So I have the pleasure to have three really good friends tag along to Disney’s Beach Club Resort.

I haven’t had the pleasure to walk through Universal’s Epic Universe just yet, but the three of you have, which is really cool.

Really excited to sit down and talk to the three of them about how that whole park is, what to expect, especially with how physically demanding the park may be.

So without further ado, we’re going to introduce my friends and co-workers, Nate, Jamie, and Rachel.

Hello.

So before we get started with the conversation, I think we should start with a little icebreaker.

Okay.

So we’re all pretty good Disney fans here.

Yeah.

So we’ll talk.

I got three questions to ask.

We’ll just kind of do a little lightning round.

And we’ll go from there.

Okay.

Sound good?

Yeah.

Cool.

Okay.

So we’re all here at Disney World Resort.

So what is your favorite Disney World theme park?

Theme park?

Theme park.

Yep.

Yeah.

Let’s start with Rachel.

I think mine right now is Epcot.

I like going to all the different places all around the World Showcase.

I’m in the World Showcase Walking Club.

So yeah, I love doing that.

Love seeing all the neat things, especially coming to all the festivals and doing those things.

Nice.

I’ve never heard of that.

Yeah.

I got a t-shirt.

Should have worn it today.

Should have worn it?

I’ll wear it next time.

Yep.

Yep.

Jamie?

Hollywood Studios.

Because, you know, I got to get on that Tower of Terror.

Classic.

Great.

Great version of the ride.

I almost put Tower of Terror at Studios over Tower of Terror.

What used to be Tower of Terror at Disney’s California Adventure.

I’ve rode that one.

Because I changed it to Guardians, right?

I did change it to Guardians, yes.

Which is also really good, but I think that puts it on a very separate…

Like, it’s a very different ride now.

For sure, yeah.

I would agree, though.

I think the one at Hollywood’s better than…

The one at Hollywood Studios here in Florida is better than the one in Los Angeles.

Or Anaheim, whatever.

Right.

I’m surprised, first of all, that none of us have the same taste, I guess.

What?

Or that y’all don’t have the best taste.

Anyway, so, my honest, what am I gonna say?

You’re gonna say Animal Kingdom.

You’re right, Animal Kingdom.

Animal Kingdom, hands down, freaking love that place.

It’s just awesome between, I geek out over the animals, horticulture, just, and of course, that’s The Lion King, everybody loves it.

It’s like the number one rated show, like always for everyone.

It’s just fantastic.

I love Animal Kingdom, so everyone go to Animal Kingdom.

Okay, okay.

I feel like Animal Kingdom is getting enough love.

I love it.

It doesn’t get enough love.

It needs more love.

It should have more.

Okay, next question.

Wait, what about you?

No one’s in Magic Kingdom.

So, if I were to answer right now, I would put Epcot.

Yay!

Oh.

Two points, we win.

Let’s jump into the next question, because I can give one of the biggest reasons why I love Epcot.

So, what is your favorite Disney world attraction?

So ride or show or…

Are we starting with me?

Yeah, yeah.

Let’s go back over.

Mine’s actually Everest.

I love Everest.

I love the backwards part on it.

At Animal Kingdom.

Yep, at Animal Kingdom.

You make signals here, right?

Jamie?

I already gave my answer away.

Power of Terror.

She knew what you were gonna ask.

I think this was a good question.

Clearly.

You know, I like when my brain’s still at the top.

She got them.

Yeah.

I guess I gave my answer away, too.

That’s good.

That’s a line king.

I love the show.

I try like every time.

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen it.

It’s not gonna get me this time.

Every time.

Every time.

The singers are just fantastic.

It’s amazing.

So one of the reasons why I love Epcot so much is because of living with the land.

I love that attraction so much.

I mean, Guardians is really good out here, but there’s just something about living with the land that is classic Disney with its entertainment and its educational aspect of it, hence the name Entertainment.

I love it.

I didn’t do it at Christmas time, and now I do it too.

Hydroponics.

Hydroponics.

Oh, and yes, of course, during Christmas time.

Beautiful.

Or during the festivals.

Yep.

Yep.

Okay, last question, and then we’ll get started.

Okay.

Favorite Disney character?

Disney character.

Talk about mine.

Good, your first.

I love Stitch.

Yes, Lila and Stitch.

I’m excited for the live action movie coming out.

It looks good.

I hope it doesn’t freak me out, but I think I love Stitch.

Oh, that’s a hard one.

Probably Tigger.

Yeah.

Just, you know.

What’s the wonderful thing about Tigger’s?

Because he jumps around and-

No, Tigger’s are wonderful things.

T-

Yeah, yeah, he got you on that one.

Oh, he did.

Next.

Tigger’s are great.

Tigger’s are great.

One of my favorites for sure.

That’s a good one too.

Yeah.

Mine’s Scrooge McDuck.

I grew up on DuckTales.

Scrooge McDuck.

I love Scrooge.

I love him.

He’s adventuring.

He’s miserly.

I don’t know, I love him.

And even in the reboot, that was, if you haven’t seen the reboot of DuckTales.

I don’t know what the hell.

Oh my gosh.

Everyone’s got their own personalities.

It’s fantastic.

Definitely recommend it.

I love Scrooge McDuck.

And I’m glad that there’s not a lot of merchandise about Scrooge because then I wouldn’t buy it.

So he’s not real big here, so I don’t have a lot of things.

And it’s fantastic because then I don’t have like a million items.

Yes, Scrooge McDuck.

If you bought everything that’s Stitch, I mean, you would be broke.

You would be broke and you would have to have like…

They do a lot of stuff.

Ten storage units.

Yeah.

We only have four.

Storage units?

Storage units.

We did at one point.

Stitch.

I was like, what?

There’s actually four storage units of the massive Stitch plush.

Right.

That’s it.

That is it.

All right.

I would go with…

It’s hard not to go with Baymax.

Oh, yeah?

Baymax or Hero?

I just watched that movie.

For the first time?

Maybe like a month ago.

Wow, really?

Yeah.

I hadn’t seen it before.

It was adorable.

Wow.

Yeah.

I didn’t realize there was going to be such a tragedy in it at the beginning.

It gets you real fast.

Yeah, it did.

It’s almost like it’s a Pixar movie or something.

I know, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Why don’t we get on with the first question and kind of see where this goes?

Yeah.

Let’s talk big picture first.

So the three of you have had the pleasure of walking through Epic Universe for an entire day, which I’m extremely jealous of, and I probably won’t be visiting for the, I don’t know.

I don’t know what I’m going to be visiting.

We’ll see.

We’ll see how it goes.

So what makes the theme park like Epic Universe physically challenging for the average guest that knows and understands Disney World or even Disneyland in California?

I mean, I think just the mere size of it.

It’s a pretty big park, but they did like the details and the horticulture and like everything there.

You don’t realize how much you’re walking, like when you’re doing it, and then at the end of the day, you’re like, oh wow, that was actually a lot more than I thought it was.

That’s kind of how I felt when I left.

But yeah, just I think the size of it.

It’s not like super hilly or anything like that.

I mean, I feel like it’s on par with all the other parks really.

If you’re used to any of the, whether Universal or SeaWorld or Disney, it’s just a lot, it’s a lot of walking.

So you’re gonna be out there a lot.

You’re gonna be on your seat like the whole day.

So it’s just, it’s a big place, that you gotta put a lot of people in there.

And not a ton of shade yet either.

Oh, there’s like zero shade.

Yeah, because the trees haven’t built up.

Yeah, so you’re in the sun.

There’s a ton of horticulture, but it’s all young.

Yes.

I see.

Yeah, a lot of rooting growth.

We were in the sun all day.

Got it.

Oh, yeah.

Wow.

Since you said size, I went and looked up how big Epic Universe is.

So here’s some numbers.

I’m excited to hear or see what you guys think once you hear the numbers.

Okay, so the entirety of Epic Universe, which includes the theme park, the back staging area, the parking lot, and I think it’s got three new hotels that are, one is attached to the park, and two are smaller, that are a little bit away.

That’s a total of 480 acres.

A total.

All that stuff.

That means when you break it down, the back staging area is about 110 acres.

The parking lot area is 154 acres.

