Welcome to another Universal Orlando podcast.
I'm Nick. This is a travel edition, and that's
Melody. Thanks. You're welcome. I can say you
forgot someone. Traveling? You might be asking,
where are you traveling to? I can see it. It's
actually happening. You can see it? Yeah, that
ride's operating. I wonder if our listeners know
where we are. When we were like, ooh, and eyeing
at everything. I can see the hotel from here.
I can see the Orlando Eye. I don't care about
that. How dare Universal let Orlando build the
Orlando Eye in their sightline? How dare they?
I'm still trying to see it because I saw it for
a brief moment and then it's not coming back.
Okay, if you guys haven't found out yet, we're
at Epic Universe. We are at the parking garage,
not garage, parking turnstiles to get in. We
are staring at Stardust Racers. We can see the
Grand Helios. We see a rock. We see a spire thing.
Oh, wait. I think that's Harry Potter. Maybe.
I don't think so. That doesn't feel Harry Potter
-ish. But Stardust Racers is next to Harry Potter,
right? Yeah. I can also just pull up my phone
and look at the map. No. Don't spoil it. Why
are those people walking? Who are those people?
Why do they get to walk? Probably just asking
questions. Anyway, we also partly saw Nintendo
World on our way in. Yep. Like Bowser's Castle
and what's the green area called? I don't know.
Anyways, I'm going to put this out there. Spoilers.
If you do not want to know anything Epic Universe
related. Don't listen to this episode. I think
so far what we have talked about is not spoilers.
It's just, you know, what you can see driving
up. I don't think most people care about that.
Bus. Where? I think that's where buses go over
there. Oh, probably. Anyways. Sorry. Spoilers.
Do not listen. Melody, put in the Ghostbusters
wee -woos right now. Wee -woo. Wee -woo, wee
-woo. No, not you. I need you to find the audio.
Right! Wow, look at that. Sorry. No, I want you
to find the audio clip of the Ghostbusters. I
thought I already tried. Well, you're going to
try again. Man, this ride must be long. If it
goes up and then it disappears and then you can't
see it again for a while. Because I can see a
lot of that ride and it just keeps disappearing.
Yep. Because I just want to see if they're doing
both trains or just one right now. See, there
it goes again. Whee! They're doing both trains.
I think it's just one right now. Oh well. Anyways,
so do not listen if you don't want to be spoiled.
Uh, we're not gonna, also, like, with our Instagram,
we're not gonna post pictures inside the lands
like some other influencers are doing. We're
not gonna spoil you guys, because I know the
absolute minefield I've been trying to avoid,
because I didn't want to see anything before
I got here, so every time I would even see a
glimpse of what I thought would be a land, I
would just shoot my finger up and just scroll
right past it. I think the most I've been spoiled
on, myself, is probably Isle of Burg. Like, I'm,
I'm... annoyed that I have seen at least three
interactions with characters. I've seen Astrid,
I've seen Astrid, I've seen Toothless, and I've
seen Igor. And you've also seen Rough Tuck and...
Oh yeah, and Rough Nut and Tough Nut. So, I'm
annoyed that I've seen those, but on the other
hand, I'm glad I've seen them, because at least
I know what their interactions look like. So
this is part of the spoiler warning. Do not go
forward. Pause the episode now. Melody will insert
a blank pause for at least 30 seconds to give
you time. 30 seconds of no sound? What if someone's
driving? You can put in, like, elevator music.
Yeah, put in elevator music right here, and it'll
be 30 seconds of elevator music to give you enough
time to click away, just in case there's autoplayed
on your device and you're driving or you're bike
riding or you're jogging and you need to pull
over to the side and turn this off. And I guess
you could just skip ahead if you don't want to
listen to that. Yeah, if you don't want to listen
to that, just click the skip button two times
because I'm pretty sure it's 15 seconds each.
Anyway, so we are here. waiting outside the turnstiles.
Turnstiles? Whatever. The parking meters. Whatever
they're called. Entrance. Yeah, that. The welcome
entrance. It's weird to not see a parking garage
for Universal. It is. Are we getting premier
parking? Obviously. Just making sure. Well, we
get free parking with our annual pass. That's
one of the... Is my driver's license in there?
It better be. I lost my wallet this morning,
and I frantically looked for it, and I gotta
make sure my ID's still there. Yes. Does anybody
else, before you go into a theme park, just empty
out your wallet, just in case you lose your wallet,
so you don't lose all of your cards? We have,
according, well, at time of recording, we have
48 minutes. Yep. Came early. There's not really
no reason not to. I'm debating on just turning
off the car and rolling down the windows. Plan
in action. Is that the Ministry of Magic with
the dome building? No, that's Helios. Oh, never
mind. Did you really just think Helios? I don't
look at pictures of the hotel. I only see the
sparkly rainbow colored one everywhere. Anyways,
we're going straight to Monsters Unchained, correct?
I thought we were doing Harry Potter because
that line is going to get long. That's a virtual
queue. Oh. When do you join that? I'm trying
to. I don't know. I'm getting mixed reviews.
Some people say it's at certain times. Some people
say they just drop it randomly. So I guess we're
going to find out. Fun. So I say we go over to
Monsters Unchained because that's one of the
rides that I've seen actually close down for
the whole day. Okay. And it gets long. Fine.
So it's, do you want to wait in a very long,
do you want to wait in a Hagrid's Long Line?
No. This morning? Okay, so everything in the
morning is relatively long. Everything. and then
throughout the day it kind of peters out and
i just realized that we're going to be waiting
again for the park to actually open aren't we
yes so we're going to see how that works too
because we don't have early park entry but we're
going to be parked close close and i'm obviously
going to you know walk up and wait in the line
so i guess more people are getting out what if
they're just walking up like saving place in
line i don't think they can can you do that that
shouldn't be allowed I really hope that's not
what people are doing. More people to operate
parking things. So Monsters Unchained first.
I say we just wait because just on the off chance
that it does close down for the whole day, we
don't miss it. And then we'll just do whatever
after. And if we happen to get a Ministry of
Magic return time, then we'll go do that. Okay.
Anyways, anything else? I don't think so. Okay.
And we'll see you later. Bye. And we're back.
Not in the park. It is currently 9 o 'clock at
night. We did not record in the park. At all.
