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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!
Tim: [00:00:00] So we're in the tower. We are ready for takeoff.
Intro: Do I consider you a lot more than having got a cup of coffee? Please stand clear of the door. Looks like you've lost power. This is the wildest ride in the wilderness! For all who come to this happy place, welcome. Hello everybody and welcome
Ayren: to another episode of Magic Meets Adventure.
I'm Tim and I bring the magic. And my name is Aaron and I bring the adventure. You're back! I am back. I am glad to be back. Man, Tim, you mentioned it last week. It's been a pretty hectic couple of weeks. , hey, first of all, thank you to you for getting that episode cranked out. I listened to it earlier today, dude.
It came out great. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. I thought it was super solid. If you're listening to this and you haven't had a chance to check out that episode, it's a short one. Maybe it's a nice little, Lunch break episode or something like that. You go ahead and throw it on. And, Tim gives us some of the updates about what's going on in the world of Disney Imagineering.
Little did I know
Tim: the amount of stuff that would be announced
Ayren: after,
Tim: after her [00:01:00] departure.
Ayren: You know, that's one of the things that's really interesting about, , this topic of these theme parks at disney universal we will never be out of news Nope, there is always new things happening always new developments
It's exciting stuff man, super cool
Tim: always
Ayren: Always well, we are going to go ahead and hop into this week's episode a part of our hecticness and everything that's been going on I was gone for a while kind of traveling and stuff like that but one of the my travels brought me to Orlando where I met up with Tim and we went to go and visit the parks.
The city beautiful the city. Well, not
Tim: the not the parks, but the Orlando is called the city beautiful. Oh, I didn't know
Ayren: Yeah, I thought you were yeah just having a moment there. Nah, I thought you were like, yo the city beautiful like one of those I didn't realize you were We are not on Fast and Furious.
Oh man, we are gonna have to talk about Fast and Furious here in just a minute. It's gonna be great. So Tim, you got down there a week earlier than I did. Mhmm. And you went and explored the wonderful [00:02:00] world of Disney and then when I have to. As you have to, you can't not. You got that, annual pass you gotta you gotta make yourself over there as often as possible I come down to orlando.
You had been kind of hopping around the parks and stuff. We met up for dinner one night. We'll talk about that probably briefly And then, at the end of the week, after the conference that we were in Orlando to visit was over, we decided to take a day and go to Universal. And so, we'll, we'll talk about that.
You got to experience a lot of things for the very first time. It's going to be great. Yeah. It's going to be a really great episode. Man, the lines between magic and adventure were
Tim: blurred over the course of this week. More so on the adventure side rather than the magic side. Oh yeah. But, you know.
Ayren: So let's go ahead and talk about it a little bit.
So you got down to Orlando a week before I did, and you just kind of spent some time exploring through the Disney parks and, trying some stuff out. Tell us about that.
Tim: Yeah, sure. I got to stay at my favorite resort ever made ever, ever, ever, which is wilderness lodge. I mean, if you've not been there, it's [00:03:00] essentially like, think of like the old, National Park,, Welcome Center, hotels, where you'd stay at, But it's just a beautiful resort. It's a deluxe resort over at disney There is of course a resort tour on the way. So stay tuned for that over on the youtube
Ayren: find us on youtube. Yeah, definitely definitely on that Adventure. Yeah
Tim: I did get to experience a decent amount. I finally got to see the new world celebration gardens And some of those things, it's pretty cool. I wish there was a fountain though. It's missing, it's missing a little water feature.
, but other than that is pretty cool. The Walt dreamer statues, pretty sweet. Got some lovely photos with Walt at night. It was awesome. Also got to check out the new fireworks show. They're luminous. The symphony of us. How was that? Much better in person. So I remember watching The show, the first night it came out via resort TV one, cause they were there opening night
Ayren: and you [00:04:00] typically do that.
I try to like, whenever new stuff like that comes out, I try to wait to watch it in person. Depends
Tim: on what it is. I just tuned in and watch. I'm like, whatever. I'll, I'll see what it is and see how it is. You know, I thought it was pretty good then. You know, definitely interesting to see, How it would compare and I thought it was I thought it was good, you know, it was an enjoyable time.
I think Musically, it's pretty good. Okay. I mean the story is just talking about like humanity That's as far as I will go in case you want to avoid spoilers but it's it's a solid show. They got some cool fireworks. You can see it throughout epcot there's not like harmonious where a barge is like Taking over the spot.
It's missing kind of a power ballad though, I think but that's just my personal preference What do you mean by that? We travel way way back to pre kovat we go on for eliminations reflections of earth kind of that power and Go the distance that power and this show doesn't really have that You [00:05:00] Some cool original songs, but other than that, you know, it's a solid show That's all I'll say about that.
But other than that the parks were good. I mean, there's not like Anything crazy, going on. I got a new song on Cosmic Rewind. Got to listen to September. Ayy. So that was great. That's the dream. I do remember the 21st night in September in case anyone's wondering. I do. Do you?
Okay. Not at this current moment in time, but I, I do, I do remember it. I promise. It's great as always. It was busy though. I mean, this is first week of march. Oh, yeah So there were a lot of those spring break crowds and yeah Yeah, it caught me off guard because you know, normally you think okay spring break Mid March,
Intro: you
Tim: know, early April time frame and no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not what happened.
It was definitely Miami Beach
Ayren: told everybody don't come visit us. And so they all decided to go. Yeah, so they all
Tim: moved up rather than go to like Cocoa Beach or anything. Yeah, no. Had to come and ruin it for Tim. Yeah They did not really [00:06:00] but it was good and you know, it's good to always spend time in the parks There definitely were moments where I feel like, you know, the magic was back which for me was great.
Yeah Yeah, just overall good stuff.
Ayren: It was man. I so when I by the time I got there I joined you for We got, this is almost starting to feel like a tradition at this point, but we, yeah. Went to the, oh my gosh. Contemporary Resort. Yes. We went to the Contemporary Resort and we sat on the balcony and we watched, dude, my brain is melting right now.
