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99.9 Gator Country morning show host Amadeus shares stories that did not make it on the air, and he takes a deeper dive into those that did make the cut. Fans of Your Hometown Morning Show will enjoy a more behind the scenes look at what goes into the making of a country radio morning show. Listen daily for this PG-13 version of the top stories making pop culture headlines, artist interviews, and much , much more.
LIVE FROM JACKSONVILLE! with Amadeus
Oak Ridge Boys’ William Lee Golden and Our Halloween Horror Nights Recap
A voice can carry a lifetime. We open with William Lee Golden of the Oak Ridge Boys sharing a moving look at farewells, four-part harmony, and the surprising ways music holds people together when life frays the edges. He reflects on Joe Bonsall’s goodbye, Richard Sterban’s fight, and why Duane Allen’s choral backbone keeps the Oaks steady. Then the conversation turns forward: younger singers adding fresh energy, and studio time booked with producer Dave Cobb. Classic songs are safe—Elvira, Bobbie Sue, Y’all Come Back Saloon—but the heart of it is legacy as a living thing.
From harmony to horror, we trade the tour bus for Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights, fresh off a sleepless RIP tour that hits every house and scare zone. We break down Terrifier’s gleeful brutality and “bloodfall” exit, the eerie spectacle of Five Nights at Freddy’s, the scale-bending fun of Dolls, and the smoke-and-leather grit of Hatchet and Chains. WWE’s Wyatt Sicks creeps by character design, El/La Artista paints demons into the real world, Galkn chills with snowbound dread, Jason slices through nostalgia with a fog-blind hallway, and Fallout surprises with a clear, story-first throughline even for newcomers. Between runs, we talk Nightmare Fuel, Lagoon drones and projections, and the small tactics that keep a long night great—on-site hotels, smarter food choices, and the real value of an RIP guide.
If you’re mapping your own trip, we’ve got practical strategy: how to prioritize houses, when to sit for a show, why the app matters, and which treats to hunt down when your adrenaline dips. And if you came for the music, Golden’s perspective lingers: traditions endure when people care for them, whether that’s a quartet’s blend or a park’s meticulous set design. Subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more fans find the show—and tell us which house you’d brave first.
Welcome to another episode of Live from Jacksonville. I'm your host, Amadeus. Coming up a little bit later on, we're going to be talking with one of the members of the Oak Ridge Boys. It was such a pleasure and honor to speak with William Lee Golden. And we're going to give you our take on Halloween Horror Nights this year. It's actually something that we recorded, gosh, a month ago, but it's been so busy I haven't had a chance to launch it yet. So we'll give you our opinion of this year's Halloween Horror Nights. There's still a month left to go. It's running through November 2nd at Universal Orlando Resort. So we'll give you a little bit of our take on some of the houses. First up, Daily's Place has Dirty Heads and Jake Owen on Thursday, October 23rd. Not a lot of shows coming to Daily's Place right now because of the construction at the Stadium of the Future. Get to dailysplace.com for tickets for that show. The music group Harmon League will be at 5 in Riverside on Saturday, October 18th. That website for tickets is fivejacks.com. Coming to the Florida Theater Vampire Circus on Tuesday, October 14th. Billy Joel's Legends, the Lords of 52nd Street, on Thursday, October 16th, abducted or abducted by the 80s with Wang Chung, Men Without Hats and Naked Eyes. That show will be at the Florida Theater on Sunday, October 19th. That show is here, I believe it was last year, uh, with the motels, in addition to those other three bands. Such a fun show. I highly recommend it. That's Sunday, October 19th. Johnny Swim on Tuesday, the 19th, and the Rocky Horace Picture Show is playing at the Florida Theater on Saturday, October 25th. Floridatheater.com for info and tickets on all those shows. The St. Augustine Amphitheater has Ryan Bingham and the Texas Gentleman on Sunday, uh October, sorry, Saturday, October 18th. Today's Docks Band on Friday and Saturday, October 24th and 25th. Coles Twendell will be at the Amp on Sunday, October 26th. John Legend on Tuesday, October 28th, and the legendary Peter Frampton playing at the St. Augustine Amphitheater on Wednesday, October 29th. Check out theamp.com. Four tickets for those shows. Coming to the Thrasher Horn Center on Friday, October 17th, it's Country Music Icon, Trace Atkins. Then on Saturday, October 25th, it's another Country Music icon, Craig Morgan. But this Sunday, October 12th, it's Country Music Legends, the Oak Ridge Boys bringing their farewell tour to the Thrasher Horn Center. As I mentioned earlier, I had the distinct honor of chatting with William Lee Golden. He's the one with a really, really long beard who's been a part of the Oaks since 1965. Hello, this is William Lee Golden with the Oak Ridge Boys. Good morning, William Lee. How are you? I'm doing good. How are things in Orange Park? Very, very good. I'm so happy to be talking to you.
SPEAKER_00:Well, man, I'm excited that the Oak Ridge Boys are getting to come back to Orange Park here on October the 12th.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, not much longer. Uh the Oak Ridge Boys will be at the Thrasher Horn Center Sunday, October 12th. We're super excited to have you guys coming, but man, kind of sad that it's the farewell tour.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's uh, yeah, it was saying farewell to our longtime singing partner, Joe Bonzo, last year was heart-wrenching, and that's actually how the tour started was uh basically to for Joe to be able to say farewell. And as you probably know, he was suffering from ALS, it's uh Lugaric disease or muscular degenerative uh situation that he was dealing with. But uh and then we have uh our longtime bass singer, Richard Sherman,'s been uh suffering here recently, and uh hasn't been out here since basically May was the last time that we were out together with Richard. But uh we have two young guys, uh Tim Duncan, great young bass singer, and uh Aaron Lee McCoon, another incredible young bass singer, young kids that are out with us, man, and uh helping us out while Richard's been uh going through some uh health issues there with uh pancreatic cancer. And uh but yeah, it was a farewell to our singing partner Joe, and now then it's uh we're having to deal with our other singing partner with Richard here. But uh, you know, like with uh this young Ben James that's singing tenor with the Oak Ridge boys now. He's uh he's a brand new spark of energy. He's in his twenties. I got grandkids older than Ben James. But he brings a youthful new sound for our group. He comes out of country and bluegrass music. He also uh grew up loving quartet singing and knew all the Oak Ridge Boys songs and a lot of country music. Uh when Tony Brown heard Ben James sing about a year and a half ago, he walked over to it when Ben first was joining up with the Oak Ridge Boys uh singing and said, Man, I've not heard a high lonesome sound like yours but one guy in the past 35 years. He said, You're a brand new generation with a Vince Gill voice. Wow. And so that's about as high a compliment as any young singer coming into country music could ever get.