The reason being, we were jumping from land to
land, ride to ride, because we were not expecting
it to be that dead. Eventful. Eventful? We were
expecting to kind of just stay in one spot for
a long time. So it was a mixture of we did stuff
that we weren't expecting to and didn't do stuff
that we were hoping to. I was expecting a lot
more things to be... down for a lot longer than
they were so do you want to start at the beginning
yeah let's just start at the beginning so we
get into the park we have times in the show notes
if you want to look it up okay so we got to the
front like parking gate at 8 15 then we got to
the security gate at 9 15. yeah so we get to
the front even before security then they open
it up because that's the interesting thing about
epic you have security and then you go straight
to the ticket place where you get your tickets
20 steps in front of you yeah which makes sense
now i'm going to fault them for it because when
security was quickly putting people through right
at first it created a bottleneck and then security
came to a stop yes but i think they did that
on purpose more space i think they just wanted
to get people to start getting through early
well what they should have done is Once that
area filled up, they sort of opened up the ticket
counter, so it could have been a steady flow
of people coming in. I guess. Then, the next
meh that we ran into. Yes. So, all week long,
I've been watching the wait times, and consistently
I would see Monsters Unchained would go down
halfway throughout the day, and then just stay
down. So, we were like, let's just beeline it
over to Monsters Unchained. Because that's one
of the must rides that we had to do today. And
let's just get on it right in the morning, even
if it's a two -hour wait. And at this point,
we were expecting to... We got in the park a
lot sooner than we were expecting to. Yes. Oh,
that's a whole other thing. So we get into the
park and... I thought that's where you were leading
to, but that's why I have show notes. Anyway,
so we got through the security... Not security.
Through the ticket counter around 9 .30. They
used Face ID. Nothing new there. So the way it
works, when you come into Epic, you can either
go left or you can go right. You go left, you're
going towards Mario Land and Nintendo Land and
Monsters Unchained. Dark Universe. You go right,
you go to Stardust Racers. The reason why that
matters, because for early park at 10 a .m.,
because the park opens at 11 currently. Early
park admission gets early admission to Nintendo
Land and Stardust Racers. So they split people
off like that when you come into the park. Is
Isla Burgosso early park? No. Okay. So we did
not have early park because the only people who
had early park were hotel guests. Which makes...
Which made us... I'm not going to say... It was
a little annoying. It was annoying because we...
We... Us two don't know why it was hotel guests
first. Personally, so the way I thought it should
have ran is the first week of previews to people
who can just buy tickets, it should have been
just the pass holders for the first week. Second
week, then you do pass holders plus hotel guests.
And then third week, pass holder guests, hotel
guests, everybody else until opening. That's
the way I think it should have been ran. And
then for early park admission, either for the
first week, don't offer early park admission
or offer it to the pass holders. Because another
thing we felt slightly slighted on. Right. So
early park was supposed to open up at 10. Yes.
They opened up early park at 930 to the hotel
guests. So we're thinking, OK, well, they opened
it up 30 minutes early for them. Maybe they'll
open it up 30 minutes early for us. We weren't
expecting any rides to be open other than, you
know, the one in Nintendo Land and Stardust Racers.
So we were thinking, okay, we could at least
go line up at 1030 for Monsters. That never happened.
The park opened up normally right at 11. I think
it was like 1050 -ish. Like maybe 10 minutes
early. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was about 1050. So
we got 10 minutes early. I don't know. I think
it should have been rained differently. Anyways,
so that aside, we beeline it straight over to
Monsters Unchained. We get inside, and oh my
word, it's amazing. It was breathtaking. Yes.
We walk inside that portal, and my jaw has just
dropped the entire way. And Dartmoor was super
cool, and it was super creepy and stuff. You
got the creepy music. Funky -looking trees. Funky
-looking trees. Oh, that's one thing I didn't
put in the show notes because now I'm just remembering.
On our way in from the car to the security thing,
Nick was just talking smack about the plants
that Universal chose. Well, they chose a lot
of like high maintenance landscaping that I would
not put in a park. Like stuff that you said would
grow wild and just be all over the place. Yeah,
if they don't stay on top of it every single
week, it's going to get messy. Anyway. Moving
on. So we get to Monsters Unchained. The line
is literally out the queue, around the corner,
and back up towards the front of the park. Probably
because the people who got early park admission
had started going in there and lining up. Yeah.
So we're like, okay, well, this is a must do.
Let's just line up and hope that they didn't
open the inside of the queue. We get in line.
The line starts moving because, as I suspected,
they started opening up the inside of the line.
And we get inside. We get through the outdoor
portion. We just walk right through it. And then
you get inside the manor. You come through one
kind of themed room. Then you come into another
room with like a fireplace and a... Table with...
A table. Like whiskey and glasses. Yeah. Table
with whiskey and then like another box that's
glowing that says... Organs. Organs for transport.
And it's like glowing. And then... We kind of
pause in that room for like a couple minutes
and we like inch forward every minute or so.
You know, normal Q stuff. Then we get into the
next room where it's like you have Frankenstein,
like a dead Frankenstein. And a liquid tube?
And like a liquid tube. Not liquid. He's like
suspended in a tube. And there's this like screen
scanning different parts of his body. It's really
cool. And that's where we pause in the room.
And then we hear the dreaded announcement. This
ride has been delayed. This ride has been delayed.
We're like, okay. We give it five more minutes.
It was Igor who told us. Yeah. I don't remember
what he said, but it was that the ride was delayed.
Yeah. Oh. No. Forgot to say this. No, you're
doing it right. You're in the right order. Don't
worry. No. Because after the ride was delayed,
then you got on your app. No, no, this is before.
So the reason why this matters is halfway through
the queue while we were walking, right at 11.
I decided, hey, let me try and get a virtual
return time for Ministry of Magic. So in my mind,
I'm going to hop on the virtual queue and then
pick the latest time because in my mind, everyone's
going to flock towards the beginning times, you
know, to try and hop on it right away. And not
to mention, we were currently in line for Unchained,
so... yeah later time means we have more wiggle
room to get to the right on time right so we
so i hop on i keep refreshing the app going back
and forth between clicking on monster not monsters
uh ministry of magic the back button and just
keeping clicking back and forth eventually it
finally pops up at like 1102 and is the where
it says virtual line unavailable that will turn
blue and then you can click on it and it'll have
you select how many return times you need so
i put in two and then it gave me like three or
four different return times so i kept clicking
325 to 355 and that was the return time i want
and it said oh that's out so i went to the next
one down oh that one's out and it kept saying
everything was out until i clicked on the the
soonest time which was 11 25 to 11 55 and i click
on it and said you have a return time and we're
like great we're like great we're in line for
unchanged right now yeah so this was at a point
in the queue where the line was still moving
and we didn't know it was going to go down so
it was like right before it got delayed yeah
So the people in front of us were trying to get
return time and I saw them not get it and the
people behind me didn't get one. And I felt really
bad in line thinking, oh, I'm about to let this
return time go to waste because I want to do
Monsters Unchained more than Ministry of Magic.
