Ep 5 - Our First Time At Epic Universe ft Queenda Qua & The 2004 Season Pass That Outlived Katrina

Josh is back from vacation and immediately hits us with the most unhinged Six Flags flex of all time, his 2004 season pass for a park that Katrina wiped out in 2005. We roast casual locals who think their Six Flags is the only one, debate surviving Falcon’s Flight in Saudi Arabia, and set ridiculous endurance challenges involving Ethan, Pantheon, and Candymonium.

Then Josh gives the raw, unfiltered breakdown of his 28th birthday at Epic Universe: why we waited 3 hours for Battle of Ministry (spoiler alert; it rained), Stardust Racers breaking down, Monsters Unchained blowing our minds so much Ace went for seconds, Sahm feeling underwhelmed with Mario Kart and much more! The vibes still slap harder than the complaints online however. Ace updates us on being an adult struggling at Nickelodeon Universe, bumper car war crimes, and way too much Fast & Furious talk.

Classic Lap Bar Lessons banter! Zero filter, pure coaster nerd chaos!

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We’re Going Off The Rails 🎢

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Lap Bar Lessons is Produced by Roboshark Studios.

Hosted by Ace LeGrand & Joshua Sahm.

Engineered, Mixed, and Mastered by Ethan Santora.

Distribution & Marketing by Ace LeGrand.

Transcript by Felix Oden.

Transcript

Sahm 0:38

And we are back here with Lap Bar Lessons.

Ace 0:41

Um Alex.

Sahm 0:42

Um, the other guy.

Ace 0:45

And we are happy to have the other guy back with us. He's been gone for a little bit.

Sahm 0:50

I was on vacation.

Ace 0:51

How was your trip, dude? Tell us about it.

Sahm 0:53

It was alright. Saw some friends and family. Nothing really, nothing really eventful. Just kind of did nothing for like a week. I would go, I would have gone to Safe Flags, New Orleans, but it uh Katrina took it in 2005.

Ace 1:10

My gosh.

Sahm 1:11

But it's a good thing I went in 2004 and I have the season pass approve it.

Ace 1:15

Oh we we might have to show a screenshot of that or at some point.

Sahm 1:20

Yeah, I know.

Ace 1:20

Yeah, yo, Ethan.

Sahm 1:21

Yo, Ethan, Ethan, look at look at my grandma down south.

Ace 1:28

Look at little Josh.

Sahm 1:30

Nice, dude. Uh 2004. Yeah, that I'll I'm seven. I'm seven there.

Ethan 1:36

Oh my goodness.

Sahm 1:37

Yeah, season passed for five for a park that was only open for like two years at most, and then Katrina destroyed it.

Ace 1:43

That's awesome. What what year was Katrina again?

Sahm 1:46

2005.

Ace 1:47

No, Katrina did take it.

Sahm 1:48

It did.

Ace 1:52

I'll show you some footage of it later, Ethan. But there's people that still like go to that property. The the coaster tracks are still there.

Sahm 2:01

Yeah, yeah, the park is still there. They just haven't done anything with it.

Ace 2:05

The whole park basically drowned in water.

Sahm 2:09

Pretty much, yeah.

Ace 2:11

Nope. No, and it's actually sad because when when you watch the little urban explorers going into that, they actually there's a lot of like New Orleans jazz themes to it.

Sahm 2:22

Yeah.

Ace 2:23

A lot of Mardi Gras stuff.

Sahm 2:28

Yep.

Ace 2:29

Well, it is a little bit, but like you I mean, you can't you can't go sneaking around there. They got they got people patrolling it. But how far was that from your hometown?

Sahm 2:41

Uh like maybe an hour at most. Oh, okay. Not too far.

Ace 2:45

Everybody's local Six Flags seems to be an hour away.

Sahm 2:48

Yeah, and then when it closes down, everyone's like, oh yeah, Six Flags is closed forever.

Ace 2:53

Tell tell tell us about that again. You told me a little bit about that. I I I I loved that theory you were you were slightly telling me about.

Sahm 3:02

So so people who are not like like the general public, I will say, like people that just only go to their local parks are they they I find that they're under the impression that their local six flags is the only six flags like exists to them.

Ethan 3:18

Yeah.

Sahm 3:19

Like like I was having a conversation with somebody the other day about six flags, and we're talking about the one that would like like he was talking about something about six flags like being closed like forever or something like that. And I was like, Yeah, the Maryland location. And he was trying to like argue with me about not even like argue, but he was trying to say like it was there was the only six flags. I was like, no, there's multiple six flags. Like, no, that's just the one that closed down. So like I came to the realization that I think for most people that just go very casually casually, like if they don't travel, their local six flags is the only six flags that they know, and probably is the only one that exists in their mind. And they they all have like their own like flagship rides, yeah. Mostly, yeah, like our like our six flags is like well, what would you say? Superman, ride of steel, whatever Superman.

