And we're back!
Hi.
Welcome to another Universal Orlando podcast.
I forgot how to do this because it's been so long.
You also forgot the next part.
I did. What is the next part?
Your name.
My name's Nick.
I'm Melody.
That's the cat.
I bought a PS5 Pulse 3D Elite headset today and I'm happy.
Sounds great.
I haven't told you about it yet.
No, and I went to the doctor for our child.
Just a checkup. She's fine.
Yes. Congrats.
Anyways, we have been MIA...
Are you in summary or no?
Summary?
Of the episode...
Randomness.
Okay, because then we do summary.
And next year's plan.
Do the socials.
Okay.
We're on Instagram and Twitter slash X.
You can find us at another Universal Orlando podcast on Instagram and another UO pod on Twitter slash X.
Cool.
There.
So we have been gone.
It started...what happened?
Thanksgiving.
Ah, Thanksgiving.
My parents went on vacation to South Africa and then...cat?
We dog sat.
We had to dog sit.
I had to run our company for a week by myself.
I didn't lose any customers.
Good job.
I'm happy.
But, yeah, it felt longer.
Last year some lady got mad at me and took photos of me on her property because she forgot who I was.
It was not a fun time.
No.
If she listens to this...oh well.
I doubt she listens.
Me too.
Anyways, so I had to run the company by myself so I took those two weeks off because I was working a lot.
Tired.
Then we took Thanksgiving off because...
We posted the week of Thanksgiving.
We did?
Yeah.
I don't remember.
My cat just shoved his butt into the microphone.
And then my parents got back and then it was, hurry up and finish all of our customers so we could keep them all happy.
And now it's...then we went on our vacation which we're going to talk about today because that pertains to Universal.
Spoiler alert.
We went to Universal.
And now we're here today.
And we're already planning next year's vacation.
Yes.
Which pertains to Universal.
It does pertain to Universal.
But different.
No spoilers.
Anyways, so...
I guess that was...
Moving on.
That was the summary of what happened for the last three weeks.
And why we haven't posted in a while.
So I'm sorry.
Okay.
Anyways, so our vacation started December 12th.
We got an Airbnb in Kissimmee.
Yes.
Because I was stupid and I didn't look up where Kissimmee was even though we live near here.
How did you say it?
Kissimmee?
Salami?
Okay, stop.
Salmon?
I will throw the cat at you.
Okay.
Started in an Airbnb.
Very nice Airbnb.
I doubt our Airbnb host is going to listen to this.
I'm already forgetting what we did on our trip.
Went to Kissimmee.
Got an Airbnb.
That day we left late, got there late.
Yes, very late.
Basically just unpacked, went to bed.
Yep.
That day was boring.
Next day we went to Universal.
Yes.
It was primarily a you day.
With a me day in the middle.
Which turned out to be a bad idea.
Yes.
So what we did in the morning, went to studios.
We went to the DreamWorks area.
I went on the trailer coaster with Jack.
He liked it.
We did something before it.
We went on ET first.
Oh yeah, wasn't that his first dark ride?
Yes.
And also it was his first ET ride.
We didn't get the photo.
Were we supposed to?
Yes.
Oh, oops.
Because we got the photo from later in the trip.
Oops.
Well, that's fine.
I took a picture of him on the ride.
That's fine.
With the, I may have accidentally took a picture of the small child next to him.
It's really hard to take a picture without getting people around you.
Well with our new Apple Intelligence AI, we can blur out that child.
Okay.
The other child was like almost the exact same, at least height of Jack.
And it was highly convenient that they sat right next to each other.
That's funny.
I did not get to go on because I was watching our tinier child.
So you just enjoyed the day in the stroller?
Pretty much.
She was very content.
Yeah, so we went on ET.
He was a little spooked by the dark.
But once we got to like the green planet, he was really interested, looked at everything, was like, whoa.
I do not think he realized that ET even said his name.
Which is fine.
Oh, ET actually said his name?
Yeah.
Surprising. It never says my name.
And then we went on Troller Coaster again. This time I had him sitting closer to the camera so you could actually see him.
He was okay.
He has the same nonchalant, not nonchalant, just neutral expression on every ride we go on.
It looks like he does not care, but he's not upset.
He's just like, whoa, I guess.
But I think he likes it.
He's very nonchalant about a lot of things.
Yes, but.
Until he gets some food that he likes and then he is very happy.
What else did we do? Were we done after Troller Coaster?
Yes.
Is that when we went to go get lunch?
Yeah, we went to go get lunch after ET.
We went to Minion Cafe.
Before going to Minion Cafe, we stopped or I stopped at the Pop Banana place.
Got a popcorn bucket?
The Bob and the Banana Costa.
So I told you to get a popcorn bucket.
Yes, and my brain forgot what a regular popcorn bucket was.
And then you said, oh, should I get the souvenir bucket?
Thinking it's the normal one that says like Islands of Adventure.
You know, it's $13 and nice and cheap.
But no, you come back with a Minion.
Costs like $32.
I mean, it's cool. He liked it.
Yeah, it worked out because Nick went inside to Minion Cafe with Rose, ordered, waited for the food.
Jack was not going to sit still for that.
So we walked around the or we didn't walk.