So we get through the line, then it finally goes
down and we get like three announcements that
it's delayed. So we finally hop on the app and
instead of saying delayed, it said closed. So
I look at Melody, I'm like, we should go. Because
we also didn't want to be late for the return
time, because like he said, it was 1125 to 1155.
At this point, it was like 1130. Yeah, so we're
like, we should probably get over there, because
they might allow us in late, but we don't want
to risk it. Yeah, so we book it over to Ministry,
walk through that portal. Got a really bad video
of the Flute Network. So walking into that portal,
just walking into the first portal. Yeah, because
like he said earlier, walking into... Dark Universe
portal. That was super cool. That was cool because
you walk through the portal and it's right there.
Versus the... France. France one. The Harry Potter
one. You walk through the portal and then you
kind of have to like either turn left or right.
It's like a metro thing. Yeah. And it's like...
It felt like we're walking into Diagon Alley,
honestly. Yeah. Because like you walk down this
pathway and then you turn right. It's so that
they distract your line of sight so you get that
grand reveal. And I will say, once you... get
into the land and you were standing at the front
entrance of it it is jaw -dropping yes it is
so pretty they literally transported me to france
it's that i know you didn't watch the movie the
uh fantastic beast and where to find them but
it really felt like i was in that set yeah so
i i had my jaw dropped the entire time walking
through there we beeline it over to ministry
of magic which if you're wondering where it is
you go straight turn left at the a circus tent
yeah and then it'll be on your right you walk
into that ministry building and once you go through
that flu network and you come out it is jaw -dropping
huge it is beautiful beautiful so detailed massive
just amazing I was whining. You were whining.
You're like, oh. It's not as good as Gringotts.
Gringotts is better than this. Or, no. Because
what he said was that someone poo -pooed all
over Gringotts. And I was butthurt about that.
I was like, uh -uh. But it's true. It puts Gringotts
in Six Flags territory. I wouldn't go that far.
I would. Anyways. So, we get on. We go through
the queue. There's a room where you meet a...
So I'm putting it out. Monsters Unchained went
down. We now get on Ministry of Magic. We get
really far in the queue. Yeah. You go through
the... How do I explain this? You go through
the Ministry of Magic, what they show in Harry
Potter movies. You see like a giant newspaper.
type thing showing that Dolores Umbridge is on
trial. So that part of the queue, anybody can
go to. Even if you don't have a return time,
you can get to that part of the queue. Yeah,
you can go through the Flu Network thingy. There's
no line in there. You can just walk around the
Ministry of Magic. There's not much to do in
there. There's nothing to do in there. I'm pretty
sure there's like spell spots. Oh yeah, probably.
But there's nothing else to do in there. And
then you go up to a TM. They scan your virtual
line. QR code. QR code. And then you get in line.
Mm -hmm. You walk through, like, a locker room.
There's a room with a robot vacuuming. Yeah,
a vacuum. There's a room with a house elf for,
I think she was Dolores Umbridge's house. Hiddledy?
Huh? I think it's Hiddledy. Maybe. I don't remember
her name, but she was a robot. She was, like,
really cool. Well done. Yeah. But anyways, at
one point, you get to a set of ginormous stairs.
So many stairs. And we get halfway up these stairs,
and then we get the dreaded announcement that
it's on a delay. Ride number two is now on a
delay for us. And we were, I think at that point,
we were just like, this ride's going to shut
down. We're going to have to be, not escorted
out, but like, oh, sorry, got to go. Yeah. So
we sit down, and then like 10 seconds later,
all the lights come on. Because it was, the thing
with this place is that it's slightly dim lighted.
Yeah, it's pretty dark. Okay, not dark, but like...
There's lights. It's like orange light. No, when
they turned on the real lights, it was like...
White light. White light. Yeah, so I'm saying
like dim orange -y lights to bright white light.
I guess. And then, so when they turn on those
lights, I'm like, oh, that's not a good sign.
Nope. They never do this. Well, they never do
this when we're the first time ever going there.
Yep. So, well, no, I'm just saying in general.
Yeah. in any of their rides they don't turn on
lights it was definitely a oh feeling yeah so
we sit down we're like okay they're not telling
us to leave the queue we have a return time i'm
not going to waste this opportunity because who
knows if i'm going to be able to get another
one so we stay in the queue i think what like
10 minutes later 15 about 15 minutes later we
get the announcement it's back up online back
online yep so we stand back up about five minutes
later we start moving No, I think we had a moment
like, oh, it's working again. And then I think
we moved a little bit. Oh, yeah. And then it
delayed again. Yeah. That one wasn't as long,
though. No, and the lights didn't come on either
for that one. So, anyways, after that second
delay, they say it's back online. We go up the
stairs, down the stairs, and we see the loading
platform. And then we realize why we went up
and down stairs. Yep. So, if you're wondering,
why am I going up stairs just to go down stairs?
The ride is literally going right underneath
those stairs. And the reason why you're going
through a lot of stairs is because the ride vehicle
is freaking huge. It is huge. It's like a giant,
okay, Tower of Terror elevator thing, maybe a
little smaller, but that as your ride vehicle.
Pretty much. So we finally get into our boarding
group, and I'm like, oh, I see our cart coming.
