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Our Millennial Conversation
Our Millenia Conversation brings together the stories of two friends who first met in the heart of Orlando’s theme park scene. After a year of exploring the magic of Orlando together, Dustin relocated to his hometown in East Tennessee, and the duo decided to evolve a passion project formally the “Orlando Unplugged Podcast.”
This new podcast moves beyond the turnstiles of theme parks, diving into relatable millennial musings, stories of growth, and the unexpected adventures of adulthood. With Dustin’s Appalachian charm and Ashley’s Orlando Sunshine, each episode feels like catching up with old friends over coffee— or a roller coaster ride of laughs and insights.
Whether it’s navigating career changes, celebrating pop culture, or reminiscing about their Orlando days, Our Millennial Conversation promises to keep you entertained, inspired, and coming back for more.
Our Millennial Conversation
Unplugging Universal Orlando's Aventura Hotel, and 4th fun with Drunk Brother friends
Ever wondered how a weekend at Universal Orlando Resort can turn into an adventure filled with twists, laughter, and unexpected challenges? Join us as we navigate through the highs and lows of our recent escapades, from the chaos of Ashley's "Hell Week" to the refreshing moments at Universal's Aventura Hotel. We’ll dive into our review of the mesmerizing "CineSational: A Symphonic Spectacular" nighttime show and get you up to speed with the latest Halloween Horror Nights announcements. Plus, we’ll share our personal updates, including the struggle of renewing apartment leases and embracing the relentless Orlando heat.
Our stay at the Aventura Hotel, amusingly dubbed the "fidget spinner hotel," comes with plenty to talk about. From high-tech room controls and the quirky Relay the Robot in the lobby to the delightful food and drink options at the Urban Pantry, we’ve got it all covered. Hear about our cocktail adventures at Backwater Bar and our fun-filled day at Universal's Islands of Adventure, and Universal Studios featuring everything from intense heat to high-flying drone shows. Wrapping up, we celebrate our newest friendships, memorable moments, and the anticipation of Halloween Horror Nights. Don't miss out on our candid stories, insightful reviews, and heartfelt experiences!
Links:
Orlando Unplugged Website:http://www.orlandounpluggedpodcast.com
Universal Aventura Hotel: https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/places-to-stay/universals-aventura-hotel
Universal Backwater Bar: https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/things-to-do/dining/backwater-bar
Universal Finnegan's Bar & Grill: https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/things-to-do/dining/finnegans-bar-grill
Today's episode contains information about Universal Orlando Resort. The host's opinions may not align with those of Universal Orlando Resort or its affiliates. This episode also contains conversations about alcoholic consumption. Orlando Unplugged podcast reminds you please drink responsibly.
Speaker 3:Always be iconic yeah but she's the iconic champ.
Speaker 2:I like it. I like controversy. Contains information. I am drinking kombucha.
Speaker 4:You're listening to Orlando, unplugged, celebrating life in living color with Dustin and Ashley. Grab a cocktail or a mocktail and let's get Unplugged, orlando.
Speaker 3:What's up? Unplugged fam. I'm Dustin and I'm Ashley and this is episode 27 of Orlando. Unplugged Podcast, you good.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 3:You struggling.
Speaker 2:Oh, like a bus.
Speaker 3:It is, are we going to talk about it?
Speaker 2:Do you want it?
Speaker 3:It's what.
Speaker 2:Hell week Blood week, blood week.
Speaker 3:Ashley's on her period.
Speaker 2:Day one baby. Oh yeah, that's no fun.
Speaker 3:And you wanted me to record a podcast today and to think we took a whole week off just for these people to come back and learn.
Speaker 2:Why couldn't I have scheduled this then? Damn you uterus. I know that homegirl did not have my back oh well, but yeah no we did. We did take a week off, didn't we? That was nice we did.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're gonna talk about that here in a bit. Oh, I can feel it, hold on is the chinese coming? That was the chinese in the coffee um so welcome back friends um, we've got a fun episode planned for you guys. This week. We're gonna be recapping our weekend with friends at universal's aventura hotel at universal orlando resort here in florida.
Speaker 2:It's just a red capping recapping oh, I definitely heard red capping recapping. Clearly red is on my mind and then what do we?
Speaker 3:what else are we doing?
Speaker 2:my new favorite thing in the entire planet. We're going to be uh, exploring and taking a look at universal's new nighttime sensational sensational great a cinematic symphonic great spectacular which is the new nighttime water projection show that has come back in a 2.0 version at universal.
Speaker 3:It's so good, uh. And then, uh, we might, at the end of this, talk just a wee bit about halloween horror night. Depends on how long we discuss. Only reason being is because today, universal officially dropped the frequent fear passes as well as other tickets that are going to be available for halloween horror nights, which is unfortunately two months away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, about two. You know what else? They announced another house, so maybe we'll have to talk about that too they did, they did. But of course I cannot wait. We have our next bartender of the pod to talk about this week too and I have no clue who she is and I've never met her. But you did, I did so don't worry, I'll introduce you to her.
Speaker 3:You're gonna love her okay, well so, guys, fun episode, are you ready?
Speaker 2:I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Heating pad is intact, let's go.
Speaker 3:So, ashley, we took two weeks off this go around. So what's going on in your?
Speaker 2:life. We took two weeks off.
Speaker 3:Well, technically it'll be two weeks Like we had an episode air. And then we didn't have an episode air, the following Wednesday. And then we'll have this episode. So it's technically two weeks since we've last talked to everyone. So what's new in your life?
Speaker 2:We took a break because we hung out with a lot of friends and we also just mentally needed a break. I feel like that last episode that we put out for Universal Epics newest land, dark Universe, kind of of. There's a lot of work for that one yeah yeah. So it's kind of nice to kind of like, hey, this week, that week, we just I felt burnt like my brain was fried.
Speaker 3:Well, and we've had the hottest two weeks in orlando, gosh um, it was like 98 degrees with like 90 humidity.
Speaker 2:The air was so thick I felt like I couldn't breathe I walked literally from my house to the gym because I started working out again and I literally like my house to the gym is maybe, like I don't know what 500, 750 feet yeah if that I got to the gym and I was sweating before I even started working out, I was like why is it so disgustingly thickly humid?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean it's.
Speaker 2:It's been real bad oh god, it's been so thick and now it's gloomy and overcasted and it looks like it's gonna rain, and it has been raining all day well actually.
Speaker 3:No, it hasn't rained all day like it was raining this morning when I woke up, but then by the time I got to work, all the rain was over because we had what they're saying is it had the potential to become a tropical depression, uh, out in the atlantic, but it never did and it's it's currently dissipating, um, but we got the rain off of that and it was so humid at work today.
Speaker 3:They were like does anyone want an early release? And I was like me please send me home. It is too hot for this outside. I cannot breathe. I'm sweating just sitting here under a fan.
Speaker 2:And then he came over and we ate Chinese food. But I do have some exciting, fun things.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We renewed our lease this week. Woo woo. Yeah.
Speaker 3:We did adult things, did your rent go up?
Speaker 2:No, the rent went up on my place 80 I.
Speaker 3:I want to talk about this, but I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about this. Does it involve your?
Speaker 2:apartment complex. It does, you can talk about it okay. So where we live it's it's fairly close to a park and we get. We got a discount because of how close we were to said park oh, you got a discount for reasons correct. They changed that, so we no longer get our discount anymore. However, what they did, they are giving us a credit. We get a a inside of our discount that typically over like the year span would equal up to this.
Speaker 2:We get it lump sum right away interesting yeah, so without the discount though it's really not that bad like I wonder if they're gonna have people leave because of that I I know some people in our neighborhood um I also know there's been a lot of empty apartments in your neighborhood over the last quite a lot but I do know a couple people that live in our neighborhood that do get a discount as well, or did, and now they are actively looking at something different because they cannot afford to live here anymore without I mean heck.
Speaker 3:Orlando is one of the top most expensive cities in the country to live in it is. It's absolutely insane it's very, very, very expensive actually I saw a report I think it was yesterday, that said a single person to live in orange or osceola counties needs to make 98 000 a year yeah, and it's a it's a struggle insane.
Speaker 2:It's a struggle. But you know, I think that's why we all are so close that we are, that we can kind of support one another and we understand when stuff like that happens. So I know for me personally, I know I have a great financial support system, so if something does happen like that, I know I have people I can fall back on. So we're good there. I just I can't imagine doing this and not being able to do that. Yeah, I can't imagine doing this and not being able to do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you can't say that you don't have people because you know I would help you.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, good news. I did get confirmation, though, that you are now in the will. Oh good yeah. So, shout out to Shan. I didn't realize I got an older brother, but that's cool.
Speaker 3:Oh good, so now I can kill off the siblings.
Speaker 2:That's just gut.
Speaker 3:Orlando um, that's just got, or they know plug got dark. Um, not the first time. I have some good news, though, so I finally, after six months six months received, all right, what it feels like six months. I don't think it's actually been that. Uh, I finally got my taxes back, um, and I ended up getting just a little bit more taxes no, no, I know you're good.
Speaker 3:Um, I ended up getting just a little bit more than I was originally supposed to get, so I received a letter from the irs that said that they were auditing my earned income tax credit which that means well, see, that's what I laughed about, because I'm going, I didn't. When I was filing my taxes, I was told what my earned income tax credit was. I didn't like put stuff, so I I don't, I don't know I don't know how that thing works.
Speaker 3:I don't even remember earned income tax credit being a thing before the pandemic it might have. Um, so it said, hey, we need three months to audit this. So three months goes by, and then I receive another letter from the irs that says, hey, we need a potential additional six months wow to audit this account.
Speaker 2:What did you do?
Speaker 3:And speaking to a random person who works in the IRS that I just happened to meet in the general public. I made a joke to this person about ah well, now that I've met you, you want to get my taxes back. And he was like yeah, that's completely computer generated, you're just selected at random. He was like and the system selects so many that it takes forever for humans to actually go through and do everything. And I'm like that sounds like a waste of time.
Speaker 3:But hey, it got me like 60 more dollars than what I was supposed to get, so I'll take it unfortunately so, as we discussed, this was going to be the money that I used to fix the air conditioning in my car because, I have to replace the air compressor and all the hoses.
Speaker 3:It is a very expensive cost. When I had it originally estimated at the Mercedes-Benz of Knoxville they estimated $1,900. My taxes was not $1,900, but I was like, oh, a couple hundred dollars, like I can make that. So I got my taxes back and I started reaching out to multiple different places down here just to kind of shop around $3,000. Oof, Do you want to know how much my car is worth?
Speaker 2:$3,000. $3,000. Wow.
Speaker 3:And that, mixed with the other various issues that I'm having out of that car and the amount that I still owe on the vehicle, obviously it's just kind of a money hole.
Speaker 3:So I made the tough, tough decision not to fix the air conditioning in my car right now. I could have put that money off to the side and saved, but the issue that we've discussed on this podcast several times is um, I don't make enough money in orlando currently to have extra money to put back, so it's like I would just have this money sitting there, um, and I'll probably never get the air conditioning fixed or I can try to make a bit of a dent in the debt that I have collected and accrued. Uh, moving to orlando hashtag, the grass is not always greener on the other side. Um, but yeah, so that's kind of where I'm at with the car right now, but, um, I got some stuff paid off, so that's nice and paid down I do like the fact, though, that we have created a backup plan if we both decide that we don't want to do this anymore moving to a tiny little cabin in wallen tennessee, with uh cows and chickens and a donkey.
Speaker 3:A donkey and a little little mini corgi named diana yep, so yep, little legs with a little bruce um we're gonna do great things. It's gonna be great so, um, outside of that, um, I don't really think anything crazy's happened in the last two weeks um, I'm trying to think have they released any information about anything? Theme park wise I don't think so.
Speaker 2:I think d23 stuff's been quiet yeah, um the only thing that seems to be circulating still is that princess tiana still can't make it through a day without going down which is a day she can't make it through three hours, let alone open on time.
Speaker 3:I know, but you know, I'm sure, but I feel like that's with everything.
Speaker 2:Look at velocicoaster when, when that was coming up you know coming up and opening up it kept going down all the time but it was a brand new yeah that's very valid brand new ride this is this is disney.
Speaker 3:Did not make the needed fixes to the ride before they decided to do this before they ripped out all the drywall and put in rescanned animatronics but I mean.
Speaker 2:The animatronics, though, are so impressive, have you? Seen the one of tiana in the end scene when she, when she broke and she just looked like she saw a ghost.
Speaker 3:She's standing with her arms doing it she's standing out to her with her arms out to her side, and she's just like and she's got her mouth agape, and it's just so funny we need to do it, we need to go.
Speaker 2:So bad, but I just don't want to. I don't want to wait in the line.
Speaker 3:It's so hot right now oh, what's in your stanley, ashley? What cocktail or mocktail? Are you drinking water? What am I drinking?
Speaker 2:uh, I made you a brown sugar, oat milk, caramel, espresso you just saw it latte I guess it is a latte actually, yeah it's very good thank you very much I started messing around I started messing around with with a thing at work where you can take creamers and you mix them with syrups instead of mixing it into the coffee itself, like the syrup into the coffee itself, because most of the time the syrups dissolve too fast inside the coffee for there to be an actual taste that sits especially for a long period of time. And for me, I suck at drinking a cup of coffee right when it's hot, because obviously boss life.
Speaker 2:I mean drinking a cup of coffee right when it's hot because obviously boss life. I mean we don't even eat hot food. So how am I supposed to eat something that's cold, like drink something hot? So I realized, and I was talking to one of the places I work at Starbucks. So I started talking to one of the baristas there and she was like Ashley, let's put it in the creamer. And I was like, let's put it in the creamer. And then one day we put it inside oatmeal. We put it in, because I obviously don't, I don't do regular creamer, I do oat creamer, oatmeal creamer and we put it inside the creamer and I was like you do know that, like the cold foam and all that stuff at Starbucks is vanilla.
Speaker 3:They're vanilla syrup.
Speaker 2:Thank you, you're welcome. It took me a minute to realize it, but yeah. I'm very aware. Look at, listen. It takes me a lot to realize all the things I just learned how to how to do a lot of things.
Speaker 3:You know what I did just learn? We can't all be pretty and smart. What'd you learn?
