Ride It Out!
Married Universal Orlando enthusiasts Jess and Tyler take you on a low-stakes adventure through the wild, wacky, and sometimes even thrilling world of themed entertainment.
Ride It Out!
RIO 1: Theme Park Sickos Riding the Rollercoaster of Enthusiasm
Tyler and Jess, a married couple with a deep enthusiasm for theme parks, introduce their new podcast about theme park experiences with a focus on Universal Studios Orlando.
This week’s talking points:
• How Jess converted to "the religion of parkism" after marrying theme park enthusiast Tyler
• Navigating Universal Orlando with their toddler daughter who has already visited multiple theme parks
• The benefits of being annual pass holders and developing expertise in maximizing park experiences
• Using child swap on rides to allow both parents to experience attractions without waiting in line twice
• Their passionate opinions on screen-based rides versus practical effects attractions
• Discovering often overlooked attractions like Camp Jurassic and Dreamworks area play spaces
• The importance of appreciating themed environments beyond just the rides
• Planning strategies for their upcoming Easter weekend trip to Universal
• Why Harry Potter areas remain their favorite themed sections, complete with interactive wand experiences
• The surprising discovery that Easter Sunday may be an excellent low-crowd day to visit
If you have thoughts to share with the show, you can text us using the link in the show notes or email us at rideitoutpod@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you and might respond on a future episode!
Hey everybody. It's Tyler. I know you haven't met me yet, but I just wanted to put a disclaimer here that this, what we're calling Episode Zero, the podcast, has what's a good way to put it substandard audio for what I would want to include in an episode of this show, but it's the first one. We were working out some kinks and hopefully moving forward. We have a better system figured out, so take that with a grain of salt, enjoy us talking and thank you so much for checking this podcast out. We love you already and I don't even know you, but I hope to soon. Anyway, here's what it is.
Speaker 2:So, for whatever reason, I keep looking back at our messages to try to remind me what the podcast is called, because I keep doing some other park pun, yeah, and what other ones are you? Remembering I don't know. It's write it out. Yeah, okay, which is great, tentatively, no, I love ride it out. I just keep wanting to do like ride or die just ride with it oh no I mean ride with me is also fun ride with me.
Speaker 2:I keep saying, for some reason, no, I I like because I know I don't. I don't know that's where my frame is going. I like, write it Out. I liked the other thing you just said, though.
Speaker 1:Ride.
Speaker 2:With.
Speaker 1:Me Ride no.
Speaker 2:Ride or Die, ride or Die. Hey, welcome to Ride it Out. I'm Jess, I'm Jess.
Speaker 1:Fuck, I got it like that.
Speaker 2:Other options. That one's, tyler. This is Jess.
Speaker 1:No, that one's already taken. All the other cool jesses are already out there. Everybody has already done all the funny, cool things who's that girl? It's just dang it no I'm tyler and I'm jess and we're married Correct, and we are also enormous theme park enthusiasts and really I am an enormous theme park enthusiast who has converted my wife into my own wife.
Speaker 2:Yes, upon our marriage, I converted to the religion of theme park ology. No.
Speaker 1:Ism. Yeah yeah, parkism we can make it a science.
Speaker 2:That's fine.
Speaker 1:That does sound like a disease, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:No, it's kind of fun that we did the twist of being converted, because actually our next upcoming trip to a theme park will take place over Easter weekend and I have been telling everyone that that's our place of worship it really does feel like that to me now, at this point in my life. You have such a reverence for theme parks, so I feel like that's a good way to describe it.
Speaker 1:Theme parks, and so the the main focus, I think, of this show is largely going to be Universal Studios Orlando. That's the one that is closest to us, like the closest big major park, right, wait, yeah, orlando's closer than Tampa, right?
Speaker 2:I mean you know.
Speaker 1:Six of one, half a dozen of either Right.
Speaker 2:Yes, so it's probably the closest big one, right? Yes, so it's probably the closest big one. There's a Six Flags in Georgia, right? Is that closer to us? Okay, no, orlando's closer, we're in.
Speaker 1:Tallahassee for context.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yes and yeah.
Speaker 2:So basically it's oh and we're pass holders for Universal this year.
Speaker 1:This is a very new thing for us, though.
Speaker 2:So that's mostly why we'll be doing that a lot more, and also for context. We have a child, so if that tells you anything, we don't have infinite amount of money to go to a wide variety of theme parks, or time or travel stamina go to a wide variety of theme parks, or time or travel stamina. So we will be talking about the one, maybe two that we will go, although I will say our child is less than two years old and she has been to three theme parks.
Speaker 1:Maybe even more than that. She's been to Universal Studios yeah.
Speaker 2:If you want to count Islands of Adventure, that's a separate park. It's one package deal Universal.
Speaker 1:Orlando Resort, that's fine.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:She's been to both of those in Orlando. She has been to Bush Gardens with us. She's been to our other kind of what I would almost consider a home park for me, which is Wild Adventures, up in Valdosta, georgia. And is there anything? Am I forgetting anything? That's all that. I consider a home park for me, which is wild adventures, yeah, up in valdosta, georgia, and is there anything? Am I forgetting anything?
Speaker 2:that's all that I remember she has not been to disney. We were talking about doing that for her second birthday, but we're gonna push that back um a year because disney is prohibitively expensive and prohibitively complicated, and yes, and we're Floridian, so we get like discounts and stuff, you know, and it's still like more complicated than it needs to be and that's not like to knock Disney I mean I've been to Disney.
Speaker 1:It's great but kind of the strange thing is, I've probably been to Universal Studios. We're gonna just say Universal Studios. We mean Orlando. I would love to go to Universal Hollywood one day, but for a lot of reasons we're going to just say Universal Studios. We mean Orlando. I would love to go to Universal Hollywood one day, but for a lot of reasons that we're definitely going to get into at some point. It is the lesser Universal Studios to me even than some of the international ones and I've never been to any of those either.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, yeah, I mean that would be really super cool, but, um, but yeah, I mean it's, it's the original, but LA being so restricted in terms of their physical space, um, they just can't. They can't do as much as Universal Orlando. And, like, I also think we're probably biased, because Universal Orlando we we've been to several times times. Um, you and I had both been several times before we got married, but I think, since, since we moved back to florida in 2021, I mean we've been several times yeah to um universal orlando and like we haven't even been to that many other like theme parks, like in general, like, like I said, we went to um.
Speaker 2:I know you mentioned bush gardens yeah, bush gardens yeah why am I head? I was. I was thinking something else. No, we just went to bush gardens and wild adventures.
Speaker 2:I think that's the only theme parks we've been to um, I've been to some others, but it was like a long time ago no, no, I meant like, oh, you mean like together in recent years, but like last year, you went to universal three or four times, maybe it might have even been five yeah, it's quite a lot yeah, and we've been. We've been maybe at least once a year since 2021. So, besides wild adventures because that's a, it's a smaller- it's a smaller family park, it's, it's easier to memorize.
Speaker 2:But universal orlando we've been to the most, so I feel like now we're super familiar, like we just went with one of my brothers um what? In january, and like we were like much fun it was.