I just found a small patch of fake grass in front of the stage area, like right in front of Rip Ride.
We just sat on the grass.
He ate popcorn, played with the Minion bucket.
Then eventually we started walking around and we happened to walk right by the Minion Cafe entrance when he said food's here.
And I was like, great, just want to write in.
Lunch?
Then we had lunch.
We had the Otto's udon bowl.
How was it? I keep hearing people say they're like what comes it's like the noodle.
Isn't there like a what are the is there pot stickers in there too?
There was one one pot sticker.
I always hear reports of people saying it comes out frozen still.
Was yours frozen?
No.
Weird.
It also took me a while to eat it though.
So who knows?
That's true.
That egg. Rose ate part of the egg.
Yes, she did.
What else did she have?
She ate like she liked the soup base.
Yeah, she loved that soup.
Jack had a pasta and meatballs with some tater tots.
Weird combination.
And a banana. Rose ate the banana.
Rose ate the banana.
Jack had like three bites of his pasta and then gave up.
I think he had like three meatballs.
He liked the meatballs, which I always found weird.
He normally likes the noodles.
Doesn't care much for meat.
He ate meatballs.
They didn't care for the noodles.
And then he usually loves like potato stuff.
Didn't even want his potatoes.
They didn't look normal to him probably.
I took a bite out of it and showed it to him.
So?
The child doesn't understand that it's a tater tot.
It's a weird looking food to him.
Whatever.
You had your what? Meatball Mountain or something?
I had a Meatball Mountain. It was okay.
You had it before.
Yes.
It's hard to eat with one hand.
That... oh you were holding him.
So like our child, Jack, he doesn't like sitting on his own.
He has to be either sitting... he has to sit on my lap to eat.
Only when he's...
Only when I'm around there.
When it's just us during lunchtime, he's completely fine.
He'll sit on his own.
It's annoying.
So he has to sit on my lap.
So one arm's like holding him to make sure, you know, he doesn't fall off.
Or run away.
Because he wiggles.
And then the other hand's trying to saw my...
Calzone thing.
Calzone thing in half.
So I can try and eat it.
It was okay. It was typical.
I miss my evil tater tot things.
Tattoos.
Is that when we went back to the Airbnb?
So then at this point we decided we were going to split up.
You were going to try and take the kids back to Airbnb, which is only 30 minutes away from Universal.
30, 40 minutes depending on traffic.
Yeah.
Back to the Airbnb to get a nap.
Well, I stayed in the park and did big kid rides.
Bad idea.
Because they were not happy in the car ride.
There or back.
And they didn't nap.
No, they did not.
Because with toddlers, it's not always the best ideal.
Like sometimes a kid is completely fine with traveling.
Ours doesn't do very well with traveling.
No.
That's why it was a vacation planned around Jack.
We went to places that we knew Jack would like.
And now we have a trip to Miami, which is four hours away.
And this is no yours.
Who cares?
But you made me now I understand why you don't interrupt when someone's in the middle of a thought bubble.
Your bubble has popped.
Yes.
Anyway, it was a new location for Jack.
Not used to sleeping in a weird bed.
So he did not nap.
Rose didn't nap because they will play off of each other sometimes.
If one screaming and awake, obviously the other is not going to sleep.
Like today I had to get them separate for them to nap.
It happens.
Yes.
So I came back to Universal, but I gave up.
That was after like an hour and a half.
Probably I'm just unhappy kids who did not want to sleep.
Get in the car, drive for like five minutes to Universal.
They're both out.
And I was like, great.
You guys are at least sleeping, but to the point where when we got out of the car, they were awake again and not happy.
Yeah.
So at this point, I had already done all the big stuff at studios with the exception of for Pride Rocket.
And then I went over to Islands.
I wanted to do Velocicoaster, decided not to, because I know you wanted to ride Velocicoaster.
So I thought it would be unfair if I get to ride it and you don't.
So I didn't.
What did I do in Islands?
I know I took a train over to Islands and I doubt this lady listens, but I was in a train.
It was all one family, I think, who was a husband and a wife.
And I'm assuming one set of parents or two sets of parents.
I don't know.
But the lady had a meeting she had to attend to see if she won some presidency thing for, I think, a company or an HOA board.
I don't know.
OK.
This is what happens when you only get part of the conversation when you overhear it.
Not eavesdropping.
I was not eavesdropping.
They were really talking next to you.
But they were right next to me.
So she took a meeting in the car, like in the train car, like a Zoom meeting, and then showed her Zoom meeting the car and everybody waved.
And I tried to like nudge myself back.
I thought that was funny.
Anyway, moving.
Went to Islands.
What did I do in Islands?
You didn't do any rides?
I don't know if I even did any rides in Islands.
I didn't do Haggard's.
I didn't do Velocicoaster.
Oh, I think I got on Spider-Man.
OK.
Because I was doing what you did either.
So well, I did Green Gots because that was a walk on.
I did single rider for that.
But that's not an Island.
No, it's not.
What do I do in studios?
I did Green Gots.
Men in Black.
No, it was still closed.
Didn't do ET.
Didn't do Simpsons.
I don't know.
I don't think you texted me either.
No, I did.
You did?
Yes.
Oh, I did Transformers.