Speaker 2:You know what I did? Just learn how to turn my phone on, like your phone has. Did you know that?
Speaker 3:okay, this is gonna boomer me again, okay I'm sure it is and I'm gonna make fun of you I can't wait, but okay, so you know how you can turn your phone on.
Speaker 2:Do not disturb. Yep, okay, did you know? There's actual different modes as well? You have like sleep focus?
Speaker 3:yeah, so with this iPhone, released this like a couple years ago. Uh, and if you would just read your update notifications, it's so genius.
Speaker 2:It's so genius. I have one for when I go to the gym. There's only select few people that can that can their phone calls go through the same thing at the office, which is super nice, like I, I finally get to like chill the snapchat. Like we have a lot of group chat snapchat.
Speaker 2:I'm in a lot of group chat snapchats because you made them some yes, some no, but it's nice to be like hey, for like the next two hours I'm gonna mute this, and so now I have an exercise or work asleep and, uh, I just want to read my damn book you know you.
Speaker 3:You can set up, you can tell Siri to turn them on too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I learned that too. She's having a hard time recognizing my voice, though, because sometimes I get really hyper and really excited, so she sounds like Alexa, please do this, or Siri, please do this. And then other times I'm like, hey, siri, can you set the mood for my dirty erotica book that I'm reading right now? Thank you so much. You look super excited to keep talking to me.
Speaker 3:I was trying to oh, she's talking to me. I was trying to determine if I wanted to have a hiccup or not.
Speaker 2:Hey, do you know what this month is, though? Do you know it's in 14 days, my birthday, though do you know I was in 14 days, my birthday? Um, if you'd like to buy me a birthday present, I like shiny things and I wear a size 10- do you have an amazon wish list? I don't, I should probably do that I have an amazon wish list.
Speaker 2:Really, I do, I should probably do that I should probably an Amazon wish list. Really I do, I should probably do that. I should probably link it. Hi, if you'd like to buy me a birthday present.
Speaker 3:Create an Amazon wish list by next Wednesday or by this Wednesday? Yes, and I'll put it in the episode description box. I love that, but don't be sad when no one other than Chan orders you something off of it. That's very valid rob is showing us his lego, you did that in like record time. Do you know? That thing was 85, I believe it.
Speaker 2:I'm actually surprised that's cheap it floors me how expensive lego got oh, lego's very expensive lego. The plural form of lego is lego well, lego is very expensive yeah, it just blows my mind. It's not legos. Stop it. The plural firm of lego is legos hey you want to talk about our weekend yeah, I really do. All right, let's go all right all right, guys.
Speaker 3:so, as you know, if you followed me and ashley, or if you know anything about the universal orlando resorts, you know they have a whole array of hotels up their sleeves. So for this past weekend, we decided that we were going to do um an event with our friends, so we were supposed to have drunk brother, as you guys all know about, and that got postponed. So we decided that we were going to do an event with our friends, so we were supposed to have drunk brother, as you guys all know about it, and that got postponed. So we decided to go ahead and take the time that we had already requested off from work and enjoy that time with our friends at universal. And then we had some other friends with us and we decided to stay at universal's Aventura hotel have you ever stayed there before, ashley?
Speaker 2:No, this was the last of the Universal Hotels for me to stay at, and I now have stayed at all of them now.
Speaker 3:So this was my second to last. I still have Sapphire Falls, so we've got another trip planned, but we stayed at the Universal Aventura Hotel, which opened in august of 2018, and it was universal's go at a kind of like a futuristic, modern aesthetic resort, and I mean it truly is completely different from anything they have and I feel like, if you look at this from the outside, it looks like a tube it looks like a fidget spinner. If you look at it from the sky, it looks like a giant fidget spinner you're a freak.
Speaker 3:No that's what everyone calls it the fidget spinner hotel. Wow that's sad I mean, that's not what you know what I'm gonna call it what?
Speaker 2:smallest rooms I've ever been in hotel it.
Speaker 3:Those rooms were fairly small which is a small room. So aventura has a 4.5 star on trip advisor, which is nice. Um, do you agree with that? Yes, not for what we ended up doing, just because we had day guests that came to visit us during the day and then, like, we all went to the parks and everything um, this resort, for me, is definitely like it had. So we were in um a standard queen room which had two beds. Um, it was small for four people it was in my opinion.
Speaker 3:I think it's even small for two people I think for two people it would have been a great hotel. I also think that we might have just had an oddly shape, because if you look online they have the rooms are all different shape, right. Um, we got the one that's right off from the elevator bank, which is in the dead center of the resort, um, so we had like a really tight room because we had the elevators behind us and then the ice machine right outside our door, which we didn't hear any of that, which was great, the soundproofing was fantastic, but we were in a very tight space, so our room was very long but it was narrow.
Speaker 2:You know what we, what I did like about the room, though what?
Speaker 3:the view. Yeah, yeah, so um. So this resort um is smaller it is than most of the resorts and it has I believe it's 600 rooms.
Speaker 3:Even I could be off by a couple 601 it might be, um, but they have a couple different versions of their rooms. So they have a standard king room, uh, the standard two queen, which is pretty standard across the universal, which is what we had. Uh. They have hearing and mobility queen rooms that have the two queen beds, uh, and then they have like skyline two queens and then those come in standard and deluxe um, so they've got like skyline rooms, which are the rooms that really really high up. We were on the 10th floor. We were in what was labeled just a regular standard room, unless they changed it after. We checked in and didn't tell me, um, because that's what, but that's what we booked, uh, and we had a great view of, um, the park. Sapphire was directly in front of us and then you could see, um, the two parks.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you could see pretty much all of islands and then a good portion of studios like the yeah, we could see new york side and we could see like the drones, yeah, and stuff during their their new sensational show.
Speaker 2:Um, when we weren't actually watching it in person but we'll get there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was gonna say that's in here um you know what's super weird, though, about this hotel how you function the room, the room tablet. Yeah, I really didn't like, like. Okay, I'm going to preface this, obviously, if you have not listened to Somebody Stole my Phone episode. I am not the most tech-savvy human being in the entire planet. I literally had to Google how to make Facebook posts so like. That was kind of difficult for me to grasp, and I just wish it was an iphone.
Speaker 2:Essentially it's a giant iphone, but I wish there was a version like it's still the regular version I mean you can, you can do that whole place regular, the only thing that you wouldn't have been able to do regular was tv because there wasn't a tv remote.
Speaker 3:You had to use the tablet um but each room so this resort, in my opinion, is it is a family resort. They do have some kid suites there, but for me personally, this is not somewhere I would take my children I would take them to cabana or somewhere else. This is somewhere that I want to go with just adults, um.
Speaker 2:So the room tablet it very much felt like an adult only resort everything.
Speaker 3:Um, you controlled your lighting, your room temperature, tv control room services, chat, your service, which is where you text back and forth to the front desk, and you can do that from your phone, but you can also do it through that tablet, and I thought it was great because I didn't have to leave the bed to turn off all the lights yeah, that was kind of convenient.
Speaker 2:I did kind of like that. And it was also convenient to control the temperature because obviously with four people being in the room, well, jordan just likes to turn everything into an icebox you know, to be honest with you, that is kind of my favorite part about traveling with jordan is the fact that he turns everything into an xbox, because I am that way, like I mean I like it at night, when I'm going to bed, but not when I wake up in the morning and it's so cold that you can see your breath I will see we keep our house here jordan is the reason that hotel air conditioners fail no, jordan is the reason hotel, that hotels have created locks and how far your temperature can go down?
Speaker 3:yeah, that is also very true. Um, we didn't get to use it this time, but they have relay the robot oh yeah, I saw him plugged in.
Speaker 2:That kind of freaked me out a little bit he was hanging out in the lobby.
Speaker 3:A couple times we walked past him you know what that gives me is cura drink robot vibes. Do you know? I'm pretty sure it's the same company. Probably, if you went to the iapa expo, um, you would have been able to see they. There is a company that has all of these robots and I saw the one they use at cura cura and the one that they use at aventura on the same show floor spot.
Speaker 3:Um, but relay, the robot is what the front desk uses to run their errands for them I like so uh, at any of the universal resorts you go to, as well as like almost just about every hotel on the planet, you can go to the front desk and you can ask for shampoo, toothpaste, uh, razors, shaving cream it may not always be complimentary, but they do typically have it all of the universal resorts. Uh, this stuff is complimentary. Now. They don't have like razor blades and shaving cream, but they have like shampoo conditioner uh depending on the type of resort you're at.
Speaker 3:At universal they've got like the q-tips to clean your ears, shower caps some don't, but if you text them at the front desk and you say, hey, I need a toothbrush or toothpaste, they will send relay the robot to your room. And here is the thing that I think is the coolest part. This resort is 17 stories, including including the rooftop bar which we'll get to. This robot can get on and off the elevators without anyone pressing any buttons. It goes up to the elevator.
Speaker 3:The elevator doors open, it gets on. It knows what floor to get off and I'm like that's creepy. My only question is how do you know that it's at your door? Does it have like a little thing that comes out and like knocks on the door?
Speaker 2:I think it hits it oh, just runs into the door yeah goes full-on millennial suicidal I want, or I wonder, if the ipad goes off someone at your door I imagine you, probably your door enter the door, there's a robot.
Speaker 3:I don't think it does that. I think you might get a text message or something, um, but it's. It's the coolest thing I've seen.
Speaker 2:Seen it going around, but I've never actually used it I did really like the fact, though, that we were able to get service quite late, like when we could. When I got with you, I needed an extra blanket.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, some blankets and some pillows and we were able to get everything and it was like what? 11, 12?
Speaker 3:o'clock, yeah which I know um at the the lowes resorts with universal, they usually keep runners um, which are housekeeping staff that run those small amenity items up to the room, I believe until midnight, I think so, and then after that time you typically have to go to the front desk. Uh, if you need something, because the front desk staff do not go to the rooms, I know, I know that's what they do at dockside. After midnight you have to go to the front desk if you want pillows, blankets, towels or anything like that. But our housekeeper, she was super sweet too when I answered the door.
Speaker 2:That was nice. It was. What else did I? Like you know, those beds weren't that uncomfortable either.
Speaker 3:Those were comfortable beds.
Speaker 2:They're not like. I wouldn't say like oh my God, that's the most comfortable bed I've ever stayed in. Royal Pacific, for me, has the most comfortable bed on the entire.
Speaker 3:Universal property. Well, you have-.
Speaker 2:The most uncomfortable bed I've ever been on is Cabana Bays.
Speaker 3:Well, you also have to remember that-.
Speaker 2:But I think that ties with surf sites too. For beds, yeah, I like Dockside's beds better than Surfside.
Speaker 3:I know they're the same bed, but I really like Dockside's more. That's interesting. I know Dockside or Surfside.
Speaker 2:Okay, which one has? Okay, they both have a Starbucks. Which one has?
Speaker 3:the Dockside is the one that has the two individual towers. Surfside is the one that has the two individual towers. Surfside is the one that has two towers, but they're connected to the building.
Speaker 2:You never have to leave the lobby surfside's the one with the, the surfboards in it in the lobby right yes okay, so then, dockside is the one that I like the most, and that's the one that has all the beds.
Speaker 3:That has the beds. So, and to clarify, real quick.
Speaker 2:I always get those two so confused.
Speaker 3:I don't, I don't actually know if this is a thing, but um well, this part I know is a thing. Um Aventura is a prime value resort currently. I think um so right now, um now, this is before Epic opens and the new resorts are opening, so I don't know if all of this will change. But right now, the universal resorts that are managed by the lowes hotel and company.
Speaker 3:They're broken down into four sectors, so you have premier hotels, preferred hotels, prime value and value okay, um and aventura falls in the prime value, where um, surfside and dockside are just value. Next chance yeah, um, do you want to talk?
Speaker 2:about the amenities at the hotel I do because I really liked them, you know, for, for being a smaller size property, this had quite a few of them, so I was pretty impressed.
Speaker 3:Um, they had a pool which was quite massive for the small property, I feel like it was so, comparatively, looking at the other resorts, it was smaller, but again, it's a hotel for 600 rooms. It's not dockside that has 2050 rooms.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like it was pretty decent size, though. It has one hot tub, one pool bar and a walking path to Volcano Bay.
Speaker 3:And it's not even a walking path. I call it a walking gate because I used it to go to vb the day that we did check-in. You literally walk to the back side of the hot tub, you tap your room key to go through a gate, you walk down a set of stairs and then you go through another gate and you are at the security checkpoint at volcano bay oh wow, you are right there oh wow, that's nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I liked it, I really liked it like it's in my opinion.
Speaker 3:I think it's a better value there than it was at cabana, because cabana you've got to walk to the edge of the property, then you have to walk across the streets. This is just straight out the back door of the hotel and you're there.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think the issue that I had with cabana bay, that I don't have with, like, royal pacific, or I don't have with dockside, is that if I'm staying in the tower, that is, everything is in one central location. I go down an elevator and my food is there, my coffee is there for the morning, my, the pool, the hot tub, it's all.
Speaker 2:I don't have to walk that far yeah after I just spent an entire day at a theme park walking to, then going, get some food and then go back to my room, like with cabanaana Bay, when we stayed at Cabana Bay, we stayed in the back. In the tower, in the back of, and not just in a tower, but in the very back tower. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And then all the main stuff, where the bar is, where the food like a couple of the own, I mean the only couple restaurants, the food court, yeah is right there and you're stuck. Okay, now I have to walk all the way there.
Speaker 3:Now see, this is where, like it's a glass half full, glass half full bless a head stroke.
Speaker 2:Are you okay today?
Speaker 3:I like Cabana simply for the fact that it's not a tall resort, it's a spread out resort. The only reason, see, I agree with what you're saying is everything is a far walk, which sucks. But I like the fact that I'm not constantly on top of everyone else that is at that resort, because that resort's only four or five stories tall, but it's spread out like a huge campus.
Speaker 2:See, I just hate that.
Speaker 3:Did you know that that's the largest resort at Universal?
