Wanderlust & Wishes

Episode 73: Through the Fog - 2025 Halloween Horror Nights Post-Trip Report

• Julie & Krystle

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Join us for our Halloween Horror Nights 2025 post-trip report as Krystle takes us behind the screams of her unforgettable RIP Tour with Fantastical Vacations!

In this episode, Krystle shares insider details from the RIP experience — private tour perks, backstage access, and how it completely changes your HHN night. Was it as scary as she imagined? Will she go again? You'll have to listen in to find out!

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Wonderlust and Wishes, the podcast where we explore the world one destination at a time. I'm Julie. And I'm Crystal. As travel agents with fantastical vacations, we are here to share our passion for travel and help you turn your wonderlust into reality. From hidden gems to bucket list adventures, join us as we dive into the sights, sounds, and stories of our favorite destinations. So grab your passport, pack your bags, and let's embark on this journey together.

SPEAKER_01:

Hi everybody, welcome to episode 73 of Wonderlust and Wishes. The moment we've all been waiting for has arrived. Crystal is going to talk about her Halloween Horror Nights adventure at Universal Orlando. She's going to give us all the deets on that. So we're going to just jump right in and start talking through it. So, Crystal, can you tell me or tell the audience? I already know what's going on here. Tell the audience, the listeners, why did you decide to do this? You know, how did you or how did you get like into this RIP tour?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, well, if you've been here a while, you heard me like talk about my like nervousness and that this was on the horizon. So I'm not a scary movie person. I like Halloween, but I like like the cute Halloween. I don't like the scary stuff. So when was it? June?

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's been a while. Our agency hosted a contest in between all the agents, and anybody who wanted to apply could. It was basically make some sort of social media post and it needed to be anonymous. And then all the entries were voted on by all the other agents. And they were picking two because they were taking our like a mentor program, and they were taking the mentors on how and whornights RIP tour. So they had a couple extra spaces. And my carousel that I made and posted was one of the winners. So I was like, first of all, I was like, I didn't think I stood a chance. Oh, please. You're so good at social media. You're so good. Okay, but there were a lot of good entries.

SPEAKER_01:

So and to be, and also just to clarify, this was the the social media post was to advertise for it, it was a post about Halloween horror nights. So the content had to be about Halloween Horror Nights. And so Crystal did an entry for that. I was lame and I didn't do anything.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, that's I was actually surprised that more people didn't. There were still probably 20 entries, but we have like 120 agents. So I didn't think going into it that I even stood a chance, but I won. And that's probably the only reason that I went.

SPEAKER_01:

The thing is though, it pushed you outside of your comfort zone, but you got to experience something that you maybe wouldn't have. And now you have that, like you have that experience, and you have you're able to talk through it, and especially the RIP tour. I definitely want to like we'll definitely get into the details of that.

SPEAKER_00:

