'clock, right, because that's usually
what it is between nine and ten typically, and it's
usually only those special times or when it's really busy
that it closes as late as one am. So we'll
just go with a rough at ten o'clock. So is

(44:36):
this putting us at about seven o'clock? If you wanted
to do the Fast and Furious while it's still open
or Transformers, which is also right there, you can do.
So now it depends on the wait and also at
this point, like when we get to this point in
the night, if we haven't used Express on a ride.
We will just use the Express on the ride, right

(44:57):
because even though it's maybe not like a huge time savings,
it is a more direct route usually in the queue,
it dumps you in a more convenient place. So overall,
like it saves you I don't know, like a thousand
steps on every ride, right, Like it doesn't seem like
that much, but it really does add up. When you've
been going since.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
Say you're just done by then you are just done,
use the express path just after dinner, use use the
express pas just just do it.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
Yeah, it's worth it.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
And and also like I don't know, it makes me
feel like I'm getting more out of it, right.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
Like maybe I didn't press past.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
There's been more than one time where we've looked at
each other and we're like, we don't need to use it,
but I need to use it, you know what I mean.
That's it. Just get the little scan checkpoint. It's to
say thank you to the team member and move on. Ut.
But yeah, so so now it's a good time to
do either Fast and the Furious or transformers. Uh and
this is now entering what we call clean up hours.

(45:52):
I love it, firm is yeah, yeah, this is clean up.
This is you've done everything that you wanted to do.
You made your full lap, you got some food, you
got some treats. This is now when you go back
and you do whatever you haven't done. Right, Maybe there's
a show that you wanted to see, maybe there's rides.
We usually use this time for shopping so we can
kind of hang out in the air conditioning after a
long day. Right, So this is when we're looking for

(46:15):
souvenirs for us or for our friends and family, Like
that's what we use clean up time for usually. And again,
like if there wasn't anything that you got that you did,
like you didn't burn your express paths for you can
go and use that now even if you don't like
need it, you need it, you know what I mean.
It's also a good time to take in any park

(46:36):
atmosphere that you haven't had the chance to do. This,
I feel like is much more applicable advice for when
we get to Epic Universe because everything in there is
so immersive. But also, like if you're like us, like
I just love theme parks and I love people watching
at theme parks, like that is truly at least half
the experience for me. So sometimes we'll just like if

(46:56):
we're done, like we'll just sit down on a bench
and we'll just like, you know, grab some something to
drink and people watch, right Like, we'll just grab a
little sodi, pop a little snack and watch and it's
so fun.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Right.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
So that's that's that's our big evening activity.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
Hello, and if you can hang.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
On until park close. Uh, there is now we talked
about it a little bit. I think last episode. There
is now a projection show in the middle of USF
So there is like the large lake body of water
towards the front of that and like the New York
Ish area, there is now a projection show because they

(47:36):
were able to finally get the money to fix the
fountains and and get that all together.

Speaker 4 (47:41):
Yay.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
The Halloween Horror.

Speaker 4 (47:43):
Nights one that they did was excellent, amazing.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
I really we were very impressed with it. So now
they brought back Sinisational as Symphonic Spectacular, which is that
show that gets projected on it is I believe the
official answers to when it starts is ten minutes before closed.
Maybe it's fifteen minutes before close, and that will be
true whether it closes at nine, or it closes at eleven,
or what have you. That's the general time. So you're

(48:09):
gonna want to probably go to the viewing area, which
is pretty clearly marked. And again if you're not sure,
you can ask a team member and go probably maybe
about twenty minutes a half hour before, maybe a little
earlier than that if it's very busy, just to make
sure that you get a good, good viewing area.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Excellent. So okay, that kind of puts a pin on
our day if we're using Express. Now we're gonna talk
about without Express. Also stand by on the.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
Yes, the standby two. Also on the way out, you're
gonna want to ge Voodoo Donuts. I know we said it,
I'm gonna say it again. That is the best way
to end off a Universal day is Voodoo Donuts.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
Absolutely love this.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
And then you've got donuts for the next morning, which
I think we also have talked about on a previous
Universal episode where we said, hey, just grab a couple extra.

Speaker 3 (48:59):
You're your next morning.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
You'll be grateful that you did.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
Let me tell you, nothing feels better than having sore
theme park feet and eating an Oreo donut at eight am,
Like it truly, it is you. It is it heals you.
It is a life affirming experience.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
I love this so much. Okay, so let's think about
what we need to do now. If we're attempting to
tackle this park without express Yes, what do we need
to know before we even talk about itinerary? What do
we need to know about this park and doing standby?