And it comes, and then the lights just shut off
on the cart. So the dude tries opening the door,
and the door won't open. So he flags it on, and
it moves on its way. And I was like, Nick, you
need to shut up, because you keep jinxing these
rides. Yep. I don't remember what you said for
monsters, but you somehow jinxed it. I think
it was just you getting the Harry Potter ride
to begin with. I was like, ah, we got lucky on
that, so now our luck ran out on monsters. Pretty
much. Anyway, so we eventually got on it, and
oh my word. Amazing. That had to be... one of
the best rides I have ever been on. What? Yeah,
no, we went on Werewolf first. Huh? Yeah, didn't
we? Oh yeah, we did do Werewolf first. Because
I was like, Ministry of Magic was not our first
ride of the day. Anyway, we'll talk about Ministry
of Magic and then we'll go to Werewolf. That
way we don't completely break our chain of thought
right now. Yep. Anyway, so that ride had to be
one of the best rides I have ever been on. Yeah,
it was so good. There was one of the very first
scene. I don't remember what it was. I honestly
don't remember the story very well because it
was at the beginning of the day and... We had
so much. A lot. So I kind of forgot. Basically,
just... It was also a lot. It was slightly hard
to follow the story because there was just so
much happening. It was like, ah, what is happening
now? I don't know. Basically, Dolores broke out.
She tried getting a time turner. She did a Reparo
charm or a spell on a... time turner but i guess
it didn't work and everything's falling apart
and it all exploded and then at some point there's
the explodey rhino from the first fantastic beast
movie but on this ride i was not expecting there
to be animatronics on this and it was especially
the death eaters with the mass yeah they're so
good that they look like it's an actor acting
in front of the screen i legitimately thought
it was an actor i'm like why did they put an
actor on a platform in a ride it was so cool
and then the very final animatronic uh rhino
type thing massive yes just massive i think it's
like on the same and then they had like what
they're like there were screens in this ride
but they were so well blended like they would
be like other uh elevators in front of us like
one that had like uh harry ron and hermione but
the actual elevator is in front of us and yeah
so it's like you have a physical elevator but
there's a screen in the elevator so it's a blend
of the two so like their elevator would move
and then our elevator would move and it felt
like we were actually flying like at 100 miles
an hour in the sky I think the only time the
immersion really broke was at the end when our
elevator moved into position to go into the unloading
bay thing. You could see the final scene and,
like, Dolores just sitting there. There was also
a Dolores animatronic, which was okay. I think
I'm just being slightly picky because, you know,
when you actually try to do an animatronic of
someone you know, you're going to see the imperfections
of that. I mean, it was still really well done.
That's probably why the Death Eaters were so
good because they had a mask and you don't see
the face. Getting a realistic face is a bit difficult.
That's true. Anyways, ride was amazing. Yes.
But anyways, the first ride we ever went on in
Epic Universe. Rewinding. Rewind. We had enough
time to go on Curse of the Werewolves. So we
got off, what is it? Unchained. Unchained. And
we're like, oh, Curse of the Werewolves, five
minutes. And it was 1130 and we're like, okay,
we can pop over here. It's a five minute wait.
Let's go do that. We're like, by the time we
get off Curse of the Werewolf, it'll be like
1140 at the least. And then we can just run over
to Ministry of Magic. Yeah. So we hop in line.
Line says five minutes when we get in. When we
finally stop, I say, hey, Melody, check the time
real quick. She pulls up her phone. 15 minutes.
Was it 15 or did it bump up all the way to 25?
I don't remember. No, it bumped up to 15. Okay.
Then we kind of look at each other. We're like,
uh -oh. And we're like, oh. And then I think
I said something along the lines of like, if
this ride delays or something like that. But
we're fine. We're moving through the line. We
were slowly moving through the line. And we're
like, okay, this isn't going to be that bad.
We finally get to the front. The very front.
The very front. We were the next in line to get
put into our spot. And it goes on a delay. So
at this point, we were two for two. And then
we were three for three on delays when we went
into ministry. Yeah. and we're like oh my gosh
and we were looking at each other keep looking
at the watch and like are we going to be fine
are we going to be fine in my head i was like
no we're not going to be fine we saw people retrieve
a hat from the train that had just unloaded i
don't know it was just like ah yeah and then
but fortunately obviously we kind of spoiled
it we did ride the werewolf yes we got front
row yes we did we didn't even ask no I don't
think you can ask. Not for that one. You might
be able to. Maybe. Anyway, so we got front row.
Front row, probably the best row. Yes. For now,
we're going to say it's the best row. Yes. So,
on the ride, it's an okay ride. It's fun. It's
a family ride. It's definitely a family ride.
You definitely got to do it at least once. I
would say at least do it at nighttime. I still
don't understand why. What's the point? So you
don't really see the turns coming. i guess the
lights make more of effect like okay try to ride
werewolf unless you unless you're the type of
person who needs to know what you're getting
into because you don't do well with unexpected
turns and stuff like that if you're fine with
being surprised on a ride try to go on curse
of the werewolf without seeing it without seeing
it beforehand i mean we're about to spoil how
the ride works oh yeah so but to be fair if anybody's
listening to this they don't they want spoilers
or this is like 30 years in the future and or
they just want our opinions and they're probably
gonna forget it when they go themselves that
too anyways uh so the way the ride works you
get on the thing and you shoot through your car
just kind of rocking around you're rocking around
slightly spinning and you go through this like
shed and there's a werewolf in there in on the
ceiling it's kind of hard to see yeah The reason
why I say at nighttime is when we did it in the...
Spoiler. When we did it in the daytime, I didn't
notice there were, like, red lights in there
that would flash when we would come through.
Oh. And then... Was that us turning into a werewolf
or being attacked by a werewolf? Either. I don't
know. But anyway, so you, like, shoot through
this. You come up about halfway, and then you
come back. And to, like, a U -turn type of turn?
Yeah, there's, like, a U -turn. You come halfway
through the U -turn, but then you kind of, like,
fall back. It shoots you back through. and then
it shoots you back forward and then you finally
make it around the u -turn and then you you finish
the ride finish the ride and the reason why we're
saying front row is really good because when
you shoot forward that first time you're almost
over the u -turn so you really get like shot
up and it's like woo it's fun and then you get
to go back and rock back and because are we gonna
just say that we What we did next and save by
front row or wait till later? I don't even know
what you're talking about. The second ride. Oh,
yeah, we did it a second time, but this time
at nighttime. Ish. Because we wanted to do it
at night. And we also wanted to do Stardust Racers
at night. So the second time we got put in the
very back row. Which was ironic. Which was kind
of funny. Back row is one that faces backwards.
I still don't feel like we really rode it backwards.
