The Saints That Serve Podcast
Welcome to The Saints That Serve Podcast!
Where each week, your hosts dive into the crossroads of faith, culture and the unknown.
Christ is Lord and the Kingdom is now!
We are The Saints That Serve!
The Saints That Serve Podcast
Episode 72 - Orlando Vacation
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Jonny took a family trip to Orlando to experience SeaWorld Orlando, LEGOLAND Florida, and Universal’s Epic Universe in 2026, and what we found surprised us. From Sesame Street rides and penguins at SeaWorld to short lines and Dragon coasters at LEGOLAND, and the massive worlds inside Epic Universe like Isle of Berk, Super Nintendo World, Dark Universe, and the 1920s Wizarding Paris Ministry of Magic ride, we share honest reactions, what’s worth it, what to skipped, and how we set family guardrails without killing the fun. If you’re planning an Orlando vacation, love theme park reviews, or enjoy faith-based conversations about parenting and culture, this episode of Saints That Serve is for you.
#EpicUniverse2026 #UniversalOrlandoEpicUniverse #IsleOfBerkWingGliders #SuperNintendoWorldOrlando #DarkUniverseUniversal #MinistryOfMagicRideParis #SeaWorldOrlando2026 #LEGOLANDFloridaReview #OrlandoThemeParks2026 #OrlandoFamilyVacation #ThemeParkReviewPodcast #ChristianFamilyPodcast #FaithBasedParenting #FamilyTravelVlog #BaptismTestimony #SaintsThatServePodcast #OrlandoVacationPlanning #KidFriendlyThemeParks #ParentingWins #FaithAndCulturePodcast
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Welcome to the Saints That Serve podcast, where each week your hosts dive into the crossroads of faith, culture, and the unknown. Christ is Lord, and the kingdom is now. We are the Saints that serve.
SPEAKER_04Hey everybody.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the Saints That Serve Podcast. That is the Saints That Serve podcast. Where each week we talk about whatever we want.
SPEAKER_03No, but seriously, welcome to the Saints that serve podcast. My name's Johnny. And my name is Jarriss. And we are looking to be. I mean, sorry. We're the Saints that serve. This is episode 71. 72. This is episode 72. And today we're going to be talking about something fun. But first, if you need prayer for anything.
SPEAKER_00I want to call something out real quick. Good. Interrupt me. Yeah. Your like MPR smooth talk was slowly turning into Jennifer Coolidge. Or do you like? No. Oh no. Not again.
SPEAKER_03Not again. I'm so sorry I hit you with my cheap grand Cherokee.
SPEAKER_00I'm sorry I hit you with a Jennifer Coolidge voice three episodes in a row. What's in your wallet? No, really. What's in your wallet? I want it.
SPEAKER_03No, I think he's Swedish, but either way, we're done. Anyways, uh, if you need prayer for anything, reach out to us. We pray for our listeners on Fridays. That is every single Friday.
SPEAKER_04Every Friday.
SPEAKER_03And it's uh you can reach out to us through email at Saintsserve at gmail.com. Or you can message us through the link at the bottom of the episode description, or social media. Reach out to us via the social media.
Fortune Cookies And Running Jokes
SPEAKER_00That's right. Facebook, Twitter, yeah, Instagram, Instagram, threads, threads, all that stuff. And in the Spotify section, there is a comment section as well. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Spotify, YouTube, anywhere where there's a box that you can comment, just click on it and leave a comment. Yeah. We we want to hear from you. Heck yeah. So I don't have any other announcements. No. You don't? Do you? I do not. Do you? No? Okay. Before we get into our topic for today, do you want to find out what our fortune is?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we had Chinese food before this. Yeah, that's been me all night. Good thing you're listening in this silent but dim.
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_00But uh we have uh fortune cookies and we decided to save them for the uh the podcast.
SPEAKER_03So why do we you ever notice how whenever there's an opportunity to do like uh ASMR bit, we always do it. I know, right? We never practice self-control. Like, you know what? No, nobody wants to hear that. No, we always make awful noises in their ear.
SPEAKER_00Alright.
SPEAKER_03Should I go first?
SPEAKER_00I'll let you go first. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Since yours was all broken up, anyways. You will make many changes before settling satisfactorily. Settling satisfactorily?
SPEAKER_00Is that is satisfactorily a word? Let me see. Let me see how this Let me make sure you read that right. You will make many changes before settling satisfactorily. Yeah. That's what it says. I mean, we all know that this isn't like a like a weird lucky number two. Five, five, nine, nine, fourteen, fourteen, twenty-nine, twenty-nine, forty-six, forty-six. Everybody go play the lottery and play those numbers this week. So like, with satisfactorily, which I'm gonna not be able to say it right anytime now. I don't think anyone can. But you know, like where it's like stereotype that like there's a translation like goof, you know what I mean, where it's like the word it translates poorly and it means something else. Correct. That can't be the case. Yeah. Because fortune cookies are American made.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah, it's not like the Chinese are like, how do you spell this English word? It's Americans that are making fortune cookies. Correct.
SPEAKER_00So mine says Correctorally. Correctorally. Uh mine says, your dreams will bring you into a profitable venture.
SPEAKER_03Ooh. What are you dreaming about? This podcast. Well, you what were you what did you dream about last night?
SPEAKER_00This podcast. No, I don't remember what I dreamed last night. I don't. Yeah, I I never I have I have dreams, but I I tend to forget them if they're not like traumatizing. Oh.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I just don't I if I dream, I don't remember them. I don't dream, I don't think. You don't dream? Not while I'm asleep. Only when you only when I'm behind the wheel. Behind the wheel and I my eyes don't close. They just roll into the back of my head.
SPEAKER_00I've talked have I talked about that where I was driving, I was driving to your house when you were in the trailer, and it was going to you pick you up so we could drive to Tennessee for your wedding. Oh yeah. And there was like it was early in the morning, and there was a time frame where I just lost like maybe 15-20 minutes of time because I zoned out while driving. Jesus, take the wheel. Please take it or I'll die.
SPEAKER_03I'm not speaking into the mic correctly.
SPEAKER_02Jaris is annoyed.
SPEAKER_03I'm not annoyed. Because he's a stickler for sound. And he wants you all to hear me well.
SPEAKER_00You got any announcements, John? We already did that. I know, I'm kidding. Oh, okay. So, John, what are we talking about since we finished our fortune cookies? Satisfactorily. Satisfactorily. So we're gonna talk about Tyler. This is your transition into do do do do.
SPEAKER_03We're gonna talk about mouth noises. No, uh, theme parks again. Again for the umpteenth time.
SPEAKER_00Yep, but this time it's gonna be a little different because you have experienced theme park.
SPEAKER_03Well, it's let's let's re let's reword that. This time it was me who went to theme parks and not you.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I've been before.
SPEAKER_00You've never been to a theme park ever in your entire life. This is your first time, first time experience true for two, actually, for all three of the parks. My first time going to each of the parks that we went to. So let's go through all three and just talk about your experiences. Save the big one for last. And I'm curious to hear what you think the big one is. Like we said, mouth noises.
SPEAKER_03So our first day. Well, first off, we drove down there and actually got there in pretty decent time.
SPEAKER_00I thought you were gonna say, first off, the history of theme parks is first off, the first theme park was in Germany in 1762. It was called the Schnauzer Rauger. Let's Gemini that.