Halloween Hornets is like a very big seller for our agency. So just to like you say, push me out of my comfort zone, go and do it. And now I can say I've done it. And just getting that firsthand experience is always great for like helping our clients. So it's like we always talk about we gotta get we gotta do something new on our trip because we're like very into like our routines and things that we like, and just trying to do new things to help our clients to be able to have first hand experience.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Okay, so walk us through your day one, getting down there. What did you do? Did you happen to go to a park that day? Did you do parks before the RIP tour on Wednesday? Did you get any sleep?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, as a mom of three young kids, leaving in the middle of the week is hard. So it's a very quick trip. I dropped Reese off at preschool at noon on Tuesday for like a three o'clock flight. I got to Orlando about six, and I had every intention of going to like Islands of Adventure for an hour, but it took my Uber like 25 minutes from the time I pushed reserve to get pick me up. So I was at the hotel. I stayed at Terra Luna that night. By the time I got to the hotel, it was like 6:30. So I didn't have time to do much because everything closed at 7 that night. So since I was so close to Epic, I hopped on a little bus and rode the four minutes over to Epic just to say I've seen the front gate. I wanted a really cool picture in front of the Kronos, but I didn't realize that they were scanning tickets so far out. Yeah. But I had a very sweet team member. She said, Come right here, come through, stand right here, and I'll take your picture. But then you have to turn around and go right back out. So I have a cool little picture. I wish I would have had her name because I would have given her like a compliment or however they do it because she didn't have to do that. Yeah, that was nice. Yes. So there was a massive storm coming in. So I'm kind of like we're like playing with fire anyway. I think they ended up refunding Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween tickets that night because storms were so mat bad.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So at this point, it's after seven o'clock. I'm starving. I'm back over at Terra Luna, and I went to their little quick service place and ordered just like their Smash Burger. And Julia will know because I was texting her out of hangar. It took them 45 minutes to get my burger. So I'm hoping it's just a one-off. But they only have one kitchen compared to like everywhere else has multiple kitchens or multiple chefs. And I was just by myself. So if I would have been like with my family, or if it would have been like prime dinner hour, I would have like been fine. But I was by myself and it was not busy, not prime dinner hour. So the burger was fine. It was nothing to write home about, but it wasn't horrible. Then I tried to come in bed by like nine because I had a big day on Wednesday, but I had some noisy neighbors. So I got some sleep, but I was also up before my alarm. So I got up and I was like ready to go. What time I was looking at pictures. I was fully dressed, packed. I was actually sitting and filming videos by 6:30. Wow. Because I was just like up and ready, and I was like, I can't do anything yet. So trying to do some social media. So since I was up, I decided that I was going to rope drop and I went over to Islands of Adventure. I was one of the first groups of people, and I was going straight to Hagrid's. I wanted to ride Hagrid's. I had early entry because I was staying at a universal property and I booked with a travel agent.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And so Islands of the Venture was the one that was hosting the early entry. That's why I picked that park. We were let in, let's see, timestamps. We were let in at like 7 50 for 8 o'clock opening. So they did open the gates 10 minutes early. And I went straight to Hogsmead, straight to Locker. It was posted about a 20 minute wait. And I let's see. I wrote it down. I got in line at 8. I was loaded by 8.11 and I was off by 8.15. Oh wow. And it was posted 20 minutes. When I got off, it was already up to like a 90-minute wait. Holy cow. That's so it definitely jumped quickly. It helped. I was in the front of the front of the pack. Then I just kind of wandered around Hogsmeade for a minute, took some pictures in front of the castle. I was playing photographer for some families. They saw me taking a picture. Like, I got you. Like you asked the right person today.

SPEAKER_01:

She rudely sent me a picture of herself with butterbeer in front of the castle. No, I'm just kidding. She said, she said, wish you were here.

SPEAKER_00:

Then I was checking the map and I was shocked. Shocked. Velocicoaster was posted at a 10-minute wait time. I thought more people would like head there, but I guess everybody went to go St. Hagrid's. So I got in line, what is this? 8 26. And I was off by 8 36. I was back around the front taking pictures of it. Wow. It was quick. It was super quick. I never stopped walking like the whole way through. Yeah. And then by this point, it is so hot and I'm sweating to death. And my plan was since I didn't have Julie with me, I was going to do the water rides that she swears she won't do with me. So the next one on my list was Jurassic Park, but that part of the park was not opening until nine. So I had like 25 minutes to spare, basically, because I was like, well, why can't I just go cue? So I went back over to Hogsmead. My kids FaceTimed me because they were getting ready to go to school just to say hi. So I got myself some butterbeer, some frozen butterbeer to start the morning. And then I sat. You remember where we had lunch where it was like the Jurassic?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, with the big dyno. Like dino bites or something like that. No, that's sorry. That's that's at Disney. I don't remember. I don't remember. I remember exactly where it is. Like I know exactly where it is.

SPEAKER_00:

I remember us going in there. So I went in because there was nothing going on in there, but it was nice and AC, and I could sit and just enjoy my butterbeer and wait for the other side of the park to open. And then I went straight to Jurassic Park. I was on the ride at 9 a.m. I was the only person on this boat. I made a bitch. There's like there's like room for like 16 people on there, right? Or 20. The cast members were laughing because I was like sauntering through the the the queue and I'm by myself and there's no one else in sight. So they're like, sit anywhere you want. So I was like, Well, I've never ridden before. And they're like, you need to sit front and center. So that's what I did. And then they kind of waited for a minute because two girls ended up coming and jumping in, right? Because they kind of held me for a minute. And the girl was like, This is my favorite. She's like, You're gonna get soaked. But then after she's like, You didn't get very soaked, and she's like, But it's because there's no one in the in the boat. Yeah. So we didn't have the wait. Fun little ride. So I'm already wet. Next on my list was Kong, but Kong didn't open until 9:30. I don't know why they would do the like such a staggered. So I kept going to Dudley Duray, Ripsaw, Falls. Same thing. I walked straight on, not a soul in sight by myself. Sat in the front. What was this? I was on and going at 9.18. I tried to record it and then it paused, right? I was going down the falls. No.