I don't think. picking front row back row or
like front facing back facing really matters
as to how you're going to face in the ride yeah
i don't know how that works because i was hoping
to go more backwards in the ride but it has to
do with weight oh well like the crazy mouth type
thing no like the second ride there was a guy
in front of us and they had one less person in
their cart which made the weight distribution
off and they're just so at the very end I saw
the dude's cart and he just spun like three times.
Oh, got it. Go in a group of three if you want
your cart to spin, apparently. Anyway, so we
did that, booked it open ministry, did ministry,
got delayed there, three for three delay. But
we got to ride two rides. At that point, we have
done two rides and we're like, okay, this is
a somewhat successful day. Yeah, we were happy
to because we were like, out of all the rides,
the ones that we really want to go on, Ministry
of Magic and Unchained. And like he said, we
were expecting so many delays and stuff. and
cancellations and closures and all that, that
we said, if we can do one of the two big rides,
we'll be happy. And we did Ministry of Magic,
which was also the pain -in -the -butt ride to
get on, so we were happy. But at this point,
we had ridden the ride, and we realized that
Unchained Monsters was open again. Yes. Well,
no, I was reading your notes, and there's a break.
There is. Unchained got delayed, we waited, but
then... I didn't finish my notes. We bolted to
make it to Harry Potter on time. Ministry of
Magic had short delay, and then it goes to food.
Well, yeah, because I didn't finish my notes
because we were in the middle of a ride line.
I guess. All right, if you remember what we did
next, you go ahead. Okay, so we go back to monsters.
Why? Huh? Why? To ride it? Didn't we get food
first? Did we? I don't think so. I remember,
wasn't it when it was like a 50 -minute wait?
i'm pretty sure we went back to monsters yeah
right we went back to monsters but this was when
it was a 50 minute wait oh yeah yeah we tried
going to the burning blade tavern yes we went
to try to get food first before going on monsters
because it was opened and we were you know what
we're gonna put hope in it we're gonna expect
it to be open but we're gonna get food first
yeah so we're going to burning blade tavern walk
up to like the bar area he asked me what i wanted
You can't order food inside the tavern. Can't
order food inside the tavern. But I did get one
of the drinks. It was the cool... Pure of heart.
Pure of heart. They, like, smoke it. It was pretty
fun. Yeah. They put it in, like, a little glass
container. Blow smoke at it. Yeah. Or chill smoke?
I don't know. I have no idea. Anyway, so, that
was good. I asked him if I can order food here,
too. He said, nope. You gotta go outside for
that. So I'm like, okay. Walk outside. Melody
went to go fill up our freestyle cup. Side note,
in the very beginning of the day... when we lined
up to wait for the park to open there was a like
a universal type it's not a universal store but
it had merch from all the lands yeah so we go
in there and we're like oh we want a freestyle
cup so we're looking around melody try and finding
a new lanyard holder because her no a new pass
holder because hers is getting old and grounded
i got a toothless so you got a toothless pass
card holder thing yeah ticket holder and i didn't
know where to get a freestyle cup so they had
this big freestyle tumbler that said epic universe
on it 50 50 oh my word worth every penny yes
we did end up getting it so only because we couldn't
find the epic one just to make it clear no i
think i thought for the tumbler you okay now
okay we got the tumbler I didn't want the tumbler
at first because my whole idea for this day is
we brought our big Jurassic Park bag. And I'm
like, okay, I know the freestyle cups fit in
this bag. I looked at this tumbler. I'm like,
this is a lot bigger than a freestyle cup. It's
probably not going to fit in our bag. I'm like,
it's probably not going to fit. Because at this
point, we also hadn't seen any lockers for any
rides. Yeah. So we had no idea what to expect.
normal we're used to like hulk lockers but you
gotta smush it into this little small locker
yeah so i'm like i don't really want to get this
but i compared the sizes i'm like okay it looks
like it's gonna fit and it did it did because
it i felt weird opening up our backpack and then
trying to like position this in our bag and then
having a tm come over and be like are you stealing
that i'd be like no i'm just seeing if it fits
i didn't feel bad about it i did i mean we're
buying it so i didn't feel guilty well they don't
know that so do you know how many people I think
I read an article where somebody has already
been banned from that park for shoplifting. Oh,
anyway. Anyways. So, no, I did not want to take
my chances of them thinking I was shoplifting.
We got the stupidly expensive cup. Anyways, we
got the stupidly expensive cup. It's, like, double
the size. It feels double the size. Because,
like, I was filling it up at our lunch spot today.
And I was just holding the button. And I'm like,
when is this going to end? So definitely worth
the investment. It's the same price to refill
as a normal freestyle cup. In my opinion, it's
also better quality. It's a metal tumbler, basically.
It comes with a thick plastic straw that has
like a little rubber end on it so it can't come
all the way off. Which is great when you got
kids. Or you can just take the straw out and
sip from it like a normal freestyle cup. Anyways,
100 % worth the money. Definitely go get that.
Why did we talk about the cup? Oh, because I
got a drink while you went to potentially get
food at the tavern. Right, so you went to get
a drink, I went to go look at the tavern, and
that line was long. I'm like, I don't want to
wait in this line. But we were still hungry.
Yeah, so where you were getting your drink, they
also had a Frankenstein pretzel and some type
of, like, cinnamon... cream cheese ball things
cream cheese icing they're like little donut
holes yeah they had cream cheese icing and cinnamon
on top very good very good and we got a pretzel
and the pretzel pretzel very good too then we
got onto monsters 50 minute wait i think we waited
like 35 minutes and we were yeah it was we didn't
wait as long technically because When we first
went on, we kind of got in like the extended
queue kind of area. But this time we kind of
walked a lot faster, got to the Frankenstein.
No, no, we didn't. We got past the Frankenstein
room. We had to wait farther out in the extended
queue. Oh, yeah, we did wait in the extended
queue in the outdoor portion. It was fine. We
were moving. We weren't too worried. We got to
the Frankenstein room. I was like, as long as
we can get past this room, I'm fine. And we did.
And he looked at me sharply like, don't jinx
it again. Didn't this ride go down too? I don't
think it did, actually. Not the second time.
I thought it did. I don't think it did. Anyway,
so we did Frankenstein Experiment. In the queue.
In the queue? You go upstairs. Uh -huh. I'm going
to say it because I know you're forgetting, but
I'm going to be mean to myself. Okay. I like
the stairs. Oh, right. So... When you come out
of that Frankenstein, dead Frankenstein room,
you go up some stairs. And, like, the manor.