Happily ever after . We watched Happily Ever after from the balcony. Yep. And then we went in for a Steakhouse 71 reservation, which is just always, if you ever have a chance to go, I highly recommend, if you find yourself just there and, , maybe you're going there as a couple, maybe you're married or something like that, and you're looking for a solid date spot, it's solid.
I haven't been there with my wife, but I've been there with Tim twice, so take that for what it's worth. It's a really good restaurant though. It is a really good [00:07:00] restaurant. The contemporary is a one vibes. And then after that we hopped on a monorail and we met up with another friend of ours to go to the Polynesian.
And at first we said, well, let's just go sit out on the patio and grab a drink. And Tiki Terrace over there, Tiki Terrace. Yeah. , and then we got a nice little surprise. He showed up before we did, and he put our name on the list for Trader Sam's. And to go in, we got to go in, this was the first time for both of us, right?
Yeah, I've
Tim: not been, I've been into the one in Disneyland because you can get reservations for that one. This one over in Walt Disney world. It's. You have to walk up. Oh, really? You can't get a reservation ahead of time. Nope. I didn't know that you can't do that. I've tried and have failed miserably.
Ayren: So, yeah, so we've tried to go there before.
And I think anytime me and my wife walked up, they're like, Hey, we can take you, but it's like a three hour wait. And so we just never did. We just went out to the terrace and that was it. , when our friend showed up, he was like, they said it's about an hour wait, and he said that like, Oh no, it's an hour wait.
And I think we both heard that. And we're like only an hour wait. [00:08:00] Yeah. I was like, put our name on the list. That's not bad. Yeah. Yeah. So they put our name on the list and they call us in. It was really cool. It is a really cool space. It was shockingly cool. so I went in not really knowing what to expect.
This is one of those experiences that I didn't want to know anything about. Before I went into it. So I walked in and I'm not gonna say I was underwhelmed by how small it was But I was surprised at how small it was and so it's very
Tim: intimate.
Ayren: Yeah knowing what I know about it I think I was expecting somewhere at least the size of ogis , and it was a little bit smaller than that , but I remember walking in and being like, okay, I know what's supposed to happen but Where does it happen?
And then when it does, man, it's just so cool. And I actually think the, the smaller, more intimate feel it plays, really well.
Tim: Yeah, it makes it fun. And then it's also easier for like everybody to participate. Cause in case you don't know, like every drink, there's something that happens within, you know, the space.
The bar comes alive. The bar comes alive in some way, shape, or form. And so and that's with pretty much [00:09:00] every Drink, there's something new something different something unique and you just it's a blast I love it
Ayren: so much a couple of things to keep in mind So I would still put this probably second behind ogis personally But again, that could just be because of the memories that we have at ogis That's fair.
We'll have to do an episode one day story time just about story time at ogis. Oh gosh. Yeah, , so it's probably second there for me to ogis, but it is still incredible We One thing I will mention, if you're planning a trip, whether you're going to Oga's or if you're going to Trader Sam's. If you're an introvert, it could be an interesting experience.
Yeah,
Tim: I definitely agree with that. I mean, I was, it was solo for me at Disneyland. So I like kind of talked with other people there. But did you
Ayren: get the same seating situation when you went to Disneyland? Was it similar to that? I
Tim: sat up at the bar, the actual bar spot, which was kind of cool.
But yeah, it was, I mean, it's slightly bigger than the one at Walt Disney World, but not by too much, I don't think.
Ayren: So our experience was we go in, um, We go in, they sit us down at basically these high top. It's a [00:10:00] long high top table. It's like a surfboard. It's awesome. Imagine it's surf, yeah, shaped like a surfboard, but you're like literally face to face with someone who you don't know.
So at first we sat down and there was a group of people sitting there and they seemed pretty chill. They were just kind of like, Hey, you know, we acknowledge each other's existence and then they had their group and we had our group on the other side of the table. They left. And then. A much more fun group came in, I guess we'll put it that way.
It feels like a nice way to say it. They had been, they, they definitely had been, they had, this was not their first bar. Yeah, this was not their first bar. They were much more talkative. And yeah. So, if you were introverted, I will say. I think if you go with another person or two or three, you'll be fine.
Y'all can kind of create your own little circle there. But if you go in by yourself, just know you may be paired up with somebody who's two or three drinks in and, yeah, you never know what'll happen there. Exactly. But it was a nice surprise. Super glad we were able to do that. Yeah, me too. So that was the end of our night there.
After that, let's go ahead and hop into the meat and potatoes [00:11:00] here. Let's talk about our trip over to universal. Let's do it. Beautiful day. Yes, I mean that in every aspect, top to bottom weather was great , we ended up doing the one day park to park, tickets and Man, I don't think we could have asked for a better day.
Genuinely. We got
Tim: so much done.
Ayren: We got a ton accomplished , so we'll so first of all we stayed at a westgate hotel while we were there in florida and as a part of westgate hotels And There was an opportunity to buy a ticket from , it's a official ticket reseller called tickets to you, which did save us a few bucks on the tickets.
Not, I'm not much, but, if you're staying in the Orlando area, always check with your hotel, because some of them are good neighbor hotels or partner hotels. They have different, packages for people who are staying there at their hotels and stuff. So just looking at that, you might save yourself a couple of bucks.
you might be able to find like a, Free shuttle service or something like that back and forth. But we did go ahead and buy our tickets through that. We showed up to the park, went to one of the will call kiosk, grabbed our tickets and then went straight in. We went [00:12:00] into islands of adventure first and man, this park continues to exceed my expectations every time we go.
Tim: I had a much better time. I think this time that I did last time. So I'll say I didn't enjoy it last time. But because I knew what I was getting into, knew the stuff, and also just Hitting some brand new attractions.
Ayren: Yeah, and and you weren't coming in off of a nine hour drive straight into the park Like we did last time as well.
That is also very very true too.