SPEAKER_03Gemini is the Schnauzer Rouger. What was the first theme park? I bet you it's gonna be something crazy like the world. We're gonna find out that this what was that called? The uh World's Fair? Yeah, the World's Fair. Like, you know, like in 1905 or seven or whatever.
SPEAKER_00Theme parks have had to be around way before the 1900s.
SPEAKER_03I don't know. I just remember there being a lot of like uh there's a lot of mystery behind the World Fair because it was like so elaborately built, and like they took it all down and moved it to another part of the world and put it all together, and it was like crazy, and then it just disappears. They're like, what happened? What happened to that?
SPEAKER_00So I would say, you know, we've had probably fairs and get-togethers and uh like amusement attractions for you know, ye like way, way in the past. But a theme park being something that is themed around, you know, going into it, I will say the first one was in 1762.
SPEAKER_03That's when you think the first theme park was.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_03All right, well, according to AI, so take it this with a grain of salt, take it with a grain of salt, Baken or Dier Savenbaken, located in Klumpenborg, Denmark, is the world's oldest operating amusement park. Opened in 1583. Dang. Originating as a pleasure garden around a natural spring. It evolved into a the old what that that's the oldest operating one?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's still operating. But that does doesn't does that mean that's the first one though.
SPEAKER_03That's the oldest operating one, doesn't mean that the oldest first one I think I think that the idea is that it's the first one and it's still operating today. Okay.
SPEAKER_04Let me double check your work.
Trip Setup And Theme Park History Tangent
SPEAKER_03Cross-reference ver fac. Uh anyways, yeah, so theme parks. So we went down to the theme park capital of America. Yeah, you're right. Yours is it says. Thank you. There you go. Clampin'borg. They knew what to do. Uh anyways, borgons. Those freaking borgons. Gleeping, glopping, glooping, glooming. Went down to Orlando in the Florida.
SPEAKER_00In that Florida February heat.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00What was the weather like down there?
SPEAKER_03Uh, 70s.
SPEAKER_00So perfect weather for Florida.
SPEAKER_03Excellent weather. First day in the theme parks. We went to SeaWorld. Ooh, old shamu. Yeah. My first time going to SeaWorld. Probably be my last too. But we did it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03No, we we went because I believe, if I understood correctly, that they are discontinuing the Orca show and releasing the orcas back, either relocating them or releasing them back into the wild.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. SeaWorld did start out as like almost like an aquarium attraction thing. And just over time, that and Busch Gardens, which is part of the same like brand, where Busch Gardens was the zoo and SeaWorld was the aquarium, they have just slowly just gotten rid of animal become nature and animal-themed rides. Yeah. Yeah. Like I remember going when I was young and there was no roller coasters. A young boy. My father took me to CC World. And I saw Shamu the Well.
SPEAKER_03Uh, anyways, yeah, so lots of rides. Uh, we didn't do lots of rides, but you saw things.
SPEAKER_00They had like we saw things. We saw some things.
SPEAKER_03No, they were doing like kind of how Epcot does an around the world like festival where it's like they've got the countries that are there all year round, but then they add extra booths for food and wine. So the food and wine festival. They had the kind of an equivalent to that going on, and it was only on the weekends. And so we had gone, so our day was on a weekend. Um, so we were kind of doing that. We were like checking out the different food stuff, but then we also did Sesame Street.
SPEAKER_00That's what I was gonna ask, because they've added like a Sesame Street land, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so we we did all the rides in the Sesame Street, and that was Dasher, our youngest. That was his first roller coaster. Yeah. Was in Sesame Street, yeah.
SPEAKER_00He got on Big Bird's back and just flew. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03No, it I think it's the Ernie. No, it's not Ernie, it's uh Gonza. Gonza. It's Grover. Grover, thank you.
SPEAKER_00I'm just naming different keep start just start naming all of the Sesame Street Muppets go. Name all the Jim Henson affiliated. No. Uh I've got uh uh Count the the Count I was gonna say Count Chocula. Count that's not that's not him. That's ethereal. Count uh uh Oscar, the uh the Grouch, uh uh Miss Piggy, uh uh Pikachu, I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Big Big Piggy.
SPEAKER_00I mean uh uh Kamit the Frog, that's the Muppets. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Uh anyway, so rode the roller coaster for the first time. He thought it was cool. And then you know, we did everything there, and then we went and did the Orca show for the last time.
SPEAKER_04For the first time, for the last time.
SPEAKER_03After that, we what else did we do? We went and saw something else, and then got on the penguin ride.
SPEAKER_00Roller coaster. So I have seen stuff on that ride. So, me personally, I'm not too familiar with SeaWorld.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I went You only go for the spooky season.
SPEAKER_00I went the last time I went was they I went to their spooky season stuff, which it was fun, but it's not like of quality. I well, there's an episode in the past about that, yeah. And then the last time I went to SeaWorld as a theme park was 2016-17, and I don't remember a thing about it at all.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so it was uh Dasher was big enough to get on the roller coaster coaster. Yeah, and it was way more of a roller coaster than the Sesame Street one.
SPEAKER_00So isn't it like they start you out and you're slow and you're going through like a penguin exhibit, right? And actually singing actual penguins, and then they shoot you out, and then it's a roller coaster.
SPEAKER_03Other way around.
SPEAKER_00Oh, so it starts as a roller coaster at the end, it ends with a penguin exhibit.
SPEAKER_03Ends with the penguin exhibit, yep. And and you get off the roller coaster and you go right into the like to get off the ride, you have to go through the penguin exhibit, which is like 30 degrees. Oh so we're all in like shorts and t-shirts, and we get off the ride and we walk below freezing temperatures, and we're like, What the get us out of here?
SPEAKER_00Did he do the thing where he's like uh Dasher gets off and he's crying, he's upset that it was like intense, or did he enjoy it? No, he loved it. Nice.
SPEAKER_03He every roller coaster that he did, he had fun. He had a very like he was very focused on what was happening directly in front of him, but he would keep one hand on the roller coaster at all times, but he put the other one up and be like, Woo!
unknownWoo!
SPEAKER_03And he would make hands, he would not put both up at the same time.
SPEAKER_00So he wanted to put his hand up, but he's like, Oh, I'm gonna be secure.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, there was one ride that we did at the towards the end of our trip, but at one point he went, yeah, baby. So man. Yeah, but it was I was impressed. He he did him and and Park Ranger both did the penguin ride, and they both and okay, Park Ranger will he he talks like he doesn't want to do any ride, but he'll get on every single ride.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's like I don't want to do it, let's go.
SPEAKER_03And he likes to like ride a roller coaster and he'll get off and he'll do the pretend like he's gonna puke, he'll go, but he's learned that from you. No, he learned he he started doing that spontaneously on our last trip. No idea where it came from. It came from you, and now it's been egged on by uh yeah, by me and and my father-in-law.