Speaker 2:I did know that. I just hate that, though, because for me I look at it like I. I mean growing up, when we would stay at hotels, we would only obviously stay in the room to sleep, yeah, so once we were in the room I grew up with parents that went once we're in the room, we're not leaving the room until the next morning when we leave the room for the day oh, that's weird but that's how it was.
Speaker 2:So when we would leave, when we go into the room and be like, oh my god, we're hungry, he'd be like, well, you should have figured out food before we walked all the way up here, because I'm not going back yeah, well but it's like so I kind of grew up with that same mindset. So when we got to cabana bay, I was like, yeah, no, I'm not doing this, this sucks. And then when we stayed in aventura this past weekend, I was like, oh, I like this. Everything is in one central location.
Speaker 3:Which I like. I love Cabana and.
Speaker 2:I really love the parking situation with this too. That was great.
Speaker 3:I enjoyed the fact that the parking situation, with us being able to park our car and then immediately getting into an elevator and then being in the hotel lobby that is something that I haven't noticed about any of the other universal resorts is, when you park in the garage at like portofino, you've got to get in an elevator, go up and then walk across the outside. That one like it dropped you directly into the lobby from the parking garage, which was really neat.
Speaker 2:It was so nice especially because we were carrying like I, I don't duffel bag it, I suitcase it when I go on trips even for one night. So that was super nice. Plus we had like groceries and bags and stuff like that. So it's nice to be like boop right there, done nice and simple um, so you were talking, we were just discussing you.
Speaker 3:You liked how everything was right there and centralized, so this is a cool thing and it was also kind of a bottleneck. So the elevators for the resort make up the central column of the resort. This is why I say it looks like a fidget spinner, because you you've got elevators in the middle and you have three wings. There was pink uh-huh what were the other two colors? I think green yellow and purple. I think it was like blue. There's only three so was it purple or blue I think it was purple, and green I
Speaker 3:think something like that anyways, we were in the pink hall, that's all I knew, that's all I cared to remember. But that means that when you get to the center of the resort. There are six elevators for the entire resort yep and starting at, I believe, 4 pm or maybe it was 7 pm. No, I think it was five one one of those elevators then becomes the express elevator that goes between the lobby and the top floor bar. Only it doesn't.
Speaker 3:So then you're down to five elevators, and for the most part we really didn't have that big of an issue on the elevator, but there was maybe two or three times where it was like packed on an awkward elevator and I've heard stories of elevator entrapments there where when they go to get everyone off, there's like 13 to 16 people coming off of an elevator and I'm just like why, would you do that?
Speaker 2:um, I do really like the concept, though, that they have that express elevator for people especially like for me I love, I really enjoy resort hopping. So I don't want to like. I feel like if I get on a resort elevator, especially with a gimmicky restaurant concept being on the roof, I want to go from there straight up. I don't want to feel like I'm in anybody's way, I just want to go. I want to sit, have a cocktail.
Speaker 2:Be done with my day yeah so like I enjoy the fact that they thought, hey, let's do this.
Speaker 3:So, speaking of that, why don't we just go ahead and jump into the food and drinking situation? So Bar 17 is the bar that is on the top floor of the Aventura Hotel. Correct, it is a. Obviously, like I said four times, it is a rooftop bar and Universal markets. This as you have views of all three parks, but technically you have views of all four parks. You can now see Epic Universe, even though it's not open yet. You have views of iDrive, yeah, idrive. You can see Disney, you can see the Epcot Ball.
Speaker 2:You can see Space Mountain and the Hollywood Tower of Terror Hotel.
Speaker 3:Yep. And then you get to see fireworks and drone viewage every night because you've got fireworks at universal. You have them at the disney parks um fourth of july. We were literally there on july. What fifth, fifth? So there was still fireworks going on across town, so we were able to see all those things which is super cool sea world's little fire pop-offs little fire pop-off well, yeah, because it's not like a fire work ignite.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they have a big show they just yeah, but they don't do fireworks. It's like fire and stuff like that. No, it's only like a couple.
Speaker 3:It's a cheap. It's a cheap version of what universal does rip. Well, I mean, they have the animals to think about they do.
Speaker 2:They also have some custom craft cocktails, um which each one was named something crazy. They have urban international flavors with a salad, a bar 17 burger bim pop this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, hold on it's. Oh God, I can't even say it now, I had to pronounce it earlier. Oh God, I can't even say it now, I had to pronounce it earlier Bibimop, bibimpop, which is jasmine rice, infused soy sauce, shredded carrots, cabbage, spinach, mushrooms, kimchi and a fried egg. They also have more heartier options like braised short ribs, crispy pork, belly, panko shrimp, so they've got actual food that you can order up there as well. That comes up.
Speaker 2:But their kitchen does close at 10 o'clock, so be, prepared be a fair one for that. So if you're looking for a late night bite, this is probably not the place you're going to grab that at.
Speaker 3:Now I had, I'll let you talk about your drink in a minute because it's not as cool as mine. No, I got one of the specialty crafted cocktails which was called the 360 views, and I got it specifically because I was like it's a 360 view above the bar, so I'm going to get this. But it was Patron, silver tequila, blue carousel, lemon juice and simple syrup.
Speaker 2:And I had a glass of Sevillon Blanc. Yeah, I'm the most basic white girl. All of a sudden it's great.
Speaker 3:My drink was only $15, though, which was not bad.
Speaker 2:You know what you forgot to say that this resort has? They have a Starbucks.
Speaker 3:Oh no, I was going to get to that, but I just figured we would go directly into the bar, since we were talking about the bar, and then we would go back to starbucks. So, like like all universal resorts, um, they have a starbucks bar, starbucks bar, they have a starbucks um. One thing that I have yet to mention, though, is did you ever notice that, when we went to um royal pacific, they don't actually have a full starbucks?
Speaker 3:no, it's a starbucks affiliate in the tuk-tuk market they just have a powered by starbucks. They do have the starbucks drinks.
Speaker 2:Um, it's a little more limited there, but this one was a full size starbucks in the main lobby I was able to get my brown sugar shaken oatmeal espresso. My was delightful.
Speaker 3:I got my peppermint iced white mocha with oat milk and no whipped cream I can't do peppermint, unless it is christmas. I love peppermint 24-7, baby.
Speaker 3:I got it twice I had it the two because we stayed two nights, three days, so I got Starbucks twice and I was glad because when you go to Starbucks that are not like official, like actual Starbucksbucks stores, corporate stores, thank you, um, you're welcome. It can sometimes be hit or miss on if the drink tastes right, um, but all you baby green bean baristas out at um aventura hotel, you all get a hats off, tip off. I tipped y'all real well because y'all made some real good drinks that taste. They're real tasty, real tasty, real tasty.
Speaker 2:Ashley's attention has been brought to the television no, I'm sorry, it's going to start making noises and I don't want that to happen turn it off, just hit the power button no, because I like the little photo slideshow.
Speaker 3:That happens so we're trying on them um.
Speaker 2:I learned how to do that but you know what my favorite food selection place that they had is.
Speaker 3:You're not allowed to talk about the wok. That one is mine. I'm claiming it right now. I loved it.
Speaker 2:I'm going to. We need to find out if there's enough room in the podcast budget for a bale, because I'm going to murder you.
Speaker 3:Well, talk about the Urban Pantry. Start there, because it's a part of the Urban Pantry. God, you're the worst.
Speaker 2:So Aventura, because it's a part of the urban pantry. God, you're the worst. Um, so aventura has my favorite food concept ever, which is like it gives me cafeteria, vibes, food hall, food hall, thank you, and that is.
Speaker 3:That is that is a popping concept. The food truck parks and the food halls.
Speaker 2:I love it so much because, as somebody who is so indecisive on what I want, this is great because I can. I can girl dinner, a girl dinner, and if you know a girl dinner, you can do this and I did that.
Speaker 3:You did girl dinner, the thing that I like most about the urban pantry is a lot of places that you go to that have a food court style setup. It is pizza, it is chicken tenders burgers very basic uh, and they had that there, but they did it in a way that it was high-end and elegant food, like the burger that they had was a nice fancy burger. Um, they had chicken sandwiches. They had the great beyond which was a vegetarian burger um. They have options for breakfast, lunch that rotisserie chicken salmon thingy so they had.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's a road. I got it here rotisserie, chicken, salmon or steak dinners they also have wings, salads and wraps.
Speaker 2:They have an entire dedicated kids menu.
Speaker 3:They also have the breakfast, when it was like a full breakfast pancakes, belgian waffles, bacon eggs biscuits, and the biscuits and gravy were made with a chicken sausage which is so great for people like me that don't eat beef I will tell you right now, though.
Speaker 3:Um, I was so excited for it, it tasted okay, but um, it was not my grandmother's biscuit and gravy. Let me tell you and I won't even tell you about the issue I had trying to uber eats or door dash some biscuits and gravy that I the other day. That's a whole another upset I was.
Speaker 2:I just I really want some southern biscuits and gravy y'all but you know, it really was a definition of getting girl dinner, because I was able to get what I wanted and go. Oh, I'm seeing pictures of onion rings and seeing pictures of french fries. I'm seeing pictures of chicken tenders.
Speaker 3:Let me just like pop over, because you ended up getting wok and onion rings. Yeah, what the?
Speaker 3:the most odd combination for dinner, but it was now for me the restaurant that I got my lunch at, which was a part of the urban pantry. It was one of their stations is the walk station and I have been wanting to try to eat at this restaurant since I've have known about. I've visited that restaurant a couple times like a resort hopping, but I've never eaten there because it's resort food and I don't want to pay resort food prices on a I'm poor budget. Um, but with our food and beverage discount that we were getting with our stay, because we're fancy like that, we, it was $18 for the walk and you got to walk over and everything is packaged individually or in large containers so you get to choose your vegetables.
Speaker 3:You can choose up to four, uh, and they have broccoli, cabbage, onions, mushrooms, peppers, and I know they had more than that, but that's all that we can remember. Uh, and I remember I got like broccoli, cabbage, onion and something else. I know they have others, but, oh, carrots, I got carrots and you choose your base, which is either a lo mein, a rice noodle or sushi rice. I got a lo mein. They asked if you want sesame seeds. I said no, I'm not a big sesame seed person.
Speaker 2:They get stuck in my teeth, so I'm not a fan.
Speaker 3:And then you get to choose a protein.
Speaker 5:And their options are steak chicken, shrimp or tofu. What did you?
Speaker 3:pick chicken and then you choose your style. If you want stir fry or broth, and in stir fry they have teriyaki or orange sweet and sour which I've never heard of orange sweet and sour before I got teriyaki or you can choose the broth, which is a roasted chicken broth or a veggie broth. When I tell you, oh, my god, how freaking good that was, I have dreams about it and it was one of those. Like it was almost. Is it al dente when noodles are not mushy? I think so. That's. That's how this was like. You could tell I was eating fresh, non-frozen ingredients. You could tell that it was handmade right in front of you. It wasn't overcooked, it wasn't undercooked. It had the perfect texture and consistency. Absolutely delicious flavor. I don't think I've ever eaten that much in one setting.
Speaker 2:It was so good I didn't want to stop.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was. Just it was orgasmic. I'm going to say that right now. It was orgasmic. Did you know that they had sushi, though? Did you see that while?
Speaker 2:you were there, I did. Do you want?
Speaker 2:to go over the sushi types that they have yeah they also offer a vegetarian walk and a kid's walk bowl yeah, so the sushi options they had were california, philadelphia, spicy tuna and veggie. It was nice to see that they are now giving so many different dietary options for people who are vegan, vegetarian um gluten-free. There was nice to see that there was. It was clearly labeled. It was also not just like oh, you can only eat the beyond burger, here you go, that's it. There was like a vegan or there was a vegan pizza option.
Speaker 2:There was a pizza food makes money yeah, but it was, it was nice to like do that, because I remember like going to royal pacific a couple years ago and it not being that way. My joy also wasn't eating as restricted as I am now, but like it was still nice to see that if I wanted to, I could well, a lot of times in the past, you know, before I I am gonna say this the fads yeah of people eating healthy and eating differently and eating gluten-free and vegan.
Speaker 3:There was, I remember, as a teenager you had to specifically request a gluten-free menu and it usually was a completely separate menu that a server would bring over to the table and it was half a page well, and it wasn't a server that would bring it to you, because I got diagnosed with celiac disease.
Speaker 2:I used to get a server all the time see I, it was always the chef or the manager would bring it over.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, no, that never happened back in the day in my hometown. It was just. It was just do you want a gluten-free? It was can I get a gluten-free menu? And they would walk it over to you.
Speaker 2:It was not that big of a deal back then, but now it's a massive there's, there's food for everybody to eat, of all natures and styles and it was also super easy to do that, like with, with the walk when I got, when I was like, hey, I don't eat meat.
Speaker 3:They're like okay, no problem, here's your options do you know one of the cool things that I've heard about recently?
Speaker 2:Tell me.
Speaker 3:I don't know if this is true.
Speaker 3:I need to, like ask some sources, but I've heard that if you reach out early enough, when you're coming to Universal or the resorts, you can get in contact with the food and beverage team for where you're going and where you're staying and they can almost always accommodate you. If you're kosher, they will take extra steps ahead of time to ensure they have the utensils needed and the materials and the space needed to be able to make kosher meals for the guest, if they are notified with enough advance notice. Yep, which is totally awesome. I don't. I've never heard of a theme park or just anywhere really taking that much effort to say hey, if you reach out and let us know, we will do this for you.
Speaker 2:I knew. I knew that Disney did similar stuff to that because, like I said, when I got diagnosed with celiac disease, when we would go on family trips to Disney world, my dad was one of those people that would like. When he would call the Disney dining hotline and he'd go hey, I want to stay, I want to eat here, here and here. They'd be like, oh, do you have any allergies in the party? And he'd be like, oh, my daughter has celiac disease. And then we would get there and they'd be like oh, which one of you has a gluten allergy?
Speaker 3:Which one of y'all is special?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then, like I remember, there's a pizza restaurant in italy and at epcot, I have to take you to this place. It's freaking phenomenal, but they have gluten-free bread. And I remember crying at this table because my entire family every single time you'd go to an italian restaurant, everybody get to eat bread and I just got to sit there and look like a doof while everybody was chowing on bread and then she was like we have gluten you need to to Disney. I do.