SPEAKER_01:

I was so mad. That's the worst. That's probably even worse than like when you think you're recording and you actually like didn't hit the button, and then you hit the button and you start recording like when you wanted to stop.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So I was off before 9:30. I was a drowned cat basically. I went over to Kong and rode that just to say I had done it. By this point in time, though, I kind of looked at some of the food stuff we talked about. Like I wanted to go get a dolp. Yeah. This stuff's only open on the weekends right now.

SPEAKER_01:

No.

SPEAKER_00:

So I didn't even go over to Seuss and I didn't I didn't do Hulks this time because I we did Hulks last time and I was my mission to write things, I hadn't. Yeah. So at this point, I was like, well, I'm gonna go back over to Hagrid, over by Hagrid's, and I was kind of just I saw some guys with a wand. I was like, hey, John hates when I do this. I'm like, hey, do you mind if I take a picture from behind just of you doing your like little wand motion? And they're like, girl, you do it. I'll take a video of you. And I was like, oh I'm not very good. I couldn't get the thing to to do its thing. But it's because you're a Harry Potter imposter. That's why. Yeah. Because you haven't read all the books. I know. So I did that little thing. And then by 10, I was uh loading the Haworth Express to head over to the other side. And Gringotts had been down for two hours that morning, and I got off and I saw the as I'm walking into Dygon Alley, the dragon is like blowing his smoke or his flames. And I just like, I'm just gonna walk over here and see. And people started cueing, and I was like, oh, maybe it just opened back up. So I ran and put my stuff in the locker. I just had a crossbody and then I'd hooked a water bottle to my crossbody. So I could have worn my crossbody everywhere, but because of the water bottle, I needed a locker.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I could have done single rider, but I wanted I didn't want to miss anything because I'd never done it before.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So I hopped in line for Green Gots. This is probably my longest wait of the day. They said it was posted about 25 minutes. I got in line at 1025, and I was off by I was probably 25 minutes, 30 minutes, but I met four lovely ladies from the UK. And it was very fun for them to like hear the they were comparing and contrasting like the Harry Potter sets and the Cottswalds to to Diagon Alley. Uh-huh. So that was very fun. And then I just kind of wandered around. I got a new picture in front of the travel agent door because last time I was a sweaty mess, even though I was a drowned cat. Let's see, what else did I do? Oh, because of our episode about where we could eat, I ate at the San Francisco pastry company and I got the grilled cheese and the tomato soup. Was it so good? It was so good. And it was 95 degrees, but the tomato soup actually I feel like kind of cooled me down because I've heard like this whole reverse science about like instead of trying to cool your body down, like if you're already warm, your body's already like uh the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So it was very good. By this point, I'm like getting ready to like head out. I hopped on Mummy. I'd never done that one before. And the tribute store for Halloween Horn Nights is the exit of Mummy this year. So I got myself a little their little pumpkin, boo, pumpkin, pen, and then I started wandering to the front of the park, and they are actively tearing down Rip Ride Rocket. I know, it's sad. So it was crazy to see where they were at at 12 o'clock in the day and then come back for Halloween Horror Nights and how much they had taken off in the six hours since I'd been gone. So this is where I rode a bus back to Terra Luna, grabbed my bag from the luggage, hold. I Ubered over to Aventura, where I met up with some other agents. I took a quick shower because I was still wet. Yeah. Changed, got re-ready. We all had like a meetup at the pool bar around 3, 3:30. So that was kind of fun to see a bunch of the other agents and friends that it's it's been a while since we've seen. And then we headed over, walked over to Universal around five and checked in for our RIP tour. So it has like its own little check-in area. And then he took us to it's like the NBC media building. They are switching it over. He goes, We've never done this before. We usually do it in La Bamba, but La Bamba is where they, he's like, This is where they take the non-private people. The private people get to go to this new place. So they had hors d'oeuvres, like pre-tour reception. So they had the little doubled eggs that are sweet. They're not egg. Have you seen those streets that they have at the parks? They look like a double egg, and it's very trippy because the texture and everything is an egg, but it's like a coconut something or other. So I tried one. It was actually good. If you close your eyes and don't realize that it looks like a doubled egg, because a lot of people, they're like, oh, I thought that was a double egg. Like that was so wrong. And they had pizza fries, they had some of like the big tots with the spam that they're selling at one of the booths. So it's just like little light bites, but if you got enough, you could definitely make a meal out of it. And then art from the terrifier was hanging around, and we had some private one-on-one time with him. And then we just started our night. Our guide, Paul, he was phenomenal. He has been with Universal since pre-2000, and he was in some kind of production management, and he like helped start Halloween Horror Nights basically. And he was one of the first people who like trained scare actors. Oh, that's fun. So he had like all the inside tips, all the inside tricks. So it's still light out at this point. And we had kind of given him like a rundown of what we wanted to do. So we went and hit three houses right off the bat. And it's since you're part of VIP tour, you skip all the lines. Some of the lines were already up to like 90 to 120 minutes.

