Parks and Passports - Halloween Horror Nights and Phones and Ferb

Mike, Bryan and Eric are joined again by Patrick O’Connor to recap their experiences at Halloween Horror Nights in both Orlando and Hollywood.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Parks and Passports Podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Join Mike and Brian and Eric as they discussed some of.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
The latest news from the world of Disney and Universal Parks,
plus hear from other experienced travel experts.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
And have some fun along the way.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Be sure to keep all hands, arms, feet and.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Legs inside the vehicle at all times.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
It's gonna be a wild ride.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Parks and
Passports Podcast. Eric Hyles is here, Hello all. Brian Bonadora
is here Hello, Hello, and I'm Mike Mac. The gang's
all together again. It feels like the first time in
a while. I think it's only been one episode that
we missed, right, But if.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
You're just one of that, But if you missed one episode,
you miss a lot.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Right, Yeah, of course, And we I would say, we
have a special guest with us this this week. But
at this point Patrick O'Connor is basically our honorary fourth
post on the show.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
So hey Patrick, Hello, good evening and good afternoon wherever
you may.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Be, yeah, I mean whenever you may be listening.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
Well, we need to get him one of those four
timer jackets, so he's part of the I was going.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
To bring up SNL five time host club. Yeah, how many?
Is this the fourth time, Patrick Patrick?

Speaker 3 (01:31):
I believe Yeah, this is the fourth time.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, it's well and out of seventeen episodes, so you're
doing pretty good. Like I said, honorary fourth host. So
this is this is the episode that we have been
teasing for a while. We are going to recap Halloween
horror nights. Three of the four of us have been
to Halloween horror nights on one coast or the other. Sorry, Brian, Yeah,

(01:57):
now you're the man on the totem pole.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
I'll fix that soon hopefully.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah. Yeah, we're going to have to fix that. But
so we are going to be sharing our thoughts on
Halloween Hard Knights in both Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood.
If you listen to our preview episode, it took a
long time to get through it. So we're not going
to have a game or anything today. We are going
to get into some news a little bit later, but
we are going to start things off here. Patrick has

(02:22):
been on, like we said, this is his fourth time now,
so we don't have to go through the lightning round questions.
You've already given us a controversial opinion before, so I
am going to share one of my controversial opinions since
I'm kind of filling part of the guest role this
time as well, so we like to, you know, in
place of the Lightning round, we'll share a controversial opinion
about the Disney or the Universal Parks or something in

(02:45):
that realm. And mine is Universal Parks do character interactions
better than the Disney Parks, and I feel like I
have to whisper that part. So that's what I'm gonna
throw out there, and I'm curious to hear your feedback
on it.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Hmm.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
I'll go ahead and start. I'm gonna I would agree
if you're an adult, sure, sure, but I think for kids,
you know, nobody's gonna be interacting with your favorite Princess
or Disney character when you're a kid.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
That's fair. That is definitely fair. And it's obviously a
different demographic that Disney leans towards. But I just think,
in my opinion, my my experience really has been that
like Universal characters roam more and don't draw as much
of a crowd quite as much. And you know that
could be because of the character's popularity, but it's much

(03:39):
easier to just like I've had conversations with Doc Brown
and Beetlejuice just like walking down the street. I don't
have to stop and wait in line or anything. And
those character interactions are so much fun. But you're right,
you know, a seven year old is not gonna be
really excited about meeting Doc Brown, So that makes perfect sense.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, I would agree with Eric and and what you
said about that. I mean that it's completely true. You know,
like the character meet and greets in Disney you have,
you know, lines and cues. You usually got to wait
for her and right, they're always in the same location
or there's only two separate locations, and it's a lot

(04:16):
different than well Universal, except for maybe a couple of
characters here there, like Megatron's always in the same spot.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Sure, yeah, there are there are those cues for certain
characters that that draw a crowd, like the Grinch every
holiday season draws quite a crowd. Patrick, you have some
great character interactions over in Universal Studios. Hollywood agreed.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah, so I'm I'm actually with Mike on this one.
I think Universal does it better as a resident West
Coaster here. You know, Disneyland is great with the Roman
characters as well, But I think it's that organicness of
a universal experience meeting those characters. Once again, it is
kind of more geared towards that adult demographic. But then again,

(04:55):
you've got Trolls, you've got Shrek, You've got a bunch
of characters that you can also meet both on both coasts,
and just that just not having a queue up is
kind of that magic of Universal in my opinion.

Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yeah, yeah, I can see that. And I mean I
want to meet a seven year old who knows who
Doc Brown is because that's a pretty hip seven year old, right, Yes,
because most of the year olds are not going to
be Back to the Future fans and totally get into that.
But you know, Patrick is a character all in himselfs
So you know, after being at Universal with him, I'm

(05:30):
surprised he didn't have a lot of people coming up
and just chatting with him randomly. But he I get
your point. I can see this. I think it's just
it's just a totally different demographic in terms of like
being you know, the characters that they have out there
are something you wait till you get a little bit older,
you know, be fair. Yeah, and then they do have

(05:51):
kids stuff and not not saying that trolls or pets
and stuff like that aren't and the minions aren't going
to be, you know, very popular with them. But I
don't know, I just feel like I feel like it's
a Apples to Orange comparison.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yeah, in some ways.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
Again, I would also just say that there are a
bunch of new kids getting involved, especially with FanFest Nights
happening in Hollywood, going to Back to the Future and
being able to experience that on the back lot, which
kind of a segue here for maybe some news later on.
But just having that new fresh eyes and new perspective

(06:28):
on things, it gives them an opportunity to go see
these films that maybe they weren't exposed to being a child.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, excuse me while I update the show doc real
quick because I forgot about the fan Fest news that
we will talk about later, but we had to edit.

Speaker 4 (06:45):
On the fly.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
But that that brings us to and Eric, you talked
about your experience walking around Universal with Patrick. You guys
recently got to check out Halloween Hard Nights, and Eric,
it was your first time experiencing Halloween Horror Nights, So
I want to get your overall thoughts on the event.
You weren't on the fence before saying you were not
a big horror fan, so how did you feel?

Speaker 4 (07:09):
Well, I'm still not a big horror fan. And you know,
I would say that it was a great experience. I
am not going to lie. I'm not going to like,
you know, try to sugarcoat it in any way, shape
or form. But actually was a great experience once I
kind of got into the mood of it, you know,
after the first house that that Patrick and I went to,
which was the fallout house, I got to see what

(07:32):
it was like, I got to feel what was you know,
I got over my sort of apprehension of it all,
and then I began to kind of look into just
to see what, like all the work that went into
like the set preparation and the special effects that were there.
And then that kind of kicked into my nerd side
of the house where I started to go, oh, this
is pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
You know, I will say one bad thing. I did
get to the point where I could predict where the
jump scares were going to be at, and I may
or may not had some insight information to that, you know,
going into it, but I did scream like a little
girl in certain places, I screamed like a little Brian Vonador.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
But oh, okay, nice come back on that one. Uh.

Speaker 4 (08:14):
Patrick did did his best to try to capture that
on some video for future blackmail purposes. So I haven't
seen those reels yet, but I'm.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
Sure either I'm gonna need those.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
I'm gonna need those after that flat back too.

Speaker 4 (08:28):
You know, we did some really cool stuff. You know,
it was a great hanging out with Patrick for the
whole you know, three days that we were there. We
did Universal during the day and it had been a
while since i'd been there, and he actually helped me
find some some cool merch that I was looking for
my my my duff shorts and things like that, so
that was definitely necessary. And I did get my big
you know, lard lad pink doughnuts, so that was a win.