The current theme park as it stands is about 80 acres.

And then the amount of land that they have available for the expansion, because I think they’re expanding Super Nintendo World, and I want to say they’re expanding the Wizarding World area.

I think they’re expanding that area.

So that leaves about 27.5 acres of extra land that you guys have technically not walked through.

So given that number, 80 acres, that’s smaller than Magic Kingdom.

And Magic Kingdom is the second smallest park of the four parks here.

Which is kind of crazy to think about.

But I mean, so let’s talk through the numbers.

I don’t know.

It seems a lot bigger.

Where did you get those stats?

So to be fair, I got the back checks.

I got this online, and I think the blog post was posted like six or eight months ago or something.

But then they included maps with breakdowns and everything.

So I think they’re pretty accurate.

How long is it?

Given those numbers, and then also knowing how much you walked that day, let’s talk through that.

I’m still kind of shocked just hearing that it’s smaller than Magic Kingdom, but maybe it’s because we were going to all these different portals, and you’re going back and forth between them, walking around within each one.

And the parking lot was kind of long.

We parked at the back, so maybe…

The parking lot seemed longer at the end of the day than it would be.

It always does.

It was like a…

The parking lot was set out like Hollywood Studios’ parking lot, almost.

And they’re gonna have covered solar stuff, but it was a long walk to get to the front, at least where we parked.

Because we were at the park.

I got a box hour, so I was like, I was in preferred parking.

Oh, right.

They asked.

So they’re like, no, I’m gonna be preferred, so.

Yeah.

So it’s, I see.

So it’s not like you’re going to Epcot, parking there, and then just straight shot into the park.

It’s always, or is it kind of gonna be a straight shot?

It is.

It’s a straight shot, but it’s a walk.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

It’s just a long straight walk.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

But yeah, I think it just is you don’t realize it, maybe because you’re going back and forth.

I don’t know how much more of a lot there was, but it felt like there was, you know, like two lots and they both funnel to the one sidewalk, and then you go in.

Right.

I don’t know if there was more that I didn’t see, because I was just so excited.

Rachel, you mentioned a lot of walking back and forth.

So I know that the layout of Epic Universe, it’s got this hub and spoke model, a lot like Magic Kingdom, where there’s the hub with the statue, and then you go into different lands, right?

The hub equivalent of Epic Universe is called Celestial Park, right?

So the one thing that makes Epic Universe a lot different from, say, Magic Kingdom, is Celestial Park.

I think the size, this is what I’ve heard, not 100% confirmed, but Celestial Park is double the size of Main Street USA plus the hub.

Okay, okay.

So when you’re thinking about walking back and forth to different lands, that’s a lot of ground to cover just at Celestial Park, so that makes a lot of sense.

Yeah, for sure.

You get a lot of extra walking in if you’re thinking about going from the Wizarding World to Super Nintendo.

Right.

Right?

Yep.

One, in Celestial Park, it’s like this big, it’s kind of like a big oval almost, with the portals around, but they’ve got the walkways through, but I know with us, we were pretty much going in a circle and then crossing over and then crossing back, so we had no plan.

You almost world showcased it.

Right.

Well, the thing is that each little land is like a dead end.

So if you go to Nintendo World, you see all the Nintendo stuff, it does not connect to the next world.

You go in, you do all Nintendo, and then you come out, and then you walk in, and then when you have a show, like you have a show over in Wizarding World, there’s a show there, and then you’re gonna come across, and then you gotta go to the next show, and then you’re like, oh, well, I just caught the…

In the…

How to Train Your Dragon.

Thank you.

I got you.

How to Train Your Dragon.

Then there’s another show, and so you’re ping ponging around, and then, well, I didn’t finish any of the attractions in either one of these areas, because I’m trying to catch the show.

So now you have to go back.

You come all the way out, you go to Celestial Park, then you go back in to the next place.

So it’s not just one and done.

You can’t see it just by going into one area, seeing everything, and then moving on, because shows and stuff like that.

I like in Magic Kingdom, when you’re in Fantasyland, and you’re like, hey, let’s go ride a Haunted Mansion.

You get in that way, and then Oriole.

Hey, let’s go ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

You can just cut through, yeah, now it’s not the same.

Once you’re going in, it’s got its own little world.

Out of the way, it’s got its own little portal to enter.

Yeah, it’s a portal.

So a lot of extra walking.

Speaking of numbers, do you all remember how many steps you guys got in the day?

And then why don’t you tell me when you arrived, and then when you left?

So I got there around probably at 10 when we were allowed to go in, and we left at 7 p.m.

And I think I got around like 20,000 steps.

That’s probably how many we did.

Yeah, like 18 or 20.

Somewhere around there.

And about a 12, what is it for?

Wow, math.

I can’t math.

Is that a nine hour?

Yeah, yeah.

So that’s a lot.

Yeah, I got condensed.

I got there probably like 930.

And it was supposed to close at the close at 7.

But you got we got in line for something at like 645.

And we were in that line till at least 730.

So we didn’t get out of there till like 8.

And it was about 20,000 steps that we did as well.

But that was mine.

Oh, lots of standing.

Yeah, let’s talk standing.

Yeah, lots of standing.

There’s not a lot of seats in there.

No.

Shade and then like somewhere to sit.

I feel like Celestial Park had a lot of benches that in the portals themselves.

You didn’t think so?

No, there’s not Celestial Park.

Maybe I just missed it.

I don’t know.

I didn’t see much there.

Sitting and definitely no shade.

Yeah, there’s definitely no shade.

Woof.

Okay.

It’s beautiful.

It’s beautiful, but it’s pretty.

They just need some more benches.

And I will say that those pathways are very large, which is fantastic.

But all over the place, they’re very large pathways, so it allows a lot of people to get through, so I didn’t feel like it’s crowded.

But for those lines, you are going to be doing a lot of standing, and no leaning on things, you know?

They don’t want you leaning on the ropes because they’re going to break, whatever.

So yeah, so they’re very much your standing.

We were in the Donkey Kong, the Minecart Madness.

We were in there for 75 or 80 minutes, and it was jam-packed in there.

On a renew day.

Yeah.

It was a long time.

But I’ll tell you, they have very good air conditioning.

They do.

In the queues.

At least that queue.

Once you get inside, because some of them have an outside portion where you’re like, yeah, I wish I was inside.

How big are the outside portions of the queues?

It depends on the attraction.

Some of them have a lot outside.

Some of them just a little bit.

And I don’t think they saw all the queue either, because they probably didn’t put all the stanchions up that they can do.

On a peak day, they’re probably gonna be like, whoa, there’s probably like 100 more switchbacks we’d know.

Why don’t we go through the lands real quick and just talk through rides that you remember, right?

And then talk about queues outdoor versus indoor.

How long you would expect to wait, especially on a busy day.

Let’s kind of just go through that.

When do you want to start?

Super Nintendo World.

That’s the one I went to.

That was amazing.

Yeah, your jaw just drops.

That is like the best reveal, I feel like.

Once you go there and you go through the little portal and I…

We just stood there for like five minutes.

It’s really breathtaking.

You come in on the second floor, but when you come in, you come out to the castle, and then you look out, and you can look down to the first floor, you can look across the second floor, and you can look up to the third floor, but it’s like three stories.

Everything’s moving.

And there’s stuff behind you too.

And yeah, there’s little goombas walking back and forth, pirata plants everywhere, I love them.

And then there’s coins are turning, there’s koopas, and there’s question mark blocks.

There was a lot.

The way we’re describing it, that’s what you feel like when you walk in, and you’re like, this is a, like, whoa.

It was sensory overload for me.

I don’t have, like, sensory, yeah.

I just stood there, and I was like, seriously, I’m like, somebody’s gonna have to watch me.

I’m gonna walk off a cliff or something in here, down the stairs, and not be, because I would just, like, pause, and I was like, what’s this?

And you’re, like, walking, before you know it.

It was too much.

It was too much.

Oh, I stopped.

I stopped dead.

I was that person who was like, how am I gonna tie my shoe in the middle of traffic?

You know, like, I was just, I stopped dead in the middle, and people had to walk around me, and I’m just like, whoa.

I mean, I’m sure they designed it to be like, you literally just step in and do the video.

