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Magic Meets Adventure is where Disney meets Universal! This is your one stop shop for all things Disney and Universal Theme Parks. As park enthusiasts, Tim and Ayren share their ideas, rankings, travel tips, history, and more to help create an everyday escape into the incredible worlds of magic and adventure!
Boom Or Bust Episode
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Ayren: [00:00:00] Welcome. So we're in the
Tim: tower. We are ready for takeoff.
Outro: Please stand clear of the door. It looks like you've lost power.
Ayren: There's a wildest ride in the wilderness.
Good morning. Good evening. Good afternoon. Whatever time you're watching this, welcome to a brand new episode. I'm
Tim: Tim and I bring the magic. And
Ayren: my name is Aaron. I bring the adventure. This is the next episode of the Magic Meets Adventure podcast. And today, , we're going to be visiting all of the parks in the Orlando area.
We're going to be taking a look at all four Walt Disney World parks, as well as the two universal parks. Because we had a friend who reached out to us recently and said, Hey, I'm going to the parks for. Is it the first, it's not the first time, but first time in a long time. First time in a long time.
Yeah, I think they were like a kid the first time they went and they were like, it's the same thing [00:01:00] we hear a lot of people say when they plan their trip for the first time. They're like, Hey, I'm a little overwhelmed. There's a lot here to think about. Can you basically make a hit list for us? Unless. know that where do we need to go?
And so we said, well, when are you actually going? He told us when, and we're like, that's, that's plenty of time. We'll record an episode about it. He listens to the podcast. And so hopefully this is helpful not only to him, but to anybody else who's listening and is trying to figure out man, what do I hit?
And what do I skip?
Tim: Yeah. To be fair, this is very subjective.
Ayren: That's true. It is, it is.
Tim: But we will try to well, well round it.
Ayren: Yeah. You probably know this for a fact, but, . You know, part of the reason why we call this Magic Meets Adventure, it's not just because of, Disney meeting Universal, but it's also just our two approaches to the park, and I think if you've been listening for a while, you realize that Tim and I, we have a slightly different approach to the park, we do enjoy a lot of the same things, but, I think if we both had to make a priority list, they would look a little bit different between the two of us.
Tim: Yeah, some subtle changes.
Ayren: Yeah, so just kind of keep that in mind as you listen through be sure to acknowledge, you know, our [00:02:00] voices our perspectives they are a little bit different and maybe something for us that's a hit or a skip might be the opposite for you. That's totally okay
at the end of the day, there's so much to do in these parks. If something is interesting to you or sparks your curiosity, Just go try it out. Do it. It is. I mean, I know it's so, I think the biggest fear that a lot of people have is this sense of FOMO, like I want to make sure I do all the right stuff so that I don't miss any of the stuff or man, I really wish I wouldn't have wasted time on that attraction.
You know, when I could have been going over here and doing this other thing, we hope this helps with that a little bit. But at the same time, you never know until you try it. There are plenty of attractions that I never got on because people, you know, said, Hey, this is the dumbest thing ever. And then I did it and I absolutely loved it.
Yeah. We're not talking about Disneyland today, but I had a friend who said that they thought cars racers was like mad overrated. So the first two or three times I went to Disneyland, I never rode cars racers. I was like, well, it seems like a waste of time. Well then I did it. I absolutely loved it. It ended up being great.
So, [00:03:00] so again, it's, it's all just a matter of perspective. Meanwhile, this same person brought me on frigging Finding Nemo submarine. And I'm like, what's happening. So, so, so again, it's all about perspective. So with that being said, you want to just go ahead and get into this. I say,
Tim: let's go for it.
Ayren: Cool. Let's go ahead and just start with the four Disney parks and then we'll go ahead and hit the universal parks. And I think that'll probably be the easiest way to go. How do we want to do this? What's our, our, our official vernacular by, by the time somebody is watching this episode, they'll know because it'll be the title.
But do we want to say boom or bust or do we want to say skips and hits? Which one do you want to go with? I
Tim: think we should do boom or bust. I think there's more. More fun. So we'll pick one from each. So we'll pick one thing we think is gonna be great, that you should totally do, that many people may disagree with or whatever, and then one you should probably skip.
And that's how we'll go with it. We'll do it for each of the six parts.
Ayren: And we're gonna try to avoid the obvious as well. Yes. Like, we're not gonna be like, Hey, you know, you should Ride Velocicoaster, like, of course. Yeah, it's like, you should, [00:04:00] so we're going to try to go a little bit deeper into the bag here and try to pick on some things that you'll genuinely be asking questions about.
Tim: Yeah, some sleeper pics.
Ayren: Let's go ahead and get started with the Magic Kingdom Park. Tim, I'm really interested to see what your, I don't, man, I'm interested to see what your skips are. I'm
Tim: going off the cuff with this one. Okay.
Ayren: Are you starting, are you starting boom or bust?
Tim: I'm gonna start with the bust. Okay.
Ayren: Oh man.
Tim: I might get some flack for this.
