Welcome to another Universal Orlando Podcast, I'm Nick.
And I'm Melody.
And she is cuddled up in her $10,000 blanket.
Shut up.
We are back.
It has been a very hectic two months.
We said we would be back.
I posted the other episode and I checked the dates literally a month after.
The last one we did was November 4th, no, December 4th.
Then I posted the last one January 4th.
Good job.
That's what happens when you take a vacation, work gets piled up, we take another trip to
Miami for New Year's.
And children.
And kids needing to get back to their schedule and just not having time to edit.
It was a very hectic time.
Yes.
But it's over, hopefully we will be back on a regular schedule.
We also said that last time and it took us two weeks to post it.
To be fair, we also had another trip to Miami.
Yeah.
It was in between.
Sorry.
Oh well.
We have no sponsors.
We are not beholden to anyone.
And we're back to better mics this week.
Editing will not be a pain in the butt.
We hope.
That's much.
Anyways, news episode, the end.
Just the foreshadowing of what's going to be in this.
Take it away with socials.
Socials.
We're on Instagram and Twitter slash X.
You can find us at another universal podcast on Instagram and another UO pod on Twitter.
Oh, and another thing that happened is we built a gaming PC.
My dad's old PC broke.
It was overheating.
So he gave me the remnants of what was left.
And he's like, here, you can build yourself a PC.
So I took it, built myself a PC, quickly realized that I could have just bought a prebuilt one
for the same price and had none of the headache.
But it's built now.
Yay.
It is currently sitting below my desk, flashing many pretty colors.
My GPU temperature is 36 degrees Celsius.
No one cares.
And my CPU temp is now 36 degrees Celsius.
I finally figured out how to see my CPU temperature because it matters.
Anyways, no one really cares.
News.
We are talking pass holder benefits today.
And some other stuff that we'll get to at the end.
Oh my word, was it hard to find this page?
I Googled it.
Googled and come up with anything.
The way I found it is on the Universal Orlando website.
I went to pass holders and then I went to AP event perks and found it.
Oh.
Well, when I clicked on, when I Googled Universal Studios January 2025 pass holder benefit,
pass holder extra benefits or some wording like that, my exact title came up with a Universal
website, clicked on it.
It was just comparing two different passes.
I'm like, that's not what I want.
Yeah.
I had to go to Orlando Informer and then clicked on a link that they provided.
Moving on.
Save 40% of rooms at select Universal hotels.
This is also ending January 31st.
Not going to say when it starts because it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
It's by the time this comes out, it'll probably be halfway over.
Because it started.
Actually, no.
It started today.
Yeah.
For us, recording day.
Today is the 6th of January and it starts on January 6th.
Anyways, save 40.
I'm not even going to read the 40% off because by the time this episode comes out, it's going
to be gone.
I'm telling you, the rooms are already gone right now as of recording because they sell
out within the first like hour.
Sometimes I don't even bother trying to get a pass holder rate.
Now, this is what I'm excited for.
Let them know where you belong with a new lanyard.
To celebrate all that's happening this year, like the opening of our fourth park, Universal
Epic Universe, we've created a special bonus benefits lanyard that you'll probably pass
down to your grandchildren.
Get them while they're hot, they're going to be hot.
I probably will not be passing this down to my grandchildren because I will probably lose
it within a month.
Yep.
It is a cool looking lanyard, in my opinion at least.
Like you have the daytime side and then the nighttime side.
I think that's kind of cool.
I'm thinking of taking a special trip, maybe either Thursday or Friday to go pick it up.
Thursday or Sunday.
Moving on.
On your way to your table, pass holders can enjoy exclusive upstairs patio dining space
and exclusive menu items at Confisco Grill.
Which is normal.
And if you don't know where that's at, that's at Islands of Adventure.
You're going to walk right through the main gate.
Keep walking, turn right somewhere and you will see it.
What did I just click?
If you reached Hulk, you went too far.
There you go.
Or if you start heading to Sooth Land, go back.
Oh, I did something.
What did you do?
So we have the Razer Basslic V3 Pro for our mouse.
And I clicked, it has three extra side buttons where my thumb usually rests.
And I clicked something and I don't know what I did.
Oh, does that just like lower my sensitivity while I'm holding it down?
You can tell how much I don't understand about this.
Just continue.
Moving on.
Valid January 6, 231st, 2025 from 12 p.m. until 30 minutes before park close.
Terms and conditions apply.
Exclusive menu items for pass holders.
Flash your pass at Flash your pass and ask your server for exclusive menu items that
no one else can get.
All kinds of goodness is exclusive, exclusively yours at Universal City Walk, Islands of Adventure
and Universal Studios Florida at select locations.
Do I get to read anything?