Yeah, that’s what you’re describing to me.

Oh, it was amazing.

Oh, I love it.

We had to go over to the side and just, like, take it all in.

Yeah.

Because it was just like, I probably could.

What did we walk into at this point?

Like, it was just, and the music’s blaring, like you’re in the video game.

It’s not, like, horribly loud, but it’s still like, whoa, it’s like, dun dun dun dun, and you’re like, whoa.

Yeah.

It was so cool.

Have you guys been to Universal Studios Hollywood?

And have you been to the Super Nintendo Land there?

Okay.

I mean, still relatively, okay, fair enough.

I haven’t been, so I don’t know what it’s like to walk into there, and I don’t know what the reveal is like, but what I’ve heard is, Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood is much smaller than what’s going to be here, or what is here.

Oh, okay.

And I think mainly because there’s no Donkey Kong ride.

I want to say there’s only the Super Mario Kart ride.

Oh, okay.

I don’t know if there’s a second one.

Did you have the Yoshi?

I don’t know.

I don’t remember.

Did you do the Yoshi?

We didn’t do the Yoshi.

We literally just did the Donkey Kong.

But we stood in line so long, so we were like, okay, we wanted to see everything.

It was hard to pack it all in.

I did all of them.

Yeah, they did everything.

I went back twice to see.

Well, Lions, let’s talk Qs real quick.

You did Yoshi’s?

He did Yoshi’s.

How was the Q for that?

Outdoor versus indoor.

I don’t think there’s any outdoors.

All indoor.

It’s all indoor.

And it was fine.

It was covered.

There’s stuff.

It was always entertainment, like in the Lion, thankfully.

So yeah, it was all indoors.

It was fine.

It’s a very short ride.

It was slow.

It was very short, very slow.

You can see it, my friend.

Yes, you can see a lot of it from the outside, watching it.

But yes, it’s definitely for a younger audience.

It’s slow.

It’s easy peasy.

I think when we saw the wait time, it was like 15 minutes.

It wasn’t like super long, but we were like, we got to jump.

We were running over to one of the How to Train Your Dragon ships.

We’re not gonna wait.

One of the mini, yeah.

We did all the mini games.

Got it, nice.

Oh, that’s another thing.

I mean, you’re saying a lot because of the mini games, right?

Yep, and you’re moving in those mini games, too.

Okay, punching those blocks.

Yes, yes.

Yeah.

I think my hand was sore today.

Punching those blocks, and you gotta punch, if you buy a power-up band, then you can punch the little blocks.

Yeah, that’s cool.

There’s a lot of stuff to do with that.

Okay, there’s a ton of mini-games there, lots of…

And they’re all physical mini-games.

Cool.

Yeah.

So, because you have to hit all the little question mark blocks, and then they have one where a little Goomba, you have to…

he’s running on a wheel, cranking the wheel until the Goomba falls off.

There’s a whole bunch of…

and then did you do the Piranha Plant one?

No, that’s the one we didn’t do.

We did all the other ones.

They have one where you have to battle this big Piranha Plant.

And they recommend it in groups of three or four, and you’re racing around in this little area hitting these little time clocks.

And so it works better if you have a lot of people.

Oh, it was fun.

We did it.

Three of us were doing it and racing around.

And you’re doing it, it seems like an inordinate amount of time.

It’s probably like one minute, but when you’re like…

One minute is a long time.

And the hot, hot summer.

We did a beautiful day when we went, but summertime, it’s gonna be…

Yeah, because you guys went what?

Last weekend?

Yeah, and it was beautiful.

And it was the end of March, right?

The wind was blowing.

Okay.

Yeah, versus July, August.

You’ll melt September.

There will be no breeze.

They gotta get some shade.

There will be no breeze.

Especially in that it’s very protected, no?

Yes.

There will be no breeze in that one, and then Harry Potter.

So let’s hope you’ll get a breeze.

That’s open.

Yeah, but Mario…

I feel like how to train your dragon.

Yeah, Mario and Harry Potter.

There’s gonna be no breeze.

Okay.

At least with the Harry Potter area, there’s a lot of buildings that might offer shade.

Yeah.

But Celestial Park, no shade.

Yeah.

And Tendon, some.

You know, how to train your dragon, no shade.

No, Dark Inverse, no shade.

There’s not like little bits, but every building in there is freezing cold.

But that’s the thing you’ll get to that, right?

Before we move on to the next land, really quickly, what about Mario Kart Bowser’s Challenge?

Oh, I did that one.

Talk me through the queue real quick.

Outdoors versus indoors, how long you gonna wait?

It’s all indoors, thank the stars.

You’re gonna wait a very long time.

I mean, I would expect people to wait minimum of an hour.

I would say minimum.

If you can get in it in 60 minutes or less, do it.

Yeah, I’m gonna guess it’s probably gonna be 90 minutes or more.

I really do.

It was awesome.

It was awesome.

I don’t know if I should talk about it, but it was awesome.

Do it.

Should I talk about it?

You can.

Should I talk about it?

I don’t know why not.

It’s almost like you put on a hat.

So you put on this little visor and you click it on.

And I was dying because it’s a Mario hat.

It’s a red hat with a little M on it.

And I was like, Mario.

It was so good.

It was so good.

And then, so we all have that on where I’m having so much fun.

And then the queue line, I’m going out of place.

The queue line was very good.

I’m going back to the queue line, and I’ll get the Mario hat.

No, the queue line, there’s just a lot.

If you play Mario Kart, they got trophies.

They got everything.

Like, if you play Mario Kart, you’re gonna love this queue line.

It was just, I could have saved more time in the queue line.

Yes.

But then you put the little Mario hat on, and then you get into your vehicle, and then everybody, you can shoot your enemies with your, you get little shells and stuff like that.

And so you click on a visor, and it’s like a clear seat.

I’m thinking like Google class or something.

It’s like a clear visor.

That sucker’s heavy, so work your neck muscles out.

I’m not kidding.

I put it on, and I don’t have any neck problems with it, but I was like, oh god.

I can imagine it-

It’s like pounds.

You know, like for example, if you’re walking in an Epcot, you see a lot of big backpacks because they’re full of stuff because they feel like they need to have enough for a seven-day backpacking trip or a one-day trip to Epcot.

I can imagine anyone wearing that.

And then they decide to ride Mario Kart at the end of the day, right?

Their shoulders are already tired from wearing all that, then they’re putting a heavy helmet on, you know what I mean?

That could be a lot.

I think that it may not-

if you have neck problems, it might be a problem.

Okay.

I don’t know.

I mean, it occurs.

But I think that you could probably still enjoy it because-

so you have this little visor on and you can see all of the other characters because it’s like Mario Crew against Bowser and his gang.

You’re thinking about Ludwig and all the Koopalings and stuff like that.

So you’re all racing together and you can see them all on your visor, but you can also look through your visor at all of the three realistic elements that are out there.

And you’re aiming, you’re firing by looking at, so you have to look at them and get them and you-

Like, and aim at the locat-

It’s cool.

It’s just really cool.

But that is heavy.

That’s the very first thing that I said, like, oh, this sucker’s heavy.

Like, it is.

You’re just like, oh, I’m gonna lift my head up.

It’s heavy, so.

Last ride, let’s see, Minecart Madness, talking to that.

Let’s talk to you in first, and then we can get into the ride.

I would say the Q-Lon, maybe a fourth of it’s outside, because we had to walk through a little bit of the fourth of it.

We have to stand in it.

Then you went inside, beautiful air conditioning, but you are packed in there.

They’ve got one little thing that you put your power up, Van, to with somebody else, and you have to make a banana on the ceiling, because her and her brother were going crazy.

They were like, do it with somebody like three rows over to do it at the same time as you.

Yeah, there’s like an interactive thing, like that, and then there’s like an animatronic in there.

Mainly, it’s just getting through all that stuff, and then you get down to it, and the ride is just…

It’s cute.

It is.

Like the way they have the track design, it looks like you’re just gonna fall into nothing.

That’s how I felt the whole time.

I mean, I lost my voice doing it, but I loved it.

Yeah, the car like jumping off the track.

If you played any of the Donkey Kong games with the minecarts, it was just like that.

Yeah.

