June 12, 2023 • 42 mins
Season Two has begun!!!!! On this episode, Mr. B. is joined by friend of the podcast (and friend of the family) Levi Dobbs to discuss the many adventures that await someone at Universal Studios Florida. If you are thinking about making a trip to the park, you really want to hear what Levi has to say because he has been there several times and he can tell you about the things you need to do- and need to eat! Have a listen and let Levi be your tour guide. You won't regret it!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:07):
Hello everyone, and welcome back tothe show with the nerve, the audacity,
and the unmitigated goal to just comeright out and ask, hey,
what's your deal. My name isMichael Bridges, and I am the GT
NAP coordinator for the Elma School Districtand we would like to welcome you in
(00:29):
to the first podcast of season two. That's right, ladies and gentlemen.
We are in summer, so I'mkicking off a new season of our podcast.
I am a year round contract,so I've been working putting away files,
kind of organizing my classroom, rewriting. I haven't started it yet,
(00:49):
but I'm getting ready to start rewritingsome of the stuff in our GT handbook,
just to update it and keep itgoing, examining the program, seeing
what I can do better for nextyear. But really what I'd like to
focus on this summer is getting morepodcasts done. So i'd just like to
say, if you're someone out therewho has a message that you think could
(01:11):
be beneficial to GT students or GTparents, I would love to talk to
you. I would love to haveyou on our podcast so I can get
your information out there. Now.I don't want you to go full as
seen on TV or sham Wow onme or anything. You know. I
don't want this to be necessarily anadvertisement for whatever program you're running, but
(01:33):
if it's something good that can benefitstudents, my students, GT parents,
my GT parents, I'm all forhaving you on here and letting you talk
and hey, I may even comeout and buy you a lunch and talk
to you and do it in thecomfort of your office. So if you're
interested have something you want to talkabout, please reach out to me at
m Bridges at ELMA sd dot netand we'll see if we can set something
(01:59):
up. I'm also in the sessof working with other GT students that didn't
get their podcast done this past schoolyear, and I'm going to try and
get them on here so you canlisten to them as well. So my
goal for this summer is to geta lot more podcast done. So that's
really what I'm focusing on. Andspeaking of getting podcasts done, I have
one for you today, going todo a shorter intro with no outro because
(02:22):
the guest that I had today isa good friend, Levi Dabbs. He's
actually a friend of the family,as you will hear on the podcast.
Levi and I have a great rapport, and I think that kind of spilled
over into the podcast because I thinkthis is the longest one I've ever done,
but we have some very interesting topicsthat I'm sure you will enjoy.
Levi's an excellent speaker and he's gota lot of information about his topic.
(02:46):
So without further ado, let's getto Levi and find out what's his deal.
It's a pretty majestic opening right there. You may have the best most
majestic opening of any any student we'vehad on here, So you've got a
(03:09):
lot to live up to you there. Jurassic Park is amazing. Jurassic Park
is amazing. So I told youI was going to have a trivia question
here for you. My question is, do you know who the composer was
of the Jurassic Park thing? JohnWilliams? See see ladies and gentlemen.
Let me just get you ready forthis, because we're probably just going to
have a big geek out for thiswhole podcast because Levin and I think we're
(03:32):
on kind of the same Yeah,John Williams is the best. Yes,
because John Williams also did and ofcourse you're gonna know this one but John
Williams also did that just makes youwant to go fight in a distant galaxy
or something. And now I'm goingto stop it before George Lucas sues us.
(03:55):
So he's got ears everywhere people.So oh, as I said,
we're going to kind of have abig geeky time here right now. And
we're in we're in summer. SoLevi has been nice enough too. Where'd
you come from, Levi? Swimswim practice, swim practice. Yeah,
so he had swim team and hewas working with little kids, helping little
kids. And now he showed upon my doorstep at about ten twenty eight
(04:15):
and we're getting ready to record apodcast here. So yeah, Levi,
would you go ahead and just tellus a little bit about yourself? Where
what Grady in? You know,what do you like to do for fun?
Just just give us some information onyourself. How tall are you at?
He's six two, he's taller thanI am. It's crazy, it's
(04:35):
crazy, but uh, yeah,I just I graduated from the middle school,
so now we're in big freshman overhigh school over with that. Yeah,
and as you just said, Igot done with swim practice, helping
out with the little kids. Um, that's me basically, Well, and
I do a ton of traumas,a ton of drama, a ton of
(04:58):
theater of a week long like musical. What was that? Yeah, because
I tried to do the podcast withyou last week and you were too you
were too busy. He couldn't hecouldn't fit me into his schedule, Ladies
and gentlemen, So what did youwhat did you do with that? Well?
From nine to two, the airdel Theater at the high school put
on a week long musical called SummerCamp where they take everyone from first to
(05:20):
going into twelfth. Cool, okay, and we do a musical in a
week like we do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
would be our performance. And itwas I got I got to be a
bear because the costume I'm the onlyone that the costume fit on. Because
it was a large costume. Itwas a very large costume, and it
(05:42):
was it was a very hot experiencebeing in that costume. When you said
bear suit, I never think comfort, you know, It's like, yeah,
that's that's that would be hot.Yeah, well just just a bear
suit was hot. Stage lights madeit worse, yes, But other than
that, that it was it wasfun to be a bear. Yeah,
well, we've had we've had,oh gosh, a lot of our and
(06:04):
we've we've talked about this before onthe podcast. A lot of our GT
students also end up going into theater. It's just kind of a natural progression.
They do that, and they dousually art and things like that.
It's not always the case, butit's kind of a natural progression of things
that gifted students are into. So, but because I know you folks out
there in the listing audents have alreadyheard about a GT student talking about acting
(06:28):
in theater, that is not whatLevi is here for. So Levi,
would you tell us what exactly isyour deal? Universal Studios Now the studio
are like the park, the park, the park, the theme park.
The theme park, the theme parkwhich is located or in Florida. There
are there two, yes, okay, one Universe Studios in California. Hollywood.
(06:54):
No, not Hollywood. It's somewhereclose though, right somewhere in California.
Yeah, sure, exactly where thatone's plays, and that one's been
there for a while. It's beenredone and remodeled in everything because they used
to have like that they used tohave the Jaws ride and everything out there
when Florida was first actually really yeah, the one in Orlando, Florida I
think was first, Okay, andthen yeah, because the one in Florida,
(07:18):
right, that's where they first madethe first Disney park. So they
had the one of Florida, andthen they had the other one in California.
Okay, so they have those twoparks. I've only ever been to
the one in Florida, right,but yeah, I'm here to talk about
Okay, Okay, So so whyum, why the Universal Theme Park?
Why do you want to talk aboutthat one? It's just instead of like
(07:41):
six Flags or have you been tosix Flags? Never been to six Flags.
I've been a Silver Dollar City,been Silva National City. Never been
to six Flags. Okay, Butit's just it's just so many like movies
that I grew up with, It'sjust a mash of all my favorites,
such as okay, because we playedJurassic Park, Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park
stuff that Harry Potter, the Minionsobviously, and there was there's there's a
(08:07):
ton they have the Seous stuff,all the Marvel stuff. Does comics though,
Yeah, yeah, because that that'sthe thing. I was kind of
surprised because I'm a Marvel geek,so I was like, well, there's
not gonna be any Marvel there becauseMarvel is a Disney subsidiary now. But
I guess Universal had ties with thecomics because there is like a lane in
(08:28):
a street down there. That's afunny thing too, because like the actors,
like the performers that like dress upas characters and the comics, they
can't talk about the Marvel like cinematicuniverse cease at all, so like you
know, Storm's married to Dachalla,like that confuses the kids, like what's
(08:54):
right? And then you got Wolverine. It's a whole bunch of mess that
the kids don't know about us therewith the movies. Yeah, and it's
it's fun. I just remember whenwe went doctor Doom threatened me, which
was like a highlight of my life. It was that was pretty cool.
He told me not to turn aroundwhile they were taking the picture. So
when Doom speaks, I listened.So yeah, there's lots of cool stuff.
(09:15):
And in all fairness, I guesswe should open up about this.
Levi's family and my family are reallygood friends. So we do a lot
of things together. We've had avacation trip coming up. We're gonna go
to Branson's and we have been toUniversal together. The first time I went
to Universal was actually with Levi's family, so we have been there together.
And Levi, you've been there?How many times have you gone? Though
I've only been there once? Howmany times? Six? Six? Are
(09:41):
you serious? I've got to talkto your parents because I thought it was
like three I thought it was likethree times. Yeah, no, no,
no way, undershot that way,okay, okay, all right.
So Levi has been there a lotmore than I have. He's going to
know a lot more about it.But it is it's a very very cool
park, and he's gonna, youknow, let you know some things.
(10:03):
But let's talk about Levi because myson is amazingly to me, is like
a big time my oldest son,Noah is a big time thrill ride guy,
which I'm not. I'll do some, but I won't do that many.
But my son is a big timethrill ride guy. So there are
tons of rides there at Universal.So what would you say or your top
(10:24):
three rides at Universal? So ifyou're looking for like a boost of adrenaline.
I'd have to say their newest additionto the park the Veloco Coaster,
Oh god, it's right, man, we're high class here. Or that
Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure. Okay, thesecond newest addition. That one's just spectacular.