That was a walk on.
Literally a walk on.
It was like a 35 minute wait.
Get in the single rider line.
I just walk all the way up to the front and he immediately puts me in the line.
So I thought that was fun.
Same thing for Green Gots.
I get in the single rider line, walk through, grab my glasses, walk up the stair steps.
I think there was one couple in front of me, but they got seated.
It was like a two minute wait for Green Gots.
So I had gone on the train, went over to Islands, skipped Velocicoaster, skipped Kong, skipped
Jurassic Park ride.
River Adventure.
Skipped River Adventure.
Walked through Toon Lagoon.
Got on Spider-Man.
Oh wait, no, no.
Spider-Man was delayed, walked through to Hulk because it was said it was like a 50
minute wait or 30 minute wait in between there.
A time.
Got in single rider, got on almost immediately, did that, walked back to Spider-Man.
It was opened.
So I got in the single rider line.
The line, the sign lied to me.
It was not open.
It was still delayed.
Oh.
I ended up sitting in that single rider queue line for 30 minutes.
It was not fun.
Was that the last one?
That was the last one.
Then he came out of the park, met up with us, and we walked right back into Islands.
Pretty much.
Where you proceeded to spend, I think the rest of the time in...
Soos Land.
Which sucked.
I thought it was fun.
So this is where I trip.
No, sorry, the cat just tried to bite me and scared me.
Well, what did you do to offend him?
Nothing.
I just did this and then he tried to bite my elbow.
Anyway, so this is where the fun part of my trip comes in.
So you went on a bunch of rides with Jack.
You did Cat in the Hat, High in the Sky, Soos Trolley Train Ride.
I'll go through my experience, Yuko.
We went on rides.
Yes.
So while I was waiting for you, me and Rose watched one of the street shows.
It's like the Lorac Show.
Yeah.
The person telling the story of the Loracs.
Yeah.
Trees, sapling the thing.
Rose liked it.
A bunch of other kids liked it.
But in the meantime, I was kind of just sitting underneath the track for the High in the Sky, Soos Trolley.
Right underneath the track was above where the Grinch meet and greet is.
And I was right outside the doors across the street because I wanted to see if I could see a snippet of the Grinch.
Like if he came out and interacted with the Hoos that were out in the street or maybe interacted with the guests that were in the line waiting.
So while I was waiting, one of the Hoos came up to Rose and was like, Oh, I love your sleigh.
I hope you have a good driver, yada, yada, yada.
Basically just saying, hopefully I'm a good driver.
Rose was very indifferent.
And then the Grinch came out, interacted with some Hoos that were right in front of the store.
Not the store, the meet and greet.
I forgot what happened, but oh, there was a girl who which I'm, what's the one who that the Grinch likes?
Martha.
Yeah, I think it was Martha, Mae and the other boy who.
He comes out, he kind of like shoves the boy who to the side and then he kind of like flails over Martha Mae.
I thought it was really funny.
And then he storms back inside.
And then the last who interaction I had, I was feeding Rose some crackers, like a little teether crackers.
And who comes up holding a present and was like, I need your opinion on this present.
Talking to Rose.
And he starts listing the things that were in this present.
He was like, I have like duct tape, cement, cinder blocks, bricks.
And they list a couple of the things that probably shouldn't be in a present.
And he's like, do you think that's a good present?
And then looking at Rose.
And then she kind of just looks up at me and he goes, oh, maybe she wants your opinion.
He's like, what do you think?
I'm like, oh, it's a good present.
And he goes, thank you.
And then he leaves.
It's very funny.
And he had to be there.
I was not.
I recommend interacting with the Hoos.
They were very fun.
It was kind of like Halloween Horror Nights in a sense, because there was like a whole bunch of like Hoos just walking around Whoville.
But instead of scaring, they're being friendly?
So, okay.
Very fun.
Not like a scare zone.
Some girl dressed up in like a Santa Claus like dress and whatnot.
Looked really good.
And a bunch of Hoos like gathered around her and said, oh, we're going to make you a...
They basically made her an honorary Hoos.
So I thought that was kind of funny.
All right.
Your turn.
So we decide to go on more rides.
This entire time, I'm also trying to encourage Nick to go on rides with Jack.
But Nick insisted that Jack live better with me.
So I got stuck on all the rides, which is fine.
But when you have a kid who just literally sits there, it's not as enjoyable.
Well, he is only two.
I know.
So the first ride we went on was one fish, two fish, I think.
No, it was cat in the hat.
We went on cat in the hat first.
We went on it, got two other guys on the same cart as us, which is made me worried at first.
Because with my experience of young adult males, they're rowdy and don't seem to care that children around and spew profanity.
Yes.
Which upsets me as a person always around small children.
That is true.
They were fine.
They were very polite, I guess.
They didn't interact with us.
But during our ride, we were passing.
What was it?
I think we went past the scene where the thing characters pushed the piano down.
Then you get the delayed crash sound, which scared Jack really badly.
He did not appreciate being spooked.
That ride is now a horror ride to him, I guess.
That's what I've been saying.
But not because of the eyeless things.
It's dark and the things keep jump-scared you.
He did not appreciate it.
He wasn't upset by it, but he kept jumping.