SPEAKER_01:

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00:

I know, and it barely even like it hadn't even started yet. And so right off the bat, we hit El Artista, Terrifier, and Grave of Flesh. And it was very interesting because before each house, he would take us over in a corner and he would like give us like the story of the house. He'd give like little Easter eggs of things to look for. And he's it was just very insightful. And after after the first El Artista, Dan, our agency owner, we were talking, he goes, you know, I was here for a media day opening night and was on a with a VIP guide and went through that house. And they didn't give us any of that sort of backstory. He's like, This is also my ninth night, and I did not notice the things that he told us to like look for and notice. That's awesome. So I won't ruin it for anybody, but at the end, like if you look for El Artista and you see he's like painting at the beginning. At the very end, before you go out, there's another painting, the finished painting. Look at what the painting is and then look up on the ceiling. So that's all I'll say because I don't want to ruin it for anybody. So we did El Artista Terrifier Grave of Flesh. And then we went up on top of the Jimmy Fallon building. There's like a hidden bar up there. And we had like a 10-minute potty break bar stop. They had unlimited soda and water. So your girl had so many Diet Cokes, but it's what kept me going that night. And it kept us like I didn't have to take my big water bottle, which was nice. And then from there, I think we went over to the stage show, which was like a circus theme. And it's called a burlesque show. And I would say it is definitely an 18 plus event, but they are so talented. And it was captivating. Like it was amazing. Fire dancing, acrobatics, like the whole aerobics in the sky kind of thing. Like definitely Cirque to sleigh type show. It was really cool. And we had like a reserve seating. So we just waltzed right into that and had we were sitting on the like fourth row, and the rows in front of us were like handicapped, roped off. After that, we did three more shuses. We did dolls, hatches and chains, and the Golkin. We might have had another bar stop. I don't remember. Oh, we might have done Fallout in there too. And then after Fallout, we went to Dagon Alley and we stumbled upon some Death Eaters. They were doing a little show. And then let's see, after that, we ended up on one of the scare zones, which was the uh cat lady on Crooked Lane or something like that. And he was really big on explaining how like over the years the scare zones have turned into more like experiences. So there are like little spots set up where it is you're just kind of like walking through the street and there's like scare actors walking out. But this particular one, there's kind of like a whole little show that she does, like on her porch, and there's a whole backstory. And once he like told us the backstory, it was like, oh, that makes so much more sense. Where if you didn't know the backstory, you're just like, oh, it's like an old cat lady, and there's cows running. Like, I don't understand. And then what else did we do? Sometime in there we hit Jason, Five Nights at Freddy's, and the Wyatt Six, which is the WWE one, which that was mind-blowing, like the whole backstory. And then in between that, we hit all the scare zones. We had another stop at Jimmy Fallon's. We had a stop for the uh deep-fried pickle spears with the buffalo chicken dip, which was amazing. And I didn't take a lot of pictures because you can't take pictures in the houses. Did you have a favorite house or a favorite scare zone? I really liked the what's it even called? The Gaulkin one. Uh-huh. The monsters of the north. And it was just like really beautifully done. And he said that there's kind of three areas that they'll like rate a house. It's like the storyline and the backstory, how scary it is, or like how like beautiful it is. And I thought the Gokkin was very beautiful. And it's uh it wasn't very scary. Uh but he uh also told us the story about how when he sometimes would let loose in the park with a chainsaw that 90% of the time he could get blonde women to scream. And I took it as my personal mission to not scream. So I did not scream. I had a couple like little like jumps, like oh, like oh, that jumped out, or they have these things like the windows are dropping and you hear like like the wood, like on a so that part was scary, that made me jump every time. And then there were some things like Jason, where there are 7,000 Jasons jump scaring you. But I would say if you go with a group of people, take some people who are more scared than you are and walk behind them because they would scream and I was just laughing hysterically behind them. So they're like a distraction. Yes, and then I also wore earplugs, which I think helped a lot because it took out like all of the the extra noise. I could still hear what was going on, but it wasn't anything like over the top or like screaming. I hated the fog and I hated the strobes just because I couldn't see where I was going. I hate strobe lights, yeah. So after that, like we were walking out of there at 2 a.m. So we took it pretty hard. There was rain in the forecast all night long, but we looked out, we didn't get a single drop of rain. Nice. You never know.