Ayren: Do it. Peter Pan. Hey, that was mine.
Tim: Nice. That was
Ayren: mine, too. That's actually why I wrote multiple for that reason. I
Tim: love this movie and it's a classic attraction. It's, I mean, it's definitely one if you have kids, go do this. But if it's like, you know, your tweenage, teenage, young adult children or just you visiting, yeah, you could probably probably skip this one to be honest, I mean.
Ayren: The reality is the wait time. It's hard. It's hard to justify the ride [00:05:00] with the wait time, correct? This is one of those experiences where again, the rides are not bad, but if you're let's say you're planning a trip where you only have one day in magic kingdom or even less, maybe you only have half a day because you're doing park hop or something.
If that's the case, you're going to spend. An hour and a half trying to get through this line. It, I feel like on average it's around 65 to 75 minutes is typically the wait for this ride and their attraction time is actually like maybe a minute 30 if I had to guess. Yeah. So it is, it is cool. I know, you know, for a lot of people it's kind of a nostalgia pick, but Yeah, I think if you did have one the trip to skip, man, Tim, I'm proud of you.
You did it. I was a little, I was like, I wonder what Tim's going to say about this. It's
Tim: between two of them. If I had to go second, it'd probably be seven dwarves, to be honest.
Ayren: That was, so that's actually my number two as well. And it's for the exact same reason. The amount of time you're going to wait versus the actual ride experience.
It's cool, but again, it's so short and the wait is going to take a [00:06:00] chunk out of your day. Yeah, so those were actually my number one and my number two. So there you go. And I don't have a third one, so
Tim: do you have anything to add on to that?
Ayren: No, I was going to say people mover, but that was low hanging fruit.
I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. You're
Tim: gonna, you're gonna appreciate it soon. Maybe, maybe, I don't know. We'll trust me.
Ayren: I don't know. I plan on raising my child better than that. And then, okay, let's go ahead and do our boom. So what are some attractions that are in magic kingdom that maybe people would Consider skipping that would actually be pretty like an injustice like man No, you actually should have done that thing
Tim: buzz light your spacer and your spin.
Oh,
Ayren: that's a good one.
Tim: Ah The wait time can be long. I'll admit that but dude if you're with a friend like this is a great easy game face on Competition, let's have some fun sort of thing. I mean we did it together back in 2022 and I'm still pissed Yeah, you did it We could have gotten Galactic Hero [00:07:00] together.
Ayren: You could have gotten Galactic Hero. Nah,
Tim: we could have both of us Definitely could have I was gonna help you and you decided to self sabotage yourself. Here's the thing. I am horrible at this
Ayren: game I know what I'm supposed to shoot. Yeah, and I still can't do it I don't know what it is something just I don't know if it's the way my aim is on that game or whatever I so my game plan when me and you got on was I'm just gonna keep spinning the car so that you can't get it And then it was a good day.
Yeah, it worked. It sucked. Can't beat him Make him cry.
Tim: I did. But yeah, that would be my my sleeper pick I think this is just a really fun attraction and yeah, it's it's solid I highly recommend it.
Ayren: That's cool. We're moving a little quick So I have a couple if you have a couple to feel free to get kind of rattles I'm trying to
Tim: think through since I'm going off the cuff with this one
Ayren: this one for me
if you are a fellow Adventure junkie the way I am This one is one that I think you should highly consider.
The Carousel of Progress. Carousel of Progress is one of those attractions that if I go to Magic Kingdom and I don't do it, I feel like I missed something. That's when the FOMO sets in. [00:08:00] That's a good point. That's a good one. I don't entirely know what it is. It is a relaxing attraction. I know a lot of people go in there kind of as their midday break.
It's a good place to get out of the heat, take a nap. I feel that man, something about it. I just love it. I think the story is really good. Obviously a lot of nostalgia to it too. It is it is, you know, outdated. But I feel like it's quintessential Disney. Like it feels like I'm going back into a time machine when I'm, when I get into that attraction.
Also I know Tom Hanks doesn't narrate it, but in my mind he does. And something about that just makes my heart all warm and fuzzy.
Tim: This is one of the few attractions that like Walt is actually a part of in a sense, like he delivers kind of the beginning speech as you're waiting in the queue for it.
So there's, yeah, quintessential Disney vibes with this one.
Ayren: The second one for me that I would actually surprisingly say is a hit, and this is going to be a big shock. It's hall of presidents. It's not one that I feel like I don't get FOMO if I don't do it, but it's one of those attractions that We went one time and [00:09:00] we had an awkward amount of time between whatever we were doing and the fireworks.
And so we were like, you know what? Hall of Presidents is happening. Let's just go ahead and dip in there real quick. And it was better than I thought it would be. Honestly. It's not, it's not one of those things. It's like non negotiable. Okay. Let me say this. If I go back to Magic Kingdom, I don't know if I'm ever like, Hey, we need to go hit the Hall of Presidents.
