They say a day at Disney can send you on an emotional rollercoaster, but nothing prepared us for the heartache and hilarity that unfolded in this episode. We start by paying tribute to Madeline Soto, a 13-year-old whose story has cast a somber shadow over Orange County. As we delve into the details of the tragedy, we honor her memory and the community's response to such a devastating loss. But the mood shifts gears as we recount the now-infamous Willie's Chocolate Experience—you won't believe the chaos behind the AI-generated script that turned a whimsical event into a social media uproar.
Our podcast journey then whisks you away to Disney World, where we swap animatronic nightmares for an adrenaline rush on Pandora’s Flight of Passage. Hear us debate the fright factor of the Dinosaur ride, laugh over our park day hangovers, and disclose Ashley's curious fear of animatronics. And for those who've always wondered about the Frozen Ever After ride at Epcot, we tackle whether its icy charm fits the park's cultural melting pot, sprinkling in some Frozen-themed insights and a mother-daughter Jeopardy tease that promises more enchanting episodes to come.
Join us as we dot our i's with Mickey-shaped ice cream and dash our way through Disney's spellbinding realms, with guest appearances by friends and the occasional odd snack choice. Whether you're a thrill-seeker, an art aficionado, or just someone who enjoys a good ol' Disney day, this episode offers a sketch of park life with tales of ride disruptions, an artful Animation Experience, and the comedic gold that can only be found in the happiest place on Earth. Grab your park map, and let's navigate the unexpected adventures that await in every Disney corner.
They say a day at Disney can send you on an emotional rollercoaster, but nothing prepared us for the heartache and hilarity that unfolded in this episode. We start by paying tribute to Madeline Soto, a 13-year-old whose story has cast a somber shadow over Orange County. As we delve into the details of the tragedy, we honor her memory and the community's response to such a devastating loss. But the mood shifts gears as we recount the now-infamous Willie's Chocolate Experience—you won't believe the chaos behind the AI-generated script that turned a whimsical event into a social media uproar.
Our podcast journey then whisks you away to Disney World, where we swap animatronic nightmares for an adrenaline rush on Pandora’s Flight of Passage. Hear us debate the fright factor of the Dinosaur ride, laugh over our park day hangovers, and disclose Ashley's curious fear of animatronics. And for those who've always wondered about the Frozen Ever After ride at Epcot, we tackle whether its icy charm fits the park's cultural melting pot, sprinkling in some Frozen-themed insights and a mother-daughter Jeopardy tease that promises more enchanting episodes to come.
Join us as we dot our i's with Mickey-shaped ice cream and dash our way through Disney's spellbinding realms, with guest appearances by friends and the occasional odd snack choice. Whether you're a thrill-seeker, an art aficionado, or just someone who enjoys a good ol' Disney day, this episode offers a sketch of park life with tales of ride disruptions, an artful Animation Experience, and the comedic gold that can only be found in the happiest place on Earth. Grab your park map, and let's navigate the unexpected adventures that await in every Disney corner.
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, welcome back guys. Oh, this sounds weird. I'm clipping.
Speaker 2:Wait, I definitely wasn't even holding my mic, so that sucks.
Speaker 1:Can you guys hear me Can?
Speaker 2:you hear us?
Speaker 1:I think, oh wow, yeah, that looks a lot better. Look at how high that was, can you?
Speaker 2:just turn my volume up a little bit Volume that would be great. I just went into my ears. Thank you, yeah there you go.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what I was trying to figure out our sounds Every single week. You would think it would be the same. Because we don't have to, I don't change the knobs, but then when I plug everything in and we start talking, it's like Everything's all different.
Speaker 2:It is, and it's annoying. Hey, buddy, how are you?
Speaker 1:I'm shaking a mild headache. I'm pretty exhausted today. It's been a long week and it is 10.30, 30 minutes after we were supposed to start doing this, but the house is empty. When's Rob get off?
Speaker 2:Midnight. Okay, we'll be done by then.
Speaker 1:God. I hope we're done by then.
Speaker 2:Are you going to ask me how I'm doing?
Speaker 1:How are you doing, Ashley?
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for asking.
Speaker 1:Oh wait, hold on. Excuse me, miss Austin, how exactly are you feeling on this fun? Not yet spring evening.
Speaker 2:Like shit. I do have a couple updates, though. I kicked the cold, so that's good. So I'm sure you all can hear me nice and clear, which is nice, and no more sniffling nose, which is good. But we had a pretty hectic day yesterday, so I think my body just feels that, and I had a pretty hectic day at the office today too, so I'm just kind of like meh.
Speaker 1:When I tell you I woke up in my legs were sore and I went to work in my legs are sore. Now I'm sitting here and my legs are sore. That's an understatement for how sore my legs are. Do you know what I've learned?
Speaker 2:that it is though what it's called a park day hangover. We used to get hangover. Well, I used to get hangovers after drinking. I've obviously quit drinking, so I no longer get those hangovers anymore.
Speaker 1:Now I get park, I will now I get parking overs.
Speaker 2:Now I can't like hang with the big kids anymore. You know we did. We'll get into our day yesterday, but we went pretty ham in the paints yesterday and I can't imagine doing that and then doing that every single day like these tourists. Do I give them some props? I'm too old for that.
Speaker 1:They come prepared yeah they do, I mean.
Speaker 2:but I even came prepared, but I still don't think I'm prepared enough. But so we want to start this episode off with with a little bit of some news.
Speaker 1:We're just going right for it. We're not even going to do our fun little do to do intro music.
Speaker 2:I don't know if this one deserves the fun intro music.
Speaker 1:I think everything gets intro music.
Speaker 2:All right, let's do the intro music.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. All right, let's. Let's do a pre show topic.
Speaker 2:Here we go. So, as I'm sure quite a few of you have seen, or if you haven't, orange County was kind of hit with some pretty devastatingly sad news. So on February 26, madeline Soto she just turned 13 was well she. She was being driven to school by her mom's boyfriend, steven Stearns, and instead of being dropped off at school, there's claims that she was dropped off by a nearby church and that afternoon, when school was over, her mom went to pick her up and she was informed that her daughter never attended class that day. That's when she headed to the police station and officially declared her child as missing. On the 27th, her posters were released and they were plastered everywhere. I mean, they were all over social media platform. We got Amber alerts for it. Where, where my office is, we had police officers dropping them off at at my office this is pretty close to where I worked, so it was. It was everywhere.
Speaker 2:Now, on the 28th of February, the Orange County Sheriff, john Mina I'm not sure if I'm probably butchering that, so I do apologize he he hosted a press conference about the ongoing search and saying that they were actively looking for this girl and that they were doing the best they could and that they had search parties and teams that were scoping the area and looking everywhere for her. Now, the same day, steven was arrested on sexual battery and child sex abuse, material possessions and he was also declared a prime suspect. Now, on March 1st, the same sheriff, john Mina, hosted another press conference, and this is where it gets a little sad, because he made a statement that he said they are now confident, and I quote are now confident that the missing 13 year old Madeline Soto was dead, and that same he had his press conference. I want to say it was like 11am, something like that, and about six o'clock. That's when they confirmed and found the body of the 13 year old missing girl.
Speaker 2:Now police believe that she was never dropped off at school on Monday and that she was dead long before that, and then they also believe that students allegedly moved her body in the mornings after of the day that she was killed. Now there's also video evidence that shows students discarding items in a dumpster which were later recovered and identified as her backpack and school issued laptop All things she very much needed for that day. There's also video evidence of Stern returning to his neighborhood while Madeline was very visible in that front seat vehicle and the sheriff believes that during that time the teenager was already passed on. So at this moment they have not arrested him on this. He is being held on those charges.
Speaker 1:They have not moved, so he has been arrested. He just hasn't been formally charged.
Speaker 2:No, no no, he hasn't been arrested on the murder of her yet, the only arrest that has been made of him. He is actively been arrested.
Speaker 1:He is sitting in Orange County.
Speaker 2:Correct. He's sitting in Orange County jail Actively right now and the only charge he has been charged with as of right now is the sexual battery and child sex abuse material possession charge. This was sad. This is so sad.
Speaker 2:It is, and I think and I think why it's so sad is because it's so close to all of us and, like I mean, I've I feel like everywhere, unfortunately, has had incidents like this or monumental things like this, but you get an Amber alert. You don't think that this is going to be the end all thing, like you don't think that this is going to be what's happening here. So this is just very sad, and we did also announce, though, that her mom, jen, is cooperating with the police and that, as of right now, she's not a suspect, she's not being arrested for anything. They're not even questioning her. She's she's cooperating with police on any, any questions. They have any any issues, which is nice to know, but at the same time, I feel like it begs the question of did mom know, does mom have an idea? Because, I mean, this man was her boyfriend and got arrested for sexual battery and child sex abuse, material possessions, which means that he had some some not so good things on his cell phone about, in terms of a child.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but at the same time, like we live in a world now where people are super protective over their cellular devices and that causes a lot of problem in relationships. So you know, not looking, I haven't been, I haven't stayed on top of this Like I've seen it in the news. I've seen this thing going on. But for me, I've seen a lot in the news since I've moved from my hometown of East Tennessee where we didn't have issues like I mean we have the Shannon Christian and Chris Newsom case and things like that. But I have been seeing where there are shootings there, police involved shootings, there's murders literally almost every day that I have opened my app, I mean it's that has been the one thing that has just kind of been bill bill old man to me since I've moved to Orlando is seeing how high the crime rate is in this area and I think this is an absolutely horrible thing. And keep in mind, folks, we are recording this on March 2. So this is, I mean this is still developing. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean, I promise that as much as I can, I will make sure that we put it on our social media platforms, you know, and share new, evident or new, new information that gets shared to us. So, if you are like me, that follows us pretty heavily and the only I think the only reason I've been following it pretty heavily is because the cops literally, literally, showed up to where I work and we're handing us missing flyers of her. I mean they asked us if we could post it up in the hotel. They asked us if we could distribute them to to any of the guests that were there. They because of where my location is, it's, it's about a 15 minute mileage from where she, where her school is. I mean, we there's a, there's people I work with that their kids are going to go to this middle school. So, like it's just this is so close to where I am. So I think that's why I'm so like, okay, what's going on? What's happening here? What's what's? What is all of this?