(08:52):
And I bought finally some Universal sweatshirts and stuff like that.
So I feel like I'm merched out. And but Hollywood
Hard Knights was a really good experience. I think, you know,
everybody should do it. It is a lot of chainsaws. I
would say that we did the Terror Tram, which was,

(09:13):
you know, a really cool experience, right because they take
you to like the plane crash site, right, and they
just shove you out of the tram drop you right off, right.
So then you go and you got to kind of
survive the houses of the Blumhouse stuff, and you know,
you walk in and there's like, you know, some Megan's
waiting for you, and then things like that and more chainsaws,

(09:33):
a lot of guys with chainsaws, and you know they
will chase you around if you run around and get
scared and play into that. You know, I got a
couple of good jump scares walking in there, but nobody
chased me around, so I was good. I was happy
with that. But it was just really cool to kind of,
you know, be that close to the action where that

(09:56):
you could see and feel and hear the special effects.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, I gotta tell you, I've just been smiling ear
to ear listening to you describe this, because it is.
This is what I talk about all the time, is
people who are kind of out on Halloween horr nights,
they don't like horror. You get in there and you
see this event for what it is and you experience
these really cool, unique experiences and it works. It just
it clicks for almost everybody I know that goes to

(10:22):
check it out, Like if you're a fan of theme parks,
you're going to like something about Halloween horror Nites. It
just it all makes sense.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
So Patrick, you have anything to add about my scare.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
Experiences, not much to add. I was very proud of
you for not getting as scared as I was thinking
you were gonna get. You did scream a few times,
and I think you came close to punching somebody once,
but you know what, you restrained yourself and it was great.
And like you said, I think it was the magic
of being on the sets specifically, I saw you like

(10:57):
checking out the Baits Motel and Mother's house, the Psycho house,
and then the War the World said, is absolutely so
amazing to be able to walk through and possibly for
the last time this year. So we're we're excited to
see where Halloween Horneit's is gonna go. But I was
so excited to bring hereic. I didn't force him to

(11:17):
terrify her, so we didn't go through that.

Speaker 4 (11:19):
He made fun of me. They taught me about that though,
But yes.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
I did and it was fun and I went by
myself and it was great. Obviously, not by myself with
the rest of the conga line that is going through,
but it was. It was a fun experience. Yeah, Hollywood
loves its chainsaws. I'm excited to check out on Land
out year in a couple of days and see how
less chainsaws there are. Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be It's

(11:44):
gonna be a very interesting year.

Speaker 4 (11:46):
You know. I got to do some people watching too.
After I kind of like tapped out and sent Patrick
on his merry horror way. I got to sit there
on you know, the the main street, the main drag
that you walk into Universal Studios Hollywood at and watched
a lot of teen girls actually taunting and trying to
get the chainsaw guys to chase them up and down

(12:07):
the street. So they were like were trying to scare
the chainsaw guys, which immediately turned on them and just
stuck the chainsaw at him and came after them, right,
So that was kind of fun to watch. I got
to see a lot of people, you know, react in
ways that I wasn't necessarily expecting. You know, a lot
of people we were scared. Of course, there were some

(12:29):
people who were kind of a ambivalent, ambivalent and above
it all, so that was kind of interesting to watch.
So it was it was a good experience all around.
That we're gonn talk about food in a little bit,
and we did sample some of the food and have
some good things to say about that and some bad
things to say about that too.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
Well, I want to while we're talking about your people
watching experience, I want to hear about a little bit
of the scare zones at this years of And I
know you said there's a lot of chainsaws, and I
did see one video of you guys walking through the
Sorry I forget the full name of it, but the
witch is scare zone. Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 4 (13:05):
It was a night of witches. So yeah, Pat.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
Patrick, you can weigh in on this too. How are
these this year scare zones?

Speaker 3 (13:15):
So my opinion, Hollywood is always a little lighter on
scarre zones than Orlando does it. Orlando goes harred on
their scare zones. And that's also because Hollywood is just
a smaller space. There's not a lot of room to
keep things backstage or keep things, you know, a little
hidden away. But it's a really awesome opportunity to be
able to see how some of these props get reused

(13:35):
every year and how some of these scare zones come back.
Murder of Crows is still one of my favorite, not
because it's scary, but because it's more of like a
party atmosphere, fun time with the crows. It's not really
like a club horror or anything like that at Orlando,
but it still gives you an opportunity to kind of
have some fun with the scare zone rather than constantly

(13:58):
being scared. I think the chainsaw clowns is what Eric
had the most fun walking through and watching people, but
also the Carnival of Chaos is one of the other
areas where we got to watch the Every forty five
minutes they do a basically a scaremony where or the
clown comes out and introduces his Carnival of Evil and

(14:21):
so that was really cool to watch that. And uh yeah,
the only thing I wish is that the Lower Lot
would get more of a scare zone. Yeah, it's difficult
with space, but that's the only area that I'm like,
can we get something better there? That'd be the only.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Nice and I did.

Speaker 4 (14:37):
I didn't make it down to the Lower Lot at
that point, but I could see how it would be
challenging to have a lot of good yea like sneary
activities in that space.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah, because they how many entrances to the houses do
they have down there right now? Are there still two
of them down there?

Speaker 2 (14:53):
I know?

Speaker 3 (14:53):
So it's four every year, so we typically have lot
four on the lower lot and then Terratram.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
Right right right, okay, so what so, Yeah, that does
make it a little bit difficult to navigate that space
there when you know you're gonna have guests trying to
get to the houses. But what houses did you guys
get to do?

Speaker 4 (15:12):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (15:13):
And and let's kind of go through and and sort
of rank them. I mean, we don't have to get
into all the details about every single house because we'll
be here all night, but let's let's sort of lay
them out a little bit. Let's let the people know,
you know, what should you definitely get out there to
do and what could you maybe skip?

Speaker 2 (15:31):
Hmmm.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
I think of the houses that I saw, Fallout was
probably my favorite. Oh okay, and you know, I forget
that the Day of the Dead house that that Patrick
just named, but that house was actually a little little disconcerting.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
Really.

Speaker 4 (15:53):
Yeah, there's a part in there where somebody's getting eaten
by a giant monster and the bed and it's oh yes,
little disconcerting for me.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
So yeah, the stuff is it's still is stuck with me.
And I did that what like three years ago when
they had La Herona, So yeah, that's those scenes are disturbing.

Speaker 4 (16:13):
So I wouldn't say that's a lower ranked house, but
it's just not. I mean it was it was more
over the top than I think any of the other
houses that I experienced. And then you know, the the
the Blum stuff was really just kind of really kind
of cool and interesting to see.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
Patrick.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
I know you've gotten through all of the houses, and
I'm sure multiple times, so I'm curious to hear your
rankings here.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
So I think I agree with Eric that Fallout is
a fun one, but it's more scenically pretty, So I
would put that one probably lowest on my list just
because it's not as many scares. Also, for me, I
want to see more of the characters from the shows,
and they only appear twice. Each character only appears twice,

(17:02):
So Lucy, Maximus and the Ghoul only appeared twice in
each of the in that whole thing, so it's a
little bit of a different thing I've heard Orlando has
has added some characters to their mazes or the to
their house. So I'm excited to see that. The monstros
three is phenomenal. It's the perfect ending of a trilogy

(17:24):
of monsters, so that one's high up there on my ranking.
It's also one of those that has probably the most
jump scares available to you. And then the Terrotorum is phenomenal.
Once again, it's not so much on the scary side,
just because you are in an open area out on
the back lot, so you kind of can see what's

(17:45):
going on. There are some areas that are a little
bit more confined, but for the most part you're able
to see who's ahead of you and what's going to
be happening. And then you have other houses that I enjoyed.
Let's see, Mike, don't kill me. I'm sorry, but Poldergeist
is very low on my list.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
No, it's a repeat for you and.

Speaker 3 (18:08):
It's a repeat for me. But also the challenge there
is that how else do you do TV screens but
other than black walls, And so there's a lot of
black walls in the maze itself or in the house
itself that that kind of take away from the overall experience, terrifier,
phenomenal in terms of replicating a bunch of the gory,

(18:30):
gross kills that Art the Clown has done. With that,
I will say that the water effects were not as
intense as people were saying it was going to be. Yeah,
so if you are worried about getting wet, don't worry
too much about this. I walked off of Jurassic World
the ride way wetter than I've ever been in.