Speaker 3:Every story you've told today is about Disney. We're supposed to be talking about Aventura Heifer.
Speaker 2:We have a minute to Disney in a minute. I kind of miss it. Hey, do you want?
Speaker 3:to speaking of specialties. Do you want to talk about the pizzas?
Speaker 2:I do, because those look pretty good. So they had a couple different options for that. They had a cheese, the um, meat lovers, pepperoni, barbecue chicken and uh kids pizzas, which?
Speaker 3:and then they also had the gluten-free crust as an option as well, which is super cool. Yeah, so you could get literally every one of those pizzas correct, which was super neat because they're made right there, like they're made fresh, yes, and then they get put into a brick oven with a fire, fire well, and I think the biggest thing if you do, or if you are gluten sensitive or you are going down that path.
Speaker 2:I know know a lot of people are like, oh, I'm getting a frozen gluten free crust. No, you are not. She was like. That lady was like no, you get it.
Speaker 3:Oh, I know it was all fresh. Yeah, it was great there's also gelato.
Speaker 2:Why didn't you let me get gelato, so that?
Speaker 3:was actually one thing I did want to discuss, so oh, let's discuss it.
Speaker 3:They had a dessert station right beside the pizza, yep, but it was empty, yeah. So if you look on their website, the menu states a price for single scoop and double scoop and pint of gelato. But they had, in the case, six tubs of gelato that were pint sizes and that's all they had. So I don't know if you told them what you wanted and then they could give you a one scoop, two scoop, or if they were only selling off the pints, but it was kind of sad to see that, because it was like it just made it look empty and it was the only thing that faced half of the seating area, so you just got to stare at this empty do you know what I was anticipating?
Speaker 2:What that it was going to look like? The one at Portofino. Do you remember that gelato bar set up?
Speaker 3:Where.
Speaker 2:The one at Portofino.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, no, no, it's not going to be that.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 3:Because Portofino B.
Speaker 2:But you know what I was really surprised of Out of all the things that were there inside? Really surprised of out of all the things that were there inside, because this is located in the lobby there was a lot of seating.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there was seating everywhere and that big massive table that we sat at.
Speaker 2:Obviously there was a whole bunch of us and we'll get to that shortly but like it was nice that we could all sit together facing each other and not have to worry about like, oh, we're taking up a table for a bigger party. There were so many large table areas for other people to sit in.
Speaker 3:It was so nice yeah, and I don't know if we just went at a time that it wasn't super busy, but like we were never crowded when we were down in those spaces. I never waited to order food. I never waited in a single line. Two people in front of me in starbucks was all I ever waited it was nice um, but yeah, so they also in that. On that ground lobby area is where they have the pool uh-huh they have a kids splash zone.
Speaker 3:That was on the back side. I didn't go over to that side, but they also looked like they had pool tables and then they had, like their arcade, like all the resorts have, but it was outside yeah, that was neat, it was under that big awning area.
Speaker 2:I loved where we sat while everybody was swimming. We'll get to that. Oh sorry. I'm getting too excited. Yeah, I want to go back and sit there.
Speaker 3:They do have a fitness center there. It's on the second floor, which we didn't ever went to. They had a Universal Studios store, like they have at all the resorts. Yes, the parking there is a little more expensive, so the parking depends on what value level of resort you're staying at. So we were at a preferred uh, what a preferred, that preferred value yes um, so the parking is 23 plus tax per night.
Speaker 3:If you're parking a vehicle, uh, or pay by the hour. If you have day guests that just want to come or go, uh, and then they also. They. Obviously they had the bus and walking path transportation to get you to and from universal studios. But if you're smart like us, we walk next door to sapphire falls and then we take the spiral staircase down to ground level and then we get on the water taxi and we skip the secure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, take the boat, so much easier plus, I feel like we got in and out fast. Security was super simple because nobody was there. Even you're going, you're going through security at the resort, not at city walk.
Speaker 3:yeah, it was great Like we got in and out fast. Security was super simple because nobody was there Even on Saturday. You're going through security at the resort, not at CityWalk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was great. 10 out of 10 would recommend.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that is Aventura. Yeah, I will say actually one more thing before I move on to our actual weekend. I kept hearing, when I checked in first and waited on you guys, and I kept hearing this noise. Checked in first and waited on you guys, um, and I kept hearing this noise and it was the middle of the day and I kept hearing these explosions and I was like who is shooting off fireworks in the middle of the day and they're so random and they're like five minutes apart here and five minutes apart there. So then I like went and I stood at the window when I heard one and I just watched and I watched. So this is a very tall resort, 17 stories uh, the windows. It's a very shiny resort. Birds it was birds flying into the windows attacking their reflection.
Speaker 3:Yep, like they were like kamikaze pilot just into the window and um, once I realized what it was, though, I my I realized that my brain tuned it out. Um, just like you know, you live next to a railroad tracks. You tune out train horns because you get used to them. Once I knew what the sound was, I didn't notice it anymore, but yeah, that was funny. So let's talk about our actual weekend and what we did at Aventura and Universal.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God, that was such a long day.
Speaker 3:Do you want to kick us off with?
Speaker 2:how long we had to wait for you. Oh, you want to start on friday?
Speaker 3:well, yeah okay, okay.
Speaker 3:Well, you have to start first, because you checked in first so I went early that morning and checked in and picked up my room key, yeah, um. And then I went to work because I needed to work that day and I was like, hey, when you guys get there, like we're already checked in, just go by the front desk, show your photo ID, because any person over the age of 21, once the official reservation has been checked in by the primary guest you well, actually anybody that is on the reservation, if your name is on the reservation, you can check it in. You do have to put a card on file. So I put my card on file.
Speaker 3:By the time I got off work, none of you were at the resort, no, and jordan told me he was going to pick you up and you guys were all going to be here, um, but when I got off you were still at home, correct? They were at the parks, yep, um. So then we finally came and picked you up and we laid on your couch for an hour and a half while you continue to get ready 45 minutes.
Speaker 3:You had to continue to get ready to go literally a mile down the road 45 minutes.
Speaker 2:Well, I Okay. So when Drunk Brother got canceled, obviously our plans got fixed and turned around. So I was like okay, let me utilize this day and clean up our house.
Speaker 3:Because you're nasty.
Speaker 2:No, I'm a clean human being. Thank you, you're nasty.
Speaker 3:Look at your floors. They're so dirty. Everyone no one can see this, but guys. There's a black rolling cart that we use to put our podcast stuff on her floor. It's so dirty in here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's a tampon over there somewhere because it's Bruce's cat toy. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Oh, but cat toy yeah, oh oh. But before we went to get you went to public's um I, so I got back to the.
Speaker 2:I took a shower because I was stanky and sweaty. See you talk about dirty you'd be dirty.
Speaker 3:And then I went and got some hue magoos I love him a goose what'd you get? Uh, three piece, oh three piece. Some fries, a piece of toast I like the, the magoos wrap, and let me tell you that Magoos hit the spot. You've got to get the chili sauce For those of you who do not know what Huey Magoos is.
Speaker 2:It's Raising Cane's.
Speaker 3:It is well. Where I'm from, we also don't have a Raising Cane's it is Zaxby's, but it is so much better than anything Zaxby's thinks that it is. I've never had Zaxby's. Imagine the off-brand Humigoos.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think so I don't need to know it's not good.
Speaker 3:Their Humigoos sauce is very thin and watery. Ew yeah.
Speaker 2:Did you see? You can buy Zaxby's sauce now at Walmart.
Speaker 3:That's gross. But after we did that, we ran by the Publix Me. But, uh, after we did that, we ran by the publics uh, me, jordan and Jonathan cause we wanted to grab some food and snack foods. That way we didn't have to buy resort food and theme park food all weekend, cause that can get expensive.
Speaker 2:It is expensive.
Speaker 3:So we grabbed stuff to make sandwiches and mixers for drinks because, uh, you know, we, we knew we were going to buy a couple of cocktails.
Speaker 2:We were all over 21 and brought our own alcohol to the hotel.
Speaker 3:We wanted to not have to spend a thousand dollars.
Speaker 2:We wanted to do our country proud.
Speaker 3:That's legal right. We can do that. Yeah, you can. So we did that.
Speaker 2:I was like am I committing a crime no. I think if you can take alcohol on a cruise, you can take alcohol to a hotel.
Speaker 3:That's how I look at it. So, uh, we, finally we. We came by, we picked you up, we made it back to the hotel after you.
Speaker 2:And then what did you screamed at me that I was running late because you were.
Speaker 3:You were knocking us behind schedule, but what did we do when we finally got on schedule? Ashley?
Speaker 2:we went back to the hotel look at your note. It's right there no, I know what we did. What did we do? We went back to the hotel yeah, wait, wait, we have to go back went back to the hotel and jordan goes, or you went oh my god, we can see the new show from our hotel, we don't even have to leave and I was like I'm not gonna pay attention to this. You're like why? I was like because I haven't seen it yet. You're like wait, what, what?
Speaker 3:new show Ashley.
Speaker 2:The new cinematic.
Speaker 3:Cinesational.
Speaker 2:Why do I keep saying cinematic. Because that's the old one. Maybe, Cinematic spectacular, yeah Sensational.
Speaker 3:A symphonic spectacular. Symphonic spectacular, there you go yeah.
Speaker 2:So this is Universal Studios' new water, show it's water.
Speaker 3:Lagoon. It's called the Lagoon.
Speaker 2:Show it's water.
Speaker 3:Water jets.
Speaker 2:Water jets lasers, droids. Were there lasers.
Speaker 3:Droids, honey, it's water jets, pyrotechnics, projection mapping drones and drones yeah, exactly you called them droids I, these aren't the droids you're looking for.
Speaker 2:Um, I've been watching star wars with rob. Can you tell, yes, um I, uh, it was great. It was great, it was. You know. You know what I've always loved about park shows, regardless if it's sea world or disney what or universal.
Speaker 2:I love that after a long day, it wraps up my day. If it is good, it's like oh yeah, I did go see a princess. Oh my god, I did fight with optimus prime and I was a freedom fighter. Oh my god, I did save a dolphin, like I want a dolphin yeah, as part of you ignite, it's part of like, like it's one of those things where I feel like I don't want to say like you, just get warm and do you know?
Speaker 3:do you know why I think you get that feeling? Because I'm a freak because of the music that these shows use.
Speaker 3:So CineSational is a journey through the music of all of these movies that we've come to love and adore, and I think that Universal bar none. I think that this is the in my opinion, and I know you're going to disagree with me. I think that this is the in my opinion, and I know you're gonna disagree with me. I think that this is the best show like that that any theme park has ever done in my book. I know you like disney.
Speaker 2:We digress it's, it's not the fact that I like disney hea. For those that do not know happily ever after holds a place we'll keep it short because you like to talk about Disney today. I don't know why Happily Ever After holds a very special place to me. It holds a lot of memories, so I think that's why my love for that is so intense. But this was just like oh, this was so good.
Speaker 3:Well, we're going to talk about this one for a minute. I had some teary eyed moments. This show contains scenes oh my God, minute, so teary-eyed moments. This show contains scenes oh my god, you can hear it. Yeah, you can. It's actually going right now, correct? Um, it contains scenes from how to train your dragon, shreks, trolls, minions, fast and the furious.
Speaker 3:Harry potter, jurassic parks, the classic monsters, transformers transformers et it's got everything back to the future, and it's all on that water projection like universal had several years ago. But then we stepped it up a notch because this year we brought in, we brought in projection mapping yes, oh, that was so cool, disney uses projection mapping but let me tell you something universal.
Speaker 3:Really took some time to nail this because when you're standing. You're standing in central park, so you are standing in front of cafe la bomba um or the nbc testing studio, correct? If you're familiar with the park is?
Speaker 2:if you are looking at transformers and you go across the laguna, that's right there, that's where it's done, but not in front of transformers. No, no, but like central park, correct?
Speaker 3:so you're standing there and behind you, behind this excuse me show, is the corner of new york. Yep um, you can see the transformers building, but it's not lit for this show no you can see the building that the starbucks is in, the building that fast and the furious is in the jurid jurideli tower.
Speaker 3:Girardelli, I call it jurideli jesus christ and they have projection mapped onto all of these buildings. And when I tell you how well they projected into each individual window, oh my god, it's so good. It was so, but at one point, when the minions come out, and the. The show breaks down and the minions are trying to fix it. You can see minions working inside the windows of all these individual buildings and the windows match the windows that are already there. Yeah, that's the point of projection mapping. I need you to get out.
Speaker 2:It's so good, like it's so good, there's not a glitch, it's not off screen, it is perfectly done so well. And then my favorite part that was just for me, it was like, oh my God, this is so cool Because obviously I live incredibly close to this park, so when this was being worked on, you could see some stuff were happening up in the sky.
Speaker 3:We never saw the drones. I saw them once at like two o'clock in the morning when I left work.
Speaker 2:You couldn't see what they were, but you could see red.
Speaker 3:And you could see. You could see lights.
Speaker 2:You could see the spotlights moving correct, but I could never see like, like. Obviously now I know like the transformer sign changes, so you can see that I couldn't see that from where we live.
Speaker 3:However, that to me was the coolest part about this entire the drones yeah, so the thing that I love most about that was when you're in a scene of how to train your dragon and you're watching, the lights are going off and the projections on the water and then suddenly out of nowhere toothless a huge dragon which is toothless appears in the sky and he flaps its wings yeah, that was the.
Speaker 3:I've never seen drones move that quickly in a drone show ever, and it was so cool to see the to see toothless flying through the sky flapping his wings, droids.
Speaker 2:They just know what they're doing those droids.
Speaker 3:Universal is gonna send us a cease and desist or disney I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it. I mean to me. You know what else was really cool when they were showing the scene of the best friend scene and it went from shrek and donkey to et and and toothless.
Speaker 3:No, et and the, the, the child in et I don't know when they they do the finger they touch fingers, they touch tips this is why we're getting a season this is they touch tips and then things light up but like it was so flawlessly changed, you did not miss a beat there, like.
Speaker 2:And then it was like et happens the toothless and I. I've never seen how to change your dragon so I can't really talk. I don't know the care, I know toothless, but I don't know his name, but it's not.