Speaker 4 (49:34):
Yes? So if you are doing standby, there are definitely
longer lines to contend with, So you really need to
pick like your top three absolute must do attractions in
the park, and then if you get to do everything else, great, wonderful.
That's just like extra icing on the cake.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
Right.

Speaker 4 (49:50):
USF does have a lot of high capacity rides though,
so we did, you know, kind of talk about it
in you know, talking about it with express Pass, and
some of them really are usually very short lines to
get through, so it it is kind of realistic to
get through a lot more rides in this park than
in maybe IOA or Epic, But to avoid the disappointment,
kind of stick with like I have these three MUSSA

(50:11):
does that I absolutely need to get on, and then
I'll see what else I can kind of get through
during the day, And so.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
Kind of a theme with all of the theme parks
when it comes to Standby, Like you'll hear us talk
about that with probably every other park when we talk
about not using these express passes or lightning lanes. You
need to have a priority list, so you kind of
have to have that set up before you even You
should have that set up well in advance, is my
advice to you.

Speaker 4 (50:37):
Sorry, absolutely, so we'll start in the same place here
as we would if we had expressed you're gonna head
to your most anticipated attraction. However, what kind of is
different here is where you might go afterwards. Right, So
instead of you know, necessarily going counterclockwise hitting all of
those attractions that way, you might have to do a

(50:58):
little bit more zigzagging across the park. So basically, if
there is anything that you want to ride in the
wait is thirty minutes or less, that really is you
know kind of where you should be heading, because those
weights will fluctuate throughout the day.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
And I will say this is less true here because
of the nature of the fact that there's a lot
of just like people eat or ride, it is vastly
more true in Iowa and Epic Universe. If you are
doing either of those parks without Express, you were going
to have to do a lot of zigzagging, a lot

(51:32):
of checking the app. I think the same is true
for a lot of Disney stuff. Right like you were,
you were simply going to have to go cross park
a lot. So that is something to consider in your
day planning. And just like when when you're considering if
Express is worth it or not, you know, just how
much can you And if you're going with family members
or friends, like how much can they physically do too?

(51:54):
You know, that's also important to consider. It is of course,
like financial is like the number one consideration, but if
you're on the fence about it, I think considering your
group size, how many people you know you're you're going with,
and the capabilities of those people, right, because you may
be going with small children, and small children can zigzag

(52:14):
far less easily then maybe a group of three focused adults.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
So right, Well, and I will say, because we haven't
mentioned it this particular episode, that like when it comes
to kind of figuring some of that out, travel agents
can really be your best friend because sometimes depending on
your group, it may be more cost efficient to stay
at one of those deluxe resorts and get it included
than it would be for you to price it all

(52:39):
out separately individually at a lower tier resort. So just
things to consider, especially with Universal having so many different
ticket options. If you remember when we talked about the
ticket options, there's eighteen billion, and they just changed them
again last week because now the three day ticket you
can do Epic more than one day, and they have
all these other options with their park to park tickets,

(53:01):
and we're not going there. We're not doing it again, Jackie.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
I can't do it again. I can't do it. I
can't go back there.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
So call a travel agent. Use a travel agent. There
are so many really really great ones out there. Just
a reminder make sure that you are using a travel
agent that does not charge for their services. It should
be free because they get paid by the theme park
that they are booking for. Just a reminder out there
to our lovely listening audience, but use a travel agent

(53:28):
if you need to do some of that price comparing
to see what makes more sense, because like you said,
if you've got a group of five, maybe it is
more cost effective for you to go to a deluxe
resort and get that included, because not only that you
can stay one night and get two days of express
included because check in day and check out day you
become eligible. So lots of little things with that. Again,

(53:50):
we're not going. We're not going there. However, your travel
agent can go there, so contact them. That is hope,
that is in fact there got it to go. That
is their jobs, so figure that out. If you need
help connecting to a travel agent, send us a message.
We are not travel agents. We love to give information
and help people plan, we are not travel agents, so no,

(54:12):
but if you need help connecting to one, and you're like,
I'm lost, I need help, please send us a message
Momstreet USA at gmail dot com messages on our social
media's we will connect you to a travel agent. No problem, okay, sorry,
rant over no none, ting you good and.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
Importantly thank you.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
Yes yes.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
So, as we mentioned before too, the times that we
give on this are really going to be more general
like morning afternoon evening by rocks.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Back between nine and noon night we'll see.