But, It is something that I'm glad I did once. And I think you need to at least do it once it, but it can't, it's easily falls in that category of things you're tempted to skip every time you go.
Tim: That's true. I still haven't done it to be fair. I will this next time. There you go. So rectify this.
Ayren: No, that when next time you go do it.
And then we'll circle back on the pod and talk about what you think about it. I was shocked at how much I enjoyed it. It also like, I'm not, Like, okay. So I did great moments with Mr. Lincoln in Disneyland. Bored out of my mind, dude. Like, I couldn't wait to get out of that room. Hall of Presidents. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
[00:10:00] And then the last one that I have is story time with Belle. This is one that has a caveat to it. I would say if you have younger kids, go. Absolutely. If you're an adult going by yourself, it could be okay. If you're like on a date, you and a girl, you can go. If you're a grown man going by yourself.
Probably don't it's a little weird It is geared
Tim: towards younger kids. It is geared
Ayren: towards younger kids. There's gonna be a ton of kids in there Unless yeah, unless you like volunteer to play Beast or something I don't know But sometimes they pick the little kids to play Beast like when we went they had like a three year old girl that they asked to play Beast and it was the cutest thing ever But there's a little moment of magic at the beginning of this attraction that is really cool It's finally back open again.
So I'm glad it's true.
Tim: I did figure out one. Okay, what you got in Channotiki room?
Ayren: Okay, I've actually never done that one. That one's on my skip list every time.
Tim: Yeah, it's there's just something about it. Again, you said quintessential Disney vibes. This has it. You know, it's a fun show plus the like actual room.
It's in at least at Walt Disney World. Mm hmm. [00:11:00] Fantastic
Ayren: If you love
Tim: the Polynesian, yeah, I'm gonna get some great great time in here. I find it fun.
Ayren: I'll, I'll check it out. Where you wanna go next, Tim? Gimme any park. It doesn't matter. Let's go Animal kingdom. Okay, cool. That's the next one I had on my list, so that's great. Nice. What is your let's start with the, let's start on the negative.
What is your bust attraction?
Tim: Navi River Journey.
Ayren: That's what I had to.
Tim: The wait is never worth it. Animatronics, dope. Yep. Scenery's dope. 20 minutes, sure I'll do it. Anything higher than that. Yeah. Absolutely not.
Ayren: My biggest fear for this one is that I'm going to wait longer than Okay, so in my brain, coming up with this list too, 40 minutes was kind of the time that I thought in my head of like, what am I not willing to wait 40 minutes for?
Mm-Hmm. and Navi River Journey. Is that because if the an, the animatronic at the end. The shaman makes the attraction if I wait more than 40 minutes and I get on the traction and the animatronic is broken Or it's in b mode. I'm gonna be [00:12:00] so angry. So yes, that's why navi river journey is also my bus for this one What's your boom for this park?
Tim: Mine is actually kilimanjaro safaris. All right I know like a lot of people do do it but specifically in the morning. Yeah Animals are a lot more lively you experience a lot more I mean, it's just total difference rather than doing it midday where you just see a bunch of animals napping, highly recommended during, during the morning.
That way you can just see all of, All the animals. It's really, really cool. I actually had to wait one time because a giraffe was in the way of the road for like a good 10 minutes. Yeah. I've had
Ayren: that happen too, which is really cool.
Tim: I also heard a lion roared too during the morning. Oh, no way. Oh, it was cool.
Oh, that's dope.
Ayren: That's like on my bucket list is to hear a lion roar in real life. That's really cool.
Tim: Check on the box there, but yeah, it was super cool. So highly recommend morning. Sick. What about you?
Ayren: For me, mine is, it's another show. Yeah. And I've actually mentioned this on our social [00:13:00] media accounts before, but winged encounters is my, is my boom.
And the reason why I said this is because it's one of those things that like, if you're scrolling through and you're like, The my Disney experience app and you're looking at everything that's going on. Like, you know, there's a ton of kind of like a lot of the animal exhibits are listed under experiences in animal kingdom.
And that includes winged encounters. And so if you're not careful, you'll think, Oh, this is just some enclosure with birds or something like that in it. No, it's actually a show that happens right in front of the tree of life. I don't know how to say this. I know like, if it was like eight, nine, 10, it would be every hour on the hour.
So I guess every quarter hour on the
Tim: quarter hour, well, that would be 25. I don't know. It'd be 15, 15. So, so we don't, but that's when
Ayren: it happens. Cause it's like, it's like nine 15, 10, 15, 11, 15. But it's one of those, like I'll go and I'll stand in front of the tree of life. You know, there's people taking pictures there and stuff.
And I've had multiple times where I'm standing there waiting for the show to start. And somebody is like, Hey, do you know how to get to, I don't know, Kilimanjaro safaris from here and I'm like, yeah, but you shouldn't leave. And they're like, why? I was like, just [00:14:00] stay in here for a minute and it's going to be dope.