SPEAKER_00But the first time he just It's gonna be funny when he gets off a one really intense one one day and he's like and then actually throats up.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. No, it was funny because it was like I remember it was his very first roller coaster, and we got done with the ride, and I looked over at him and I was like, What'd you think, buddy? And he went, That wasn't this time, not this time, just his very first roller coaster. But now that's one of his one of his responses. For the penguin roller coaster, that was what was funny. Is Park Ranger, he was having a lot of fun. He was smiling the entire time and putting his arms up in the air, he would scream and stuff. And when we came to a stop and landing, I was like, What do you think, buddy? And he shouted, like the roller coaster's done.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SeaWorld Highlights And Orca Reflections
SPEAKER_03And he shouted, he's like, It's past my bedtime. Son, it's it's 10 in the morning. Well, I okay, it was dark, like it was dusk, so it wasn't pitch black, but it was getting dark when we were on the roller coaster. We just come into the terminal and we're trolling up to stop. I was like, What'd you think, buddy? He's like, It's past my bedtime, but he had a big smile on his face. Uh he's just like, I just come up with my catchphrase. Yeah, that and that like that was the catchphrase for the weekend. That's what I kept on saying whenever we get off a roller coaster. I'd be like, It's past my bedtime.
SPEAKER_00Imagine no one notices you're with kids and you get off and you're by yourself, and you're like, grown man, it's past my bedtime. Yeah. All right, sir.
SPEAKER_03Have a good day. Yeah. But our but Bigfoot, our oldest, he does not like roller coasters. He will not get he hasn't even tried one, but he will not get on one.
SPEAKER_00That that roller coaster, you know, uh and anxiety if he sees it, he sees people screaming. There's a lot of intense things going on. Yeah. And he's just like, not not for me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think so. But they went and did, so we ended our night with uh Expedition Odyssey. It's essentially like the Soren ride from uh Epcot. But yeah, he went and did that one and he loved it. He loved it so much that he came out and he's like, Dad, you have to go and ride this with me. So you didn't get on it with him the first time. Because at uh SeaWorld, you have to buy a locker or rent a locker to put your bags in, and they won't let you take your bags into that ride.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_03So I held all the bags and everyone else went and did the ride.
SPEAKER_00So no one wanted to let uh you and Bigfoot go on by them yourself?
SPEAKER_03Well, no, they all came off afterwards, and he was so desperate to do it again with me that him and I went and did it and everyone else hung out. Gotcha. Because it was like we're gonna do that and then we're gonna leave. Okay. And that's gonna be that was like the last thing. That was the last thing. So we went and did the ride. It was a lot of fun, and I understand why he liked it because it you do kind of feel like you're in a helicopter. Gotcha. And he's all about that right now, flying in helicopters and stuff.
SPEAKER_00You should tell him riding roller coasters like on a helicopter, but nothing like not even like nothing like it, but nothing like it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so um, yeah, it was but it was pretty fun. It was cool to see the different, you know, aquatic exhibits uh, especially since we're going full-time ministry on an island in the Pacific, full of aquatic creatures. We got uh yeah, land and sea aquatic creatures, experience the aquatics, uh, which we like we've been watching spear shit spear fishing videos just to like see what it's like, and you see a lot of the different uh fish reef fish species. So when we went to SeaWorld, we were like, oh hey, look, that's the whatever whatever. They're actually pointed out like I know this. Yeah, when we but though, because in the videos, everyone in the videos are using the Hawaiian names for the bird for the for the fish. Uh huh. So that's what we know them as.
SPEAKER_01Gotcha.
SPEAKER_03And we went to SeaWorld, and they're all the like scientific names. And we're like, oh, that's the whatever, whatever. And then we look at the plaque and we're like, oh. Never mind.
SPEAKER_00No. That's uh that's fisiosis fish osis. Fish osis. Fish osis. The fishis fish osis. Uh yeah. But yeah, sea world, pretty cool. Yeah. Pretty fun. How long? Uh what time do you get there and what time do you leave? Because me and Ashley tend to like to try to get there, like, you know, essentially like slowly kill ourselves. Slowly fall into despair. Well, no, it's like the slowly put so much strain on our body for a theme park vacation of like, I mean, it's so expensive to go to the big ones. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's like you you gotta get your money's worth. Like, we gotta get there when they open the gate at seven in the morning and and and go and be there all day up until they close at extended hours at one o'clock in the morning. You know what I mean? Yeah. Otherwise, you're not getting your money's worth. Yeah. So I'm curious for a father who, you know, is going out there and it's like, you can't drag your kids through a theme park from open till close. Like, but what's what was your schedule like going to it?
SPEAKER_03So we got to SeaWorld around 11. Mm-hmm. And then we left at I mean, it was at closing, it was at eight. Okay. Is when we finally left the park. But yeah, we we got a late start to it. I'm trying to think. Yeah, it it's different every time. But I would say that our crew, we're typically strolling into whatever park we're going to around 10 or 11 in the morning. Everybody's waking up, you know, at seven, but then it's getting everybody ready and and then driving there and everything.
SPEAKER_00It it ends up being because you uh you stay on like a Airbnb type thing, right? When you usually go down there?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. We'll go into an Airbnb. Um, and those are typically a little further out from the parks. So it's a little bit more of a drive time. But you kinda we kind of have to just cause our crew's so big. Yeah. So yeah, if it was just me and my wife, then we would just rent a room. Yeah. Right by the park or something. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But so do you have anything else to say about SeaWorld?
SPEAKER_03No, SeaWorld, it was alright. I I mean, I wasn't like blown away. I was like, whoa, we gotta go back. So the but the my personal favorite for this trip was our day to uh park, which was Legoland.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I uh you're gonna you're gonna carry this conversation. I have never been, I know nothing about Legoland. So Legoland. I wouldn't mind going, but I know absolutely nothing about it.
SPEAKER_03They do a really good job of being intentional towards the brand and all of the different rides that they have. And um they've got a lot. They've got a lot of the like we didn't even get through everything. But the park is also their hours are way different, like they don't open till 10 o'clock and they close at six o'clock.
SPEAKER_00So much. So they they have it like because I know something like Animal Kingdom has a weird hours because there's not as much to no, sorry. Hollywood Studios has or maybe it used to, I don't know. One of the Disney parks has weird hours because they don't have as much to do there. And I feel like Legoland had it has a lot to do.
SPEAKER_03You're saying we didn't get to go through everything. And we were there all day. Like we did get there pretty much at opening at 10 o'clock, and we stayed till six, and we didn't get through everything.
SPEAKER_00Do okay, so something like SeaWorld has like a good wide variety of different uh intensity of rides, like whereas like, you know, the Sesame Street rides all the way up to these massive intense roller coasters. Yeah. And so I always thought, because again, knowing nothing about Legoland, I thought a lot of those stuff was on the at most on the mid-range of thrills, or is there yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_03There's nothing that is like super intense high thrill uh roller coaster. Uh everything that they have basically a like eight or nine-year-old could ride.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So maybe because their target audience is on and they actually accommodate for that target audience, maybe it's kids, and so six o'clock sounds right to get the kids out of there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean they're yeah, they're most of the people that are going to the parks are families with young kids because it's Legos and kids play with Legos. Sure. I mean adults play with Legos, but you know, it's it's one of those things where it's like people that are excited to go to Legoland are young kids.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, oh John, you want to play Wegos?