Speaker 4 (54:43):
Rather than exact times because it's all kind of fluctuates
depending on how busy it is, how long the lines
are that you're waiting on. So really, if you are
going in without express you have to have the universal
app be like on top of checking wait times and
you know, to make sure that you get to everything
that you want to do, because it is something that's very.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
Hard to predict.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
To predict the weight times.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
Yeah, And I will also say you can set notifications
in the app. Don't rely on them. They don't sometimes
go out.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
It's good to have right like as a.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
As a you know, maybe I'm not looking at my
phone right that second, and I'll get notified. Don't rely
on them. And if there is something that you were
interested in and it has a persistently long wait through
the day, it is not a bad idea to post
up near there. Maybe find a park bench or something
where you can sit and see the wait times, because

(55:33):
the weight times will change faster in person. Then they
will get updated on the app. We have seen it
happen where a weight was posted at an hour and
then it dropped to a half hour. We got in line.
It wound up being twenty minutes, but it did not
update on the app for a significant period of time
because I kept checking because I was curious. So the
app is good, it is a good gauge, and it

(55:55):
is going to be your best friend, especially if you're
like across the park, there's no possible way for you
to know what the true wait time is. Right, However,
there is just simply more strategy to be employed around
the park than solely relying on the app. It's a
good gauge, and it's an important tool, but it shouldn't
be your end all be all, all right. So, with

(56:15):
all of that caveat BEINGCS said, your morning's gonna look
pretty much like it did with the Express pass, right.
That is the general advice that we give, Like Jackie said,
across Team parks, you're gonna go to whatever your most
wanted is. If it's gringots, go right for gringots. If
you have kids, like we said before, prioritize that manion mayhem,
that advice still holds true, and then you're gonna want

(56:40):
to go for whatever your second is. Again, like if
you're doing gringots into the Mummy, this will still be
a viable strategy even without Express because, like we said earlier,
what Express allows you to do is rewride it again
later in the day. The unfortunate truth is there's a
good chance that once you knock these two out in
the morning that will be your only ride for the
damn you want to wait a very long time, especially

(57:02):
if you're going during peak season. We have seen the
weight for the Mommy get up to like two hours, right,
it can be extreme, so it's good to keep an
eye on it, you know, later in the night as
people are filtering out, or sometimes you get lucky if
you eat at those off times you can go when
everybody else is at lunch, you may get lucky. Or
if you are not interested in the parade or the show. Right,

(57:24):
all those typical theme park tips still apply. But whereas
with Disney, you get like a huge draw during a firework,
so that's a great time to go, you know, to
the rides. That is not generally the type of crowd
that's going to Universal. People are not going to Universal
necessarily for this additional entertainment. They are going for the coasters,

(57:46):
so they too are going to prioritize those coasters. So
that is just something that you're going to have to
keep in mind. So those weights will get high, and
during peak times Christmas summer, they'll stay high. I mean,
they generally won't dip even by the end of the
day when you're thinking that people are gonna you know,
filter out for dinner or uh you know, there's no
firework show or anything like that to pull people. So

(58:09):
it's just simply two different, uh you know, desires of
what people are getting out of their theme park experience.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
Yeah, and do keep in mind that a few of
these do have like a single rider option, So like
if it's just grown ups or people that are old
enough to utilize that that want to do it again,
that could be an option that you look into. Now,
if you've got littles, maybe you can rotate through and
take turns doing single riders kind of like that type
of thing. So, and they do writer swap if you

(58:40):
need to do that as well, but that would still
require just keep in mind that rider swap still requires
someone to wait in that standby queue. Yes, so keeps
that part in mind as well. Yes, yes, but some
of them do have single riders. So if that is
something that you are able to to utilize, or that

(59:02):
some people in your group are able to utilize or
take turns or you know, you guys are smart theme
park people. I have faith in you you can figure
that out and figure out how to work through that.
Coordinating who's gonna ride what when? But that could be
an option for some of these rides that maybe you
want to do a second time.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Yeah, and I will say single rider is a good
option for usf it is not always a good option
in Iowa. There is specifically one ride tagrids that I'm
thinking of that single rider can be brutally long, even
longer than standby. So if it's like a peak day,
that may not be the option. We'll talk about that

(59:41):
much more when we get to Islands of Adventure. But
that is generally true for both Gringotts and green Gots
have single rider.