Tim: But yeah,
Ayren: Loved it. It was great. So we get there and we're there rope drop and First thing we decided to do I always head to the left. That's probably what the majority of people do I would think probably head to the left towards marvel. I mean, there's probably people heading.
Maybe you go right to try to get to haggards. Yeah haggards, but unless you want to rope drop, you know cat in the hat. I mean, hey, you know what? You're right I'm, sorry. I didn't mean to assume that anyone wouldn't do that But or the trolleys or the trolleys so we get there and you know The team members are kind of staying in there, you know blocking [00:13:00] everybody keeping everything going in It's at that moment where we're having this conversation of like tim You Incredible Hulk's right there.
What do we want to do? Do we want to go rope drop Haggard's or do we just want to hop on Incredible Hulk since it's right here, Tim, you're getting over your, you know, past tense. What was a fear of roller coasters? We're getting there. We're getting there. Hey, we're getting there. And, I'm like, dude, listen, I'm cool with whatever.
I'm like, we're right here. Let me go hit Hulk real quick. I'll just do it. Get the blood pumping. And then whenever you want to come back to it, we can. And you said, nah, I Let's do it. Let's just get it over with. Tim, what was your experience on The Incredible Hulk?
Tim: So, fun story, uh, You told me the entire time, like, in the queue.
One thing is I can't see, right? I wear glasses, and so when they say to put everything in a locker, I also put my glasses in, which means I can't really see too much. Um, I can see blurriness, but that's about it. So I can't see how dope the queue
Ayren: is. Yeah. But you didn't know anything much besides that.
Tim: Yeah, I know the [00:14:00] queue was awesome.
But the entire time you're like, you're not going to expect the launch. You're not going to expect the launch. And yeah, just, I mean, one thing I did learn is how quickly it's like, it's not like a, you know, Cosmic Rewind situation where you're, you know, Moving through a little bit before you launch it's a oh, it's right there
Ayren: you get straight into that bad boy Yeah, you you pull your lap bar down and then you're in the tunnel.
Tim: What a freaking ride, dude Oh my gosh That one. I mean I still knew i'm like, okay, it's gonna launch at some point I still didn't expect it and it took off. Yeah, i'm like Holy crap. Alright, here
Ayren: we go. We're doing this. And, yeah, it's
Tim: fantastic.
Ayren: Yeah. So good. It's such a, I think it's a great track layout. I mean, dude, for such an old coaster, I know it got redone, like, I mean, even now, it's probably over a decade ago.
The track and everything got redone. Yeah, but it was so smooth. Mhmm. I think it has one of the best, [00:15:00] maybe personally for, I don't know, cosmic rewind can, can challenge it now, but I was going to say one of the best soundtracks for any coaster that I've been on. I'd agree with that. I actually think universal does a great job with their coaster soundtracks, but yeah, dude, just obviously super, super solid.
And then, yeah, from there we just kind of made our way in a big circle and went around the park. So we, , you know, hit up Spider Man, which is always classic, such a good attraction. We did
Tim: Kong,
Ayren: Kong.
Tim: Yeah, we did
Ayren: it
Tim: it's different now with the two with it just being 2d I think it feels weaker
Ayren: it is So if you don't know they did recently remove the 3d element from Kong and I agree the ride didn't offer much before It offers even less now like it you you just sit on a bus and you're like, all right I'm just gonna I mean, you just sit there and you watch screens and the next thing you know, there's a, and there was an element that was down.
Tim: Yeah. Cause normally you go around into like the, the building and they chant Kong, Kong, Kong, Kong, and we didn't get that. No, that is one of the best parts along with the animatronic. And [00:16:00] so. There was that. I mean, there's also points in the attraction where, I mean, granted, I also pay probably way too much attention to details, more than most people.
Cause I do theme parks differently, there were some elements where it's just like, you could visibly notice we're in a show building and it's in a show building and there's the edge of the screen right there and then it's going into another piece and it's just, you know, It just kills it. It's not immersive.
It could be better. Yeah,
Ayren: it's uh, yeah, yeah.
Tim: Especially for, you know, something as prevalent as Kong, you know.
Ayren: Yeah, Kong's moved up my list of attractions that now I'm waiting for them to shut down and I'm thinking what, what can they do better with this land?
Tim: That's very true.
Ayren: Following that we did backtrack and we went back towards Toon Lagoon and we did Dudley Do Rights.
Uh, dude, we got freaking annihilated. Good lord, we got annihilated on this ride. You'd think we
Tim: were at, like, a, you know, [00:17:00] volcano bay or something. Dude,
Ayren: the first, like, mini drop on this ride, it just, like
Tim: We got a little bit, and then it was the second one, it's the one that's in the pitch dark. Yes. Cause you screamed louder than you should've.
Oh, and way higher pitch than I thought I was capable of. I wasn't ready for that. It was Hilarious, but we just got it. I mean it definitely went under and we just caught it all I mean granted we were seats one and two right but
Ayren: now what's funny is is on this ride The big drop isn't the one that gets you wet like it's That's that one's actually not too bad.
All the water kind of splashes to the side It's all those little ones that lead up to it. Like I was drenched before we hit the drop
Tim: There was a team member, as we're going through just to check on everybody I look at it. I straight up ask i'm like How much more wet can we get and he just is like shrugged his shoulders like
Ayren: well, you're gonna find out.
Yeah,
Tim: but it was cute I mean, it's it's it's decent. It's decent. It is the beginning animatronics gave me nightmares. But other than that, you know, it's [00:18:00] It's a it's what you would expect from something of this area. Yeah, so it's a pretty good
Ayren: decent time I do think you know the interior animatronics and all that sort of stuff It is what it is, but I think standing off of this ride and looking at it I think it adds a really cool, uh, aesthetic to the park.
Yeah, there's really good kinetic energy. I kind of like the like Mount Rushmore's type vibe that has going on. It's really cool. So then we moved our way from there and we said, you know what, Tim? We're already drenched. Let's go ahead and do Jurassic Park River Adventure. So we went in that. What were what was your opinion on that one?