It was just like that, yeah.

It was incredible the way it was laid out, so super fun.

Really short, but super fun.

Very short, but hold on to your stuff on that, because they don’t have anywhere to put it in the front, and she almost lost her glasses, and I almost lost the backpack.

I caught it mid-air.

But there’s no inversions or anything like that.

No.

Yeah.

It was just like the draw.

Just like it was like my sunglasses flew up.

I was like, yeah.

So, like that.

That’s incredible.

Yeah.

Why don’t we move on to the Wizarding World?

Okay.

Let’s talk the Wizarding World.

Yeah.

Jamie, that you mentioned earlier, not much in terms of breeze.

Yeah.

The buildings are very tall.

We can make a scale, right?

Diagon Alley kind of thing.

Yeah.

Okay.

Is it bigger than Diagon Alley?

Yeah.

I thought it might be smaller.

I think it’s bigger.

You think it’s bigger?

Look, I’m not good with perception.

You all know this.

Okay.

I’ll go with you on that.

It’s like you’re in downtown.

If you’ve ever been to Paris, I know people don’t get that luxury all the time, but that’s what it looks like.

Yeah.

Downtown Paris.

That’s where Fantastic Beasts is set.

Yes.

Yeah.

And that’s what I thought.

Immediately when I walked in, I saw the Metro, and I was like, this is exactly what Paris looks like from the outside.

And everybody’s got their French accent.

You did the queue line, right?

We got to do the queue.

Yeah, it was closed, but let me tell you, this queue, I mean, it’s like five to six hours of people wait.

Like if you are in the queue line from the back, you’re going to be waiting five to six hours.

I’m sorry, the queue line to…

It can hold five to six hours.

Is that what they said?

It’s the biggest, most expensive queue I think that they built.

I haven’t seen it.

I’m sorry.

Is this for the ride?

Harry Potter, yeah.

Holy cow.

What’s it called?

I don’t know.

I was trying to look it up.

I forget the name of it.

You’re walking through the metro, and then all of a sudden, you go through this poof of smoke and light, and you are just in this huge room.

And you’re in the Ministry of Magic, I guess is what it is.

There’s a queue line?

Yeah, she’s on trial, and they’ve got all this…

That’s right.

I remember that.

It’s crazy.

I’ve never seen a queue line.

You have to stop and take it in, because you’re in a small area, and they send you through almost like another portal type of thing.

And then you get in, and it’s just like this massive room.

It’s insane.

It’s huge.

We just stood in there, and we’re like, whoa.

But the amount of walking, we just did in the queue line.

I’m like, this is crazy.

Wow.

Like, if you were…

I just kept telling them, I was like, I’d never stand in a line this long.

Yeah.

I’m sure if you’re a Harry Potter fanatic, you’re gonna want to do it.

I want to do the ride, but I’m not gonna stand there and wait five or six hours.

So I have to ask, are there bathroom stops or water breaks all in the way?

Or any benches?

Like, is there any of that?

No.

Like, do you think there’s any?

There’s one spot to sit.

Yeah, there was one spot.

Is it an official spot, or is it like, I thought it was a low rock, I think?

No, it was official, because there was like a fountain in there, and they built it.

A fountain you can drink out of?

No.

Like a fountain.

Yeah.

Or was it a fountain, or was it a statue?

Drink at your own risk?

I don’t know, it was so big, but you could sit around, like it was a circle bench, is what it was.

Other than that, I don’t remember seeing any water, any bathrooms.

Just in the queue alone?

Yeah.

Is the queue as big, smaller, or bigger than the queue for Flight of Passage?

Bigger, way bigger.

We all know how big the Flight of Passage queue is.

It was like overwhelmingly big.

We just kept going and I was like, this is insane.

Yeah, it’s crazy.

How big this is.

So they’re anticipating, like you said, very long waits.

So that’s your day.

So, yeah, you’ve spent your day.

It’s so detailed though.

Yeah, it is.

No matter if you’re standing in there for each room for an hour, there’s always going to be something to look at.

Do you remember if there were the wand, like interactive stuff in there?

I can’t remember if it was just outside or in the queue line, too.

I think there might have been one thing in there that was interactive.

Okay.

I felt like they probably could have had some more stuff in there, especially if you’re going to wait that long.

Oh, for sure.

Otherwise, you’re just going to be-

You’re just standing and looking.

Okay.

Yeah.

And some of it’s like you’re just standing and it’s like green tiles on the wall, and you’re like, okay.

Yeah.

Cool.

What landing do you guys want to talk about next?

I don’t care.

It’s up to you.

Should we do Idlebrook last?

Yeah.

Totally.

Yeah.

We could say the best of us.

Okay.

So we did, we did, we did, oh well, we did do them in order.

So we did Nintendo and then next is Dark Universe.

We didn’t technically do them in order either.

We bounced around.

It’s just true.

It’s just true.

Well, because if you, I think as you enter, if you go to the left, it’s Nintendo, Dark Universe, Harry Potter, and then Idlebrook.

So let’s do Dark Universe.

Let’s do Dark Universe.

You really like Dark Universe, right?

This is the one I was most excited about, because I like the grungy type of stuff.

Can we, can we talk size really quick?

Yes.

How big is, how big is Dark Universe when you walk in?

If I had to, it wasn’t huge.

It was like, I’m trying to think of something to compare it to, maybe like the Pandora or not even as big.

No.

You don’t think it’s even as big as that?

I was thinking like more like half the size.

Samaraland, maybe.

You think?

Yeah.

Yeah, that probably would be right.

See, I told you all my perceptions off, like I’m not good with that kind of stuff.

It’s not that large.

Yeah, it’s pretty small.

But you walk in, and then all of a sudden, there’s like fog everywhere, and there’s like screaming, and like, huh, we didn’t have any of that.

We didn’t have any of that?

Oh, we did.

Well, we walked in.

Oh, the joy of preview.

I was amazed.

We walked around the corner, and then you see the big Frankenstein Manor, and it’s just huge.

And it makes Haunted Mansion look so…

That’s all the way in the back.

Yes, that’s all the way in the back.

You have to walk by, like the…

You go by the gift shop, the Doss Steakhouse in there, and they serve like steaks on a wood steak, like super cool.

The theming is great, and they’ve got vampires and monster hunters out.

And what is their theme?

Like what characters?

What do you mean?

Frankenstein.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

All the Universal Monsters.

Yep, classic Universal Monsters.

Everyone knows them, gee.

Classic Universal Monsters.

There you go, there’s your answer for everyone who doesn’t know.

Universal Monsters.

But unfortunately, when we were there, both of the rides were down, the werewolf and the manor, which I was really sad about.

I’ve heard really good things about it.

The manor, they say, is supposed to be the best.

That’s what I’ve heard there.

They’re saying the Q-Lon is supposed to be like 60, 65 degrees.

Like it’s supposed to be cold, like bone-chilling when you’re in there.

Setting you up, I see.

Yes, so it, yeah.

But they have cool special effects on the outside.

They do, they do.

I don’t know if that happens like every half hour or hourly, I don’t know why, but there’s that lightning and it was…

Right, yeah.

I think they were animating Frankenstein in there.

Right, yeah.

Every hour.

And then you walk to the back, and there’s the Burning Blade Tavern, and it sets fire every like 20 minutes.

We got to watch it.

We did too.

We saw it on the hour.

And you go in there, and they’re like talking to you, like, oh, there’s werewolves on the loose, don’t say your name.

It’s just, the theming was great.

They played into it so well.

So I’m excited to see it at night, eventually, and when everything’s up and running, I think it’s gonna be just incredible.

I’m curious about a coaster, because I don’t know anything about that coaster.

Yeah, I don’t either.

I just know it’s, you’re running away from the werewolves, or you’re turning into a werewolf.

It looked very tight.

Like the turrets looked…

Yeah, it’s a small area, so it probably…

You’re right, it’s not that big at all.

But I don’t know how much goes into the back, you know?

Like what comes into what we see in the park isn’t a lot.

That doesn’t mean it’s not way back there.

I don’t know about the queue line.

From what I read, it’s supposed to be more of like a family-friendly co-host or something.

Also, with the bathrooms and stuff, everything’s black in there.