Speaker 2:It was a great time. But like I felt like we were pros, because they were like oh okay, so this ride is here, we got to go here and this is it. We can do this route or we can do this route, like we we've got the whole area like mapped out and feel really confident, because I think that can be one of the things that's like intimidating about a theme park. Is that a little bit like a cruise ship, like you know that there's fun stuff out there, but you don't know how to get there and you waste a lot of time waiting in lines. And so I think we can be really like efficient and think about, like you know, okay, we only have a little bit of time left. How do we, how do we get the most out of it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and even familiar enough to the point of now, we will, depending on the time of day, we can look at wait times for a thing and look at the general crowd levels and at a glance just be like, well, that's not worth it, don't even bother with that one. And then also this one is a must-do.
Speaker 2:so no matter what the wait time is, you know, go ahead and get on it, make your plans although we have different, I think, opinions about wait times, because I think well, no, I think you get you get a little because we've been so much, I think we we get spoiled and are like, well, I'm not going to wait in line. And I think another thing is, uh, also that restricts us from waiting in line. Usually, when it's just the two of us going um and our daughter um, one of us will walk around with her and the other one will do single rider Um, which, by the way, split the party. Do it, like you, when you guys are on the ride with the people you're going to a theme park with, you're not talking while you're on a ride. You can all talk about the shared experience after you get off.
Speaker 2:Split the party, do single riders so that you don't spend your whole day in line because now you and I, like you know we'll, we'll, we'll look at like, oh, mommy, 25 minutes, that's a walk on for single rider. Get in that line right now. And so, because we've had so many experiences like that that like, for example, when we went with Mike in January, he really wanted to get on um the Gringotts ride, um.
Speaker 2:I feel like I should call everything by its real name instead of like can I tell you nobody, because I'm like what is it? Escape to gringotts, escape from gringotts, oh yeah yeah I mean that makes sense. They're trapped in it, they're trying to get out. I understand the premise of that also.
Speaker 1:That's. This is another real thing. Sorry for the tangent. Some of the rides at universal studios are named so insanely. The full name of the hagrid ride is hagrid's magical creatures motorbike adventure that's so bananas that is like 27 syllables let's get in line for hagrid's magical creature motorbike adventure.
Speaker 2:I don't think a single person has ever said its full name ever. It's like Hagrid.
Speaker 1:It's like how people just say you know, get on Hogwarts.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They would say the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.
Speaker 2:I don't think anyone calls it Forbidden Journey. They're like get in the castle, you know, whatever, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, what were we saying right before that? I don't know.
Speaker 2:See just the thing about having this be a conversational uncharted format is that we go on a little tangent. So we were with Mike at Green Gots. Yes, this is fortunately my day job is a therapist, and so I literally get paid to get people to circle back in on tangents.
Speaker 2:Thank you for your service. So, forbidden Journey. No, green Gots. Green Gots back in on tangents. Thank you for your service. So, uh, forbidden journey. No, green guts, green guts. Mike really wanted to do it because he had never done it before. Big, big, big harry potter fan. And we were walking around diagonally and we see that it's 55 minutes and I was like, oh yeah, we should go do it and you were like, no, no, no, no, no, that's too long, not worth it. Blah, blah, blah, and like maybe for you and I, we probably wouldn't wait in Gringotts because we've done it before it's.
Speaker 2:I love the experience of being in Gringotts, but the actual ride, like the screens, I get a little sick. So you know it's not perfect.
Speaker 2:Yes, screens, I get a little sick, so you know it's not perfect. Yes, I don't know that I would necessarily like, oh, every time it's worth waiting a 55 minute wait. But if that's your one big thing, like he hadn't he of course wanted to spend as much time. And and again, I'm gonna call it harry potter world. I don't care what it's called, I'm gonna go the wizarding world of harry potter yeah, no, um so we. So we left, we did other things and then circled back and it's up to 85 minutes.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, and then I can't remember what it was when we actually went in, but I think it finally went down to maybe like 65 or something. We're like okay, we just got to do this thing, yeah. So I think at a certain point you have to like theme parks involve waiting, they do Let it happen, there's no way around it, even with Express Passes.
Speaker 1:Yes, on a busy day, and Express Passes are pretty pricey, yeah, and the more people that are there, obviously the more the demand is, the more expensive that they are. You know like you can pay multiple hundreds of dollars for a single, not unlimited, Express Pass. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:And I have had Express before I'm pretty sure, yeah, and it's nice, but certainly not worth it and I think if you're going to the parks for multiple days, you definitely don't need it. Yeah, I think we should have. Like I realize, as we're talking, you know there's a lot of like little tidbits we've got. So, it'd be fun to organize that in some fashion at some point, yeah.
Speaker 1:I can go back through and collect those.
Speaker 2:Well, I just mean for maybe future episodes. So we don't really have a plan for like what this is going to look like in the future.
Speaker 1:But, we're just here to talk about theme parks because we want to and it's fun yeah, and if you're here and you are listening to this, then you're probably down for a hang yeah, we're just here to hang yeah, and you're probably a theme park enthusiast. Yeah, or.
Speaker 2:Or my mom, Hi Mom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but Jess and I approach theme parks. Even though we both love going to Universal together, we approach it in slightly different ways, or at least we come to it in different ways. Jess loves learning about the parks when I tell her things about the parks, but the opposite end of that is I listen to another. I listen to like every theme park podcast basically, but one in particular is for your amusement and it's great. Don't tell the people to listen to all these other podcasts besides us.
Speaker 2:They're like great, turn it off.
Speaker 1:They've heard of that one before. They've heard of this one, for sure.
Speaker 2:Well, obviously, Except for my mom.
Speaker 1:They like to call themselves theme park sickos Because and I fully identify with that I immerse myself in the world of theme park knowledge. I love learning about all the little secret details of things.
Speaker 2:That's just your approach to everything.
Speaker 1:I am an enthusiast.
Speaker 2:You are likely neurodivergent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, isn't that fun.
Speaker 2:Which is also a fun uh um focus. Yes, you're an enthusiast and like when you get excited about something, you're all in.
Speaker 1:And so it's just more fun to be that way.
Speaker 2:Well, yes, it's a. It's a great way to live life. I enjoy writing the rollerco coaster of your enthusiasm.
Speaker 2:Aw, cute that was a really cute turn of phrase. Thank you. No, I think like so everybody goes through phases of interest in their life, like I was a horse girl. You know everyone has a horse girl phase. I feel like I mean the lucky ones, I suppose. But but like for kids, like there is a time in your life where you're really into theme parks and I feel like a lot of our close friends have phased out of that enthusiasm so you don't have as many people to, like you know, ride that high with you about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I had to force you to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I'm fully converted now. I love it. Um no, I, you, you help me enjoy and appreciate better because, like you notice, like all the little Easter eggs and the details and like like the theming beyond, like I think a lot of people who look at theme parks are just like oh, I want to get on the biggest roller coaster ever. Ah, it's a roller coaster, you know.
Speaker 1:whereas you're like Biggest, fastest, yeah, whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whereas you're like oh, do you notice how, like as you walk past this place, they waft this scent out? You know and like you notice, like those little details which I think make it fun, like the superhero island in Universal, how you're like, oh, that's this guy's signature on all the comics you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, like you know, just the hidden lore that surrounds you in the mundane stuff, yeah, that is what. Ultimately. I think that is what makes theme parks, and really more specifically Universal Orlando, one of my favorite places to be in the world. In the world Not just like one of my favorite places to vacation, not like one of my favorite places to go on rides or whatever, but like just to exist there, Because if you have your eyes open for that stuff, it rewards you for paying attention in that way, yeah, which is why your favorite area of Universal Orlando is Port of Entry.