SPEAKER_02:Well, the music of the Oak Ridge Boys will live on forever. I know as a kid, hee-haw was like church around my house. And I grew up on the Y'all Come Back Saloon and Come On In and You know, One in a Million. These are the songs that like are the fabric of my life. And in mentioning all these young guys that are kind of filling in right now, do you think it's possible that the Oak Ridge Boys continue to tour almost as a tribute band with these younger singers?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I tell you what, uh none of us started the Oak Ridge Boys, although there was four of us that were together for 50 years. That was Joe Bonzel, Richard Stirban, Dwayne Allen, and I. It just happened that Dwayne and I have been together now for six decades. Wow. Uh we joined up singing when he was in his twenties. He took music in college and a great singer, one of the finest lead singers and harmony singers anywhere. He studied choral arrangements in college, and he's been a tremendous access. And he's just been uh the backbone of the Oak Ridge Boys, basically, with his lead singing and his accomplishments as uh a singer and knowing music, reading music, and it certainly helped some of us that didn't read music, you know. Uh heck, I had to go to summer school to get out of high school.
SPEAKER_02:So uh me too.
SPEAKER_00:I respect a lot of his abilities. He's been a tremendous asset for the Oak Ridge Boys and a strong backbone for our group. And uh so we've been together now for 60 years. So that's the heart of the Oak Ridge Boys. And uh but you we got these young kids now that's out with us, uh Ben James and uh Jim Duncan and Aaron Lee McCoon, the bass singers, and uh so we've had them out with us in the past three or four months. Richard has been sidelined here with uh his treatment. But you know, we're praying for Richard, and uh we're just thankful for all the years with Joe Bonzel. And I think when it gets time for the Oak Ridge Boys, that if one of us gets to where we can't go any further, I think that we should take the torch that we carried and have been carrying all these years and pass it to a new generation that can carry it on into the future because again, none of us started this group, and none of us were real close friends with the original guys that started the group. You know, it started back in the early 40s when we were just basically just babies. And uh, but yeah, it's a tradition that we've been able to hold on to and to build on throughout these years, and that our group is built on harmony. It's four-part harmony. And uh we're the only professional singing country music act that's doing four-part harmony right now. And uh, you know, the Stopner Brothers were a four-part harmony singing. And I remember as a kid growing up, I was I was turned on by a lot of their pop groups back in our day, you know, back the coasters and some of those guys have had four part harmony groups. And uh they were singing in pop music, you know. There was uh but a lot of those guys came out of churches. Uh they were gospel singers before they got into pop music. But uh I've always loved four-part harmony singing, you know, the platters, the posters, uh, one of those type groups, you know, the the bass singer that would do Step Out Lives, you know, what was it? Why is everybody always beating all me? Charlie Brown those type songs, man. But you know, it was when the Oak Ridge Boys had that crossover. It kind of brought all of that feel in music back with that old song that we had recorded, uh, that Dallas Fraser wrote back sixteen years before the Oak Ridge Boys recorded El Vira. And uh but it has some of that same feel with that bass singer step outline. So I grew up singing country music and country gospel music. My sister taught me how to play music when I was six and seven and eight years old. I learned to play rhythm guitar and sing harmonies, man. It's something I've done all my life is sing harmonies. But then it was high school when I sang in my first quartet at uh W.S. Neal High School in Bruton, Alabama, right there on the Florida line. And I sang in the FFA quartet, Future Farmers of America, and we would compete with other school chapters of FFA and uh either with band competitions or with singing competitions, with group singing. And uh so that's when I really fell in love with Bullpark Harmony, was uh when I was in high school, and then I pursued that in life, and uh I had a trio after high school, but then uh got to meet the Oak Ridge Boys in touring and uh I pursued uh to get be able to sing with them back in the early 60s. I joined the Ilkridge Boys in 1965 and uh singing baritone harmony. And that's what I've been singing, and uh we got an incredible lead singer we've had all this time, and having these young guys on each side of us, it's a great tenor singer and a great bass singer, it's just been exhilarating to go out and play music and sing every day that we get the chance to sing, because we found that music has been healing mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritual healing, is uh being around music and being able to sing music and harmonize together. And so every chance we get the chance to sing, like at Orange Park, man, something we look forward to, and we can't wait to get down there.
SPEAKER_02:We are definitely looking forward to it too. Again, the show is uh Sunday, October 12th. We're speaking with William Lee Golden from the Oak Ridge Boys. Tickets are available at thcenter.org. William Lee, as you close the chapter of your life with the Oak Ridge Boys, what's the future of the Goldens?
SPEAKER_00:Well, the Goldens, my family. Uh this year, you know, we lost our I lost my oldest son, Rusty, last year. It uh was within two weeks of when Joe Bonzo passed away. So it was uh kind of a double barrel of sadness in our life, and uh Gawain lost his beautiful wife of 54 years to cancer, and uh so it was a heart-wrenching year last year. But we have found that getting together and being able to sing and play music and and sing in harmony together, uh that's been so healing and uplifting for us, and it's something that we wanna do as long as we're able to do it, you know. I mean, it's a passion that we had from childhood, and it's something that we'll follow throughout our life. I heard an interview the other day that someone asked Keith Richards with a Rolling Stone said, Keith, when is the Rolling Stones gonna retire? He said, Retire. That'd be like a death sentence. Exactly. If you're in good health and you're left to sing and you're left to play music, then it's what we love to do, and it's what we have a passion to do, and it's what we live for, and it's what we uh sacrifice being at home with our families and all of that. And it's the feelings that we receive when we're able to get together and sing, and the healing that we continue to get day after day is lifting our spirit mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, lifting us up with music and songs. And I know this year the Oaks are extending our show with some gospel songs. We're doing about four or five gospel songs throughout the evening. Doing a little section of gospel kind of where we've come from. What it was happening when Dwayne and I joined the group. And uh but with the Goldens, we've been uh recording some. Uh because of a conflict of some dates that we've had, it's kind of been impossible for me to book dates for our family this year, but uh certainly we're been recording some and uh working on my grandson Elijah's so we video along. And he just graduated Brown University, and my granddaughter Elizabeth, who uh came up to Orange Blossom there and played on Thursdays, I believe, this past season in the summer. But she lives in Orlando and her husband plays the lead in uh one of the Disney shows there, a musical. Oh wow. And uh but she also works um at Disney and uh Universal there. She plays Ballyon and sings, a beautiful granddaughter of mine, Elizabeth Golden. But she uh played and harmonized with our family. We toured together in Elijah. So he's out of college now and uh he's getting married soon. And so we had a lot of other things that kind of interfered with the family being able to tour this year. But uh we're kind of trying to put keep the ball rolling for as um making new music and recording together and uh finishing up some albums that we're doing, and uh hopefully we'll be able to do some more live performances uh looking like next year.
SPEAKER_02:Well, keep the Thresher Horn Center in mind when you get back on tour with you know with the Goldens. Yes, sir. We'd love to see you back here on Orange Park. Before I let you go, I feel like I read or heard that the Oak Ridge boys are working on some new music. Is that correct?
SPEAKER_00:That is. Uh I'm glad you asked that because last year we recorded a new album, and uh we have a new video on that right now that just won a Kelly Award. It's called Come On Home. Dave Cobb that produces Chris Stapleton. He's been producing the Oak Ring for us for about ten years. He we've done the last five albums with Dave Cobb. We do one about every two or three years. We did one last year and we're looking at doing one this year, man. We're going in the studio in November again here in Nashville and uh recording another project. But these are projects that we've done with Ben James, our young tenor singer, and it's been incredible to uh record with him, and uh he's an incredible talent. He's a brand new generation with an incredible voice. But uh yeah, the Oak Ridge Boys are recording this year too, and we have some dates set aside the first week in uh November coming up.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I for one am looking forward to a new Goldens record, definitely the new Oak Ridge Boys record. And if I can put in a request for the concert, Bobby Sue is one of my favorites.