SPEAKER_01:

It's a crapsheet with Florida.

SPEAKER_00:

No, and they said that the last time they did one, it poured all night, so they didn't have time to just kind of like like when we sat on the side of the road and just ate our pickles, and we could kind of meander and just kind of go slow and we weren't like running from house to house. Yeah, and like the rooftop bar, like that.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, that would have been difficult, you know?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So we definitely saw and did everything. We did all 10 houses, then we went back and did Jason and Terrifier again. We did those two a second time. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

So what was the crowd energy like? Obviously, I know you were with a group and you're we're with a private tour, but you still were in this quote unquote streets with other people going through the scare zones and the houses and stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

It was actually packed. And I was surprised to see a lot of people like in costume and like people live for this. This is their Yeah, it's become like a cult classic kind of thing for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00:

So I was asking Paul like questions you're not supposed to ask. Like capacity. I was like, what is the capacity like compared to like the day? And he goes, Well, to even calculate capacity, it's like this whole thing about like how many restaurants and places to eat are open, how many bathrooms are open, yeah, like how many rides are open. Like it's this whole thing. And he goes, We shut down 10 rides in the day, but we're also opening another 10 attractions, meaning the houses at night. So he goes, It's actually probably the same. And I think he said a number in the 30,000s, which is wild to me. And especially with the time frame, like it's yes, yes, and then we got asking about the costumes because in our episode about Halloween Horror Nights, like you're not supposed to dress up, yeah. And he goes, It's kind of up to the discretion of the team members, but the biggest thing is they don't want you impersonating anybody, like you can't be like dressed as one of the characters, yeah, or carrying head paints all around. Yeah. And they don't want your full face covered. So he said, if you can do like half your face, he goes, I saw a girl recently, she had her whole face kind of painted, she was kind of like had some clown makeup, and then half her hair was like green, and they had her take off half her makeup. And the way she did it, instead of like taking off like just the cheeks or just the nose, she just did like a line down her face, and he she he goes, It was so well done. But there are people I saw Tweedledee and Tweedledum walking around, so I don't know if they thought they were coming to Disney Halloween, Mickey's not so scary Halloween party, and then showed up to that, you gotta take it to the wrong thing. There were just a lot of people everywhere, and it was electric and it was definitely fun. I don't know that I would stand in line for three hours. Yeah. I know people that get express pass, and that is definitely worth it, but even express pass, you're gonna wait a little bit, and we definitely went backdoors to the front of every single line. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, I've I've seen tons, I mean, obviously, the experiences from our agency and also from other travel bloggers that do, you know, similar things, and that the RIP tour, it really is worth it. I mean, if to get the most bang for your buck, it's well worth it because of you just you get to go through everything and you wouldn't be able to do that without having that or the express pass. And by the time you pay for express passes, if you have a big enough group, like you end up paying the same thing anyway. So was Jason's the worst one, like scare-wise.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, probably. Terrifier was pretty bad, but it was more the smells of terrifier than anything. But they did is terror. I don't even know. Is it a show? Is it a I don't even know what it's based off of? I don't know. Because some of them are like they are these plot and storylines that they've made up through the years for Halloween Horror Nights, and they like build off that. Some are like based off of a show, yeah. Yes, terrifier. There's Art of the Clown, it's like a black and white clown, and it kind of goes through. I think it must be a show or a movie because they were like, Well, why wasn't this one in there? Like his murders, and so some of them are kind of gruesome, and they had them like displayed, so that was oh glory, yeah. Like, oh especially because there's a it's all women, so that part I was like, no, no. So I was too busy trying to like not smell and just to get through the house. There's a lot of like just shuffling that I was like, or it kind of became a game to me that there's like, oh, that could be a hole, that could be a hole. So I was trying to like almost find the scare actors before they found us.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. What about the scare zones? Did you have a favorite, or I don't know if you call it favorite, but one that stood out to you most, maybe?