Speaker 2:Yeah which is very sad. So my thoughts and prayers go out to to her family and to her mom during this incredibly difficult time and hopefully we get some answers, we figure out why and what exactly happened.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I will say in some brighter news. I don't know if it's brighter news, but in other news we did hear today that governor, governor Ron DeSantis, did veto the social media ban for anyone under the age of 16 in the state of.
Speaker 1:Florida, and that doesn't mean that it is over with. I think that Ron DeSantis does want to do more with it, but he wants to find a path that is more constitutional, in a way that our parents and social media platforms can work together to continue to keep our children safe. But actually, I've got one for you. I've got this is. This is an interesting one.
Speaker 2:All right, lay it on me.
Speaker 1:So in Glasgow Scotland okay believe it's Scotland. There was an event recently held, the other day, called Willie's chocolate experience.
Speaker 2:Willie's like Willy Wonka the chocolate factory like Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory. Now this was this based off of the new movie or was this based off of?
Speaker 1:I don't think it was necessarily based off the movie. It was just called Willie's chocolate experience and their website, which is still live you can go to it now. It's willyschocolateexperiencecom. The website said that you could dive into the whimsical of Willie's Chocolate Experience, a place where chocolate dreams become reality. Book your adventure now and embark on the journey filled with wondrous creations and enchanting surprises at every turn. Now it costs 35 pounds, or $44 if you're talking US money, to book this event, and it was dubbed to be absolutely amazing. If you go to their website, it's gorgeous pictures.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you showed me this. It looks so pretty.
Speaker 1:People showed up. They paid this money and they showed up and they went to a mostly empty warehouse with some like tarp backdrops. Yeah, it is still up. And their kids got two jelly beans and a cup of lemonade.
Speaker 2:Two jelly beans.
Speaker 1:And it was supposed to be this 45 minute immersive experience, and it is all over Twitter and TikTok right now. I mean it is everywhere.
Speaker 2:Horrible. Look at the gummy bear statue. And they put up a little like a photo backdrop that you would use at like a kid's birthday party.
Speaker 1:There are several of those located all over this little empty warehouse. They had like a little chocolate river. The chocolate river was like oh, hold on. The chocolate river was like an inflatable pool with like brown paper in the bottom and they built a bridge over it Like it was ghetto. And the crazy thing is there are pictures and videos circling around and you see this character that represents Willy Wonka and you see another character that represents an Oompa Loompa, and these are really the only two people you see other than the unknown.
Speaker 2:Stop which.
Speaker 1:I will get into in a moment. But these people, it was interesting and if you guys haven't, google it, youtube it, twitter it, tiktok it, it's out there. And one scene that you walk into it's Willy Wonka and this demon looking creature comes out from behind a mirror Like you know, those little rectangular millers that you'll buy from Walmart and it had long black hair and a scary mask on, and Willy called it the unknown chocolate maker that lived in the walls and it was terrifying. Children, Parents called the police. What Turns out? That the script for this was completely written by AI. All of it, the whole experience, the marketing, the pictures on the website Stop, I'm seeing a picture of it.
Speaker 2:It looks terrifying, it is all created by AI.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, so terrifying. So it's creepy, it's weird. And the man's name? Who's in charge of this? I just forgot his name, but apparently he's been known for using AI to create books and stories, and I went to the website today and I saw you know it says need support, Email us, and I clicked on the email to see what the email was. Do you know what the email is for this?
Speaker 2:What.
Speaker 1:Support at houseofilluminaticom.
Speaker 2:So I definitely know the story about this unknown guy.
Speaker 1:He is the unknown chocolatier who lives in the walls of the factory.
Speaker 2:He's the chocolate maker. That's freaking terrifying.
Speaker 1:But his name is called the unknown.
Speaker 2:Is he evil? Is he an evil man who makes chocolate? Or is the chocolate itself evil. That was a tweet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've actually seen videos where, like children, are screaming and crying.
Speaker 2:They're terrified about this Because he looks scary.
Speaker 1:So since it's happened, it was released that everyone would receive their money back. So the man who plays Willie in this experience and the woman who played the Oompa Loompa they have both spoken out on social media. So they were hired actors from an acting agency. They showed up there the day before to get their scripts and they saw the place and they were like Did you see that their scripts were 15 pages?
Speaker 2:They were 15. And AI generated gibberish to learn.
Speaker 1:Yep, and it made no sense Get out of here. So they went back the next morning and they assumed that, oh, maybe there'll be a team that'll work overnight to finish everything. And it's just not finished. They get there the next day and it's all exactly the same and some of the actors walked out and some of them didn't, and then, as time went on and as the day progressed, more and more actors continued to walk out.
Speaker 1:But the guy playing Willie and the woman playing the famous Oompa Loompa and you'll know when I'm talking about it because she's the Oompa Loompa sitting at the science station in the Jelly Bean Room they stayed because they were trying to make the best experience they could for these children and they've gone on to do interviews on, like Britain's News Channels, bbc, whatever, and I don't know. I think that in the next week or two I want to do a follow-up episode on the man Look at his poor Oompa Loompa but the man that did this, because apparently this man is known, he's crazy, he's psychotic. So I definitely want to follow up more on this and talk more about this. But if you guys haven't, you need to check out Willie's Chocolate Experience, glasgow online.
Speaker 2:I'll put some links up on our Twitter page.
Speaker 1:It's something, it's a really coolie that looks like the organizer, willie's Chocolate. Experience Bill Coolie. He has been known for using AI to write his stories 850 people back their money.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of people.
Speaker 1:You said how many? 850.
Speaker 2:And then multiply that by $44, because that's how much it was in the US currency. Oh my gosh $37,400. Look at, there's a little pop-up table with the lemonade Dead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was really bad. One jelly bean and a quarter cup of lemonade.
Speaker 2:No chocolate at the chocolate experience. There was supposed to be a chocolate fountain somewhere, but we never saw it.
Speaker 1:It was bad. So yeah, definitely go check it out. We'll try to share. We'll share some stuff on our social media this week after the episode comes out on it too. But yeah, it's interesting and you need to check it out.
Speaker 2:This is insane. I kind of like our little news aspects here, because I feel like excuse me, I feel like I learned new things and then I also kind of get to talk about some fun stuff.
Speaker 1:So I like it. We stay up to date on our current events.
Speaker 2:Yes, we do.
Speaker 1:Speaking of which, let's get current.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Should we jump in and tell everyone about our Disney day?
Speaker 2:Is it time for the clapping?
Speaker 1:Let's do it, let's go, ashley, let us hear your clap.
Speaker 2:King clapping Clap, king, clap, king Clap king, you get the arrow. I can't clap with one hand.
Speaker 1:All right, you ready.
Speaker 2:There's my clapping.
Speaker 1:You ready? I'm ready, let's go. Hit, play oh my God, what does this song sound like? Oh, my God, what are we going to talk about today? Another what?
Speaker 2:Another trip to.
Speaker 1:Disney.
Speaker 2:Yeah, another one, but this one. Oh, I'm hearing stoppages.
Speaker 1:It's doing a weird thing. I think it's just you. It's only ever you.
Speaker 2:It's fine. It's fine. Please pardon any cat screaming that you hear versus going through.
Speaker 1:Look at that tail.
Speaker 2:She's in the crazy part. She could get up at any time. I'm not holding her and I'm not doing anything, she just. I think she's just having like middle child syndrome, or no, only child syndrome, where she's not getting enough attention from mom. So now she needs to sit there and be a part of everything.
Speaker 1:She chooses not to snuggle with you at night.
Speaker 2:Can you give a little cute little? Oh, we're hiding now.
Speaker 1:Bliss. Okay, so we went. We had a fun field very busy day. That was just way too much for me.
Speaker 2:It was, it was a lot.
Speaker 1:But we decided we wanted to go to Disney with our roommates. That I don't live with, that I'm claiming as my roommates because we hadn't been with them.
Speaker 2:You basically live here. I sleep on my couch almost every other day, if not every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is very true.
Speaker 2:When was the wait? You went home. What?
Speaker 1:I went home on Tuesday.
Speaker 2:Yes, but before that, how long were you did you stay at the house? Like a week.