The toilets and everything.

Oh, that’s weird.

I know, isn’t it?

Yeah, and the…

You can’t go in there.

I know.

We checked out everyone to see what they were like.

Because the themes go with it.

No, that’s smart.

So, you have to see, and it’s cool in there.

Did you check out the Mario bathrooms?

Yes.

I was like, I want to go to my bathroom.

But it was all this underwater theme of little cheeps cheeps.

I was like, oh my god, it was so cute.

What were the bathrooms?

Pretty easy to find.

Oh, yeah.

There were plenty of them.

And they were open.

Yeah, super open concepts.

Okay.

They’ll get people in and out, but yeah.

Okay, cool.

That’s awesome.

I think I feel like Dark Universe is going to be my wife’s favorite land.

Yeah.

I’m pretty sure.

They did great on the oracle tree too.

I’ll put a cue on that.

Oh, yeah.

I was like, what is that tree?

It’s so freaky looking.

I know a lot of plants, but I was like, I don’t know what this is.

It was cool.

Like I said, at night, I’m mostly like when I can go water.

I’m curious what it will look like at night.

I think it’s going to be.

With all their dark colors.

It’s supposed to have red lights and then the fog going.

So it’s supposed to be like all red.

Yeah, red and dark.

It’s going to be, yeah.

That’s awesome.

Yeah.

I’m excited.

I’m definitely excited.

Any other comments before we move on to Celestial Park?

I don’t think so.

Not with that one.

No.

Yeah.

On the smaller side, still not as much we know about this area just yet.

Right.

But really cool theming.

Yes.

So far, with what we talked about with Super Nintendo World with The Wizarding World, and then Dark Inverse, in terms of theming, which one do you enjoy the most?

Super Nintendo.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, that one was awesome.

It was so good.

I mean, you’re in the game.

Yeah.

But you’re in the game.

I will say the theming in every single one and the details were absolutely incredible, but Nintendo was like major.

It was just overload, though, in a good way.

Yes.

In a good way.

It was just like, that’s the one.

Like, I was excited to go in all of them.

That’s the one part, like, portal that I walked in.

I was like, whoa.

That’s why I went back.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Good news again.

Yeah.

Cool.

So Celestial Park.

Yes.

Right.

That’s next.

We had talked about how lots of horticulture.

It’s very open.

It’s nearly twice the size of Main Street USA, plus the hub at Magic Kingdom.

You said, Rachel, earlier, the pathway.

They’re kind of winding.

Yeah.

Like through there.

I feel like Celestial Park is like a figure eight.

Yeah.

Kind of.

Because you come in, and then there’s huge fountains.

There’s a big fountain, and I think there’s…

On the side, there’s like gift shops.

You come in, there’s a restaurant there, and it’s like part of the figure eight.

So you can walk around, and then here’s like a restaurant, a huge fountain, and then you can go down past this first part to the second part, which is the…

Carousel of…

No, it’s not Carousel of Progress, I’m sorry.

I know, it’s Carousel.

It’s the Consolation Carousel.

That’s it, that’s it.

Did you see that running?

Yes, we watched it.

I didn’t see it running.

It was interesting.

It’s an open concept.

Like, it’s just like a bunch of animals on the ground.

Yes, and they’re moving in all different directions.

Yeah, and correct me if I’m wrong, but it looks like you would be able to bring a wheelchair just right in there.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, that’s what it looked like to me.

But does it elevate when it ride?

Yes, and they had a ramp and everything to get on the wheelchair accessible ones.

But like, you don’t have to like step up to get on the carousel, because it’s a flat floor.

It’s just got three different circles.

You get on whatever you’re riding.

Like I said, they had the wheelchair accessible ones.

They just used the ramp.

But yeah, everything spins and moves to the music.

That’s what it’s going to.

It’s interesting to like watch it in person.

But they’re playing like techno music and yeah.

And I love the sounds that they had though in Celestial Park.

Every time I walk by, they were doing something different.

I’m like, it’s shooting up, now it’s spraying out.

I’m like, I was always doing something.

Yeah, a big fountain show.

Yeah, me too.

That’ll be great.

I heard that they are supposed to have a night time show in there.

But if they have a night time show, I’m guessing it’s going to be like when you’re at the Disney parks, you’re just standing and watching the show.

Right.

Well, they have the seating, it’s kind of like arena seating, but with grass around the fountain.

That’s true.

They do have that there.

That’s true.

Yeah.

Because we saw people just sitting there, eating some ice cream and just hanging out.

It was beautiful.

It’s nice at night when it’s not sun.

Right.

Once they’re exposed, it’s full-fledged America.

Not much tree cover.

I mean, how much coverage can you get if you want to spend?

Less than 10% tree coverage, I can tell you that.

You’re going to have to go in a building or something.

Under an awning, if there is one.

There are not very many awnings.

Yeah.

But it’s still preview.

They might put a bunch of awnings in.

Right.

Because they’re still doing surveys and all that stuff.

Yeah.

So who knows what could change.

Right.

What we should do is do another episode sometime, like six months after it opens to see what changes.

I’d be interested to…

I already got my ticket for my next visit.

There you go.

So yeah, if you’re not waiting to ride a ride indoors, if you’re not sitting to eat some food at a restaurant, then you’re almost out of luck.

Very much.

Okay.

Can we talk about the restaurant?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let’s do it.

You guys went to the same place we did, right?

We went to Pizza Moon.

Yeah.

So I personally…

That’s where we went.

I should do Nintendo.

I hear that’s awesome.

Yeah, we haven’t done it.

I’m a Nintendo fan.

Anyway, the thing that I liked about it personally was…

Because I’m used to…

It’s almost like you wait to find a seat, or you go up to quick service.

You wait in line, you order, then you wait for your food, and then you go and try to find a seat.

Like that’s what I’m used to for that place.

We waited in a line for a seat, and then they sat you down, and they’re like, pull up your QR code, you can order.

You’ll scan on your table, say you’re at table 236, and they’ll just bring it out.

So to me, that felt like a little vacation.

I love that.

I thought that was genius.

Because otherwise, I feel like you’re standing so much.

And so that was, to me, that was one of my best times.

Like this is like a vacation.

I’m just like sitting here, talking with my friends.

You can’t ensure there’s a table open once you get the pizza.

Or anyway, so you already have the table.

Yeah.

Right.

You’re relaxing.

And then everything’s brought to you.

As I said, we tried like three different places, and we went straight to the table, order, got our stuff.

It was super easy.

I love that.

I love that.

That’s the option where you can order at some places.

Like you can go wait in line, but that’s the best way to do it.

I mean, it’s fantastic.

It’s so easy.

It was fantastic.

Granted, I haven’t eaten at enough quick service restaurants in the Universal theme parks, but the times we have sat down to do that, it’s been the same thing.

So Islands of Adventure, it’s been like that.

I think it was like that at Universal Studios Florida.

But that system is so, it’s so ingenious.

I don’t know why Disney hasn’t done that.

I love it.

It was so much better.

Because if it was like that in more places, I think I would be more apt to use a restaurant.

Because sometimes, even in those quick service, I just, I’m just tired of standing.

Yeah.

I mean, granted, you got mobile order, right?

True.

Yeah.

But I guess that’s one way to think about it.

Yeah.

I’m that person who’s just gonna go sit on that planter over there because I’m tired of standing.

So, and that’s sometimes I’ve done that in the parks where I’m like eating like right there on the trashcan or wherever you can find.

I didn’t want to say that, but yes.

Oh, no.

It’s stoned by a lot of people.

At least they’re clean.

Let’s go back to Celestial Park real quick because they have really cool looking rides.

I think it’s called Celestial Racers.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Did you do it?

No, we didn’t do it.

You didn’t?

You did it.

Hit it.

Talk to me about the queue real quick, and then let’s just jump in.

Stardust Racers, excuse me.

So, Stardust Racers.

That one, they make you go through a metal detector.

Like a lot of the other roller coasters in America.

So, I was like, wow, okay.

Because they don’t want you bringing anything on.

That one, they have lockers and everything.

But it’s, I mean, it’s a long queue.

I don’t think it’s as long as Harry Potter’s queue.

But it was a long queue.

And there really wasn’t a lot to look at yet.