Speaker 4 (18:51):
The terrifying Yes he did.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
Eric has proof of that. Yeah, it was perfect. It's
still one of my favorite videos. Scarecrow of the Reaping,
I think, is an absolutely phenomenal house. Once again, another repeat,
but with the music for by Slash. This is like
elevated this this uh, this house for me, uh so

(19:16):
many jump scares, but also just the eeriness of hearing
Slash's score in the background. Uh. Phenomenal house. Jason Universe,
another phenomenal scary house. This one is probably probably the
scariest of the Hollywood houses for me.

Speaker 4 (19:33):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
And it's uh, it's fun because you're following, if you
if you get to know the story a little bit more,
you're following a bunch of loggers that want to go
to Camp Uh, Camp Lake and Uh. While they're going through,
you'll see each one of them killed through classic Jason
kills including there. One of my favorite is there's a

(19:56):
v W bug with a victim trapped inside and Jason
is true to cut through the top of the bug
to get to the victim. Also some great effects in
this one. There's spoiler alert, there's somebody getting electrocuted, and
the way that they do the fiber optics and the
motion of this, I guess you can call it an

(20:18):
animatronic is phenomenal and it gives so much more to it.
Five Nights at Freddy's phenomenal House. Again, if you are
a fan of the movie, this is a replication of
that almost to a tee. Once again, not so much
on the scary side, because once again you're looking at
eight foot tall puppets that are their eyes are constantly glowing,

(20:40):
so you kind of can always see where they're gonna be.
But there's also those tormented kids that appear every once
in a while that definitely can give you a good scare.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
Yeah, that's for me though, That's the one. I'm kicking
myself for not going to go see I mean, I
didn't see the movie or anything like that, but I saw,
you know, on the Terror tram they had it was
on the tear trip. Yeah, I think it was. They
had some previous for the movie and stuff like that,
and I said, I probably would have seen that, but
I did wanted to see how they did the characters

(21:12):
from the movie in that house. So I'm kind of
kicking myself for not going.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
Jim Henson Company did an amazing job working with Universal
Studios on I'm assuming on the Orlando side as well.
I'll be out in a couple of days to see
that side, but Hollywood phenomenal job. The standout for me, though,
is WWE Horrors of the Wyatt say.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
I'd love to hear it.

Speaker 3 (21:33):
I wow, Gonna be perfectly honest. I have no connection
whatsoever to WWE. I am not a wrestling fan, not
at all. And now I hear Orlando's is a completely
different house, while Hollywood focuses on being in the Bayu,
and so you're walking through all of the characters essentially

(21:55):
their homes and how they all kind of have their
associate I guess you could say, but this one has
a bunch of cool effects. Lots of jump scares, some
loud effects video effects which was really cool. Apparently they
have some video that was exclusively made for Halloween Hornites
on both coasts by the team, and so yeah, like

(22:19):
for me, horrors at the Y six was probably my
favorite out of all of that.

Speaker 4 (22:25):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
Okay, I didn't expect that. I thought you were gonna say, Jason,
because it was the scariest house. But no, that's really cool.
I like that. You know, I am a WWE fan,
so I was excited for this house going in, and
I like to hear that. You know, you weren't necessarily
connected to it in any way, and yet here it
is at the top of your list.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
Agreed. Yeah, it's absolutely phenomenal what they're doing with it.
And once again, you don't need to know who these
people are to be able to enjoy the house, and
I think that's what brought it more to it. Jason,
I would say would be my scariest house if it
was if it had a mirror hallway. That is something
that will always win me.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
I eight mirror hallways, and Hollywood typically has one. This
year we don't, so I'm okay with that.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
I need to break Yeah, that's fair.

Speaker 4 (23:13):
So so, Brian, what was your order? Oh, that's right,
you didn't go.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
Ah, wow, don't remind me.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (23:21):
I ain't gonna pan back because he's done a bunch
of cool stuff that I haven't.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
I'm not as jealous, though, because you didn't get to go.
You didn't go see the finance of Freddy's One, though
I have. I have seen video of the animatronics and
they are one to one lifelike, scaled, like carbon copy perfect.
I just I wish I could have seen that. I
do recommend watching the movie, though. The movie is actually

(23:44):
fantastic too.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah, it was. It was a surprisingly fun movie.

Speaker 4 (23:48):
There's a sequel coming out too.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yep. They actually they have a whole trilogy planned out.
It's like when they actually when they approached Matthew Lillard,
they're like, listen, you're kind of like a big heart
in this and it's an entire movie franchise we're doing,
so are you in. He's like, yeah, I'm.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Man, Yeah, why not?

Speaker 4 (24:07):
So?

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Eric, you alluded a little bit earlier to some of
the food you guys tried, So let's let's hear about that.
Let's get into the food of Halloween.

Speaker 4 (24:13):
High Knights, so Patrick can talks. Patrick can talk about
the official name of the place we went to, the
the Fallout Cafe. Cafe Patrick, that's correct, Yes, so yeah.
I got iguana on a stick okay, sure, which was
essentially corn dogs made with corn flakes and cheese. Okay,

(24:39):
well defried in that. So that was that was? That
was interesting? Was my favorite? Wasn't interesting? I'm gonna steal
a little bit of Patrick's thunder and he may disagree
with this, but he got the grossest dessert I've ever
tasted in my entire.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
I've heard I know what this is, and I've had
it here. I don't know if it's exactly the same
in Orlando, but oh I loved it.

Speaker 3 (24:58):
I don't know, and I will tell you yeah.

Speaker 4 (25:01):
I thought it was absolutely horrible. I mean it was like,
you know, it's it's you're expecting one flavor and then
you put it in your mouth and you get something
that's not even really remotely close to that flavor, and
it's like.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
So so for the for the people at home listening,
what what's dessert are we talking about here?

Speaker 4 (25:21):
We are talking about deviled eggs, which is a dessert.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yes, explain it.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
Walk me through the process.

Speaker 4 (25:33):
All right, so and Patrick, feel free to jump in
if I miss anything. But essentially they're deviled eggs. They
look like deviled eggs. They're really white, white, you know,
egg shape egg stuff with yellow egg shaped egg stuff
in it, and you bite into that yellow egg and
Patrick made me try it. He forced me to eat it,

(25:54):
and it was a coca nut like this sweet, yeah, weird,
coconut flavored egg yolk, no egg white thing, right, And
then the yolk was this kind of mushy stuff with
pineapple chunks in it, and I'm like, oh, that just
doesn't go together.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yes, So I don't know. Again, I don't know if
the Hollywood one is exactly the same, but the Orlando
version it is a coconut panacatta with a pineapple ganash
as the yolk. I loved it.

Speaker 4 (26:28):
That's a way to dress it up right there. But
it's not anything panache.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
I think ours added a little bit of to heen
on it as well. Yeah, we do have the yeah, okay,
And the nice thing about Hollywood you get a pack
of six rather than only a pack of three in Orlando.
Oh yeah, but yeah, this is like a Pina colade.
In your mouth. For me, it was phenomenal. So I'm
sorry that Eric had an issue with the texture, but

(26:55):
for me it was perfection because I like those weird
foods that looked like something else but taste phenomb and
this was to me.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
Yeah, and Hornits, they're always so creative with their food,
and you do often get those things that look like
something completely different. Usually it looks like something gross and
that ends up being delicious. This was just it looked
like a completely different food, and I mean it, it
is spot on. You would never know, like you could
absolutely trick somebody into thinking they're eating a deviled egg
and then they get that dessert.

Speaker 4 (27:26):
And they spit it right out.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
I kin do that now.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
So Patrick, have you gotten to try any of the
other food while you've been there?

Speaker 2 (27:36):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yeah, So I've had an opportunity to try several of
the food items there. Going along with the Fallout, we
also had the rat Away, which is a lemonade with
brown sugar and h was it chimoia as well in
that one?