Speaker 4 (59:51):
I think it does.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
I think it does now, Mummy definitely does.

Speaker 4 (59:54):
They almost all of them do.

Speaker 1 (59:56):
Yes. So, according to the interweb great single rider lines
are almost always available, almost always not guaranteed, especially early morning,
late evening, not always guarantee. Minyon Mayhem, Fast and the Furious, Greenotts,
Men in Black, Revenge of the Mummy, and Transformers.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Thank God, thank god, Fast and the Furious has a
single rider. I was worried I would have to wait
the full three minutes because nobody wants to go on
that ride.

Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
If Fast and the Furious has no haters, duck is dead.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
I am fast to get furious over the stupid ride.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
Waha, but I'm boo.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
So those are ones that may have them, And if
you're not sure, like go ask the team member that's
hanging out. There's always going to be a team member
somewhere near the entrance queue, so just be like, hey,
single rider, and they may say like, not currently open.
Yes it is, here's where you go. You know, various
different things that can happen with that, But those are

(01:01:06):
the ones that, according to the interwebs, typically have them open.

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
And that is true, like you said, with the caveats
of sometimes not early in the morning, sometimes not late.
Sometimes it's a staffing thing. So it's very possible that
even during peak times when you'd expect the single rider
to be open, I don't know, maybe the whole ride
crew got hit with food poisoning, right, like it happens,
So like there's axsenuating circumstances. But like Jackie said, please

(01:01:30):
just always talk to the team members. They are happy
to guide you in the right direction.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
Yes, perfect, Okay, So I think that kind of covers
morning vaguely, because that's about the best we can do, right,
So that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
Is approximate morning. Right, you're gonna knock out your number
one and probably number two rides either by doing everything
in the Minions area. If you have kiddos, I'm not
trying to stereotype. I just know a lot of children
love the Minions. I also love the Minions. But that's
neither here nor there. Or you're gonna be the thrill
people and you're gonna go.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
For the for the the coasters.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
That will bring you to about eleven thirty. We recommend
getting lunch now, right, this is this is before the rush.
This is worth it to just get lunch knocked out early.
So again we're sticking with those. We are gonna recommend
doing of course the quick service. So we're gonna say
do either Louise and New York or.

Speaker 3 (01:02:26):
Richter Berger in San Francisco.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
So there are other you can also if again, if
you want to wait like this is this is all fluid, right, Like,
maybe you knock both of those out and it's only
ten o'clock or ten thirty. We've done that before, right,
Like we've gone really quick and they were both short weight,
so then we were done. So then you can walk
around or do some shopping or keep going on to
the next ride, or get a snack. Right, So, like

(01:02:49):
this is what we're talking about when we say without
express like everything is so fluid because the lines are unpredictable.
So just pick your top, get those done, and then
hang out the rest of the day and hit what
you can perfect.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
Okay, so after lunch, what should we be kind of
keeping an eye on?

Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
Yeah, after lunch, check the waight times, right, it could
be worth it to hit up the Transformers ride or
if you haven't done one of the Minions rides or
you know, anything like that, kind of hitting those up
while you're in that area. As I mean, you went
to you know, one of the New Yorkers Sign Friend
restaurants for lunch, and then if neither of those is
on your list, then you can just head to whatever
your next preferred ride is or whatever has the shortest

(01:03:31):
wait and is you know, on your list of things
to hit. So once you've gotten to the next ride,
definitely time check prioritize either the Parade or the Born
Spectacular if you are interested in doing either one of those,
and then definitely move on back towards that Simpson's area
and Men in Black if you have not done so already.
But again, the other are usually areas where the weights are

(01:03:52):
pretty low on rides anyway, so that is something you
can kind of push until later in the day, so
then that'll put you background inner time, and as we
discussed in the express Pass, you know kind of portion,
you can try to sneak in a few additional rides,
or you know, do some shopping at this time as well,
or just heading get some dinner.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
I'll also recommend just really quick for the parade or
the Stunt Tacular. If you're prioritizing rides, you're probably only
going to get to do one of those things. So
just depending on the time, check maybe see what's happening
sooner so that way you can knock that out, or
if you have a preference, just make sure that you're
building that time into your day because the parade is

(01:04:35):
at two. And then the Born Stunt Tacular, I think
is I think it's like every like it's not every
hour on the hour, it's like every fifteen on the fifteen, right,
it's like eleven fifteen, twelve fifteen, maybe two fifteen, three fifteen,
and five fifteen, something like that. So of course, check
the app ask a team member, so you know, we do.