Kids’ First Coasters And Penguin Ride
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly. But we had a lot of fun. We did several roller coasters. Well, we did I think they really only have two like actual roller coasters. But we did those and uh we did a couple of other rides, and it was I mean, it was just fun. We got to see Johnny Thunder. So we like the actual was dressed up as Johnny Thunder. So a character meet and greet of Johnny Thunder. Character meeting right as we walked in the park and there wasn't a line, we were able to just walk right up. What was the crowds like for you at SeaWorld versus Legoland? Uh crowds at SeaWorld were probably I don't know how to gauge how many people were there. I mean, it was it was pretty busy at SeaWorld. Legoland, and I mean there was a lot of people there, but it was not crowded. I was gonna say it didn't really feel like it was hindering the experience with the people there.
SPEAKER_00We were able to go to everything, the longest wait was a 25-minute wait. And so you're saying even though you had plenty of time, you got there from open to close, you didn't do everything at Legoland. Correct. That's crazy to me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, there's a lot of stuff to do. Tell me about some of the stuff like ride-wise. So they have the Lego movie portion of the park, and in that they have a Soren-esque ride, but it's a little bit more intense because there's sudden movements. The idea is that you're on a triple decker flying couch, gotcha. Um, and you're flying through different scenarios, but that's pretty fun. They've got a water ride that's like you're fighting against Duplo. You're the resistance fighting duplo, but it's just water jet cannons. So you're actually it's a w actual water ride? It's an actual water ride. It's it's easy going. It's like a lazy river, but you're all on a boat together and you've got water cannons and you're shooting the different targets, and there's people in different parts of the ride on like off the ride that have water cannons. They shoot at you. They can walk up and grab a water cannon and start shooting at your boat. So you get wet on this ride. Yeah, you get wet on the ride. Yeah. So we were lucky that it was nice and warm. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I um I don't I don't like water rides. That's like my just because like I don't mind doing it. Yeah. And I don't like going around on and feeling just the wets, you know, heavy clothes as you're trying to walk around a theme park. It makes me feel miserable. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I had, I mean, I was wearing moisture-wicking material, so it dried pretty quick. Uh so I didn't have to deal with that for long. But yeah, so there's that. There was a portion of the park that was like Duplo themed.
SPEAKER_00Is that kind of like the Sesame Street Street kind of thing for like part of the park? Because Duplo is young.
SPEAKER_03It would be a much like it would be like a very young child, because all the rides that were there were very, very like they had a train. And it just did a little tiny little loop. It was a V, it was like an eight. It did an eight, or I guess an infinity sign kind of deal.
SPEAKER_00It depends on when you're looking where you're looking at it at.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So there's a little train, there was a ride that was like tractors, Duplo tractors that you could get on and ride. Blue foam planet Duplo. They had an indoor AC playground. Ooh. That uh that you spent a lot of time there. Well, we spent like 10, 15 minutes, but it was inside a barn, so it was like barn house or whatever. Uh, so that was fun. It was a small area, nothing crazy. Um, and then after that, we went into the medieval part of the park.
SPEAKER_04And that was my favorite.
SPEAKER_03That was so cool. No, they had a it was like Merlin's something. It was a ride, but it was like you go around in a circle and it kind of goes up and down, and it goes fast, really fast.
SPEAKER_01Gotcha.
SPEAKER_03And so everybody gets in these little carts, they get latched down, and you're supposed to and Merlin's spinning you around whatever.
SPEAKER_00I feel like I've rode stuff like that. Is it like does it seem like it's like a fair ride?
SPEAKER_03Like Yeah, you could say that it's like a fair ride. Um, think of just a super fast Ferris wheel.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Like that's the best way to explain it. But yeah, we got on that with with a bunch of people in our crew, and the boys had a lot of fun with that. And then right after that, we got off that and went and did the dragon roller coaster. And that was really fun. Yeah. The game. Yeah, yeah. The game the ride starts out with like you slowly go through the castle, and it's just different scenes, kind of like um Pirates Ride from Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean. And then right at the very last scene is a dragon like popping through the wall. Yeah. It doesn't pop out at you, it's just in the wall. And he goes, Yeah. Actually, it's like you can hear the dragon like roaring, but it'll randomly squirt mist out of the nose. Gotcha. So if you're the odd person out, you'll get squirted with nose mist. Some snot. Yeah, some dragon snot. And then right after that, you go into the roller coaster and you ride it. Gotcha. We rode that probably four times. The first time we went and did it, it was a 25-minute wait. And we did it, and it was a lot of fun. And then at the end of the day, the park was gonna close in like 15 minutes. We went, got on, rode it, got off, walked around, got back in line. For the dragon ride. For the dragon ride, walked right on to it again and rode it another time. And I think we did that one more time, but maybe it was only three times. But right at the end of the day, there was no one there, so you could just get and get and get in. Uh so that was really cool. But um, we did a Lego horse-themed Ferris wheel that's in the park. So that was fun. Uh, and then there was a part of the park that was Johnny Thunder themed, and it was like Egyptian mummy.
SPEAKER_00So, what you're saying is that was your favorite park?
SPEAKER_03That was pretty cool. They had like a scarab something, I can't remember what how it was worded, but it was one of those rides where you all get in and sit in it and it goes up and then it randomly like will go up and down.
SPEAKER_00It's just like, but it's like on like it's like a dropper, but it's not like it's a dropper, but it's a small dropper. Like you go up 15 feet max. They had something like that where it was like a crab at SeaWorld. I remember that because Sean, I went with Sean and your sister on a trip to down there. We were at SeaWorld, and neither me or Jana really wanted to get on that. So Sean got on it, and I got a video of Sean riding this little children's ride by himself.
SPEAKER_03It's uh there is one there, but it's Cookie Monster now at SeaWorld.
SPEAKER_00That probably is about the area we were in at the time.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we rode that one, the Cookie Monster one. But no, this one it was scarabs, and all three of the boys got on with me. We all rode it together. And then we did a mummy themed um like Brendan Fraser or the horror movie one. Like you're just in a pyramid and there's mummies, but they're Lego mummies. Uh Johnny Thunder themed, but it's it's like the buzz light you're riding. You drive through and you're shooting at targets and trying to get the most points. So and they had two of those rides because they had that there in the Johnny Thunder part of the park, and then we went to the Ninjago, and then Ninjago ride is similar. You don't have something you're shooting with, you are a ninja who's throwing shurikens.
SPEAKER_00So they have a ride just like that at Disneyland. Yeah. That is um uh Spider-Man where you're using your arms like you're supposed to be shooting them out like a web. So it's like tra so it's like tracking your arms.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Yep. Yeah, the little sensor was just in front of you on the ride, and you're supposed to like go over it with your hand in a motion to shoot.
SPEAKER_00You get so tired.
Park Pacing With Young Families
SPEAKER_03Like, I didn't think I'd have to work on a ride, like, well, if you do if you do it, you gotta do it at the right angle because it will, it's like it'll go up or down or left or right. And so if you don't do it at the right angle, then you'll miss. So I half the time was like doing it, and you could see mine just hitting the very bottom of the screen. Because you were just like, okay. Well, I was like going straight forward, and so I was going straight out the bottom. I was like, oh dang it. Uh yeah, but I did that, and then we went to the I guess the like vehicle themed part of the park. It's kind of like Lego City. Oh, I see. But yeah, yeah. We went on the racetrack, and that's a roller coaster. And I went on that with Park Ranger, and that was a lot of fun, but it was just like a four-person roller coaster ride. And you get out and it's like a it's a car. You're in a car, and you is it kind of like test track at Epcot?
SPEAKER_00Or is it just a car-shaped vehicle on a roller coaster track?