Speaker 1:Port of Entry at Islands of Adventure is the best so far.
Speaker 2:Oh, we haven't talked about Epic yet.
Speaker 1:Epic is opening soon We'll get into Epic, maybe here in a minute. Port of Entry at Islands of Adventure is probably the best entrance to a theme park that maybe that exists. Certainly that I've been to and certainly that I have been to a hundred thousand times and I still, every time I walk in, jess can tell you I like my eyes are straight. You know most people are like beelining for the end to like veer off into Seuss land or Marvel, but my head is up and I'm just looking around up at the heights of the buildings and the fountains and hearing all the incredible score in these theme parks, like the soundtrack that put—I guess it's a soundtrack, no, I don't know, whatever you want to call it. The ambient music and the sounds that they play are so, so good. They could get away with playing pop songs, I think. Wouldn't that suck, though? It would suck so bad, especially compared to knowing how good the music is no, they wouldn.
Speaker 2:They wouldn't want like the licensing for pop songs, so they would be like Kidz. Bop or something.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. Or like the Simlish versions.
Speaker 2:They would all be so funny though.
Speaker 1:That sounds like something they would do in like a Planet Coaster game or something maybe.
Speaker 2:Or like if Meow Wolf did a theme park.
Speaker 1:Oh, don't get me started on Meow Wolf that's another thing that we will definitely get into at a later time is like we just love going to themed experiences in general.
Speaker 2:We love travel and just exploring. We just like doing stuff. We do thing.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I guess that's kind of an overview. Did we hit? Are we missing anything else about like why we're doing this?
Speaker 2:Uh, I like sharing. I like sharing this with the world. Yeah, yeah, I think we we have a lot of. We have a lot of like your experiences, your insights, and like I think you like the idea of having like a dedicated time to talk about this. I do, and like we've talked about doing like lots of different podcasts, so I think there is just something about like having a dedicated time to talk about a shared interest, but this is one that, like we both got kind of jazzed about and like didn't require either of us to be like experts, which was nice, yeah, you know, so it can just be fun.
Speaker 1:We are for sure not experts. We've put in a lot of hours of practice of just going to the parks, but oh, I was like of talking.
Speaker 2:I talk so much. No, you're a complete expert at talking. Yeah, thank you I don't talk very well.
Speaker 1:It's maybe not true. I talk a lot mostly to myself. Uh, yeah, so I don't know. We're just going on a journey together and hopefully you come along with us and enjoy. I will have. I'm eventually going to set up some way for people, for listeners you specifically listening now.
Speaker 2:Oh, I thought you meant me. I'm looking at Jess, but I'm thinking of you Wow.
Speaker 1:You heard it here first, so not I couldn't resist no-transcript up other things when I'm on there.
Speaker 2:I don't know, maybe I can handle the yeah, social media, we will just have a voicemail. That's so funny. No, no one would talk to us.
Speaker 1:Text line Dude.
Speaker 2:people leave voicemails for shows all the time, but not the youths.
Speaker 1:I don't know. They certainly are not emailing.
Speaker 2:Well, email better than voicemail. Now I can attest that, if I try, I work with college students. If I try to call them, they do not answer.
Speaker 1:Talking on the phone is scary.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't answer phone calls. I don't know, so I can't blame them.
Speaker 1:I barely answer phone calls, right, yeah, yeah, everybody I need to talk to is right here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we're just here to chat about theme parks, and if it's fun to listen to some people giddily ramble on about theme parks, then you're in the right spot.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's a great thing to listen to, as you're driving to the parks and you've got hours to kill in the car and you're like you know just set the mood.
Speaker 1:Well, hopefully, by the time you're hearing this, you'll just be able to roll them back to back to back all the way there.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:You know what I?
Speaker 2:mean yeah, yeah, however many hours and hours it takes you to drive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or fly, or whatever you're doing. Look, we don't judge, wherever you are out there in this great, big, beautiful, crazy mixed-up world we call not universal. Great big, beautiful, crazy mixed-up world, we call, not Universal.
Speaker 2:However, your journey takes you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We're glad you're here. Welcome. Welcome and thank you for flying Delta. Strike that from the record we don't have the money to hey. Bleep that.
Speaker 1:This is me talking to me. Anyway, shall we talk about what we had initially maybe talked about planning? We are going on a trip to Universal.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Very soon.
Speaker 2:Yes, so we are recording this end of March. We are going, like I mentioned, easter weekend, which is mid-April, so a few weeks from now. Not bad, getting better every day. Yeah, yeah, getting closer every day just a little bit closer. Um, yeah, so uh, and, like I mentioned, we are pass holders now. So, um, we went together in january. You went by yourself last month, I did, and was that just a day one?
Speaker 1:No, that was an overnight one, I believe. Right, I don't know, I'm getting this mixed up. So I took my first intentional solo trip to Universal sometime towards the end of last year I think, and that was just a day trip I was. This truly is illustrative of how much of a theme park sicko I am. I got up. I don't remember when this would have happened, but you had the baby, yeah.
Speaker 2:I was at the beach with Jen.
Speaker 1:You were, yes, you were at the beach, and so I was going to be home by myself, and what I did was I got up at like 5 am or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I got on the road to Orlando, which is about a three and a half to four hour drive ish, and I spent the entire day at the parks, the entire day at the parks. I didn't quite close down, I think I was there until like 45 minutes before park close and then I drove right back.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I got in. I got in before midnight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you got in around like 11 maybe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so anyway, that's the kind of thing that I do, but I think that's cool, is that something? That you can ever see yourself doing Sure, yeah, yeah, you would do that, yeah, by yourself.
Speaker 2:By myself? I don't know.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:I don't know, maybe.
Speaker 1:Some of us have it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know, maybe, but yeah it's. I think it's really cool that you did that, that you like you're willing to make that trip and also that you can just like enjoy being there by yourself. I think that is such a unique quality to be comfortable in your own company and like doing your own thing. I'm an extrovert so I'd be like I need to talk to someone but like you're so fun because you'll just like talk to random people like I will strike up conversations, so funny though it's gotta be in that type of situation where I'm in an extremely familiar, comfortable environment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jess is an extrovert, I am an introvert you're an ambivert, I don't even know if I would say ambivert, because I don't do them both equally.
Speaker 1:I don't think, you know, I really get my energy from being alone, uh, allowing myself to just do my own thing in quiet time and relax. But I have these little moments of extroversion like bursts. I've done a bunch of performative things over the years. I've played music, I've been in the theater quite a bit, and so I don't know I can turn it on, but then I have to turn it off and let it chill.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your battery can blast and then it needs time to recharge which is why it really is funny to me that when I go to the parks by myself, I can do that like I can just talk to a stranger, and I wonder if part of it is like the anonymity, like I'm never going to see these people again. So I'm, when I sit down next to them on the mummy and I'm like hey, is this your first time writing this? If they're like no, then I'm like okay, yeah. But if they're, if they're like yes, like, and like look excited to talk about it, then I'll talk to them about it. Yeah, but you know I don't do annoying garbage like oh, look, in this one part that's coming up Like because that's dumb. But I did have somebody ask me on that trip. I think, if I'm remembering this correctly, it might have been a different one, but I had somebody ask me when we got on the mummy and do you remember what the restraint is like for the mummy?