Yeah, you read all of this food while I try and figure out how to lower my mouse sensitivity
because I messed that up somehow.
In Universal City Walk, you can get the Grand Slam Burger at NBC Sports Grill and Brew.
It's a, do I read what it is or do I just move on?
You decide.
Oh, OK.
There's not that much, so I'll read what it is.
Patty Burger topped with cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, barbecue ranch and onion rings on
a brioche bun.
Twenty three ninety five plus tax.
Then you got the cream brulee at the Two Thumb Chocolate Emporium and Savory Feast Kitchen.
Cream brulee on French toast with vanilla maple syrup and Grand Marnier mace serrated
berries.
Mace serrated?
I don't know.
Fourteen ninety five plus tax.
Then you got a chocolate peanut butter explosion also at the Two Thumb Chocolate Emporium and
Savory Feast Kitchen.
Chocolate ice cream mixed with peanut butter and chocolate sauce, chocolate whipped cream,
Reese's Pieces, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie.
Eighteen dollars plus tax.
I think this is an unpopular opinion or maybe I'm not sure.
I don't care much for Reese's Pieces.
I like their cups, but not like the weird M&M thingies.
You?
I'm messing.
What?
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups?
Yes, I love them.
They're great.
I was talking about Reese's Pieces.
Oh, I hate them.
I hate those.
They're disgusting.
OK, good.
Then we agree.
Move on.
I think I figured out how to do the sensitivity.
Great.
Shut up.
I'm talking about food.
In Universal Studios, you can get seafood risotto at Lombard Seafood Grill.
Lobster, clams, mussels, shrimp and cream.
Fraysh finished with parsley oil.
Forty two dollars plus tax.
What's forty two dollars?
The seafood risotto.
Yum.
It has lobster, clams, mussels, shrimp and this cream fraysh with parsley oil.
Very expensive.
In Universal Islands of Adventure, you can get s'mores croffle sundae at Croissant Moon
Bakery, vanilla ice cream, toasted marshmallow topping, chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, graham
cracker crumbles, waffled croissant bowl and Hershey's chocolate for nine forty nine plus
tax.
Yum.
Then you can get wagyu beef sliders at Confisco Grill, coffee bacon jam, aged cheddar cheese,
hot honey mayo, arugula, crispy onions and served on pretzel bun.
Twenty ninety five plus tax.
Expensive sliders.
And finally, Starbucks, which is located all over the park.
Just find one.
They have the vanilla frosted brew, vanilla frappuccino with espresso cold foam.
You can get a tall for seven twenty four, grande seven seventy four and a venti for
eight fourteen.
All plus tax.
Fun.
Ta da.
Did anything stand out to you?
Mainly the seafood risotto just because of how much it was.
You're going to have a forty dollar risotto?
No, I just said that's what I noticed.
I said what interests you?
Like what would you eat off this list?
Well, probably the chocolate peanut butter explosion at Tootham.
That sounds good.
It's a lot of dessert.
It really is.
The stuff that's not dessert is the sliders, the seafood risotto and the Grand Slam burger.
OK, the Grand Slam is basically just a barbecue barbecue ranch.
OK, for twenty four dollars.
I'm good.
I was moving on.
Print it, frame it, hang it on the wall.
Pass holders can enjoy 35 percent off the new My Universal Photos annual package when
purchased in Park from in Park January 6th to 31st.
The keyword is in Park.
You will not be able to find this online.
Is this new?
Why is this saying new?
We got this last year.
Did we get the discount too?
Maybe.
I don't know.
I think we did.
I don't know.
I think we got a discount.
I'm just confused on why it says new because this has been offered before.
Maybe it's the first time they're advertising it.
Who knows?
That could be it.
If you hit the beach early, three park power and seasonal pass holders can take advantage
of early parking mission at Universal Volcano Bay up to 30 minutes prior to park opening
on select dates from January 6th to 31st, 2025.
Especially as it's getting colder.
So enjoy your freezing cold water.
And lastly, enjoy exclusive food and beverage offers at Universal Orlando hotels.
Melody read it.
Oh, lovely.
OK.
Hopefully I'm not going to repeat myself because that'd be great.
At Portofino, one complimentary dessert with the purchase of a lunch or dinner entree at
Trattoria del Porto per pass holder per visit.
Hard Rock Hotel.
Buy one draft beer or house wine.
Get one draft beer or house wine.
Free at the kitchen.
At Royal Pacific.
It's the same thing about the draft beer and wine.
And for some.
Oh, it's the two different places.
OK, you can get that at Jake's American Bar and Island's Dining Room.
And my page froze.
Oh, no.
At Sapphire Falls.
The draft beer and wine thingy at Amatista Cook House at Aventura Hotel.