SPEAKER_03It's a car-shaped vehicle on a roller coaster track. Okay. But it's it's it's for kids, but it's scary in the like there's not a bunch of loops or like spirals or anything. But most of the ride is like going really fast and then hitting a turn and then turning around and going real fast, like to I guess simulate a drift. Yeah. But as like a grown-up, you're 30 feet up in the air, and that's doing it, and you feel like a little bit of a tilt, you're like, oh, this is gonna come off the track.
SPEAKER_00Am I the one? Is this finally the day?
SPEAKER_03Am I too fat for this rhyme? You know, so that was the fear. Uh, but right next to that is the what do they call it? I don't remember what they call it, but basically you can build a race car out of Legos, and then you scan it into a system and it and it puts your you pick out your engine, your wheel style, and then it puts it on a test track, a virtual test track, and your car drives.
SPEAKER_00Gotcha. And uh so is that something like free? You just walk up and start doing that? Yeah, okay, cool.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so you don't get to take the car home with you. No, but you there's a bunch of pieces that are there exclusively to build a car.
SPEAKER_00How many like attractions did you see like that where you could just walk up and start building something out of Legos?
SPEAKER_03I mean, there's probably I don't remember how many sections of the park there is. There's probably like ten different sections of the park. And there's at least one to two walk up and build areas in each section.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Just to build for fun, and you have obviously you can't take it with you, but yep.
SPEAKER_03It's just, hey, this is the theme for this area, do this. And and it was either that, they would either have like free Lego building areas, or they would have a playground area in each air part of the park.
SPEAKER_00So this is very much a children's park, and you would look very strange to a grown adults going into Legoland. Or did you see anybody like by themselves as older?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I saw older people in groups without kids. Yeah, yeah. You know, they go through the park a lot faster. Sure. But yeah, it's you can still have an enjoyable time. Um the one thing is there's an area where they do a ski show, like water skiing show, but the area is themed like pirates. Mm-hmm. And we but we didn't make it to that part of the park. So I was kind of bummed because I wanted to see like what pirate themed things do they have there. Yeah. One thing that was really cool about the park is some areas have park exclusive Lego sets. You cannot buy them like online or in the Lego store, they're just at the park. Oh, you can buy them. Unless it's on eBay, yeah. Someone's marking it up. But uh, I thought that that was a pretty cool idea. And um, yeah. So that was pretty much it. I mean, we ended the day. I mean, we walked out right at closing and there's uh there was a uh Lego resort right next to Legoland. Yeah. And they had a a restaurant, a pirate themed restaurant that was like all you can eat. So we went and hung out there. Hung out at the all you can eat and and did the all you can eat. And you said that's inside the park or near the park? That's right next, like you walk out or in the entrance of the park, the resort's right next to it. Gotcha. So you walk right into it. So we like uh when we were leaving, we just walked right into the resort and ate there and then hung out for a little bit and kind of checked out you know the public areas of the resort or the common areas.
Legoland Impressions And Crowd Levels
SPEAKER_00Because it still wasn't quite go home and go to bedtime because you're saying it's six o'clock. Yeah, exactly. It was only six o'clock.
SPEAKER_03So, but we left probably around eight and uh it was funny because we were walking out into the parking lot and our vehicle was the only vehicle in the parking lot.
SPEAKER_00Oh, really?
SPEAKER_03Because everybody Yeah, everyone was either parked in the resort parking or they were gone. Yeah. So it was funny. But LEGO Land, if you got kids, definitely go and do it. What if you're two theme park enthusiast couples? You should at least check it out because if you like Legos at all, you you can appreciate the nostalgia of it. You know, there are some rides that are that couldn't be enjoyable for adults. Could or could not? Could but uh it's just it's just about the fact that it's all Lego. Yeah. You know, that's that's what makes it cool. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So what uh how many more days do you have that you had theme park days?
SPEAKER_03We only had one more theme park day. We had uh we we had two more days, so we had an a day where we went and hung out at Disney Springs for the day. Um and ate at the dinosaur restaurant. Rainforest cafe. Not rainforest cafe. No, the T-Rex Dinosaur themed one where maybe that's newer. I've never seen it.
SPEAKER_00No, it's not new.
SPEAKER_03It's it's in Disney.
SPEAKER_00Oh no, those animatronics are trash.
SPEAKER_03They are the it's been there for a while, but it's it's the dinosaur. I can't remember, I think it's called the T-Rex something. But anyways, you go inside and everything is dinosaur themed. It does it's like the Rainforest Cafe in the sense that there's like forest, jungle scenery, but instead of animals, it's all dinosaurs. Yeah. Or like prehistoric creatures. No dinosaurs.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they're all dinosaurs. Yeah. There's the dinosaur fanatic out there, and I was like, Jairus, no, not all creatures in the are dinosaurs.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, they had a random woolly mammoth and they had a bunch of random, like massive bugs. I mean, like they had like a fly that was like this, like four feet big.
SPEAKER_04I love having you like that.
SPEAKER_03I was about to show you how big it was.
SPEAKER_04How big, yeah. It was this big.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and how big is that?
SPEAKER_04This big big uh anyways, yeah.
SPEAKER_00We ate there and then kind of just walked around and I mean Disney Springs is Disney Springs. You know. I mean, you go, it's fun to go, but it's like it's just bouncy. Bouncy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Disney Springs.
SPEAKER_00Oh.
SPEAKER_01Gotcha.
SPEAKER_00The uh Yeah, Disney Springs is a really Fun place to go to, but it's not like the reason to go to something like Disney.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04Like it's just I'm going down to Orlando for seven days to hang out in Disney, but I'll be at Disney Springs.
SPEAKER_00I mean, it's it's the mall. You know what I mean? It's a fancy mall.
SPEAKER_03It's a big old fat outdoor mall with a bunch of restaurants and things to do and people performing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, it's fun. It's great. It's just it's a day filler. Like if you if you're an older per uh couple with no kids, you know, that's a good place to go hang out at night. You know, they run all night, you know. Yeah, that's true. After a short day at one of the parks, you know?
SPEAKER_03And there's multiple connections to like the resorts. So you could take a bus or a boat or a monorail or whatever. Whatever Disney themed vehicle to get to back and forth.
SPEAKER_00But anyway, so we did that, and then our final part. So I was gonna say, so you did a um park, you got you were there for pretty much five days. Yeah, five, six days. And then you kind of did like a park, off day, park, off day, park type situation.
SPEAKER_03No, so we got down there the next day. We did park, and then we did a park, and then we had off day, and then our final full day was park. Okay, and then a and then we had like a half day and we left around like 10 or 11 to drive home.
SPEAKER_00Because it's like an eight-hour drive-ish.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like seven hours, seven and a half hours. Okay.
SPEAKER_00So stops. So tell me about this uh this last park day.
SPEAKER_03So the last park day we went to Epic Universal.
SPEAKER_00Or universe. Just Epic Universe. Yeah. And I had did you like the park? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It was good.
SPEAKER_03We went uh we we did everything except the monster universe.
SPEAKER_00So you even went into Harry Potter.
SPEAKER_03We went and Okay.
SPEAKER_00Let me tell you freaking freaking telling me about Harry Potter. Well, I was gonna tell I was gonna say because and say you're ranting for Harry Potter for last so we can get through the other stuff before you rant. Because I I thought you would weren't gonna have a good time because 50% of that park is properties that conflict with Christian values.