Speaker 2:Not really. Is it like a lap bar?
Speaker 1:It's a lap bar, okay. They turned to me and they go have you ridden this before? And I was like yeah, but they looked like very panicked and they said Does this go upside down? And I was like does this look like the equipment that you would need? But people aren't thinking that.
Speaker 2:Velocicoaster doesn't look like you, should be able to go upside down in that.
Speaker 1:Yes, that is a really fun example of man we should do Tyler, me later editing this. Make a note to do an episode topic about ride restraints, because there's so many different kinds and they all do different fun stuff. Make a note to do like an episode topic about ride restraints.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:Because there's so many different kinds and they all do different fun stuff.
Speaker 2:I'll get it later, it's okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, anyway.
Speaker 1:I like talking to people in theme parks. I'm passionate, I'm a dork, but a lovable dork I hope.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I think you can make a solo trip fun by yourself, whereas like not that I can't tolerate being by myself, but I just have so much more fun with other people Like going with you would be way more fun than going just by myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it's definitely more fun for me to go with you. But when you go to a theme park by yourself, you get to do what you want. You're not bitten by, like the design, like you know, everybody having different preferences for things, feeling bad when you like want to go do something and somebody's like I guess I'll go because like that's not a fun, totally yeah I think that's a um attitude that I don't really get to have, because I grew up in a big family and so I've never had the I get to do whatever I want.
Speaker 2:So, like I remember last year I had I had a Monday off work and I was like, oh, I think I'm going to like take my dog to the beach. And then I'm like, oh, ok, okay. Like what do I do on the beach? And like where do I eat lunch?
Speaker 2:and I was like this is so weird, just thinking about what I want to do and like entertaining myself, because, like I've always lived with roommates, I've always had, you know, I've been married, so like that's not like a thing I do is just like, oh, what do I just me want to do today? Like it's just weird, so, um, so, yeah, I think, uh, I would, I think it would be like almost like a weird challenge for me to be at a theme park by myself, so maybe it's something I should do I think that is a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:A goal that we should set is like planning a dedicated time for you to have your own solo universal adventure.
Speaker 2:But here's the thing that would mean what you could go, but you're not, I know, can you?
Speaker 1:imagine it would have to be some time where I literally couldn't.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know what? Well, I get Mondays off this coming summer, whoa, and it's hot, so you're not going to want to go, yeah, so I don't know, maybe I'll just take myself to a deeper, that's good. Stay tuned, listeners Maybe.
Speaker 1:When the daughter is in daycare and mommy doesn't work.
Speaker 2:Oh, I was going to be like, oh, I could take her, but yeah, of course I should go without the baby so I can actually do stuff. Yeah, don't take the baby, but I love her.
Speaker 1:I know you would never be able to do anything. I know you wouldn't even be able to sit down to eat no, but we'd have fun. She's a little too young to like fully enjoy the process, but she's really good at theme parks.
Speaker 2:She's so great. Yeah, she like, yeah. So, like I said, we've taken her to three different theme parks and she's probably been to a theme park like five times yeah because she's been to.
Speaker 1:She's been to universal at least twice now yep, she's been to wild adventures two or three times at least, and then bush gardens once, right, right, so so she gets it.
Speaker 2:Um, we're still working on a lot of things with her, like we haven't like held her in a long line.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we typically sit still, we typically just trade off, yeah. And so, to bring this all the way back to planning for this trip that we're about to take, and that, what is that? Two, two weeks, two, or three yeah something like that.
Speaker 1:Um, when we go on this trip, one of our goals is to try because we've done it like one other time before, when we went with friends once is doing child swap. Yes, on rides, and if you're not familiar or if you don't have a child, or whatever, you don't have to have a child to do this. By the way, what yeah, like you know, it doesn't have to be like a baby is what I'm saying oh okay, I was like, because I'm baby, because I'm baby, I'm baby, swap me.
Speaker 2:Well, what if you had somebody in your party who's like, oh, I can't do this ride, I'm so scared.
Speaker 1:Could you go and child swap and be like?
Speaker 2:I'm just going to sit here.
Speaker 1:I'm pretty sure you can, but the other thing that you can do is you can walk all the way through the queue of a ride with your group of people. Yes and then just stand off to the side. Well, yeah, and whoever doesn't want to do it, you just hop off. Right, you know Right. So that's no big deal. But yeah, child swap is a great feature for people who do have children, and if you didn't?
Speaker 2:know about it.
Speaker 1:I think every major ride has child swap now, if I'm not mistaken. Uh, I don't know, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, I'll verify this later and then tyler from the future will cut in. Uh, if I'm wrong about that right here, hello, future tyler here. Uh, I was just letting you know that I checked and of the 28 rides actual rides that I could find in the Universal app, including stuff from Epic Universe, there were no rides that did not have child swap. So that's great, good option for you All. Right Back to the show.
Speaker 2:I think it depends on your definition of major ride. But yeah, that's true, okay, a lot of them have.
Speaker 1:But yeah, that's true. Okay, A lot of them have it. A lot of them do. Most of the thrill attractions have child swap. I'll say that. So, yeah, it's just like this side room near, kind of, where the rides load, where if you have a party full of people and a child, one person you know whoever can go, take the child into the room and just wait and hang out. A lot of the times they have like something to do, Like they've got a movie playing or Sometimes they're not like super interesting Sometimes it's just a room, Like it's just a holding area, but, like Hagrid, like they're just playing Harry Potter movies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's a chill.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but this is for any child that's not big enough to ride the ride. So like, obviously if a child can get on the ride, like just ride with your kid, but like, if you have a child in your party that can't do that ride, they can still be with you. Um, the one caveat that has prohibited us from doing this in the past is you can't bring a stroller in line.
Speaker 1:So this is a. This is a big thing, and not that I would want to be able to necessarily, because I feel like if the whole line was clogged up with strollers that's true, that would be really frustrating, I get it, it's just from a.
Speaker 2:If you could design a theme park around the needs of parents. So I don't know, maybe Disney does this, but imagine if Hagrid's two hours and I'm like great, my child needs a two-hour nap, fall asleep in the stroller.
Speaker 1:Yeah, be chill, we can just hang out you know, or like you know, I'm not going to lug in all this. You know, part of the reason to have a stroller when you're traveling is to carry a baby in. No, I'm not going to lug in all this. You know, part of the reason to have a stroller when you're traveling is to carry a baby in. No, I'm kidding.
Speaker 2:Obviously, that's what you do.
Speaker 1:But the other part of the reason is you're carrying a bunch of shit and like throw it in the stroller. Yeah, in the bottom of the stroller.
Speaker 2:Yeah. The stroller is like women's large purse you know yes. Like it starts out with all the things you actually need and then it just becomes this bottomless pit of like anything.
Speaker 1:Despair.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's that deep, but Maybe not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe your bottomless pit purse is a happy one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Filled with happy things, happy pits, happy pits.
Speaker 1:I don't like that. No, yeah, oh okay. We never finished explaining what Child's Pop was.
Speaker 2:Damn I think that's unfortunately the format. I'm here for it. This is the wildest ride, Full of twists and turns, and we don't even know where it's going to land. So this is a little too chaotic and I think anyone listening to this would be like y'all need to finish a thought before you move on to another thought.