(10:48):
If it wasn't for the Veloco Coasterspeed, I'd have to pick Hagrids,
yes, for that, but Philosocoastersfirst in my book. And if
I had to pick a third,it'd be The Forbidden Journey, the other
Harry, right, is that theone where you're like it feels like you're
hanging. Yeah, you're like likea little like booth kind of thing.
They like lift you up on anarm. Well yeah, not to spoil
the magic, right, they liftyou up on an arm and like sling
(11:11):
you around. It's and it's reallycool because I mean, I hate to
sound to sound childish, you know, almost a fifty year old man,
but it's seriously the way they dothings there, it's really like magical.
It's amazing how immersive it is becausewhen yeah, and you are you can
see you know, you're hooked intothis thing. You can kind of see
the arm that's lifting you. Butwhen it feels like you're flying on top
(11:33):
of those rooftops, like and you'reheaded straight towards one and your feet are
hanging down, you're gonna lift yourfeet so you don't hit your feet on
the roof of the house, whichisn't actually there, it's on the screen,
but it's Yeah, it's very cool. It's very cool. So the
velociraptor, let's talk about that one, because that one's fast. Do you
remember, like top speed top speedseventy miles per hour and doesn't it stop
(11:58):
and then accelerate extremely fast like it'sgot It doesn't stop. It just really
slows down to the point where youthink you stopped at like going seventy miles
per hour, and then it launchesyou at it I don't. Yeah,
it launches you at seventy miles perhour, and then you go over this
top hat which upside you, soyou go upside down and then you flip
(12:20):
right side up, end up.It's hard to explain, but it's this
really like long like loop that yougo up and you like lose like almost
all your speed, and then youzoom down faster than you started. And
it was well, there's one whereyou like you're upside down, you're inverted
going over water, right, yes, and you're going so fast that it
(12:41):
actually like churns the water. Youcan feel water droplets and stuff as you
go by mosa source roll. Yeah, and if you're in the back,
you're gonna get wet. Yes,so close to the water. Your mom's
hair was incredible after she got offthat ride. Man, it was nuts.
Yeah. So that one's very veryfast also, and we didn't mention
it, but the Hulk ride rightis really because that's like you're in a
(13:03):
tube. Yeah, that was likethe Veloco Coaster for me before the Veloco
Coaster. I think that was thefastest one before they made the Veloco Coaster,
right from zero to from start tostop. Yes, I think so,
right, but yeah, they launchedyou out of that tube, but
just extreme speed. Yes, that'sthe one that I think I wish I
would have gone on because I went. He didn't mention it, but I
(13:26):
went on Rip Ride Rocket. Thatwas the first ride that I went on,
and that was that was my finalone. It was good. I
said, I'm gonna do that one. And for those of you who don't
know a Rip Ride Rocket. Youcan get on YouTube and look up Jimmy
Fallon and Kevin Kevin Hart and theyride this ride and it's basically a straight
up climb. You're probably five angleninety degree angle, probably four or five
(13:50):
stories up in the air, andyou get to the top and it turns
and you hang there and then itdrops you and at almost the ninety degree
angle, almost a ninety degree angle. Yeah, you can't like see the
bottom of it. You're just likeup at the top looking down over the
park and then you hear, youknow, the chink and boom you're off.
So it's it's pretty crazy. Andyou can also listen to music as
(14:13):
you're going. It's the unique thingabout that ride. You can choose from
like pop and rock and disco.Yeah, select the artist and then you
have your song. Well, andthere's also a hidden playlist. But I
was very upset because like, Okay, you get on the ride and you're
going so crazy. I have towear reading glasses because I'm old and my
eyes are dying on me. SoI got up there and I knew the
(14:35):
immigrant song I want to do too, led Zepplin Immigrant song, which would
be epic to ride this ride onwhile I'm either punched in the wrong numbers
or was lied to online because itwas some rap song. It was not
immigrant song. So I'm screaming aswe're going ninety degrees up, this isn't
my song, this isn't my song. And it's much too late people I
was. It's not actually on thesecret list. I think it's just in
(14:56):
rock. I don't want led Zeppelin. Well maybe that's maybe that was my
problem. Maybe I I need togo back now. And no, I'm
not kidding. Just for that,I have to. I have to ride
that wrong in my life. Sookay, we talked about Velociraptor, we
talked about Potter. What was yoursecond one, Hagrid's. Oh yes,
because I went on that with mydaughter Abby. Yeah, so tell us
(15:20):
about Hagrid's. So Hagrids has tobe the most immersive ride you will ever
be put on in your life.So you get on on this motor car
with the sidecar, so you caneither choose to ride the motorcycle itself or
the sidecar. I like the motorcycle, being taller, having my legs crammed
egg But you get on the rideand it's just a person right next to
(15:43):
you, maybe if if you're gettinglucky and you're just going along this ride
and it's the story about Hagrid andhis students, and I won't spoil much
about it, but there's so manytwists and turns and yeah, and I
went on it. I'm gonna say, if you can do it. Sometimes
they let these rides you ei.There are certain things you can go to,
(16:06):
and you can go to them atnight. And I went on it
at night. Yes, it wasamazing at night because like you're sitting there
and you're in this dark tunnel andcan't see anything, and that bike it's
not as fast as the Hulk orthe Velociraptor, but that bike. You're
sitting there and then all of asudden, Yeah, you've got to get
out. Yes that's it. Andyou feel literally and I mean I mean
(16:27):
this in the best possible way Ican. When it feels like you're about
to die. It feels like youcould get thrown off that thing at any
moment, so you're hanging on fordear life. But man, you're taking
these turns and these banks and itjust it's it's amazing. It's a really
cool ride and my daughter and Iwere screaming the whole time. But there's
like Transformers rides there. My sonBen loved the Spider Man ride, oh
(16:51):
yeah, which was cool if you'rea Spider Man fan. It's got Spider
Man and you're interacting with him andJay Jonah Jamison and the Green Goblin and
there's all these different things going on. And I think Ben went on that
ride like four or five times atleast. I think, yeah, he
went back to back to back severaltimes. So if any of that sounds
like fine, Harry Potter, JurassicPark, Marvel, Fast and Furious,
(17:15):
No, no, no, no, no, Fast and Furious. I
went on Fast and Furious once andI almost wanted to take a blood oath
and I would never get on itagain. Yeah, you can get online
and there are these people that areinfluencers and they go on on these YouTube
they do these YouTube things and goon these rides and what the Fast and
Furious When it first opened up,there was there were lines like two hours.
(17:37):
It was. People were furious long, yeah, too long because they
would go in and like it wasn'tdid not live up to the hype at
all. I went on the Simpsonsride, which is very interesting because a
lot of people get motion sickness fromthat, and that was even if you're
not prone to emotionousisness, you'll getat least the slide effect of it.
Yes, And it has a lotto do with the way ride set up.
(18:00):
And also they throw in like differentsmells and and sounds and pictures.
And there are a lot of people, some friends of mine that I know,
that have gotten sick on that ridewho are not motionsick, aren't prone
to motion sickness at all, butit's just one of those things that you
know. And speaking of getting sick, here's a good transition. What kind
of food is good to eat?So you can load up before you go
(18:21):
on all those funds. So therides were great, but some of that
food is is epic. So likethe like the food you can get there,
like you have to try that first, like if you're going to be
there for like one or two days, you have to get that stuff first.
But like the way they make somestuff you can get like other places
is so good. Like the chiros. Yes, the chiros were great.
(18:45):
My churros are my favorite thing ever, like and they make them so so
good there. They are good.If you're lucky enough to get one,
like right off the fryar get thefresh ones, people, you will feel
like the luckiest person on earth.It is so good. I was a
turkey leg man, that's that's actuallywhat I have on the list. So
I didn't mean to. I didn'tmean to jump the gun there. But
(19:07):
yeah, my wife is, she'snot. I kind of make fun over
every once in a while because alot of times she just wants like a
salad or some imposta or something withoutme. My wife love those turkey legs,
as did my youngest son. Imean they were and they were.
They were the biggest turkey legs I'veever seen in my life. I do
not want to know what they didgenetically to those turkeys to make those legs
(19:27):
that big, but they were delicious. Oh yes, Like I'm not I
don't say I'm not like a turkeyperson, because when Thanksgiving comes around,
I'm like, you got that chicken, but that turkey leg it's it's different.
Yeah, it's smoked, and it'sit's different. It's kind it's so
(19:48):
large. Yes, Like you willfeel like a caveman digging into that thing.
Yeah, so where I have mybraces, I just go yeah,
because braces, braces would be aproblem with that. So we got we
got the cheer Rose, we gotturkey leg, the turkey leg, and
I have the only thing that I'mreally bummed about about about about the meetup,
(20:11):
and we could talk more about thatlater, is you don't get to
go in the morning, so youcan't have the full English breakfast. Yeah,
and can you like that's a HarryPotter thing, right, It's a
Harry Potter thing. Okay, Socan you describe what the full English breakfast
is because your dad was telling mea little bit about that. Oh yeah,
me and my dad love that.But the full English breakfast is like
two sausage links scrambled eggs that areamazing. I've never had better scrambled eggs
(20:33):
in my life, some black putting, some toast. And there was one
more thing that we would not stop. Oh it was the sausage. There
was I thought there was sausage likenot the links, but just like the
sausage patties that were divine. Youwere so good. Interesting. See I'm
(20:53):
I'm old school, I'm like Americana. So one of my favorite things to
eat. There was the Whimpie Burger, the Wimpy Burger. I do not
know what kind of magic they performedon that burger. And I mean,
it's not the best burger I've everhad by any means. I've had some
really good burgers, but for anamusement park burger, I was just I
think I had two of them,double fist and just Burger Burger Burger.