SPEAKER_03Well, and it you gotta be careful behind you.
SPEAKER_00Okay. But yeah, yeah. Do you understand what I'm saying? Yeah, there's like conflict, like when you're talking about one side that is witchcraft and the other one is literally for the point of my c uh sentence and my argument, demonic creatures.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
Medieval Zone And Dragon Coaster Marathon
SPEAKER_00We talk about it all the time. If you it's okay for you to enjoy those things as long as it doesn't get in the way of your relationship with Christ. We talk about that on the show, but it is interesting for some people who, you know, decide I'm not going to consume that entertainment. Yeah. And then all of a sudden you are half the park is now closed off in something that you are choosing not to enjoy. And that's okay. Yeah. And I'm not I'm not dogging you out for that, but it is interesting. I thought you wouldn't have gone into Harry Potter, is what I'm trying to get at.
SPEAKER_03No, I don't have a problem with walking through. You know, I'm very careful about explain like trying to keep my kids away from all the different people doing the wand things. Because they do that. They have different things set up where if you have a Harry Potter wand, you can walk up, and if you twirl it a certain way, then the animatronic will respond or whatever. So we try and avoid that stuff, and if we can't, if it's unavoidable, we try to make the point like, hey, like this is not good and it's not true, and you know, don't do this job. Don't mess with wands, don't mess with with magic. But we were in that part of the park for like half an hour.
SPEAKER_00Just walking around looking at things.
SPEAKER_03Well, we were eating at the restaurant there. That's why I was like, let me get into freaking Harry Potter because I love my wife and my family. Uh, but out of all the restaurants at the park, they chose the 1920s French themed diner. Or or dining experience. Dining experience, whatever. And so we go in, and it's just like, I guess this is cool. I guess it looks cool, but this is like nothing special. And then on top of that, it's like French themed food, literally everything uh because they're trying to immerse you in the experience. So all the dishes are French, are in French with an English explanation, and so I'm trying to read the name of whatever it is, and I'm like, I don't even know what the heck this is. Then I read the explanation and it's in English, but it's so vague that you're just like, I still have no idea what I'm eating. But anyway, so we get in there and we eat, and it was fine, it wasn't like disgusting, but I'm just thinking to myself, like, there's a Mario universe and a Burke. Isle of Burke, and they have restaurants, and we we could be eating there and like these properties that we're like, yo, that we're jazzed about, but because the adults who grew up with Harry Potter were like, oh, it's so cool, it's the from the movies and our childhood and all this stuff.
SPEAKER_02It's just I was just like, whatever.
SPEAKER_00So let me describe this part because you missed out on a lot of really from the point of view of rides and shows. There's so there's one ride, one show in Harry Potter. Uh when you walk in, everything in Epic is themed in a way that you walk through this portal and you're transported to a new universe with that, you know, that property associated with it. So you walk in and you you're kind of greeted by this wall, right? You kind of walk through, and then you walk around the corner and you're greeted with this massively beautiful arch walking into the it's the architecture and the design for this world is really good. Yeah, it's based off of 1920s France. You feel like you're going walking kind of into this France area, yeah, and my complaint is for somebody who's been to France. Whoa! But I'm just it's like they cram so much into such a little space. That area of the park is not big at all, and they try their best, and they do a good job of making it look bigger than it is, yeah. But all you do is you walk in, and all you have is you go left and go to the right, or you go kind of straight into a tent for a show. Yeah. So it's it's tiny, it's really tiny. Yeah. But they do a good job of not making it feel that bad. I think it'd feel better if it wasn't so crowded and you're trying to, you know, walk around these crowds.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then all of a sudden you realize I don't have a lot of places to move. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's like I think that crowds destroy the illusion of the lot you're in this large city. Sure, sure. But uh the tent show is really cool because you go in and it's supposed to be like a just like a a wizard circus, and there's really great, really cool. Isn't that how it always is, though? Yeah, yeah. It's just the effects in it are really cool. Every the things that they do are like really cool illusions to make it look like things are happening around you. It's a really cool show for something that they are doing ten times a day. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like large scale moments, like you're in a tent, and all of a sudden, like you go, like you're watching the show, and you're supposed to be watching it from you know, somebody gets goes into like a suitcase, but it like goes and down into like a staircase, into like this expanded special space in the suitcase. And the way they do that is they actually lift up the stage, and all of a sudden you're underneath the stage, but you're viewing it, and it's a really cool show. Yeah. And then the Harry Potter ride is visually speaking, effects-wise, one of the coolest rides I've ever been on. Yeah. Where you're supposed to be like inside this elevator that's going around the Ministry of Magic. Yeah. And like people are attacking the Ministry of Magic. So, like, you really do feel like you're in an elevator because the way that they're making it move and sway and jump, because this like it tilts left and right, and it actually just goes up and down and forward on the track, and it feels like you are in this moving elevator that's going all over the place, like off the rails. It's really cool. So, from the point of view of a ride, it's a good ride.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So that's my section because you didn't you didn't go to it.
SPEAKER_04So I want to speak on you didn't do a good enough job talking.
SPEAKER_00No, and I'm not gonna fault you for not caring, for not caring. I just want for our viewers, uh, there's a lot of cool stuff they did with that. And for the people who don't like Harry Potter, that's a shame because it might be one of the coolest things you've ever rode from the point of view of a ride.
SPEAKER_03I will say that, yeah, the the aesthetics in that part of the park, really cool. But we spent a lot of time in Isle of Burt. I figured you would. Our boys love how to train your dragon. Um, my wife and I love how to train your dragon. So we spent a lot of time there, and they did a great job of just making it animatronic dragons scattered throughout the park. Yeah, just everywhere. You go around corners and dragon here, dragon there.
SPEAKER_00They really made you feel like you're in Burke.
SPEAKER_03And sometimes the animatronics will be more active or less active, depending on if there's a performer in the area. Yeah. And they had a couple of rides there. We went on the hiccup roller coaster. That super fun.
Build Zones, Johnny Thunder, And Resort Dinner
SPEAKER_00That was probably my favorite roller coaster there. I like that better. In the middle of the park, they have this huge intense roller coaster. Yeah. And I rode that, but I had more fun on the hiccup's wing ladders. Yeah. Because and I think I should let you explain it. Like, go through this ride and what the kind of the story is. It's it's there is a bit of a light story, but it's it's so go.
SPEAKER_03Well, you're just the idea is that it's like Hiccup has is has developed this wing glider and you're testing it to ride with the dragons. Yeah, to ride with the dragons or fly with the dragons. And so you and Hiccup are flying together, and uh, so you're on the ride and you're flying through Burke because the roller coaster goes through all of Burke, yeah, pretty much, and there's one point of the ride where it's like you're going up and then you stop and fall backwards, and it's through a um a hatchery or a nesting area for Gronkles.