Speaker 1:No, it was like four or five days.
Speaker 2:Okay, so 14 heard.
Speaker 1:But anyhow. So we decided we wanted to go out with them. So we had made plans to go back to EBCOT again.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:But then Zach was like we should go to animal kingdom and we hadn't communicated with them that we also wanted to go to studios. So they made a reservation for EBCOT for Julia's mom.
Speaker 2:Animal kingdom? No, no, we didn't. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Julia's mom for EBCOT, yeah. But then Zach was like we should go to Disney's animal kingdom. So we made a reservation there and we were like, oh, we'll go to animal kingdom and then we'll go to studios and we'll finish our day at EBCOT. And Julia was like, oh, I'm in my mom and reservation for EBCOT, we're going to go to EBCOT. So we did animal kingdom with them and then we met back up with them at EBCOT. But we went to Hollywood studios with Jordan and Jonathan, but we'll get into all of that fun stuff yes we did so.
Speaker 1:We started our day at a decent hour. We left here about what? 10, 1030?.
Speaker 2:I think so. It was pretty close to that time frame.
Speaker 1:And we headed over to Disney's animal kingdom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was busy, the park was busy. It was also a nice day, so it was pretty warm too.
Speaker 1:I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a little roasty, toasty, like getting out of the car and getting into animal kingdom, but after we were there for a minute I guess I acclimated and I felt fine. I like that word, but Ashley was like I need coffee. Coffee's the first thing that we've got to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I can't really function without caffeine.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, you had that whole coffee that we made at the house and then you didn't even sip it. Oh my God because somebody. And that was an espresso pod that was expensive.
Speaker 2:No, that was just the Starbucks ones. They were like $8. Anyways, so you know what it is. It's because one of us that doesn't live here prrrrushing me completely to get things done.
Speaker 1:Well, that's because we said 10 o'clock and 10 o'clock came and started to go and everyone was here and we were all waiting on you.
Speaker 2:So I'm getting distracted.
Speaker 1:We'll stop getting distracted. I can't.
Speaker 2:She's so cute. She's burying her head inside me. It's because she's angry. No, she's like sad and scared.
Speaker 1:Anyhow. So what is the Starbucks called at Animal Kingdom? Creature Comforts, Creature Comforts. Do you remember what area the park is in?
Speaker 2:It's literally in the front of it. No, because we had to walk, no, no, it's like.
Speaker 1:It's in a themed area.
Speaker 2:No, I want to say it's literally right after the two main stores on the left-hand side. It's right before you get to the main park.
Speaker 1:It's a left and then a right.
Speaker 2:No, it's.
Speaker 1:Pandora's Straight when you turn left and you go straight. We had to turn left and then we turned right at Pizza Safari.
Speaker 2:It's right after Pizza Safari.
Speaker 1:Yes, but that's a themed area. No, it's not, that's just the main land, definitely is I'm going to prove you wrong. Talk about Starbucks.
Speaker 2:What do you want me to talk about? Starbucks, for?
Speaker 1:What did you get?
Speaker 2:It's a drink I got when I always get a brown sugar shake and espresso with a sweet cream foam on top. I get what I always get because I don't. I try not to drink dairy, so I do oat milk instead. I like brown sugar because it tastes better than regular sugar and I need the two shots of espresso that come in it, because I'm a crazy person when it comes to my caffeine intake. No, I literally get the same thing I get every single time.
Speaker 1:I got a peppermint white mocha, because that's my go-to in oat milk with no whip, no topping.
Speaker 2:Have you always done oat milk?
Speaker 1:I did, especially when it first started coming out. When Starbucks first got it, However it was, I got it and then I stopped getting it because Starbucks started with oat milk and then they switched to a different brand, that brand of oat milk, the number one ingredient. You know how when you're reading the ingredients on a package, the first ingredient is the number one ingredient. That's what it has the most of in In Starbucks. The number one ingredient in their oat milk is canola oil. That's weird.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, I'm tired.
Speaker 1:That'll give you the runs which I mean. Everything does that to me.
Speaker 2:All coffee does that to me. Wait a minute. They're really like the run. This is becoming a TMI podcast episode.
Speaker 1:It's okay, you're lucky, because I was trying to prove you wrong. But it doesn't currently label oh Discovery Island. It's in Discovery Island.
Speaker 2:The main area is called Discovery Island.
Speaker 1:Oh, what do you know? A themed area. It's called Discovery Island.
Speaker 2:Somebody give him a cookie. He was right Make sure it's gluten-free.
Speaker 1:No, I'm going to give you a gluten-free but it'd be who? All right.
Speaker 2:Gluten-infested, dairy-infested cookie.
Speaker 1:Girl, you waste them too much time. I love you the look you receive. But I got like no whipped, no topping, because I don't want any of that stuff. And they still put the dang chocolate curls on it, and I don't like it because they're dark chocolate.
Speaker 2:I don't know what your version is, the dark chocolate, I just don't.
Speaker 1:I don't want that in a drink. I don't want it on a drink. I don't want. And it's a texture thing. It's a weird flavor, Like on your mouth. It's a weird texture. When you're trying to drink a liquid to then have these weird curls of chocolate, it's gross. I didn't like it.
Speaker 2:I don't know where we do these episodes, the more and more I realize you're a freak.
Speaker 1:Oh, and look at that Bruce's Madditchy, because you called me a freak. Good job.
Speaker 2:Bye, bruce, I miss you. She was nice and warm. That was kind of nice, but we did I'm jumping we did do my least favorite attraction at Animal Kingdom, which is Dinosaur. I don't like this ride.
Speaker 1:I don't like it.
Speaker 2:I know this is like a major controversial topic. Well, I don't say it's controversial topic.
Speaker 1:It is in this house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is in this house Because I have such an aversion to it, because I have a ever since I was forced to watch Five Nights at Freddy's.
Speaker 1:I have, which is not scary in the slightest. Leave me alone. Love you though. Josh Hutcherson, Keep it up. And Matthew Willard.
Speaker 2:I mean, I would let that man.
Speaker 1:Josh do.
Speaker 2:Anyway. But no, ever since I watched that, I have this new fear of animatronics, and if you have not seen that movie, I'm going to spoil it for you, because that one person got eaten by the cupcake like a Jimmy John sandwich, and ever since then it just the animatronics. Freak me out, right?
Speaker 1:now you know what they were to be eaten. Like that because they were a horrible person.
Speaker 2:That's fine, but it scared me. So as if you don't know, and for those that do know, dinosaurs filled with old has can be animatronics, and it's dark.
Speaker 1:It is a very dark ride. It's like pitch black.
Speaker 2:I can't even see my hand in front of my face. I don't, I don't like it, so to preface the the whole purpose of this attraction.
Speaker 1:It follows kind of the story of the like 2000s movie that came out by the same name Dinosaur and you were going back in time and the secret scientist is there to tell you that he wants you to try to capture the what was it called the Oronodon?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:But you're not supposed to go to capture anything, you're just supposed to be going on an excursion.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, just those two and then, or that one and then the Carnotaurus.
Speaker 1:I can't ever say dinosaur names.
Speaker 2:But that ride was created in 1998 and it has yet to be refurbed and it needs it, Cause that one that was rough.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what?
Speaker 2:The ride was rough. The weight was rough because, oh, the weight wasn't that bad but we the, the.
Speaker 1:are you going to ride it when it gets rethemed to Indiana Jones? Sorry, zach and Julia, we know it's happening. Yes, you're gonna write it then yeah, cuz I, like I wrote you afraid of animatronics. Though there's gonna be an animatronic, indiana Jones, in there, you're gonna be afraid of him.
Speaker 2:Animatronics, Come on Anyways an animatronic. I wrote Indiana Jones in. I've written Indiana Jones in Disneyland and it's pretty. As far as I know, it's supposed to be a copycat of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it is a copycat, it's just, it's gonna be different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, correct.
Speaker 1:But you know. So we get in line, we wait through the line we are literally maybe four or five groups to getting boarded and we start noticing cars going out empty and then suddenly the cars were stacking empty and Then all of a sudden, all of the normal lights came on, all the sound effects stopped and they announced that there was a temporary Delay. And we were like you know what? We're just waiting to wait it out, like we're right here next to the dock, we're getting ready to get on and then suddenly we see. So when you exit this attraction, you go up the stairs and then you exit across an Open space so you can actually see the exit, and we saw two Disney cast members that work the attraction and then clearly someone who is like the manager or supervisor for that ride, carrying a huge backpack, and she just looks over, holds the backpack up as she's walking, walking and she goes Please secure your bags and put them where they're supposed to go, and that's all she said my favorite thing that happened throughout that entire day yesterday.
Speaker 1:So they had to shut down the entire ride because someone did not properly have their backpack stowed between their legs on the floor and it came out of the ride vehicle and this thing runs on a bus bar of like thousands of volts of electricity. So, and it's actually like it is a I don't want to call it a trackless right, because there is a track, it's just under the floor, but your ride vehicle has four tires on it that are actively driving along the floor. So this backpack, which fell off in the complete and total darkness, leads me to two questions. One If they were concerned, it didn't look like it was. If they were concerned, why did they continue to cycle empty ride vehicles if it could have potentially run over that backpack? Like, do you think it would have been?