Speaker 1:See, and I'm over here thinking, anybody who's stuck around this long is my people.
Speaker 2:That's true. Yeah, that's true. I'm sure most people turned off after two minutes.
Speaker 1:Probably.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but child swap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so anyway, what happens is you take the child into the room. Someone waits with them, then the rest of your party can ride the ride, and when they get off the ride, they can come to the room and swap. You don't swap the child, you swap the parent.
Speaker 2:Yes, the guardian, the child stays.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Other people in the party can go through, but and.
Speaker 1:Oh, and then immediately get on the ride and immediately get on.
Speaker 2:Yes, you don't have to get in line again. You've already done the line altogether once, so you can just cut right back. For people who don't have children if you are friends with people who do, or a family, a lot of people actually like child swap because from my understanding, it's not just the one person that waited with the child that gets to go on the ride now it's anybody in your party. So, like if you are single childless and you want to go with some of your friends that have kids, like they might only get on the ride once, but you could get on the ride like two or three times, depending on how many people are staying with the kid.
Speaker 1:I hadn't really thought about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's from what that's. What I've heard is that they're not counting who has gone and be like, oh okay, the one person who stayed.
Speaker 1:So if you got like a bunch of people, you could probably like pull a multi ride thing. You could do multi. Yes, that's fun. Yes. A couple of multi-ride things.
Speaker 2:You could do multi, yes.
Speaker 1:That's fun. Did you hear this from a co-worker?
Speaker 2:I heard this from my co-worker, Kelly, who is a big theme park enthusiast. She's really into it.
Speaker 1:Is that Kelly?
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's really into Universal and Disney stuff. Oh yeah, I trust.
Speaker 1:That's a hot tip. Yes, that's a hot tip. Be careful how you, why you use it. Don't get burned. Ooh, is that anything?
Speaker 2:I don't. I think it's too early for catchphrases Dang.
Speaker 1:Okay, we'll work on that.
Speaker 2:It kind of has to happen organically.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's a goal for this trip Is doing more child swap, utilize more child swap. Because we have not done this when we travel together?
Speaker 2:really, I think that Autumn can well, when she can walk. Yeah, I think we have more.
Speaker 1:That's huge, so huge for a theme park.
Speaker 2:She's starting to, as you like to say, she's starting to come online a little bit more so that we can like kind of talk with her and interact and like distract her and do activities. She just likes looking at stuff. I think we can engage her a little bit more so it's not just we're sitting, still I'm bored, I need to move, um, so we're gonna try it. I don't know, we'll see what happens. Um, you know, you and I have not been able to ride rides together in a long time because we've either had the child or I've been pregnant.
Speaker 2:Um, so, yeah, and you know, I think, even if we have other people going with us, I would feel too bad being like hi, watch my toddler while I'm stuck in a ride for 45 minutes and hopefully she's fine. Yeah, usually she is, but I don't know Bye. So yeah, I mean, you and I haven't like ridden a ride together, probably since it's at least been since you got pregnant, right. Yeah, I was going to say so, maybe like 2021, 22. Yeah, yeah, I think we went in May 22. So that was probably it.
Speaker 1:That's so long.
Speaker 2:I know, isn't that crazy. I have not realized that. Yeah, yeah, I hadn't like put it in those words like that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, um man, so we should do it with the exception, I can think of a notable exception yes the first ride that we, the first theme park ride we ever did with our daughter as a family, as a as a family, all three of us together. It was such an exciting. We literally treated it like it was her getting her first soccer trophy or something. It was a milestone it was. We made a really big deal out of it.
Speaker 1:That was fun. I did a bunch of research on height restrictions and stuff, trying to figure out anything that we could all do together, and the one thing that I reliably could tell that was going to be okay for all of us was she was six or eight months at the time.
Speaker 2:For context.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she very little. Yeah, but we did Carousel, which is the carousel in the Seuss land area of Islands of Adventure. Why did it take me so long to put that together?
Speaker 2:I know You're painting the scene.
Speaker 1:You're bringing us there.
Speaker 2:I'm there now.
Speaker 1:But it's a very cute carousel If you've never ridden it. I've had a much greater appreciation, now that we have these annual passes for the first time, of doing a bunch of rides that I have never bothered doing before in the parks, so that was never one that I ever did, right right, but you probably wouldn't do it unless you had a child. Probably that's the thing now, now that I go a lot more often, and there's stuff that I am still finding that I have never touched before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is exciting for you, I would do.
Speaker 1:Karasu Cell by myself.
Speaker 2:And it's always like a five or ten minute wait. So why not?
Speaker 1:It is so in the last trip that we took, I also, for the first time ever, rode, I roared, roared For the first time in my life, and it felt so liberating. I rode Stormforce Accelotron, which is like their version of the teacup thing. Okay, yeah, it's right next to Hulk. Yeah, the wait time I have never seen it higher than five minutes. One of the trips before this I also did another flat ride. What was it?
Speaker 1:Oh, flat ride the Simpson one Flat ride is like a fair ride kind of thing. You can think about it as no, not Simpson. Oh yeah, no, it was in. Yeah, you're right, it was in Springfield in Universal Studios proper, and it's called Kang and Kodo's Twirl and Hurl. I cannot believe you know that name, I don't even know.
Speaker 2:And it's called Kang and Kodo's Twirl and Hurl. I cannot believe you know that name. I don't even know. So I guess I don't know that much Simpsons, because I'm like I don't even know who those guys are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're aliens, okay, and yeah, I mean, and the ride has a really funny premise and funny writing on the ride. You wouldn't think of a flat ride, something that essentially just spins, would have any writing. But they have these really funny voice lines that come over that like feed into this narrative of them having a thrill ride. That's like really trying to like, you know, suck all of the I don't know like brain juice or whatever they're trying to get at. But they have these funny little quips where they, you know, say oh, nothing to be afraid of or whatever. All the signage is really funny.
Speaker 1:So I would encourage anybody. If there are things that you normally do at these parks and you have the time and you're not like working on a crazy time crunch, allow yourself to just kind of walk around and get into some stuff that you don't ever do. Like you know, go walk to the pretty viewing areas or, um, are there any of those types of things that you have never done? That would be maybe fun for you to do as a goal for this next trip.
Speaker 2:So far, we have child swap we were talking about how Autumn's been able to do a lot more. She's been really going hard for Playgrounds lately and just getting super jazzed about slides and swings and all.
Speaker 1:This has been just in really the last few months. I feel like she.
Speaker 2:Like she's liked them and she's gotten them, but she can do so much more now she can climb. She can run she really wants to be on playgrounds, not just like we take her to one.
Speaker 1:She gets on slides and stuff. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So there's so many fun play areas in Universal that we've introduced her to, but I think she's going to get a lot more out of it this time.
Speaker 1:That's really exciting.
Speaker 2:Camp Jurassic.
Speaker 1:think she's gonna get a lot more out of it this time, so like that's really exciting. Camp jurassic camp jurassic is one of the best kids play areas, not just in theme parks like kind of anywhere I don't think you need to just be a kid either. Like it's interesting, it's cool, yeah, yeah there's all kinds of fun little nooks and crannies to get into the cave areas just really yes if, yeah, yeah, look up camp jurassic, uh and see if, see, if you can.
Speaker 1:I challenge anybody listening because we've done this several times to find the caves. Yeah, hard to get to say it took.