(21:17):
Yeah, it was very, verygood. So the food there's good.
What else. There's donuts, Theyhave large lad donuts in the Simpsons section.
Yeah. The you can get thisginormous like its huge, the size
of a small tire. Yeah,it's like a hubcap. Yeah, it's
huge, ginormous, and it couldeasily feed for people. And it's not
(21:40):
the best don't I've ever had,but it's it's a very good. It's
kind of like ballpark food though you'rein an amusement park. You're having all
this fun and it just it likeelevates everything. And then there's like in
crusties, like right across the streetfrom Krusty Burger. The Krusty Burger is
very strange because it has that veryvery like American plast to keep cheese.
(22:00):
Yes, it does it? Yeah, that it's kind of cheese whiz.
Don't think I like put like acheese whiz on it. Almost And I'm
usually not a very like big fanof Yes fantastic, Yeah, like almost
changed my opinion on cheese whiz.So what you do is you just go
get a churo, a big hugedoughnut and a burger with cheese whiz on
it, and then get on theVelociraptor. That's what we're recommending, right,
(22:21):
and then right back to back toback to back until magic happens.
Yeah, so you get to seeit again, until you get to see
it again, Yeah, because you'regetting your money's worth twice twice the fun
one price. Okay, so we'vetalked about let's see, we talked about
amusement rides. We talked about food, which is a lot of what amusement
parks are about. But what areyour like top two things to do there?
(22:44):
Probably and be sure and talk aboutlike that whole Harry Potter experience because
I was not a Harry Potter fanbefore I went, much to my students
chagrin, you know, but Iwent and had a whole new appreciation for
it. So just kind of talkabout that experience for sure. So top
two things to do So the shopsthere, but not just shopping. I
don't I hate shopping, I openlyemit that, but it's the like the
(23:07):
merchandise they have there, the likethe stuff you can only get there,
like the ones you can only getthe wands there, and like some plushies
and all that other stuff that Idon't get, but it's like cool to
see well, and I think andtheir genius is at this. I mean
it's expert marketing. You basically whenyou walk through the train station, you're
(23:30):
in diagon Alley. I mean,it's it's it's amazing, it really is,
because you're like in this amusement park. Everything's modern and then you walk
through the train station and boom,you're you're in Harry Potter World. And
I mean the shops are like that. It feels like you're walking through through
some old times street in England.Sun Like I don't know how they did
it with like the structural integrity,but they have like the street like winding
(23:52):
down to see green Guts Bank that'sobviously not very obviously stable because it has
to be, but it doesn't looklike it's stable, like it's held up
by magic. Yeah, and it'sjust so so immersive when you first turned
the corner around those bricks that areopening up and you just see all of
(24:14):
that, yeah, that you've beenreading in the books and seeing the movies,
and the thing is, you know, it's an amusement park. So
you're like, oh, we couldgo two days and we could do everything.
I think I probably could have gonea week and still not have hit
everything that I wanted to hit,you know, right, especially with you
know we did we didn't have todeal with lines, but a lot of
times when you go, you're you'rein those lines, and some of those
(24:34):
lines like was it it was HaggridgeRide right where they were camping out before.
Yes, Yeah, they were likeholding places in line and waiting.
We were like some days, likeright after it opened, it get up
to eight hours eight hours awake time. The park is open for eight hours,
(24:55):
yes, So basically you could standin line all day and not get
there, right. Yeah. Andwhen we went possibly when we went,
here's here's the bad thing. Theydon't tell you, like there was a
technical difficulty or something and we gotstuck. That's another thing. That's another
thing that did to make my numberone. It's so prone to breaking down
like that. I have so manyanimatronics. Again, won't spoil anything,
(25:15):
but they have so many animatronics,like if one of them breaks down,
they're like, we gotta shut thisdown, right, So it's just not
reliable in that since when you're waitingfor eight hours, yes, something breaks
down, Yes for sure, thatcan that can put a damper on things.
So yeah, Harry Potter experience,I think I think Levi and I
both highly recommend that what's you gotany other things that you really enjoyed doing
(25:37):
while you were there? Okay,other than rides, there would have to
be. There are some carnival gamesat the Simpsons place that you're you're very
very like prone to losing, butthey're they're kind of just fun to do,
you know, something something for yourlittles to do if they're not like
big thrillers. And I don't knowif you'd really include as a ride,
(26:00):
but the it might be like AlienShow, Oh yeah, that was fun.
Yeah, I mean they spin youa round, so I guess you
have to like include it as aride. But it's it's so slow yeah.
I don't want to say majestic likebecause it's not at all right,
but you're just something's just you know, you just got off the Philoco coaster.
Now you're splashed some aliens. Yeah. Yeah. I think what was
(26:22):
cool is when we went there withyou guys, the first thing we did
was the Jason Bourne. Yes.Yes, their shows are fantastic. Yeah,
and uh, I think in theUniversal Studios in Hollywood they have an
Indiana Jones like Yactacular and they recreatethe scene of the ball rolling down and
(26:47):
like there has to be like somelike slit the actor goes into but it
looks like he gets crushed by theboulder. Yeah, so amazing. Yes,
I've seen that one. That's that'slike the big one that and when
I was growing up, that wasthe big one. And of course the
Jaws one where you went down withthe ship and Jaws would come out of
the water and everything like that.That one was that one was pretty cool.
(27:08):
So you go this amusement park,you know, we just talked about
how you need to stay two three, four days if you can. So
where are some places that you Imean, are their places close by that
you can stay at the park.Okay, so they are close to the
park. They have these on parkresorts that you get depending on there.
I think there are three different tiersof like on resort hotels that you can
(27:30):
stay at, and I don't Idon't know what the tier lists are called.
But you have the low end,the one tier that you get in
I think an hour early before thepublic, like the regular public who's not
saying there it gets in. Andthen you have the second tier who it's
like nicer hotels and like I don'tI want to say nicer people, but
(27:51):
right they more amenities, you getmore bang for it, well you pay
more for it, but you getyou get more stuff. Let me get
a microwave and suite, maybe acouch. It's really nice. And then
the like the top tier that westayed out, mister mister b because you
know, teacher salary. We're fancypeople here. Come on, we probably
(28:12):
stayd the swankiest, swankiest hotel.For the record, we got a deal.
His mother and my wife are bigtime bargain shoppers and we found we
found really good bargains on it.So please don't think I'm out here living
Lostyles are the rich and famous becausethat is not true. I'm broke and
me and my mom discovered real quickthat the hotel we went to not our
(28:36):
style. They would they would constantlycall you sir ma'am, sir ma'am,
and like we just we like thelike the atmosphere of the two hotels.
You know, it's not the onesthat you know, and then you have
the ones that you know just makeyou make you feel like because there's the
one we stayed at was like aSpanish villa. Oh, it was like
(28:56):
a lost lows porta few know bay. We stayed at and they were so
so swanky. It was like wewere constantly at it was a suit in
diner. It was ridiculous because youknow, you know, you go to
a hotel and you'll get like acourtyard, right, you know, you
look out and there's a courtyard.Okay. This Spanish villa had like a
(29:17):
lake, like seriously, there wereboats and gondolas that were out there.
And that's honestly how we got tothe park. We would take a trolley,
which was a boat trolley, andthat was how we would get to
part you ever seen it. Youcould you could walk, but you could
take the trolley too, and therewas that one hard rock was right there.
Hard rock. We recently stated hardrock with that awesome discount that the
(29:40):
meat up gives you, right,and uh, it's it was like a
little less swanky because you know it'sit's hard rocks, so right. You
know, I have like people insuits walking and can I take your coat?
Sir? But it's our people.But it was it was the words,
the finer end of what Cabana Bay, the one we usually stay out
against, and it was hard rock. The hard rock experience was really nice.
(30:03):
Yes. Also the pools at thehotel, Oh yeah, we'd stay
we hung out the pool Sportife hotel. That would be like the only thing
that would keep me from going back. It was pretty cool. They were
like three hot tubs there. Itwas a beach leading into a pool.
Yeah, Like it wasn't just asand pit, you know, yeah you
get a sand pit over there,but it was the sand was leading into
(30:23):
the water. Yeah. And thenthey had the slide. And when I
say slide, you're like, ohbig, it was like a water slide
at an amusement park. It's supposedto be based on a Roman aqueduct.
Yes, you were going down aRoman aqueduct and when I was on the
younger and we went, we couldwe could pool hop, like from the
lower tiers to the higher I wentdown that it was the coolest thing ever.
(30:47):
It is pretty name highlight of mytrip. Yeah. And the cool
thing about this is they want youto come back, so they're going to
do their best to make sure you'resatisfied and you're enjoying what you're doing.
And I mean, but and Iguess, I guess we need to talk
about this because we talked about whereto stay, and it just so happens
we're getting into the best time togo, and Levi and I and our
(31:10):
families went at a specific time.So why don't you tell them? My
wife is not going to be happythat you're giving this secret away, but
go ahead. Yes, but weneed we need to talk about that.
So if you're listening to the podcast, we're giving you insider information here.