Anyway, so we passed the piano scene and I hear a voice over to Intercom go, lights on.
Okay.
Then a split second later, the lights come on in the ride.
I was like, oh, well, that's fine.
Still kind of going through the ride with the lights on.
I was like, okay, I guess they're just doing some maintenance.
Then the ride stops.
Like, oh, no, we're going to be stuck in this ride with a two-year-old.
We're in the part with the laundry flying around.
So you just have these spinny fans above us.
Jack was kind of confused, but not upset.
And then we started just kind of scooting forward.
We would go a little bit, then stop and go a little bit, then stop.
And I could see by looking around, it was like one cart would move,
and then the next cart would move where that cart was.
So it was like a weird traffic kind of thing.
And then eventually I hear the Intercom person go, lights off.
Then the lights go off and then continues as normal.
So we weren't in there for very long, but it's like, well, okay then.
Then we went on one fish, two fish.
We wait in line.
One of the TMs whose name I wish I got, super friendly, super energetic.
She kept singing to everyone.
She'd be like, fish one to you.
That was a horrible, what's the word I'm going for?
React, no, not reaction.
Recreation.
But anyway, we get on our fish.
We're sitting there.
They're going around what I thought was checking seat belts and stuff.
And then suddenly I see them walking around.
They're like, okay, please exit the fish and go to the exit.
I'm like, what?
We're just sitting here.
Like, what is going on?
Everyone's getting out, exiting.
No one else knew what was happening.
Everyone else was just confused as to why we're exiting.
We leave.
We stay by the exit hoping to get an explanation.
Never did.
People in the line were also kind of staying there, but some left.
So I was really confused as to what happened.
I think what happened was one of the fish, like one of the toggles, the toggles to make it go up and down was broken.
That's what I can tell or guess from just blurbs of words happening.
So that ride also broke down, which was great.
So we didn't ride that ride.
Then did we go to the trolley next then?
Yeah.
OK.
We go on the trolley ride.
We didn't really look at the line time when we got in, which is 45 minutes.
Yeah.
So Jack and I are in line.
Jack doesn't want to be put down, so I'm holding him this entire time and he's not a small child anymore.
He's heavy.
But I'm just holding him.
He's fine as long as I'm holding him.
We get closer to the front.
I'm texting Nick because it's like, hey, this is a really long wait.
What do you want me to do?
And Nick kept saying up to you.
So I stayed in line because I said we waited this long, might as well at least finish.
We get to the front of the line, literally the front of the line.
I'm the first person in line with Jack.
And then there's a ride delay.
Don't you ask if you can get front row?
I didn't ask.
There was a TM there whose name I forgot again.
I really shouldn't have gotten names.
You should have.
Because he was super friendly.
All the TM's on the trolley that time were super friendly because there were three of them.
One was telling dad jokes.
One was just the one who was updating.
And the other guy was the one who told us, like, hey, I got express people in line over here,
but I will get you guys to the front of the train if I can.
And he was like super friendly.
But anyway, the ride broke down.
It was not just delay.
There were two trains out on the track and they were a little stuck with people on them.
So they had to pull the trains through and then send the trains out as a test run before we can go on.
And that spent another 30 minutes of us just waiting.
That time I was stubborn because while I was watching the lines and even the people waiting for the trains, they left.
So the whole area of the ride was just empty.
I was just stubborn because I was like, we're in the front of the line.
I don't want to leave.
So we eventually got on the train because the test run worked.
We got the front row.
I got a track that I never got before, which was basically like a girl reading the names of the books and stuff.
And I was just like, oh, look over here.
You'll see the cat in the hat ride.
Look over here.
You'll see the sneetches on the beaches and stuff like that.
I don't know why I've never gotten it, but oh well.
And naked fiddling with stuff and not paying attention.
No, because on the back.
OK, so we're using little portable DJI mics because I haven't.
Maybe you should attach the mic.
I don't like to because we haven't unpacked our computer.
And on the back of our little mics, there's like little clips so you can clip it to things.
And there's this clear tape thing on the back of it.
Kind of like, you know, on screens.
It has that, in my opinion, pointless little screen cover thingy that you peel off.
It kind of looks like that's on the back of the clip.
Not mine. Mine just looks like yours.
No, don't touch mine.
You're breaking your mind.
Don't touch mine.
Let me see yours.
Yeah, see, you got it coming up.
Where? Let me see.
Oh, never mind.
I was looking at the wrong thing.
I think it is just a sticker.
That's just a sticker.
Stop peeling it.
You peeled it first.
Stop touching your mic.
Okay, I'm done. Sorry.
Anyway, go on the train ride.
Front row. Very nice.
Then we leave.
Because at that point it was getting really late.
Nope.
No, we don't leave, leave.
But we don't get to go on Hippogriff.
So what happened next is you got off the train.
Backing up a little.
While I was in line for the train, the Hogwarts train,
I was seeing like where I could get some hot chocolate.
And then I saw they had a hot chocolate bomb.
So I did a little research and there was a shop in Seuss Landing,
the ice cream shop.
I forget what it's called.
Do you need me to look it up?
If you want to.
Probably should.
And it had a Grinch hot chocolate bomb.
Can I have your phone?
Where's your phone?
I don't know.