Speaker 2:It took us a while. Um yeah, so going on Camp Jurassic, uh, dreamworks is like a new area of studios.
Speaker 1:That is super cool.
Speaker 2:We had fun introducing it to Autumn last time, but I think she's going to get jazzed a lot more because there's a whole Shrek swamp area that has several slides. She was kind of into it last time I took her, but I think she's going to be like oh yeah, and there's like the Kung Fu Panda area where they've got like little spinny things that are fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's, it's, it's a cool vibe, so so that's going to be great, and I think her first roller coaster ever might eventually be, once she's tall enough, maybe got to grow. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Uh, is probably going to be troller coaster.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that one looks fun, um um there's other fun thing.
Speaker 1:I've ridden that roller coaster really, but yeah, because it used to be woody woodpecker's nut house coaster oh, it's just, it's the same, it's the same track, but different theming.
Speaker 2:That's so funny. Um, yeah, so I. Um. You were talking a lot on your last solo trip. You did Kong and you were talking a lot about it, oh man.
Speaker 1:So I'm a very recent Kong convert.
Speaker 2:Kongvert.
Speaker 1:I can't believe I fucking missed that. I'm so mad that was my pun. Yeah, oh my gosh. Something you're going to find out Sooner or later. And I might as well just say this now I don't think this is a controversial topic or opinion to have I hate. For a long time I have hated screen rides. Uh-huh, it is. Nobody from Universal is ever going to listen to this. I don't like to insult people. It is the laziest cash grab of a thing to do to build a new ride. That is a theater where you just watch a short film.
Speaker 2:It, just it takes.
Speaker 1:That's not a ride.
Speaker 2:Well, it takes away from the spirit of, like you're going there to ride the movies, which is to have a different experience than watching the movie.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And so if I go there and I'm just kind of watching a movie, like I could have done that at home, yeah, or I could pay $20 to go to the movie theater that's down the street from our house and my chair moves a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:With the screen, yeah, and that's like essentially the same experience you're getting. Right, it's maybe without the 3d, but the 3d makes a lot of people sick sometimes. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. Um, anyway, that being said, I'm like the biggest advocate for, and I know that places like universal creative know I think that they have fucked up in this regard a little bit, because there's there was a period of like 8 to 10 years maybe where that's really what they were doing, and then they have really pivoted hard in the other direction with incredible rides that don't use screens at all, like Hagrid is a great example of a ride that is so many different things and it's made so much more enjoyable and impressive and makes people want to come back and redo it, because it's made so much more enjoyable and impressive and makes people want to come back and redo it because it's all practical things.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Even Escape from Gringotts. While there is a lot of screen-heavy stuff, there's a lot of practical stuff happening in that ride. Yeah, there's a lot of cool rooms that you're moving through. It's a roller coaster, or at least partially a roller coaster. So I don't know, there's a lot of cool rooms that you're moving through. It's a roller coaster, or at least partially a roller coaster, so I don't know, there's a lot of interesting movement or whatever. One of the best screen rides in the park is the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, because there's so much more happening with that and it just was revolutionary in its ambition, like what it was trying to do the blend of these practical set pieces with having a 3D movie that is sort of like in a comic book style. It's not exactly like hand-drawn, looking like it's still 3D animated, but you almost like buy into it more because it's supposed to look like something you're already familiar with. It's not trying to I don't know we can. We will be talking about that a lot more, but all of that to say, I would love for you to go on Kong, and that is what is it? What is it actually called?
Speaker 1:Hold on, I'm blanking on this one Skull Island. Skull Island is what it's called Rise of Kong, rain, rain of Kong, rain of Kong. Linking on this skull island. Skull island is what it's called rain, right, rise of kong, rain, rain of kong. Oh, my gosh, I forgot the name of a ride skull island, rain of kong maybe sounds right. I would love for you to go on that again because it does what fast, and I'm so sorry to invoke this name in the first episode. It does what the and Furious Supercharged ride absolutely shat the bed on better.
Speaker 2:I think this is something we'll talk about a lot is how much we hate that ride 100%. It's so garbage. We love Universal so much but Everybody knows it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I am so amazed they didn't immediately shutter that ride, especially considering what was there before it. But anyway, like I said, we can get into that later. But Kong does what Fast and Furious doesn't, which is it doesn't do all of this. What's the right, what's the word that I'm looking for? It doesn't do a bunch of contrived nonsense to try to get you into the story of whatever you're doing.
Speaker 2:And just as an update, it is called Skull Island Reign of Kong TM.
Speaker 1:TM is so important. If you try to look it up and you don't put in TM, the FBI actually comes after you.
Speaker 2:But it's the FBI for men in black. Oh man, it's just a pug, it's just Frank.
Speaker 1:And he's not wearing a suit either. No, the naked dog, yeah, he's incognito. Oh jeez, the Kong ride does the same. You're in a tram kind of thing, with the screens on either side shaking around, moving whatever, but they got like little water effects. They have like smoke and smog effects which, fast and Furious, both do or also does not both do.
Speaker 2:What if there were two rides Fast and Furious? Are you going to ride Fast today? Okay, man, I'm feeling fierce.
Speaker 1:But what if it was a?
Speaker 2:dueling coaster, yeah One was. Fast, and one was Furious.
Speaker 1:That'd be sick. That'd be much better than what it is. A roller coaster is such a better concept for a ride, for Fast and the One yeah for any ride, which is why they're building it in Hollywood, and I told you about this. Right, I'm not sure. Okay, they're building a Fast and Furious roller coaster in Hollywood. It's going to be able to drift on the track. Hell, yeah, yeah, can't wait for that.
Speaker 2:We'll talk about that. That's obviously what they should have started with.
Speaker 1:Duh, they did it because they ripped off the portion of the tram tour Fast and Furious thing from Hollywood, yeah and literally just copied and pasted it into a building.
Speaker 2:And it sucks, but you're on a party bus yeah. It makes no sense. You're going so slow, watching screens of fast cars and it's like what it's so garbage.
Speaker 1:Anyway, that's our. It's going to be a recurring segment on this show is Fuck Fast and Furious Supercharged.
Speaker 2:That might be how we end the podcast.
Speaker 1:And, as always, Fuck Fast and Furious Sidebar, and I can edit this out if we want to save it for the end. One of the outros that I thought of is no More Screens, oh, but I don't think it quite.
Speaker 2:I like ending on a protest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no more screens. Speak your truth, man, less screens even I would take that that's not as punchy. Realistic goal. Anyway, getting back into it.
Speaker 2:Skull Island.
Speaker 1:Yep, they just do a better job. And on top of all of that, they have interesting things like every ride vehicle is different. There's an animatronic driver in every ride vehicle. For that there's four different ones, and they have their own unique dialogue.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, that's so cute. Yes, it's adorable, god that's so cute.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's adorable.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, that's a goal is to go with every different driver. Exactly yes, and find out who's the best. We'll have to report back on that Right.
Speaker 1:But yeah, like they all have their own things that they say and whatever. Sometimes they don't work super well, so that's fun. But the absolute pinnacle of this ride is there are not just one, but multiple animatronics on it that you pass through at one point, some even in the queue.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There are these, I guess, crates of these exotic, undiscovered species from around the world. There's this giant worm that kind of moves around behind glass. There are these big bat creatures. Also, spoilers for every single ride and every single park that we're going to talk about. If you're coming here to like find out like I don't know, we're going to talk about the ins and outs of all of this stuff, so just make sure to like read through the descriptions.