(01:04:56):
If you are trying to prioritize rides, we do recommend
just picking one over the other to make sure that
you can maximize the number of times that you're gonna
ride Men in Black. I know we're I know, we're
like kind of knocking it, but that's just so very fun.
It's actually genuinely one of my favorite rides. If I
can go down memory lane for a second, I think
I've talked about this. I went to Universal as a

(01:05:17):
kid with my family, and I have like such a
distinct memory of always getting the high score and making
my sister so mad I have, I like, actually love
that ride so much. I made my parents buy me
a denuralizer toy like I have. It's still my flaws.
It like made the it like did the flashy thing,

(01:05:37):
it made the noise. It's exactly right, It's exactly right.
I love that ride so much. Of course, we watched
Men in Black all the time growing up. My family
is like big sci fi people, so it was always on.
So it was just like, I really love the men
and ride Black. It's a very fun, like shooting gallery
type ride. And my hint to the general public is
always make sure that you are the one to press
the red button.

Speaker 1 (01:05:57):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
That's all I'm gonna say.

Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
You heard it here. First, folks, elbow your child to
push their button. I do not. Don't this behavior. Don't
listen to them.

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
Wrong, only listen to me. Elbow, elbow the grandmother next
to you and the child to your right, take them out,
hit the red button.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
Oh my gosh. Anyway back, So yeah, no, basically, basically
it's so the afternoon you're gonna kind of focus on,
if I'm understanding correctly, like San Francisco, New York area ish.
So mostly so.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
You're gonna eat in San Francisco in New York and
then you're going to move on continuing around, prioritizing whatever
is important to you. Right, If you want to go
to ET, go to ET after that. If you're interested
in writing men in Black, go to there. So this
is where the zigzag kind of comes in and where
you need to kind of pay attention to the times
on the app right, because ET might be forty minutes now,

(01:07:06):
and so instead you're gonna go rud the Tiltahurl in
the Simpsons area. And then once that's done. Oh, ET's
back down to a twenty minute Wait, I better go
book it back over there, right, So this is where
your priority list and your use of the app is
going to really come in handy, right, So this is
where the zigzagging, the checking, the looking comes in handy.

Speaker 3 (01:07:27):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
So we kind of start, say, everybody eat in the
New York San Francisco area because it's sort of like
a neutral location, right central. Yeah, it's like as central
as you can get here, because that's what then where
the pathway splits. So you can go right towards Et
and the DreamWorks area and then you'll hit Simpsons, or

(01:07:49):
you can go left towards more of New York, which
is the Mummy and then into into the Harry Potter
section and then they meet in the back at Men
in Black. So it's like it's truly just a giant
circle with these like different areas. So this is we
say New York and San Francisco a because it's very

(01:08:09):
everybody friendly food. Right, It's like Italian food. So you
get like Sabarrows pizza basically, or like chicken fingers, right.

Speaker 3 (01:08:16):
Or Slice Classic Slice.

Speaker 4 (01:08:20):
Sorry we are we got set in the office.

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
It's a great one, or you can get burgers right like,
and there's like all kinds of options with like chicken
sandwiches and stuff at Richter's too. So like those are
very neutral eating locations and they are somewhat centrally located
because it's easy to go down either way that that splits.
So that's why we recommend eating in that area and
then making your decision as to which way you're gonna

(01:08:45):
go and then start your zigzagging from there.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
Yeah, So that being said, not only do you want
to make sure you have your top like three priority,
you kind of want to rank the rest of the
rides and have that in your back pocket because that's
what you afternoon is going to look like. Right, So
that's what Duck was just, you know, explaining geographically to
us what makes sense. So you know, by the time

(01:09:09):
you get to that lunch time, chances are good to
if not two of the three or three of the
three of your top rides, you may have been able
to knock out before you hit lunch. So you need
to have something you don't want to be. You don't
you don't want to be stuck going what do you
want to do? I don't know, what are you gonna do?
I don't know what do you wanna do? So you know, right,
there's there. The list of attractions in this park is

(01:09:32):
not so immense that you can't just like sit through
sit and look through them and do it quick like, Okay,
we got our top three. What's our next three. Let's
rank those. What's our next three, let's rank those. You know,
you still want to have some backups to your backups,
to make sure that you have something concrete that is
guiding you, especially if you are in an indecisive party,
a large party, or a party that has not been

(01:09:53):
to Universal before.