And it's, like, this really cool, like, manor
entranceway, and it looks cool. You got the fancy
staircase. And then Melody's just like, look
at these stairs. Because they weren't. They were,
like, actual stairs. A lot of amusement park
things, you have, like, the fakie wood or something
or metal, and they're just boring stairs. I was
like, this actually feels like it's in a manor.
Oh, man. Completely ignoring that on the side
you have these walls of these tortured people
reaching up to, I think, Victor Frankenstein's
picture. I think that's who that is. Maybe. The
original Frankenstein. I don't know. Anyways,
so you go upstairs, you get in the pre -show
room. I don't think it was a pre -show. The pre
-pre -show. Oh, yeah. Where they basically explain
the ride safety stuff. I guess. The one with
Igor? No, that's farther. No. Okay, then what
happens after you go upstairs? You go upstairs,
there's like a photo thingy where they scan express
passes. You get to a room with like a big stage
thingy with videos playing of the different monsters,
like little homemade movie type stuff of them
getting attacked by monsters. There is one with
Igor, that's why you're probably thinking it
was instructions. and then you go to the next
room which is a bat in like a bot bat i don't
i don't know chamber thing circle thing where
energy is feeding into it and zapping the bat
okay remember yes okay and then after that then
i think you go into the room with igor where
igor is showing you his little robot thing which
is actually really cool because it shows you
the right vehicle Yes, it is. But it's a moving
robot. So, like, on Harry Potter Forbidden Journey,
you're supposed to kind of, like, imagine that
there's no arm behind you controlling, you know,
the couch that you're on. But this? No, they
fully... They embrace the arm. Yeah. It's like,
you're on an arm. You're on a couch on an arm.
Pretty much. You are being controlled by Igor.
I just... I love Igor in this pre -show. Yeah.
He's really funny. He is very funny. Anyways.
So, do the pre -show, then we get into the second
pre -show room, and oh my word, these two animatronics.
First you got... Victoria Frankenstein. Is her
name Victoria? I think so. Okay, that makes sense.
Then the other guy is probably Victor, then.
And then you got, you know, Frankenstein. Frankenstein.
Huge. Huge. And they're both amazing. Like, I
thought she was real. Like, out of the corner
of my eye, I thought she was real. More real
than Umbridge. Probably because I think she just
is a fake character. Like I said, when you're
trying to base it off someone real, it's a bit
harder. But when she's a fictional character
who doesn't have prior stuff, it's a lot easier.
But yeah, she was amazing. Anyways, amazing,
great characters. Then you get on the ride, and
oh my word, that ride. First you go on a spinny
circular platform. That was a really cool loading
thing. Yeah, circular moving platform, loading
bay thing. Then you get onto your little couch
thingy, and then you go. Then you go on your
ride. Go on your ride. Very creepy, honestly.
Very creepy. It's because they're like kind of
jump scare type things. Kind of. Think a lot
of spider jump scare stuff from Forbidden Journey.
Yes. Like stuff popping at you, but not as fake
looking as the spider. Not in The Mentors, I
think it's better to compare to. Yeah. Great
ride. Yeah, there's... Can I spoil the dumpsters?
Sure. There's one where you're kind of like in...
You see like a broken bridge or something. And
then you drop down and then you're facing the
creature of the Black Lagoon. Yes. There's some
parts that might have some people feel slightly
claustrophobic. So the whole point... The story
is you're going through the catacombs. And...
you're in your catacomb crawler machine and that's
how you get through the catacombs so like you're
going to spend a lot of time on your back and
that's why because you're fitting through the
small spaces of the cat okay because like obviously
frankenstein's or female victoria's project experiment
does not go well because she cannot control dracula
and he got three all of his brides Also go free.
Even the ugly ones, as Igor would say. Yes. And
then there's a bunch of other monsters that have
also gone free. Whatever we're saying is... The
claustrophobic part is one part you get up to,
like, the ceiling very close. Yes. And you're
just kind of scooching along on your back, which
is what Nick said. But, like I said, that part
can feel slightly claustrophobic. Words can't
do this justice. It's so pretty. It was very
pretty. So pretty. And then the wolfman jump
-scaring you, that was also really well done.
That was pretty cool. Alright, moving on. Okay.
What's next? What do we do after this? Okay,
so after that, I think that is when we decide
to head over... To Mario? Yes. Nintendo Land.
Okay. So we did Nintendo Land, and before we
even got into that land, I'm like, what are your
two must -do's, okay? Obviously, you can't choose,
you know, Harry Potter again, because virtual
queue. Monsters Unchained, we just did that.
So your must -do was the Mario Kart ride. No,
it was not. Yes, it was. No, it was not. What
was it? Mine Kart. Oh, I could have swore you
said Mario Kart. I did not. Because you kept
trying to say, the Mine Kart ride is not great,
we should do Mario Kart instead. Remember? Whatever.
I could have swore you said Mario Kart. I did
not. So we go on Mario Kart because I thought
you said Mario Kart. Okay, before we go on Mario
Kart, we go in the portal. Right, we go in the
portal. Amazing portal. Great portal. Best portal
in the park. Debatable. No, it is. Debatable.
If you get to go in the pipe, and you go up an
escalator, and it's just super cool. And it even
lights up at night, which made me happy. Yes.
Anyways, so we go on Mario Kart, because I thought
that was your must -do. It was posted on the
app at 35 minutes, I think. I thought it was
50. No, 35. Oh. And then we got up to the, you
know, the actual entrance where you can see the
wait time and it says 120. Oh, okay, yeah. No,
no, what we saw, well, I think maybe we also
saw it on the app, but in the park there was
one of those screens that shows you, oh, you're
the ride. Oh, yeah, that screen even said 35.
The ride wait times. And I was like, oh, look,
Mario Kart 35. Let's go. Yeah. And then we get
there, it's 120. We're like, ah, well. So I'm
like, okay. No, your must -do was Mario Kart,
because I even remember you were like, oh, I
want to see the technology. I want to see the
augment stuff. You distinctly talked about wanting
to see that. No, because I talked that, I said
that we watched the YouTube video, so I already
knew what it was like. Whatever. Do not be putting
words in my mouth. Anyway, so we get on it, because
we're like, we might as well do it. It was not
two hours. Not at all. It was, like, at most,
like... 40 minutes? 45. Yeah. But we get on.