SPEAKER_00:

So one of the scare zones this year was more of an experience of just like a dance party, which was interesting. So they had some girls up on some blocks dancing and they had art through there dancing one time, which was interesting. The cat one was very, I don't know, it's like kind of like your true Halloween. Like it stems off of like, you know, every neighborhood has like this house that they feel like is haunted, like when you're kids. Yeah. And on Halloween, you finally get up the guts to like go ring the doorbell, or you like go teepee it or something. So that's kind of where this idea stemmed from. So the whole street has like the pumpkins and the trees, and it was very pretty and very cool. You had like this characters were like kids in Halloween costumes, but then you also had. Like some cow ones, but it grew it drew such a crowd because they were doing the show. It was very funny to see people filming the show and then the cats coming out of nowhere, and because you're on your phone, like getting a good scare.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So that one was cool. There was one that's more like 50s theme, and they had like a bunch of old cars. And since my dad was an old car guy, just to see like the cars, and I don't know, it was kind of like they had it set up of like a street flower shop. And like if you didn't know any better, like their scare actors look pretty normal. But then if you saw any light, they had like acid things coming from their face because like a something. But so it's just very kind of fun just to see, I don't know, the what they come up with.

SPEAKER_01:

So what was it to kind of to like try to wrap up? Like what compared to what you were expecting and compared to what you actually experienced, what what would you tell our listeners to especially those that are a little bit more nervous about doing Halloween horror nights? What just what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00:

I was since we talked about it, I was on the lookout for like the little glowing red necklace medallion thing in scare zones. I didn't see a single one. Paul said he's seen a handful, but not a lot. But he's like, But if you're scared, just go on the sidewalk or just don't be on your phone because you just kind of like look at them and smile and they're like, oh shoot. I felt like you get out of it, what you put into it. So if you really want to be scared and you kind of like interact with them, or you're on your phone a lot and you're kind of not aware of your surroundings, you're gonna get more scared. As far as the houses, we had one guy with us who has played all the Fallout games, watched the shows, watched all the things. He was geeking out over that house. I didn't understand it. So I guess if some of the IUP is something you would recognize, you're gonna get more out of it. But if you don't recognize it to read up on the backstory beforehand, I feel like that helps a ton because if not, I just would have been, oh, like clowns and dolls, like I don't understand.

SPEAKER_01:

Or and you happened to know because you had the RIP tour and he gave you a little bit more information, but you would not have known.

SPEAKER_00:

I would have had no idea.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I mean, I think even you just mentioned with the cat lady, it made it much more interesting for you to know. Otherwise, you would have just it wouldn't have really me meant anything to you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I don't think it was as scary as people make it out to be. Just overall. But maybe that's just me and because I was laughing the whole time and yeah, you had the distraction. I had the distraction, but I some of it I just kind of walked through and like, oh that was kind of dumb. Or, but then some other people were like, yeah, some of them just aren't as scary as they were last year, or so it's probably like a personal preference kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01:

So you had people that have been before say that some of the stuff just wasn't quite as scary. Mm-hmm. Okay. I I can tell you if they do a Stranger Things next year, I'm gonna do everything I can to get there. I would definitely would want to do that and experience it.

SPEAKER_00:

There was speculation among our group that it will be back next year because of the final season.