Tim: I think maybe it's just me. I felt like it was shorter than I thought it would
Ayren: be. It is pretty short. But it's neat so I think the difference between this one and a lot of other flume rides like Dudley do rides like a
Tim: Splash mountain
Ayren: dude my brain. Yes, like well will be
Tim: tiana's bayou adventure now
Ayren: Yes, so like those, you know, those rides kind of take you up gradually Mm hmm.
So there's a lot of animatronic. There's a lot of show scenes things for you to see this one There's just one [00:19:00] giant lift hill. Yep. So you go through the outside portion and then it's just like, all right Let's take the elevator to the top and then I'm gonna drop you back down. So that doesn't make the ride time Shorter, but
Tim: yeah that lift hill is it is
Ayren: freakishly intimidating Mm hmm, and I feel like I actually over sells the drop like when you see it, you're just like, okay This is an elevator to know.
Yeah, yeah But
Tim: it's it's neat. I would love to see it get a little a little love Yeah, especially to those that first Dinosaur because he's struggling opened it up and you could just visibly see him. It's like, how do I describe it? It's like his neck is like, I mean all the way down and you're like, is he good?
Ayren: Literally it opened and I was like, oh, it's not working today. And I'm like, oh wait And then he like moved up slowly, but I'd
Tim: love to see it get some get some love, you know It's a solid attraction.
Ayren: Yeah, especially when you see the Jurassic world attractions in shanghai and in hollywood. You're like goodness.
This would be What [00:20:00] when you see the potential of what it can be? You're like, okay, let's just shut it down for a while You Give it some love and then we'll reopen it and it'll be it'll be great. Yeah, so, from that point We actually went and met up with some friends Who were also in the park we met up with them at haggard's Sort of kind of they got in line after us, but we rode it like back to back haggard's is amazing It's just it's fantastic.
It is what it is. , it's a it's a great ride , and so following that, despite the wait time we wanted to try to You Ride some more rides with these friends that we met up with and so we said let's go ahead and hop in line for the VelociCoaster mm hmm and This was the first time even prior to getting on Hulk.
This was the first time in the day where I saw you visibly worried Yes, absolutely. He was like this is when you start asking questions. This is when you start. It's funny you do this thing where you I I feel you doing like the rationalization And you you ask you ask comparative questions. Yep so you'll you'll be like well this lot this [00:21:00] rides as fast as the other one that we went on right or like this Drop is only 20 feet taller than the other one which is a very logical approach It's the same way that I approach taking drops and that sort of thing But you did it.
I did. You did it. Somehow. Yeah. And I'm still standing. This is, so, you know, we're in line with friends. They had never ridden it before. I was the only one in our group that had ridden the ride before. Yeah. And You know, they're they're big coaster people they go to cedar point every year and you know that sort of thing And so, they so they got off of haggards and they were like, you know, it was it was good And and I get why they would say that right?
There's no like big drops in it There's no big like there's no inversions in it anything like that. It's just a creative ride Which is why I love it so much It's not the most thrilling but it's it's got that speed and it's got it's so many creative elements that make it great seeming so as we Or in line for velociCoaster, I almost feel this need to like justify to them like you didn't waste your money coming to this park today and so right before [00:22:00] we get on I turn around i'm like y'all this is my favorite coaster My favorite ride at any park anywhere that i've ever done and they all had this moment of like whoa Like that's a big statement and there was a small part of me.
That's like Did you oversell it? Did I oversell it? Yeah. I'm like, did I get their expectations too high and dude, when the ride came to an end and I just heard them laughing and like, Oh my gosh, that was all like all that sort of thing. And the guy that was sitting directly behind me, he goes, okay, I get it now.
If you haven't experienced this ride, I don't care how many ride throughs you watch. I don't care how many people you hear talk about it. It's just different man. Yes, it's just built different in it. So Tim, what were your thoughts you're riding for the first time?
Tim: yeah, I mean obviously, you know as someone who is Still trying to you know get better with rollercoasters.
Build up a tolerance, you know build up a tolerance so to speak [00:23:00] I went to it Extremely nervous and I'm like, you know what it is what it is. It's gonna be what it's gonna be lock in and let's get it Yep, lock in. Let's get it Say a prayer. Hope I don't die Uh, I think what helped it a ton is the fact that there is no lift hill Those terrify the crap out of me.
Yeah, but that being said What in the world
Ayren: it's in my in my opinion the ride is close to flawless man, there's so many different Unique elements to the track layout and they all just hit like there's no part of the ride That's like you have
Tim: great twists turns. I mean some really great inversions The mosasaurus roll of the
Ayren: end is probably my favorite moment Not dude, I mean arms up Is in my opinion, it's the way to go, but it's uh, in my opinion.
It is the best moment on any ride that i've been on yeah that part. I think that's ridiculous. Yeah,
Tim: I mean even just seeing it, you know as you're going through and looking it was like [00:24:00] That's that's that's pretty high what's funny is is like you have the lunch we're definitely gonna share the story We have no choice
Maybe the greatest moment other than me getting off and laughing of pure joy because I did it My biggest fear like to real talk before we share this hilarious story If
Ayren: you're listening with headphones, i'm, sorry, I can see the sound waves and how loud that's gonna be when you hear it, but Okay, i'm, sorry.
Go ahead. Yeah,
Tim: but My biggest two things were oh my gosh, it's a lap bar It's not over the shoulder. So how the heck am I gonna do that a
Ayren: very minimal lap bar?
Tim: Yep And it's a 155 foot drop.
Ayren: Mm hmm.
Tim: I'm not a big drop person, but honestly Drop wasn't that bad.
Ayren: Yeah [00:25:00]
Tim: lap bar Was definitely different. I mean, we've we've gone to carowinds.