Outdoors, indoors?

It was outdoors, yeah.

It was all, I mean, it was shaded, but it was all outdoors.

It’s probably the only other outdoor shade.

It was all shaded, but the ride itself was, it was good.

It’s their most intense, I would easily say, because it has, they said there’s three launch points.

I only remember two, but it would launch you, and then later on, you’re going, and it launches you again, and there’s inversions, and there’s, there was one point when I was kind of geeking out, because I swear to you, because you’re racing another, and you guys kind of intertwine around each other, and at one point, I was like, I swear to you, I almost high-fived another person on the other line.

I was like, I’m just trying to, and I’m sure we were probably like way away apart.

But I swear to you, I was like inches away from my car to someone on the other comment.

Oh no, I got your hand.

It was cool, it was really cool.

Yeah, it’s a long line.

I mean, all of them are long lines, you know?

So, but yeah.

I think Celestial Products is probably gonna be my second favorite land.

Yeah.

But my first, and my wife knows, my first favorite land is gonna be Aliburg.

Which is conveniently our next stop.

I know!

Great segue.

Yeah, talk me through it.

Cause I wanna look at photos, I’ve seen renderings, and I’m really excited about what’s gonna be in there.

But, I mean, the first thing I think of is, it looks huge.

But, I mean, talk me through it.

Like, talk us through walking in a circle.

Yeah, it’s a big circle, it’s like this.

And it’s so cute.

Like, I just, I loved it.

Once you walk through a little portal, like, it’s, they have, I mean, it’s a huge body of water.

And then there’s, like, all of the little houses and stuff like that.

I mean, it just, in brook, yeah, it goes up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up.

The details are amazing.

And the little dragons everywhere, like, getting over fished, you’re, like, snoring.

And, like, it’s so cute.

The animatronics.

Yeah, there’s little sheep and…

And they have meat and grapes with dragons, like, toothless, coming out.

Yeah, it’s toothless.

Oh, I’ve seen videos of people getting toothless.

Yeah.

Like, my wife was just showing the videos this morning.

It was so cute.

And then we didn’t get to do the show.

We waited in line twice, and it got canceled.

Same, we were the same.

It’s a big show, right?

Yes.

The dragon or was it toothless, it flies over you?

Yeah, and I’ve heard it’s wrong.

People get the tears.

It’s a really good show.

If it’ll just, when everybody can see it, it opens up.

But the one ride we saw, because the coaster wasn’t open when we were in the portal area, we saw Fire Drill, which is like this water ride.

So imagine buzz light year, but water form.

It’s so cool.

I’m like, we have to do that.

But we were like, we’re going to get soaked.

You get drenched.

Because you have little water guns on it.

And you shoot each other too?

Yes, and if you shoot the wrong target, then it’ll shoot you.

Yeah.

It just drenches you.

Oh, that’s fun.

Yeah.

Yes.

And if your boat’s tilted too far to like one side, you’ll shoot the people in the line.

I would do that.

Yeah, right?

And then see them later on in the park and run.

It doesn’t just go through the ride track on the water.

Yeah, they come back and forth.

It looks super fun.

Yeah, yeah.

But how did you look for that?

You know, it was mostly outside.

But it’s a small, that’s a small ride.

Like, I think it just kind of goes out and back.

And like, it’s almost like a big oval.

Yes.

Yeah, it’s not that big.

It’s not that big.

It’s probably meant for younger audiences.

For sure.

Yeah.

So they have that, the show, and then they have the coaster, right?

Because you did that.

Yes, I did the coaster.

Well, they also had the other ride where you’re flying dragons.

Oh, yeah.

It’s like this cantilever thing, where it’s got a dragon on one side, and it’s got eight dragons, or ten dragons on the other side.

And so it kind of goes up and down, but you’re flying around in a circle.

It’s like a big arm.

My friend said that you can kind of control the dragon.

And I said, if you’re good, you can just flip, and you can do these barrel rolls.

And I said that someone, you don’t have to.

You don’t have to.

But someone said that they got their dragon, and they’re just doing it.

We avoided that.

When we saw it, we said, no.

Also so.

If you have motion sickness, don’t do that one.

You can go to another one.

But the coaster there is what we, it started at like 645, it was the one that we went in to line for, because it didn’t open till the end of the day.

And we found out about it, we weren’t running over there, of course, because the parks were ready to be like, we’re closed, and we’re like, let’s even get in line.

So we went closing, it was still like, what, we’re about 45 minutes away?

Oh, at least, at least.

And we had an express pass to it.

So it was an express pass.

Yeah, yeah.

So it was cute.

It was very cute.

It was not intense.

I would say it’s a family-friendly one.

So they had cute little theming, and you see little dragons and stuff like that on the way.

It was cute.

I actually liked it a lot.

Like, it was one of my more favorite.

Yeah, like I liked the Comet Chaser in Celestial Park for intensity, but I don’t need intensity.

I like the, I think it was more fun.

It was a lot of fun, so.

What about that shoe?

But Isle of Berk, oh, that was, the queue was forever.

It’s outside.

It was all outside.

That one had the ropes when I said no leaning, because that one had the ropes, because I can just see people leaning against these ropes, and they just snap, you know?

It could happen.

Yeah, I don’t know.

But you know how they are about leaning on stuff.

For sure.

But it just had ropes.

It was all outside.

But it was shaded.

It was mostly shaded.

But it was just hot, you know, of ghosts.

But it was long, just all those switchbacks.

And you can see the whole queue once you go in there.

So it wasn’t like one of those that you’re like, I’m almost there, and they turn a corn…

Five more corns.

There’s like five more hours left.

It wasn’t like that.

You can see it all.

Got it.

And Isle of Berth, I would recommend if you go back maybe again in the evening, because when we went back, it wasn’t sunset, but it was, the sun was going down, and the way it hit all of the houses and stuff like that, that was way more magical than the first time I went, when it was full sun.

The sun was just coming down, and it’s just like, boom, right on all of those houses.

And it was like, I was like, ah, I want to picture this.

So next time I go back, I’m gonna go back again in the evening.

It’s more walking.

Just more, gotta go back again.

And then hit Nintendo again.

It almost even sounds like most of the lands are like, oh, we gotta check it out again in the evening.

And there’s only so much you can check out again in the evening, you’re just there for a day, right?

You’re gonna have to do a second day.

It’s gonna have to be like a two-day park.

Like, you know?

It is a two-day park.

Wow.

Yeah.

Because we really, we didn’t ride much, obviously, but we were taking everything in.

Like, we were looking at all the detail, the food places, just listening to, like, the interesting facts her brother was telling us and things like that.

And just, yeah, we took our time, but if we were having to wait in lines, like we did for the mine cart planet, we wouldn’t have got to, we maybe would have done to at Lance.

That was it.

She portals whatever you want to call it.

Universes.

That’s wild.

And I can imagine, like, with, I mean, so many people are gonna be experiencing Epic Universe for the first time.

And just talking through everything we’ve talked about so far with how much detail there is, especially with Super Nintendo and, like, it almost seems like there’s a lot of, not stimulation, like, overload, but then you’re taking everything in, and it’s a lot to think about, and it’s a lot to realize, like, what you’re thinking about.

I’m thinking, like, mental fatigue.

Yeah.

You know, especially towards the end of the day.

You’re trying to take everything in.

You’re trying to plan your day.

You’re trying to figure out which show to go to.

You’re trying to figure out what’s your next ride.

On top of that, you’re walking in the heat, in the sun.

There’s not much shade.

Yep.

Like, towards the end of the day, you know, how much would mental fatigue affect you physically at the end?

Right.

A lot.

A lot.

Oh, yeah.

It depends on who you’re with, probably.

Oh, sure.

Oh, man.

And how they’re doing.

Whether or not you’re with, like, kiddos.

Or with, like, hard to deal with family members.

Right.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, we got back to the car, and I don’t think we said two words on the drive home.

Really?

I was still poked.

We were exhausted.

We were there less than you, but we were just like, well, like, what did we just do?

It’s just a lot to digest.

I felt like the day went by super fast.

It did go by quick.

And I only saw, like, half the attractions.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I’m just like, where did time go?

Yeah.

It went by quick.