I need my...
It was a Grinch hot chocolate bomb.
So either you could get the hot chocolate bomb,
a la carte, just the hot chocolate bomb for like, I think, five bucks.
Or for eight dollars, you can get a cup of hot chocolate
that you can put this hot chocolate bomb in.
So I wanted to get that.
So when she was done with her train, her trolley ride,
we went to go get some hot chocolate.
Got the hot chocolate bomb.
Pop on Pop ice cream shop.
Yep. That's the one.
I remember that now because I made fun of you.
Yep.
Got the hot chocolate bomb.
And I also got two sugar cookies.
Well, one sugar cookie, but it's like a two pack.
You clearly said, I'm like, hey, do you want a sugar cookie?
Because I saw the lady like putting powdered sugar on them.
They're like Grinch themed.
I'm like, oh, those look really good.
I want to try them.
They're only like five bucks.
I'm like, hey, Melody, do you want some sugar cookies?
No, I don't like sugar cookies.
Because I don't.
So I get them.
We kind of like find a little side area where we could like sit down.
You put the hot chocolate bomb in.
We do like the little recording of it.
So we may post that later if it's decent.
It's boring though.
It wasn't until later when the hot chocolate got green.
Because like the film made it green.
But the melty part was really anticlimactic.
So I started eating my sugar cookie and I gave some to Jack.
And I gave a little piece to Rose.
And then you looked at me.
You're like, can I have a piece?
Why not have a small piece?
So I gave you a small piece.
And then you're like, oh, I like this.
Because it was nice and soft and warm and it was good.
I don't like sugar cookies.
OK.
Growing up, we always made sugar cookies for the holidays.
And they were fun to make because, you know, we decorated them and put icing and all that stuff.
Man, those cookies tasted like to me.
They were dry and hard and just not fun to eat.
So I was really surprised to see you just easily just go, oh, let me just tear this fluffy thing apart.
Excuse me.
That is not a sugar cookie.
It was really good.
I like soft cookies.
I love soft cookies.
Hence why I like chocolate chip.
So when I said I don't like sugar cookies, I was expecting a hard brick.
I was not expecting the soft green deliciousness covered in powdered sugar that you got.
OK.
It was really good.
I debated I'm debating going back, driving 60 miles just to go get the sugar cookies.
Anyways, got the sugar cookies and then we left.
You know, starting to get dark and already the kids didn't have naps.
So we're like, we need to get home.
Yeah.
We grab some red oven pizza bakery.
Red oven.
Bakery.
Yes.
Red oven.
It's either red oven bakery or red oven pizza.
I can look it up.
It's whatever.
We got the pizza in the city and then we went back to our Airbnb, ate our pizza, went to
the red oven pizza bakery.
There we go.
And went to bed.
That was our universal day.
Kids did enjoy the ride back, but we gave them snacks and made it slightly better.
Next day, we went to Wild Florida.
What's it actually?
Is it just Wild Florida?
I think it's called just Wild Florida.
They have a drive through safari.
When I, when you told me we were doing a drive through safari.
And yes, it is just Wild Florida.
I was like, oh, okay.
It's kind of going to be like Jurassic Park where you drive through, you got the fences
on either side and the animals are just, you know, right there on that side of the fence.
Oh no, you're in the enclosure.
Yes.
That's what I was expecting.
I was not expecting that.
Oh, no, like we're driving over poop and stuff, animals crossing the road.
Like, yeah.
We had like a big rhino type thing.
Rhino?
I don't know.
It was a big animal with horns.
Bison.
Yeah, sir.
A bison.
Or like one of those cows with like two feet horns.
It was like, I can probably touch it if I stick my hand out the window.
That's how close it was.
Yes.
What you cannot do.
You cannot put the animals, you cannot feed the animals.
Which disappointed me.
I was hoping we would get like a big bucket of like animal food, feed them.
That would have been cool.
They should do.
I don't know why they don't do that.
Probably just safety.
That's probably a whole waiver thing because animals are going to be going into your car.
And the amount of insurance you have to have.
Yeah.
What if a rhino rams your car?
There are no rhinos.
Anyways, we did that.
We fed some giraffes.
That was fun.
Not a video of that one.
Jack was, he liked it, but he was also nervous because he just threw one of the leaves at the giraffe.
Which was kind of disappointing.
Because then it just fell to the ground and the giraffe was like, excuse me.
We'll probably post the, we bought a, bought the DJI 5, DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro.
Because my idea was, oh, I'm going to put it on our dash and record us, you know, driving through and it's going to be all cool.
And then I also got like a chest mount.
I was going to put it on Jack because the, so the Wild Florida, they have the safari.
They have some other, they have like an airboat.
They have an airboat ride and the Gator Park, which is basically a zoo.
Yeah.
So when we went to Gator Park, they had a petting zoo.
So my idea was, oh, I'm going to get a chest mount for Jack.
I'm going to strap it to him and get like.
Basically a harness with a camera attached.
Yes. And I'm going to get like a kid's point of view and it's going to be really cute.
Well, the chest mount didn't fit, so I couldn't do that.
Jack is so small and skinny that even the harness on it, smaller strap setting was still a bit too big.
Yep. So I took him to the petting zoo.