SPEAKER_01:

Final season coming out, yeah, next month. Or not next month, November. I'm in I'm in October already, so but yeah. Yeah, I would love I would I would absolutely love that. And so you ended up well, you guys left at like 2 a.m. ish. You probably got in bed at like maybe 4 a.m. by the time you got back to the room, and then you had to fly out. Didn't you fly out at like six or seven?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, my li my flight left at 8:30. I figured I needed to leave about seven to make it to the airport. I do have pre-check. Um, I was before rush hour, so I didn't feel like too crazy. And I was in the southwest wing, which is like very easy to do. But I was afraid subconsciously that I was not gonna sleep through my alarm. I will say I had like 26,000 steps at midnight, and then when we got back to the hotel, I had another 8,000. I was hurting, like my hips were killing me, and all I wanted in life was to take a Tylenol PM. But I was like, I cannot, I will not wake up. Right. And then I also had five or six Diet Cokes plus another five or six water bottles, and I was probably running on adrenaline. So by the time I like actually settled down, gotten to bed, I also felt like I had to go to the bathroom multiple times, TMI. But then subconsciously, I just didn't want to miss my alarm. So I think I dozed for like 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there, but I was up before my alarm.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, and I was sitting in the lobby waiting for the Starbucks to open at six.

SPEAKER_01:

It was just it's so hard when subconsciously it's like your brain can't just can't shut down because you're so terrified that you're gonna sleep, you know, past your alarm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So I had everything packed the night before. Basically, all I had to do was roll over and roll out of the room because I was I also had other agents in the room with me, so I didn't want to like wake them up. Yeah. But it's a quick flight home. Then I was back to pick up Reese from preschool by noon or take her to preschool again at noon. But then it the no, so basically, I think I might have had I don't know if I had four hours of sleep between the two nights total. So Thursday I kind of crashed. I'm sure you did.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh gosh. Okay, so last question would you do it again?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, now I'm spoiled, so I don't know if I could do it without a VIB tour. If I did go back, I would definitely get express passed. I would not do it without some sort of skip the line. And I would go in with expectations of not doing it all just because there's no way you can.

SPEAKER_01:

If you don't do the RIP tour.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Would I go just me and John? Scary's not his thing either, so I probably couldn't get him there. It would have to be like another group of agents or friends.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, for me too, like I know that I would there's only there's certain people I know that would I would go with or would go with me. And they're, you know, my my family definitely, other than Ella, Ella would go with me. But otherwise they would it would be a waste of money to to take them.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, and that's the other thing is if I'm getting a flight and I'm going down there, it killed me that I was so close to Disney and I didn't step foot in the bubble. Like I was devastated. Like it part of me was like, do I just like Uber to Disney from the airport? But then I was like, what do I do with my bag? And it's like, I don't want to Uber and drop off my bag, Terra Luna, and then Uber over to Disney Springs. Well, I was like going through all sorts of scenarios about how I could get myself over there. Or you could at least just go under the sign. Under the sign, go to World of Disney. I don't smell the smell, something, but I just it was such a short trip. I couldn't squeeze it in. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It all sounds very fun to me. I love that stuff. I was nervous for you because I knew you were nervous, but I was excited to hear and excited for you to be able to experience it because I would love to do it. I think I've mentioned before that my birthday's on Halloween, so I love all things spooky and I do love scary movies. Um, I don't necessarily like gory movies, but I like jump scare movies. I like to torture myself with stuff like that. So I think it would be such a fun time.

SPEAKER_00:

I would go back with you.

SPEAKER_01:

I do think that because you know, I would be I would be a major distraction because I would be screaming my head off and you would definitely be laughing at me.

SPEAKER_00:

I think does make a huge difference. Like it could probably make or break your trip. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, if you guys have any questions or if there's anything that we didn't cover that you want to know about, if it's too short notice to do something this year, those tickets go on sale usually in like June or July for the next season. So we would love to help you out and get you prepared to get a trip in.

SPEAKER_00:

And I will say, if you want to do a VIP tour to Epic or to Universal during the day, our tour guide does do daytime tours. He does holiday after hour tours, he does them all and he is phenomenal. And I will get you in touch with him because he is to the point that he's kind of to request only because he's been doing it for so long. So I can call him personally, send him a text because he's like, I've done you guys, I would take your clients, so I can get you the hookup there.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome. The fact that Dan gave him such like glowing remarks is huge because our agency owners, Dan and Leslie, are obsessed with Halloween horror nights. They go a lot, like a lot.

SPEAKER_00:

I think they have like the top tier frequent fear pass. Yes. Like their their son was a scare actor in the past, like they're there all the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, I think Dan said that they've own they've already been like nine times, which is crazy. So we hope everybody has a fantastic week and we hope that you enjoyed this episode. We will talk to you all next week. Bye.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Wonder Lust and Wishes. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. And remember, the world is full of wonders waiting to be explored. Until next time, happy travels. Bye for now.