And then I usually find a cast member. I'm like, hey, is the thing happening? And they're like, just keep an eye out. We'll let you know, because even for them, it's a little hit or miss. It's like they know when. I guess the birds will come or not. And so they're like, yeah, just stay in here. And if you see a bunch of cast members come over in a second, it's probably going to happen, but it is really, really cool.
I'm not going to spoil it for you. If you want to look into it, you can but you get an up close and personal encounter with some beautiful macaws, which is, it's really, really cool. And it's super short. I mean, it's maybe a five minute experience, but it's cool. It's really cool. It's a lot of fun.
And this park
Tim: has a lot of booms.
Ayren: They do. They do. It's
Tim: like finding Nemo, the musical is really solid. I've never seen it. It's really cute. I did it back in December. Really, really enjoyed it. Festival of the Lion King, I'd say, is another boom. Like, there's a, there's a few, few here. So.
Ayren: No, no, it's good. Wanna do Hollywood Studios next?
Let's do Studios. Let's go over to Studios. Do you know yours for this one?
Tim: Trying to think of my bust. This is my
Ayren: favorite [00:15:00] This is as far as the attraction lineup. This is my favorite park Let's just go ahead and get low hanging fruit out of the way lightning mcqueen's racing academy.
It's the worst thing on disney property. Don't do that.
Tim: Yeah, definitely don't
I'm gonna go bust star tours
Ayren: Okay Which may which
Tim: might be surprising. I mean, it's it's not a terrible weight, but It is an older attraction and you have Oh, wait.
No, I changed my answer. Sorry. Whoever's editing this I'm gonna go smugglers rotten.
Ayren: Oh Yep, that's the right answer. I didn't have my answer yet. That is the right answer
Tim: and I love like Childhood nostalgia dream come true pulling to go into hyperspace on the millennium falcon You Fantastic. Yeah after like if you're not flying it It's okay.
It's it's I mean, I understand the intent behind it and I appreciate it But usually wait time is super duper high for this one. Yeah, I don't think it's necessarily worth it [00:16:00] If you are going to pilot it like great or if it's single rider fine But other than that, like I haven't done it in a couple years So but that would be that would be my pick
Ayren: that is the right answer I mean, I have a different one, but that is the most right answer.
That's the one where Like in theory, we're I think we're on two different sides of the spectrum You're more of a star wars fan than I am i've seen star wars, but i'm not like, you know, but in theory I don't care who you are. If somebody's like, Hey, do you want to fly the Millennium Falcon? You're like, yeah, that's freaking dope.
Why would I not want to do that? And then you do it and you're like, Oh, okay. I guess I did it. So yeah, it is, it is fun. It is, you know, potentially worth doing once, but if it is a once in a lifetime trip and you have a pick between Smuggler's Run and any of the other attractions, I would defer. I'm going to say my bus, and this is just kind of going out of left field here.
Mickey and Minnie's runaway railway. Ooh, yeah. This is one that's close enough on the line to me. It feels like you have to do it because it's Mickey Mouse. [00:17:00] That's kind of the attachment that I have to it. I get that. Um, But yeah, the attraction overall, it's okay. It's one that like 40 minutes is my max.
Tim: I'd agree with that. If it's
Ayren: 40 minutes and I've done others and I've done everything else I want to do in the park, then yeah, I'll go for it. Yeah. But yeah, I think that one's one that like, if I'm, if you skip it, I don't think you should lose sleep over it.
Tim: That's fair.
Ayren: And then what's your boom?
Tim: Muppet vision 3d.
Ayren: Oh, okay. Yeah, this is the one I actually, I'm not surprised now that you said it, but I
Tim: am it over like the past year I've been going through all the Muppet movies. Oh my gosh. I don't know why I didn't watch these sooner. But there's so much fun and this show. It's fantastic. There's a lot of great humor, a lot of great elements into it.
It's fun. It's not a normal 3d Movie you think that's like super cheesy. Yeah, it's it's fun. I [00:18:00] thoroughly enjoy it It's a it's a must do every time i'm in hollywood studios.
Ayren: It's not a must do for me But it is one that pleasantly surprised me Yeah, I would say it falls kind of into that hall of presidents category for me where I'm like, if I don't do it, I'm not upset, but I'm glad that I did it at least once.
For me, my boom for this, and I don't really, this isn't going to be much of a shocker, I think. But again, I think just with people's tendency to skip shows is fantastic. Yeah, this can be one of those time consuming experiences. The show itself is pretty long, and if you want to get a decent seat, you got to get there pretty early.
So because of that, you might be tempted. So this is one, for example, you're coming up on the end of the night and you have two choices. You're like, Hey, I can either go sit and wait for an hour to try to get a seat at Fantasmic or we can go and ride Mickey and Minnie's. I will take Fantasmic 10 out of 10 times.
It's just a great show. It is a little bit off the beaten path. So it's funny, like, even though Disney talks about it and even though it's like you kind of go looking for nighttime [00:19:00] spectaculars in each of the parks, it's easy to know that this isn't there. because it's like pretty far off the beaten path.