Speaker 4 (27:50):
Think? So it was really good. It was really good.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
Yeah, that was phenomenal, Okay, And then we also tried
the Fallout cake, which was like a red velvet cake,
but mostly just icing, like the whole third top level
of the cake. It's a three tiered cake in a
small bunt size. My whole third top layer was just icing,

(28:13):
so it's a little too much for me, but it
was good. It was It's a standard red velvet cake.
There are plenty of delicious liquid Courage drinks available, so
some of the highlights for me were the delas Morentos
area had handshaken Margarita's. You also have some city walk

(28:36):
options that I really would like to talk about here
in just a second. But first, uh Slash's Bar has
some of the best food for Halloween Horneites in my opinion.
The trio of tacos was my favorite. All curry based,
so you have a steak chicken and then a plant
based steaked steak taco. All phenomenal. And the drinks there

(28:59):
are also really really good, especially if you like mint.
One of them was like a mint mohito type drink.
Phenomenal drink. That's probably my go to. But going back
to city walk, you have Antihitos has a bunch of
cocktails that are available. I tried the Pumpkin Martini, which

(29:19):
is spice martini basically absolutely delicious. Over at NBC Sports Grill,
you have the Dirty Waters is what they believe they're
calling it, and this was a vodka based drink that
was absolutely interesting. I'll just leave it at that. Not

(29:39):
my favorite, that's okay, But my favorite off outside of
Halloween Hornites in City Walk is over Toothsomes. They have
a mango chimoy shake.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Yep that is absolutely nominal.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
And a little on the spicy side, but perfection for
the Halloween Hornites, especially because it has been kind of
warm around here for the Hollywood season this time around,
so it's nice to have that coolness of the mango
but on that spiciness of the taheen in their absolutely phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
Yeah, that is I'm absolutely in on that. I want
to try that mango shake before we move on to
the Orlando side of things. Are there any other standouts
from this year's event that you want to talk about?

Speaker 4 (30:25):
For me? I was just happy to hang out with Patrick.
He was like absolutely the best like Halloween Horror Night's
host that you could possibly imagine. I mean, he knew
where things were, what, knew all the history, and knew
all the details on it. So I liked learning about
all of that stuff and just hanging out with Patrick
during the trip. It kind of made it a little

(30:46):
bit more sparkly. That's awesomes well.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
While we can't guarantee that Patrick will be at Halloween
hard Knights to host you during your experience, you can
book your trip with Patrick and that would you know.
He can talk you through all of his tips and
tricks for you. So that's one way to go about it. Patrick,
what about you, and.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
I will say or Hollywood is artha clown for us? Yeah,
I don't know how it is in Orlando. It seems
like he's kind of getting bogged down Hollywood. He is everywhere.
I think on the night that we went with Eric,
I swear I saw him like six or seven times
in different areas.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Have you seen him in different costumes.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
I've only seen him in the two different costumes, one
being the Regular and then one being the Bloody Okay,
But in the house itself, you'll see him in all
of his itaations. Yeah, but he always has this trash
bag and he's ready with a couple of fun things
to show you. But he definitely roams around quite a lot,
so there's a lot of opportunity to see Arthur clown

(31:53):
in Hollywood.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Very cool. Yeah, that is one I will I'll talk
a little bit more about art in Orlando a little
bit too, but yeah, that's awesome. Horror Nights in Hollywood
is It's funny how different the two events are, And
obviously there's a lot of similarities between the two, but
there's just different vibes, different experiences, and it's always such
a good time to get out there to Hollywood. I

(32:15):
need to It's been a few years for me and
I need to change that. I need to get out
there for sure. All Right, let's talk about Orlando, and Patrick,
you can jump in. I know you're coming here in
a few days, so if there's anything in particular that
you're looking forward to, or maybe you've heard some things
about the experience here in Orlando, because I know you're
just as much of a horror knight's nerd as I am.

(32:37):
So we'll start off with the ten haunted houses that
we have here Universal Studios, Florida, and I'm gonna go
from the bottom up here my least favorite house this year,
and actually it's it's kind of close between two of them,
but it's Jason Universe, and there's sort of a curse
on the house that is located in the Fast and

(32:58):
Furious building. Just haven't, in my opinion, had a great
house in that location. I do think this is probably
the best one in that location, but it's still not great.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
But really over Major.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
You know what, I didn't love Major Suites.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
It was.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
It was fine, it was it was a fine house,
but it wasn't. It wasn't one of my favorites. And
I will say this year's lineup of houses top to
bottom is really solid, and with one of them being
what I would consider it be an all timer. We'll
talk about that, but my next next up on my
list is Grave of Flesh. I think this one has
a lot of potential to be one of the scariest houses.

(33:37):
And I actually think these two, this and Jason Universe
might be the scariest houses because it's not a particularly
scary year as far as the houses are concerned. It's
just it's a confusing story Grave of Flesh. I'm not
entirely sure what's happening. It seems very straightforward in the beginning,
and then things get weird. I won't go into details,
but it's just It's a strange house. This one next

(33:59):
one of my lists is was a little bit of
a disappointment for me, but I will say I've only
gotten to go through it once. I need to get
some more runs through it, and that is Galkin Monsters
of the North. It's a pretty house. It's not quite
the vibe that I thought it was going to be.
Uh and I didn't get up. I didn't have a
good run as far as scares are concerned, so I
can't really even speak to the scary scariness of it.
But definitely one that I want to do again to

(34:20):
see more of this house.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
It is a very complicated name.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Yeah, yeah, Galkan. Monsters of the North is yeah, it's
it's especially you know the spelling. Good luck on that.
Next up for me is terrifier. And this is purely subjective.
I've never seen the movies. This is not my type
of horror. I don't love the over the top gore.
I do think the house is really well done and art.
The clown has absolutely grown on me as a character,

(34:48):
but the house has made it made me never want
to watch these movies because it is very gory and
and absolutely ridiculous. So it's it's on one hand, I'm like,
I like a horror comedy type of vibe, but the
gore or is just so over the top for me,
so kind of out on that one.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
Completely agree with you on the hell.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Yeah, Fallout is next for me, I think this is
a fine house. It wasn't I don't know. There was
nothing that particularly made it stand out as being great.
And actually the next house on my list I think
did some of the effects a little bit better. So
fall Out I like. But Hatchet and Chains, I think
this is where we get a little bit of a
tear jump. Here is the top five are I think

(35:28):
really good houses. Hatchet and Chains, Demon Bounty Hunters is
so well done, and there's something about just like the
exact opposite of the Fast and Furious location. Those two
sprung tents in that back corner over by men in
Black always hit. Those houses are always good, and that's
the same this year. Hatchet and Chains is great. They
do some really really cool effects and actually, again one

(35:50):
of the scarier houses I think next on my list
is Five Nights at Freddy's. Loved it everything you said, Patrick.
For Hollywood, I think works for Orlando. The animatronics are
so cool. The characters in between provide some really good
scares because this is one of those houses that you
start looking around at the details and you get really
lost at looking at how impressive those puppets are and

(36:12):
those animatronics are, and then all of a sudden, that's
when the scare comes out and gets you from the
other side. So really really well done. I will say this,
the wait times for this house in Orlando have been really,
really big. So if you want to do it, make
sure you get in there and do it because the
wait times are going to be consistently long for that house.
I've only gotten to do it once so far. I

(36:33):
will definitely change that. I will wait at some point
to do it again.

Speaker 4 (36:36):
But will there be a special pass that visitors could
get that would allow them to avoid those lines?

Speaker 1 (36:41):
Well, that would be the Halloween Hard Knight's Express Pass.

Speaker 4 (36:44):
Thank you, There we go, so.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
You can purchase.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
You could go all the way to the rip tour
as well, so you can absolutely knock out any of
the houses that you want to see. I will say,
I think without Express or Rip you're probably not doing
you know what. I'll go as bold as to say
You're definitely not doing all ten houses in one night.
It's just not going to happen. We had Express for

(37:10):
Opening night and we just barely got through all ten houses.
So now I will say Opening night is definitely a
bit busier than most other nights, but it's definitely challenging.
You're not going to get through all ten without express,
so something to keep in mind for your trip. Three
more houses to talk about. One is Dolls Let's play Dead.