Buy one length of stay refillable souvenir cup for the price of a three day refillable
souvenir cup at Urban Pantry.
Cabana Bay.
Same thing of the cup.
And the summer surfside inn and suites.
Also cup and a cup also at the dockside inn.
Ta-da.
So basically, it's cups, alcohol, and a dessert at Portofino.
Oh, cups.
Yes.
Like a special pass holder cup?
It says length of stay refillable souvenir cup.
Oh, OK.
I forgot the hotels have special cups, which I find kind of weird.
Hold on.
Let's talk about that.
Why?
I don't know.
I didn't even know they had them.
Why doesn't my freestyle cup that I use at the parks work at the hotels?
Why do I have to get a special cup that works at the hotel and hotel only?
Like I get it's a money grab, but it's annoying.
It's a little stupid and outdated at this point, because let's be honest, how long are
we actually going to be in the actual hotel?
How long will it take to utilize that?
Not long enough to buy a souvenir cup.
Well, I mean, if you want a souvenir cup, then it's cool.
I guess.
But I mean, I guess some people do go there just to stay at the hotel.
Yeah, because some people do go to the hotel and do something else in Orlando.
Moving on.
What was the thing you were researching?
Our next topic and final topic.
Rest in peace, RIP Ride Rocket.
The wrong ride is closing down, but it's fine.
They'll get to Fast and Furious eventually.
It'll come eventually.
It's closing.
I can't find the tweet from Universal that said all of this.
I just find a lot of articles.
I find the articles.
I dug through Universal's Twitter and I couldn't find where they announced this.
I haven't had time to go check the Facebook page, but even then that's going to be lots
of digging because hundreds of people post on there per day.
It is closing from what I remember early September of 2025.
That's what I thought too.
And again, don't remember where I saw this.
And you said you saw Universal post that?
Yeah, it's official.
I know it's official because I remember seeing it in the passholder page.
I just couldn't find it on Twitter.
Trying to look it up.
I specifically looked up Twitter, but yeah, I'm not finding it either.
What do you think's going there?
What I would like, contrary to most of people on Facebook who are complaining and whining
about the minions.
Oh, please don't tell me what I think you're going to say.
I want the silly Fun Park Land coaster or whatever that theme park in the first movie.
I want that coaster.
I want it tore down, rebuilt as a Ghostbusters ride.
Oh yes, that's going to be a thing.
There was a rumor and I can't remember where I saw the rumor.
I want it to be thematic and look nice.
Apparently they're already building a building back there.
I again can't remember where I saw this, but apparently a building is being built somewhere
in the designated zone that they filed permits for.
And apparently it's blue.
It would make sense because the old ride that used to be there was a Ghostbusters ride.
Uh huh, I didn't even know there was a Ghostbusters ride.
It wasn't a ride, it was more of like a walkthrough show, kind of like Poseidon's Fury.
You would walk in, they were basically trying to sell you a Ghostbusters franchise.
And then they would do like, you know, the slime, every like pink gooey slime.
They would get a kid to like do something with it and they would like slime them.
And then you would move on to the next part.
It sounds more like that ride where you're making a movie.
No, and that you're standing the entire time.
And then you would come into like the stage area where they were like demonstrating the
proton packs, I think.
And then the power goes out because the FBI is trying to shut them down.
And then like the walls part behind them and it's a bigger room.
And then they have to fight some ghosts because the FBI dude basically turned off the power
and let the ghosts out.
Okay.
I wish I would have seen it.
This is coming from the knowledge of a grainy video that I saw a couple months ago.
Anyways, what I think it's going to be is, it's going to be a coaster, but you're going
to be on the Ecto-1.
Okay.
That's fine.
Thematically wise, I would still like it to be the Minions coaster, but whatever.
It goes right through the firehouse.
Okay, but that firehouse can turn into the worm thingies that make the worm tunnels that
they go through in the movie.
What would you do with Jimmy Fallon?
I don't know.
I don't care enough.
You can't do it.
What?
Me.
So you have Minion Land, then technically New York because Jimmy Fallon, and then Minion
Land again.
Well.
No.
Where you turn to Rip Ride, it's closer to Minion than Jimmy Fallon.
That is correct.
But the track goes over towards New York.
Whatever.
So.
I want my silly fun land ride.
I do not.
I would like a Ghostbusters ride.
It would make sense because they had a Ghostbusters house.
They then had the Ghostbusters in the parade.
They've been having a lot of Ghostbusters.
Yeah, but there's also been a new Ghostbuster movie recently.
Exactly.
And this last movie I think did very well.
I didn't mind it.
I didn't like it.
Whatever.
I guess if the people themselves were different, then I might have enjoyed it more.
It was just the characters themselves that really annoyed me.