Speaker 3:I can't remember right now.
Speaker 2:It was like that happened so flawlessly and then they do the, the, of course, the love scenes that happened. So it was like shrek and fiona happened and then the two characters and how to train your dragon happened, and then the coolest thing happened when they did the monsters.
Speaker 3:I got chills the homage to the classic month I got it was it is universal is coming in clutch, they're ready.
Speaker 2:Classic monsters they're ready, I think once they announced that Dark Universe was a thing, universal got hungry. They went I'm here, we are ready, we are showing up to play. Get used to it, because it's time for these guys to finally, for the first time in their entire lives, not just be represented on a television screen but life on stage.
Speaker 3:Ready to go I yeah, I think it's great. I think that universal in the last couple of years with their classic monster houses at hhn, with dark universe and dark more, and now the lagoon show. I think that they have continued to put these characters that have given them their start really in a spotlight and let them shine time and you know jaws was in there oh, that was so cool.
Speaker 3:The giant, the giant shark projection or not projection drone shark that looks like he's coming at you in the sky. You know what else is really?
Speaker 2:neat to see the back to the future situation, and I am the least Back to the Future fan ever.
Speaker 3:Maybe that's what we'll watch tonight.
Speaker 2:No, I gotta watch Ghostbusters, kiddo. But like that to me was so cool the fact that that the DeLorean went from the left side of the lagoon.
Speaker 3:Shot all the way across the lagoon on the water springs.
Speaker 2:Speaking of Ghostbusters when they had the scene with the puff on the water. Speaking of ghostbusters when they had the the scene with the puff um the stay puff marshmallow marshmallow man and he's like the droids made him. It was so cool drones sorry, it's never gonna happen, so just get used to it now. Kids it was great, I loved that and it was. You know, I think my favorite part about it is it was just so warm and fuzzy. I got done and I was like okay why is this park closed?
Speaker 2:I want to go fight dragons and hang on monsters.
Speaker 3:Hey, I just want to say real quick, I want to shout out. I do not know who he was, I never caught his name. But I want to shout out to a Universal team member. So, I wanted to be up high for the show because we were getting there like 15 minutes before showtime, so I knew.
Speaker 2:Hey, please don't do that, it was going to be crowded.
Speaker 3:Well, we had other plans. I knew it was going to be crowded, I knew it was going to be hard to get a good spot, so I said, hey, let's go up top. Well, we got up top and I realized that obviously this is their accessibility viewing area. Can you stop doing that, cause you're making a lot of noise I'm not making any noise. You're popping your pop socket.
Speaker 2:Oh, I can't even hear it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can. I'm not wearing noise canceling headphones, you are? So, I could. So we went up there and I realized very quickly. I was like oh, this is not an open as space as we thought it was. So we stood off to the side of it and they had like a little stanchion put up to where this is viewing for people in wheelchairs or people that needed additional assistance. Well, a few minutes after the show started, we got stuck behind a woman who wanted to facebook live the whole event.
Speaker 3:So she has her phone up in her face it was right and we're trying to look around her to see she, her, her phone is dead center on the lagoon show, um, and about two or three minutes into the show, um, this couple decided they no longer wanted to see the show. So the attendant helped them back their wheelchair up and exit. And then he walked over and I, he could see, like me and you were like trying to look around this woman, and he knew at that point no one was going to come fill that space in a wheelchair because they had closed off accessibility entrance. So he pulled the stanchion over to the next person that was in a wheelchair and then reached over to us and said hey, if you guys want to, you can fill in this space, which was where that wheelchair used to be.
Speaker 3:We got the best view and then we had an unobstructed view of the show so thank you, you so much because, out of that group, I was the only person that had seen the show before you. Jordan and Jonathan, this was the first time you guys were getting to see the show.
Speaker 2:It was so great that to me was it literally felt like the definition of universal. To be honest with you, I very much felt like I was fighting alongside the Ghostbusters. I was riding in the DeLorean fighting alongside the Ghostbusters. I was riding in the DeLorean.
Speaker 3:You were going to get eaten by a dinosaur.
Speaker 2:I was eaten by Jaws. I helped the Minions bring the show back to life. It was so cool. I can't wait to watch it again. I feel like every single time I'm going to watch it, I'm going to see something new.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, what did we do, Ashley? I?
Speaker 3:got hungry? No, we didn't. We weren't hungry afterwards.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wanted to. We wanted to go back to the, to the hotel.
Speaker 3:Did you forget what you forgot what we did?
Speaker 2:Oh my God, I forgot what we did.
Speaker 3:We hauled it into sixth year.
Speaker 3:So Universal closes at nine o'clock, with the show starting at nine o'clock yep but islands of adventure is open until 10. Now that show runs for 20 minutes, so it was 9, 20 yep. So we put it in fifth gear and ran over to islands of adventure and all these people are staring at us like we're weird, because there's thousands of people leaving the park and we are running to get to the back because we wanted a night ride on what ashley, haggie hagrid's magical creature, butterbuck adventure I'm glad you know what it is, yeah trademark yeah longest name of any ride on the planet longest wait of
Speaker 2:any ride on the planet well, actually it was.
Speaker 3:So we got in about what 9, 40 something around there, and it was labeled a 100 minute wait. Yep, we got on in 60 minutes, yep, so we, we did wait an hour, so we were there an hour after park closed. Uh, there was a lot of people in line behind us, which confuses me, because when we got off of the ride the line was gone and I'm like they only run four trains, so I don't know where that line went.
Speaker 2:They get everybody out.
Speaker 3:Do you want?
Speaker 2:to tell them what you did to me on that ride.
Speaker 3:I made you ride in the bike so I could ride in the sidecar Because I had my phone and my wallet in my pockets and I didn't want to ride on the motorcycle because I didn't want to lose them. Baby. And I like the bike. For some odd reason the bike makes me motion sick, but the sidecar does not I just don't the bike to me.
Speaker 2:I'm a very hip, I'm a very hip, hip.
Speaker 3:Wide girly I got, she got them birthing hips can't have one, but I sure, sure have them.
Speaker 2:So when I get on the bike I feel like I'm very locked into that spot. Does that make sense? Like where you're sitting in, that you don't really it's not like you don't really straddle that thing. So it's very much like I feel like I'm, I'm, I'm in there, where the the basket kind of gives me a lot more like hip wiggle space, like when you, you turn you don't need to wiggle you good, you just hold on for your life. I do need to wiggle.
Speaker 3:I need to be able to like breathe can we take a moment, though, to discuss why, at 10 pm, it was so ungodly?
Speaker 2:hot, oh my god, I was sweating and it did not help. So haggard's q. Okay, I love haggard's. If you've never done it, I highly recommend it. It's very.
Speaker 2:Claustrophobic, but it's very pretty. I think it is a very beautiful Q Like. Out of all the Harry Potter outdoor attractions it is a very or. Out of all the Harry Potter Q attractions, that and Forbidden are one of my two favorites. Let me be Julia for a moment and say it's only that pretty because it's the dueling dragons cue. Uh, redone as okay, julia, listen, I I never did dragons, I know. However, I'm a big harry potter nerd. We all know this massive fan. 10 out of 10 would. We'll watch them again. So this is cool for me. I think this is fantastic. Even if you are not a har Harry Potter fan, it is a beautiful cue. However, two things I hate about this cue you ready. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:The second scene, the second showroom, so you walk in to.
Speaker 3:I want to say it's the the castle. Yeah, it's just the castle, the back part of it, right?
Speaker 2:So you walk into it and you get to what should have been a pre-show that closed on this pre-show stupid. Then you go past a fireplace and then you go into the gardening room that I call it the greenery oh, the egg room, the eggs correct because they put these lights on there, which are very beautiful, impressive, I think, glorious.
Speaker 3:Well done you're talking about the windows that make it look like it's outside. It feels, like I'm outside. It makes it look like it's daytime outside.
Speaker 2:Correct. But it also makes it warm, so I start to get a little bit-. I don't necessarily know if it's the lights or the fact that there's just no AC in that area. I don't know, but it just makes me uncomfortable.
Speaker 3:Then the worst part comes up.
Speaker 2:Next, when you go through the tunnels, the underground. Oh my god, I feel so claustrophobic. Do you know what I like to?
Speaker 3:call that huh the toxic tunnel. You know why?
Speaker 2:because if somebody farts, you're eating it.
Speaker 3:Yep, there's no escape, like if we all were to die like if there was a fire, we'd all die yeah, it is a very claustrophobic area, but I was just grateful to be in air conditioning because half of haggie's wait time is outside oh my god.
Speaker 3:And then the last half is inside it was, so did you ever have the opportunity to ride that attraction when the pre-show still existed I did so did I, and I miss it and I wish I don't. I don't understand why they don't do it anymore, because I'm like if the line's gonna move this slow, why not? Does it. Are you really holding anything up by doing the pre-show?
Speaker 2:no, does it plus to me? I feel like you miss out on the concept of what the ride is yeah, because you're going to take a magical creatures class with hagrid right and that explained. You could explain that in the pre-show yeah it was like when you rode um, uh, the bank of green gods during covid I don't know if you ever did that we were going to the park all throughout covid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was one of those people, but it was so dead, so it was great but they didn't have the pre-show no, they did nothing, so that was super trippy when you're like you leave the elevator and they would just keep the elevator doors open so instead of going down to the bank of green god you just walked through, you just walk straight through.
Speaker 2:And then you would walk straight through that room into the next one, into the net, like you're just passing where the, where, um, um, the brother talks, and you're just like, yep, nope, we're just gonna keep it. And I was like this kind Like thank God I had done it beforehand. But I can't imagine if that was like somebody's first trip to Universal and they go. I'm kind of getting super confused.
Speaker 2:But yeah no, it was a thing, but you know, I really miss that. I really, really, really miss the. I'm going to need you to stop making so much noise over there. I really I need you to stop making so much noise over there. I really I need them to bring that pre-show back, but it was so hot.
Speaker 3:Universal, please put some more fans in Hagrid's queue, yeah so after we did that, then we went back to the hotel and we made sandwiches we did and had snackies and took a nap until the following day no, the other one.
Speaker 2:Ashleyley, leave him alone I know the other focus. He doesn't want one of those. Where are they rude?
Speaker 3:edit no, I'm leaving that in that's valid ashley's angry because she wanted a snack from her roommate and her roommate told her no drumsticks. That bullies me.
Speaker 2:Oh, they're at the grand finale yeah, they are 21, 9, 21 now we were hungry I got snacky I wanted girl dinner. I wanted a caesar salad, garlic, parm fries and a glass of wine, and that did not happen oh yeah, because we went up to the bar.
Speaker 3:That's when we went to the bar, uh yeah, and they were like, yeah, no food, so so I drank my girl dinner yeah, we all got a drink and then jonathan and jordan went back downstairs to make food and then you and I we chilled up there and we had girl talk. It was nice. And we chit-chatted for a few minutes.
Speaker 2:I could have sat up there because it was cooler up there, because there was a nice breeze.
Speaker 3:It was still warm, but it was cooler. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I could have sat up there for a while, same. That was great. I want to do that again, even if we're not a resort.
Speaker 3:guest Can't confirm it is cold up there in November.
Speaker 2:I know I've been up there. Even if we are not a resort guest, I would still go back to that bar. I would not go during the day, oh God.
Speaker 3:Can you imagine going there during the day? Well, it doesn't open until 4 or 5 pm, I know but can you imagine, today at 4 or 5 pm, it's hot, hot and humid, correct? And then the next day happened. Oh then, we ate sandwiches. Well, we ate sandwiches, but then and the cheese platter and then, yeah, the cheese platter. And then we all tried to go to bed and then all I can remember the next day, the next morning, is jonathan going. Ashley was on tiktok until three o'clock in the morning. I have.
Speaker 2:I'm one of those people that I really struggle with sleep. It's really, really bad. So I I take a sleep additive to try to help me to sleep, like a little sleep buddy, and it was not kicking in I just passed out me, I did not I did not, I think, because I had slept that day in later than I wanted to you just weren't tired, yeah I wasn't tired, so you have a screwed up sleep schedule to begin with I do.
Speaker 2:It's really nasty the following day on saturday what we do oh, this was crazy and hectic and so much fun and I want to do it again, but it was whoa, uh okay, so we got up kind of early. I think we're all up by what nine.
Speaker 3:I think we got up around nine yeah yeah, so coffee immediately.
Speaker 2:That happened. Uh, nice, fun starbucks. And then we started to get ready because we decided a couple friends of ours colton, eric and judy were coming in. I don't want to say in town, but kind of in town, because they don't really. Eric was coming in town.
Speaker 3:Yeah so we were all a part of drunk brother.
Speaker 2:We all planned to hang out and everything but because I got I was a part of drunk brother. You got eliminated in the first round, so one of us played the game and one of us watched.
Speaker 3:That's okay, because I have a feeling you're gonna get out fast this next game, but anywho um I'm in the the, it's fine. Don't worry about it. Okay, don't don't let the secrets away I'm not, but we decided to bring them and meet up with them and do a universal day yeah, a cute little drunk brother universal moment.
Speaker 2:It was great. I love it they're, they're wonderful people. Um, truly truly super, super fun people. I I I've never laughed so hard at a trip. That should have been stressful. I felt like we were laughing the entire day. It was great. So the whole theme for our weekend was red, white and blue. Obviously it was Fourth of July weekend, so the plan was to rock our Fourth of July, rock our red, white and blue. The country may suck, but we were prepared to do her some proudness with all our alcohol consumption that we were doing. I thought it was white trash bash, but we were prepared to do her some proudness with all our alcohol consumptioning that we were doing.
Speaker 3:I thought it was white trash bash, but okay.
Speaker 2:It was a little combination, A combination of B. Yeah. Colton's overalls. Yeah. My little dad shirt, yeah. So we started off with breakfast of Jell-O shots, heck yeah, responsible pre-gaming colton attaboy the. He used red, white, and blue, smeared off with raspberry jello it was delicious 10 out of 10. I can't even tell you how many I had. I had one on the walk to the boat. Then we get on the boat and, um we, we head over to islands first, because oh wait, you, you found your husband oh yes, yeah, I got married this weekend, guys, yeah, uh, so we were.