SPEAKER_00:We'll be doing Bobby Sue, we'll be doing El Byron, we'll be doing Y'all Come Back Saloon, we'll be doing uh Trying to Love Two Women is a song that I sang. And when I recorded that, that was kind of my life story. But uh time makes a change, you know. Anyhow, I'll be doing Thank God for kids, and uh the Oaks will be doing Sail Away and some of these great classic songs.
SPEAKER_02:Man, we cannot wait. It's Sunday, October 12th at the Thrasher Horns Center. The Oak Ridge Boys, William Lee Golden, thank you so much for your time today. All right, I'll see you down there on the 12th. Safe travels, buddy. Wow, what a thrill that was for me uh chatting with anyone from the Oak Ridge Boys. Just grew up listening to those guys and such a fan. Th center.org. That show is Sunday night, October 12th at the Thrasher Horn Center. Okay, what you're about to hear, we actually recorded, I think it was August 30th. It was the morning after, opening night of Halloween Horror Night. It's a Friday night when we do this. I get up at 3 30 in the morning, go all day, then we get down to Orlando, soon as we check in, we gotta get to the media party, then we do this RIP tour that goes on until about one o'clock in the morning. So by the time I get back to my room, I've been up for 23 hours normally, then we're up early the next morning to record uh this segment for the podcast. And we start out pretty good, but then you can tell as the podcast goes, we get punchy and it's kind of fun and funny. Uh you can tell in my voice that I'm tired and a little worn out. But uh this is uh Halloween hour night 2025. Again, that event is running through November 2nd at Universal Orlando Resort. I have to thank my friends at Universal for inviting us back every year. I have to apologize to my friends at Universal for getting this on so late. September was a blur, and um, and I am thankful that you bring me down, and I promise next year to get this loaded up the day after we get back from Orlando. But this was our experience at Universal Orlando Resort Halloween horror nights this year. We are rolling. Welcome to another episode of Live from Jacksonville. We are live from Orlando. Well, we're recording in Orlando at the Universal Orlando uh Resort Radio Broadcast Center, and we have Paula with us today. Paula is our uh, I guess, our guide for the morning here at the broadcast center. How are you?
SPEAKER_05:Very well, thank you. Thank you for having me on.
SPEAKER_02:You've been with Universal for about 15, 20, 30, 45, 50 years.
SPEAKER_05:21 years.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. We meet so many people every time we come here that have been with this company forever.
SPEAKER_05:It's a great company. It's a wonderful company to work for.
SPEAKER_02:And it's gotta be fun every day, right?
SPEAKER_05:You know what? If you're having a bad day, come out and ride a roller coaster.
SPEAKER_02:There you go. Can you just do that? Can you just be like, you can?
SPEAKER_05:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Like you can stop what you're doing and be like, oh, I want to I want to go ride a roller coaster.
SPEAKER_05:I gotta go out in the park and I gotta release some tension.
SPEAKER_02:You know what, Matt? We need to build a roller coaster in our parking lot at the radio station. Excellent. So when we're having a bad day, just go out and ride a roller coaster. Halloween Hard Nights is going on now through uh through November 2nd at Universal Orlando. Select nights, so make sure you check out the website for the nights that they're open. As it gets closer to Halloween, it's like every night, I think, for the last couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_04:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:It's always, I would say not one of, but the most exciting thing that I look forward to every single year. We've been coming, I don't know, I think I think since like 2000. When did this start?
SPEAKER_05:It started in one of the very first years. It started as a one night event. No way. Yes.
SPEAKER_02:I don't think I knew that.
SPEAKER_05:That's right.
SPEAKER_02:And this is year thirty thirty-four. So yeah, it's been going on for a very long time. Uh we look forward to the hospitality of Universal Orlando because they do this um kind of a media night. They are we all get to go on the RIP tour. So we see all the houses, we go through all the scare zones, uh, we just have a great time. They feed us well, and it's just an amazing time. And they put us up in a great hotel. Do you get to do all that?
SPEAKER_05:No.
SPEAKER_02:She was looking at me with a scowl, like, I don't get to do that.
SPEAKER_05:I I want to go I want to do that. Well, they do have an employee preview night for employees who come and experience the park, and that way people can experience the park before the guests come, so the actors and the entertainers and operations can see the flow and tweak before it opens up.
SPEAKER_02:And I would think too, especially for the RIP tour guides, uh, because the one we had last night, Joe was amazing. And he had been through the houses, he knew which ones were his favorites. He could give a little background on the houses as well as let people know what to expect. Like if they're scared by this or that, um, they could either sit out or I don't think anybody sat out at any of our houses last night, did they, Matt? Uh no. Yeah, I think everybody went through and they were a blast. Absolutely. So you have not been through the houses yet.
SPEAKER_05:I have not been through the houses, I have not been through the scare zones, and I have not seen the shows. So you're I'm a wonderful tonight.
SPEAKER_02:No, that's great because um because if if you have any questions about any of them, like maybe our audience would, you can just jump right in and ask. Let's just run down the houses real quick. Okay. The first one that we went into last night was uh Grave of Flesh, and that was one of my favorites to kick off. It was really a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_01:That was my least favorite. I'm just gonna say.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. That's okay. And I thought it was intentional. You know, Joe Joe is a great uh guide, and I thought he there was a method to, you know, building, maybe starting with the not quite as scary or whatnot. Uh huh. And uh it just because it it did elevate and get better from there.
SPEAKER_02:I I liked the special effects in that. I you know, I like the look of it, and I had a couple of good jump scares. Yeah. So I enjoyed that. It's pretty basic.
SPEAKER_01:I thought it was a basic, a good basic house.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. From there we went into uh probably what's the one of the most anticipated houses of the year. No, from there we went into Terrifier.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that's right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And uh and that Art the Clown, are you familiar with Art of the Clown, Paula?
SPEAKER_05:No, I am not.
SPEAKER_02:You're not? So this so this is kind of a B-rate horror film that it came out and it's I don't even think it was rated, if I'm not mistaken, it's rated NR. It's so graphic and disgusting and gross as a film. It is probably one of the most graphic horror films ever made. Low budget, gross, bloody, disgusting. Very gory.
SPEAKER_01:I was on my little reminder notes. I mean, it was very, very gory.
SPEAKER_02:And the character is this clown, this really, really tall clown named Art the Clown. He's like all white, like black around his mouth, and he wears his little top hat, this creepy little top hat. He's just one of the creepiest characters. Not like like Pennywise is a fun, kind of jovial clown.
SPEAKER_05:This thing is creepy as a not like Jack the Clown. Jack the Clown has been the universal for years.
SPEAKER_02:Look at this, look at this picture here of uh Art the Clown. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:He looks like he's got a parachute over his head.
SPEAKER_02:And you will get Yeah. He almost looks like a nun without the habit on, and then like this little top hat.