The trail to it is closed off during the day. Like they only open it up when it's time for people to head back there. So yeah, I would say that one's probably my probably my boom for Hollywood studios.
Next up. So, okay, really quick before we move on. So is Star Tours a bust for you?
Tim: I no.
Ayren: Okay, you, you take it off the list completely. Yeah, I'm taking it off the list. You say if you can go to, if you can do Star Tours, do Star Tours. Okay. Yeah, it's cool. Oh, another one. This is just an honorable mention for all of our 21 and over friends.
Go to Oga's Canteen.
Tim: That
Ayren: is a big boom. That is a big boom. Talk about getting a bang for your buck. That's a fun, that's a sentence. It's a big boom where you get a bang for your buck. A lot of B's. A lot of B's. Dude, we went in we went for the, have you only been twice? I've been three times. You've been three times?
You went without me, you dirty dog.
Tim: I went when I went during 2020, right? I'm kidding. I had to experience it. I'm
Ayren: kidding, dude. It is phenomenal. It's so good. It's probably [00:20:00] one of the best I guess I'd consider it a dining experience, even though it's drinks. But yeah, it's one of the best dining experiences on property.
Super immersive. I think that is what everyone thought Galaxy's Edge as a whole would be, if that makes sense. Galaxy's Edge is still great. It is still a super immersive land. Like it's awesome. But like it is the most immersive part of the most immersive land that Disney has. Yeah. So highly recommend Oguz.
Yes. All right. And then we got Epcot. So my bust is Epcot. No, I'm kidding. That's it. I leave. I'm done. We had a good run, everybody. Boom and bust for Epcot. I might make a lot of people mad with this. Don't you dare.
But frozen happily ever after.
Tim: Frozen Happily Ever After Is that like a Christmas special? No,
Ayren: I'm sorry, what's the formal name for it? There we go, Frozen Ever After Is it just Frozen Ever After? That doesn't sound right. I trust you. Yeah, Frozen. Did it once, and it was one of [00:21:00] those things that's like, I don't need to do that ever again.
That was one where I was a little upset about how long we waited for it. It is a very long wait. It is always a very long wait, and it's okay. I mean, if you're going with, like, if you have a little girl, you have to, right? Like, I get it. It's frozen. Like, it's frozen. It's freaking frozen. You can't not. But but yeah, the attraction was just a little underwhelming to me.
Tim: My bus is gonna be Mission Space.
Ayren: Oh, man, I don't know how I didn't see that coming.
Tim: Well, I kept thinking about it. I had a different one on the list, but if
Ayren: what was your, well, we'll talk about mission space. I would
Tim: say orange side specifically, not green side, like the attraction in itself is fine. I mean, essentially.
You're in a rocket ship and you're going to blast off into [00:22:00] space onto Mars. And it's, it's kind of cool. If you're claustrophobic, do not recommend doing it like at all.
Ayren: Even if you're like, just uncomfortable in small spaces, like I wouldn't like, I'm not claustrophobic and I get uncomfortable on that ride.
Tim: Yeah, it is super uncomfortable. And so if you don't like spinning, do not recommend it. Or if you, you know, just. Get a headache all of a sudden I do not recommend it.
But yeah for me I just I had a terrible experience on this ride. So that's probably biased but Wait time. I mean, it's it's decently long. I just don't think it's worth it It also goes after one of the greatest attractions disney's ever made with horizons. So That would be mine. I was gonna go seas first.
Ayren: Oh,
Tim: I thought about doing that But i'm like, yeah, no, but it's like it's like 15 minutes at the most unless it's like really busy at epcot Yeah You know, but
Ayren: I get that I leave mission space.
Tim: That's my bust
Ayren: I don't know if i've ever felt more bad than when we got off of mission space [00:23:00] Like I just seeing you and how sick the ride made you I was like, yeah That was a bad idea.
That's that's why I was so afraid when we went to I was afraid you were going to get off of either Hulk or Velocicoaster and feel the way you felt when you got off of Mission Space and I'm just like, I just don't want that again. I just don't want that again. It was so bad. No, that's fair. And I just, I just felt bad because I remember telling him like, Oh, it's not that bad.
And to be fair, when we did it, it was worse than I remembered. So yeah, I, I agree with you on that. So Frozen Ever After. And mission space. Interesting. It's interesting. I can get down with that though. I think we're going to have the same boom for this park. I think
Tim: maybe
Ayren: you want to say at the same time and see what happens.
Let me know when you have yours locked in. Don't think about what I would say. Like, think about what your actual name is. And I'm interested to see if we have the same one.
Tim: I got
Ayren: it. Okay. 3, 2, 1, living with the land. Yep. Let's go. Yeah. I was with you. Yeah, that was the only time I've written this one. [00:24:00] Yeah, shockingly, again, this kind of falls into that carousel of progress category for me.