Speaker 2:Definitely should have done a spoiler tag at the start.
Speaker 1:We're going to cut that out and put it in the video. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There are these huge animatronic bats towards the beginning of the ride.
Speaker 2:See, I've been on this ride and I don't even remember that. Probably just forgot, you know.
Speaker 1:They've changed it a little bit, changed a little bit. It used to go outside. Okay, that's. That would be like the cherry on top is if it still had the outside portion. It makes it feel more immersive. But the pinnacle of this ride is the giant animatronic kong. It is enormous, like it's his huge head, his big monkey head, and you and I don't know if they've tweaked this over the years or whatever, but you're in there for a long time at the end of the ride with him, like you're driving so slowly. It's probably like a full 60 seconds that you're just like slowly pulling around this room. Yeah, and he's looking at you and like it's so it's the most detailed animatronic I've ever seen, of something that size. Yeah, the original Kong. I don't think I ever got to go on Kongfrontation in studios.
Speaker 2:I don't believe I did.
Speaker 1:But that one is impressive. But that one is impressive like if you look at videos of it. But this one is so articulate, like his nostrils flare and like his lips curl up and his eyebrows dip down and he like wrinkles, you know, and he it's like he's moving and swaying, so I don't know. It's beautiful. It makes the entire ride totally worth it. The other stuff's fun too. Yeah, you definitely got to get on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I remember going on it and liking it, but I think you kind of dissuaded me from you're like eh, it's a screen one, don't bother. Yeah, I've really softened on that.
Speaker 1:I know. For some things I know it seemed like they make an effort.
Speaker 2:Right, and so I think when you were talking it up recently, it was making me remember.
Speaker 1:like, yeah, I remember being like scared in that line. Like you know it's pretty freaky. Yeah, the queue. I will say like, if you're planning on going on that ride with kids, maybe don't like, don't even get in the queue, because once you got good spooky kids.
Speaker 2:We're working on getting our kid real spooky.
Speaker 1:I think she is going to be pretty spooky, which is exciting, but it's very dark, it's very ominous. There's all these really, I think it's supposed to be like whoever the native people of Skull Island have like carved all of these, I don't know stone like monkey, monkey heads like gorilla heads in the walls and stuff and literal skulls like embedded into the walls and stuff.
Speaker 2:What if they were actual human skulls? Wouldn't that be bananas?
Speaker 1:They used to have scare actors in the line.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so I'm kind of glad they took that out, because it was a little too spooky for me Too spooky.
Speaker 2:We're not doing HHN, but they have another incredible animatronic of the.
Speaker 1:I think it's a witch. I'm not 100% sure yeah, yeah. In that line.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember her. Yeah, yeah, she's really good yeah. So that's what I want to do. I am such a huge harry potter nerd. I'm just all about just being in harry potter world consuming as much butterbeer stuff as possible. Yes, that's always my vibe, yeah and obviously fjkr.
Speaker 1:But right but, but that being said, we have.
Speaker 2:we, the fans, have reclaimed reclaimed Harry Potter as our own, so it belongs to us now. Yeah, but you got me a wand recently because we had this like janky, half-twisted Elder wand, elder wand. That wouldn't quite like line up, so it was such a pain in the butt. So you got me a brand new floor, one which is beautiful.
Speaker 1:And you know what the unfortunate thing is? I'm going to have to get one of the new, new interactive ones that they just came out with, because you bought it like two months before they put out these better ones and I couldn't have known.
Speaker 2:Eh, you know it is what it is, yeah, but anyway, but that's been a great. I feel like our we should do a whole episode on like tips for parents. But like if you, if one of you is riding a ride and the other one of you is pushing the kid in the stroller, going to Harry Potter World and playing with all the interactive one spots, is so great, Like it is 100 percent, Like I have a great, I have a blast.
Speaker 1:Another way to make that even easier now is since they've updated everything. They've added new magic spots throughout both of the parks within the Harry Potter sections. But there's also an app that you can download or it might have. Oh no, it's through the Universal app.
Speaker 2:That makes more sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but if you go in there you can track, almost like quests, which of the things you've done and work through these little mini storyline things and that's all brand new, so that's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:I was checking the app to figure out, um like, where in there it has it, and I can't find it. But what I did find is it's apparently butterbeer season, which is the most hilarious thing, because I remember last year they were like it's butterbeer season and it meant nothing, like nothing was different. Yeah, we were like are there any new items or anything? They're like oh yeah, this iced lolly is going to come out and it like never did, and so it says returning iced lolly. So I guess it did come out somehow.
Speaker 1:Is that the only difference that they do for it?
Speaker 2:Oh, no, no, no. There's a couple new Butterbeer things that are going to be exclusive during march 1st through may 31st this year 2025, so they're coming out with a butterbeer cream puff and a butterbeer candy bar, so I will be eating both of those of course I do need to try that. Ice lolly butterbeer gummies are returning interesting.
Speaker 1:I love gummies um.
Speaker 2:They come with a souvenir butterbeer cart which is very cute.
Speaker 1:Oh, those are the little barrel carts. Oh, cute yeah, like they have outside for the drink carts.
Speaker 2:And then classics of butterbeer hard pack ice cream. What is that? I've had the soft serve. I don't know what a hard pack is.
Speaker 1:A hard pack is like what you get at Florian Fortescue's right.
Speaker 2:Soft serve is when it comes out of the machine. Oh yeah, okay, okay. Back is when you scoop it out yes, um, that's what you get when you go to um like uh not hogshead, what's uh um?
Speaker 1:three broomsticks and oh yeah, leaky cauldron yeah yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I've had, I've had the hard pack ice cream, I've had had the soft serve ice cream the best. The fudge is amazing and the potted cream is also really good Potted cream Y'all.
Speaker 1:if y'all are not on some potted cream when you go to Wizarding World, eat it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was my journey when I went to Universal when I was pregnant, because I was like I can't really write anything, so I just ate all the butterbeer stuff. You enjoyed it so much, it's great, it's for the baby. So anyway, I think it's very funny this butterbeer season. Like, just don't do it, time limited, everyone's here for butterbeer, do all of that. So anyway, I'll be there for that. Um, just general vibes, I was looking up like what's going on at that time that we're gonna be there. Um, and I think the reason why last year we just happened to go Easter weekend because we were we were planning a trip with our friends who live in Colorado and I think they were coming to Florida for like a wedding or something, so they were just in town.
Speaker 1:It just happened to be that.
Speaker 2:So that's what we did, but it happened that we were there on easter sunday and we were worried. We were worried it would be slammed and it turned out to be really slow yeah for for the that time of year.
Speaker 2:So we were really surprised and we're like, okay, let's see if that was that a fluke, or is that coming here again? So last year easter turned out to be, I think, like this weekend, like last weekend in may, sorry, march, um, now it's gonna be mid-april. So I don't know how that's gonna line up, because now we're getting closer to um, I don't know, like spring break time or I don't know. So, um, so we'll see. But I again, I think we're kind of threading the needle, good, cause I was looking at what events are going on. Um, you know, what can we expect being at the parks at that time?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're still doing Mardi Gras through April, I think Right.