Speaker 2 (01:09:54):
Yep, yep, absolutely, yeah, And this is actually a pretty
good park if this just general, if you haven't been
to Universal before, USF is a good park to start
with because it's far less.

Speaker 3 (01:10:05):
Overwhelming in the action.

Speaker 4 (01:10:06):
So it's not gonna be like this with IOA your epic.

Speaker 2 (01:10:10):
Nope, We're like go right back, yes, yeah, you're right,
it's gonna look.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
Very very different, right, perfect, Okay, So I think that
kind of gives us a good afternoon game plan. So
then dinner, right yep.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
So then when it comes to dinner time, this sort
of where you're gonna eat sort of depends on where
you've wound up, Right, If you didn't eat in New
York and San Francisco, you can go hit hit up
either one of those.

Speaker 1 (01:10:38):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
If you're on the other side of the park, there's
the Simpsons Most Tavern. They have plenty of options in there.
It's called most Tavern, but it's not just tavern food, right,
there's like Cletus's Chicken Shack, and it's all themed to
the Simpsons in there. So we've talked about it a
little bit more, I think on our previous episodes, but
there's lots of options in there for a variety of

(01:10:58):
foods that folks may be interested in. So that's, you know,
if you're on the other side of the park, that's
you know, a viable option to eat at. So what
you're doing for dinner kind of just depends on your
proximity to things. And again, if you can eat outside
of peak times, great, So once you have eaten and
you are ready to get back out there, this again

(01:11:20):
is our cleanup time, right, So this is a good
time still to do shopping because if you're like us,
you prioritize rides during the day and then you're doing
your shopping in the evening rather than like as you
go along. So this is like maybe you didn't get
to eat because the timing was really high during the day,
but you did everything else that you wanted to do

(01:11:41):
in the park, so maybe you get in line even
though it's forty five minutes, right, So you know you
have as like you said earlier, Jackie, with the rankings,
once you sort of have accomplished without express everything that
you want to do. This is now sort of your
victory lot, much like when you do have the express
this is now you know what, I wasn't going to
ride Men in Black again, but I'm going to because

(01:12:03):
I'm back here, I might as well. Or I wasn't
going to get in line for Gringots again, but it's
only a thirty minute wait because everybody's at dinner, or
you know, what have you. I'm going to go hop
in line or something like that, you know. Or I
want to go walk around the dream Works area. You know,
maybe there's nothing that I want to ride or my
kiddos are interested in, but it's a cute area, so
I just want to go take a stroll back there.

(01:12:24):
This is still the evening time is like great theme
park people watching time. It's great clean up time if
there's something that you want to go back to in
a gift shop or there's another ride. So the principle
holds true both between express and not express that the
evening is your your wrap up, right. So that's that's
our general take, and that's our usual, you know, theme

(01:12:49):
park plan when it comes to evenings. The other thing
that I do want to note, though, is that the Mummy.

Speaker 3 (01:12:54):
And Green Gots.

Speaker 2 (01:12:55):
I've said it throughout this, but those weights stay pretty
high into the evenings, so even until basically they close, right,
it's not the worst idea to hop in line at
the end of the night. It is sometimes true that
they will leave the weight times looking high, and they

(01:13:17):
are not necessarily high, right, But you're taking the gamble
because that's happened to us where we were like, huh,
there's no way it's an hour, and it was completely
an hour. So that's fully like the gamble that you're
taking when you're getting in line. When it says sixty
minutes posted, you might be surprised and it's only thirty minutes,
but you might be horrified and it's actually sixty minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:13:38):
So well, and like the other parks, and we'll talk
about this there too, they cut off the express line
so they don't leave that open until the very end
of the day. So if you are someone that wants
to get on something like Green Goots are the Mummy,
getting in that line is going to be at least
more of a true probably representation of the weight time

(01:13:59):
because you're not going to have a giant influx of
people trying to use their express at the last minute.
That would have already happened a little bit earlier in
the evening chances are, so keep that in mind. A
little bit different at Disney because they do allow lightning
lanes all the way up until park close for that,
so a little bit different, but generally still that way

(01:14:20):
when we get to Disney, but we'll get there eventually.

Speaker 2 (01:14:22):
Yeah, but yeah, and I will just say this has
happened to us a couple of times sometimes even when
it's that hour. Wait, you're walking out into an empty park,
and walking out into an empty park anytime is awesome.
So that's my take on it, even if it's actually
an hour, So what you got to finish it out
on the kind of thing.