SPEAKER_01:That house was creepy. Very, very I'll say it again, Gory. And you'll get drenched in blood, remember?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that's right. You have two options at the end to go on a dry path with a wet path.
SPEAKER_05:So so if you are creeped out or grossed out by blood and gore, this is not your house.
SPEAKER_02:That is correct. If you are creeped out by blood and gore, you're probably not coming to Halloween Horror Nights. So if you are creeped out by those things, this is not your house. But at the end, it's dry and wet path. And they tell you before you go in if you have a poncho, which we did, put on the poncho for the and and when you exit, you you get you get you go through this like it's almost like a waterfall of blood.
SPEAKER_01:Well, yeah, I was gonna say quote unquote blood. Yeah. You're getting drenched in blood.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, it's clear water, obviously, when you come out, but you don't know in the moment because it looks so much.
SPEAKER_01:The visual, well, the visual, there's blood everywhere, so you're getting soaked with oh my gosh, what is this?
SPEAKER_02:You know what? The more we talk about it, the more I love that house. I wish we had gone in a second time. Yeah. It was really, really a lot of fun. Uh I've got to be honest, you said that was uh the um the the first one we went into was your least favorite. Yeah. The one I was most looking forward to was Five Nights at Freddy's. Are you familiar with that film, Paula? Sure. If you're not, that's okay. Uh it's basically the uh it's uh it's a it's a horror movie about uh it used to be like a kind of a Chuck E. Cheese with those animatronic characters, and kids went missing and come to find out their souls are in these animatronics.
SPEAKER_05:We've had Freddy's for a couple of times. I think we've had Freddy's.
SPEAKER_02:But that's just me. I'm I'm not that bright.
SPEAKER_05:Um this sounds very familiar.
SPEAKER_02:This one um I it was the one I was most looking forward to, and I was a little let down by it because I don't know if it was the story. The characters are amazing, but I think the the jump scares weren't as fun for me as I had hoped for. But again, it may have been just me building it up. But visually, an amazing house.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I was gonna say it started off strong, it's like out of the gate. It was like, oh, cool, cool sets.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you walk into the pizza place and the whole band is up there, the animatronic band, and they and they start slowly like falling apart, and they're it's creepy and fun. You gotta check that movie out.
SPEAKER_05:You know, the one thing about these houses, and this is what I love about Halloween, is that you if you take your time and walk through the houses, there's so much detail.
SPEAKER_02:This is what Matt and I love I'm all about the sex. Yeah, we both uh are you know fans of detail. There was a time when I worked for a television station, and every year we would come and I would interview someone in a house with the lights up, like in the daytime, and to stand even in one room and look around, it was mesmerizing how much detail there is. When you're going through and and and it's strobe lights and you're being scared and looking around so fast, you miss a lot of amazing stuff. And these people work their butts off to make it look real.
SPEAKER_05:For months. Yeah, not a year over. I was gonna say probably years. And the houses that are with LPs and like like Fallout they work with those creators to replicate the scenes.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think they told us that they were they were on the set of season two for Fallout. Yes, getting the details and storylines.
SPEAKER_05:So that they can perfect it, and so that those real fans of those movies really see all those details, and it's those fans that will pick out. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, did you see the that animatronic?
SPEAKER_05:Did you see how his arm fell off?
SPEAKER_02:That's exactly how I was for Freddy's, like, because I'm a fan of that movie. I haven't played the video game. Um, but he's he they the our tour guide said it wasn't based on the video game, so you wouldn't miss anything. That's a great house visually. It wasn't as scary to me as I'd hoped, but it was really, really good. Okay, so let's just go through some of the other ones. Dolls, let's play dead. Matt, this is one of your favorite houses, right?
SPEAKER_01:I really enjoyed that. One of the things is your your everything's larger. It's it's it's making you feel like one of the babies.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so basically it's big on this one. You get shrinked down by the the people that are torturing dolls, and you enter this dollhouse. So everything around you is it's like you're the size of a doll. Oh like a Barbie doll.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, okay. So you've been shrunk. Okay, you've been shrunk down.
SPEAKER_01:Do you remember the show Land of the Giants from the 60s? Yes. And uh yeah, that's what it felt like. And I love that world.
SPEAKER_02:There were a couple times you'd go through uh like a corridor and there's a window, and you could see people like looking in the window at you. So you felt small. Well, and there's a giant spool of thread.
SPEAKER_05:I mean, everything was the legs of the chairs, you were at the bottom of the chairs. Right. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02:That was kind of you walk by this massive, massive rat trap with just the tail in it.
SPEAKER_06:Oh yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02:That was great.
SPEAKER_01:Just the tail? Just the tail. But the mask and the costumes, uh, you know, creepy babies, creepy babies. Yeah, it was that was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I love that house. Um, hatchet and chains, these were characters from a house last year. They got their own house this year, and uh, they're demon bounty hunters. The characters are a hatchet, one's got a hatchet, and one's got chains, and uh, there are these demons that are coming after you. That was a that one's one of the houses that gave me the most jumps.
SPEAKER_01:How about you? That's with the uh the stable. It was you know, you were talking about uh the the attention to detail, it really hit me. Remember when we walked past, it was either barn doors or something, and there were bullet holes. And there was it was a gunfight. You could hear the gunshots. And yeah. And there were in the bullet holes, there were red lights and s the smoke coming out. So that those little details are really cool to see.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, as you're walking through the corridor throughout the house, you can hear the gunshots and then and then you'll see the holes.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and you know, you know, the you know that distinctive smell in all the houses of the dry ice, right? And and this one definitely had some distinctive smells too. Uh it was like uh s uh saddle leather. Yes. I was getting hints of magnesium for some reason. And uh and manure. Yeah. Matt said while we were going through the house, I think there's manure in this house.
SPEAKER_05:There is the poop smell. I yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I honestly feel like they took actual manure and put it in the on the set.
SPEAKER_05:It's just poop it's a smell. While we're on the you can even buy candles, I think, for Halloween. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:While we're on that poop smell, I was gonna say, I think this year there were more the it was the most uh sensory overload with smells in every house that I think I've ever had. Like I think I don't know if I've ever just not noticed it. Particularly the people in front of it.
SPEAKER_01:I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Oh no, I didn't. No, you didn't. It was hot out. It was hot out there. It actually felt pretty good.
SPEAKER_02:I believe yeah, it was a little greasy. I I did notice every house, it seemed like every house had a smell, and it wasn't pleasant, which added to the whole, you know, atmosphere of the club.
SPEAKER_01:I do love that dry eye smell though. Uh something about it.
SPEAKER_02:Let's talk about WWE presents the horrors of the Wyatt 6. I didn't know anything about this character or this storyline. And by the way, that's S-I-C-K-S, not the number. Wyatt 6 S-I-C-K-S. Are you familiar with this WWE character? No, I know. I wasn't either. And we met them in the uh in the beginning presentation. The characters are creepy as hell. There's this big hair, this big rabbit with this creepy face. There's like a pig boy, and um this creepy woman, and uh Wyatt is uh is a WWE character, and that was a that was a house that really was disturbing to me, almost like uh like Art the Clown.