The queue for that is also super cool. The queue
was very cute. Yeah. We get our little Mario
hat to put on. Mm -hmm. We... Look silly. Look
very silly. But it's fun. We start looking at
the... Like, they're telling you how to play
the game. Mm -hmm. And they're like, oh, tap
your Nintendo bracelet to the thing. And we're
like, oh, we don't have that. No. Because I didn't
think we... My whole idea was, oh, we're not
going to do any of the Nintendo interactive stuff
this trip. Because we're trying to bounce from
land to land. Because we're trying to bounce
from land to land and get all the rides done.
So we're like, we don't want to hunker down in
one land and do all that kind of stuff. So we
skip out on the bands and we're like, oh, well,
I wish we got the bands now. So we do the ride.
It doesn't break down while we're in the queue.
Oh, no, it did break down while we were in the
queue. Yes, it did. It broke down when we were
on the stairs. Yes, because we got to sit on
the stairs. Yes. At this track record, it was
like everything was breaking down on us. Yeah,
this was now the fourth ride that has broken
down on us. So we finally get on the ride, and
it breaks down while we're in the ride. Yep.
And that was an extended delay. That took forever.
So we do the ride. It was a fun ride. It was
an okay ride. We liked it. Yeah. Especially the
Rainbow Road part. Man, you get blasted with
air. Yes, you do. That's definitely a cool -down
ride. Very fun. It's a must -do. After that,
we're like, okay, we're a little hungry. I was
like, do you want to go to Toadstool Cafe? Because
it's right here. You said yes. We go inside,
we sit down, and we order. It was actually, it
looked packed. I think we got like the last available
table. I saw like another booth, but they just
put us in the table that was... right there so
we order food you got the maru the bowser challenge
meatball thing yeah the one pound meatball yeah
the one pound meatball that's all i when i looked
at it i was just like i just want meatball i
don't care what else comes with it meatball sounds
good so before you ordered i thought i was like
oh i'm gonna get the meatball and then you ordered
i'm like i might as well get something different
good Good thing that he did. I'm very glad I
got something different. I got Mario's, like,
mushroom burger. Without the mushrooms. And I
said no mushrooms, because there was an option
for that. And then we also got garlic bread bite
things. Garlic knots. Garlic knots, but they
were in the shape of mushrooms. No mushrooms.
No mush, well. Surprising. Mine had mushrooms.
Yours had mushrooms? Yeah. Excuse me. In the
sauce? My meatballs sauce had mushrooms? Oh,
no, I'm talking about in the garlic bites. Oh,
no. Yeah, shaped like mushrooms, but no mushrooms.
So yours was extremely spicy. Yeah, it was surprisingly
spicy, yeah. And it came, I'm not even talking,
the sauce was spicy, and it came with an extra
cup of hot sauce. Yeah, they were like, oh, here,
it's not hot enough. I think you were supposed
to take the cup and pour it on. Oh my word. That's
the challenge. Okay, I'm glad I didn't. Anyways,
mine was a typical burger. Yours was actually
pretty good. If it wasn't as spicy, I would have
got that. And without mushrooms. Yeah. Anyways,
moving on. What did we do after this? Mine cart.
Ah, yes. We went and did mine cart because we
were like, oh, it's only a 25 minute wait. Did
we get our bands by this point? Yes. You got,
we were leaving the queue of... mario kart oh
yeah because we got it in the exit store from
mario kart and i remember your mom called you
because you tried facetiming her my little brother
absolutely loves mario so i wanted to facetime
yes so you were talking on the phone with your
mom and then you were taking a survey uh there
was a team member asking people if they want
to take a survey so i always take the surveys
if they ask me so i took the survey i took the
survey and you went to go look around the store
And that's when we bought the Nintendo Bands.
If you need a power band, go to the cashier.
That is where you get them. Because we searched
that entrance store where we got my Toothless
thingy and the cup. We could not find the power
bands. Just to find out later, oh, you just need
to go up to the cashier and ask. Yeah. So we
got the power bands. It took us a minute to figure
out how to pair them, but they're actually very
easy to pair. You go into the app, go under Nintendo
World when you're actually in the park. I think.
You might be able to do this at home. Anyways,
when you're in the park, at least, go to Nintendo
World section, scroll over to Interactive or
Entertainment or whatever, click on that, and
then hit play. Then it'll ask you to pair a new
band. You do that, you make a profile, bada bing,
bada boom, you're good. Moving on. We ran around,
did a couple, like, you know, coin... thingies
punch some things yeah you gotta punch those
bricks and that's not as fun as i thought it
would be walked over to donkey kong and did that
i was not expecting that so okay the queue it
was an outdoor queue it was an okay queue i think
the only good thing about it is that uh cranky
kong yeah isn't it it's a big animatronic but
everything else was like kind of meh it was just
like a temple kind of thing i was not expecting
that ride to be as fast yeah it looks slower
When they're taking the turns, they're like,
ah, they speed up around the turn, but everything
else is kind of like, oh, you just boop, and
then you're going. It doesn't look as fast as
it feels. It is very jerky. And it's very jerky.
Very bumpy, very jerky. Good ride. It was actually
a lot of fun. I would do it again. And short.
Also should, yeah, both Werewolf and Minecart,
they were pretty short rides. I don't think this
one broke down, did it? It didn't? No, it didn't.
Oh, no, it did. It did. Because we sat near Cranky
Kong. Because you sat under the bar. Or I told
you to sit under the bar, I think. Didn't it?
No, it didn't. You sure? I am sure. Okay. Anyways,
so we did that. What did we do after that? After
that... This is when we started, like, bouncing
around. Yeah. Because we were like, oh, we're
doing a lot more than we thought. Because, yeah,
it wasn't even six. Ah! It wasn't even six. We
wanted to see the Harry Potter show. Oh, right.
So we go over to that land. Because we looked
on the app and the first show that we were able
to go to was at 515. Yes. So we're like, okay,
we're going to make this show. We beeline it
over, getting all the, you know, Mario touch
points on the way. That we can find at least.
And we get over to... Harry Potter land just
for the sign to say closed. And I go up to the
team member and I'm like, hey, is it closed just
for this time because it was timed after? Or
is it closed for the entire day? And they're
like, yeah, it's closed for the rest of the day.
Which was disappointing. Which was disappointing.