Speaker 2:We made our way through security at um what hotel? Sapphire sapphire, thank you. And um, I don't remember how this conversation started, but he was like he made some comment that I look like his, his next wife, and I was like, oh, are you offering? And then he was like I'll wait, he's like for you, of course I would.
Speaker 3:Old, sweet, lovable man, so nice and what made it even better was the older female security guard that was just standing there she was just like what is happening she was like can y'all move forward, did you see?
Speaker 2:what happened, though? My guy had a cute little. He was very happy with our outfit attires.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, our red, white and blue.
Speaker 2:Yes, he very much loved Colton's overalls. I believe he was trying to switch bodies with Colton so he could wear the overalls and he was so proud he had an American flag pin on and he was like, look, I'm representing. And I leaned over and I went baby, let me fix your pin, because it was definitely upside down, so I go to fix it. He goes you really might be my wife and we had a good laugh about it.
Speaker 3:And then that was it and I was like, oh, which do you know what an upside down American flag means?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 3:It's distress. Maybe he was in distress and I shut it off. Yeah, maybe he was in distress and I shut it off. Um, yeah, it's um.
Speaker 2:It could signify that someone's life is in danger, or a sign of protest, I'm dead, yeah, yeah, he's protesting that he didn't have a wife. Obviously I was there.
Speaker 3:You're welcome, honey, I'm here so I just I think that's just for, like, the context of the conversation. It made it funny because he was like look I have one too. And then you're like let me fix that for you.
Speaker 2:I was like oh, oh, oh, my sweet, sweet hubby but then we got on the boat, yeah and then we headed over to islands, because we have this, this concept in our group of friends that if you say you haven't done something, we have to do it. Um. So when colton and eric uh came to to dustin and I and said, hey, we want to do some things since drunk brother is canceled, we decided, when we decided we were doing universal. Colton's biggest thing was that him and eric had never done um velocicoaster. So we were like, okay islands is where it is islands is where we're starting.
Speaker 2:That's what we're doing.
Speaker 3:We are heading there velocity, but we did not head to velocity first we took a sharp detour, yep over to straight in the gate to the right backwater bar.
Speaker 2:If you have never been there, I highly recommend. I feel like their cocktails are pretty on the cheaper side. I don't feel like I'm paying an astronomical price for them I feel, like everything was under 16, 50, 17 bucks I feel like it's got an adequate amount of alcohol.
Speaker 3:That's inside of these things so the backwater bar is located in uh port of entry, which is when you first go into universal's islands of adventure. It's on the right hand side. You can get to it, uh, but like, directly to it on its own, or you can get to it through the confisco confisco confisco grill, which is a full service restaurant they have in the front of the park, but we just go in there uh no oh, I gotta take you, you'd love it I don't do a lot in port of entry.
Speaker 2:It's always just been my port of entry um, I love that and the, the croissant, or no, crescent, crescent moon bakery.
Speaker 3:Oh, 10 out of 10 place for breakfast do you want to talk about the drink you and I got?
Speaker 2:I do, I do. I really liked it. I thought it was great, um, so this is what is called the ocean trader. We got the same thing. So this is plantation pineapple rum um blue carousel lime juice, uh, coco lopez and pineapple juice, and I'm a big fan of this because I hate coconut I love pineapple juice so you don't taste it, because the overwhelming pineapple juice is there and I thought that was so great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I, literally I didn't know what I wanted and I saw pineapple juice and I said this one. But, this is my favorite part that I thought was really funny. So, Eric and Colton got a jalapeno jalapeno margarita. So this had Patron tequila Grand Gala liqueur and a house-made jalapeno lime juice mix, and then it was garnished with a slice of jalapeno on top. So we got it.
Speaker 2:We maybe made it like 20 feet, we get out of. No, no, no, we had gotten out of. We had just gotten into Jurassic. Yeah, we got out of the Marble Land.
Speaker 3:And Eric, not Eric Colton, goes. Why is it spicy?
Speaker 2:but then did you see what they had done they ate the jalapeno slices. They cheers the jalapeno slices. Colton looks at Eric and he goes are you ready? And I thought, oh, these two are about to like shotgun this jalapeno margarita. No, no, homeboys decided that they were going to cheers the jalapeno slice. And then colton goes why is it spicy? You dummy, you ate jalapeno like a candy bar yeah, and that, just that was absolutely watching the two of them is just, it's so.
Speaker 2:It's just so much comedic relief with them. It's so funny because they just tag team stupid things together and I'm here for it yeah, now our friend judy also got a drink while we were there and she got the sangria by the glass which that's the name of the drink.
Speaker 3:Is that? Like a reference to something I don't know sangria by the glass I don't know, but it had um burgundy, uh, apricot and cherry, brandy, apple, cranberry and orange juice, and then um jordan has his jordan special. What?
Speaker 2:did jordan get ashley a? What is it a vodka diet, a double vodka diet?
Speaker 3:because that's all that man drinks his poor, poor liver dude I just like shake it up a bit, get a cocktail correct. Jonathan got water, got water and your brother got a Coke.
Speaker 2:I was glad he was there with us. That was fun. We took an epic photo, yeah, which you guys will see on the socials. Thank you, rob, for being our social media photo taker that entire weekend. Yes, 10 out of 10 for Rob.
Speaker 3:That was obviously not everyone that was there with us that weekend was in that photograph, because that was our special drunk brother Celebr america post. Uh, and it's real cute, our outfits came in clutch I thought we looked adorable.
Speaker 2:We did, and my little space bunnies. I need to rock those more often yeah, yeah, they are so cute.
Speaker 3:What do we do after that? This who'd we go visit?
Speaker 2:tiffany, and if you know, you know and if you've ever met crazy 10 out of 10 guy, yeah, for for for now creating listen. I, as as many of you know, if you have been listening to op podcast for quite some time now you know that I have a fear of animatronics. They freak me out. Getting on river venture, that entire ride is animatronic dinosaurs that try to eat you. So when Frazee, who is a very, very, very good friend of all of ours she who informed me that they call the main dinosaur at the very end the big, massive T-Rex that tries to eat you, tiffany, she started to become a little less scary and after about I don't know seven jello shots and a cocktail deep, she wasn't scary anymore. She was real funny looking and I, like the entire time, we're just chanting Tiffany and we're loving every minute of it and it was so great.
Speaker 3:Can we?
Speaker 2:talk about a moment, though. I want to talk about this moment.
Speaker 3:So we get onto the boat. I knew you were gonna talk about this and so, if you are familiar not familiar with that ride, they, they load two boats at a time. Yes, so we're in the front boat yes and we get loaded and our boat's like ready to go, but evidently they were having issues with like personal belongings in the boat behind us. It was taking a long time.
Speaker 2:It's hot.
Speaker 3:This ride is not covered.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 3:So we were sitting in direct sunlight, correct, and Ashley, over here in full Taurus mode, she's like can we go? Can we send? This is hot, I'm a fat girl, I can't be doing this fat. I said I'm a big girl, I'm starting to sweat and this family in front of us was literally about to fall out of the boat, laughing I was like come on, I'm growing sweat between my boobs.
Speaker 2:You can cup it up and cover your inside screen and I felt so much for this.
Speaker 3:I'm assuming they were husband and wife. They look like husband and wife. They were just dying so hot.
Speaker 2:Well, you also have to remember. Okay, if you've ever done river, I highly recommend her. She's 10 out of 10, right. However, they pack them rows very tight, so I have six.
Speaker 3:What six to a row? There was four. Five to a row I can't remember.
Speaker 2:There was four, there was four of us.
Speaker 3:They split us up four and four. Yes, but who was?
Speaker 2:next to me, rob was here.
Speaker 3:I was here you and then judy, and then a random person correct.
Speaker 2:So we're all like tight. I'm touching my, my wet, dripping sweat thighs are touching Rob's, they're touching yours. There is sweat dripping between my boobs. My butt is wet because of the splash that happened prior. Everything like there's sweat dripping down my kneecaps.
Speaker 3:But my favorite part about all of this is so we're in rows two and three. So, we've got four people and a stranger in row three.
Speaker 2:Yeah, eric and Colton, and Jordan and Jonathan were behind us.
Speaker 3:And then a whole group of people that we don't know behind us.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 3:When we come down off of the ride the boat in front of us when they unload, the operator shout out. Universal team member. She clearly saw something wrong with that ride vehicle. She looked into the boat and then she went and she picked up her phone and we were sitting there for a while. So we were just laughing and joking and having a good time. But I was told that the group behind the guys was so fed up with us, they were tired and it was like I mean, what do you?
Speaker 2:want us to do, just sit here in silence like we're cutting up.
Speaker 3:We're having a good time the cocktails were ever flowing well like the river, even though an ever-flowing river of cocktails were happening well, even though you were like making jokes and stuff, like we were not screaming we were not yelling and being obnoxious. We're just like laughing and telling jokes and doing silly things and evidently this group behind us just really was not having it listen if you go to a theme park.
Speaker 2:I understand that you are going to have a lot of emotions, you're going to be tired, you're going to be annoyed, people are going to be stupid, people are going to be people, and I get that. But just be nice, like. If you're not vibing with people guess what? They're not in your group you don't have to vacation with me hi, hi, I'm shelly deval hi, I'm shelly deval may she rest in peace Sorry. Oh, so sad. Sorry, I had to throw that in there, it's been like an hour since you've said it 1,200 times.
Speaker 3:What did we do Hi?
Speaker 2:Oh, we did.
Speaker 3:We made a quick little pit stop.
Speaker 2:We did A little pit stop.
Speaker 3:We said no laws.
Speaker 2:We drink on White high noon. That's what it was. Ain't no laws when you're drinking the high noons.
Speaker 3:I love them things. I you know who you know. Pineapple high noon is what you know. Who got me?
Speaker 2:addicted to those who hallie got me addicted to those. I love them. Love a good high. She got me addicted to the tequila high noons I'm not a fan of that one.
Speaker 3:I love tequila um so we grabbed another drink and to preface ashley and I, we are not theme park drinkers typically no, but we were on saturday, it is hot it I don't I. There are people out there, oh, alcohol and theme parks don't mix. And I'm going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, not when you're stupid about it no, correct, we weren't stupid about it, we were having a good time. We had backpack peanut butter and crust peanut butter jelly we had snackies to sober up and we were we were getting a cocktail and a bottle of water every single time well, and we knew we were.
Speaker 3:We were grabbing those drinks and then going to get in line for VelociCoaster, which was an hour, so we knew we had plenty of time all right um. So that's what we did we went, we got in line and the boy, it was the long it was the longest line that I have stood in for that ride in a minute, yep, but it was also the day after fourth of july. Even though the park wasn't that busy, it was a little over an hour how was your ride.
Speaker 2:We didn't get to ride together.
Speaker 3:So about that. When we went to get in line I thought you know, I'm going to have to break this seal. Actually, I'd already broken the seal. You peed a little. I'd peed like three or four times we all had. Oh, never mind, because we never, because we came, not what I thought we came off of river adventure and then we went to go to the bathroom, we all peed and then we went, oh yeah, and then we went and got the drinks and then we went online.
Speaker 3:I forgot about that so we get to the grouper area and I'm like, oh oh, oh no, I can feel urination coming, urination.
Speaker 2:And at at this point, we were so we need a TV timeout. Did you just honestly got to say urination?
Speaker 3:I needed to make a urination and I thought to myself-.
Speaker 2:Why is that? Giving me the ick. I don't know. Let's keep moving here, let's keep moving.
Speaker 3:And I thought to myself this is not going to be well. No. So by the time we actually made it to the platform yes, the boys wanted to ride in the front. We wanted to put them in the front, correct? But they've never, ever done it.
Speaker 2:We were all like all right, let's all wait up against the wall with them and I was like no, no, I've got to get on this ride right now to pee.
Speaker 3:Okay, then get on the ride so, but didn't me and you and judy all end up getting on the same one?
Speaker 2:no, me, judy, and I rode the front row. Oh, you and judy end up getting on the same one. No, me, judy, and I rode the front row.
Speaker 3:Oh, you and Judy went, we got on with the boys. You all went behind us. Correct. So we rode the ride and you can ask your brother as my witness. He was your ride partner Every time we hit some form of inversion. You just heard me go oh, I gotta pee. Oh God, I think I'm gonna pee. It's coming um. Fortunately I did not pee on myself but I left I left you guys in the dust yeah, you did I had.
Speaker 3:I jumped off of that ride and and I looked at like I come down in front of everybody, I scan my stuff, I get it from the locker, I'm gone. I'm like I'll meet you guys in the visitor center. Bye um bye and then I go pee and I am finishing when jordan and jonathan are just walking into the bathroom. We all came from the exact same place at the exact same time and I was like you ran because I had to pee and guess what?
Speaker 3:we're gonna take a pre-k pause right now, because guess what you have to pee? I gotta pee. Thank you, okay. Crisis officially averted. So, just like I about did in that podcast episode, I had to go and I went so now we're all good. So after velocicoaster um, this is so up until this point. This was the, if I'm not mistaken, the hottest day in florida this year was so um that compared um, combined with the humidity, was super, super hot.
Speaker 3:So at this point we started heading over to spider-man, because judy's one request was that we rode spider-Man before we went over to Universal Studios.
Speaker 3:Spider-Man, spider-man and the plan was to go get Minions Cafe for lunch, and we're walking that direction and this is when I start to feel sweat pouring, literally pouring down my body. Up until this point I had been totally fine, like it's been hot, but I've been okay. Now I've got sweat pouring from every orifice of my body and I was hydrating. I have been drinking liquid, including water, all day long, like for every drink I've had, which was two, two drinks total. I was having two water bottles. What, yeah, water, um. So we make a pit stop at this little icy stand just outside of uh, skull island.
Speaker 2:Rain of kong and don't cop um freezies. Yeah, not freezies, freezies icies, um.
Speaker 3:So at this point I said, hey guys, I'll catch you down in comic or no. We walked down to the bathroom. You all needed to go to the bathroom. I felt like I was about to have a heat stroke, so I dodged into one of the gift shops with Jonathan and at this point I literally almost pass out Like I am seeing spots. I got so hot.