SPEAKER_05:Is he big? Like a WD WWE wrestler? Yeah, he's got mocked.
SPEAKER_02:And he's got this top hat on, and he's got this mask, but you can see his creepy smile. Really, really great characters.
SPEAKER_05:Does he throw people down?
SPEAKER_02:Uh no, no, no, no, no. It doesn't like it doesn't wrestle you, but you could you felt like you could. Like he could just pick you up and just like slam you on the mat. Um how are you how was that house for you?
SPEAKER_01:Uh it was uh it was okay. I felt felt like uh if you're a wrestling fan, you'll really enjoy it. And even if you're not a wrestling fan, you could enjoy it, but I was kind of I was kind of in the middle, like, oh, okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But that hair, that that massive rabbit, that was the creepy character. Yeah. And so was that pork face guy. I mean, he kept popping. I think the characters must have sought in my face that I was creeped out by them. All the ones that played the pig boy, because he they were they they had they had their radar on me and they scared me every time. Okay. El Artista, am I pronouncing that correctly? La Artista. It's La L. Does it?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, El Artista. Or maybe I'm mispronouncing E L. I thought it should be feminine and La I could have sworn it's La Artista.
SPEAKER_02:Either way, it's a Spanish haunting. This is one of my favorite stories uh of the haunted houses. Get going here. Uh it was um, so basically the story on this one, Paula, is uh this artist is like this mad artist, and he's painting these characters, and these demons realize that they can get into the real world through his paintings. So as you go through the house, you see uh he he kind of goes mad and these demons come out to get you.
SPEAKER_05:Okay, that's creepy.
SPEAKER_02:It's really a great storyline for a house.
SPEAKER_05:How do they come out of the It's magic?
SPEAKER_02:It's just magic.
SPEAKER_05:And they just appear.
SPEAKER_02:I'm sorry, it's El Magico.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Uh I don't know how they come through. I just know that they do, because our guy told us that.
SPEAKER_05:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:But M Matt, what how are we?
SPEAKER_05:Do you see them or do they just attach paranormally to your body?
SPEAKER_02:Ooh, I don't know. No, no, no, no. You see them. You see them. Yeah, there's a lot of good jump scares.
SPEAKER_05:I don't want to walk, I don't want to come home with anybody.
SPEAKER_02:But they yeah, I don't think I think they stay in the house when you leave, but at the beginning of of this house, they're not demon-like. And as you go through the house, they get more and more creepy, you know, coming out from behind these corners and coming at you.
SPEAKER_01:That that that might be with the top uh my fat uh top favorite set design.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was one of my favorite too. And and we we learned, do you remember the the what was it called the um the Blood Moon house? It's the same designer. Um we learned that from um from our tour guide, and that was one of my favorites last year. That guy just has an eye, uh, an eye for visual. And what was the one called um with the boat inside uh two years ago? The dead man's pier? Do you remember that? Right?
SPEAKER_05:Right. Yes, they those are awesome.
SPEAKER_02:Same designer. So you'll know when you go in and El Artista or La Artista.
SPEAKER_01:Um, it's L I guess uh artista is a masculine noun. If we want to break it down, let's get into the We we don't. Lo siento.
SPEAKER_02:I was just reading off the off the the the paper.
SPEAKER_01:We go to Paul.
SPEAKER_02:Paul, we go to Mexican restaurants and he has to order in Spanish.
SPEAKER_01:Oh no, no, no, it's verdad. No, it's verdad.
SPEAKER_02:And I don't and I I'm I'm left out. I'm like a third wheel. I'm like on a date with that with our server and this guy that speaks Spanish. And that's how we're gonna do that. I I need to get I need hearing aids anyway. I need the kind that will translate. Yeah. So I'll know if you're talking about me or ordering food. Uh-huh. Could go either way. All right, let's talk about um the last three houses that we went through. Um let's start with um, is it called Gulkin? Monsters of the North? Gulkin. Gulk Gulkin. Um this is I don't want to I don't want to step on any copyright infringements. Let's just say that winter is coming, and we were there uh in the in the north, yeah. Uh, and there's this beast that uh that has come to life uh after being killed by the village people. Not the band, but the people that live in the village.
SPEAKER_01:Gary Sailor.
SPEAKER_02:It's it's this beast that used to eat um like livestock and stuff, and so the village people killed this beast, and now she is resurrected in this winter storm and it's coming after us. Was it cold in there? It was cold in there. Um I'm a big fan of the franchise that this is kind of loosely based on, which if you know, if you have HBO and you love dragons and and that kind of thing, you know exactly what we're talking about. They did a really, really good job of capturing that feel of that show without stepping on any you know copyright infringements, and I loved this house.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Where were you on it? I loved it too. This was one of the last five we we did uh uh on the uh they were the non-soundstage, right? Yeah, absolutely. And this was one of them, which all of those, the all the sets were great. It was a smaller suit, a little more scaled down, so they uh put uh a lot of detail into the sets, and this was one of them.
SPEAKER_02:Great it's funny you mentioned non-soundstage because I told you as we were walking, I call it outside the park. Um years ago, you were working here when there was um the the house based on the thing, John Carpenter's the thing. That was one of the first houses I remember going to, like again, what I call outside the park. And I remember how cold it was and how visually stunning it was because I'm a big fan of John Carpenter and that movie. And I remember going through that house going, I feel like I'm on the set of that movie. And ever since then, and maybe it's in my mind, all those houses that are outside the park, out there in those, they've created these like massive They've built um two new. Would you call them would you call them tents or permanent tents?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, like semi-permanent tents. Yeah, yes.
SPEAKER_02:And for some reason huge. It's in maybe it's in my mind, but the houses that are out there always seem to be like the crimson.
SPEAKER_01:They remind me of barracks. Like like really large barracks. I could see that. Yeah, but uh but yeah, the the yeah, uh those were especially immersive. Something about the sets were you know, detailed and immersive.
SPEAKER_02:And maybe it's also because it is outside the park, you kind of feel like it's really not outside.
SPEAKER_05:You can't say it's outside of the park. It's in the park.
SPEAKER_02:It's in the park, but it's uh around the perimeter. It's around the perimeter. Um I remember way back in the day, one of the um uh uh the buildings is where they stored the Mardi Gras parades. Uh yes, yes, and so it's kind of out in that area. It's not where you would normally walk through if you were here visiting the park. Right. Um Backlot. Could we call it backlot? You could-ish. It's backlottish. But anyway, yeah, the last two houses were also part of that um that backlottish area. Um let's talk about uh Jason. That was actually the last house we saw, obviously based on the Jason franchise. Um, and it was all the Jasons you've ever seen in every Jason movie, and there have been like I think 15 or so. And I loved it because I'm a big fan of that character. And there are certain ones, like I think I forget which Jason it was where it where they like stuck a pole through his grave and then lightning struck it. Do you remember that one? And this and this decayed zombie Jason came out, and so that one was in there. Um, there's all these different versions of Jason through all these all the years that come at you, and that one that gave me some really good jumps.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, a lot of great nostalgia on that one, and that was the the only house that had a segment of little corridor hallway where you could not see at all, and not because of darkness, but because of the fog. The fog. You and and that made it extra scary, of course.