So we were like, okay, that's fine. So we leave
that land and we're like, let's go to Berk and
let's go see the Untrainable Dragon. Which was
at 6, I think? 6 .15, I think. 6 .30. 6 .30.
yes because i remember we got over there did
we do a ride 5 30. i don't know it was one of
those times it was 5 30 because we got there
around five right oh yeah it was so we get into
that land uh it wasn't quite 5 30 yet and we
saw they weren't letting people in so we're like
oh maybe they opened it up closer to 5 30. so
we're like let's look around the shop We see
a big group go up. They kind of get turned away
and then we kind of like, oh. No, we were in
the shop. We shopped around. We left the shop.
We went and sat down in front of the, you know,
entrance area. Not in front of it, but like on
a rock. Near it. Near it. Then a big group went
up. They got turned away. We're like, oh, let's
go ask. We walk up and they're like, yeah, the
show's been canceled. We're like, great. So we
leave that. And at this point, Hiccup's wing
glider had said close. So we're like, okay, that's
not opening up anytime soon. So we go over to,
what was that one ride? Not wing glider. It was
fly racer? Fly racer? I don't know. Racer challenge
something? The one where you're like sitting
in this thing and you can like rock the thing
back and forth and you can like control your
wings. Yes. We do that. Cue was uneventful. Long.
Long. Because there's two of them and one of
them was down. for the majority of our waiting
yeah and also some of the dragons were also down
in the one that was open yeah so it was very
limited event by the time we had gotten up both
were open and all the dragons were available
to ride but that was like when we had already
waited for a long time yes so we get on that
we do that halfway through the key we're like
oh hiccups wing gliders is going because i saw
a train so we get off the that one ride and we
i was successfully able to go upside down i was
very proud of myself you we walk over to hiccup
swing glider and now it says 25 minutes maybe
25 to 35. awesome i think that one wins the most
boring queue hiccup swing glider yeah yeah because
it's like outside oh yeah there is it is just
switchbacks you know so is uh the other dragon
they're yeah bird lines are kind of lame yeah
so we get up on a hiccups wing glider do that
doesn't break down while we're in line breaks
down while we are on the ride which in a section
that we weren't expecting because apparently
there's a section where you go up and you rock
back down and then babies hatch and then you're
supposed to shoot forward again so because we
went up we came back down and i had my hands
up for the ride so i'm just i have my hands up
i'm just prepared for the shoot forward, but
we're not shooting forward. So I'm like, I don't
want to put my hands down, and then we just get
shot forward. So I have my hands awkwardly up
for a little bit. I wasn't the only one, so I
didn't look that stupid. But eventually everyone's
hands just kind of go down. They're like, okay.
And then a train comes up behind us, and we're
like, ah, we're stuck. I kind of figured before
that. And then randomly it just shoots us forward.
No, it didn't. Remember when the announcement
went on? of oh yeah stay seated in your seats
the ride can unexpectedly start and while he's
in the middle of saying unexpectedly start that's
when we shoot forward that was funny it was perfect
timing it was so great anyway so we do that leave
that land i think at this point we had done everything
that we would wanted to do yeah at this point
we were just like what did we do now oh i think
we went over to stardust Yes. At this point,
we wanted to ride Stardust Racers while it was
daytime. Yeah, so we did Stardust Racers. Amazing
ride. Oh, my word. It is on par with Velocicoaster.
I put my hands up. There's a lot of big hat type
of moments to me. Yes. Lots of hilly, uppy downies
all over the place. just amazing ride of 10 out
of 10 super fast that first launch is amazing
it you start it you do like a small launch and
you think it's done and you think it's the launch
huh you think it's the launch like yeah we got
launched yeah you get the first launch and as
you're launching you you feel the acceleration
you're like okay this is a fun launch and then
it hits that double tap and you get shot for
even faster i already thought we were going fast
then we like you're like ah so that was really
fun now at this point we're like oh what do we
do because both shows are down we wanted to ride
rides at night so we kind of had to meander at
this point we're like i think we did monsters
unchained again We left there, went and did Nintendo,
Mario Kart again. We did Mario Kart again, with
the power band this time. With the power band.
Which didn't really do anything except... Gave
us points. I guess. We both got over 100 coins
for both runs. Yes, we did. We did well. And
then we got off that, and at this point it was
like night time. We were like, okay, let's go...
Hit Werewolf, then... Hit Werewolf, then Sardis
Racers, and then head down. So we do Werewolf,
five minute wait. It was actually probably less.
yeah do that get off it start heading towards
stardust racers get in line it says 15 minutes
but the queue is lined up outside yeah we were
and i look at melody and i'm like this is not
a 15 minute wait because the way it works is
you come in the queue there's a bunch of switchbacks
outside and then you have like your lockers and
then you go up some stairs and then there's some
switchbacks to security then security And then
there's some more switchbacks, and then you get
on the loading platform. I look at Melanie, I'm
like, this is not 15 minutes, and we have to
be out of this park by 9 o 'clock to be home
to our children. And we had still yet to do our
last minute shopping. Yes. So we hop out of line.
Skip dinner. Skip dinner, go do our last minute
shopping, and leave the park at 9 .30 -ish. We
got good traffic. Yes. Honestly. We are two minutes
away from home. And... That's also going to be
our signal for the end of our episode. Yep. Before
we finish, they're adopting Disney habits. So
a lot of these rides, you don't have to put your
stuff in a locker for them. Also, lockers are
bigger. So lockers are bigger. That is another
reason why I'm advocating for this big $50 tumbler.
This big $50 tumbler sits upright in the lockers.
Mm -hmm. So if this can fit in the lockers, a
normal freestyle cup can fit in the lockers without
tipping over or spilling. No more spilling. That's
probably why they did bigger lockers. They're
tired of people putting drinks in and making
a mess of the lockers. Anyways, most rides are
you put your bags at your feet and you're good
to go. And all of them are also, if you do have
to put them in the locker, they're the double
-sided lockers. Yeah, so the only lockers we
had to use were pickup swing gliders, unchained,
stardust, and I think that's it. I feel like
there was one that was unexpected. Was it just
doing gliders? Oh, also the one where you rock
back and forth. But those are just like cubbyholes.
Oh, the circular dragon ride. Yeah, anyways.
Alright, we are home. So, that's the end of our
episode. That is the end. You're welcome. Bye
-bye. Bye -bye.