Speaker 2:I wonder if maybe they didn't realize that it was a backpack that had stopped the ride, maybe they just thought it was an actual like down thing and then they turn the lights on, obviously, because I know, because they cycled, they did a controlled evacuation.
Speaker 1:They say they continued to cycle the ride until they unloaded all the riders and then they would send it out empty, so it would go all the way back around while they got the other riders off.
Speaker 2:Well, I wonder then, maybe it leads to it to my thought process of okay, maybe the backpack was put on in a position where it wasn't constricting the ways, but enough that they needed to move it so they could control where it was. Flip on those, those lights.
Speaker 1:Maybe they could see it in their cameras.
Speaker 2:Or maybe they could right so they could realize that it wasn't in the way of the vehicles but they still needed to move it. So they turn all the lights on, get exit out. All the people turn the lights on and then go ahead and get in there and get it moved.
Speaker 1:I don't know, but it was fun. I enjoyed it. It was the second time I rode that ride. I tried to ride it last year when I came down and it went down right as I walked up to it and it never came back up. But after that we went and we did it's. What is it? It's hard. It's not bugs. I did, it's bugs life, but it's called it's hard to be a bug.
Speaker 2:It's tough to be a bug.
Speaker 1:It's tough to be a bug. So we watch that because, as we know, they have we watched it because you had never no well that and they are announcing that it's closing. So I've never had an interest or want to go do it, because I hate those stupid 4d experience things, like I hated Shrek when they had it at Universal, like I just they're dumb. But I wanted to do it because it's gonna close permanently. My guess is that it's gonna be replaced with the Zootopia.
Speaker 2:Do you hate Muppets?
Speaker 1:then I've never done Muppets because I hate those things. I hate them. I think they are stupid. I do not want to go into a dark room where 3d glasses and watch a giant, 40-foot tall, tall movie screen.
Speaker 2:How are we best friends?
Speaker 1:We're not clearly. I, I don't like those, I just I don't. They're not entertaining to me, they're not fun.
Speaker 2:Okay, first off, leave Muppets alone.
Speaker 1:Don't care, muppets is an icon. Don't care, I don't like it be quiet.
Speaker 2:You haven't even done it, so you have.
Speaker 1:No, and I never will do it.
Speaker 2:Yes, you will guess what, now that I know you haven't? We have a rule in this house. You haven't done it. Guess what now we gonna do it.
Speaker 1:We got to wait for Disney to announce its permanent closure, and then no, definitely not.
Speaker 2:Sorry, sucks, you're getting on any who.
Speaker 1:We went and we did it and it was. It was exactly as I say all the times it sucks.
Speaker 2:Yep, but we did it. And then we did one of my favorite rides at Animal Kingdom, which is Pandora's Flight of Passage. I quite enjoy this. You know, I put my mother on this for the first time and when I was a CP this ride was just being open and I put my mom on it and I didn't tell her what it was because I had already done it. And I didn't tell her and Shot it to Shan.
Speaker 2:She freaked out, like Freaked out, and then I put her on the ride she was like oh, this is like soaring 2.0, and she refused to call it Pandora. So every time we would say we're going to Animal Kingdom, she's like did you write soaring 2.0?
Speaker 1:So yeah, I will say for those of you that haven't participated in this attraction, it is kind of like soaring, it is.
Speaker 2:I feel like it's soaring's big sister.
Speaker 1:Because it is big. Yeah, it's bigger, it's huge, and instead of sitting on your butt, you straddle this you sit on what it's like a like a little motorcycle, essentially, yeah, and what it is is. You are linking up with an avatar. It's from the, the hit movie. The avatar You're linking with an avatar who's on the back of a I can't say the word, oh gosh.
Speaker 2:Ikoran, ikoran. Yeah, it's the little fly, the bird. I want to say it's like a bird. Yeah but I don't think it's a bird, so please don't come after me avatar fans, but you link into it and then then you fly on the back of it.
Speaker 1:And what's kind of neat about this experience is, if you look behind you while the ride is going, you see there is a there's like shelves on the wall for you to put your backpacks and stuff into, and then you walk over to your seat about two feet out from the wall. There is a line through the platform, yes, and everything from that line to your ride vehicle Full-on, moves up and down and we're not talking like bouncing, we're talking like eight feet higher than the the floor and then it drops you lower. But it's amazing, because you're wearing these 3d goggles and you're participating in this experience and the winds blowing on you, you get sprayed in the face with water. You truly do feel like at one point I felt like I the bird flies upside down. It is like a barrel and it literally feels like you are flipping upside down and it's crazy.
Speaker 2:Can I tell you the only part of it that I don't like?
Speaker 1:what.
Speaker 2:I don't like it when it breathes. So there's a mechanism that where your legs are, it's because you're straddling this, this animal. So you, you are supposed to, they simulate that it like it breathes it it like riding a horse correct. I Hate that feeling. I hate that and I can deal with that, that's.
Speaker 1:What I can't deal with is the vibrating on your stomach.
Speaker 2:I don't like either of those two things. But you know what I did like when I first rode that ride back in in 2018. It did not have the fans, so this is the first time I rode it with the fans attached to it. Now there's fans blowing up in your face, starting this, because they had quite a few guests that would complain they were getting motion sick that they were. They were actively or or getting sick on the ride. So Disney installed little portable fan like not portable fans, but like fans in each of your spots. So the entire time you're you're experiencing this, it blows air right into your face, which is nice, but I need them to get rid of the vibrating on my stomach and I need them to get rid of the breathing that happens in my thighs. It freaks me out.
Speaker 1:I don't like it, the breathing on the thighs I can take. The vibrating I hate. As a matter of fact, I like the first time I ever rode it, I didn't know it did that so it like Stapled me into my restraint and I hated it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this time like I left just a lot of to put like just my fingers enough that I can push back on to the back Of the seat when it vibrates and it wouldn't bother me. And she was like lean forward, lean forward. So I like moved my body to look like I leaned forward because, first off, this ride does not flip, it doesn't go upside down, I'm not gonna get out.
Speaker 2:I was definitely strapped in because it locks your legs in to has. It has calf braces and then a back brace as well.
Speaker 1:So you're locked in there pretty tight for for my East Tennessee people if you've never ridden this. It's literally the exact same restraint from the dizzy disc at Dollywood. May it rest in peace because it's no longer there. But it's literally. It's that exact same restraint, just with leg restraints to.
Speaker 2:And I think if there's any rides that are similar to that, the only thing I know that is close to that is Tron. There's also one at Nottsbury farms, the the horse ride that all my my roller coaster theme Theme park enthusiasts would get very mad at me because I can't remember the name of it.
Speaker 1:And then you're so much quieter than I am today.
Speaker 2:Oh Well.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at your little volume bar it's because I'm on my mic and then you, you keep pulling when you don't realize that you know.
Speaker 2:It's because I keep yawning, so I don't want people to be like oh, oh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you definitely clipped a few times there. Well, there you go.
Speaker 2:But you know what I was pretty excited about, though, what that we got to have lunch.
Speaker 1:And everyone got to mobile order their food. So proud.
Speaker 2:Rob did it for the first time, so I'm really proud. Rob got to do that too, and everybody ate at the same place, which was nice. Everybody found something they could eat, everybody was happy with what they got, and you and I got to officially get our you know what? I'm counting this as your first actual good gluten-free meal that you've gotten.
Speaker 1:It was at the soul Sult sultana Satouli. Yes, which is?
Speaker 2:in the land of Pandora Right. Next sort of flight of passage yes, and it's so good.
Speaker 1:It's the second time I ate there, ate there with Claire back when we went when Disney was first reopening, and it was great because, you know, all the COVID protocols were still in effect, so we had to wait 45 minutes before we could go and eat there. Yes, but we didn't have like. We didn't have to find find a table, no, nothing, it was great.
Speaker 2:No, but this is really good and For for if I haven't updated. I don't eat red meat anymore. I have knocked that out of my my dietary things. So I found they had a wonderful chili spice, crispy fried tofu bowl with Red and sweet potato hash in the most delicious creamy herbed dressing. It was like ranch.
Speaker 1:It was, and it had a really nice kick to it, like a tart kick.
Speaker 2:though it was so weird, it was so good and then I was really happy because they had a hot sauce packet so I got to put a little hot sauce on it and I got to eat Rob's cutie to go with it. So I was pretty happy with that and that's good, we ordered off. We both ordered off the allergen friend menu, so my entire meal came on that cute little purple train, the purple train and I got the wood-fired grilled chicken with rice and beans with the creamy herb dressing and like a coleslaw.
Speaker 2:It looked good. It was Delicious, I was really happy with this and everything was very easy. Mm-hmm was very. I did not feel sick after eating this either, because it wasn't a lot of like heavy fried foods. It wasn't a lot of like Okay. The only thing I could have was or in your case was bland salmon and green beans. This I felt like I it was worth my money.
Speaker 1:I spent.
Speaker 2:It was about 15 bucks for my meal. I got a hefty portion of this and I felt like this was was worth the bank for my buck. So yeah, no, I 10 out of 10. This was this will be a repeat for me.