It went by quick.

It was really fast.

Knowing what you know now about the park, is it something that you would try and, like, plan out, ride by ride kind of thing?

Or is it something where you’d be like, oh, you know, I’ve been there once.

I know I want to hit a couple things.

Let’s just hit those and kind of see where we go from there.

Right.

You know, because, like, Disney World…

I would prioritize.

You’d prioritize.

Yeah.

I mean, just like with Disney, stuff like that, you know.

You got to prioritize what are your absolute must-sees.

You know, look it up.

Do your research.

You know, there’s a lot of people who have gone before you.

And they can recommend, you know, what you should see.

And then, you know, like, if you want to see a show, obviously, that’s going to have to be dropped in there somewhere.

So if you’re going to see a show, maybe in the shows in an hour, maybe not get in a six-hour Harry Potter line.

Right.

If you want to see that, then you know.

So there is a lot of planning that you’re going to have to do to see…

get the most out of it, you know.

So and you’re going to be doing that ping-ponging around.

You’re not going to be able to just do this land and then that land and that would be nice, but it’s not happening.

Right.

That’s not happening.

Because it’s just, yeah, with the wait times and like if one land’s a little more crowded at one time than the other, it’s like, well, if we just bounce over here, we can do this really quick and then come back and just…

And then there are a lot of those things that are going to keep you there.

Like Harry Potter, you have all the magic wand, there’s a lot of stuff to do there.

Nintendo, if you get the power bracelet, there’s a lot of stuff to do there.

We spend a lot of time doing those mini games too.

There’s actually a lot in there.

Just another aspect, if you have Epic Universe, that’s going to make you want to go back two more times.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Yeah, makes a lot of sense.

I can imagine that Epic is going to be, it’s going to be part of a three or a four day vacation where people are going to go to Disney World for a couple days, and then go to Universal for a couple days.

Let’s talk like, let’s talk day three burnout.

You know what I mean?

You do a couple days here, you do a couple days there, and then you go to Epic Universe.

What’s one strategy?

Let’s just talk one strategy each person or something like that.

One strategy that you would advise guests to make sure that you can avoid that day three burnout.

I think for me, like, if I’m going that many days in a row, take a day, do like a pool day or something.

Go to a water park, cool off, relax, maybe go to Disney Springs that night, or city walk, just chill for a day, and then revisit the park.

I don’t know, that always works for me, just having a day or an afternoon evening just off.

Rest days are huge.

Yes.

They’re huge, even rest hours.

Yeah, for sure.

Take three to four hours out of the day.

Yeah.

Go back to your resort, go to Disney Springs.

If you’re close, go to the hotel for an hour or two, drink some water, do a stretch, sleep, and then come back.

So we’ve had to do that before.

We did it while we were out in California.

Yeah, so that’s way smaller Disney-like stuff, but we still did it just because it was so hot in the middle of the day.

It just gets exhausting.

I think hydration would be a big one, especially during the summer.

Before the sun, you’re going to lose all your liquids, so just make sure you’re staying hydrated.

Hopefully, that helps that burn out.

Yeah, for sure.

I was talking with my good friend, Dr.

Emily Bohan, on episode 6 of the podcast.

She had mentioned drinking at least half your body weight in ounces of water.

And that’s on a normal day.

So imagine being out there in the heat, right?

Sweating it all out, yeah.

And if you wanted to do the calculations, it’s like 150 ounces for guys, 100 ounces for girls.

That’s in the heat.

So it’s a lot.

It’s crazy.

You need to jump a little more water than you think.

Oh, for sure.

For sure.

One of the things I like to do if I’m going to be in the park a lot is, you know, those little like propel.

I get something like that because…

Electrolyte mix kind of thing.

Yeah.

Personally, with me, I drink more if it’s flavored.

So I don’t care if it’s cold or not.

I mean, you can get it cold.

You can get ice free.

They have those vending machines, those…

Freestyle?

Yeah.

They have those all over.

So you can get…

You can fill up…

If you have a wide mouth bottle or something like that, you can fill that up with ice and to put some of that propeller or something in there.

That’s yours.

That’s mine, yeah.

I’m part of the small water bottle club.

Yeah.

I feel like it’s not used enough.

And my wife thinks about this because she started it, and I was like, why would you do that?

It’s so small.

There’s not much to put in there.

It’s not going to last long.

Then I realized if you’re walking around in the parks all day, the less weight you’re carrying, the better.

That’s true.

And knowing where the water refill stations are is huge.

It’s a game changer.

So you bring a 12-ounce water bottle, you just refill wherever you go, and you’re set.

Personally, with this, I put this in my back pocket.

There you go.

It fits in my back pocket, as long as you got a tight belt or something.

It fits in my pocket, so I’m not even carrying it.

Some of them have a little carabiner, and you can hook it on to your…

Yeah, so I do stuff like that.

But having the flavored water, it encourages me to drink more.

I like that.

And I think with the electrolytes, it’s gonna help as well.

I usually bring a snack with me, too.

Yeah, because when you’re in the six-hour Harry Potter line, you’re bound to get hungry and hangry.

More powerful, though.

And then that mental fatigue is your whole family’s getting…

Yeah.

Did we talk water refill stations?

Are there a bunch around Epic?

Every bathroom.

Every bathroom.

And not just a water fountain, but a water refill station.

Yep, yep.

For the bottle.

And they’ve got plenty of those.

Yeah.

Freestyle.

Yeah, that’s right.

And that’s chilled water, too.

But a refill station isn’t.

Yeah.

Okay.

Got it.

That’s good to know.

Any restaurant has those, the freestyle?

We fill the water bottle like 30 million times.

Yeah, because those are all always free for water and ice.

So you just want to get a wide mouth bottle.

All day.

I have to admit, there’s a couple of parks at Disney World that don’t have enough water refill stations.

It’s really nice to have the Coca-Cola freestyle fountains out there.

Right, right.

Taking your time and pacing yourself, too, instead of rushing.

I feel like we get the privilege of living around here, so we’re not rushing to different rides, rushing to different…

Because we’ve got to do all this…

Well, we don’t feel like that.

We’re like, okay, we’re going to see what we need to see.

We’ll come back and do what we need to do.

Let’s try to do this and this for today, instead of running to eight different rides.

No, no, I want to see everything.

And you’re local, too, that’s the fun thing.

Oh, no, I want to see everything.

But there’s two kinds of people.

Clearly there are.

I do not want to miss a thing.

I want to see all of it.

I was bopping in the shops, and apparently not the restrooms, because I didn’t see all the themes in all the restrooms.

Probably wasn’t drinking enough.

You saw what we did.

We went in the restrooms, the restrooms, we were looking at every park.

I actually didn’t use my strategy.

I did not have any propeller or generator or anything like that.

So I probably wasn’t drinking enough.

I was probably, you know, not hydrated enough.

We were moseying, looking around.

But that’s also the problem.

If you drink a lot of water, now you’re in a six-hour…

Well, we went in every restroom, because we refilled 30…

But what if you’re in a long line and you have to go to the bathroom?

They’re going to have to do something about that.

I mean, I know a lot of people, like, save my spot, or one person will go out, and then they have to come back through 100,000 people and get dirty looks as they’re…

I had to use the bathroom.

But you got to stay hydrated, so…

It’s the conundrum.

We briefly talked about the carousel earlier and how it sounds like it’s kind of ADA compliant.

Any other comments on ADA compliance, especially for people with mobility issues?

Right.

You know, because I can imagine…

It’s nice that there are wide walkways, right?

That’s on an ECB, right?

What else?

What else is there?

I would say Super Mario World.

That one’s hard because you go up.

There’s an elevator right there.

There is an elevator.

As soon as you get in the other stairs, but there is around.

You can go around, but you don’t get the whole, like, subtle experience.

So they make it accessible.

Yeah.

It’s not quite the same with you.

Yeah.

I don’t know if most of the rides, though, are very ADA compliant.

Like, I’m trying to think, because I don’t think mine cart madness.

What, like, I don’t see how a wheelchair would be able to be hooked in there.

Somebody transferring to that, that would be a pretty hard choice.

Or to do, like, a scoot over to that, because you kind of have to step down into it, you know?