Speaker 4 (01:14:43):
At the end of the day, you get to.

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
Hang out in their conditioning for a little bit and
then you get to walk out to a somewhat empty
park and it's.

Speaker 1 (01:14:51):
Really cools and you're not fighting all the crowds that
are also like, you know, leaving at the same time,
much much easier.

Speaker 3 (01:15:01):
Absolutely love that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:03):
Okay. Well, so hopefully this gave you at least a
good framework to work off of. Again, we will have
kind of as we work our way through these, we
will have some kind of graphics for you all to
have to maybe screenshot so that way you can keep
them on your phone and use them as a basis
when you are creating your itinerary for your specific needs.

(01:15:27):
We'll make sure to post those on our social media
so that way they have longevity and you can find
them there. They'll also be on the discord and on
our Patreon, all of the places which you should find
us there because if you've got questions or comments or
suggestions for us, we would love love to hear from you. Again.

(01:15:47):
We are Momstreet USA at gmail dot com and you
can find us on the social media's at Momstreet USA.
We do have a Patreon account that is still fairly
new that we are kind of figuring out how we're
gonna work some things over there, but currently it holds
some unedited versions of our podcast, So if you want
to hear all the bloopers, and you want to hear

(01:16:09):
my dog interrupting us, and you want to hear, you know,
all of the random things that happened that get cut
out of the nice polished version.

Speaker 2 (01:16:18):
Now, have you guys ever seen that episode? If it's
always sunny where he's like, where's Pepe Sylvia? That is
what I turn into through maybe seventy percent of these episodes.
So if like weird rants are, you're saying, you're gonna
love the unedited versions.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
So yeah, those exist only on our Patreon, so if
you are interested in any of that, we also post
sneak peaks of like what's to come over there, So
if you want to know what we're gonna be talking
about in future episodes, it all can be found over there. Again,
momsterreet Usa over on Patreon as well. Before we end tonight,

(01:16:55):
I will just let everybody know kind of what is
coming up again. We're just gonna stay in this series
for the next now six episodes, so for years, so
we are going to continue on the one day park strategies.
We're gonna do a little hopping back and forth between
Disney and Universals, just because we want to really make

(01:17:18):
sure that we have Duck and Jess here when we're
talking about Universal, because I can give you my thoughts,
but they probably won't be right, so.

Speaker 3 (01:17:28):
You don't want that.

Speaker 1 (01:17:28):
It will not be helpful to anybody, and I will
just be stressed about it. So we want to make
sure that they are here whenever we want to talk
about Universal so they can give you the most accurate information.
So the next episode we will actually be going back
to Disney and hitting one of the parks over there,
and then after that we'll be back at Universal and

(01:17:49):
then back at Disney. So we're gonna hop kind of
back and forth, mix it up a little bit for
you guys. But the plan is that we will yes
hit all seven of the major theme parks in in
the Orlando area. Maybe someday we'll figure out, you know,
SeaWorld and Legoland and Bush Gardens and all those others.
We'll get there. It'll happen eventually. It took us. It

(01:18:10):
took us two and a half years to even just
get to Universal, so give us some time.

Speaker 2 (01:18:14):
Okay, So we're on track to get there maybe by
twenty thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:18:19):
We got this. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be great.
So that is the plan coming up. But before we
officially wrap, Duck and Jess, do you guys have any
final thoughts on USF before we park hop back over
to Disney next episode.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
Just that USF is the most doable park without express
I still recommend it if you can swing it, and
of course you're gonna have to do the math out
with how many people you have. You know, it's worth
it for you to get the to stay at like
one of the premium hotels, things like that. It is

(01:18:56):
the most doable. I still recommend it if you're going
through peak. The other parks are not are much more
difficult to get through everything. If that's if that's what
you want, right like, you also then have to weigh
your options up. Is hitting every ride important to me
or is it more important for me to hit my
top three and then just enjoy the atmosphere of the

(01:19:17):
park right just depends on how you experience theme parks yourself.
We're big go Go Go, Go go do and see
everything people. I know there are plenty of people who
are like, I'm gonna get on two rides today and
then just hang out and people watch. And there's like
no wrong way to experience a theme park. So I
think when you're going through and you're making these decisions,
you just need to know what's important to you personally

(01:19:40):
as you are enjoying these parks. Right, if you're not
a big coaster person, then you then Express may not
be the top of your priority list. Right, Maybe that's
better served to do some dinner experiences in city Walk,
or you know, maybe you can then spend the extra
money on some souvenirs. Maybe memories are more important to
you and you can buy the photo packages or spend

(01:20:01):
that time getting photos with characters. Right, we didn't touch
on any of that today because that's not our itinerary experience.
But however, you want to experience the parks and whatever
is important to you, there is no, like I said,
there's no wrong way to experience at the in park.
So when it comes to Express and when it comes
to weighing your options, that's all really important. USF is

(01:20:23):
the easiest to do without Express because of the nature
of the rides that are in there, Iowa and Epic
very very difficult to hit everything in there without express.
So again, you just need to weigh what is important
to you personally as you're going through these parks.