Speaker 1:And I think that people, if you're, if you're going to Pandora, if you go to Animal Kingdom, you go to Pandora. They have two rides. They've got the Navi River journey, which is a nice little float.
Speaker 2:It's to me. It reminds me of small world, but instead of it is.
Speaker 1:It is small world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's about ride and except the only I think very impressive part of that instead of dolls you have this massive animatronic of did you know it's the most techno at the time that it opened it was the most technologically advanced animatronic. It's very impressive had ever done until Hagrid's, that's not Disney. The one that kicked that out of the boat.
Speaker 1:I think the ride does. I don't think the animatronics there or like they're big, but I don't think they're amazing. But to get not, I don't want to get off topic here. We're really bad at doing that.
Speaker 2:There's for next week episode as we talk about Hagrid's. But if you're going, if you're.
Speaker 1:If you're going to Pandora, I definitely think that you need to take into consideration the food and beverage.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:I just needed a fantastic job of creating food that is designed to be from an alien planet and some of the stuff that they do have in there, like we. What we got was tame. They've got food that's got Boba on it.
Speaker 2:It's got, yes, and they got the bow buns that are cheeseburgers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like they've got a lot of crazy things there, so definitely check it out. Don't just go for the Mickey on a stick. I mean, you know, we love a good. We love a good Mickey on a stick. Thank you, rob.
Speaker 1:So much that we'll talk about that too, but I definitely think if you're gonna go to Animal Kingdom, even if you're not a flight of passage or an avatar fan, you need to go and you need to check out. If you're a foodie, you need to check out the food over at the canteen, because it was just really good.
Speaker 2:And I'll be sure I've got a couple photos of our food too that we ate here, and I will make sure those go up on our socials this week so that you guys can take a look at those, because even the presentation of them were so pretty Mm-hmm. Now something.
Speaker 1:About the time that we stopped to get our food was when Zach and Julia made it to the park. They had to be. They were a little later. Zach could to take care of some things in normal adult life, and then they came and they met us, so they sat with us while we ate, but they didn't eat while we were there because they had stopped and got tacos. And yeah, julia wanted to go and she showed us an experience that none of us knew.
Speaker 2:No, that was an animal so I did this during I had done this during the art and art festival that Epcot had, and I did this two years ago with art, with the I can't remember what art and dine, dine and art, something like that and then Julia had did this at Disneyland and then we found out that it is permanently staying and came to Animal Kingdom, which is the animation Experience, and, for those that do not know, you get an artist that will sit in front of you in front of a massive amount of people. I mean what? There's probably 50 people in that spot.
Speaker 1:It's. All I had room for is a small area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that you all get a piece of paper and a little. I want to call them mini golf pencils, because that's literally what they Remind me of. They had their little mini pencils. Or, if you go to Ikea, mini pencils it's what they look like and they have no erasers on them and they teach you how to draw the characters and the only thing I didn't like about it Is they didn't have erasers on them but that's the whole point.
Speaker 2:Is that it's you're not there to do it, perfectly no, but, and I wasn't I didn't care that it didn't do it perfectly, but I wanted to like.
Speaker 1:I had very obvious mistakes that I wanted to fix, but I could not. But any who? But it was a lot of fun. We did Minnie Mouse, and to get to it, though, you have to board the wildlife express train, because this is in what I call the secret area in the back of the park.
Speaker 2:And which was called actual name is Rafiki's Planet watch, so it's over in that area.
Speaker 1:It's got like an indoor. So what it actually looked like to me is it's the veterinary offices and things like this, so you can actually see into the veterinary offices when they're doing the checkups and things. But you have to take the while the wildlife express to get there, so you board the train at the Harambe station.
Speaker 2:It's beautiful. I like the train. It wasn't long. I think we're on it, for what interesting because you Sit.
Speaker 1:you get into the car but then you're sitting Facing the side. It's not rows of seats, it's two rows and you face the side, the left side of the train, and then you get to see a couple animal enclosures.
Speaker 2:We got to see rhinos.
Speaker 1:I didn't see the rhino Just because I didn't see it. We saw the cheetah enclosure but we didn't see any cheetahs in there because they were out on the safari. You passed by the safari the kill Kilimanjaro safari, yes, and we got off the train. We did that experience and then we watched the most adorable Happy little what is it? Custodial, I don't know what they call them at Disney and he was creating an image of goofy, a lot of people you'll see. They'll get the dust pans and the brooms and then They'll write on the sidewalk with water and they'll draw pictures. This man made goofy with tree branches, like little twigs.
Speaker 2:I have pictures of that too, so I'll be sure to share that so all of you can see that. But this is fantastic. So all all, what was it? There were seven of us got to to create, or was there six of us? I think there was six of us.
Speaker 1:There was seven at that time.
Speaker 2:All of us got to create Minnie Mouse and you know who I was so proud of during this entire thing, rob. I Was so proud of his Minnie Mouse and he was having so much fun and it was such a blast. I can't wait. I think Julie and I are gonna have to go.
Speaker 1:I also wanted an eraser, like me, but who?
Speaker 2:but I think Julie and I are gonna do it the whole day because they're each. It looked like After we got done with Minnie Mouse that looked like the next one was piglet. So to me I'm assuming that each time it's a different character.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I will say, I love Zach's though, because his had happy little trees.
Speaker 2:Yes, it did. He put a little tree in there. You put a little tree you gotta have a happy tree.
Speaker 1:Got a love Bob, bob, bob. What Bob Bob hope? No Bob. But she hair Bob. I said it the other day.
Speaker 2:Bob's last name, bob, what's your last night? You know what?
Speaker 1:I.
Speaker 2:I keep thinking of happy little trees.
Speaker 1:I Don't remember and I'm tired, so it's making even worse.
Speaker 2:Bob Ross. Bob Ross, that's who was thank you, google, yeah, but I'm gonna talk about it and I said I wasn't gonna talk about it, but I'm gonna talk about it. So, as we, you had to head back, obviously on the train to get back to the main Rest of animal kingdom, and as we were waiting, oh the can.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna talk about the chicken lady, the canned meat, oh god tell us about it.
Speaker 2:So this lady pulls out. What was that? A three pound can.
Speaker 1:The family's. It's like if you go to Walmart and they've got the like swanson canned chicken Chicken and a can and she opens it up and starts eating it with a fork. Oh, you didn't even see the worst part. She opened it up and then she drank the juice.
Speaker 2:Ugh, the smell that was there was so bad.
Speaker 1:And it wafted the whole station.
Speaker 2:Because it was humid.
Speaker 1:It was bad.
Speaker 2:And it was oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And then they opened a second can they did?
Speaker 2:And they got on the train with a canned chicken. But you know what Wasn't the worst part of that whole animal kingdom experience? You know what the worst part of that day was for me?
Speaker 1:Yeti, no yeti. No yeti, no yeti.
Speaker 2:No yeti. So we got to then ride Expedition Everest.
Speaker 1:I took my Drememine.
Speaker 2:Yes, you did. I'm real proud of you. You started the date Coffee Drememine Right together.
Speaker 1:I was prepared, as in my 30s I'm an old man.
Speaker 2:Yes, we know, but we made it to Expedition Everest and everybody got a writing buddy. Sorry, jordan.
Speaker 1:He got a stranger, he did, he did.
Speaker 2:Rob got Zach and I got Julia. I love it. I love what we read where the crystals together. She's so much fun and we're having a blast. Forgot that Expedition Everest goes backwards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the part I hate, that's the part that always makes me sick Really. Because you know it's a big Well you're going. So for those of you that haven't ever ridden it, you do a little bit of a ride and then you go up the lift all the way to the top of the mountain and you come down a little hill, turn to the left, go up and the track is broken. You stall out?
Speaker 1:Yeah, because the date he rips it off, you fly backwards and then you go into the mountain so you've got to think You're going down and you go inside the mountain. So it's just a giant backwards left turn Because you are spinning all the way. If you don't do one, you do at least two full circles.
Speaker 2:I think you do two, and then you're supposed to see the Yeti, and then you stop and you see a video of the shadow of the Yeti ripping the track apart.
Speaker 1:And then you go forward and then you pass by the real life Yeti who operates in B mode. It's called Disco Yeti, so when the ride first opened, the Yeti was a giant animatronic and it would move and thrash, it would try to come and attack the train. But after a few years Disney Imagineers realized that it was literally damaging the structure of the mountain.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 1:So they put it in B mode, where it no longer moves.
Speaker 2:But it lights up.
Speaker 1:It lights up at strobe lights, which is why it's called the Disco Yeti and his fur flaps. And that's all that it does, Because they put giant fans to blow it.
Speaker 2:And the Imagineer, so it gives you the look of it coming, still trying to get you.
Speaker 1:Now the Imagineer behind that. I don't remember his name, but he's the guy that has the really long ear lobe in the 1,000 earrings. He has vowed that before he retires he will fix the Yeti to where it moves again. I don't know how that's physically possible, because the Yeti is built into the actual structure of the ride.
Speaker 2:It goes on expedition for as long as it goes on Tron.
Speaker 1:And RIP and we exit the cave and we didn't see the Yeti.
Speaker 2:No, because we got stopped. Yeah, you go out of the mountain.