Speaker 3:I literally laid down on the floor of this gift shop in the air conditioning and then you all made it back up with us and I wasn't feeling it. So I was like, okay, let's, I'm gonna go jump in line at spooderman and I get down there and for the first time in my life, the line for spooderman went out the building and there was a big, huge and I was like, guys, I can't do this, I cannot. So I did a graceful tap out and jonathan did a graceful tap out and we headed back to the resort Um, and you guys were going to do um Spooderman and then head over to studios and you were going to get lunch at Minions Cafe and do like one or two rides, and said we'd meet back at the hotel.
Speaker 3:Yep so um, real quick, I'll kind of give the rundown of what I did and then I'll let you give the rundown of what you did the rest of the day and then we'll we'll finish up with when we met back up at the resort. So this is when jonathan and I went back over to the resort, um, I felt, uh like I was gonna pass out on the boat. I was so hot, um, so we made it back. We got back to the resort, uh, jonathan and I went down to the urban pantry, we grabbed walk. We went back up, uh, we ate. I think we turned on the tv or a movie or something. I don't fully remember. Um, after I was done eating, I felt so full and just of deliciousness and goodness of that walk, um, and I think jonathan said he was gonna take a shower. I don't even remember. Uh, I passed out and I had a nice two hour long nap.
Speaker 3:Jordan appeared in the hotel and we all kind of actually, I remember Jonathan was like Jordan, shut the fuck up and be quiet, because Dustin's trying to sleep. So then they went down to the pool and then, probably about 20 minutes after they left, I was like, okay, I've got to get up now because if I don't I'll be miserable tonight. So I went down, joined them at the pool, grabbed myself what is that? Drink that? A pina colada. But it's the aventuras version of a pina colada, because it's not called it. It was like a avansolada or something weird.
Speaker 3:We swam for a little bit, dipped into the hot tub after the sun went down for a little bit. We swam for a little bit, dipped into the hot tub after the sun went down for a little bit. Then we went back up to the room, changed, grabbed pizza from the pizza place and we watched the sensational drones from our hotel room. And then that's when you were like yo, come downstairs and meet me so we can get that food and bevy discount. And I came down and I met you guys.
Speaker 2:So what did you guys do do in that time? Not anything of what we said we were going to do no, you guys went to minions yep, but after that we were like oh, let's do like one or two rides wait, what did?
Speaker 3:what did? Do you remember what you guys got at minions? Oh yeah, jordan got this mozzarella thing that looked terrifying in the picture.
Speaker 2:It was a meatball pizza thing. I get the aesthetic of it because it's supposed to be like the minions create your food for you, so like they slammed it down and then the tomato sauce goes everywhere. It just looked like a mess like. I give them a six out of ten for the creativity but a six out of 10 for the execution I heard jordan did say it was a delicious meal, though I'm so messy.
Speaker 2:Uh, it's great it's great I got there. Um, so obviously I don't eat meat, so they have a a couple different versions of like. They have like a salmon bowl, they have like a steak bowl or a chicken bowl, and then they have a fried cauliflower bowl. So instead of it being um chicken nuggets that are like, instead of grilled nuggets, they did cauliflower, so it's deep fried cauliflower. And then blue coconut rice, which was not coconut at all, it was just tasted like regular rice, and then it had um carrots in there and broccoli and then and then it came with a dipping sauce, but it was like a sweet and sour sauce that went on top of it. It was very good. I just wish I had a hot sauce and it was just like a kick. And.
Speaker 2:I got the cutest little box of Minion water. I have a little soft spot for Minions so I've always loved that area. I think it's super cute. Um, I cannot wait to see the despicable me 4. Um, so yeah, it was. It was great. I thought it was great. I, I, I really like that place. I like it's very air conditioned, heavy, so it was really nice to get out of the sun and just kind of sit and we sat there for a minute and we talked, we hung out. Plus, this is one of the few qsrs that actually has a bathroom inside the restaurant what is a qsr for people that don't know?
Speaker 2:a quick service restaurant. There you go, so it is one of the former monsters cafe correct and they have an air-conditioned bathroom with separate stalls and a family bathroom. So if, if you know, you know it's nice, I really like them. I like this entire area. I like the setup of everything. It's real good and I've never had any issues. I've been there a couple times. I've never had any issues with my food or anything like that, so I like that place.
Speaker 3:What did you do after?
Speaker 2:that.
Speaker 3:Then we went to oh God, we're relying on Ashley's memory.
Speaker 2:Finnegan's, and this is where my memory gets a little cloudy. So, oh, this is where you met your bartender of the pod, correct, and I will get to her later during the bartender of the pod, because she deserves her own separate part Probably one of the best experiences I have ever had with a universal bartender in a very, very long time. And part of the bartender of the pod is a portion of the story that that is very near and dear to my heart with with this bartender that I didn't put two and two together until Saturday, so it was really neat to kind of get to do that. Um, so we go see her, we get some, we get a drink.
Speaker 2:Um, I, I obviously was sticking with the high noon theme because, um, I'm not a fan. If I'm drinking at a theme park, I try to stick to the same liquor or the same thing that I'm drinking, unless I am at Epcot, then I am just screwed and my liver hates me. Do you do that? Do you do you? When you drink at theme parks, you try to stick to the same thing, or do you do you?
Speaker 3:do you drink something I don't typically drink at theme parks?
Speaker 2:oh, if I do, it's one cocktail oh wow, if I'm drinking at a theme park, I really try to stick to the same thing. I really I really rarely try to try to do anything else. Um, so then we headed over to okay, you, you gotta, you gotta be patient with me here, okay, so the plan was to go from fit against over to mummy. Well, during this time was the new parade, so we're like, if we get, on universal's mega movie parade correct.
Speaker 2:Wait. None of us had any intentions of seeing this yet. So we're all sitting here and we're like, if we go to mummy mummy is 10 minutes right now it's a walk on. If we get on this, we're going to get stuck in this area. Bad idea Abort mission. So we ran all the way to the end, got out of the parade area, which is all New York, and made our way over to DreamWorks. We went to DreamWorks first. Yeah, we went over to DreamWorkworks. We went to dreamworks first. Yeah, we went over to dreamworks. Uh, colton, eric and judy had never been into this area yet. So I it was the coolest thing ever I got to be orlando unplugged podcast, got to be a tour guide it was so cool.
Speaker 3:Give her a name tag, let her be a. Let her be a tour guide.
Speaker 2:I could do it. I really did and I you should have seen me I was like walking backwards, and I was like walking backwards and I was like guys, if you look over to your left, this is Shrek's Swamp. And if you look over to your left, past Shrek's Swamp, if you hit this button, you'll talk to Pinocchio. And then, if you keep going, this is the troll spot and this is where you'll get listen, get over it.
Speaker 2:Then we all get done writing that, which was just a hoot nanny in itself, because colton eric fit in one of those together, judy and I fit in one of those together and judy and I are we, we some big booty, big booty girls. So like my booty was, like we were, we were just booty it in it together and I was like girl who thought this would be a good idea for the two of us to get on the same train. But I'm here for it. Sweaty booties, sweaty life. We ride the ride 10 out of 10. Then I got to be a tour guide again and show them all of kung fu, panda area and of course, I showed them my favorite part, which is the gong. If you have not hit that thing, hit that thing, but make sure you stand on the board, because the vibrations.
Speaker 2:Then there was this part. I have videos of it and it will be going up on the internet. So, colton, eric, suck it up, boys.
Speaker 2:There is a spinning seat like um that's called a merry-go-round yeah, but it's you operate it, so that's called a merry-go-round and eric sit down in this thing, and rob just went haywire, just spinning the boys like crazy, and then judy and I went we're kind of feeling left out so we got on it. I was not in a seat. There are like these, these seat parts that you sit into it, or there's this middle part. I was like it's not that crazy, I could sit in the middle part and not hold on. Stupid, absolutely stupid. I definitely thought I was going backwards at one point. I was gonna fall out. My favorite part. So we leave this, we leave kung fu panda area and we go over to um I don't remember what it's called, but it's. There's like water fountains and stuff like this that are happening and there's um buckets pond of perpetual, yes correct?
Speaker 2:so we're over there and colton's behind me still in kung fu land.
Speaker 3:Great, we leave, we, we go over to this area and colton's behind me, still in kung fu land.
Speaker 2:Great, we leave, we go over to this area and colton's behind me and I turn around and he's just drenched and I was like what happened? Like I'm looking at him and I'm like what he goes? Who did that? Did you just do that? I was like what are you talking about? And we look up, there's these automatic buckets like if you've ever for me. I grew up going to the great wolf lodge in san diego big bucket correct smaller buckets guys.
Speaker 2:Similar concept it had dumped on him. But the best part is his reaction. He was like who did that? I wish somebody would be a video date was the pond, a perpetual witness he got wetnessed he was perpetually wedded and then we left over there and then all of us were acting like children because we were on. Obviously our bartender had had taken real good care of us. So we popped over um and we started playing on the frog lily pad.
Speaker 2:You know that area where shrek's uh, fiona's dad is the frog harold's uh swamp symphony yes you, somebody should have videotaped it because all of us me, rob, eric and judy are all just, and colton, we're all just like bumping and bouncing on these lily pads and it was just a 10 out of 10 experience. It was so good we leave out of dreamworks we were going to go do et. Et was a astronomical weight. Love the ride but just not worth the wait, to be honest with you and it was way too hot.
Speaker 2:So we go, all right, screw it. Time for another cocktail. So we get yet another high noon. The boys are drinking miller and we decide at this point it's time to go kick some alien booty and go ride MIB.
Speaker 2:So we ride men, men in black. Um, alien attack. We get in line, the boys kick our butts. The only reason we got a suit that day was because them two boys carried Judy and I three boys, cause Rob was right there with them. They carried us throughout that entire thing. Um, so we three boys, because rob was right there with them, they carried us throughout that entire thing. Um, so we leave there and the plan was to hit up the mummy or to go see, to see our bartender one more time at finnegan's pop, rid of a mummy and then go. That didn't happen because mummy's weight was like 65 minutes. Not not gonna happen.
Speaker 3:So we were like when it was 10 we're probably.
Speaker 2:But we're like, okay, let's go try rip ride or rip rip. Yeah, rip ride, rocket. We go to the bartender get a drink. I'm like I'm not riding rip ride. If I read rip ride, I'll vomit right now. I've been drinking high noon since 10 o'clock.
Speaker 3:It's not happening, guys, okay it wasn't 10, it was definitely like I've had alcohol in me since 10 am.
Speaker 2:It's not happening, okay. So they go and eric and colton and rob. They get to ride rip ride and me. I'm sorry, eric, no, no, judy. Colton and rob ride rip ride and eric and I are sitting down on the the grass area that during mardi gras, they hold the concerts there during the christmas time, that's where correct, we're sitting there, we're just vibing, and at this point eric and I were on the same level. We were buzzy, happy and sweaty and it was 10 out of 10 we decided.
Speaker 2:Eric was on a different level than you well, at this point we were kind of on the same level, kind of we were still buzzing. Will we proceed to get another cocktail on the way out? Of course well, judy went. Hey, I don't really like this, so eric throws it back like it's water. I well, I like, drank a couple of it it was dark liquor, wasn't it? Yeah, it was Jameson.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we killed that JMO, so we finished that. Then we decide it's food time. We are hungry, nothing is open, parks are done, it is time to leave. Let's go Pool food that was a priority. Back to the hotel so we get in line for the.
Speaker 2:The boat, which is just long as astronomical, can be had the most god-awful interaction with, with a pretty intoxicatedly inappropriate guest that I will not be sharing what he said on on our podcast because it just hey, do, do, do. Do me a favor to, to everybody that listens to to our episodes if you ever get drunk, don't be creepy, just shut up, just stop talking creepy, creepy. Creepy does not look good on people. Okay, so we finally get on the boat. Eric passes out, judy and colton are just kind of like oh my god, and I'm just like boat go faster, boat go faster because I'm about to eat everybody in this boat. I'm about to commit cannibalism and about to eat everybody. These children do be looking delicious. Boat. I'm about to commit cannibalism and about to eat everybody. These children do be looking delicious because I'm so hungry I could eat families like I was done. We get to the hotel. I had been texting you and I was like get your butt downstairs. I'm here. We were not there no, you weren't.
Speaker 2:I sat and waited on you guys for like 15 minutes I was like, yeah, I'm not here, I don't care, get there. We walk over Longest walk of my life, which isn't a long walk, but at that moment I was so hungry. I was like, guys, let's just stop at the gift shop for a snack, because I was so hungry. We finally get to the hotel. Everybody makes the beeline for the pizza. I'm like like, screw this. You had been talking to me with this darn walk all day. I was like this is what I want. Thank god there was nobody in front of me and they give us, they give you a beeper when your food is ready, almost like like you're waiting at a at a restaurant and stuff and I'm just like staring at this thing like willing it to be quicker.
Speaker 2:It didn't work. Finally I get it. Don't care about anybody else, go sit down, scarf down all of this food. Finally, everybody shows up.
Speaker 3:I also got onion rings I did get onion rings.
Speaker 2:I girl dinnered so hard that day and with two bottles of water because I needed to rehydrate, still did not feel hydrated, um, still sweating. Just disgusting at this point. And then then Colton, eric and Judy and Rob were like, hey, we're going to go swimming. And I was like, hey, I'm going to go sit in one of these chairs while you guys go do that, because the idea of putting my body, after I've been sweating all day, into a pool with other people's sweat is just not the vibe for me.
Speaker 3:So we sat at the fire ring yeah.
Speaker 2:And we went to turn it on.
Speaker 3:So we were like, oh, nice little fire, and I got so hot because the gasoline and the pilot light never lit, so it was just so. After like 10 minutes I said something to jonathan.
Speaker 3:Yes, well, jonathan walked over to the thing and turned the timer off because it had just been releasing gas that whole time and we did tell a lifeguard. It was uh. The lifeguard came by and we were like, hey, this is a thing. And she was like, hey, we'll let her engineering team know. But they were also in the process of closing everything down at that point because it was the end of the day.