So Levia, why don't you goahead and tell them about when we went
exactly? Okay, So there's thisorganization called the Orlando Informer Meetup and they
(31:32):
are the coolest or organization I thinkI've ever heard of my life. What
they do is they rent out thetheme parks, both Universal Studios and Islands
of Adventure, and there's two separateparks and you can easily walk like between
them both they have like they setup red carpets for you to walk between
both parks. You feel very fancy. And what they do is it's for
(31:55):
the very low price of like whatwe stay for like three hundred dollars.
Oh, I can't remember yet.It was ridiculous for being able to stay
in a hotel per person. Andyeah, I can't remember exact price.
May sound like a little cheat,but it was for the park and for
on like the included food, unlimitedincluded food that they gave us, and
(32:15):
almost no lines, almost almost nolines, like hagrids, what we wait
for like fifteen minutes. Yes,yes, and there were some like here's
the thing, we had people gettingmad at us, but again we had
paid for this. You can payand you get an arm band and it
shows that you are with the meetup and there is a line for general
(32:36):
admission people, and then there's aline for meet up people. Well,
actually, let me correct you.Oh I'm sorry, he's much he remember
he's gone seven times I've just beenthe Measley Peasantry one time. Well,
it's not the meet up band thatthey give you. Since we stayed at
the Upier three hotels, Yes,we got these things called fast fastest,
(32:58):
that's right. And because we stayedwith those tells, we got those and
that allowed us to like basically skipthe general public. Yes, and it
was not only did we like soabout more about the meat at the times
you stay very late into the nyes, like we're talking twelve thirty, one
thirty, because I think we couldgo in three hours before close, right,
(33:19):
was that two or three? Yeah, so other general admission people would
be in there, but then atseven fast passes. Yeah, the lines
didn't really even matter. The onlything holding us back from an actual meetup
was the free food wasn't like readyfor y us yet. Yes, you
had to wait until like seven orseven thirty to begin an hour after the
(33:40):
part closed, so like eight ornot, yes, fish before before you
can started getting the unlimited food.Yes, but it's just it makes the
food so much better when you canjust walk up and just ask for it,
yeah, and then walk away withoutpaying. Yes, it's because you've
already paid for it. It's calmed. You know. It's like being at
(34:00):
a resort where you know they campyour food. You can just walk up
and I want three turkey legs andthey're like, oh, I'm sorry,
you can only get one. No, if you want three turkey legs,
are gonna give you three turkey legsand twelve euros. If you can carry
it, you can take it.It was. It was really crazy and
I'm not a big crowd person.Like one of the reasons we never went
(34:21):
to an amusement park is because Iwas like, I do not want to
go and spend three hours standing ina line to ride a line to ride
a ride, because we're gonna loseall that time in the park. We
didn't have to worry about that.We were able to kind of go where
we wanted to go, except forthe crepes. The crepes. The crepes
were were they were very, verygood. But the problem it was like
(34:46):
maybe like eight people in line,but it was like a two hour line.
Yeah, crapes took so long tomake it was it was almost not
worth it just standing that line.Yeah, because I think your mom stood
in that line and we went fromlike one end of the park to the
other and came back to her andshe had not moved that far in the
line. It was maybe two people. It was crazy. So again that
(35:08):
was the meet up. If youguys can you know, And that's that's
the thing. I think they've expandedit because they are not getting smaller.
You don't have to worry about that. They are expanding. They are like
preparing for more people and more peopleand more people. And I'm really excited
to see what they do with thenew park. They're making, like,
well they include that. It's likea package, right because we went in
(35:31):
November and you may think, oh, amusement parking November. It was perfect.
It was perfect. It was thenights were cooler, it wasn't hot.
It was really really great because we'rei mean we're talking Florida here.
So November, but they've got meetupsin June, June, over the summer.
Halloween they do I don't know ifthey do it over Halloween or not.
(35:52):
They only have like six pairs,yeah, of meetups. But I
know one of the cool things is, you know, it's Universal Studios,
Universal Mom Monsters. So at Halloweenthey do a big, huge monster monster
mashup thing it's it's it's scary.Yes, oh yeah, yeah, well
I'm not I wouldn't take little babykids because there are scary people walking Key
(36:13):
Mouse's Halloween party, right right,you got, Yeah, they have they
have a maskot I don't remember exactlywhat his name it, but he's like
a clown, yeah, cycle clown, crazy cycloy. And they had they
recently had a thirtieth anniversary and theyhad like all this special food that you
could get. Of course we wedidn't get to have any of that,
(36:34):
right, but it was fantastic.Yeah, it's it's pretty cool if you're
a if you're a spook, yeah, if you're a spoof factor person,
yeah, especially the and I meanthey've got like shops there for the universal
monsters. And when I say universalmonsters, I'm talking old school Wolfman,
Frankenstein, Dracula, all that stuffis there, so um a lot to
(36:55):
offer there. So this is probablythe longest podcast I've ever done, or
LEVI. It's probably level of comfortbecause I know what we're talking about and
it's actually a really really fun topic. And it's summertime people, so you
could like go ahead and book atrip right now after listening to this podcast,
we get absolutely no kickback. Weshould have worked something out with that.
There are some tickets available to thenext meetup, could Bember, November,
(37:19):
and December of this year. Yeah, so you know, Thanksgiving break,
Christmas vacation, you might kind oflook at going going to those if
you want to do so. Isthere anything else we didn't talk about?
I mean there's tons of stuff wecould, but there's anything else that we
missed? Yes? Actually, soif you do happen to buy one of
the wands at the Wisiting World ofHarry Potter, there are wand experiences into
(37:43):
both parks and you want to talkabout immersion that like you're doing magic you
were doing you don't see the sensorsthat we all know we're there. You
just wave your wand and say thewords it does stuff. Yeah, and
you have to wave your one ina specific shape and pattern whatever the shape
(38:05):
is too. Think you actually haveto say the words, Like I've never
liked tested, right, but Ithink you actually have to say it.
Yeah. And it can be fromlike turning a lamp on to like turning
pages in a book. And yeah, it's all sorts of different. I
mean when I say it's immersive.It takes a lot to get me immersed
in something because I'm always looking forthe hidden wires and the strings in the
way everything works. It's immersive.That Harry Potter world is incredible. You're
(38:30):
not going to go anywhere else andhave a Harry Potter experience like this.
So if you if you love thebooks, I cannot recommend going to Universal
Studios and doing that Harry Potter experience. And they don't just like base it
off the movies. They have likefor the book fans only. They have
very very many like book references thatthe movie people would not get right.
(38:53):
So there's all, yeah, it'sit's really cool. I mean, that's
that's about I think. I thinkwith the out of talking we've been doing
about it, you you can realizehow excited both younger generation and older generation
is for this stuff. So,um, all right, Leavi, I
think we talked these people's ear offenough. So the blast thing we do
(39:14):
here is you have to have ashout out. So you have to be
um, somebody that you want torecognize, say thank you to, you
know whatever, just somebody you wantto appreciate. So who is your shout
out? For I like two people, please, like two Okay, wait
wait, we did not negotiate thisin the contract and you're putting me on
the spot now, so well they'recut they they kind of go hand in
(39:36):
hand. Okay to two people.Okay, I will I will allow this.
Two people go. I'd like togive a shout out to my mom
and my dad. Oh, Mom, and I can take I could take
both of those as a one shoutout. Yes, the Dobbs parents.
So why mom and Dad? AlthoughI can probably guess they allow me to
(39:57):
go on these fantastic vacations where Ihave all these all my all my fantasies
come true. So I just liketo thank my parents for letting me go
on these vacations. And I meanthis because look, I've told to you
guys about this before. You know, when we use the term geek and
nerd and weirdo and GT, thatis a term of endearment. And there
are two fellow geeks for sure.Because like and again, I think I've
(40:22):
mentioned that my wife really isn't sheknows this world, but not totally.
So when we meet for dinner,a lot of times, my wife's kind
of left out because Paul and Iare quoting movies and Paul can even quote
stuff that I don't remember, soyeah, they are. They are very
very good about including and kind ofsharing this with their kids. So Paul
(40:45):
and Holly, this shout outs foryou, and I might have just blown
your ear drums down on that,so if so, hey, I apologize
people, but that is going tobring this podcast to an end. Leave.
I very much appreciate you being hereon the podcast and kind of educating
(41:08):
us on what it is to goto Universal and have all these cool things
happen. Any final thoughts, anythingyou want to say to the audience.
If you are even slightly considering goingto like Universal Studios or Islands of Adventure,
get the park to Park pass.Don't don't just go to one park.
(41:30):
Don't don't hurt yourself like that,get get both. Because another thing
before we end it off, theHogwarts Express. You can only go on
that if you have the park topark pass, okay, because that delivers
you from Universal Studios to Islands ofAdventure and vice versa. And they have
like cinematics, yes, very cool, very cinematics that you could like see
(41:52):
both ways and they're different, yes, both ways. So yeah, just
just go and something to kind ofgo along with what he just said.
I'm very thrifty person, as ismy wife. But there comes a point
where if you're gonna go and you'regonna do this, this can be a
once in a lifetime experience for youand your kids. So you need to
do everything you possibly can to squeezeeverything you possibly can into this trip.
(42:15):
Now, maybe you're like Levi andyou can go back numerous times, or
maybe you're like me and that onetime might have been it, or you
might get to go back one othertime. But I'm always you're already there.