Speaker 1:Actually, you go out of the mountain, you do the giant other Mickey ear circle, which I'll explain, and you go back in. Well, right before we go in, we level out and we're getting ready to go in and we just grind to a halt.
Speaker 2:At the block break. Because evidently hey all my roller coaster enthuses would be so proud of me for knowing that.
Speaker 1:I'm so proud of you.
Speaker 2:That's what I get for hanging out with a bunch of nerds.
Speaker 1:But we stopped and then started again because the train stacked up outside the exit. So because of that, the show sequence continues. So by the time we made it into the scene where the Yeti should be flashing, that sequence had already started and finished, so we didn't get to see it at all.
Speaker 2:And it was kind of sad. It was very sad. I was pretty upset by it because I really, really, really wanted to see the Yeti.
Speaker 1:But it's OK because there's always next time. But then after we finished that, we decided it was time to head over. Zach and Julia headed over to EBCOT to meet up with Julia's mom so they could spend some time together. And we headed over to Hollywood Studios because I haven't been since last year and I wanted to go and I wanted to ride the movies. And it wasn't a universal movie that I wanted to ride, it was my favorite Disney movie, the Tower of Terror.
Speaker 2:Terror, terror, terror, that part. Can we talk about the post-it wait time for that, though? That was posted at 50 minute and I swear to God we only waited maybe 20 minutes. We moved for the entire time.
Speaker 1:But do you want to know what blew my mind? Even more than that, tell me the fact that Fantasmic is located behind Hollywood Tower of Terror, and I never knew it. I don't understand how you didn't realize that, because I always thought it was on Rivers of America, because it is at California, so I just assumed that they were on the same river.
Speaker 2:Hey buddy.
Speaker 1:What this is Disney World. Yeah, I know that now.
Speaker 2:OK, well, so for those that don't know, there is different sequences. There's four different sequences that you can get while riding Tower of Terror. This means that you could go up or you could go down. Oh, I'm losing my mic. Each time is a different sequence. So for those that know me very well, know that I do not like this ride. I don't like it. It's not my favorite, it's not my go-to. I have a fun old story of the original Maybe one of these days I'll share it Of the first time I rode Tower of Terror. That's an interesting story, but I didn't. I don't like this ride, I really don't. So it freaks me out, it gets my anxiety a-pumping. So do you know what we got?
Speaker 1:What did we get?
Speaker 2:The longest sequence and, according to all of our friends, the best sequence. But we got the longest one, which means we went all the way up and we dropped all the way down in one setting, and then we went up and down, and up and down, and up and down, and up and down and finally think, god, this ride was over. This ride scares me. What are you doing?
Speaker 1:I was looking. So for those of you that don't know, the Twilight Zone's Tower of Terror, or just as most people call it, tower of Terror, was built and designed after Rod Sterling's anthology television series, the Twilight Zone, so it was based on the original Twilight Zone TV show from back in the day. So then they built the ride, which takes place in a fictional time, but all versions of the attractions place riders in a seemingly ordinary hotel elevator and then they present a fictional backstory in which people have mysteriously disappeared from the elevator under the influence of supernatural elements from many years ago. And then later it was turned into a movie, which I love. It was one of my favorite movies as a child and I always wanted to ride this ride. It was my favorite Disney ride before I ever even rode it.
Speaker 2:Gross. Why is that gross? Because I hate that ride.
Speaker 1:But you rode it and you screamed like a giddy little girl no I screamed like a little beep beep.
Speaker 2:I'm trying actively not to swear on this podcast episode. You're welcome.
Speaker 1:Did you know that the Tower of Terror is among one of the tallest structures found at all Disney resorts?
Speaker 2:Yes, I did.
Speaker 1:Did you know that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Can we move on to my favorite ride though?
Speaker 1:What is your favorite oh?
Speaker 2:one of this is two, two of my favorite. We did two of my favorite rides at Hollywood Studios.
Speaker 1:Oh my god. Tower of Terror and Expedition Everest are only a half a foot different in height.
Speaker 2:Yep, that is insane. Wow, you ready.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:All right, well, I'm moving on. Then we went over and did Rise of the Resistance.
Speaker 1:Resistance.
Speaker 2:We went over to Star Wars Land. What?
Speaker 1:It's all you. It's you. I'm not doing anything. I'm blaming you. I'm literally not doing anything.
Speaker 2:It's you Me hi, I'm a problem.
Speaker 1:You're the problem, it's you.
Speaker 2:You mean to me? Ok, anyways, we went over to Star Wars Land and it's not actually called Star Wars Land, it is Star Wars Galaxy's Edge.
Speaker 1:Batu.
Speaker 2:No, it is called it's Batu. No, it is Star Wars, the name of the land.
Speaker 1:Yes, but it is the fix. It's the land of Batu.
Speaker 2:This man's gone to Hollywood Studios twice and now he's an expert.
Speaker 1:I've gone to Hollywood Studio four times. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Batu is the land, like, that is the actual, like planet that you're on when you go there, though Great.
Speaker 2:But the land on the map is called Star Wars Galaxy's Edge.
Speaker 1:Cool.
Speaker 2:I'm over this conversation.
Speaker 1:And the land of Batu, but continue, oh my.
Speaker 2:God shut up. So we broke the rise of the resistance and I got to educate you.
Speaker 1:You did.
Speaker 2:I did, and it was so cool to me to be able to be like hi, listen to me, I know something cooler than you.
Speaker 1:What is it?
Speaker 2:So, when you get through the first pre-show, when BB8 comes out and Ray, when the two of them come out to you and they talk to you about what you're going to do and what your mission is and how you're going to go, my advice is that you hang to the back. You become the last person before you board the ship. So you let everybody go and they're going to go. They're going to run because they just want to be the first one on that boat or that ship or the Star Cruiser. You want them to go, let them go. You become the last person. Now, when those gate doors close, when that Star Cruiser closes, don't move from the door, don't exit, stay right there and the entire time I'm telling you hi, don't move, don't move, we're going to spin. We are going to actively go like this. We are going to spin.
Speaker 2:It's a turntable, it is a turntable, correct, we are going to move. We're going to be in the back.
Speaker 1:Ashley, this is going to be so screwed. Well, that's because only because, in my brain I thought I could have sworn that when the turntable turns, the vehicle that you're in also spins on the turntable because you exit on the door on the far side, which there was a door on the far side, but it's only there for show. I'm aware of that. Now but at that moment I was just saying are you?
Speaker 2:sure? Oh, because it wouldn't be the first. It wouldn't have been the first.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what? It wouldn't have been the first time you were wrong.
Speaker 2:But I am always right when it comes to this ride Because I have a younger brother who is a massive Star Wars enthusiast, so I've had to ride there numerous times. I have heard the stories, watched the movies, read the books, seen the films, done it all OK. So I know that ride like the back of my hand. I'm like no, trust me.
Speaker 1:And you were that person, because what did you do? You stood there, I did, and you pulled your phone out.
Speaker 2:Yes, I did.
Speaker 1:And you held it right up against that door and when that door swung open, that bitch looked at you and she was just like great Another person with a camera in my face, but you know what, which is funny because that's also how they're supposed to act, correct. But I just know I could see the rage in her eyes because she was like this idiot Don't care, because you know why.
Speaker 2:You get a crystal clear photo without any tourists, without any person, without anybody.
Speaker 1:Did you take a video of?
Speaker 2:her. I took a whole video.
Speaker 1:We're going to have to upload that. So if you're hearing this jump on Facebook and Instagram, that video is going to be up so you can see it, and it truly is. It is one of the most beautiful scenes that I've ever seen Disney recreate, and you can see it without anybody there. You're on the, not the Death Star. What are we on? We're on one of the resists. God what?
Speaker 2:are they?
Speaker 1:Oh, I know they're the bad guys, the bad guys, the empire, empire. Is it the empire? Yeah, but you're on one of their destroyers. So the door opens and you're greeted by the person, and behind them you just see like 100, what are these things called? Troopers, stormtroopers, stormtroopers, and a giant window.
Speaker 2:You're part of the first order, the resistance, and it's an altercation that happens between the resistance and the first order, the first order of the bad guys, the resistance are the good guys, unless you are Rob, unless you are Rob and Rob believes, the first order are the good guys and the resistance is the bad guys. Because he so badly wants to be recruited by a stormtrooper and Kylo Ren.
Speaker 1:And no, he doesn't like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, he's actively like on their team.
Speaker 1:No, what's Kylo Ren?
Speaker 2:Yeah is the bad guy. He loves Kylo Ren. He loves Darth Vader. What's the chick's?
Speaker 1:name with the three things that he hates.
Speaker 2:That's Ray Ray. Ray hates Dan Herron.
Speaker 1:She's on the good team and he's like nope, that's because she's not a Jedi or a Magi or whatever.
Speaker 2:A Magi is the mummy? Right, you dummy? She's not a, and in Rob's eyes, rob believes that she's not a true Jedi because she is. She's not.
Speaker 1:She takes the name of a family that she's not born into.
Speaker 2:Correct, because she is actually somebody else's daughter. She's a Palpatine. She's Palpatine's daughter, correct?
Speaker 1:But anywho, you come off and it is. It's absolutely beautiful. You really do feel like you've been transported into outer space.