SPEAKER_00Let me roll back there because the ride starts out and you kind of go up to like this. You're on the ride, but it like this workshop you kind of pull up into, and you're supposed to be uh hiccup is supposed to be attaching the wings to your wing wing glider. Oh, okay, yeah. And you see it like there's an animatronic for toothless sitting there, and he's like, you hear hiccup go, all right. When we attach this, then you can press the go button, and then you see hiccup, sorry, toothless hit the go button before the wings are attached, and then you get shot off.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00And then you kind of go through some stuff and then you get to the Gronkles.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I didn't see that part because I was in the back of the roller coaster. Oh, really? They didn't and and I had obviously I had my kids with me, so you were paying attention, wasn't paying as much attention to yeah, the animatronic. I saw that they were there. I didn't realize that. So yeah, that's like pressed a button. Yeah. But uh yeah, that was cool. And and yeah, that that part it's always fun when a roller coaster does that, where it just stops and you think something's wrong.
SPEAKER_00I think there's something wrong because it starts going backwards, but it's just a part of the ride. Because you're like, oh, let's get out of here. Like, oh, they're about to blow up the Grunkles, and you start going out, and then you uh oh nope, and you go and go, you get back in. And then start misting really bad, and then you get launched forward. And that is the best part of the ride because that's when they kick on the theme music. Oh, yeah. Oh my gosh. And they hit you so good in that nostalgic, emotional, epic moment. Yeah, and you're then you're gliding left and right. Like they do such a good job when they're like they're banking and you feel like you're flying. And this ride is is I would put it somewhere between like high intensity and like a mid, like it's like a high mid intense roller coaster.
SPEAKER_03Like, yeah, I would say so. Dasher and Park Ranger both rode it and had a lot of fun. Uh, and that was the ride where Dasher at the like towards the end, he had one fist up in the air, still holding on, uh-huh, you know, but one fist up in the air, and he shouted, yeah, baby!
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because it gets you going hyped, yeah. It gets you so hyped. And like even me, I've got the uh uh picture of my ride on it uh-huh where I had my arms out like this, like woo, like I'm flying. Like, where like, and that wasn't me trying to pose for the picture, just in the moment on the ride, feeling the urge to put my arms out, and we're doing this. This is incredible moment, you know what I mean? Yeah, so it's it really gets you wanting to exp you you're really tricked into feeling emotions on this ride, even though it's not this super intense ride.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So we did that, and then we went and watched the show, and that was a lot of fun. That show is really good. Yeah, the animatronic dragons flying down or running on the stage or whatever. It was it was good.
SPEAKER_00Hey guys, we gotta get this Untrainable Dragon. Yeah, yeah. Even though it's a dragon we've seen a thousand times. Yeah, it's like a dragon in the movie, and if they act like they've never seen it before. Well, no, no, it's not that.
SPEAKER_03Well, is that not his mom? But he's so the that this is where it's misleading. Like they make a they make that dragon like it's a special dragon for his mom, because it's the dragon that his mom has, has, or rides on. But that's just a type of dragon.
SPEAKER_00So there's other ones that look just like that. So where does this take place? Because he should have seen this dragon before, but he acts like he's never seen the dragon before. Okay, so he's seen that type of dragon, but that specific dragon's never seen. Okay. Yeah, the the show is weird in its placement of the timeline. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Because you gotta, I mean, like in the in the lore of the movie series, there's only one night fury, because all the rest of them have been killed. Yeah. But then in the third one, they find out there's one female. So there's one male and one female night fury, and they make the comeback, you know, obviously by doing what animals do. Animals do. But uh, yeah, all the other dragons, there's uh a multitude of them. It's just that his mom has a specific one. Yeah. Anyway, so the show was good. After that, we went to but up but I'm loving it. Um yeah. No, but I I had a lot of fun in Mario. It was great. My wife and her sister and her mom, their response or reaction to it is like, this is overstimulating. When you walk there is so much going on. You walk in, so it's it's once again, it's the the portal you go in, and it becomes the Mario iconic Mario tube. Yeah, the warp pipe. The warp pipe. And you go up an escalator, and then you're in Mario World. Yeah. And uh, and there's all these different things that are going on all at the same time.
SPEAKER_00You cannot look at something without something happening in front of you, like motion, movie, noise.
SPEAKER_03There's just so much going on, like it yeah, like it is crazy, and it's like you're going up, so you're up like two stories when you get into the park, and so you can go down two stories to get into different things, you know, or stay up high. But they they did it. I mean, it was a small space, but they did a really good job with the small space that they had. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00What's really cool about it, um, did you get the wristband and did anything with that? No. And that's that's fine. The they have like uh interactions throughout the whole entire area where you have this wristband and you can actually punch the one up, uh not the one up, the like the like the question mark block, and it gets you points and stuff on the app, and there's so much going on.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, and that was fun. They were they had the different yeah question mark boxes throughout the park, and so the boys loved running up and hitting them. Hitting it, even though it makes that sound like yeah, you you don't have the wristband, young man. Yeah, exactly. Um, but we rode the Yoshi Rhine. That was, you know.
Disney Springs Detour And T-Rex Cafe
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. It was all right. Did the so my one complaint about the entire park was when I went to Epic, which was back in October of last year, yeah, was everything even though the park was built uh of m like opened up in May of 2025, it felt like the everything was a lot older because of my theory was is they used cheaper materials to build the park. So even though it's been opened up for only like four or five months when I went, it felt like a thing it aged quicker than it should have. Yeah. Did you feel that at all? No, it felt it felt like everything was brand new. Okay, then maybe they improved, fixed, painted something, but my key thing was like towed on that Yoshi ride, the animatronic.
SPEAKER_03Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00Like his skin when he's supposed to have like a you know a Caucasian kind of tone to his skin, was pale white because his skin was bleached in the sun. Oh Florida sun. And maybe they fixed it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I um but yeah, so we did, yeah, we did the Yoshi ride and Okay, so I will agree with you on that. Like for a brand new park, the Yoshi ride like randomly stopped twice. And some of that could be like they had someone, a disabled person trying to get on the ride and whatever, but it kind of felt like uh it was just a malfunction. And so that was kind of like, oh, this is brand new.
SPEAKER_00It shouldn't be malfunctioning yet. Well, I was gonna say that too, is like a lot of people are complaining still because they're like the some of the big rides, like the Harry Potter ride, people are in line for it and it just shuts down for the day. It's done. Yeah. Uh, did you do Donkey Kong or you look at it or even go to that park?
SPEAKER_03We didn't get to go to that part of the park. We we did Yoshi, everybody went to the bathroom, and then we went to Mario Kirk. Yeah. And we went and did. We went which Bowser's Castle, super cool.
SPEAKER_00It's so cool. Such a cool themed. Yeah. Just you could if it wasn't like just standing around waiting. Yeah. It could be a cool just walk-through attraction.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and that's why I was my comment was like, this line is massive. It's it's ridiculously massive. Like it takes you, I mean, it the like for it to be a walk-on, it would still be a 25-minute wait. Just to walk through if you're going through 25 minutes to walk through everything. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. The uh so I've gone to all three Mario Worlds in the world, right? The three where they're opened out. I've been to all three. When we were in Japan, we were in line for Mario Kart, and that was the one that took the longest. We were like almost two hours waiting in Japan. It was a lot. Yeah. And the uh while we were waiting in line, all of a sudden an alarm went off. Do you know the room where they had like the uh broadcast van? Yes. Yes. We were in the broadcast van room and it started going, alarm started going off. Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, and then a voice came on, spoke in Japanese, and then said there is a fire in the stairwell. Evacuate immediately. Oh. And so uh everybody's kind of like okay, kind of stand around like a lot of people started leaving, and I'm like, should we leave? We've been here for an hour and a half. Yeah. And so we're kind of like, should we leave? And then about the time we're like, well, we should probably leave, they said came back on and said false alarm. So it cleared out a lot of people for us to so it helped our wait time. That's awesome. But uh that ride's really cool. Yeah, it yeah, it was fun. You put like a VR headset on and you're shooting like um turtle shells. Well, it's not VR, it's augmented.