(37:31):
Loved it. This was a big surprise for me. I
wasn't super excited about this one, but the concept of
being shrunk down to the size of a toy plays
so well, and this is surprisingly to me. I think
this is sort of this year's comedy house. There's a
lot of really funny gags. There's a lot of guest
activated triggers throughout as well, so there's a lot of

(37:52):
fun stuff with this house. I can't wait to do
this one a few more times, because again I've only
gotten to do it once. Top two for me here.
I really thought this was gonna be my number one.
I was super excited for it. Horrors of the Wyatt
six absolutely love it. It's the house I've done the
most so far. Again, I am a WWE fan, so
I feel that connection to these characters, and I thought

(38:12):
it was an amazing tribute to Bray Wyatt, who passed
away a couple of years ago. It's scary, it's fun,
there's so much detail. It is really really well done,
I think, almost surprisingly. So I think a lot of
people were like, you know, WWE isn't really gonna work
in Halloween hard Knights, and it really really did. So
I think they knocked it out of the park on

(38:34):
both coasts with this house.

Speaker 4 (38:35):
They do use chainsaws in WWE, so maybe that's Jansaw.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
Charlie does not make an appearance in this house, surprisingly
and in my top house. Like I said earlier, we
have at least one all Timer in this year's event,
and that is l Artista, a Spanish haunting. This house
is beautiful, I mean so over the top, like they
built a mansion, and there are some really really creative

(39:02):
scares and details all throughout it. I think, not only
you know we always have that pretty house, dead Man's
Peer Winter's Wake a few years ago is the one
that stands out in memory to me. That house I
walked in and I was so relaxed. The vibe of
that house was relaxing to me, and I didn't really
get many of the scares this house, though l Artista
provides those scares. I think there's a lot of potential

(39:23):
when the when the scare actors are really getting it going,
they are going to ruin some people's nights, and that's
so much fun to watch. So it's it's an absolutely
beautiful house but still has potential to be one of
the scariest. So really really love that house. Like I said,
an all timer, it's it's gonna be near the top
of my all time list. It's it's fantastic, Patrick, anything

(39:47):
stand out to you as I was running through that
list as.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
I I mean, I'm so excited to do everything all.
I'm going for two nights, both of which I'm sadly
doing general admission. But that's okay because I'm going two nights.
Like Mike said, I don't think you're able to do
it all in one night, so I'm definitely glad that
I'm going multiple nights. But Tip and trick get in
line one minute before the event ends and you'll still

(40:11):
guarantee to go through the house. So terrifier is the
thing that you want to do, but you don't want
to wait, you know, one hundred and twenty minutes or
whatever it is, wait until the very end of the night,
and it's typically a less of a weight. And then
also you're guaranteed to go in regardless. But No, l
Artista is my number one hyped up house that I
am so ready to experience. And then side note, not

(40:35):
only can you do express pass and then your rip,
another option is to do the unmasking the horror tours
and these are lights on tour where you get to
see the houses. I'll be doing the six House tour
this year. I'm so jealous and so oh it's gonna
I'm I got chills. I'm so excited. And so it's
an opportunity for you to learn the backstory of everything.

(40:55):
And I'm doing this after I do one night at
the event so that i can experience the event as
a normal person would, and then I'm going to go
into the tour and then go back that night as well,
because I'm insane to go through all of the houses
with that newfound appreciation. So I'm just so excited to
see what the Orlando team has done. Once again, I
feel like they do a little bit more than Hollywood,

(41:17):
but we'll see.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
So I'm curious about the way you're tackling this. Are
you going to aim to do those six houses on
the first night so that you see them as a
normal guest first or do you want to almost have
them spoiled for you with the unmasking the Horror first?

Speaker 3 (41:31):
So the goal is to do all six before the
unmasking the Horror just as normal. I mean, my goal
is to try and do all ten, sure, but we'll
see if that actually happens. And then yeah, after doing
the unmasking the Horror, then I want to go through
just those six again just to make sure, and then
any house that I missed the first night.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
No, it makes perfect sense.

Speaker 4 (41:53):
So I have a quick question, since mister Bonnador has
been early quiet this entire spooky episode, right, based on
what we've been talking about, what do you think you
would like to do.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
Well? I'm a huge Falloout fan. Okay, I'm a huge
Finates Freddy's fan, Jason fan. I really want to see
the Jason House. Yeah, for sure, that that would be
I think that would be probably my top one. I mean,
even though I'm a big fan of like you know,
these other series and whatnot. From what you guys described,

(42:24):
I think the Jason House.

Speaker 4 (42:26):
Would be my top one. Yeah, to get the nasty
deviled eggs.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
Yeah, I'd give it a shot. I would give it
a shot, honestly. I mean, and if I happened to
have the same reaction that you had, Eric, and I
would be right there with you.

Speaker 4 (42:40):
There we go any consensus, but I'd give it a.

Speaker 2 (42:44):
Shot at least.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
Yeah, And again, I do want to say that Jason
House isn't necessarily bad. And really this could be said
for any Halloween hard Knight's House. I don't think I've
ever been through one and been like, wow, that was
really unimpressive. No, it's just comparing them to the other
houses at that year's event. So you know, Jason's at
the bottom of mind. I think it's still a good house.
It's just for me personally. I was excited for the
concept of Jason Universe going through all of the Jason movies,

(43:07):
and it's very repetitive. It's a lot of the same
Jason again and again. But you know, it's still a
good house. It's still walking through the woods with Jason
popping out, it's still gonna be an exciting experience.

Speaker 5 (43:20):
Well, it sounds like that they've set the bar so high,
but understandably so, because you're always getting the best experience possible. Yeah,
so it's just kind of like they're out doing one another.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Right at such a high level, you know, Yeah, absolutely
can't go wrong.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
Yeah, no, that's definitely the case. I want to move
on to scare zones as well, and like Patrick said,
the Orlando scare zones tend to do things a little
bit bigger than they do in Hollywood, and that has
a lot to do with just the space they have
to work with. I do think this year is a
really good lineup of scare zones. The standout to me
is the cat Lady of Crooked Lane. That's Central Park
scar zone with the pumpkins lit up in the trees,

(43:59):
just you know, perfect Halloween vibe. They built the cat
Lady's house at the end of the walkway and they
have a whole little show that they do with her.
So that's a lot of fun too. The characters in
there are really creative, you know, costuming, and they actually
have a little not enclosed but semi inclosed walk through
that you sort of mimics a mini horror Night's house,

(44:23):
which is really cool and crazy to see in a
scare zone. So that was that's really fun. The Masquerade
scarzone in the Hollywood area beautiful costuming, and then you know,
this goes for the New York scar Zone as well,
which is Toxic Mutation's Toxic Twenties, which again really impressive costumes.
But what I've been blown away with for this year's
event has been the sheer number of scare actors. I mean,

(44:45):
you go through on a busy night and it still
feels like the scare actors are out numbering the guests.
There's just tons of them in there, which is so
so cool to see because that just takes the experience
to a new level. So it's it's a lot of fun.
You don't go more than a few steps without getting
another scare actor come out at you. So that's that's
really cool, I will say too. On that note, we
do have a video on our YouTube YouTube dot com

(45:07):
slash d two Travel that is a quote unquote scaredy
Cat's Guide to Halloween Horror Knights at Universal Orlando. If
you want a less intense experience, check out that video,
I provided as many tips and tricks as I possibly could.
We even walked from the front of the park all
the way to the back of the park without getting
a single scare so and you can see exactly how
I did that, so one more time with YouTube dot

(45:28):
com slash d two travel if you want to check
out that video. And yeah, the the only other scare
zone that I didn't mention is the Origins of Horror.
That is sort of the table of contents scare zone
that we typically get right at the entrance to the park.
Some fun again, some really fun costumes in there, and
more so photo ops and things like that. So but

(45:48):
I think they did a pretty good job with the
scare zones at this year's event. Food.

Speaker 3 (45:53):
I'm also excited to see the zombies it mel die in.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. That so there's two experiences that
are not technically scare zones. Actually three that are not
technically scare zones. Then I'll mention a little bit as well.
But I do want to talk about the food because again,
those devil eggs absolutely love them. We don't have to
go into the Deviled Eggs anymore though, I think Eric
has handled that. The booth that stood out to me.