Speaker 2:It's so good.
Speaker 1:And you get into your little ride vehicles which are prisoner, transports and chaos. You get on a first order Star Destroyer. I had to look it up. That's what it is, yeah.
Speaker 2:So your entire ship is attacked by the first order. So when those doors open, like Dustin said, and you see that girl or the cast member, whomever, you are now entering and being taken aboard a first order Star Destroyer, because you have been arrested, you've been captured and now the resistance has to then save you. What was that?
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:Did you hear that knocking I?
Speaker 1:don't think it's Bruce, hello, oh, it's fireworks.
Speaker 2:From where?
Speaker 1:Harry Potter.
Speaker 2:Park's closed, babe, it's 11.
Speaker 1:Maybe they're testing something, hello, ok. Well, that was weird.
Speaker 2:I don't remember where we were.
Speaker 1:So we stopped for a minute to try to figure out what that was, and we don't really know. We realize it's almost midnight right now, so the thought of it being universal doesn't seem plausible. But it almost sounded like I heard that firework that goes off and you hear that noise afterwards. Like I felt like I heard that Ashley looked outside and then we looked on the active calls for Orange County and we didn't see anything.
Speaker 2:I don't know. You know what it is. I think I'm just paranoid because of everything that's been going on.
Speaker 1:But I mean, it stopped shortly after we stopped recording if we didn't hear anything.
Speaker 2:And I don't hear any sirens or anything yet, so like it's us to have some weird stuff on our Lando Unplugged podcast episodes.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Well, we'll keep an eye on it and if we hear anything, we'll update you.
Speaker 2:You know what I really wish. It was what An ice cream truck that sold Mickey ice cream bars that would be nice.
Speaker 1:Oh, let's talk about those.
Speaker 2:That's literally our name. So we Let me try to segue into that topic and you just bold those in right over it.
Speaker 1:After we got out. So our friend Jonathan that went with us that day. He had never been to Hollywood studios since they had opened Star Wars and everything. So we took the long way around so we could go through Star Wars and then we could go through Toy Story and we stopped in Toy Story for Mickey ice cream, mickey shaped ice cream, because anything's better if it's Mickey shaped.
Speaker 2:I don't disagree. And those, what do you call it? Are gluten free.
Speaker 1:There they are, and they were delicious.
Speaker 2:They were so good. Thanks, Rob.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was like, no, I don't want one, I'm fine. And then Rob was like you're getting one, and he bought me one. So thank you, rob, I enjoy that, yes very happy. And then we rode Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway Hashtag the ride that got rid of, one of the best rides ever.
Speaker 2:Never did it, so I can't complain, because I really like Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railroad.
Speaker 1:Have you ever seen videos of the Great Movie Ride?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:I'm going to show you that when we're done with this, because it actually is really cool. I had a full speeler and everything on it, but I won't get off on that tangent. So this again is another one of those trackless rides. So it's trackless, just like the Star Wars ride. It's the same ride, vehicles in a different design, and then we're going to make it happen.
Speaker 2:Let's take a ride. And then the day on the country side, the good times are here to stay, and then the bad times are gone.
Speaker 1:OK, I'll let that go on for way too long, but I didn't want to stop it.
Speaker 2:I thought you were going to keep going, so I was just going to do it in the background.
Speaker 1:No, but it's really fun because you go into the Great Chinese Theater and you're watching a movie on the big screen and there's an explosion on the big screen and then, when all the fog settles in the room, there's actually a giant hole in the movie screen that you then get to go through and then you get to enter into the movie that you're watching and participate in the movie, and then, when it's done, you get to exit through the same movie screen in a different space, so it's designed to look like the same room that you were in, which is really neat, and I really do enjoy that ride. I think it's cool. Their use of blacklight and like projection mapping really is what I think has set that right. Oh, I said it wrong. What?
Speaker 2:It goes. Nothing can stop us now. Nothing can stop us now. Wait, I don't know how we're going to make it happen. Let's take a ride and spend a day in the countryside. Good times are here to stay. Let's get away and have a perfect picnic. We'll sing a song and absolutely nothing will go wrong.
Speaker 1:Except for when that ride does go wrong. We're heading down an open highway. Ok, we're going to get. Stop it before we get like a cease and desist from Disney.
Speaker 2:You know what my favorite part is? At the end, when they're having their picnic.
Speaker 1:Oh, my favorite is the little bird and the barn above the exit watching the fireworks.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's cute, it's good. I like that one. I like it. It's a good ride.
Speaker 1:But then we got on the. Skyliner the. Gondolas and took her trip over to Epcot. Let me tell you that was the longest trip, because every 15 feet.
Speaker 2:Stop it would stop stop, and then it would start, and then it would stop.
Speaker 1:Now Whiplash when we left Studios and we we went over to the the sky. I call it the skyliner hub. I'm sure it has a formal name.
Speaker 2:What it's called.
Speaker 1:It was just me, you and Rob in the gondola and there was no one else. But then, from there to EBCOT, they put us in a gondola with other people, which I did not like. No, um, because I was having fun imitating the voice of the woman, pretending to be an animatronic, a disney animatronic.
Speaker 2:I have videos of that too, so we'll be sharing that.
Speaker 1:Oh, I hate you. Um, get over it. So we rode with strangers and that part wasn't fun. And then we made it to EBCOT and Rob is like I gotta go to the bathroom and I was like, why do two?
Speaker 2:Oh, excuse me, Are you dying?
Speaker 1:Yes, um. So we stopped and rob and I went to the bathroom and actually like, well, I'll see you inside, I'm gonna go on in, and was just like, screw you guys, I'm gonna leave you behind. Yeah, and then I got stopped at security and then you get stopped at security and by the time rob and I come out of the bathroom, go through security, scan our park tickets. They haven't even searched your bag yet.
Speaker 1:No it was stupid. So then Rob and I are just standing there and you finally make it over to the gate to scan your ticket. And then I look and I watch every cast member's hand goes up and not a single line was entering the park because they all needed help, because people were scanning the wrong ticket.
Speaker 2:Or the wrong fingers, or the wrong thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was just, it was a cluster.
Speaker 2:Hey, hey, all guests, anybody that's going into EBCOT or any any disney park, remember what Finger you?
Speaker 1:use.
Speaker 2:I don't understand.
Speaker 1:This is a thing I don't understand. Universal used to do this too when they did the biometric finger scan. They let you choose whatever finger you want to scan and I'm like why do we not have a rule? Why is it your right pointer finger?
Speaker 2:I don't care. I don't care that they get to let you pick it. Just remember what damn finger you pick. That's all I got, that's my rent.
Speaker 1:I don't understand why it's whatever finger you want to do it like. That's just stupid. Just make it a make it a roll now.
Speaker 2:But the skyline, it does drop you off in the world showcase area. So you get right between France and right between England. So drops you off in that little spot right there and that's where you enter.
Speaker 1:Was that it?
Speaker 2:and I hate it.
Speaker 1:I thought you were going somewhere with that.
Speaker 2:I was trying to, and then I looked at you and I lost my whole train of thought. Might you have your hand raised because I'm tired. Oh well, I think that's what probably threw me off, but you know what was happening at EBCOT.
Speaker 1:Oh, a cluster is what was happening at EBCOT.
Speaker 2:Okay, but you know what actually was happening at EBCOT a cluster.
Speaker 1:It was opening weekend for opening week weekend week weekend week weekend week it hadn't been there all week.
Speaker 2:February 28th. We went on the second week Because we also added leap year to the month of February.
Speaker 1:What was the event that we went to, though, ashley?
Speaker 2:The flower and garden festival, so that starts on February 28th and it ends May 27th, and this showcases flowers and gardens and food and food. Oh, such good food, such good drinks.
Speaker 1:Which we had none of that day.
Speaker 2:No, we did not, because lines were incredibly long due to the festival. I believe they were directly to the festivals, I mean we're looking at at kiosks and stands and Disney, my magic, moonlight, magic.
Speaker 1:A vacation thing was having an event.
Speaker 2:Vacation club members were having a dvc member only event called Moonline Magic, and this is where dvc members can either purchase this ticket or receive it for free. I'm not sure, um, what, what the standard is for that, um, but they get to experience Epcot by themselves in a less weight, less time frame.
Speaker 1:And the check-in happens like an hour or two before the park closes. So we had all of those people coming in On top of entering into the last, you know, hour and a half to two hours that the park was open. So there was people everywhere, there were lines everywhere and we were going to get food. But we decided if we wanted to make our time and ride Epcot or not Epcot ride Frozen with everyone that was there, because we met by the with Zach and Julia and Julia's mom Love her.
Speaker 2:Shout out to Julia's mom hey.
Speaker 1:We were gonna have to skip that, so we could all go ride frozen together.
Speaker 2:Well, you also kind of skip something. What? What did we do before frozen?
Speaker 1:Oh, we rode spaceship Earth.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's just about to be. I was about to be so mad at you because we got to Thank the Venetians for teaching us their alphabet. We got to see the mammoth that literally kills me every single time and we got to watch the library of alexandria burn. Correct and we also get to see that, by the way. Thanks so much for now. Um, giving me a fun fact about spaceship, earth, about the lady.