SPEAKER_01It's AR. AR. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. But it's funny because it's the you have to get the hat visor. It's a visor, it's not a hat, it's a visor. Yeah, it's a Mario visor, and then the V the AR glasses are in the actual Mario Kart ride, and those attached to the hat. Yeah. And so everyone's walking around with our Mario visors on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You just look good. And they're so uncomfortable, too. Yeah.
Epic Universe Enters: Layout And Choices
SPEAKER_03It is funny. But we we get on the ride and we get the AR glasses on and we go through and we're having fun, and once again, the ride stops randomly, so we're sitting for maybe a minute. Oh, you're on the ride and it stops moving. Dang. And nothing, and and then it starts back up and we're able to keep going.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, it was fun, you know. I am of the opinion of this ride that it would be a lot more fun without the goggles. There is so much going on and so much detail in the ride, in the animatronics and the things that you see on the ride, yeah, that it with the goggles on, you're so focused on the game aspect of it, yeah, that you're missing out on some of the coolest stuff you could be seeing without the goggles on. Yeah. So they could have made this where it went, you know, a little bit faster, maybe, or just the illusion of speed, and you were in experiencing like a dark ride you would at Disney. Yeah. Or that could have just been a full-blown roller coaster, but what it's fun. It's it is what it is. I mean, I I have a good time. I'll ride it every time I go, type thing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And that was the that was the hard thing about um Epic Universe, the wait times. Yeah. Because you gotta think the last park we went to before this was Legoland, and our longest wait was 25 minutes. And your longest wait is probably like two hours almost. Yeah, our shortest wait at Epic Universe was well, okay. We got on the you know the Cosmos carousel within 25 minutes. But yeah, our longest wait was like two hours and 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Something that I have rarely do, but because it was a new park, we got the super expensive express pass. Yeah. And in no way, shape, or form did we regret that. It was uh we did everything. We did everything that the park offered, except for we didn't ride the like the hiccup wing, like this the thing that looked like a like uh a fair ride. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about, where you get on the things and you're spinning. I didn't ride that because I didn't look like that was fun, and I didn't do the water ride and how to train your dragon because I don't like water rides. Yeah, we talked about that. Yeah, there was only two rides I didn't do. I did everything else that Epic had to offer offer.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And and we can skip over the dark universe. It's it's a little underwhelming in the quality that you would expect from it. Yeah. Where at least I was disappointed in the main attraction ride because half of everything wasn't working. Yeah. Like they have a really great pre-show where Frankenstein comes out and it's like the coolest animatronic, and they didn't do that pre-show for us. Um, and then like half of everything on the ride wasn't even running. And I was kind of just really disappointed in it, and then went back and watched like a video on it, and like everything's working in this. So it's like we just had a bad run on that ride. So maybe if we ever go back, it might be good again, but it's not quite worth talking about because it's that ride and then like a small little roller coaster. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, and I, you know, stepping outside of the the park experience, like talking about the monsters, you know, some of these, because a lot of these monsters come from classic novels or writings. And those stories are they're good stories. Like you need to read them. You know, they they address hard things uh in life, but they also they also make a very good distinction between good and evil.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna say that. So the thing about those stories is is it is not it's a it's about Dracula, it's about Frankenstein, it's about the mummy, it's about all these monsters. Yeah, but they're not framed as the heroes, they are framed as the villains, as the villains, and you're following the hero dealing with this evil thing. Yep. And we have over time uh heroized or idolized these monsters, an entire area dedicated to these monsters. Yeah. Like we they had like a meet and greet with the invisible man. Me and Ash, we were sitting there waiting for our uh next you know, time to go to the rudd. Oh we were chilling.
SPEAKER_03So you're gonna say you're waiting in line to do the meet and greet for the invisible man.
SPEAKER_00No, we were like, wow, no, we were sitting on a bench, we were sitting on a bench, and it ended up being we were right there next to the meet and greet for the invisible man. So he came out of like a side door and he started standing there. And like this girl came up and is like, Hello, Professor So and so. It's good to see you again. And it's like, it was like this abnormal name. I'm like, he has a name? You know what I mean? The invisible man has a name. I was like, I was How could she see him? How could anyone see him? Yeah, the meet and greet screen. No, it's like some dude wrapped up, like he's wearing sunglasses and wrapped up in like gauze and all this stuff. So it's a guy in a costume, he's supposed to be the invisible man wanting to be seen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's stuff like that. They had like Igor walking around the park, and it's like all these different characters from these iconics. Again, and they're the they're the monsters and they're the heroes now, kind of thing. Like, whatever.
SPEAKER_03Whatever. So what the heck ever, you know, but yeah, but so overall. I was gonna say, you have a good trip. Overall, we had a good trip. We had I I okay. The best part of the trip was going home was not even at the parks.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
Harry Potter Area: Design Vs. Discomfort
SPEAKER_03There was a pool at the house that we were at, and the boys just loved it. They wanted to get in the pool and they wanted to do stuff. None of my boys can swim yet. But we were in the pool. This we spent a lot of time in the pool, and they got pretty comfortable with, you know, trying out different things to get better at swimming. And the biggest thing was our oldest, Bigfoot, was uh he's been afraid of dunking underwater, and that is the only thing that's been holding him back from getting baptized. Oh, yeah. Is he's like, I don't wanna I don't want to get dunked underwater. But he practiced and did it at the uh at the pool. Nice. Uh on our trip, and the like he like walked up to him, he's like, or he's like, hey dad, watch this. And he completely went completely underwater and came back up. I was like, dude, that's so awesome. Way to go. And he was like, Yeah, I'm ready to get baptized now, is what he said. And I was like, Praise the Lord, dude. There you go. So we talked for a minute about you know what is baptism and and what's the importance of it and and why do we do it as Christians? And so we got into all that, but you know, it's like here we are, we're going to these theme parks where there's a lot of money that put into the aesthetics of it and the way that it looks, and everyone's about going and getting on the rides and seeing the different things, and it's all fun. But the most memorable moment for my entire trip was not even at a theme park. Not even at a theme park. It was in a body of water where my son overcame his fear of getting dunked, and his first thought was now I can get baptized. There's nothing holding me back now, and I'm ready to do it. So, yeah, super exciting. Awesome. So, yeah, that's all I've got to say about the uh trip.
SPEAKER_00Nice, and now you can go dunk your son in that Hawaiian water. Yeah, son, you want to see that fisios fichios? Ficios, fish? I don't even remember what I called it before. Here you go. Here you go, son, and just throw him under the water.
SPEAKER_03The state fish in Hawaii is called the humu huma nukunukuapua.
SPEAKER_00And I say Christ is Lord. I don't even know what I said there. Christ is Lord. And the kingdom is now. We are the saints and serve.
SPEAKER_03God bless you. Thank you. It's something something face of a pig. Something something face of a pig. Yeah. Is the best translation for it. Because it's got like uh it roughly translates to ugly, ugly fish.
SPEAKER_02Oh my gosh.
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