Do everything you can within your limitsto be able to experience everything they
offer, because, for lack ofa better ternam it is, it is
pretty magical there for sure. SoLEVI want to thank you again, Thank
(42:37):
you for having me, you Betand everyone that brings an end to this
podcast, Thank you for listening.
Hello everyone, and welcome back tothe show with the nerve, the audacity,
and the unmitigated goal to just comeright out and ask, hey,
what's your deal. My name isMichael Bridges, and I am the GT
NAP coordinator for the Elma School Districtand we would like to welcome you in
(00:29):
to the first podcast of season two. That's right, ladies and gentlemen.
We are in summer, so I'mkicking off a new season of our podcast.
I am a year round contract,so I've been working putting away files,
kind of organizing my classroom, rewriting. I haven't started it yet,
(00:49):
but I'm getting ready to start rewritingsome of the stuff in our GT handbook,
just to update it and keep itgoing, examining the program, seeing
what I can do better for nextyear. But really what I'd like to
focus on this summer is getting morepodcasts done. So i'd just like to
say, if you're someone out therewho has a message that you think could
(01:11):
be beneficial to GT students or GTparents, I would love to talk to
you. I would love to haveyou on our podcast so I can get
your information out there. Now.I don't want you to go full as
seen on TV or sham Wow onme or anything. You know. I
don't want this to be necessarily anadvertisement for whatever program you're running, but
(01:33):
if it's something good that can benefitstudents, my students, GT parents,
my GT parents, I'm all forhaving you on here and letting you talk
and hey, I may even comeout and buy you a lunch and talk
to you and do it in thecomfort of your office. So if you're
interested have something you want to talkabout, please reach out to me at
m Bridges at ELMA sd dot netand we'll see if we can set something
(01:59):
up. I'm also in the sessof working with other GT students that didn't
get their podcast done this past schoolyear, and I'm going to try and
get them on here so you canlisten to them as well. So my
goal for this summer is to geta lot more podcast done. So that's
really what I'm focusing on. Andspeaking of getting podcasts done, I have
one for you today, going todo a shorter intro with no outro because
(02:22):
the guest that I had today isa good friend, Levi Dabbs. He's
actually a friend of the family,as you will hear on the podcast.
Levi and I have a great rapport, and I think that kind of spilled
over into the podcast because I thinkthis is the longest one I've ever done,
but we have some very interesting topicsthat I'm sure you will enjoy.
Levi's an excellent speaker and he's gota lot of information about his topic.
(02:46):
So without further ado, let's getto Levi and find out what's his deal.
It's a pretty majestic opening right there. You may have the best most
majestic opening of any any student we'vehad on here, So you've got a
(03:09):
lot to live up to you there. Jurassic Park is amazing. Jurassic Park
is amazing. So I told youI was going to have a trivia question
here for you. My question is, do you know who the composer was
of the Jurassic Park thing? JohnWilliams? See see ladies and gentlemen.
Let me just get you ready forthis, because we're probably just going to
have a big geek out for thiswhole podcast because Levin and I think we're
(03:32):
on kind of the same Yeah,John Williams is the best. Yes,
because John Williams also did and ofcourse you're gonna know this one but John
Williams also did that just makes youwant to go fight in a distant galaxy
or something. And now I'm goingto stop it before George Lucas sues us.
(03:55):
So he's got ears everywhere people.So oh, as I said,
we're going to kind of have abig geeky time here right now. And
we're in we're in summer. SoLevi has been nice enough too. Where'd
you come from, Levi? Swimswim practice, swim practice. Yeah,
so he had swim team and hewas working with little kids, helping little
kids. And now he showed upon my doorstep at about ten twenty eight
(04:15):
and we're getting ready to record apodcast here. So yeah, Levi,
would you go ahead and just tellus a little bit about yourself? Where
what Grady in? You know,what do you like to do for fun?
Just just give us some information onyourself. How tall are you at?
He's six two, he's taller thanI am. It's crazy, it's
(04:35):
crazy, but uh, yeah,I just I graduated from the middle school,
so now we're in big freshman overhigh school over with that. Yeah,
and as you just said, Igot done with swim practice, helping
out with the little kids. Um, that's me basically, Well, and
I do a ton of traumas,a ton of drama, a ton of
(04:58):
theater of a week long like musical. What was that? Yeah, because
I tried to do the podcast withyou last week and you were too you
were too busy. He couldn't hecouldn't fit me into his schedule, Ladies
and gentlemen, So what did youwhat did you do with that? Well?
From nine to two, the airdel Theater at the high school put
on a week long musical called SummerCamp where they take everyone from first to
(05:20):
going into twelfth. Cool, okay, and we do a musical in a
week like we do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
would be our performance. And itwas I got I got to be a
bear because the costume I'm the onlyone that the costume fit on. Because
it was a large costume. Itwas a very large costume, and it
(05:42):
was it was a very hot experiencebeing in that costume. When you said
bear suit, I never think comfort, you know, It's like, yeah,
that's that's that would be hot.Yeah, well just just a bear
suit was hot. Stage lights madeit worse, yes, But other than
that, that it was it wasfun to be a bear. Yeah,
well, we've had we've had,oh gosh, a lot of our and
(06:04):
we've we've talked about this before onthe podcast. A lot of our GT
students also end up going into theater. It's just kind of a natural progression.
They do that, and they dousually art and things like that.
It's not always the case, butit's kind of a natural progression of things
that gifted students are into. So, but because I know you folks out
there in the listing audents have alreadyheard about a GT student talking about acting
(06:28):
in theater, that is not whatLevi is here for. So Levi,
would you tell us what exactly isyour deal? Universal Studios Now the studio
are like the park, the park, the park, the theme park.
The theme park, the theme parkwhich is located or in Florida. There
are there two, yes, okay, one Universe Studios in California. Hollywood.
(06:54):
No, not Hollywood. It's somewhereclose though, right somewhere in California.
Yeah, sure, exactly where thatone's plays, and that one's been
there for a while. It's beenredone and remodeled in everything because they used
to have like that they used tohave the Jaws ride and everything out there
when Florida was first actually really yeah, the one in Orlando, Florida I
think was first, Okay, andthen yeah, because the one in Florida,
(07:18):
right, that's where they first madethe first Disney park. So they
had the one of Florida, andthen they had the other one in California.
Okay, so they have those twoparks. I've only ever been to
the one in Florida, right,but yeah, I'm here to talk about
Okay, Okay, So so whyum, why the Universal Theme Park?
Why do you want to talk aboutthat one? It's just instead of like
(07:41):
six Flags or have you been tosix Flags? Never been to six Flags.
I've been a Silver Dollar City,been Silva National City. Never been
to six Flags. Okay, Butit's just it's just so many like movies
that I grew up with, It'sjust a mash of all my favorites,
such as okay, because we playedJurassic Park, Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park
stuff that Harry Potter, the Minionsobviously, and there was there's there's a
(08:07):
ton they have the Seous stuff,all the Marvel stuff. Does comics though,
Yeah, yeah, because that that'sthe thing. I was kind of
surprised because I'm a Marvel geek,so I was like, well, there's
not gonna be any Marvel there becauseMarvel is a Disney subsidiary now. But
I guess Universal had ties with thecomics because there is like a lane in
(08:28):
a street down there. That's afunny thing too, because like the actors,
like the performers that like dress upas characters and the comics, they
can't talk about the Marvel like cinematicuniverse cease at all, so like you
know, Storm's married to Dachalla,like that confuses the kids, like what's
(08:54):
right? And then you got Wolverine. It's a whole bunch of mess that
the kids don't know about us therewith the movies. Yeah, and it's
it's fun. I just remember whenwe went doctor Doom threatened me, which
was like a highlight of my life. It was that was pretty cool.
He told me not to turn aroundwhile they were taking the picture. So
when Doom speaks, I listened.So yeah, there's lots of cool stuff.
(09:15):
And in all fairness, I guesswe should open up about this.
Levi's family and my family are reallygood friends. So we do a lot
of things together. We've had avacation trip coming up. We're gonna go
to Branson's and we have been toUniversal together. The first time I went
to Universal was actually with Levi's family, so we have been there together.
And Levi, you've been there?How many times have you gone? Though
I've only been there once? Howmany times? Six? Six? Are
(09:41):
you serious? I've got to talkto your parents because I thought it was
like three I thought it was likethree times. Yeah, no, no,
no way, undershot that way,okay, okay, all right.
So Levi has been there a lotmore than I have. He's going to
know a lot more about it.But it is it's a very very cool
park, and he's gonna, youknow, let you know some things.
(10:03):
But let's talk about Levi because myson is amazingly to me, is like
a big time my oldest son,Noah is a big time thrill ride guy,
which I'm not. I'll do some, but I won't do that many.
But my son is a big timethrill ride guy. So there are
tons of rides there at Universal.So what would you say or your top
(10:24):
three rides at Universal? So ifyou're looking for like a boost of adrenaline.
I'd have to say their newest additionto the park the Veloco Coaster,
Oh god, it's right, man, we're high class here. Or that
Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure. Okay, thesecond newest addition. That one's just spectacular.
(10:48):
If it wasn't for the Veloco Coasterspeed, I'd have to pick Hagrids,
yes, for that, but Philosocoastersfirst in my book. And if
I had to pick a third,it'd be The Forbidden Journey, the other
Harry, right, is that theone where you're like it feels like you're
hanging. Yeah, you're like likea little like booth kind of thing.