SPEAKER_02:You can see I went right behind our tour guide, Paula, and he literally covered his ears and dropped his head to get through that corridor because it was so I think he was so scared. I saw him jump a couple of times like a girl. And uh that was a joke. But in that corridor, about every five or six feet, there's a there's a curtains that you have to get through. Right. And you get through it, and then it's fog, and then it's dark, and then it's it's it's scary. Strobes. Strobes, and then there's Jason with an axe or with a machete. The different Jasons having different the different weapons. It wasn't.
SPEAKER_05:You can't go wrong with Jason at Halloween.
SPEAKER_02:You really can. And one of the things about like all the houses, there's all these different characters, so you kind of don't know what's coming next. This house was the house of Jason. I mean, every scare was Jason.
SPEAKER_01:But I gotta say, I wish more of the houses took away one of your senses because that was the only house where I was like, oh no, I can't see at all. Yeah, it is. I'm I'm alarmed.
SPEAKER_02:There were some really, really dark moments, and that and that is kind of scary. Uh yeah, it's scary. I don't want to say why I'm scared.
SPEAKER_05:Well when they have those flashes, right? So the flash and your pupil go for it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. And then and then it's dark.
SPEAKER_02:But it's just that millisecond of like re like regaining like reality.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, there there were yeah, there were those those throughout the other houses, but this one was a long stretch of hallway where it was like, okay, I'm I'm like have to feel my way through it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Well, that's using one of the senses that you're not using in one of the air houses. Right.
SPEAKER_02:You're right. You're right. And that's why whenever they drop something and and the and the and the the earth shakes, that's another one that always gets it.
SPEAKER_01:Those noises, those those jarring noises always get you.
SPEAKER_02:You saw the Hitchcock film Rear Window. Remember when the guy from across the courtyard came at Jimmy Stewart and he was using the bulbs in his um in his camera to like blind the guy? That's what I thought of when you just mentioned the strobes. Because that's what happens. You need a second to be like, wait, where am I? And then there's a character in your face. Right. And it's like, whoa, it's it's jarring. All right, the last house we went to was Fallout, and full disclosure, I had no idea this was a show. I have never, I don't even think I've seen a trailer for this show. This was one of my favorite houses, story-wise, and the characters were really great. There's one character. Are you familiar with this show?
SPEAKER_05:I've just started recently watching it.
SPEAKER_02:So the the girl that's in it, she's not a scary character, she's not like toxically deformed, she's just a regular person. And so we kind of follow her looking for her dad through the Fallout House, and then there's these creatures that are also looking for her dad. And I thought that was visually and storyline one of the best houses. Even though I'm not familiar with the franchise.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm not either, but uh the lead girl, you know, the she's su super cute and kind of Laura Croftish.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:From Tomb Raider, that kind of vibe. Definitely the heroine um type.
SPEAKER_02:Uh is this a house that you're gonna go into, Paula?
SPEAKER_05:I'll do all the houses.
SPEAKER_02:You will?
SPEAKER_05:I will you know it you you you you come here and to see all the houses, you gotta do all the houses.
SPEAKER_02:I agree.
SPEAKER_05:And you gotta do the shows. I agree. You have to do the scarezo, you have to do everything you can do.
SPEAKER_01:And you have to eat the food and drink the drinks. Gotta do that.
SPEAKER_02:Several of them. Gotta drink the blood. Uh scare zones. Let's run through those real quick. Um there's The Origin of Horror. Uh, I liked that one. Masquerade, Dance and Death. So there's uh The Masquerade Dances like a disco and outdoor like EVM. Um that was the last one we went through, remember? Which I like that one. I like that one a lot. Um The Cat Lady and uh of Crooked Lane liked that one a lot. And New Mutations, Toxic, uh, Toxic Twenties. I like that one too. That was the one, remember where the uh the toxic car ran into the I think it was a police car, and there was like I think it was rat poisoning, and all the people had like their faces were bubbling up. Yeah. That was that was kind of I actually actually almost ran into someone cheek to cheek that had all those like toxic bubbles on his face, and it kind of scared me. Yeah. Like I don't want to.
SPEAKER_05:Was it contagious?
SPEAKER_02:It was contagious. That's why I didn't want to bump into him, leave it here looking like that. That's not right.
SPEAKER_05:Okay, did you see any of the shows?
SPEAKER_02:So we we actually did not get to see the show, and the show I believe is a continuation of last year's show uh this year.
SPEAKER_05:The Nightmare Fuel?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, the Nightmare Fuel.
SPEAKER_05:Love that show.
SPEAKER_02:You saw it?
SPEAKER_05:No, not this year, but I just love that we've brought that here. Yeah. This is what the third or fourth year.
SPEAKER_02:I think that yeah, at least at least three, maybe four years. It's kind of correct me if I'm wrong, it's kind of replacing Bill and Ted.
SPEAKER_05:Correct, Bill and Ted is no more.
SPEAKER_02:Right, Bill and Ted is no more, but this is kind of like the the ongoing year. And we did learn that uh the storyline continues from last year. So I'm kind of bummed we didn't get to see it.
SPEAKER_05:They have a magic that appears in the beginning, and I was like, I will come and just go to that show because I'm still trying to figure out what happens.
SPEAKER_02:Really?
SPEAKER_05:Because I can't figure out the magic.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, that that's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_05:Because it's on stage, and no matter where you sit, it happens, it happens, and you try to figure it out.
SPEAKER_02:The stage shows are a great way if you're if you're doing the whole the whole night to take a break, get off your feet, and just enjoy the dancing and the pop culture references.
SPEAKER_05:Which they which they bring into Nightmare Field.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Um so yeah, it is a great way. If you've never been to Halloween Horror Nights, I would say schedule the time to grab something to eat, sit down for I think it it's a 30-minute show.
SPEAKER_05:It's yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So it kind of gives you a chance to just take a breather before you go back into the next house, whatever that house may be. Um let's talk about uh staying on property. Uh if you're gonna be coming to Halloween Horror Nights from Jacksonville or anywhere else, there's some advantages of staying on property.
SPEAKER_05:There are some advantages. Some of the uh premium hotels will get you into the park early, so that's always nice. Um free transportation.
SPEAKER_02:Now, is that that's for Halloween Horror Nights too? Or just into the park?
SPEAKER_05:Just into the park in the morning. Yeah. So there's different levels of hotels. Right. So the more premium hotels will give you earlier access than some of the others. You'll get preferred dining reservations. It's it's really a good deal, the express packages.
SPEAKER_02:If you're coming from anywhere in the state of Florida, I think staying at a property, you know, on site is the way to go.
SPEAKER_04:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:First of all, the hotels themselves are an experience. We're staying an endless summer on Duck Side right now. And I love when you first walk in the room, there's a surfboard. Like you instantly get into the mindset.
SPEAKER_05:They're much larger rooms, right?
SPEAKER_02:Bigger rooms, uh the rooms that we have have three beds. There are suites. Yeah, they're suites.
SPEAKER_05:There's like all of them are suites. Oh, they are? Yes. I did not know that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. You didn't either. Yeah. I did not. And they've got little kitchens and like a little picnic table. And I love it.