We've done, you know, copper head strike and that's also But I mean like you said I would argue it is Again, with you, it's a almost flawless coaster from speed to twist and turns to inversions to fear and excitement. And I think probably the reason why I've rated it really, really high is partially because you know, it is a quote unquote fear and I accomplished it.
So there is that sort of bias there, but it's a phenomenal coaster. It really is. I absolutely love it. I. I've been talking to My sister because we're going to disney In october for halloween, which i'm really excited about But I'm like, we have to do a universal day. I'm like, you need to experience these coasters.
Cause she does coasters better than I do. And I know she will love [00:26:00] it.
Ayren: Yeah. So I think that is important to kind of keep in mind. Velocicoaster is the ride that got me to go to universal before then universal really wasn't on my radar. For me, it was just always the other theme park in Orlando.
You know, it was bootleg Disney, in my opinion. Right. So when they got Velocicoaster, I'm like, that's enough to get me in the park. And then when it did, that's really when, when my, enjoyment of Universal started, and it's still firmly rooted with Velocicoaster. ,
so we're standing in line. We get in line for Veloc coaster, and we're at the point where you're kind of standing right below the high hat and, uh.
The way the ride layout is set up is the second time that it accelerates, you shoot from 40 to 70 miles per hour and it sends you over the high hat. And it's a really quick, I mean, the thing I kept telling Tim was, he was like, you know, am I going to be able to handle this drop? I'm like, dude, it happened so fast.
But the time you realize you're up there, you're coming back down again, which is exactly what happened. It is. You get kind of dizzy on the way [00:27:00] up of like, where am I? And the next thing you know, you're like, Oh, I'm up here. And the next thing you know, you're down again. But typically what ends up happening is the ride will speed up.
You go up the hill and then it kind of crests at the top a little bit slowly, and then you speed back down. So as it goes up, you just hear people screaming, you know, doing the whole thing, and then it gets to the top and the little slow curve, and it's just this quiet moment and this guy goes. And then it shoots back down, but it was so clear.
Like it sounded like this dude was like standing right next to us in line. Yeah. Crap
Tim: In case you're wondering he did not say crap This is we're trying to keep this a little family friendly friendly podcast,
Ayren: dude. It was The highlight of my day. It was so great.
Tim: Oh, it was just so freaking clear. It was.
Yeah,
Ayren: it was great. Uh, last things of note to mention here. , islands of adventure side. I did go and get food from islands of adventure. [00:28:00] I went and got the buffalo chicken tots from the green eggs and ham stand. So good. If you're looking in my opinion, I think the green eggs and ham stand is probably the best.
snack option in maybe in both parks, , but basically it's just tots that they cover with All sorts of stuff you'll find it in seuss landing 10 out of 10. I highly recommend it I haven't had a bad thing for them yet.
Tim: Yeah, their cookie dough was pretty good, too Oh, you did get the cookie dough. That's right, which we didn't
Ayren: even know they had when we walked over there
Tim: I'm, like, I I mean i'm a cookie Person is my favorite dessert ever made and it was pretty good.
Wish it was a bigger spoon though Oh, dude, that was a comically small spoon. It was like the size of a one by one lego piece. Yeah, it
Ayren: was Ridiculous. So from there speaking of food, actually, this is a good segue This is the way that we moved over to the other side of the park Well sort of we have one other thing we need to talk about that.
I just remembered right now So we move we walk across We didn't take the hogwarts [00:29:00] express going or coming because it was 45 minutes It was just a long wait and I was like we could walk over so much faster than that It is a really cool experience. If you've never done it, please do it. There's a small We do it.
I don't feel regret that we didn't do it because of the wait time But I do wish we could have done it. Yeah, if that makes sense, so I'd agree with that If it's convenient, if it's not going to take up too much of your day, if you have, like, let's say a week in Universal, then yeah, I would recommend it. But for what we were doing, it wasn't a good idea.
So we head over to Universal Florida, and we go in there and the first thing you hit, kind of by default, is Minionland. It's all right. They didn't really. I think they themed it pretty decently. They did pretty decent. I mean, thinking about what was there before, I mean, obviously not having Shrek there is a little bit of a bummer, but I don't know.
I mean, I felt like it was. It was. Yeah. It, I like it. It feels unfair to call it a land. Yeah. 'cause it's more of a street. It's just, yeah. It's kind of this walkway where Yeah. You know, minion
Tim: Street would've actually been kind of cool. Yeah. Would most of the time you have [00:30:00] like specific, oh this is this land and this is this thing.
Ayren: Lane would've been a more appropriate, that've been cool. Like, you know, but you're just in there and it's not really immersive. You know, like you can see through it. You can see other parts of the park and stuff. Mm-Hmm. So to call it a land feels a little disingenuous. Yeah. If they
Tim: include Rip Ride Rocket into it, then it might be.
Ayren: Yes. Yes. 100 percent agree with that. If. I'd be here for it. That yellow track would be pretty iconic, especially if you could see it from, you could see it from all over Orlando,
So We were on our way to minion cafe to go and get something to eat and while we're walking there we realize oh wait minion Blast is only a five minute wait, which means it's a walk on. And so we said let's do it
Tim: It's the brand new attraction over. Yeah, we're
Ayren: in this part of the park.
It is You A way to keep people busy. And it's a way to help alleviate pressure from some of the rest of the park. It's quick. That's probably where my praises end. It's decently fun. It is [00:31:00] decently fun. It is Confusing. I'll give you that like and completely honest with you when I when I did it I was like maybe it's just because I didn't know what to expect like because it was a walk on Maybe we didn't have time to hear the whole spiel about you know, what you do and all that sort of stuff.
Mm hmm I've read a lot of comments online. A lot of people, they're like, I live in Orlando. I've done this ride four or five times. I still don't really know what's going on. So I think there's some things that universal can do with that to try to tweak it. But yeah, it's cool. I mean, so you're on a standing conveyor belt, you're moving along and you have a blaster and you shoot stuff on a screen.
Can't shoot minions. You can't shoot minions. Yeah. So it lost some points in my book.