They like lift you up on anarm. Well yeah, not to spoil
the magic, right, they liftyou up on an arm and like sling
(11:11):
you around. It's and it's reallycool because I mean, I hate to
sound to sound childish, you know, almost a fifty year old man,
but it's seriously the way they dothings there, it's really like magical.
It's amazing how immersive it is becausewhen yeah, and you are you can
see you know, you're hooked intothis thing. You can kind of see
the arm that's lifting you. Butwhen it feels like you're flying on top
(11:33):
of those rooftops, like and you'reheaded straight towards one and your feet are
hanging down, you're gonna lift yourfeet so you don't hit your feet on
the roof of the house, whichisn't actually there, it's on the screen,
but it's Yeah, it's very cool. It's very cool. So the
velociraptor, let's talk about that one, because that one's fast. Do you
remember, like top speed top speedseventy miles per hour and doesn't it stop
(11:58):
and then accelerate extremely fast like it'sgot It doesn't stop. It just really
slows down to the point where youthink you stopped at like going seventy miles
per hour, and then it launchesyou at it I don't. Yeah,
it launches you at seventy miles perhour, and then you go over this
top hat which upside you, soyou go upside down and then you flip
(12:20):
right side up, end up.It's hard to explain, but it's this
really like long like loop that yougo up and you like lose like almost
all your speed, and then youzoom down faster than you started. And
it was well, there's one whereyou like you're upside down, you're inverted
going over water, right, yes, and you're going so fast that it
(12:41):
actually like churns the water. Youcan feel water droplets and stuff as you
go by mosa source roll. Yeah, and if you're in the back,
you're gonna get wet. Yes,so close to the water. Your mom's
hair was incredible after she got offthat ride. Man, it was nuts.
Yeah. So that one's very veryfast also, and we didn't mention
it, but the Hulk ride rightis really because that's like you're in a
(13:03):
tube. Yeah, that was likethe Veloco Coaster for me before the Veloco
Coaster. I think that was thefastest one before they made the Veloco Coaster,
right from zero to from start tostop. Yes, I think so,
right, but yeah, they launchedyou out of that tube, but
just extreme speed. Yes, that'sthe one that I think I wish I
would have gone on because I went. He didn't mention it, but I
(13:26):
went on Rip Ride Rocket. Thatwas the first ride that I went on,
and that was that was my finalone. It was good. I
said, I'm gonna do that one. And for those of you who don't
know a Rip Ride Rocket. Youcan get on YouTube and look up Jimmy
Fallon and Kevin Kevin Hart and theyride this ride and it's basically a straight
up climb. You're probably five angleninety degree angle, probably four or five
(13:50):
stories up in the air, andyou get to the top and it turns
and you hang there and then itdrops you and at almost the ninety degree
angle, almost a ninety degree angle. Yeah, you can't like see the
bottom of it. You're just likeup at the top looking down over the
park and then you hear, youknow, the chink and boom you're off.
So it's it's pretty crazy. Andyou can also listen to music as
(14:13):
you're going. It's the unique thingabout that ride. You can choose from
like pop and rock and disco.Yeah, select the artist and then you
have your song. Well, andthere's also a hidden playlist. But I
was very upset because like, Okay, you get on the ride and you're
going so crazy. I have towear reading glasses because I'm old and my
eyes are dying on me. SoI got up there and I knew the
(14:35):
immigrant song I want to do too, led Zepplin Immigrant song, which would
be epic to ride this ride onwhile I'm either punched in the wrong numbers
or was lied to online because itwas some rap song. It was not
immigrant song. So I'm screaming aswe're going ninety degrees up, this isn't
my song, this isn't my song. And it's much too late people I
was. It's not actually on thesecret list. I think it's just in
(14:56):
rock. I don't want led Zeppelin. Well maybe that's maybe that was my
problem. Maybe I I need togo back now. And no, I'm
not kidding. Just for that,I have to. I have to ride
that wrong in my life. Sookay, we talked about Velociraptor, we
talked about Potter. What was yoursecond one, Hagrid's. Oh yes,
because I went on that with mydaughter Abby. Yeah, so tell us
(15:20):
about Hagrid's. So Hagrids has tobe the most immersive ride you will ever
be put on in your life.So you get on on this motor car
with the sidecar, so you caneither choose to ride the motorcycle itself or
the sidecar. I like the motorcycle, being taller, having my legs crammed
egg But you get on the rideand it's just a person right next to
(15:43):
you, maybe if if you're gettinglucky and you're just going along this ride
and it's the story about Hagrid andhis students, and I won't spoil much
about it, but there's so manytwists and turns and yeah, and I
went on it. I'm gonna say, if you can do it. Sometimes
they let these rides you ei.There are certain things you can go to,
(16:06):
and you can go to them atnight. And I went on it
at night. Yes, it wasamazing at night because like you're sitting there
and you're in this dark tunnel andcan't see anything, and that bike it's
not as fast as the Hulk orthe Velociraptor, but that bike. You're
sitting there and then all of asudden, Yeah, you've got to get
out. Yes that's it. Andyou feel literally and I mean I mean
(16:27):
this in the best possible way Ican. When it feels like you're about
to die. It feels like youcould get thrown off that thing at any
moment, so you're hanging on fordear life. But man, you're taking
these turns and these banks and itjust it's it's amazing. It's a really
cool ride and my daughter and Iwere screaming the whole time. But there's
like Transformers rides there. My sonBen loved the Spider Man ride, oh
(16:51):
yeah, which was cool if you'rea Spider Man fan. It's got Spider
Man and you're interacting with him andJay Jonah Jamison and the Green Goblin and
there's all these different things going on. And I think Ben went on that
ride like four or five times atleast. I think, yeah, he
went back to back to back severaltimes. So if any of that sounds
like fine, Harry Potter, JurassicPark, Marvel, Fast and Furious,
(17:15):
No, no, no, no, no, Fast and Furious. I
went on Fast and Furious once andI almost wanted to take a blood oath
and I would never get on itagain. Yeah, you can get online
and there are these people that areinfluencers and they go on on these YouTube
they do these YouTube things and goon these rides and what the Fast and
Furious When it first opened up,there was there were lines like two hours.
(17:37):
It was. People were furious long, yeah, too long because they
would go in and like it wasn'tdid not live up to the hype at
all. I went on the Simpsonsride, which is very interesting because a
lot of people get motion sickness fromthat, and that was even if you're
not prone to emotionousisness, you'll getat least the slide effect of it.
Yes, And it has a lotto do with the way ride set up.
(18:00):
And also they throw in like differentsmells and and sounds and pictures.
And there are a lot of people, some friends of mine that I know,
that have gotten sick on that ridewho are not motionsick, aren't prone
to motion sickness at all, butit's just one of those things that you
know. And speaking of getting sick, here's a good transition. What kind
of food is good to eat?So you can load up before you go
(18:21):
on all those funds. So therides were great, but some of that
food is is epic. So likethe like the food you can get there,
like you have to try that first, like if you're going to be
there for like one or two days, you have to get that stuff first.
But like the way they make somestuff you can get like other places
is so good. Like the chiros. Yes, the chiros were great.
(18:45):
My churros are my favorite thing ever, like and they make them so so
good there. They are good.If you're lucky enough to get one,
like right off the fryar get thefresh ones, people, you will feel
like the luckiest person on earth.It is so good. I was a
turkey leg man, that's that's actuallywhat I have on the list. So
I didn't mean to. I didn'tmean to jump the gun there. But
(19:07):
yeah, my wife is, she'snot. I kind of make fun over
every once in a while because alot of times she just wants like a
salad or some imposta or something withoutme. My wife love those turkey legs,
as did my youngest son. Imean they were and they were.
They were the biggest turkey legs I'veever seen in my life. I do
not want to know what they didgenetically to those turkeys to make those legs
(19:27):
that big, but they were delicious. Oh yes, Like I'm not I
don't say I'm not like a turkeyperson, because when Thanksgiving comes around,
I'm like, you got that chicken, but that turkey leg it's it's different.
Yeah, it's smoked, and it'sit's different. It's kind it's so
(19:48):
large. Yes, Like you willfeel like a caveman digging into that thing.
Yeah, so where I have mybraces, I just go yeah,
because braces, braces would be aproblem with that. So we got we
got the cheer Rose, we gotturkey leg, the turkey leg, and
I have the only thing that I'mreally bummed about about about about the meetup,
(20:11):
and we could talk more about thatlater, is you don't get to
go in the morning, so youcan't have the full English breakfast. Yeah,
and can you like that's a HarryPotter thing, right, It's a
Harry Potter thing. Okay, Socan you describe what the full English breakfast
is because your dad was telling mea little bit about that. Oh yeah,
me and my dad love that.But the full English breakfast is like
two sausage links scrambled eggs that areamazing. I've never had better scrambled eggs
(20:33):
in my life, some black putting, some toast. And there was one
more thing that we would not stop. Oh it was the sausage. There
was I thought there was sausage likenot the links, but just like the
sausage patties that were divine. Youwere so good. Interesting. See I'm
(20:53):
I'm old school, I'm like Americana. So one of my favorite things to
eat. There was the Whimpie Burger, the Wimpy Burger. I do not
know what kind of magic they performedon that burger. And I mean,
it's not the best burger I've everhad by any means. I've had some
really good burgers, but for anamusement park burger, I was just I
think I had two of them,double fist and just Burger Burger Burger.