SPEAKER_05:The Murphy bed comes out over the picnic table.
SPEAKER_02:Wait, it does?
SPEAKER_05:Did the Murphy bed come out for the picnic table?
SPEAKER_02:Uh I guess you're right. Yeah. I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_05:I believe so.
SPEAKER_02:I think so. I gotta get back in our room and check that out. My favorite properties are the Lowe's hotels that are like right here. The the Hard Rock. If I won Powerball, I would buy a room at the Hard Rock, and that's where I would live.
SPEAKER_06:I love the Hard Rock.
SPEAKER_02:Me too. I mean, as a music lover, it is just it's the memorabilia. The memorabilia. The first time I ever walked into that place, I'm like, I'm at home. I felt like I was at home. It's amazing. Portofino is amazing. I love Sapphire Falls. Yeah, you and your daughter. That's like one of the places to go. Yeah, the hotels here are just amazing. So if you've never stayed on site, definitely, definitely recommend that. Do it at least one time.
SPEAKER_05:And they do get renovated. I mean, they've they've all been renovated. They're all up to date. Oh, yeah. The latest and greatest amenities.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So you gotta get down and check it out. Is there anything we didn't cover? I don't think so.
SPEAKER_05:The Lagoon Show?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, the Lagoon Show, because we didn't see that one either. Can you tell us about that?
SPEAKER_05:The Lagoon Show happens in Universal Studios, Florida. It's over in the center, right? Lagoon shows that appear in the water and drones.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, really? It's pretty cool. I remember way back in the day there was like a like a boat, like a almost like a stunt show. Do you remember that?
SPEAKER_05:Back in the day. Now you're talking long time ago.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was back in the day.
SPEAKER_05:Dynamite night. Yes, oh my god.
SPEAKER_02:My mind was just blown.
SPEAKER_05:I pulled that out of nowhere. Nice.
SPEAKER_02:I know that was a while ago, but it when it as soon as you said lagoon, like I thought about that.
SPEAKER_05:Remember the boat used to be? Yes. Absolutely. There were boats and jet skis. Do you remember that?
SPEAKER_01:All I'm thinking of is uh Cypress Gardens or Wiki Wachi uh water ski show, pyramid. This was like this was like on steroids explosion.
SPEAKER_05:Because it's such a it's a small lagoon, right? So Cypress Gardens had that big lake. Yeah. This is a small lagoon, and the boats are like flying in the middle of the parking lot.
SPEAKER_01:And they're small. There were small boats. They're like or regular sized boats?
SPEAKER_05:Regular sized boats.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I don't remember the show.
SPEAKER_05:Some of them are still like by uh Finnegans or on the piers that you have sitting over there.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, is that some of the ones from that show?
SPEAKER_05:From that show. Well, replicas. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Because the other ones blew up. Yeah, I forgot about that show. So there's so many, there like there's two shows uh every year, two chances to just sit down and just relax. Yeah. What else did we did we uh overlook? Food?
SPEAKER_05:Do you want to talk about the food?
SPEAKER_02:The food. There was a there was a deep, was it a deep fried cheesecake that we didn't get to last night? That looked so dang good. I was so full already. Because they had from from Freddie's uh they had they had spaghetti on pizza. So I had a slice of that spaghetti meatballs on pizza. That was like the vessel to get it into your your mouth. And it was so good and so fun to eat. I felt like a kid. Like I'm eating spaghetti on pizza. Yeah. Uh there was this great ramen meal. There's no rules when it comes to home. There's no rules. And the food's amazing. What was your favorite food last night?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, that's that's primarily what I what I had. They also had the uh Sloppy Joe with bacon and jalapeno pickles and uh Oh, they had street corn that was just covered with parmesan cheese.
SPEAKER_02:It looked so good. I didn't get to eat any of that. I was I was so full.
SPEAKER_03:There's no chocolate?
SPEAKER_02:Come on, there was chocolate. There was this there from from Five Nights at Freddy, the cupcake. You didn't see that movie, did you? There's these creepy cupcakes with this buck tooth. And so they had these cupcakes were probably how big were they? Like bigger than a Big Mac. It was big, a softball. Like a softball. Probably bigger than a softball. Yeah. But it was cannoli filling on the outside of this raspberry chocolate cake. That's why I didn't eat anything else. I ate that damn thing. And it's so filling. That was so good. I wish they were just like tiny, and I could have eaten like 40 of those. Or 50. Yeah, the food's amazing.
SPEAKER_05:The food's amazing. The the ticket offerings are amazing. The hotels are amazing. So, you know, check out universalorlando.com and download the app. And the app has the maps that tells you where to go.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, the app map. Don't forget the app map.
SPEAKER_05:So it's all it's all a great experience to come.
SPEAKER_02:One thing I would say too, if you've never been, sit down before you come and make a plan of the houses you want to see because there's some wait time, and knock out the ones you want to see first. And like have an order of where you want to go in.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, if you're coming from any distance and you want to do the park, 100% book the RIP tour. I agree. It is so worth it. Because you don't wait in line, you go right to the front.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you have to do that.
SPEAKER_05:You have to do the park. That's the only way to do it. It's it's expensive and it's you know night dependent on the right. Worth it. And it's so worth it. If you're only going to come once and you're traveling a long distance, it's the way to do it.
SPEAKER_02:It's the only way to do it. I agree 100%. And that's exactly what we did last night. We're so blessed to be in the media and get invited to this event so we can see all that.
SPEAKER_05:I tried to come with you.
SPEAKER_02:You did?
SPEAKER_05:Remember, I was talking to you on the phone yesterday. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You wanted me to boot Matt out and come with us. Do you get to do these RIP tours? No. Wow. Again.
SPEAKER_05:I had to have to pay for it.
SPEAKER_02:We're so blessed. I mean, we really are, and we're fully aware of that, and we're very thankful to Universal for inviting us to this every year and letting us experience it and then share it with our listeners on how much fun it is. And you're right, if you're going to come down and you want to see everything, and you said from a distance, but even if you're coming from Jacksonville, I'm I'm saying Jacksonville is a distance.
SPEAKER_05:I thought you're talking about it.
SPEAKER_01:I thought you were talking about like Saratoga, New York or something. Or London. Or London. We we had such an international group. They do.
SPEAKER_02:We met people from Brazil, London, Ireland, uh, Scotland.
SPEAKER_05:They do. They come from all over the world.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. The ones that were from France, they had like cone heads. Do you remember that? And I was like, where are you from? And they're like, We're from France. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Do you remember that?
SPEAKER_03:These were media people that were old school Saturday Night Live reference that went right over your head.
SPEAKER_01:I become so immune to he gets me. He's so good. His delivery is filled with such conviction. And I will believe anything he says. We're from France.
SPEAKER_04:Anyway, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Those people from all over. If you're coming from Brazil or France, definitely get the RIP package. If you're coming from Brazil, France, or Jacksonville. Otherwise, don't worry about it, yeah. No, you're right. It it's the way to do it because you do get to see every house and you have to experience every single thing.