Speaker 4 (01:20:37):
And I know a lot of this audience has kiddos
and a lot of rides. I mean, we've we spent
a lot of time in our original Universal series talking
about how family friendly Universal has become and now is.
But the go go go and need to hit all
the roller hosters if you have small kiddos might not
be what you're trying to do. So again, this might
be different if prioritizing the family friendly things is what

(01:21:00):
you want to do, even IOA, it might be a
little bit more doable in a day to hit everything
that you want to hit if you're not trying to
get on you know, hagrids and Velocit Coaster and all
the things there. So it all just really depends, you know,
like Duck said, on what kind of works for you,
and all the go go go might not be the
best if you have kidos. You might want to just
not do express, take it slow, we get to what
we get to and all that rather than feeling like, Oh,

(01:21:22):
I paid all this money for Express, my kids having
a meltdown. I'm not going to get on this ride
yeah and use my Express pass, and now I've wasted money.
So you know, it all just depends on your group
and who you're with.

Speaker 1 (01:21:31):
Yeah, and I hope that throughout this series, for not
only just the Universal parks, but for Disney too, we
may give you some more information that maybe allows you
to pick and choose based on your budget. So if
you're listening to this and you go, yeah, this seems
totally doable, we don't need Express, But then you hear
IOWA and you're like, oh no, I want Express for that.
You know, like it may give you the ability to
kind of do that same thing will happen with the

(01:21:53):
Disney parks. Well, I will talk in depthly about lightning
lanes and what to do and what makes sense and
all of that, because that's a whole other animal. When
we get to.

Speaker 2 (01:22:02):
That point, you are the expert ling main expert. I
said it. I'm on record, you are the queen of
lightning leaves.

Speaker 1 (01:22:10):
I'm pretty good at that. Yeah. So, but I love
what you said that there's no wrong way to do
a theme park. I think that's so important and so
crucial for our audience to really hear like, no matter
what happens, there is absolutely no wrong way to do it.
Your way is the way that you should do it.
And what is on your list is what you should
hit and what you should be doing, and what your

(01:22:32):
kiddos want to do is what you should do, and
if they want to meet eighteen characters in one day,
then do it. You know. Again, like we mentioned, we
focus mostly on rides just because that is the majority
of what people are going to these theme parks to do.
But that doesn't mean that you have to do exactly

(01:22:52):
what we said. Like we said, there's no wrong way
to do a theme park. Make your list based on
what you guys want to do and have a wonderful time.

Speaker 3 (01:22:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:23:00):
Absolutely, that's the most important thing. As you are enjoying
your trip and your time, whether you are going solo
or it is a big family trip, whatever it is,
the most important thing about the theme park is that
you are enjoying it and you are making the memories
that you want to make. That is more important than
anything else. And I hope that the information that we've

(01:23:21):
given you today and through the rest of this series
really helps you make those decisions to make the trip
your own and for you to prioritize what's important to
you and any of your travel companions, be it your
family or like I said, you're doing a solo trip.
As long as you enjoy it, that is what's the
most important.

Speaker 1 (01:23:38):
I love that. What a happy little note to end
on that was so good. We did it. You guys
crushed it. Let me claps through us all around. Well,
thank you guys all so much for joining us and
for being here for this episode. We love you, we
appreciate you. If you're listening on whatever platform you're listening on,
leave us a comment. We'd love to hear from you.
Let us know what your favorite ride is in you

(01:24:00):
or if you haven't been, let us know what you
would what your top choice would be when you go
to the park. We would love to hear from you.
But for now, that will complete our visit to usf
We're headed on to another park next week and we
hope you will all join us then and we will
see you very soon on the next episode of Mom
Street USA.

Speaker 2 (01:24:18):
Hi everyone, Bye,

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Mom St USA | One Day Park Strategy: Universal Studios Florida

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