(21:17):
Yeah, it was very, verygood. So the food there's good.
What else. There's donuts, Theyhave large lad donuts in the Simpsons section.
Yeah. The you can get thisginormous like its huge, the size
of a small tire. Yeah,it's like a hubcap. Yeah, it's
huge, ginormous, and it couldeasily feed for people. And it's not
(21:40):
the best don't I've ever had,but it's it's a very good. It's
kind of like ballpark food though you'rein an amusement park. You're having all
this fun and it just it likeelevates everything. And then there's like in
crusties, like right across the streetfrom Krusty Burger. The Krusty Burger is
very strange because it has that veryvery like American plast to keep cheese.
(22:00):
Yes, it does it? Yeah, that it's kind of cheese whiz.
Don't think I like put like acheese whiz on it. Almost And I'm
usually not a very like big fanof Yes fantastic, Yeah, like almost
changed my opinion on cheese whiz.So what you do is you just go
get a churo, a big hugedoughnut and a burger with cheese whiz on
it, and then get on theVelociraptor. That's what we're recommending, right,
(22:21):
and then right back to back toback to back until magic happens.
Yeah, so you get to seeit again, until you get to see
it again, Yeah, because you'regetting your money's worth twice twice the fun
one price. Okay, so we'vetalked about let's see, we talked about
amusement rides. We talked about food, which is a lot of what amusement
parks are about. But what areyour like top two things to do there?
(22:44):
Probably and be sure and talk aboutlike that whole Harry Potter experience because
I was not a Harry Potter fanbefore I went, much to my students
chagrin, you know, but Iwent and had a whole new appreciation for
it. So just kind of talkabout that experience for sure. So top
two things to do So the shopsthere, but not just shopping. I
don't I hate shopping, I openlyemit that, but it's the like the
(23:07):
merchandise they have there, the likethe stuff you can only get there,
like the ones you can only getthe wands there, and like some plushies
and all that other stuff that Idon't get, but it's like cool to
see well, and I think andtheir genius is at this. I mean
it's expert marketing. You basically whenyou walk through the train station, you're
(23:30):
in diagon Alley. I mean,it's it's it's amazing, it really is,
because you're like in this amusement park. Everything's modern and then you walk
through the train station and boom,you're you're in Harry Potter World. And
I mean the shops are like that. It feels like you're walking through through
some old times street in England.Sun Like I don't know how they did
it with like the structural integrity,but they have like the street like winding
(23:52):
down to see green Guts Bank that'sobviously not very obviously stable because it has
to be, but it doesn't looklike it's stable, like it's held up
by magic. Yeah, and it'sjust so so immersive when you first turned
the corner around those bricks that areopening up and you just see all of
(24:14):
that, yeah, that you've beenreading in the books and seeing the movies,
and the thing is, you know, it's an amusement park. So
you're like, oh, we couldgo two days and we could do everything.
I think I probably could have gonea week and still not have hit
everything that I wanted to hit,you know, right, especially with you
know we did we didn't have todeal with lines, but a lot of
times when you go, you're you'rein those lines, and some of those
(24:34):
lines like was it it was HaggridgeRide right where they were camping out before.
Yes, Yeah, they were likeholding places in line and waiting.
We were like some days, likeright after it opened, it get up
to eight hours eight hours awake time. The park is open for eight hours,
(24:55):
yes, So basically you could standin line all day and not get
there, right. Yeah. Andwhen we went possibly when we went,
here's here's the bad thing. Theydon't tell you, like there was a
technical difficulty or something and we gotstuck. That's another thing. That's another
thing that did to make my numberone. It's so prone to breaking down
like that. I have so manyanimatronics. Again, won't spoil anything,
(25:15):
but they have so many animatronics,like if one of them breaks down,
they're like, we gotta shut thisdown, right, So it's just not
reliable in that since when you're waitingfor eight hours, yes, something breaks
down, Yes for sure, thatcan that can put a damper on things.
So yeah, Harry Potter experience,I think I think Levi and I
both highly recommend that what's you gotany other things that you really enjoyed doing
(25:37):
while you were there? Okay,other than rides, there would have to
be. There are some carnival gamesat the Simpsons place that you're you're very
very like prone to losing, butthey're they're kind of just fun to do,
you know, something something for yourlittles to do if they're not like
big thrillers. And I don't knowif you'd really include as a ride,
(26:00):
but the it might be like AlienShow, Oh yeah, that was fun.
Yeah, I mean they spin youa round, so I guess you
have to like include it as aride. But it's it's so slow yeah.
I don't want to say majestic likebecause it's not at all right,
but you're just something's just you know, you just got off the Philoco coaster.
Now you're splashed some aliens. Yeah. Yeah. I think what was
(26:22):
cool is when we went there withyou guys, the first thing we did
was the Jason Bourne. Yes.Yes, their shows are fantastic. Yeah,
and uh, I think in theUniversal Studios in Hollywood they have an
Indiana Jones like Yactacular and they recreatethe scene of the ball rolling down and
(26:47):
like there has to be like somelike slit the actor goes into but it
looks like he gets crushed by theboulder. Yeah, so amazing. Yes,
I've seen that one. That's that'slike the big one that and when
I was growing up, that wasthe big one. And of course the
Jaws one where you went down withthe ship and Jaws would come out of
the water and everything like that.That one was that one was pretty cool.
(27:08):
So you go this amusement park,you know, we just talked about
how you need to stay two three, four days if you can. So
where are some places that you Imean, are their places close by that
you can stay at the park.Okay, so they are close to the
park. They have these on parkresorts that you get depending on there.
I think there are three different tiersof like on resort hotels that you can
(27:30):
stay at, and I don't Idon't know what the tier lists are called.
But you have the low end,the one tier that you get in
I think an hour early before thepublic, like the regular public who's not
saying there it gets in. Andthen you have the second tier who it's
like nicer hotels and like I don'tI want to say nicer people, but
(27:51):
right they more amenities, you getmore bang for it, well you pay
more for it, but you getyou get more stuff. Let me get
a microwave and suite, maybe acouch. It's really nice. And then
the like the top tier that westayed out, mister mister b because you
know, teacher salary. We're fancypeople here. Come on, we probably
(28:12):
stayd the swankiest, swankiest hotel.For the record, we got a deal.
His mother and my wife are bigtime bargain shoppers and we found we
found really good bargains on it.So please don't think I'm out here living
Lostyles are the rich and famous becausethat is not true. I'm broke and
me and my mom discovered real quickthat the hotel we went to not our
(28:36):
style. They would they would constantlycall you sir ma'am, sir ma'am,
and like we just we like thelike the atmosphere of the two hotels.
You know, it's not the onesthat you know, and then you have
the ones that you know just makeyou make you feel like because there's the
one we stayed at was like aSpanish villa. Oh, it was like
(28:56):
a lost lows porta few know bay. We stayed at and they were so
so swanky. It was like wewere constantly at it was a suit in
diner. It was ridiculous because youknow, you know, you go to
a hotel and you'll get like acourtyard, right, you know, you
look out and there's a courtyard.Okay. This Spanish villa had like a
(29:17):
lake, like seriously, there wereboats and gondolas that were out there.
And that's honestly how we got tothe park. We would take a trolley,
which was a boat trolley, andthat was how we would get to
part you ever seen it. Youcould you could walk, but you could
take the trolley too, and therewas that one hard rock was right there.
Hard rock. We recently stated hardrock with that awesome discount that the
(29:40):
meat up gives you, right,and uh, it's it was like a
little less swanky because you know it'sit's hard rocks, so right. You
know, I have like people insuits walking and can I take your coat?
Sir? But it's our people.But it was it was the words,
the finer end of what Cabana Bay, the one we usually stay out
against, and it was hard rock. The hard rock experience was really nice.
(30:03):
Yes. Also the pools at thehotel, Oh yeah, we'd stay
we hung out the pool Sportife hotel. That would be like the only thing
that would keep me from going back. It was pretty cool. They were
like three hot tubs there. Itwas a beach leading into a pool.
Yeah, Like it wasn't just asand pit, you know, yeah you
get a sand pit over there,but it was the sand was leading into
(30:23):
the water. Yeah. And thenthey had the slide. And when I
say slide, you're like, ohbig, it was like a water slide
at an amusement park. It's supposedto be based on a Roman aqueduct.
Yes, you were going down aRoman aqueduct and when I was on the
younger and we went, we couldwe could pool hop, like from the
lower tiers to the higher I wentdown that it was the coolest thing ever.
(30:47):
It is pretty name highlight of mytrip. Yeah. And the cool
thing about this is they want youto come back, so they're going to
do their best to make sure you'resatisfied and you're enjoying what you're doing.
And I mean, but and Iguess, I guess we need to talk
about this because we talked about whereto stay, and it just so happens
we're getting into the best time togo, and Levi and I and our
(31:10):
families went at a specific time.So why don't you tell them? My
wife is not going to be happythat you're giving this secret away, but
go ahead. Yes, but weneed we need to talk about that.
So if you're listening to the podcast, we're giving you insider information here.
So Levia, why don't you goahead and tell them about when we went
exactly? Okay, So there's thisorganization called the Orlando Informer Meetup and they
(31:32):
are the coolest or organization I thinkI've ever heard of my life. What
they do is they rent out thetheme parks, both Universal Studios and Islands
of Adventure, and there's two separateparks and you can easily walk like between
them both they have like they setup red carpets for you to walk between
both parks. You feel very fancy. And what they do is it's for
(31:55):
the very low price of like whatwe stay for like three hundred dollars.