Tim: But I mean, the, the interesting thing is like, you don't really know specifically what to shoot. So I'm like shooting. Everything and anything possible. That's how I learned. You can't shoot minions is cause I'm like, I'm going to shoot a minion, see what happens.
And I thought it would be
Ayren: bonus points, but I thought,
Tim: you know, yeah, yeah. So it's, it's okay.
Ayren: I, it gets an A for effort. It's [00:32:00] different. I appreciate them trying to do something different. I do think it falls flat. I do too. When you look at all of the other The guns are not
Tim: ergonomical
Ayren: either.
Tim: Dude, no, they're not.
It kind of hurt my hand. Cuz you're like Yeah. If your trigger hand is like facing forward, you're kind of like slanted a little bit or at least that's how I felt on it, but It's it's decent if it's like, you know, oh we've done everything else we haven't done this go go do it because you'll be mildly entertained But
Ayren: yeah, I agree with that We did it. I think compared to all the other kind of shooter style attractions in Orlando, this is my least favorite. I'd agree with that. But again, I appreciate what they were trying to do, but we did leave from there and went to Minions Cafe. Delicious. So good. Oh my god. We didn't order a ton of food because I had just eaten tots, but I honestly in hindsight I kind of wish I would have waited.
I also was trying to save some room for a crepe. I, again, I think I wish we would have waited because I've heard [00:33:00] nothing but great things about minions cafe and what we had was really good. So tell them what you ordered Tim.
So was the steak and cheese ray sandwich, that had like some You Banana chips. Yeah, so to speak. Yeah, those were interesting. Those were definitely interesting, but the sandwich itself.
Tim: Oh My gosh anything that comes with a cheese syringe is all right in my book. It was really really good Really enjoyed it Yeah, it was just super cheesy and great. I also got the px 41 punch. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. It was okay. I think the drink on its own is fine. Once you add like the whip cream that's at the top of it.
Didn't really work for me too much. Yeah, but it was it was good. I mean, but the sandwich dough was
Ayren: Minion cafe was definitely the crowning jewel crown jewel of this park for us. I think I mean overall day was fine But man, yeah studios just in general just need some work dude. It really there's just not a ton to do there At least, there's not a [00:34:00] ton that you look forward to.
There are things there to go and do that's like, Oh, this was cool. But like, I don't get as excited to go to studios as I do to go to islands. I'd agree with that. But you did get a chance to ride some stuff. So you did E. T. It's your first time doing E. T. What did you think about it?
Tim: Still haven't seen the movie.
Ayren: Oh, well yeah.
Tim: It was cute and it's enjoyable. You know, it's, it's pretty fun. I wish we kept the cards. That would've been cool.
Ayren: Oh, yeah, well that was just so that ET knows your name. Yeah, but they didn't explain that so you do kind of like Oh, this is a cool thing. I get to keep. Yeah, that's that's what I thought.
I'm five minutes later. Don't give it back I'm like,
Tim: oh Wanted a little souvenir, but it's
Ayren: okay usually especially if you're not Looking for ET to say your name like you can't even tell he's saying your name. They said Tom Oh, they did say Tom for you. That's right That was funny.
Tim: I did
Ayren: catch that
Tim: but it was it was cute.
It's you know, I'll be honest. It's a fun
Ayren: dark ride. Doing it made me wish that Universal had more dark rides. I was like, I could [00:35:00] use a few more of these throughout this park. It will, I say that because of the current shape of Universal Studios. Like, I'm
Tim: just kidding. I
Ayren: prefer, I mean, I prefer a dark ride with practical effects over the screen based attractions that they have.
Oh, absolutely. So yeah But yeah, so we did that cute. We did been in black. It's a classic I still can't believe you freaking beat me if you got to push the red button, man They didn't tell me they did tell will Smith always tells you want to push the red button the thing is is you would have beat me because that adds a hundred thousand points and I think I had like a 170 and you had like 90, 000.
So if you hit the red button you would have beat me. Yeah, um, classic attraction. I'll get you back. Speaking of classic attractions. Mm
Intro: hmm.
Ayren: We rode Mm hmm. Fast and Furious Supercharged
Intro: I
Tim: can't even I can't even do it with a straight
Ayren: face. [00:36:00] Supercharged Fast Fast It's called fast and furious because that's going to be your your mood after your posture Getting off of this ride.
You're gonna be furious and you're gonna try to get out of there as fast as possible
Tim: , I can't even I was gonna try to add to it, but I just
Ayren: couldn't go ahead and walk us through Fast and furious supercharged.
Tim: Why are you making me do it? Okay, it
Ayren: just for reference if you're curious and you've never done this attraction before Go on YouTube and just search fast and furious supercharged And you're gonna have to scroll through about 20 videos that are like fast and furious supercharged the worst ride ever because it's
Tim: that
Ayren: Yeah,
Tim: it's that Something it's so you go through we're gonna start at the queue because you know, you see cars from the movie And that's as you stated as we were in line That is the coolest thing you will see for the rest of your time in here You you then [00:37:00] go to, I feel so bad for the team members who are part of this.
I didn't even know they had actual people in the queue. The live
Ayren: actors. I
Tim: feel so bad
Ayren: for them. It's of all the rides for them to have live actors on. They choose this one. So they do for men in black as well. You've never seen them. Because we've always gone when it's a super low wait time, but there is a scene when you go into that elevator as you walk in the little elevator room.
Normally there's an actor that's there, but if the wait time is really low, they don't do it. They do a great job in there. Oh, I forgot, we gotta talk about the horror makeup show too. We skipped over that. Yeah, we can do that in a second. Um, but, yeah, dude, it's The, part of what makes Supercharged so bad is the horrible acting from the Fast and Furious crew, okay?
Not the cast, not the team members that are, they are working as live actors. The problem is, is the acting of the people on screen is so bad that these very talented team members, like, dude, they don't [00:38:00] have anything to work with. No, like it doesn't matter how creative they get. It doesn't matter how funny they are It doesn't they don't have time for comedic timing because the video is so Horribly paced.