Whatever.
I think it's going to be Ghostbusters.
I am putting my claim on Ghostbusters.
I did some more research.
Oh, surprising.
In this article that I found by, what is it?
Wesh.
I don't know.
It's on Wesh.
Wesh.com.
Anyway, it says near the end, in October, Universal notified Orange County about a contract
with Intamin, one of the world's leading roller coaster builders.
It says it's unknown whether that contract is for work on the project to replace Rip Ride
Rocket.
That would make the most sense.
What other coasters going in at Universal?
A lot of stuff in Epic.
Okay.
Because I did some research into Intamin to see what they had built.
They built Velocicoaster.
Okay.
Gringotts.
Okay.
Hagrid's.
Okay.
They made the Hiccups Winggliders in Epic.
Okay.
And then not Universal related, they made Cheetah Hunt in Busch Gardens, which is only
relevant to us currently because we've been going a lot.
Oh, speaking of Busch Gardens.
So...
Meg was dumb dumb, but I don't think that's what he's talking about.
What?
You were dumb dumb.
How?
You talk about it first, whatever you're talking about.
I have the gold pass, so that means I get five free guest passes per year.
So I took two of my friends because I also got a bonus pass.
So I took me and my two friends to Busch Gardens.
And we went on Iron Gwazi halfway through the day.
One of my friends piped up and said, oh, this coaster goes 76 miles per hour.
And I'm like, that's no way.
Velocicoaster goes 70.
I don't think Iron Gwazi is going to go 76.
I Googled it.
Yep.
It goes 76.
Oh my God.
There's no way I get on Iron Gwazi.
Yep.
It goes 76.
It may have bumped Velocicoaster down one notch for me.
Shame.
You also haven't put your hands up on the roll yet, though.
No, I haven't.
Have you been on Iron Gwazi yet?
No, I'm watching children.
You need to.
It was very intense because for those who don't know, Iron Gwazi used to just be gwazi.
I don't remember what it used to be.
It used to be a wooden coaster and then they reinforced it with wood.
I mean, not wood, iron.
They reinforced the wooden coaster with more wood.
Anyways, it's very intense.
I think it goes upside down.
It's I like it.
It's nothing important because it's not universal.
No, it's not universal.
I just brought up Cheetah Hunt because it was also built by the same people who made
Velocicoaster.
Oh, well, you did this.
Do I talk about you being a dumb dumb now?
Sure.
It's brief.
Busch Gardens made a new coaster, Phoenix Rising, something like that.
Nick was very excited to go on it for some odd reason.
Because they were like, I kept seeing advertisements for it.
They're like, oh, this new coaster.
I'm like, oh, cool.
So we went to Busch Gardens for with the kids.
It's just something we did one day and we walked past the new coaster.
I looked at it and I told Nick, oh, the new coaster is basically a kid's ride, like a
family coaster, not anything big.
Oh, well, move on.
Don't care about the new coaster anymore.
He comes back from his trip with his friends.
He's like, oh, I rode the new coaster.
It's like, well, OK, then I guess that's fine.
What you want?
It was slightly disappointing.
I was like, well, yeah, no, it's a family coaster.
I was like, oh, I didn't know that.
Excuse me.
How do you not know that?
When I told you and even on the app, it says it's a family coaster.
So yes, that is how Nick was a dumb dumb.
He didn't listen.
He was expecting like, I don't know.
Another iron glossy.
Whatever.
Anyways, we're not a Busch Gardens podcast.
Enough with that.
I would like to note my GPU temperature is now 34 degrees Celsius.
No one cares.
My CPU temperature is now 36.1.
I care.
Oh, yeah.
That has been today's episode.
Pass holder benefits.
Goodbye, RipRide.
For now.
Well, until you can still ride it till September.
That's still a long time away.
So, you got time.
I'm going to go on it one more time.
I unfortunately probably should too.
Just so that I can remember and then like, oh yeah, I rode it.
I'm like, what was the other ride that shut down?
Oh, the Woody Woodpecker one we never rode on.
We can probably go during Mardi Gras.
Well, isn't the Caterpillar ride basically Woody Woodpecker anyway?
So it's fine.
Pretty much.
Connor doesn't have a pass anymore.
So I need someone to help me taste food.
I will gladly eat food with you.
I like food.
My plan is we both get one dish and we split it.
Okay.
So we can try everything.
Big brain moves.
Any wrinkles.
No smooth.
Mmm, some smooth, but it's okay.
No, all wrinkle.
Alrighty, that's it.
We'll hopefully see you next week for another episode.
Hey.
Let's hope nothing unforeseen happens.
Hmm.
Don't jinx it, please.
Too late.
Bye bye.
Well, bye bye, everybody.