(46:19):
I haven't tried a ton of the food. I have
had a few options here and there. The horrors of
the Wyat six booth with the Huscus Muscleman Slop, which
is essentially a sloppy Joe. I'm just gonna READO. The
description of this beef sloppy Joe with jalapeno bacon lays,
dill dill pickle flavored potato chips, cheese sauce on a
chocolate almond bun sounds real, weird, very delicious, and one

(46:43):
of those those options that is like a full meal,
like you do not need to eat anything else with this.
That being said, of course I did. I also at
that same booth got the Ramblin Rabbit fried carrot cake.
I'm not even a fan of carrot cake. I would
absolutely get this again. And this thing was I mean,
I don't know if they've changed it so since Opening
night and universal ear muffs real quick if you're listening, Uh,

(47:05):
don't change anything, but they could absolutely shrink that portion's
size for the price, because it is massive. It was
way too much carrot cake, especially fried carrot cake, for
any one person to eat.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
Man the.

Speaker 4 (47:21):
Parks and pass boards podcast is not endoors shrinking of
any food size isn't there for value for any money whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
Right, But yeah, it was delicious. Uh And I now,
don't get me wrong, I ate the whole thing. Of
course I did, but I didn't need to because it
was just so much, but it was. It was really good.
I highly recommend both of those options at that booth
and then yeah, just for any like other standouts for

(47:49):
this year's event, As Patrick mentioned, the zombies at Mel's
dying so much fun and you actually you can see
some of that in that Scaredy Cat Guy video. I
had some fun interactions with them. There's also Club Horror,
which is really just a DJ and some dancers don't
necessarily know if I would call that a standout. I

(48:11):
was very excited to see the return of chainsaw clowns
over in the Springfield area. So you get chainsaws there
by the way in Springfield, and then you get chainsaws
up at the front, not really any other chainsaws throughout
our event here in Orlando.

Speaker 4 (48:24):
Are these not like chainsaw Crusty the clowns.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
They are not chainsaw crusty the clowns Unfortunately nice as
much as I want them to do. It will never
get Treehouse of Horror happening. There's there's some rights issues there,
I think. But also I will say I think in
the Terrifier House there's probably some chainsaws in there because

(48:47):
you know. But also, Art the Clown here in Orlando fantastic,
so much fun. I have seen him. I actually, just
a couple of nights ago saw him in the Santa outfit,
which was a lot of fun. I will say, like
like you said, Patrick, he does kind of get bogged
down a little bit. He draws a crowd and you know,
then it gets a little bit difficult to get close

(49:08):
to him. But I've been lucky, I think, to see
him I think four times now. It feels like a
complete dart throw. As far as like whether or not
you're actually gonna see Art, because I've seen him pop
up in all sorts of random places, so you know,
you might not necessarily find Art the Clown. It's going
to be difficult to do. I don't recommend spending a

(49:29):
ton of your time just looking for him, but it's
very possible that you could run into him at any
given moment. And then the last couple of things, the
show's Nightmare Fuel. If you've seen this show before, it's
pretty much the same. It is a great show if
you've never seen it, But if you have seen it,
they didn't change a whole lot. So you know, if

(49:49):
you're trying to save some time, like Patrick, for example,
you're trying to get through all those houses, maybe don't
spend the time on Nightmare Fuel. The Lagoon show lots
of fun as always. I will say I've always looking
to looking for them to live up to that first
one they did, Marathon of Mayhem, and I don't think
it's ever going to reach that level ever again. But
it's still a really fun show and a different experience

(50:12):
to kind of break up all the scares. But yeah,
that's I think sums up everything. I'm sure. I'm sure
I will think of like six other things I didn't
mention after we are done recording this episode here.

Speaker 4 (50:23):
But which we will not be adding in a future
episode because it's time to move on.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
It is it is time to move on. Do you
guys have anything else to add to Halloween Harranits before
we move into the news section of today's episode.

Speaker 3 (50:40):
Nothing for me except that it's a great time to
start planning your twenty twenty six trip as well. Even
though we don't know what's coming yet, it's always a
good time, So start planning now.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
Yeah, yeah, one step ahead of yet.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
Well, and Patrick, we mentioned that you can plan everybody,
all of our listeners trips for Halloween har nites have
can they reach out to you?

Speaker 3 (51:02):
Sure? So the easiest way is going to be able
to find me online Destination Vacation Network on Instagram or Facebook.
And then my email is Patrick O'Connor at d the
number two travel dot com. Perfect.

Speaker 4 (51:17):
All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna say one last final thing. Yeah,
it's not like we don't know a bunch of travel
agents or are them ourselves. So maybe, just maybe the
four of us could actually plan one of these for
next year.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
I think that sounds like a great idea for our son.
I'm in me too, sound like a meta Orlando.

Speaker 4 (51:41):
Yeah, all right, because if we're gonna go, we might
as well go big.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
True.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
If big for me means going to my backyard, I
have no problem with that.

Speaker 4 (51:48):
Don't brag.

Speaker 1 (51:51):
All right, let's jump into some news. Uh okay, So well,
since we're talking about Universal in this episode, we'll start
with Universal News, and unfortunately there was a very tragic
by by now, I'm sure you've heard of this. A
guest passed away after writing Stardust Racers over at Epic
Universe here at Universal Orlando. So we're not going to

(52:12):
get really into this story a whole bunch. Is just
obviously a very tragic situation, very unfortunate situation, you know,
And our thoughts are with the family and everybody involves
because that obviously was a very difficult thing to deal with.
So again, our thoughts are with that family. But we
are going to talk about some other news. Can just

(52:34):
kind of move into some more Universal news here. Sticking
to Universal Orlando, the hard Rock Hotel showed off their
new rooms after a forty million dollar renovation, which I
thought was interesting to see in a headline. I don't
you don't typically see the dollar amount for a renovation,
but Dowell and again you can read more about all

(53:00):
these headlines on Chipinco dot com Chipping Company dot com.
But yeah, so the hard Rock Hotel is the only
Universal Orlando hotel that I have not personally stayed at.
Have any of you stayed at the hard Rock?

Speaker 4 (53:13):
Not at Universal yet?

Speaker 3 (53:14):
No, But I have enjoyed their.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
Pool, yes, I actually have too, but I have not
stayed there myself. And it's a beautiful hotel, and obviously
with the renovations, everything is looking nice and new, so
it's it's on my list. It's actually I don't did
I did? I mention that is the only Universal hotel
that I have not yet stayed at, besides Helios Grand,
which you know, it's a little bit more difficult right now,
but both are definitely on my list. Uh. In Islands

(53:42):
of Adventure, construction has begun or construction will begin soon
on the Lost Continent area of the park. That is
the area with where we used to have Poseidon's Adventure,
we used to have the Eighth Voyage of Sindbad show,
and then we had we have Mythos the Beloved Restaurant.
It seems as though that whole area of that park

(54:03):
is going to get a brand new theme fairly soon.
So obviously construction is going on right now with Bride Rocket.
It seems like once that is wrapped up, or once
the demolition has wrapped up, that is going to be
moving over to Lost Continent and we'll see some big
changes from an Islands of adventure in the near future.

(54:24):
We also have some new menu items on some city
walk restaurants as well. So, I mean, Brian, you haven't
got a chance to talk a whole bunch.

Speaker 4 (54:36):
You usually do the food really well, Bryan, so jump
in on this one.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
Well, I see that there's no you know, Italian names here.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Right right, all for it.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
Let's go for it. So we have the toothsome chocolate Emporium,
and Savory Feast Kitchen. They have Providence. Oh wow, okay,
no I missed that one.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
What's funny is like this is just an absolute made up,
toss together word.

Speaker 4 (55:02):
So it wasn't in the first sentence.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
Boys, all right, so I get a pass on this one. Okay,
So this is Providence tachos, Yeah, with truffled brie fondue,
caribbean chili, honey, bacon, green onions.