Ace 4:03

Well, they have a couple ride of steels. No, they have a couple, they have a couple Superman ride of steels.

Sahm 4:10

I think but different track different track layout.

Ace 4:12

A little. I I think two of them still exist.

Sahm 4:15

Yeah, there's one in Great Adventure right now for sure.

Ace 4:18

No, that one's not right. That one's not the ride of steel.

Sahm 4:21

Uh Ride of Steel, I don't know. I I'd have to look into it.

Ace 4:23

The the Superman in Great Adventure. This one you ride what where your tummy's facing the ground.

Ethan 4:29

Yeah.

Sahm 4:29

Fun.

Ace 4:30

No.

Sahm 4:32

I don't know where we'll find out one day.

Ace 4:34

Yeah, that was one thing I wanted to tell our viewers about. Probably this summer. You know, we gotta talk a little more about it, but we're probably gonna hit a couple of the Six Flags parts this summer. So that's gonna be a fun time.

Sahm 4:48

Thank you very much. Ladie da.

Ace 4:52

Uh speaking of Six Flags, we've been seeing a lot of footage about Six Flags Kidea. There's oops, I hit something. This Falcon's flight ride is insane.

Sahm 5:07

It looks insane.

Ace 5:08

No, I'm I'm mm-mm. I don't know how I feel about it. I show I showed you it a little bit ago, Ethan. It it was the it was the one in Kidia.

Sahm 5:18

Saudi Arabia.

Ace 5:20

It's it is Saudi Arabia. I didn't want to say the one like that's in the canyon.

Sahm 5:24

Yeah, yeah, the one that's on the off the cliff. Oh my goodness, yeah. That thing is so scary, but like I want to ride it so bad.

Ethan 5:32

Yeah.

Ace 5:34

I don't even I'm starting to have dreams about that coaster. So like I feel like We gotta hit it at some point.

Sahm 5:43

It's gonna be there.

Ace 5:44

Do we gotta hit it at some point?

Sahm 5:45

I mean, yes, it's the it's the like tallest, fastest, longest coaster in the world, we're coaster enthusiasts. Like, we have to hit it.

Ace 5:52

So here's the thing we can do that, but we have we have to take little old Alex on a little on a little endurance competition a little endurance competition first.

Sahm 6:02

Yep.

Ace 6:03

Um I'm not even tell you what, and yeah, I'm gonna be difficult about this.

Sahm 6:09

That's fine.

Ace 6:10

I am not setting foot on Panthe Pantheon.

Sahm 6:15

Pantheon, yes.

Ace 6:17

Until Ethan gets on Candemonium at Hershey Park.

Sahm 6:25

Why are we dragging Ethan into this?

Ace 6:28

Because he has to grow with me. If I'm doing my first 300-footer, he has to do his first 210.

Sahm 6:35

It's not that bad.

Ace 6:36

You did Sky Rush, but Skyrush took him out. He was done after Skyrush.

Sahm 6:39

Well, yeah, Skyrush also Skyrush is intense, but Candemonium is smooth as butter. Oh yeah, that's literally the that's one of the main things I remember about it. It's just being very smooth.

Ace 6:52

It was forever ago, but I haven't seen it actually see the trauma on my face.

Sahm 6:58

Well, Sky Rush is also intense as hell.

Ethan 7:01

Oh my goodness, yeah.

Sahm 7:02

It's very it's intense. It's it's it's an intimate, it's intense. Um, but I can say, I can say that I've ridden Sky Rush, the one that the 300 foot that he's talking about in that King's Dominions is more intense, like not even close.

Ace 7:16

Yeah, it's 300 feet tall. Sky Rush is only 200.

Sahm 7:19

Yeah. Let me see if I can find the picture. It's rude. Let me see if I can oh wait, I I oh I just found it like that. That was that was when I wrote it for the first time. That's what it was. Look, either, no, no, no, no, think of it like this. I wrote-down. I showed I showed him the picture I just showed you how tall it was. Yeah. Now, now for context, my first ride on that thing, I rode, I rode it at night, cold, back row. You're insane. Back row, left seat. You're insane. I know. Oh, yeah, I know. It was it was it was sketchy.

Ace 7:56

Um, so I thought that Falcon flight, Falcon's flight was over like 600 feet topics. It's like 500s, I think. 5'10. That's over 500s, yeah. Should we look it up real quick just to fact check it?

Sahm 8:08

Yeah, double check. Um they were doing it in kilometers. Yeah. Just just look at the height of it. I don't think it's actually 600 feet. Maybe the drop off the cliff is 600 feet. I don't know.