SPEAKER_05:Yes. And you get the you get the history of the houses from the your tour guide. They're so knowledgeable. You get a little background.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, when you when you book an RIP tour, can you book who your your guide is? I wish. You can't? You can't request. Because we had this guy last night who we think we've had before, Joe Joe Molly. Joe Mully. Do you know him? From London. He's from London.
SPEAKER_01:Somewhere in England.
SPEAKER_02:So good. He is so enthusiastic and he's such a fan and he's been through the houses and he he can let you know what you know what you're going to expect. Yeah, I I don't think I've ever had a bad tour guide. They're all so much fun.
SPEAKER_05:They're good. And and they and they want those jobs. Oh yeah. Those are good those are coveted jobs.
SPEAKER_02:He told us he started out, uh, I think he was on one of the roller coasters, maybe dueling dragons, just like buckling people in, and he would see these tours go through. He was a kid. Uh and he'd be like, I want to do what they're doing, and he kind of worked his way up to now he's a tour guide, and he he just loves it. He just loves his life, like you probably.
SPEAKER_05:I love my life.
SPEAKER_02:You retired from this, and now you do it like as a contractor.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, it's part-time for me. I come back, I'm still part of the team, you know, come back and see the park. I've seen it evolve. It's wonderful to see people that I worked with over the years.
SPEAKER_02:Speaking of evolving, can you tell us what's gonna go with the where the rip rip rip rocket? Oh, right, Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket. That was wild to see. Can you tell us what's going there?
SPEAKER_05:I have no idea.
SPEAKER_02:So you don't know yet? I do not know. Or you're just not gonna tell us.
SPEAKER_05:That too.
SPEAKER_02:That too. Yeah, it's that's that's another creepy part of the of Halloween Harmics experience is watching that being deconstructed.
SPEAKER_05:It's it's taking over a lot of the park.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it really is. I'm not gonna lie, it made me sad because I loved that ride. That was a great ride. That was a really, really fun ride.
SPEAKER_05:I've never buckled myself in all the way. Wait, what? When you pull down the handle, you don't pull it down all the way, you leave a little room so that when you go do the anti-gravity, you come out of your seat. I do that on Hulk too. What? Yeah, when you pull it down. You're allowed to do that?
SPEAKER_02:Such a rebel. Well, you know what? My belly's so big that just one notch and I'm in. That's the problem for me. Do you like the Hulk?
SPEAKER_05:I love the Hulk.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, real quick story. I know this is going a little long. But you're wearing the Hulk shirt. The shirt I'm wearing right now, uh, before the park opened, they did like a like a soft opening. It was Mother's Day of whatever year it opened.
SPEAKER_05:Right, I remember. Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, you were here. I was here. I was here, I brought my nephew, I think he was like 14 years old, and we rode the Hulk, no lie, a dozen times. Because there was no one here. We would get off, go back, get in the front, get off, go back, get in the back, get in the middle. We rode it so many times, and I got this shirt that day. It used to have uh white lettering in the back, but the white has frayed off. But I wear this shirt every time I come to the broadcast center.
SPEAKER_05:Working on the commercials, the B-roll for that attraction, uh, we would bring in people to ride the coaster so that we could film it. And we would want people who could ride it over and over and over and over again. And there's a coaster group called American Coaster Enthusiasts Ace. And that's their that's their thing, is like they love to ride roller coasters. Yeah. All the theme parks reach out to this group. I had a guy on Culk ride it 43 times in a row.
SPEAKER_04:Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01:Oh man, I would have to do it.
SPEAKER_05:And your brain's gotta be jelly.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right. Huge headache.
SPEAKER_05:I mean 43 times.
SPEAKER_02:I suffer from vertigo now, so I'm not uh on as many.
SPEAKER_05:No, you can't do that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. But I know that um there was a few years ago they they switched over the way it launches to like this like magnetic, smooth, and I have not experienced that yet.
SPEAKER_05:It's all good.
SPEAKER_02:I'm really bummed. I think I will try to try it sometime.
SPEAKER_05:Don't risk your vertigo for I mean, it might be worth it.
SPEAKER_02:Maybe it'll put everything back in order. Maybe it will. That's what I need to do. I need to ride and get corrected. Yeah, yeah. So so watching the the one roller coaster being deconstructed to me added the ambiance of the creepiness of the night because we kept walking underneath it. It is sad, but I'm looking forward to what's coming next. Because there's what, you know what's coming next?
SPEAKER_05:I am not gonna be. We have ways of making this is what I I can neither confirm nor deny what you read on Screamscape is true.
SPEAKER_02:On what?
SPEAKER_01:Screamscape.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, you have to follow the the fanatics.
SPEAKER_02:Is that a website?
SPEAKER_05:A YouTube channel or Screamscape, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Facebook or Twitter. It's on the world wide web. I gotta I gotta find out because I want to know what's happening. Yeah, I got it.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, there's there's a few um social media teams out there that are really like tuned in. I don't know how they get the information. I don't know you know, they management would always come to us and go, who linked out this photo? And I'm like, Oh there's a whole team, there's an underground team that speakers.
SPEAKER_02:I am so glad you told me that because I'm gonna start doing some investigating. I want to know.
SPEAKER_05:It's pretty amazing what they're doing.
SPEAKER_02:As the promotions director for both the radio stations, I have to know what's coming up so I can plan my calendar. So I've got to start doing some research.
SPEAKER_05:When are you coming back? You're gonna come back for holidays.
SPEAKER_02:Uh yeah. Oh, I don't think we're coming back for holidays this year. Um, but definitely Mardi Gras for sure.
SPEAKER_05:Ride the floats?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I hope so. We were we rode the floats. Were you with us when we rode the floats a couple years ago? No. And we got to throw out the beads. I didn't know I didn't know how much fun that was gonna be. It's a workout. It's a workout, and it's and yeah, I've never ridden a Mardi Gras float and been the one to throw the beads out. But to see the people like begging for the beads, like I'm like, that was me. That was me last year. And now I'm tossing them out. And you guys, here's what's amazing. You guys have an endless supply of beads. Yes, we do. It's weird. You'll take a box and another one will just appear. It's magic.
SPEAKER_05:You have to get rid of all the beads on your float.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Because they don't want to have to like clean them up. So you're at the end of the when you come towards the end of you're like scrambling around the floor, picking up all the loose beads.
SPEAKER_04:Get them out of here.
SPEAKER_02:Get them out of here. It's great. Yeah, we'll be back for sure. And hopefully we'll have you and uh you can join us again on the podcast. What is that?
SPEAKER_01:It's a creepy door. Is that is that our cue? I think so.
SPEAKER_02:Paul, thank you so much for hanging out with us this morning, being on the podcast, and and uh lending your expertise and letting us know about what's that website again?
SPEAKER_05:Universalorlando.com.
SPEAKER_02:No, no, no, the one where I can get information on the roller.
SPEAKER_05:Screenscape.
SPEAKER_02:All right, thank you everyone. I can neither confirm nor deny. That's gonna be our catchphrase. Again, Halloween Horror Nights is running through November 2nd at Universal Orlando Resort. Thank you to everyone down there for bringing us back and putting up with us every year. Thank you for listening. This has been my longest podcast so far, and I appreciate you hanging out. We'll be back soon with another episode to let you know what's happening live from Jacksonville.