Speaker 4 (55:20):
Was not caribbean?

Speaker 1 (55:21):
Oh wow?

Speaker 2 (55:22):
Okay, yeah, okay, that's an l Yeah, Calibri and Calibrian
chili honey, thank you, bacon, green onions, and roasted garlic aoli.

Speaker 4 (55:33):
We don't want the Calibrian's feeling bad.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
Right, I'm sure they're very proud of these tachos.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
That sounds really good.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
Yeah, yeah, they had me at truffled brief on do.
I'm absolutely in on that.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
They had me at tater tots. That's fair. I didn't
go that far up next over there's a there's big
fires the bone in short rib with a Carolina barbecue glaze,
with grilled corn vine tomatoes, onions, and a spicy maple
jalapeno corn bread.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
I am struggling right now. I absolutely just want to
go over to City Walk and eat all of this
right now.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
I do too, I do. What about you, guys, Eric Patrick.

Speaker 4 (56:22):
I haven't had dinner yet, so yeah, there, that's right.
Your alliteration is like making me hungry.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Now, slowly saying it just the way I can torment you.

Speaker 4 (56:34):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
Then one more, one more, one more.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
We got cowfish. It's a bacon donut fusion, a beef
patty with cheddar, jalapeno lime slaw, candied bacon, sweet and
spicy mao between two glazed donut bottons. How I don't
know if I would go for this because I don't
really like to make sweets and meat.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
That's that's fair.

Speaker 4 (57:02):
I was gonna ask, I don't like sweets and meat.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
It's not a good it's not a good combo.

Speaker 4 (57:10):
I was gonna have a barbecue fan.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
The the it's fair. That's a little bit a little
bit different.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
That's different.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
But the the donut burger bun trend. Are you guys
in or out on that? I'm out out? Yeah? All right?

Speaker 4 (57:24):
Patrick?

Speaker 1 (57:24):
Am I am I alone here?

Speaker 3 (57:27):
No, you're I'm in with you because I mean another
place down the road has has a really good one donuts.

Speaker 4 (57:33):
Is there anything they.

Speaker 1 (57:34):
Can we're talking, we're talking everglaze. Yeah, it is very good. Yeah.
That and the heart attack one hundred Yeah, no question.
But that's you know, when you're on vacation or you know,
just hanging out on a Tuesday. Calories don't count. So
that's how that goes.

Speaker 4 (57:53):
Yeah, how can I squeeze four thousand calories into one?
One burger?

Speaker 1 (57:58):
Donut buns? Is the answer? There?

Speaker 4 (58:00):
You go?

Speaker 1 (58:01):
All right? So more universal news, Jurassic Park River Adventure
is set to close for refurbishment. That in itself is
not news. However, it is closing January fifth and remaining
closed until November nineteenth, twenty twenty sixth. So if you're
visiting Islands the adventure in twenty twenty six. Pretty good
chance you're not going to get to experience that attraction.
There have been rumors swirling about this. It seems like

(58:23):
it's just going to be a big sort of overhaul
of what is existing and just improving that it doesn't.
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
I could be wrong. We might get a Jurassic World
switch like you saw in Hollyrock.

Speaker 4 (58:36):
If it's closed.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
A lot of people are hoping that it's not.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
Yeah, and I think at that I think that will
be the case. I don't think we are going to
get the Jurassic World. And it's funny because for me,
one hundred percent, I'm all about Jurassic Park, not a
big Jurassic World fan. Don't want to see that that
sort of change. However, that Indominus Rex animatronic is so
cool and if we got that here, I would be
very excited for it. I agree it's a win win.

Speaker 4 (59:04):
I think.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
I think what a lot of guests worry about is
how they did the dress world with the screens like
it was a lot of screens, and a lot of
fair guests didn't like that, you know. I think that's
what they're worried about. The most, But however, I could
there is like rumored potential that they may be changing
it up for the newest Drassic movie that just came out.

(59:29):
Interesting to have you have the d Rex, you have
that scene. Okay, I will not say any spoilers, but
potentially maybe a deal.

Speaker 4 (59:40):
Yeah, yeah, here's a spoiler. Dinosaurs e people.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
Patrick, you said I'm not wrong about that not changing correct.

Speaker 3 (59:52):
Yeah, So it sounds to me, and from the discussions
that Eric and I got to have with some insiders
at Universal during our it sounds like this is just
a refurbishment, and that's exactly what it is. We're not
expecting Jurassic World to come in, but we might be
seeing some new additions, like Brian indicated, but not necessarily
Jurassic World.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Just keep it classic Jurassic Park. Yeah, And that makes
a lot of sense. And this is it's an older attraction, right,
and there's a lot of pieces, a lot of really
big animatronics that are gonna take some time to replace
and fix up, So it makes perfect sense.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
Correct. That's also a little bit of that repair that's
needed since the hurricane happened a couple of years ago here,
So I think that is also part.

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
Of this refurbishing that would make sense. Well, Patrick, I'll
let you take the lead on this one since you
reminded me of this news earlier in this episode, but
tell us about fanfaest Nights.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
So yeah, Fan Fast Nights is coming back to Universal
Studios Hollywood twenty twenty six. I'm so excited. We're going
to get more information as time goes on. The dates
I'm sure you have in front of you, Mike, I
don't have them directly for me. It's April twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
Third to sixteenth to May sixteenth.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
There we go, and the big announcement is that we're
going back on the back lot again this year in
twenty twenty six, and this time we're meeting Scooby Doo
in the Gang and he's going to meet up with
the Universal Monsters. This is rumored to be taking place
in the Little Europe section of the back lot, if
you're aware of the back lot route, and so we

(01:01:25):
will have Assuming Bride and the Monster and potentially Creature
and Dracula walking around and interacting with the Scooby Doo
Gang in supposedly a forty five minute set, again similar
to how we did Back to the Future. None of
the other announcements have been made yet, so I don't

(01:01:45):
want to speak on that yet, but a lot of
cool things are coming around. I'm hoping that one of
those things might be Demons Layer that's been very popular
were in the Japan market, and so also one piece
might come back. We'll see. It looks like a great
lineup regardless, and tickets are available now so you can

(01:02:08):
get those through your destination's travel advisor and pick those
up for your next trip to Hollywood.

Speaker 4 (01:02:13):
See the man is a fountain of information.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
That's why we keep having him back on because we
don't have to do all the work. We just bring
him in and he talks about everything. Yeah, I need
to get out to Fan fast Nights next year. It
was so impressive, just kind of living vicariously through Patrick
this year's event. So I need to see that, especially
with Universal Monsters and Scooby Doo involved, that's such a

(01:02:37):
cool way to handle that. I'm excited for.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
It me too.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
All right, let's jump into a little bit of Disney news.
We don't have a ton to talk about, but over
at Disney Hollywood Studios, Star Wars Launch Bay is now closed,
so that the whole animation flown area one of those
things that like, oh yeah that was still open. So yeah,
that whole animation courtyard area is closed off right now.

(01:03:04):
A couple of Star Wars meet and greets have relocated.
Darth Vader is now meeting at Star Toars and then
Chewbacca is meeting at the Millennium Falcon, which you could
occasionally see him there anyway, but now it's like it is,
this is his normal meet and greet spot. I do
like the way that they played this because now Darth
Vader can still have his meet and greet without ruining
the continuity of Galaxy's Edge and that being in a

(01:03:25):
different point in the timeline and all that.

Speaker 4 (01:03:27):
So they it's an important safety point right there, right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
Right right right, which yeah, I mean I don't personally care,
but I know a lot of Star Wars nerds might be, uh,
which I am one not gonna knock anybody, but but yeah,
I know some people are definitely you know, holding true to.