Oh, I can't remember yet.It was ridiculous for being able to stay
in a hotel per person. Andyeah, I can't remember exact price.
May sound like a little cheat,but it was for the park and for
on like the included food, unlimitedincluded food that they gave us, and
(32:15):
almost no lines, almost almost nolines, like hagrids, what we wait
for like fifteen minutes. Yes,yes, and there were some like here's
the thing, we had people gettingmad at us, but again we had
paid for this. You can payand you get an arm band and it
shows that you are with the meetup and there is a line for general
(32:36):
admission people, and then there's aline for meet up people. Well,
actually, let me correct you.Oh I'm sorry, he's much he remember
he's gone seven times I've just beenthe Measley Peasantry one time. Well,
it's not the meet up band thatthey give you. Since we stayed at
the Upier three hotels, Yes,we got these things called fast fastest,
(32:58):
that's right. And because we stayedwith those tells, we got those and
that allowed us to like basically skipthe general public. Yes, and it
was not only did we like soabout more about the meat at the times
you stay very late into the nyes, like we're talking twelve thirty, one
thirty, because I think we couldgo in three hours before close, right,
(33:19):
was that two or three? Yeah, so other general admission people would
be in there, but then atseven fast passes. Yeah, the lines
didn't really even matter. The onlything holding us back from an actual meetup
was the free food wasn't like readyfor y us yet. Yes, you
had to wait until like seven orseven thirty to begin an hour after the
(33:40):
part closed, so like eight ornot, yes, fish before before you
can started getting the unlimited food.Yes, but it's just it makes the
food so much better when you canjust walk up and just ask for it,
yeah, and then walk away withoutpaying. Yes, it's because you've
already paid for it. It's calmed. You know. It's like being at
(34:00):
a resort where you know they campyour food. You can just walk up
and I want three turkey legs andthey're like, oh, I'm sorry,
you can only get one. No, if you want three turkey legs,
are gonna give you three turkey legsand twelve euros. If you can carry
it, you can take it.It was. It was really crazy and
I'm not a big crowd person.Like one of the reasons we never went
(34:21):
to an amusement park is because Iwas like, I do not want to
go and spend three hours standing ina line to ride a line to ride
a ride, because we're gonna loseall that time in the park. We
didn't have to worry about that.We were able to kind of go where
we wanted to go, except forthe crepes. The crepes. The crepes
were were they were very, verygood. But the problem it was like
(34:46):
maybe like eight people in line,but it was like a two hour line.
Yeah, crapes took so long tomake it was it was almost not
worth it just standing that line.Yeah, because I think your mom stood
in that line and we went fromlike one end of the park to the
other and came back to her andshe had not moved that far in the
line. It was maybe two people. It was crazy. So again that
(35:08):
was the meet up. If youguys can you know, And that's that's
the thing. I think they've expandedit because they are not getting smaller.
You don't have to worry about that. They are expanding. They are like
preparing for more people and more peopleand more people. And I'm really excited
to see what they do with thenew park. They're making, like,
well they include that. It's likea package, right because we went in
(35:31):
November and you may think, oh, amusement parking November. It was perfect.
It was perfect. It was thenights were cooler, it wasn't hot.
It was really really great because we'rei mean we're talking Florida here.
So November, but they've got meetupsin June, June, over the summer.
Halloween they do I don't know ifthey do it over Halloween or not.
(35:52):
They only have like six pairs,yeah, of meetups. But I
know one of the cool things is, you know, it's Universal Studios,
Universal Mom Monsters. So at Halloweenthey do a big, huge monster monster
mashup thing it's it's it's scary.Yes, oh yeah, yeah, well
I'm not I wouldn't take little babykids because there are scary people walking Key
(36:13):
Mouse's Halloween party, right right,you got, Yeah, they have they
have a maskot I don't remember exactlywhat his name it, but he's like
a clown, yeah, cycle clown, crazy cycloy. And they had they
recently had a thirtieth anniversary and theyhad like all this special food that you
could get. Of course we wedidn't get to have any of that,
(36:34):
right, but it was fantastic.Yeah, it's it's pretty cool if you're
a if you're a spook, yeah, if you're a spoof factor person,
yeah, especially the and I meanthey've got like shops there for the universal
monsters. And when I say universalmonsters, I'm talking old school Wolfman,
Frankenstein, Dracula, all that stuffis there, so um a lot to
(36:55):
offer there. So this is probablythe longest podcast I've ever done, or
LEVI. It's probably level of comfortbecause I know what we're talking about and
it's actually a really really fun topic. And it's summertime people, so you
could like go ahead and book atrip right now after listening to this podcast,
we get absolutely no kickback. Weshould have worked something out with that.
There are some tickets available to thenext meetup, could Bember, November,
(37:19):
and December of this year. Yeah, so you know, Thanksgiving break,
Christmas vacation, you might kind oflook at going going to those if
you want to do so. Isthere anything else we didn't talk about?
I mean there's tons of stuff wecould, but there's anything else that we
missed? Yes? Actually, soif you do happen to buy one of
the wands at the Wisiting World ofHarry Potter, there are wand experiences into
(37:43):
both parks and you want to talkabout immersion that like you're doing magic you
were doing you don't see the sensorsthat we all know we're there. You
just wave your wand and say thewords it does stuff. Yeah, and
you have to wave your one ina specific shape and pattern whatever the shape
(38:05):
is too. Think you actually haveto say the words, Like I've never
liked tested, right, but Ithink you actually have to say it.
Yeah. And it can be fromlike turning a lamp on to like turning
pages in a book. And yeah, it's all sorts of different. I
mean when I say it's immersive.It takes a lot to get me immersed
in something because I'm always looking forthe hidden wires and the strings in the
way everything works. It's immersive.That Harry Potter world is incredible. You're
(38:30):
not going to go anywhere else andhave a Harry Potter experience like this.
So if you if you love thebooks, I cannot recommend going to Universal
Studios and doing that Harry Potter experience. And they don't just like base it
off the movies. They have likefor the book fans only. They have
very very many like book references thatthe movie people would not get right.
(38:53):
So there's all, yeah, it'sit's really cool. I mean, that's
that's about I think. I thinkwith the out of talking we've been doing
about it, you you can realizehow excited both younger generation and older generation
is for this stuff. So,um, all right, Leavi, I
think we talked these people's ear offenough. So the blast thing we do
(39:14):
here is you have to have ashout out. So you have to be
um, somebody that you want torecognize, say thank you to, you
know whatever, just somebody you wantto appreciate. So who is your shout
out? For I like two people, please, like two Okay, wait
wait, we did not negotiate thisin the contract and you're putting me on
the spot now, so well they'recut they they kind of go hand in
(39:36):
hand. Okay to two people.Okay, I will I will allow this.
Two people go. I'd like togive a shout out to my mom
and my dad. Oh, Mom, and I can take I could take
both of those as a one shoutout. Yes, the Dobbs parents.
So why mom and Dad? AlthoughI can probably guess they allow me to
(39:57):
go on these fantastic vacations where Ihave all these all my all my fantasies
come true. So I just liketo thank my parents for letting me go
on these vacations. And I meanthis because look, I've told to you
guys about this before. You know, when we use the term geek and
nerd and weirdo and GT, thatis a term of endearment. And there
are two fellow geeks for sure.Because like and again, I think I've
(40:22):
mentioned that my wife really isn't sheknows this world, but not totally.
So when we meet for dinner,a lot of times, my wife's kind
of left out because Paul and Iare quoting movies and Paul can even quote
stuff that I don't remember, soyeah, they are. They are very
very good about including and kind ofsharing this with their kids. So Paul
(40:45):
and Holly, this shout outs foryou, and I might have just blown
your ear drums down on that,so if so, hey, I apologize
people, but that is going tobring this podcast to an end. Leave.
I very much appreciate you being hereon the podcast and kind of educating
(41:08):
us on what it is to goto Universal and have all these cool things
happen. Any final thoughts, anythingyou want to say to the audience.
If you are even slightly considering goingto like Universal Studios or Islands of Adventure,
get the park to Park pass.Don't don't just go to one park.
(41:30):
Don't don't hurt yourself like that,get get both. Because another thing
before we end it off, theHogwarts Express. You can only go on
that if you have the park topark pass, okay, because that delivers
you from Universal Studios to Islands ofAdventure and vice versa. And they have
like cinematics, yes, very cool, very cinematics that you could like see
(41:52):
both ways and they're different, yes, both ways. So yeah, just
just go and something to kind ofgo along with what he just said.
I'm very thrifty person, as ismy wife. But there comes a point
where if you're gonna go and you'regonna do this, this can be a
once in a lifetime experience for youand your kids. So you need to
do everything you possibly can to squeezeeverything you possibly can into this trip.
(42:15):
Now, maybe you're like Levi andyou can go back numerous times, or
maybe you're like me and that onetime might have been it, or you
might get to go back one othertime. But I'm always you're already there.
Do everything you can within your limitsto be able to experience everything they
offer, because, for lack ofa better ternam it is, it is
pretty magical there for sure. SoLEVI want to thank you again, Thank
(42:37):
you for having me, you Betand everyone that brings an end to this
podcast, Thank you for listening.
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