It's nothing fancy, nothing special. It's Oh, okay. We can get controversial in just a second. But yeah, I mean, if you told me, Hey, you want to go Take a slow moving boat ride and look at plants. No, that doesn't sound great, but it's actually, I don't, it may be, it was a time of day thing. Like we were kind of winding down, you know, but it was peaceful, chill attraction.
Again, one of those things I think you should do at least once.
Tim: I like it. It's quintessential Epcot. And the end music is fantastic. Just as if you're about to exit the vehicle. Yeah. It's so good.
Ayren: I do have one that would be very controversial.
Tim: As a boom?
Ayren: As a bust. Oh? You're gonna
Tim: How much am I gonna hate you for this?
You
Ayren: might actually leave the pod for this one. Oh no. Spaceship Earth is actually a bust for me. I think it's good, [00:25:00] but it's like, I can see it, but it doesn't make me happy. You know what I mean? Like you can't like, as a kid, when you think for the very first time, when you reach consciousness as a child and you're like, I want to go to Disney.
One of the first, like, most iconic things you think of, I would say, next to the castle, is Spaceship Earth. Absolutely. The structure is just, it's as Disney as it gets.
Outro: Mm
Ayren: hmm. There might have even been a time in my life where I associated Spaceship Earth more with Disney than I did the castle. Maybe. As a kid living, like, growing up in Louisiana and only hearing about Disney World.
But the attraction's fine. If you can do it, if you have the time to do it, do it. It should be on your list. This is one where I think I would get FOMO if I'd never done it. It's kind of, I have kind of have a relationship with this one that I have with Jungle Cruise. Like I've never done Jungle Cruise and there's always kind of this sense of FOMO of like, I've just never made my way over there, but I want to do it.
If I would have never ridden spaceship earth, that's the way I would have felt about it. But [00:26:00] having done it, I'm just like, okay.
Tim: Yeah,
Ayren: but again, this attraction typically doesn't have a super long wait time. Nope. On the off chance that you do catch one of those really busy days, like a spring break week or something like that.
And it's over a 40 minute wait. I'm probably skipping it.
Tim: That's fair.
Ayren: I still hate you for it. Yeah, I mean. I, I get it. That's what I'm here for, you know? Gotta give the people some spice. Mm hmm. But no, that's, that's genuinely how I feel, so. All right, we're going to go ahead and that rounds off the Walt Disney World parks.
We're going to go ahead now with the last, what, 10 minutes we have of the show and we're going to hit Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. So these are separate parks. I don't know why I feel the need to say that. I feel like everybody who's listening to this podcast and knows this stuff pretty well, but we still run into people who are like, I can't wait to go to Disney and go to Hogwarts.
I'm like, well, that's not accurate. Um, Yeah. Islands of Adventure, and I actually feel like both of these parks, as [00:27:00] much as I love, well, I love Islands of Adventure. I'm not crazy about Universal Studios. I feel like there's a decent number of both boom and bust attractions in both of these. Yeah, for sure.
Do you have yours? Let's start, do you want to start with studios, or do you want to start with islands?
Tim: Islands, I have mine.
Ayren: You have yours ready for islands? Okay. Ready for islands. Let's go ahead and start with islands then. Tim, what is your bust attraction for islands?
Tim: Yeah, that would be pretty whack. I mean, I, I can't think of anything else. I mean, to be fair, we haven't done anything in Seuss landing, or at least I've not done it since I was like a wee little kid. But even then, most of that
Ayren: stuff is under like a 15 minute wait. So you're not going to lose too much of your day trying to hit it.
Kong's like
Tim: five minutes. Wait to sometimes. Yeah,
Ayren: I've seen Kong get up to an hour and I'm like, I would be so mad if I waited that long. Yeah. Yeah, it's [00:28:00] probably Kong here. Yeah, I mean this part, you know me, I love this park. I think it's almost flawless. If
Tim: we want to get spicy, I have a spicy one.
Ayren: Give me a spicy pick. River Adventure. I was wondering if you were going to say that.
Tim: Only because I have a sneaking suspicion, like, we're kind of gearing this towards, like, you open the show with someone we're talking to. I have a sneaking suspicion when he goes on it, if he does, it's like, Yeah, it's a short attraction.
For both of them? For both of them? Absolutely. It's not bad. I enjoy it. It's solid. Needs some love.
Ayren: Yeah, I get that. That one could potentially be, like if you skip it, okay, would you, would you rather skip You want to do a water ride. We couldn't do Popeye's it was closed last time, but we did Dudley do rights and we did river adventure.
Which one would you, if you could only ride one, which would you rather? I know it's not super great cause they're, they're pretty different.
Tim: I think I'd [00:29:00] rather do river adventure cause I appreciate. Jurassic Park more than Dudley Do Right, but if I want to get like soaked on a hot day, I'm doing Dudley Do Right.
Ayren: Oh, big facts. Yeah, you're gonna get way more wet on Dudley Do Right. Yeah, so yeah, Yeah, this park is close to perfect in my mind. So it's pretty hard to It was perfect. This one kind of feels like low hanging fruit, but it's I'm trying to remember it. Is it in
Tim: everything? No, yeah, last minute details.