He loved the petting zoo so much he did not want to leave.
Yeah.
He loved petting the goats and just patting the pig.
He was very, he was very good with the goats.
Yes, he was.
He was probably good because he was a little scared.
He would pet their butts and then if they like turned toward him, he was like, ah, goodbye.
Pretty much.
What else? We saw some capybara.
From a distance.
From a distance, unfortunately.
Lots of birds.
That's about it.
Went back to the Airbnb.
Had lunch at the zoo.
Went back to the Airbnb.
Went swimming.
At the Airbnb.
That was fun.
He did pool.
He did.
It was cold.
Yep.
Started sprinkling too, which made it interesting.
Yep.
Next day.
Legoland.
We went to Legoland, but before we went to Legoland, because we didn't do research, and
this is what happens when you don't use a travel agent and you don't do your research
well enough.
Legoland was what?
An hour and 10 minutes away from our Airbnb when we thought it was probably only going
to be like 20 or 30.
So we left later in the day.
So we left after their nap.
I thought we left at their nap.
No, we left during their nap.
So that they would sleep in the car.
But beforehand, I went back to Universal, because I have never seen the Grinchmas show.
And I asked you three times, do you care about the Grinchmas show?
And you said no three times.
Okay.
So I went by myself, watched it, pretty good.
I liked it.
It's very musically.
Surprising that you liked it then.
It's basically, they basically just retell the Grinch story.
Yeah.
Left the Grinch, found out Men in Black was open, walked over to Men in Black, only to
get there to realize it is delayed.
So I wasted all that time, turned around, walked back, got some voodoo donuts.
You said to get six, I got 12.
You should have listened to me.
I should have listened, but it's whatever.
Kids liked the donuts after we got home.
They like, I was not fully paying attention and Jack grabbed the bag of donuts.
And I was in the middle, I don't remember what I was doing, but I turned around and I just
see him running across the living room with a donut, like two donuts in his hands.
Great.
Okay, that's going to be fun to clean.
Because he also gave some to Rose and Rose was eating it.
And Henry, our dog, is also licking donut off the floor.
I'm like, oh, okay.
I didn't know about that.
I thought you just gave him two donuts for breakfast.
Not that he stole a bag of donuts.
Well, he technically only had two because I put Henry in his crate, cleaned up and put
Rose in her seat, gave her more donut.
Why not?
And then had him sit down.
It was fine.
He was very happy.
Messy, but happy.
We went to Legoland.
This is where more research should have been done.
Sure, yes.
Forgot our formula back at the Airbnb because it was my fault because I forgot to pack it.
So I went to run into Walmart, buy some formula.
It was fortunately very close to Legoland.
Like we passed the Walmart, realized we didn't have formula.
Did a U-turn, went to Walmart really quick.
Just went back to our trip to Legoland.
So got to Legoland, scanned.
We prepaid for preferred parking.
We drove past preferred parking, went to the hotel on accident because apparently they
have a Lego hotel.
And like valet parking too, I think.
Yeah.
Made a U-turn, found preferred parking because there's like a yellow line for the hotel,
I think.
And then there's a blue line for preferred parking.
Well, where you turn for preferred parking, it's all faded.
So we thought we had to continue straight.
You do not continue straight.
We couldn't see the blue line.
And somehow completely missed the blue line.
It's like exactly where the turn was, there was no blue line.
So we're like, did we keep going straight?
Did we turn here?
I guess straight because we can see a line going that way.
So we found our parking spot, got in the park.
Very convenient spot too.
Now this is where planning should have been done even further.
We didn't even see if he could ride anything before.
Wait, I did.
I put in his height and like a whole bunch of rides came up.
I was like, oh, okay, good rides.
Good.
Lots of rides at like a land.
It's for kids.
Good.
Let's go.
So we get in the park and we're walking past ride after ride after ride of stuff he cannot
ride.
He's just shy of the height.
A lot of them was like, what, 40 inches and he's 36.
Yeah.
Well, okay.
Almost 37.
And also there are some rides where he could ride, but he would have to go by himself.
And they're like, not yet.
So you do like a little cycle ride.
I hated that cycle ride.
It was like electric bike or something.
Techno, techno bike.
One where you have to pedal to make your bike go up in the air.
That ride is not built for tall people because my knees kept hitting the bar.
Painful because you also have to pedal pretty fast to actually go up.
And as soon as you stop pedaling, it immediately starts making you go down.
So every time I knee would hit the bar, I would stop pedaling, obviously.
So we would jerk and go down.
So it was really awkward because everyone else is just going, and then are there are
there like bump, bump, bump, bump, bump.
Like, oh my gosh, I hate this.
And also the workers had switched right before the ride.
So we also got like a shorter ride.
So the the wait time was 10 minutes when you got in.
You were in line for like 25 or 30 because the lady who is running the ride
was letting everybody go long.
And then the second you got on the ride, there was also like one of the bikes
wasn't working or something.
So that there was only two people or bike, but still.
And then when it got to your turn, they switched and the dude was shorter.
Anyway, so while you were on that ride, I continued straight forward.
I walked past like a boat ride that you could do with him.
And then I found the little like Lego car like driving school.
Oh, no.
I realized he couldn't do that.