Tim: Yep It's just so bad man that and it just you can definitely tell from the video. They do not want to be there And it's also just I mean granted the fast and furious series like Again, another thing I have not seen, but it is very over the top. But what, yeah, what got me, dude, it was when Dom helicopter rises up.
Oh yeah. When he rises up from the floor with a freaking semi dude, the, and he just stands
Ayren: there. The FBI agent. So cringe is so cringe. Like there's no part about this ride. Dude, if we weren't wrestling fans. Like seeing the rock is like the only moment that's kind of like cool. It's the rock [00:39:00] other than that like it's so Flipping bad and as bad as I remember it being somehow it was even worse like the whole time I just felt bad that okay.
Here's another issue So this is the same a similar ride vehicle to kong It's that bus style attraction that if you're sitting in the middle two rows or the middle two seats You can't see anything. So you're just like spending the entire time trying to look around the people sitting next to you And then when you do that you miss something and it's just it's so What were you thinking universal?
It's uh, anyway, anyway, i'm, sorry. That's probably enough. Yeah. No, that's fair Rock was definitely the
Tim: highlight here's the thing though, if you're not like, if you don't really know him, especially when he's in like his wrestling career, Hearing him utter cookie puss What in the world [00:40:00] just happened yeah, but then of course there's us who you know watch the wwe and it's like Oh, yeah, that's just a rock.
That's that's the rock. That's what he does You know,
Ayren: if you follow him on social media, you probably get it too. But yeah, but it just
Tim: Oh, that is, I've been on some bad attractions. This is the worst attraction I've ever been on. And it's not close. There's no redeeming quality.
It makes Kong look like a saint. It's yeah.
Ayren: Yeah. It was so
Tim: bad. That's why I'm curious to see the, coaster that they're doing over at universal Hollywood.
Ayren: Yeah, so there's rumors that Supercharged will close in the fall. We'll see. Hopefully, that is true. Bring back Jaws. That's all I'm saying. Do it. , you won't.
If they, I mean, you got Simpsons and, hypothetically, Supercharged shutting down. If they announce they're bringing back Jaws and Back to the Future, people would lose their freaking minds. They've been using them for merch? I mean, Yeah, man might as well such a such a good bygone era do it do it [00:41:00] universal.
So, We're a little bit out of order here, but that's okay. Yeah, it's it's totally fine. We're gonna talk about the horror makeup show
Tim: Yes.
Ayren: Yeah, tim. This was your first time doing this one as well, right? It's something that last time we went we did the born stuntacular and this time I said we got to make sure that we hit The horror makeup show, man, this is such a fun.
Yes
Tim: So fun. I loved it This is one of those things also made it even better that like in the room There was like I guess a class of like fifth graders that are in the room And just got absolutely dunked on the entire time. It was great. It's
Ayren: great what I love about it. It's funny the team members who work there the actors they do a great job You They
Tim: genuinely seem to have fun.
They genuinely
Ayren: seem to have fun with everybody. , and you learn a lot too through it. It was like, it's actually a pretty cool educational show. Yeah. Great crowd engagement. They do a great job of like, what I would say is like breaking the fourth wall, which feels like obviously they're talking to the crowd the [00:42:00] entire time, but they do a good job of just like, There's a few little subtle digs at Disney like they just recognize the react like it doesn't feel like oh, we've transported you do this thing It's just yeah.
No, you're at a show in a theme park. Let me tell you And that just adds a layer to it that I think is really cool.
Tim: Yeah, it was really enjoyable I like had no clue going into it, but I just left it I'm, like I could probably go in and watch it like two or three more times. Yeah And it was, it was fun. It's, for me, it's a must do.
Ayren: Yeah, I'd put it on there. This is my second time doing it, and, the actors were different, but the script was pretty similar. Like, even a lot of their jokes and stuff were Pretty identical and it was still just so enjoyable. It was a lot of fun. Yep. So at this point , your day kind of came to an end around this point You did men in black and I think the spinning on there just kind of got to you a little bit So yeah, it felt
Tim: like it's spun a lot more.
Yeah, it's an intense
Ayren: spin whenever it does get moving so Correction your day didn't end there, but you stopped doing rides at this point. And so what you [00:43:00] did What I decided to do was,
It's 6 PM. Studios is going to close at seven islands is going to close at eight. And so, what I decided to do was I'm like, I'm just going to hop into a couple of single rider lines as you should. And so I did single rider for, the mummy. It's great attraction.
Which was awesome. I mean I walked in got straight to the front of the line sat front row. It was awesome I didn't know you sat for a row. I did. Yeah, like as soon as I got up there like you come here I was like, okay, and I just got on it was awesome So I did single rider for that one. I did single rider for escape from green gods.
That was in the last I'm trying to think realistically I think I was on and off both of those attractions in 20 minutes by going this time. What was that?
Tim: It's been this
Ayren: time. It's been this time. Yeah. First time we went on escape from green got to didn't spin and I got terrified. I was like, does the track know we didn't spin?
Like which way is it going to move us? But those things are, they're smarter than I am. So did those two attractions. Like I said, I think I was on and off and in a, About 20 minutes as we were leaving out of the park. Mardi Gras was [00:44:00] going on So we got to see the floats and stuff going by which is really cool I actually kind of want to go back during Mardi Gras to like actually see one of the floats and maybe even land on one \ In the last hour that the park was open. I was able to ride the mummy Escaped from Gringotts. We walked over to Islands of Adventure. I did the Incredible Hulk. I rode Forbidden Journey And Velocicoaster in the last hour that the park was open. Oh, okay. So technically that's false.
Velocicoaster, I got in line for it, but with these parks, if you're in line, by the time park closes, you stay in line until you ride the ride. But I got to do those attractions. , all within the last hour by doing single rider lines. So this is the reason why I'm a big fan of rope dropping and staying until park close, , because you just have the ability to, to hit a lot of stuff in those, that first and last hour that you wouldn't normally be able to hit.