Flight of the Hippogriff?
Ayren: That's in islands. Yeah. Yeah. It's a family coaster. It is what it is. Yeah. We did it once in the entire time I was in line. I'm like, I feel like this might be a waste of time. And then we got off and I was like, yeah, that was a waste of
Tim: time. Barnstormer of yeah. It's a, it's a
Ayren: super small, super quick, but typically gets a pretty long wait time.
So. Yeah, I would I would opt away from it. It is the only family friendly coaster in the park right now. So yep. [00:30:00] Yeah, I would yeah They did probably between those two between Kong and flight of the hippogriff. I would say Okay, this one if just for the sake of being weird and I hope this doesn't throw people too far off but Hogwarts Express I might skip it
Tim: Yeah, especially if it's a long wait,
Ayren: especially if it's a long wait.
It is a cool way to get from one park to the other. Again, if it's a long wait, you can walk from one park to the other a lot quicker. I know a lot of times, and I actually think this is one of the genius marketing things that universal has done is they've said, well, if you want to do this attraction, you got to get parked apart.
And I'm like, well, dang it. That's. Brilliant . It is very smart. That's brilliant. Well then Universal, because for years when I would go, I never did park to park, I only did single day. So the thing that convinced me to do Park to park was like, well, I gotta do, it's 'cause I wanna ride the Hogworth Express.
So I get that. Yeah. But again, it's it's, it's. Yeah, I would say anything over, I don't know, maybe 15 or 20 minutes. I [00:31:00] probably wouldn't do it just because you can walk from one part to the other faster.
Outro: Yeah.
Ayren: Unless you're going to do like a full on Harry Potter experience, like you're giant Harry Potter fan.
You plan on spending most of it. Like I didn't, we have friends who went in They spent their entire universal day in just the Harry Potter sections of the park. I believe it. But I'm just not that into Harry Potter. So if that's your goal, then yeah, go for it. But if not, you know, don't, don't shell out the extra money for the park to park if you don't have to.
Yep. You got a boom in this park? Forbidden Journey. Oh yeah. I feel like because
Tim: you have Hagrid's on one side, Velocicoaster on the other side, it's like, Oh, cool. There's the You know, Hogwarts, let's go over to Hagrid's. It's so fun. Yeah, it really is. It's really immersive, has some great show scenes and it's a unique ride technology that I've, you don't see anywhere else.
Yeah. So yeah, I think it's, it's fantastic. A
Ayren: hundred percent. Definitely a good boom [00:32:00] option. This one is not really a sleeper pick, but I would say Spider-Man, if you go, oh, I agree with that. That was my number two. If, if you go, just make sure you hit Spider-Man. Don't skip it. If there's a short wait time, don't, don't let that fool you.
Please don't. It's a brilliant attraction. So much fun. This is a little out the box here, but we talked about Seuss Landing and we really don't do much there. I would say a boom experience of those tots, man. If you get a chance to go to the green eggs and ham stand and get you some tots they're so good.
There's Buffalo chicken, there's pepperoni pizza, there's green eggs and ham. All of those things come on top of tots and they're so delicious. Super, super good. So highly recommend those. And then my boom, like two years ago would have been.
Tim: I'm glad we're on the same page because I was literally about to talk about this. That would have been
Ayren: the boom if it was still there. If you never got to experience that is one that you should feel a little, little sad that you never got to experience. We do
Tim: have an episode on the history of Poseidon Fury.
We, if you wanna check that out, we do.
Ayren: Go back and listen to that one. It was about two or three episodes ago, I think. Something like that. Something like [00:33:00] that. Yeah. We don't have a large catalog yet, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. Alright. Now to the biggest bust of a park, I mean to Universal Studios,
Good look good. Lord. Sorry told you how I really felt there Tim. Do you have a bust attraction for this part? That's not supercharged I know that's what I'm like trying here is one. I'm trying not to do that one. It's the clearest option
Tim: I can't do Simpsons cuz I've never done that before so I'm trying to avoid do stuff I have done which isn't a lot.
Oh Simpsons
Ayren: is a good bust attraction. Yeah, I'm not gonna mention that one, but it's up there I Can go ahead and start Yeah, so my bust for Universal Studios is This is weird. It's gonna be weird to say but I think my bus for Universal Studios is Rip Ride Rocket. Oh Snap, I know Here's what makes it hard.
This is the biggest coaster in the park so it feels weird to skip the one big [00:34:00] coaster that the park has but this attraction is just a rough ride. By the time the adrenaline wears off, you are just like I need a lawyer. Like it hurts so bad and I haven't written it since they changed the song selections But they like drastically narrowed down the list from like I think 60 to like six or something like that Like there's a ton of songs that aren't available anymore Which is what made the attraction the fact that you got to pick your own song which you still can do But you just have a smaller catalog now.
Yeah, so I would say that one's probably Probably my bust
Tim: this might be controversial. I'm not a hundred percent. Sure Transformers.