Speaker 2:I believe. Yes, I thought Mardi Gras was going to end end of March, but it might be going through April, I'm not sure. By the way, you can apparently get a reserve spot on a parade float and toss beads to the crowd. You can. That's so funny yeah.
Speaker 1:I believe you got to pay some money for that.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I would expect.
Speaker 1:Because why not?
Speaker 2:But all the other events that are coming up. For example, grad bash is not that weekend, which is great. That's really good, because we accidentally were there during the what's the christian one yeah, rock the universe and it was, and I was like why are there so many people here, unfortunate? So anyway, we threaded the needle with that. Um, there's a couple other things that are going on that are like the weekend before, the weekend after, um, so I don't think they they.
Speaker 1:They didn't introduce anything new and special happening easter weekend, I think, assuming that you know, most people don't spend that weekend at a theme park yeah suckers so, and hey, if you're listening to this later on and this turns out to be a good thing, yeah, don't, don't go there, it's just us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we want to share our knowledge, but don't act on it not the good stuff, not while we're there, um so yeah, so if we go and it's chill again, that's going to be a new every year thing.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Which I feel bad about, cause, like Easter is kind of like a time for family and egg hunt and blah, blah, blah blah, but like if the parks are going to be slow, then that's what we're going to do. So so, yeah, I think, hopefully just spending some time. Um we, we have different, uh, approaches to how we do things, just depending on um our budget and time. So I think this time we're gonna try to do two nights. Um we are, um we're staying at a cheap hotel that's nearby because, as pass holders, we have early park admission. We do Huge, huge park, which is great.
Speaker 1:For the specific level that we have.
Speaker 2:Yes, so early park admission is fantastic to get on some of the biggest rides that otherwise have exorbitantly high wait times, like Hagrid or Velocicoaster, and those are pretty much like the only ones you can get on with it they, they open more and more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, recently, it seems like so. Now you can pretty much get on a lot of the stuff that's in. Uh, you can get on almost anything in hogsmeade. That's cool, um, and you can. Maybe they open up hulk a little early too. They seem to do these little rolling openings in the mornings like that now, which is really nice, but it used to just be Hagrid Right.
Speaker 2:But it's definitely worth it because you actually get on some of these big rides without a huge wait line. Yeah, like you might be waiting 50 to 60 minutes for something like a hagrid versus three hours, three hours, yeah, um, plus the budget, on-site hotels are a great deal, yeah, um, in comparison to like we're. We're not big like bougie hotel people, so like we're like barely there, we'll pay.
Speaker 2:We'll pay like for cheaper stuff, but because you know it's a big tourist attraction area, like if you want to be within a mile of the parks, everything's kind of expensive and so it like almost becomes worth doing the on-site. And then, if you do, you get extra perks, like you get the early park admission. If you buy merch in the parks, you can have them send it directly to your room so you don't have to lug around like all, all the stuff you buy all day, um, so, and, and you get the um.
Speaker 2:Uh, I was like you get the trolley do, what is the term I'm thinking of?
Speaker 1:the shuttle. Yeah, you get the shuttle, uh.
Speaker 2:So you don't have to do with parking. That's another thing now with with our um annual passes, that we get free parking.
Speaker 1:So so, like there are a lot of these perks are adding up, especially for us now. It was not always this way.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And we have spent a lot of time living off of just getting the even like a single day ticket staying wherever, and you know, having to figure it out as we go, so it's like felt very special that we've been able to level up in that way Totally.
Speaker 2:Yeah so, and that's that we also get. Not everybody can do that, and we'll try to level up in that way. Totally yeah so, and that's that we also get.
Speaker 2:Not everybody can do that, and we'll try to be mindful of that too yes, yes, if yeah, because we have the luxury of being annual pass holders and we know we're going to come back in a month or two we can slow down and take our time a lot more and just think of, like, what are the big highlights that I want to do, and not jam pack everything, which is, you know, a really enjoyable way to do it. Um, I don't really remember where I was going with that, but anyway, I, I, I like the slower pace, I like kind of taking our time with things. Um, and I think, having two days, that we're going to be able to do it. Depending on how late we get in Friday, one of us may be able to get in for an hour or two.
Speaker 1:I'm really hoping that that's you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, we've been wanting to see their night shows. Yes, I have still not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we finally saw the new light show that happens on the Hogwarts castle Extremely good, and I think we even saw the. It was the Christmas themed version.
Speaker 2:Oh, they do a different one. Yeah, I think they do a different one, cool.
Speaker 1:But yeah, we have not seen what do they even call it? It's kind of it's man. They are really kind of beefing these names lately.
Speaker 2:I think it's called.
Speaker 1:Cinesational, cine, like cinema. Yeah, yeah, that's so unfortunate. Yeah, but it's not the worst name they've come up with. But yeah, that show is insane. It's on the lagoon at studios and laser light show water screens like huge fountains that they project light onto, and also drones in the sky making shapes. It's amazing. I haven't seen it.
Speaker 2:I would love to see it next time, when we get on, we're going to talk about Epic Universe and what that's going to look like. Maybe we'll have a more cohesive narrative in our discussions, but probably not, probably not, I don't know. And what's the point of that? We don't have any time to plan and organize any of this, so it's going to be off the cuff.
Speaker 1:We might, if I'm assuming we're probably going to have another one of these out before we go to the park, but we will present our finalized list of goals for this trip. Yeah, I think would be fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I've got some too. Uh, getting to working on like a bucket list for us to make each experience interesting, because otherwise, you know, we are very familiar with and we've done a lot of the things, so it's kind of fun to have a fresh, unique take we don't have different little challenges or yeah, you know, yeah, so I don't know, we'll, we'll, uh, we'll see what happens. But um, this is fun. This was a blast. I did enjoy talking in the closet with you about theme parks.
Speaker 1:I also enjoyed talking in a closet with you about theme parks. You couldn't tell we're in a closet. If I get to this later and it sounds like we're in a closet to the extent where it's like unlistenable, I'm still going to put it out. I just want everybody to know that, because I've had so much fun doing this. Aww, I'm so glad and we can call it episode zero or something and make it like a hidden track.
Speaker 2:I like that I like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but this is great, is there a?
Speaker 2:word for like a, you know, like a track of a roller coaster that, like you, don't go on anymore. Switch track.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, oh man, that's amazing. Yeah, this one might be a switch track. We'll see what happens, all right, but this was a blast. Thank you, my wife, for sitting down here to do this with me. Thank you, the listener, whoever you are out there, I love you and you're beautiful. Aw, and here I don't know we need to. This is we were talking earlier about no more screens?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were talking about what we say at the end of these. I pitched no more screens, but even that, I feel like, is a little too aggressive for my energy.
Speaker 2:Thanks for writing it out with us.
Speaker 1:Thanks, for writing it out and until we write again. That's good. Until we write again. Good night, good night, cut. Good night, good night, cut. Print it, print it, print it. Hey there, did you have some thoughts that you wanted to share with the show? Well, you can, if you want. In the show notes for this episode you'll find a text link that you can send a text message to us directly. We won't be able to respond, but unless you don't want us to and feel free to tell us we're not going to be mad you can send a text to us and we will maybe respond to it on a future episode. So feel free to do that, or send an email into rideitoutpod P-O-D at gmailcom, and we would love to hear from you. Thanks for sticking around and we'll see you in a future episode.