The fire truck. We went to the go cart area together.
I went to the go cart area before you.
Oh, that's how I knew it was over there.
OK, fine.
Once a round of the fire truck stuff because it said 34 inches, I think.
So I'm like, oh, Jack can do this.
Watched it, decided he could not do it because it was a very like involved,
like team building exercise, which Jack would not have no done
because you got to like two people have to like push this lever up
and down to make the fire truck go forward while the other person,
I think, just sits there.
And then you get off the fire truck, two people pump the water.
And then one person sprays the water on the fire.
Jack would not have done well. No.
So we walked over there, looked at that with you, walked out.
We did not go on the boat ride.
Did not do the boat ride because that was too long of a wait.
And people were like driving their boats into each other.
Yeah. Walked over to what, Ninjago?
We walked to the go cart area.
Realized it was a dead end.
Had to turn around and like go out.
It was another area where Jack technically could ride,
but he had to go by himself.
So we didn't.
So we go over to Ninjago.
You do the what's the ride called?
I just called it the Ninjago ride.
I think it is called just the Ninjago ride.
It was basically like a 3D like, and now we take a pause
and now we have a tiny child with us.
So anyways, will you go on the Ninjago ride while I'm watching Rose?
And it's basically a ride where you put on 3D glasses,
you get in like a cart and you have to like wave your hand
over this sensor that like shoots your fire bolts at the screen.
I don't know.
And it like keeps your score or whatever.
You're like firing fire bolts at the bad guys.
Pretty much.
So you get off this ride, you're like,
oh, it's a walk on you and Jack should go do it.
And I'm like, why don't we all go do it?
Because we looked at the height requirement and it didn't really give one.
It basically just said if the kid can sit alone,
if the kid can sit alone, they can ride it.
And while Rose can sit alone.
So Rose is like what half the size of Jack?
Hmm.
So we did get her.
She's 30 inches.
Mm hmm.
Oh, she's only she's so she's not half of his height.
Considering he's 36.
Yes.
So anyways, we get up to the front, we grab our glasses,
we ask a ride attendant, hey, can she ride?
And they're like, oh, can she sit alone?
Like, do you have to hold her or anything?
And we're like, no, she can sit.
Obviously worried because she's a baby.
Yeah.
And I was like, I'm not trying to be a Karen here.
Like, I just I will not ride it if you tell us.
Like our plan was like if they took a look at her and said, oh, she can't.
Your plan was just walk through the exit.
And just completely be fine.
Yeah.
But then they're like, OK.
So it was on them.
They asked a bunch of questions and we answered them all correctly, truthfully.
And they let her ride.
So Rose did fine.
She sat there on her own.
Jack did fine a second time.
I did terrible.
Rose did not wear the 3D glasses.
She got a very blurry show.
Jack was fine, but I was not going to make her.
Wear the glasses.
So our first family ride together as an entire family was the Ninjago ride at Legoland.
Got off the ride.
I'm like, oh, we need that picture because, you know, it's our first family ride.
Get to the photo booth.
No one's there.
Nope.
We walk around the corner to where like it's the store now.
We're like, hey, is there anybody working the photo booth?
And they're like, oh, there's no photo booth there.
It's like, yes, there is.
There's just no photo booth.
But I'm like, OK, whatever.
I'm like, oh, where do I get the photo then?
Like, oh, you get it over there.
Kind of just pointing out towards the park.
Yeah.
I'm like, OK, thanks.
And I leave and I start looking around for another photo booth.
No photo booth to be found.
Turns out you have to go to the front of the park and basically just tell them what time you rode the ride.
And they found it.
So we got it at the end of the day.
What else did you do?
At this point, we're talking about leaving the park.
We knew there was one more train ride on the way out because I looked it up on the app.
It's when we were looking up what rides he can ride.
And then we went through like a winter castle thingy on the way out.
I'm pretty sure it's like a Christmas area, which I don't know what it would normally be.
No, I think it's like just a castle.
They explained the ride then because it was like a gingerbread train.
Is it always a gingerbread train?
Probably.
OK.
Oh, we passed a safari ride before the safari ride.
Jack liked the safari ride because he got to point out the animals.
I was not expecting to be sprayed at by an elephant, but we didn't get too wet.
It was just inconvenient.
He liked it.
He liked to steer the steering wheel.
Then we went to the castle area.
They had one of those spinny rides that you find at fairs.
I don't know what they're called.
I don't know either.
It's just basically a circle.
There's just like car after car after car after car.
It's just a circle of cars.
You go really fast while also like kind of bumping up and down over like a hill.
OK.
You just go really, really fast in a circle.
OK.
I'm explaining the ride.
I don't know what ride you're talking about.
Oh, that ride.
Yes.
You're explaining that terribly.
OK.
Then you explain it.
I can't.
You just sit, you spin in a circle really fast.
Smaller person has to be on the outside because you will get smooshed.
OK.
I know because I've been on the inside with my same size sister and I was smooshed.
That's fun.
Anyway, we went on that twice because the ride attendant was just like, oh, if you want to ride again, just stay in your cart.
Yeah, because there was like nobody in line.
So she just kept doing it for people who wanted to stay on it.
Yeah.
And kids, you can ride again if your parents are OK with it.