Speaker 4 (01:03:45):
It're not gonna get your blasters in a bind if
that like that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
Staying in Disneys, Hollywood Ceios, we got a list of
characters revealed for Jollywood Knights, which I got to experience
Jollywood Knights for the first time last year. Absolutely loved it.
Definitely recommend if you're visiting during the hollow A season.
There is a new Miguel meet and greet, so Miguel
from Coco will be available for meet and greets. We
also have a whole list of returning favorites, including Phineas

(01:04:10):
and Ferb. I just I just yeah that, yeah, that
is that's a fun auto correct Yeah, phones and Ferb
is meeting at Jollywood Knights. Duffy is returning, Jose and
Panchito of the Three Cabaios, and many many more and
again you can read the full list over at chip

(01:04:32):
chippin Coompany dot com. Have any of you guys done
Jollywood Knights?

Speaker 4 (01:04:37):
I have, Yes, I have done Jollywood Nights before.

Speaker 3 (01:04:40):
What do you think?

Speaker 4 (01:04:41):
I thought it was cool. I like the snow, you know,
the the fake soapy snow that they were blown in
the streets and stuff like that. I realize a big fan.

Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
Yeah, it's a really it's a really fun event. Uh
So I definitely recommend it. Hopefully I can get out
again this year. Sticking with the holiday news, over at Epcot,
we got the lineup announced for this year's narrators for
the Candlelight Processional. A whole bunch of new exciting names.
One in particular I am very excited about.

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
Well, we got constantly I do.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
I do love Leslie Ouggams, but Constance Woo, Jennifer Garner,
Leslie Ugams, Henry Winkler, Lauren Dagel, Joe Joel Smallbone, Cheryl
Lee Ralph and the one I'm excited for is Bree Larson.
Absolutely love Bree Larson. You know is no I'm a
big Marvel fan. So Captain Marvel is narrating the Candlelight Prosessional.
I'm gonna have to go. Uh so it's a And

(01:05:30):
then that is just the new narrators. There's a whole
bunch of returning narrators that everybody loves to come out
and see so again. Full list on Chippindcompany dot com.
And then one more piece of Epcot holiday news. The
Santa Meet and Gree will be moving from the Odyssey
Building over to Communicoor Hall, which I like that they
are using this more and more with the festivals and

(01:05:53):
it's becoming sort of a hub like they originally announced
it would be for the for the festival, so'd be
cool to see the Santa meet and greeting there.

Speaker 4 (01:06:01):
Hey, Brian, do you want to do the Festival Favorites
booth that's now out open at Food and Wine Festival.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
Yeah, yeah, I'll We all heard that this one's fairly easy,
so you can handle it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:17):
All right? Oh he muted himself too, so I will.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
I'll explain. Uh. The Festival Favorites booth opened a little
bit after the Food and Wine Festival kicked off, and
there are there's a few new options available. I got
to try three of them. Let's see if Brian can
list them for you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:36):
Okay, you got the potato, Yeah, yep, curry spice, fried cheese,
and frozen smart Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
I don't even I don't know why we even tested
you on that.

Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
They were pretty sure.

Speaker 4 (01:06:48):
I was gonna trip up on Yeah, no, no, no, no.
I know where you're from, and I also know that
you know, he just has a way of saying the
food that make it sound so appetizing.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
That's what it is. Yeah, it's the voice. I tried
all three of these. They are all delicious. Definitely recommend.
The perogi is served with some caramelized onions and a kilbasa,
and then the curry spice fried cheese was like it
was not overly curry flavored, so you don't get it
like a ton of spice or anything like that. Very good.

(01:07:18):
And then the frozen smort. I mean, if you love chocolate, perfect,
So I love chocolate, so I absolutely loved it. That's
it for our Walt disney World news. One piece of
Disneyland news, and that is just that It's a Small
World will be closing on October thirtieth and then reopening
November thirteenth with its holiday overlay. Nothing out of the
ordinary here, just letting you know if you are visiting
in that timeframe, It's a Small World will be closed,

(01:07:41):
and I'm sure Patrick will be out there to see
the holiday overlay again this year. Yeah I will.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
I'm gonna be very curious to see if we still
get the Sherman Brothers lyrics. Oh good point, something new.

Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
Yeah, that's a very good point.

Speaker 4 (01:07:55):
And yours truly will be there in November.

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
Oh very cool. Okay, right, yeah, so we'll we'll get
lots of perspective on the holiday offerings over in Disneyland
this year, which I am jealous of. I've never gotten
to get out there for the holiday season. I always
end up going in like February and just barely missing
Haunted Mansion Holiday, which looks so awesome. I mean every year,
but this year in particular two the Gingerbread House and

(01:08:18):
every just so good. All right, let's move on to
our final segment, and that is our deal of the week.
You may have heard a talk about this one before,
but it's so good that it deserves to be brought
up again because it was announced quite a while ago
and it is still available for arrivals in twenty twenty six.
So you can get a free dining plan for kids
ages three to nine when you purchase a Walt Disney

(01:08:38):
World package that includes a room and a select Disney
Resort hotel and a dining plan for each guest ages
ten and up. And again, this offer is valid for
arrivals in twenty twenty six, and your Destinations travel advisor
can answer any questions you have about it and can
absolutely get you hooked up with this special offer, which
again is just such an amazing deal to take advantage of.

Speaker 4 (01:09:00):
So it will save you boatloads of cash.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
Yes, yeah, absolutely, man. I it's been a long time
since I had a Disney vacation with a dining plan.
It is so nice.

Speaker 4 (01:09:12):
Oh yeah, especially especially the full blown full service one. Yeah,
because I love me some table service restaurants.

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
Oh yeah, I mean we are last episode, right, we're
two episodes ago. I guess we drafted our favorite Disney
World restaurants and we could have talked, we could have
we could do a whole second draft with all new restaurants.

Speaker 4 (01:09:31):
So many more.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
Well, I mean maybe we will in the future, but yeah,
that's gonna do it for this episode. Patrick fourth host Patrick,
thank you for joining us again.

Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
Absolutely my pleasure. It's always great to talk to you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
And let the people know one more time how they
can reach out to you to plan their Halloween hor
Night's trip, their Disneyland trip, their Disney World trip, whatever
they want a trip they want to plan.

Speaker 3 (01:09:54):
Absolutely so the best way to reach me again on
Instagram or Facebook is at Destination Vacation Work, or you
can reach me out at Patrick O'Connor dot or sorry
Patrick O'Connor at D two travel dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
And Eric I guess you can go ahead and plug
your own contact.

Speaker 4 (01:10:10):
As well well, since he's been on here four times.
Just remember with five, you get a free order of Fallout,
uh Deviled Eggs.

Speaker 3 (01:10:20):
And that's all you're working.

Speaker 1 (01:10:23):
And that's the Hollywood version, so you get six of
them instead of three. So Patrick, just go ahead and
send one or two my way. That'd be that'd be perfect.

Speaker 4 (01:10:30):
Yes, you should do that. And uh, if you want
to reach out to me just to complain or or
just to book your favorite vacation no matter where you
want to go, it's Eric Hiles E. R I C
H I L E S at d the number two
travel dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
Yeah, and if you want to just reach out to
destinations travel in general, you can head over to D
two travel dot com click that request of free quote
button or send us an email at info at D
two travel dot com. And I want to give one
more quick plug to our YouTube channel YouTube dot com
slash D two Travel, where we have all sorts of
fun content like that scaredy Cat guide and just a
whole bunch of other stuff going on right now. It's

(01:11:07):
been a very busy time and that does not let
up through the end of the year, so there's gonna
be so much more happening. That's right.

Speaker 4 (01:11:16):
When writing in complaints about Brian's pronunciation about food, We'll
totally ignore it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:23):
That is what you come here for. That is why
people listen.

Speaker 2 (01:11:26):
That's right, wait for me, They wait for me, wait
for your silk, and then they replay it back.

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
Well, and Brian, you just got back from a really
exciting trip that I think we're gonna have to talk
about in a future episode.

Speaker 2 (01:11:38):
Yes, yes, I have so much to share and explain
and go through.

Speaker 4 (01:11:43):
So that was a lot of food.

Speaker 2 (01:11:45):
Yes, all the food was amazing. It was good.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
We might just have a Sandals Slash Beaches episode in
the near future, so keep an eye out for that.
But again, that does it for us for this episode.
Thank you everyone for listening, and we'll see you all
real soon.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
Bine segues