You’d have to be able to do some sort of transfer without much assistance.

Right.

Okay.

Are there any other rides out at Epic that can accommodate getting an entire wheelchair in?

Because you know how, like, Tron, for example, in Magic Kingdom, in one of the cars, you can get a whole wheelchair in, right?

I bet you could with Mario Kart.

Okay.

I didn’t see anything, but the way those vehicles are set up, I bet they could do that.

I don’t know if they did, but I bet you could.

Right.

I don’t know, but I don’t think you could on Yoshi.

I don’t think so either.

That one’s very small.

Yeah.

Like, a wheelchair would probably take up the whole Yoshi.

The whole thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You’d be, like, riding by yourself.

I’m trying to think if that boat ride, I don’t know, if they had room on the end.

Yeah, the fire drill went.

If they had room on the end, like, that would be easy.

I didn’t even know the carts that had…

Yeah.

You know what we should do is all plan a day where we all go to Epic together and look for that.

We could rent wheelchairs and try.

Make a little short video.

I’m going in two months again, so…

Maybe we gotta figure out…

Give me some of the research.

I’ll do it.

I got you.

I’m serious.

Any last bits of advice you want to give to our listeners about Epic?

Good shoes.

Hydrate.

Sunscreen.

Light backpack.

Yes.

Those are the biggest things.

Sunscreen.

Re-apply.

Every at least 80 minutes, 89 minutes, re-apply, for sure.

Especially between 10 and 3, between 10 and 4, when it’s the hottest time of the day.

Yeah.

Yep.

We carried that with us.

At least another exposure.

Terrain.

Can we talk terrain?

Because, like, parks like Studios or Epcot, relatively flat.

A park like Animal Kingdom, a little bit more, like almost like a walking trail, because that’s how Imagineers designed the park, right?

What about Epic?

Anything like that?

I mean, Celestial does, because you have to start at the top, and it’s almost like you work your way.

A slight slope.

It doesn’t feel like it’s, like, whoa, you know.

And it’s all one, like, there’s no, like, curves.

I don’t ever, like, there’s a few stairs, but they’ve got the ramps.

There were curves in Harry Potter.

Yes.

Like, you’re walking through Stizaparas.

Yeah, yeah.

But that was the only one.

Aliburk has, like, small slopes to go up, you know.

But it’s nothing crazy.

Nintendo always had the elevator and the stairs.

Because it had levels, yeah.

But other than that, that’s it.

And then Dark Universe is all one, and it was flat the whole way.

There’s no anything.

Cool.

And then other than that, like Super Nintendo, stairs there, but then also you can go around like you said.

Yeah.

Cool.

Yeah.

Well, thank you all for your time.

I really appreciate it.

I thought this was a really cool conversation to have.

For sure.

And you’re just giving me more to look forward to when we go to check out the park ourselves.

That concludes my conversation with Nate, Jamie, and Rachel on what you can expect when you visit Universal’s Epic Universe.

That was a lot of information to take in.

So here are four key takeaways that you can learn when you’re planning your trip out to Universal’s Epic Universe.

Key takeaway number one, expect to walk a lot.

Rachel had mentioned how over the course of a nine-hour day in the parks, she had walked at least 20,000 steps.

Now, considering that Epic Universe is around 80 acres, that’s a lot of walking in a small area.

Now, of course, we can expect Universal’s Epic Universe to expand.

They already have plans for expansion, so there’s going to be even more area to walk.

However, one major factor that affected how much you walk is the fact that there is a central hub in Epic Universe that is called Celestial Park, and it connects to the different portals that go into the different lands at Epic.

However, there is no walkway connecting any sort of land that is next to each other.

So if you wanted to walk from one land to the next, you’d have to walk out through the same portal that you entered into Celestial Park, and then go transfer into the next portal into the land that you want to go next.

So as you can imagine, if you wanted to ride one attraction in one land, and then another attraction in a different land, you’d have to ping pong between lands to get where you want to go.

That adds up a lot of steps at the end of the day.

On top of that, there is a very large parking lot to get from your car to Epic Universe.

It’s estimated to be about 150 acres, meaning that wherever you park, you’re going to be walking quite a bit to get from your car to Epic.

And then to add on top of that, Jamie had mentioned how the Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, which was not open at the time that they were previewing, Epic was one of the longest ride queues they had ever seen at a Universal theme park.

They even said it was longer than the ride queue for Flight of Passage over in Pandora and Animal Kingdom.

Key takeaway number two, mental fatigue is going to be so real at Epic, especially for first time visitors.

Epic Universe is a completely new theme park built by Universal Studios with five different lands.

There is going to be a ton of detail, especially when you’re going to visit Super Nintendo Land, as you heard by what Nate was talking about.

In fact, there’s going to be so much detail that you’re going to be looking around that you will not realize how much you are going to be walking at the end of the day.

Nate, Jamie, and Rachel all agree that this is more than a one-day park.

It’s definitely going to be a two, maybe even a three-day park.

So mental fatigue is very real in that because there’s so much detail to take in, it can take a toll on you physically because there’s going to be a lot of figuring out what you’re going to do, where you’re going to go, all the details that you’re going to be noticing.

Just a lot going on in terms of decision-making, noticing things, on top of that, you’re walking a lot in the heat.

It all adds up.

So in order to avoid that day three burnout, Jamie, Rachel, and Nate mentioned making sure that you take a rest day or a long rest break when you’re visiting, making sure that you stay hydrated and utilizing all of the water refill stations and Coca-Cola Freestyle stations around the park.

And then of course bringing snacks to make sure you’re topped up on energy.

And then finally, making sure you’re taking your time and prioritizing what you’re going to see, check out, and ride.

Make sure you set your expectations because Epic Universe is not going to be a one day park.

Don’t expect to be able to do everything at that park.

Key takeaway number three.

Epic Universe, as it stands right now, gives you a lot of exposure to the sun and the heat, especially in the spring and summer months.

As we discussed in our conversation, the horticulture, while there is a lot there, and there is quite a bit of horticulture that fits the theming perfectly for some of those lands, it is still young, meaning it’s small, there’s not much shade to give you that cool area to relax and take a break in.

On top of that, there’s quite a number of rides that do have outdoor cues.

Some of them have outdoor cues mixed in with indoor cues, and then other rides like the roller coaster at Celestial Park, I think is completely outdoors, but somewhat shaded.

So be careful where you’re gonna be expecting to stand when you’re waiting for a ride.

Make sure that you’re topped up on water, you’re applying sunblock every 80 to 90 minutes, you’re wearing a hat, you’re doing all the things to make sure that you don’t lose so much energy by being exposed to the sun for so long.

Key takeaway number four, Universal’s Epic Universe is actually pretty progressive when it comes to its accessibility for guests with disabilities.

Some rides provide an alternate escort entrance to help guests enter the ride.

Every staircase has an elevator or a ramp to use as an alternative.

So what that means is, for example, we had talked in our conversation about how to enter Super Nintendo Land.

You have to go up a set of stairs into the portal because the land itself is I think three stories.

However, there is an elevator and a walkway to go around so that you could still enter.

Yes, you will be losing some of the story elements that go along with going up and down the stairs.

However, having those separate entrances still makes it available for those with mobility deficits to have a good experience at Epic Universe.

I have read that although the hallways, some hallways seem narrow when walking through, they are still ADA compliant, meaning that a standard wheelchair will still fit to go through.

And there are a few rides that I found by doing some very scientific research on Reddit to help be more ADA compliant for guests with disabilities.

In the list of rides includes Monsters Unchained and Minecart Madness that have dedicated secondary platforms to load and unload guests.

Curse of the Werewolf has a dedicated ADA car with a horizontal transfer platform.

Mario Kart Bowser’s Challenge has elevators to its low platform and a dedicated wheelchair ride vehicle.

Hiccup’s Wing Gliders has the ability to load without going up its stairs.

Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry has elevators to make sure that those using a scooter or a wheelchair is able to get up on to the low platform.

And then Yoshi’s Adventure can slow or completely stop if needed.

If you know of any other ADA compliant rides or features at Epic Universe, make sure to leave a comment or shoot an email to me at steven.cabebe at gmail.com, and I’ll make sure to include that in the show notes.