Speaker 2:Um, but it was, it was a day it was a long day and then we we say goodbye to everybody. Um, which was so much fun. Uh, before we we pop to the rest of every, to the rest of the night. Eric, judy colton. Thank you guys, so much for for hanging out with us. That was an absolute blast. Colton, 10 out of 10. My guy on the jello shots as always, thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you to the person who provided the complimentary tickets yeah, judy and them, so they could enjoy the day absolutely, and I think we we've got a thank you for for our wonderful food and beverage discount.
Speaker 2:You're welcome.
Speaker 3:Um, I also want to extend a very special thank you to someone who probably isn't going to listen to this episode, but that's totally fine, because we love you anyways, um, but you are the person who, without you, we would not have ever met colton or judy or eric. So thank you to our wonderful friend geo to our podcast um, I don't know, maybe he does.
Speaker 3:Um, I forget who doesn't, who doesn't, but uh, thank you for introducing us to them and we're we're so we were sad that you didn't get to come. We, we extended an invite over to geo low-key. I was kind of like, hey, you want to come hang out at the hotel with me because I don't know, I want to be at the park all day. And he said that he would let us know. But we never heard from him that weekend. So sometimes you just got to crash at home and that's what you got to do.
Speaker 2:But thank you, gio. I just I never thought our circle would get as big as it does. Obviously, we go to things and we meet new people and we do all these things, but like these are three people that I I think we could, we could spend quite a lot of time with. I'm excited to include them in our group for for I'm glad eric's moving back to orlando same.
Speaker 3:That dude is a he's a hoot and a half he's.
Speaker 2:He's something he is. He's definitely something I I think I'm excited to to do fun things with them moving forward with halloween, horn and obviously more Drunk Brother events. But I'm also just kind of excited to just like once the boys get back. I'm obviously a big fan of going downtown, so like getting the boys together and having a downtown night, I promise.
Speaker 3:I will wear. Just don't get drunk enough to lose your phone.
Speaker 2:No, I got my cute little. I can't say it. I was going to say strap on and that's not a thing.
Speaker 3:That's not a thing. That's not what that is.
Speaker 2:Your phone strap I have my phone strap on. What was that noise?
Speaker 3:um, but yeah so, and then we went back to the hotel and had sandwiches, but yeah, so. So they left and we went up to the hotel room and it was just jordan.
Speaker 3:Uh, jonathan, me and you and we had we kind of I like passed out and I remember at one point just waking up, being like ashley stop using me as a prop, because she's laying on top of me talking to jonathan in the bed beside us. I'm passed out, jordan's just doing his own thing and you and jonathan are just having like a little heart to heart becoming besties, so great and I'm over here like I'm so glad that you guys are like having a moment, but stop using me as an armrest listen, I just was vibing.
Speaker 2:I was so vibing, it was just. It was so. To be honest with you, you know what it was, it was just well needed fun that day yeah yes, it was disgustingly hot, but it was just fun. From the time we woke up until the time we went to bed, I laughed, I giggled, I smiled the entire day genuinely because I was having a fun time.
Speaker 3:It was great, it was great. And then we woke up the next morning and we checked out no what.
Speaker 2:You have to. You cannot skip over on the greatest, sweetest thing you did for me brought you my leftover breakfast no no you. The boys were like hey, we're gonna go get breakfast. And dustin, I guess, told jonathan and jordan they're like nobody, wake up, ashley let her sleep yeah I was like and then he comes back and he goes. I brought you breakfast and inside was like scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes and biscuits and gravy but it was the chicken biscuits because I don't eat chicken gravy it was chicken gravy and it was so sweet I'm glad you
Speaker 3:liked it, I cut, I went home and covered it in hot sauce it, it was great, and then I went to work and we all went our separate ways.
Speaker 2:And I came home and took a swell needed shower.
Speaker 3:Swell needed.
Speaker 2:And I took a nap, a fat nap.
Speaker 3:I went to work.
Speaker 2:And I think that was it for the day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that was our that was our weekend at Universal. Now we're not gonna touch base. This has kind of been a long episode, so I don't think we're gonna talk anything about halloween, horror nights. Uh, other than they've announced the ninth house uh, which was insidious dark lore. No, no into the further, or something into the further. That's it that's probably not what it is, yeah, but they've announced that um frequent fear passes came out on sale today the day that we're recording and yeah, if not, they're very, very close to already sold out before like 6 pm today.
Speaker 3:It's 10.07 now, but yeah, talk about bartender Is it time?
Speaker 2:Is it time? So, as all of you know, this is going to be our second bartender of the pod, because last podcast episode we did not do one of those because it was a very serious conversation in terms of epic universe updates and we're we're not always going to have a bartender of the pod it just depends on if we have a bartender of the pod and I've always been a firm believer that when I wanted to start this, I wanted to make this as as as true as I could possibly get it.
Speaker 2:I didn't want want to be like hey, yeah, we have a friend of ours who, like, made us a cocktail and that was great. I wanted this person to be a genuine person that, like, we would recommend and visit again and again, and again. And Jan at Finnegan's, that girl is is, she is just so good, like, she is so good. Um, we, we walked into to finnegan's the first go around and she had noticed that rob was with us. She had checked all our ids and she looks at rob and she goes honey, what are you drinking? I need your id.
Speaker 2:And, as big sister, I go oh no, he's gonna drink a coke, he's only 19. And she goes well, you get the best thing. We've got rob's like what, what do you mean? I get the best thing. She goes all these guys have to pay for their alcohol and you're walking away with a free pop. And she poured him a massively large coke, put a lid on it, let him sip it, gave him a piece of rock candy that's a garnish for one of the cocktails first, before she made all of our drink, like before she gave us anything, gave it to him for free, then we get done. She gets done making all of our drink like before she gave us anything, gave it to him for free, then we get done. She gets done making all of our drinks. Mind you, she had double cupped all of our cocktails so that way they wouldn't sweat yeah and then she looks at rob and she goes honey, baby, give me your cup.
Speaker 2:And he's like why? Why are you taking my cup? She refilled it oh, that was. And she was like just because you're you're underage does not mean you don't get to have fun with the big kids oh and then we came back and she, mind you, finnegan's is a very busy bar.
Speaker 3:It is right across the street from bar and restaurant correct, it was right across the street from the mummy, so it is constantly busy there's a yeah, there's several live shows that happen right outside on the sidewalk correct.
Speaker 2:So the second time we came back in she was like guys, the usual, the usual is that we want. And then she made a joke the first round and she was like I'll see you guys in 20 minutes, she sure did, she sure did. And we came back and she goes are we going another round? Same thing. And we're like, yeah, is that cool? Do you want us to tell you what it is? Line them all up, got Rob another Coke, gave him another sucker and she was like okay, cool, I'll see you guys in 20 minutes. And she did. And then we see her again and she's like so we doing it again? And I was like girl, how do you remember? Like, yes, it's not that difficult to do, is fairly simple. My favorite part is Colton orders a vodka cranberry. It's his go-to drink whenever he's out somewhere.
Speaker 2:She called it the uti. She made fun of them. She was like you guys got, you got utis, you're trying to clean up things. So when we came back for round two, she goes boys, how's your utis, do we need another one? And that became the joke for the whole rest of the time we were there we'd walk in and colton and jan would be like boys utis.
Speaker 2:Is that what you want? You want a uti. It was, and she would do it from like the middle of the bar and we're at the very end oh, that's hilarious well then I found out the best part of jan and this is the part that jan is the bartender of the pod for me.
Speaker 2:So when I first went to universal, that was I was 22 years old when I first went to Universal and I got introduced to the park and fell immediately in love with it and thought it was the greatest thing ever. So a lot of my memories are going to Universal as an adult, not as a kid, so I didn't get to experience everything else that everybody else did with Jaws and Confrontation and Twister and all of those things. My memories with them are interactions with team members, which have always been my favorite part of going to Universal Right before I was making a pretty. If you've listened to the OG very first episode of Orlando Unplugged, we go through, obviously, our back history and our backstories and things like that. So you know that I moved to Ohio once upon a time.
Speaker 2:Right before we moved to Ohio we were pass holders for Universal and we had decided that the day before we were moving we were going to go to Universal one last time. So we went. Our always tradition was going to Finnegan's. We walked into Finnegan's and we got a drink and this bartender had a button on. It was a purple button that said love in big, bold letters. And I went oh my God, I love your button. That is so cute, how do I get one of those? And she took off the button and she handed it to me and she goes you know what you're going to do with this button. You're going to give this button to the person that you can't live without. You're going to give this person to somebody you truly love. And when you're ready, that's how you're going to know.
Speaker 2:And when we moved to Ohio, I kept that button. I moved back to Florida. I had the button. I moved back up to Michigan, I had the button After the breakup happened and I'm back in Michigan and I'm back in Florida and that button sits in my bathroom. Every morning I get ready it's sitting right on my counter. So I walked in when we were here this past Saturday and I was like Jan, I need to ask you a question. You've been working for Finnegan's for quite some time.
Speaker 2:Had a 10-year woody woodpecker button on her on her uh, name tag, and I was like, do you happen to know of a bartender that was giving out this purple pin that said love across it? I said I got one probably about 65, six years ago. I was like, and I still have it, I said, and it made such an impact on me but I never thought to get the person's name. But I, I love. That story resonated with me even now and she got quiet and I went what, what's wrong? And she goes I gave you that button and I went what?
Speaker 2:and she goes, one of the the bartenders that was there, he was getting married. Him and his, his husband now husband were getting married and they gave those buttons and told all of the people at their wedding to do the same thing. So that was her button that she had been given. So she gave me her button and I got teary-eyed and I was like I have my button still, like it's in my bathroom and I cherish my button, so like you have no idea how much this button means to me and it's done. All these moves and I go through this whole story again with her and I'm just like teary-eyed and and and she's like no way. She's like do you do you mind if I tell this to the guys? And I was like please, and she goes, I need you to do me a favor and I need you to. I had told her all about our podcast, obviously told her about our bartender segment, and I was like and she goes I need you to come in, I need you to bring dustin and I need you to bring your button. And I was like I I need to bring our button in so I can take a picture with you and my button so I can put it up on our social media platform. And she was just like. She grabbed my hands and she was like I have, I've given, you know, we've given buttons away.
Speaker 2:There was a couple of people obviously at the wedding that were invited, that still work for Finnegan's, and everybody started gathering around when they had heard the story and she was like nobody's come with with a story of the button. And I said I own my button and she goes. And the part that like shook me she goes. Do you know why I think you still have your button. And I was like why? Why do you think you still have my button? She's like because you're waiting until you really find somebody that truly deserves that button. And I just went oh girl, jan, I'm gonna need another high noon with some tequila in it, please I think that that's.
Speaker 3:I think that's great.
Speaker 2:I think that is a that serves as a true testament to the connections that universal team members make with people from around the world when they come in and it's not as big as the world as we think it is no, but she's so right, though you know it may not be a button, it may be something else, but don't just give it away because you can give it away.
Speaker 2:That's the moral of the story there I I think that you know the team members that we we interact with and the people that we interact with, not just at at universal, but at disney world and at sea world, and even even just servers at restaurants or bartenders at restaurants. I think they play such an impacting role in not just our experience right there, but they could make it an impact on the rest of our lives.
Speaker 2:Jan was one of those people that made an impact on my life and I didn't even realize it was her that did it. So I think that for me she is 110% our bartender of the pod this week so yeah, guys go see jan go see jan at finnegan's inside universal studios, orlando, florida yes, and tell her ashley.
Speaker 3:And the purple love button sent you I cannot wait to introduce you to her you're gonna love her and she works during hhn. Nice, nice and she drops little she's like.
Speaker 2:I drop little things inside the cups like little light lit up thingies oh yeah, the light up stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's real popular during.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah I can't wait. She gonna.
Speaker 3:She gonna help me get through a house hey, there you go with her high nude can porn now guys we have done a lot of talking today about a lot of things, and obviously drinking has been, or drinking was, a pretty large topic in our podcast this week. So a couple of things that we want to say before we finish this episode is if you are going to drink ever, please drink responsibly.
Speaker 2:Absolutely and don't feel like you need to pressure If you are sober celebrating or you are there just to have fun with friends. There are mocktails, there are things that you can.
Speaker 3:you can be the designated water hydrator or go see jan and she'll give you a coke and a candy correct um, that being said, know your limits absolutely. If you're gonna drink in places like a theme park, please be smart about it stay hydrated don't be stupid.
Speaker 3:Don't don't get shlammered, walk to your hotel and go to a theme park and cause problems and be stupid and be belligerent and be sick. Don't do that. And I think that you know our friend group is a true testament of to be honest, like even at the Drunk Brother Games, like no one gets completely sloshed and crazy. So you know, drink responsibly um, it is a privilege to be able to do stuff like this. So be smart about it. Don't drink and drive. Don't drink if you're not of age. All of those things, all that fun stuff, um, but yeah, so we want to thank you guys for joining us. This was a bit of a longer episode. We know we haven't given you guys one of those in a while, and ashley wanted it.
Speaker 3:Ashley wanted a longer episode, so she got a longer episode today because it's my birthday month but here is my question to you all this week text in the show. You know the little thing right there in the, in the option look at your phone. Pick up your phone right now. Pick it up. Picking it up, open the podcast app. If it's not open, look at the description box. It's right there. See where it says text the show. It does not cost you anything to text us free and we really like it granted, I mean standard text messaging rates may apply, but text us.
Speaker 3:We want to hear from you guys we really do are you someone that, when you go to a theme park, will you participate in having a cocktail or two? What's your favorite Universal theme park cocktail? Or any if you don't go to Universal and drink what's your favorite cocktail in general. Edward, don't be fancy. I know you were a bartender.
Speaker 2:Edward, please send us all the fancy recommendations so I can start making these. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Oh, he definitely will, but we want to hear from you guys. So please let us know Do you agree with drinking at a theme park, or do you not Tell?
Speaker 2:us why. That's all you got. That's all I got. That's all I got. All right, we'll finish it up.
Speaker 3:Go on. All right, are you ready? I'm ready, let's get a drum roll.
Speaker 2:That was horrible. Can you edit that?
Speaker 3:out Until next time. Stay safe, stay educated.
Speaker 2:And, of course, share our podcast with your friends, your family and your favorite bartender, jan. Thanks guys.
Speaker 3:See you next week. Bye, thank you.