Speaker 1:The black scientist. Yes, give me fill in some space. I gotta look, I gotta love that.
Speaker 2:Um, I also really, really love the fact that none of us pay attention at the end of the ride, um, when it's over, when we're picking all the things that we, we care about, you know, work, health, life, family, travel, any of those things that we never realized that all of that stuff is around me. I one of these days I want to just ignore the screen and look up and look all around and see all the things and see what I miss, because I never, ever pay attention. Um, but I do think they need to kind of upgrade some of the um, you know, electronics and that that stuff be, do, look and dusty.
Speaker 1:Uh, yeah, that'll.
Speaker 2:It is interesting, but um that pizza, that pizza in that scene, when, when it's the scene where you're, they're giving the garage of the world correct. There's a slice of pizza and there's like a thick, like two inch level of dust sitting on that pepperoni pizza and the car, yeah, so for those that oh and the car forget the car.
Speaker 1:One for those that have ridden on spaceship earth. So when you're going through I think it's like the 70s, 80s, right right there at the end, um, and you'll go into a room that's full of supercomputers, and they're talking about the supercomputers because spaceship earth is all about technology and how it evolved over the human race. Um, and you learn there. There's a black lady in there who looks like Beyonce in the ostum powers movie.
Speaker 1:I'm not trying to be rude, but she 100% looks just like Beyonce in the ostum powers movie. She got that beautiful fro.
Speaker 2:Um go go boots baby.
Speaker 1:So that mannequin or robot or animatronic, animatronic um, modeled after Dr Valerie Thomas, who was a scientist with nasa who oversaw the Landsat program and then Later was the computer facility manager and from there expanded the span network, which went on to become a vital part of today's internet.
Speaker 2:Now, is this the same one that's in the kevacostner movie?
Speaker 1:Hidden figures hidden figures I. Is Valerie Thomas? I don't think so.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I feel like we need to do some research on this.
Speaker 1:Uh, actually I think she is. Is, um, she started off as a nasa data analyst in 1964. She developed the real-time computer data systems that support satellite operations control center from 1964 to 1970 and she oversaw the creation of the landsat program. Um, I think so. Uh, is she the movie that hidden figures is about? Hold on.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is literally her. A hidden figures is um nasa inventor, valerie thomas.
Speaker 1:She's the one that look at her.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I'm looking at a picture of her. She literally she's wearing the same exact outfit as the animatronic in spaceship earth that would explain why she was dressed like that. Um, I Love that one in hidden figures.
Speaker 1:Who petitions to go To an all-white school, correct at night classes, so she could get the degree, so she could actually be a scientist with nasa correct um. She also invented the illusion transmitter, which she received the patent for in 1980. Um Interesting, she was also responsible for developing digital media formats that image processing systems used Uh in nasa's landsat program and did you know her technology and um Invention are still being used today with nasa.
Speaker 2:Interesting, I love that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so that's something really cool. She's also the reason.
Speaker 2:That nasa peas the same color. You need to watch the movie. It's iconic. I love it. Watch it. 10 out of 10.
Speaker 1:That's actually what a different NASA peas, the same for the third lady.
Speaker 2:Listen they all pee the same color, because we all do so.
Speaker 1:Moving on, unless you dehydrated um. Which we definitely wear after yesterday.
Speaker 2:I'm consistently dehydrated. So then, uh, we finished up our day at ofcott with my hey, uh, hey, uh, uh, no okay.
Speaker 1:No my favorite.
Speaker 2:Favorite, favorite ride of all time at upcott, frozen ever after. I love her. I love singing with alsa that I get to scream let it go at the top of my lungs. I love being invited to join Elsa and Anna by Olaf and seeing Sven and seeing Kristoff and seeing Anna and Elsa and I just love it. I love every single Second of it.
Speaker 1:I love that I go backwards, I will say I've only ever ridden, that I didn't ride the original ride, the Mousetrom. I wanted to call it Nordstrom. We're tired kids I never got to ride Mousetrom Um, but I hear that it was absolutely an amazing interaction and I wished I would.
Speaker 2:I could have ridden it. It was terrifying. It was absolutely terrifying for the time that it was there. It was scary.
Speaker 1:Now I will say I do like the homage. A lot of people don't realize this, but in the scene where you see Elsa and she's singing, let it go and you're going backwards. Yes, if you look up in the ceiling, you'll see the led lights that resemble Elsa's powers going down the hallway. That is an homage to the original attraction that used a lot of leds.
Speaker 2:Are not leds fiber optics so many lights, so so many.
Speaker 1:But that was an homage to that original ride and and I think that you know I hate to see that go away because it was a a part of Disney history. Well, it's a part of what Epcot was supposed to be. It was the world showcase and Um, while I think that frozen is an amazing attraction, I don't think it holds up to being norway Like. This is an animated movie that has nothing to do with norway, other than it's a fictional story set in norway.
Speaker 2:Oh, so you just countered it. What did you just said leave frozen alone.
Speaker 1:No, I'm not. I'm saying I like the attraction. I'm just saying, like, this is again how we've had this conversation in earlier times, where disney is getting away from what Epcot was originally supposed to be Correct and they're moving into ip's and things. I think they've done a fantastic job. I think they did a good job because this is going to create a conversation with younger children. Yes, about norway. Yes, but I still I wish I could have rode the original ride.
Speaker 2:Mom boohoo. Now you get a fantastic experience with frozen ever after, and I love it. I think it's a great. I think it's a great addition to Epcot. I think it's it's. Frozen has become such a nostalgic movie franchise. It has become such a.
Speaker 1:Aren't we getting a third one?
Speaker 2:Correct. It is also becoming such a um For me. I really appreciated that it wasn't themed off of true love. A man saved me. It was Sister saved each other. Like I thought that was a big stepping stone for disney to to pull away from that whole concept of A man saving them. No, my siblings saved me.
Speaker 2:So, I thought that was really big of them and I think a lot of you know girls, and a lot of girls that have siblings, like I do, can Really much relate to that, especially because, as me being the oldest, I there's numerous times that I've saved Lauren from from a lot of things, so I think it's it's one of those that I appreciate it. I think it's a great film. I think both of them are fantastic films and I'm excited to see where the rest of that franchise goes. Yeah, I think it'll be interesting to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we wrapped up our date, I've cut, and that was it and wrapped up our day at disney world. And then Rob got really sad because he realized he left his AirPods in another person's car.
Speaker 2:But we're getting them on we saved them Can. I talk about what's coming up.
Speaker 1:What's coming up?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, our special guests next week we're gonna take before we get that started on that, I am gonna just announce that we were going to discuss our book. However, due to what I am about to announce is the reason why we are pushing it back yet again, because we've been having to get ready for the arrival Of the iconic, the legend, shan Shan. My mother is coming into town along with my sister, and I am so excited. We are taking them Well, they we are taking them to to our favorite bar with all of our friends that I'm very excited if they haven't met my mother, to meet my mother. And then also, for those that love and adore my mother, are going to see her again. So we're taking her over to the sloppy taco palace and then we are taking her to universal and I am so, so, so excited. I haven't seen my mother since October. I face our mother every day. I've never seen your mother, I know I face time are everywhere.
Speaker 2:Day and I talked to her every day. But like it's not the same, I miss Shan. It's gonna be fun, it's excited. You don't know.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean you kind of know, but we're gonna have a fun mother against daughter jeopardy game. Yes, we are gonna be playing. So we that means actually I have to batten down the hatches tonight and get some equipment in here, because we're gonna get a third mic but Shan will be on co-hosting. She'll be our special guest. Yes, she's gonna be our first. She'll be the first guest of Orlando unplugged podcast. We're super excited for that.
Speaker 2:It's gonna be an iconic episode. We're also going to be experiencing universal marty girl on wednesday, so you'll get a little bit of some information about that. You'll see some photos of that, so make sure you're following us on all of our social media platforms on instagram, on facebook, on twitter and all of that can be found in and on our website, and also links on our facebook and our so in our instagram page. Um, but yeah, you're gonna get some behind the scenes and the iconic shout out to shan's. It's going to be Incredibly epic and I cannot wait. I'm so excited and she comes on monday, so I literally have to wait two days and then I could just she comes, she comes today, this episode comes out.
Speaker 2:Yes, that day that this, this our ninth episode, oh my gosh, mom gives to me the tenth episode.
Speaker 1:Oh, look at that.
Speaker 2:That is so iconic it matches her. Oh, all right, that's all I got me. I'm so tired, we I?
Speaker 1:apologize. This episode was a struggle. I'm so tired, I'm exhausted, but thank you guys for listening. Don't forget, as always, please be sure that you subscribe to this podcast, on whatever platform you found us on. Please do us a favor, make sure those notifications are turned on so you can be notified whenever we release content. And please do us a big favor, be sure you uh rate Review. Uh, let us know what you like, let us know what you don't like, if there's anything we need to cut out, if there's anything that we need to add, and I'll let Ashley take it away for our famous Goodbye and be sure to always like share.
Speaker 2:Share with your friends, share with your family and, of course, share it with your favorite bartender. It was a blast. Thanks for unplugging disney world with us and, uh, we look forward to talking to you with Shan. We'll see you next week. Bye guys.