Ayren: That's your bust. That's my bust. So, fun fact about this one, for me, at least. I was like, is this my boom or my bust? And I, like, it's the one that could put in either category and feel okay about.
Tim: Yeah.
Ayren: Yeah. Why do you, why do you say that?
Tim: I just, you have a superior version of a similar attraction with Spider Man. And [00:35:00] so it's a cool attraction, but it's one that I'm like, if I go to Universal and I. Don't hit this. I'm not mad about it.
Ayren: That's true. And it's one that has a tendency to suck you into its orbit too, because one, it's a huge show building.
You have the giant Optimus Prime. That's kind of like this, you know, just kind of draws you into it. And just the IP is gonna pull you into. So no, I feel that that's, I get that.
Tim: Yeah, that would be that'd be mine. I mean because the rest that I can think of they're all just kind of like Yeah, these are kind of lame attractions.
Ayren: I actually do have one minion mayhem would probably be my best attraction on this haven't done that yet. Yeah, it's it's cute It's a fun family attraction. There's not a ton of family attractions So if you are going with younger kids, this is one you should hit I would say I like legit It might be in my top five favorite queues in Orlando.
The queue is really cool for it. Like you genuinely feel like you walk into the movie, but yeah, the attraction overall, [00:36:00] I think it's the same, it's the same thing as a Transformers effect. It's a cool queue or a cool IP with a really cool show building. And so you're like, yeah, we should go do that. And then you get in and you're like, yeah.
Might have been a waste of time. But that's kind of how I feel about most of Studios Park, if I'm honest. A lot of it is like, this should be great, and it's all just kind of mediocre. What about your boom? Do you have a boom attraction in this park? We might
Tim: have the same one.
Ayren: Do we?
Tim: We might. I don't
Ayren: know if we do.
Mostly because I don't know entirely what my boom is yet.
Tim: Horror makeup show
Ayren: that's that was yeah, that was one that I was highly considering. Yeah,
Tim: that's my boom. It's fun Interactive super great super cheesy super awesome. And so yeah, yeah, that's my boom. It's fun
Ayren: This one's kind of an honorable mention Maybe just something that most people don't know about or wouldn't think I should Prioritize in my day, but if you don't have it on your list to go to Ollivander's You You [00:37:00] should to do the, to do the little show, to go in and watch it.
It's cool. It's again, it's one of those things you should do at least once. It's one of those things that I think anytime I go to universal with someone I've never been with before, or someone who's never been, they should go. I think once you see it, especially like. If I was going to buy a wand, I would definitely go to the show just to like add to the experience of buying the wand.
But like the reality is it's just a really fancy way to enter into a store. Which may make it sound like a bust, but actually it is a really cool show. That's like just one of these small little kind of magical moments that you're like, man, y'all didn't have to do this, but you did. And that's, that's really cool.
It made it fun. Yeah. Especially if you're a Harry Potter fan. Oh, a hundred percent. Definitely do this. A hundred percent. Yeah. Harry Potter fan. I think if you have young kids. It's a good way to go if you're going with someone who's never been before definitely try to hit it. Yeah Yeah, so
Tim: I like that pick.
Yeah, I think
Ayren: I think going to Ollivander's might be might be it for me
so we hope this has been helpful for you. Again, maybe we just, I don't know, we might need to find a way to [00:38:00] like kind of group some of these into like just the trip planning catalog so that if you or someone that you know is going on a vacation to the Orlando area and it's like, Hey, I just need some tips and tricks for my plans.
Hopefully this could be helpful for you in that as always, we want to hear yours as well. So feel free to follow us on all of our social media platforms. You can find us at Magic Meets Adventure. We are at Magic Meets Adventure pod on Instagram for now. TikTok. Yep. That's right. We are at Magic Meets Adventure on Instagram.
But go ahead and let us know what are your boom and bust attractions. And this might also even open the door for just what are some of your, theme park hot takes. We want to start collecting those as well because eventually that's an episode that we want to do. Absolutely. And I think we started to drift into hot take care category here.
I don't think we fully got there yet. I'm excited for when that day does come. Um,
Tim: But we need your suggestions in order to make it great. Yeah,
Ayren: yeah. So keep an eye out. We'll probably be prompting some stuff, but even if you don't see a prompt, just go ahead and shoot us a message. Let us know what are some of your theme park hot [00:39:00] takes.
That's all I got, man. You got anything else? I don't. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us. This has been another episode of Magic Meets Adventure. I'm Timon, I bring the magic. And I'm Aaron, I bring the adventure. And we will see you guys next time.
Outro: See ya.
Ayren: And so our journey comes to an end.
Outro: Guess that wraps things
Tim: up. You guys did all right. Carefully
Outro: raise
Tim: your left bar and exit the vehicle.
Outro: Oh, and don't forget to retrieve your stolen coins. We hope that you've enjoyed your visit with us and that you will come back soon. See you real soon. Bye everybody. Bye! Be
careful getting home!