But, hitting that string of rides, just like getting ready to close out the night. Crazy. So cool. and being able to ride all, [00:45:00] what'd I say? Five or six of them. In the course of about an hour, hour and a half was awesome. It was, well, I suppose it was a perfect way to end night off. If you're going to walk out of the park with your feet hurting, that's a, that's a good way to do it. It is tough though, when you close out with that one, cause it's the very back of the park. So that walk up front, it feels like a long walk, but. Yeah, so that's what I did. What did you do during that time, Tim?
Tim: Well, because I do theme parks differently, I just walked around, I spent a decent amount of time in Diagon Alley, just looking at details, going into different shops, and just experiencing and walking around. I mean, this is only my second time at Universal, so it's like, okay. I mean, just walk around, experience things.
I thought there was a Ghirardelli, was excited, got hyped, thought I was going to get ice cream. It's a facade, walked
Ayren: back. Too many of those spots in, yeah, it does make you really sad. Too many of those spots in Universal Studios. Love Ghirardelli. I remember having a headache one time and I was like, Oh, cool.
There's a Walgreens here. And it was just a sign for a Walgreens. That's awesome. Yeah.
Tim: Yeah. Just walked around, spent a lot of [00:46:00] time just looking at different details, walking into different places. I mean, it's just taking a look at detail. That's one of my favorite things to do is just walk around and just be.
Especially in these parks. And so yeah, it was it was fun for me.
Ayren: Yeah, every time i've done universal It's been just a one day thing And I would love to spend more than just one day at the park to be able to do that you know, I think that's a good rule of thumb for any of the theme parks that you go to is to Be able to take your time.
Enjoy just all the creativity that's throughout the parks Absolutely as much as there's a lot of that stuff on the rides in queues all that stuff There's so much that goes into theming and the theming is what sets Universal and disney apart from any other amusement park that you would go to yeah I
Tim: appreciate what both disney and universal and their Cast and crew have been able to put together because they've done some phenomenal work.
They do a fantastic job
Ayren: Anything else we need to mention from this trip? We went to disney springs one day That was pretty chill. We didn't do anything outlandish there. I did go get a cookie from summer house on the [00:47:00] lake I want to go back there and actually eat there the restaurant itself is really cool but a couple of gideon's trips and Some food at raglan road and that's yeah, it's about that But overall I think it was a good successful trip woke up early the next morning drove back home Well, actually we woke up went to disney springs drove back home,
Tim: but overall it was a good trip Yeah, couldn't ask for anything better.
Nope. One thing I will say though is where we were staying Hotel wise. Oh, yeah, our view was fantastic.
Ayren: Oh, yeah, you're right. I'm glad you mentioned that. Yeah So outside of our window we were on the 19th floor of this hotel It was floor number 19 and a 19 floor Hotel like top floor and outside of our window.
We could see the construction of Epic universe,
Tim: which is awesome, which is
Ayren: really cool We could see Starfall racers from where we were and there was some stuff going up inside of a Isle of Burke that we were able to see pretty clearly from our hotel as Well, and then from one of the windows in the distance we could see a spaceship Earth.
Mm hmm Tower of Terror we could see Tower of Terror as well. I could
Tim: vaguely make out [00:48:00] Expedition Everest as well Oh,
Ayren: okay.
Tim: Cool. I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. I tried looking real, real hard. So
Ayren: yeah. And then once we left our room and we went to the elevators, there's like a giant window and we look out of there and you can see the universal park.
So we were able to see, both islands, universal studios and we can see volcano Bay from that as well. So that was just a really cool view that we expected. It was just a nice little treat.
Tim: Yeah, it definitely was especially for us as I mean one doing this podcast I mean theme park enthusiasts to see all of that Although I would love to stay there in at night because you can't see magic kingdom, but you could definitely see the fireworks So i'd be curious to see Where exactly Magic Kingdom is from that view,
Ayren: it was the Westgate Plaza There's a couple of Westgate hotels.
I think it was a Westgate Plaza Hotel Probably we're in I think that was the name of it, but it was cool. It's a cool space. Hey little two bedroom Villa With smoke detectors that work
We had all night we had separate Bathrooms separate bedrooms [00:49:00] musicals pay full kitchen. Yeah, it was neat. It was a dope spot. So Maybe one day we should do an episode on like places to stay near the resorts that like aren't like obviously we want to do Like a resort, you know highlights and stuff like that Absolutely, some alternatives on more places to stay that maybe where we've been That aren't necessarily on property but are close enough and are pretty solid places to say so.
Yeah. Well, cool That's all I got. You got anything else to add? Nope. All right Well, thank you guys so much for listening to another episode of magic meets adventure. This has been a lot of fun We love these ship recap videos don't know when the next one's going to be and so we try to take advantage of it this is a little bit of a longer episode, but hopefully you enjoy just taking the journey with us If you, if you want to continue to, explore the magic of the theme parks, if you wanna continue to, daydream about the adventure, feel free to follow us on social media.
That is at Magic Music Adventure, , on all platforms except for TikTok, where we are at Magic Meets Adventure Pod. I love for now, for now, I love your, uh, your comment last week that, uh, that is, if TikTok is still a thing, who knows? Who knows? Who the heck knows? Uh, be sure [00:50:00] to send us some messages and comments.
We would love to hear what you think about the show, and as always, uh, please leave us a five star review. Those go a long way to helping us spread the word.
Tim: Absolutely.
Ayren: Guys, uh, thank y'all so much for hanging out with us. I'm Timon, And I'm Aaron, I bring the adventure. We will talk to you next week. See ya.
Yeet. And
Intro: so, our journey comes to an end.
Tim: Guess that wraps things up. You guys did alright. Carefully raise your left bar and exit the vehicle.
Intro: Oh, I did. We hope that you've enjoyed your visit with us, and that you will come back soon. See you real soon! Bye everybody! We really love you! Bye! Be
careful getting home!