Yeah.
Then we.
Oh, wait.
When do we do like the mummy ride?
I think it was.
I don't remember if it was before or after the train.
I think it was before.
Oh.
Because the train was the last ride.
OK.
So you did the mummy ride.
You said it was like what a men in black style ride with like a gun and shooty things.
Like shooting light at things.
But.
Was it more responsive than the Nijongo ride?
Yes.
Lucky.
You're shooting stuff and it was really nice because if you actually shot something correctly, the thing would react like there were some pots with like snakes in them.
And then if you shot the pot, the snake would like pop out.
That's cool.
Like shoot doors and stuff.
Bats would like flap their wings.
I wish I went on it.
I told you to.
Well, you didn't.
Yes, I did.
You got off the ride and like, all right, where to now?
The picture for that ride wasn't too great either.
It was me trying to hand the gun to Jack and Jack was just like, no, I don't know what to do with this.
He didn't fully understand.
It's like, click the button.
You get to like pretend it was kids.
They don't see the light.
They're just like, what am I doing with this?
But yeah, it was a cute little ride.
No, it's then we went to the castle land, the spinning ride.
Then we left.
Yes, we walked.
That wasn't even the train ride that we were heading towards.
No, it's not a train ride.
The carts just looked like a train because it was a gingerbread train going in a circle.
OK, OK.
Anyway, so we left, got Taco Bell on the way home, ate some Taco Bell, went to sleep, left for home.
That Taco Bell also was not as fun.
No, it wasn't.
Because they were getting antsy again, just lots of long car rides.
Because like we said, like a land was like an hour away.
And then Nick went in to get the Taco Bell food, which took about what, 15, 20 minutes?
Yeah.
And then comes out with the food.
Then he's like, wait, do they have your bowl?
Because I got one of those chicken power bowl thingies.
Yeah.
Then I was like, no.
He's like, oh, went back in, spent like another 15 minutes.
So I stood there for like three minutes while they were all just talking in the back.
And then one of them finally recognized me and they're like, oh, hey, what do you need?
I'm like, oh, you forgot a power bowl.
And then he turns around and he goes, you forgot a whole bowl.
And I thought that was kind of funny.
And then I watched them make everything but a power bowl.
And they just fulfilled orders and then randomly a dude walks towards me and hands me a bowl.
I'm like, when did you make this?
I saw you making tacos and chalupas.
It was like probably a pre-made thing that they just had to pull out, but they're just trying to fill everything up first.
Probably.
Anyway, I just went back to the Airbnb, ate dinner, and drove home the next day.
Yep.
And now we're here.
Yep.
And now we get to talk about next year's vacation.
Oh, yeah, I forgot we're doing that.
This should be brief.
It'll be brief.
Next year, we are expanding our coverage.
For one trip.
For one day.
Yes.
We are taking a train ride from Tampa.
Amtrak?
We're taking a train ride from Tampa up to Chicago and then from Chicago over to Los Angeles.
Where we will get a hotel across the street from Universal.
And Hollywood.
And we will be going to Universal Hollywood Studios.
Hopefully this day is a reality because it is expensive.
And a year away.
Plenty of time for stuff to just go haywire and completely change your plans.
I think the train ride itself is $5,200 something.
Well, we also want to get the room.
We're getting a bedroom.
I could do it for like $1,000 and we could just sleep and coach, but I'm not going to do that.
When I could be sleeping in a nice comfy bunk.
Oh, yes.
So much better.
And have my own bathroom and my own shower.
So we'll be taking a 52 hour, I think it is, train ride.
It's like three days.
That's all I can remember.
Three or four days.
It was 52 hours, I think.
Okay.
All the way up to California and doing Universal Studios Hollywood.
Where we will be doing a VIP tour because I cannot be bothered to wait in lines.
Oh my word.
And we also only have one day and I want to see everything.
And with this tour, you get to do like the backlots and like see behind the scenes type stuff.
So that'll be cool.
I'm trying to think of if we would even be doing this trip if we didn't have a podcast.
I would.
But maybe not the VIP tour.
No, I would do the VIP tour.
I think we would have gotten like the express pass.
No, I'd do the VIP tour.
Fine.
Because VIP tour, you can like see behind the scenes of like movie production stuff.
Okay.
Because it's still an active film lot.
I know.
See some celebrities.
That would be really cool.
We probably might even see celebrities and just not have any clue as to who they are.
Probably.
Anyways, that's the episode.
Do you have anything else?
That was our very brief trip line.
That's our trip recap.
And we would fly home.
Yeah, we would fly home.
Not be there again.
All right, hopefully.
And that'd be a kidless trip.
We were doing a kidless trip because I do not want to try and drag a three-year-old
on a 52-hour tiny room train trip.
Yeah, just stuck in a train.
He would hate it.
Would have no room to run around.
It would be terrible.
And trains also rock.
Who knows if he would even be able to sleep.
That too.
All right.
That's the episode.
Anything else, Tad?
This is our just random trip episode because this is just going to be our little rough
day.
Push back into our regular schedule, hopefully.
Yep.
All right.
Bye-bye.
You got anything to say, Cat?
All right.
Riveting.
All right.
Bye-bye.
See you next time.