Ace 8:20

No, it's not. I doubt it. Wait. Woo!

Sahm 8:25

640?

Ace 8:27

That doesn't seem what?

Sahm 8:30

That's literally double the height of now.

Ace 8:33

The freestanding hill is 535.

Sahm 8:35

So where is it saying 600 feet?

Ace 8:37

Oh, the cliff must be worth 640.

Sahm 8:40

A 640 drop into a no, it's 195 me.

Ace 8:45

I must not be doing my it's saying 525 for the drop.

Sahm 8:49

Still, a 525 drop into a 530 hip top hill is insane.

Ace 8:53

No, no, no, no. Oh. No, I don't think it I don't think that drop's that big. Going into the tunnel where it tilts.

Sahm 9:01

It looks big.

Ace 9:03

Where it tilts and then goes into the tunnel? I don't think it's that big. Okay, here I'm looking it up here. The first good old Reddit.

Sahm 9:10

Thanks.

Ace 9:12

The actual first Okay. That first drop is 200 feet.

Sahm 9:31

Even still, bro, you're No, that's insane.

Ace 9:33

You're you that's a hyper, that's a hyper drop that's leading into a and then you go into the tunnel and then you shoot up 530 feet.

Sahm 9:41

Yeah, yeah. The the the track is jet engines and it's a 535 tunnel.

Ace 9:44

But it's not a straight shot. I know, it's it's it's it's still so I might be able to like maybe it still seems like crazy. For those that haven't seen any footage, by the way, this ride is so massive because again, you know, breaking every record, of course, nobody's ever gonna make anything like it either. Because this thing just and until unless you have unless you have Disney money or universal money, you're or even like dare I say Cedar money. Oh, wait, I I guess it was Cedar that built it, but Cedar Fair, yep. Since they own Six Flags. But unless you got top dog money like that to even build something that expensive, nobody's gonna make something like that.

Sahm 10:32

Yeah, it's too, it's it's quantifiably just so huge in comparison to like everything else that's in that park.

Ace 10:38

And the creators of that ride literally said it's like it's like the it's like the coasters that you make in roller coaster tycoon that you would never think would actually be real.

Sahm 10:49

Yeah, then it's real.

Ace 10:51

Or or like a or like a backyard coaster toy. Yeah, like the connects.

Sahm 10:56

Yeah. I feel bad. I feel bad for that till coaster that's there. I can't remember what the name of it is because it's the tallest toe coaster in the world, but that's just overshadowed by Falcon's Flight. Oh, then yeah, I don't remember what it's called.

Ace 11:07

We talked about it a couple episodes ago.

Sahm 11:10

Yeah, yeah. The world's tallest toil coaster is also at that park, but no one talked about it because Falcon's Flight's right there.

Ace 11:16

The world's tallest tilt coaster is at that park?

Sahm 11:19

Yeah.

Ace 11:19

Oh.

Sahm 11:20

Yeah.

Ace 11:20

What's the new one that's coming in Texas? That's the one I was talking about.

Sahm 11:24

Oh no, that's the tall, that's the tallest, longest, fastest dive coaster. Oh, oops. And it's also a Giga. Um I think it's a B and M Giga too.

Ace 11:35

The other the other insane thing that's so slept on about the about Falcon's flight is that not only that loading bait, dude, when you get on that ride, you have you have to wait nearly like 10-15 minutes before it actually goes. I think that's the wrong one, Ethan. That's the wrong mouse, no? Is it working? Oopsies.

Sahm 12:12

Oh smell.

Ace 12:15

The craziest part about that ride, you sit there for almost 10 minutes, so perfect amount of time to have a panic attack. And then after you actually start, as you're just slowly coasting, getting ready for the ride, you're looking at that you're looking at that big hill.

Sahm 12:33

Yep.

Ace 12:33

I hate that. That's crazy.

Sahm 12:36

It's on purpose.

Ace 12:37

I wonder how long people are waiting for that right now.

Sahm 12:41

Uh I mean there's probably data on it already. I know you love your data.

Ace 12:47

I do.

Sahm 12:49

But yeah, there's an element on the right as well where you do a left bank.

Ace 12:54

Um, which left bank right off that cliff?

Sahm 12:58

Left yeah, left bank off the hill. Off the cliff. Yeah, that's insane.

Ace 13:08

It's not showing any wait times.

Sahm 13:11

Yeah.

Ace 13:12

A lot of people are s okay, a lot of people are saying 15 minutes to 45 minutes.

Sahm 13:17

Okay, that's not bad.

Ace 13:18

That's not terrible at all.

Sahm 13:19

I mean, to be fair, like, as insane as it is, it's most people are not gonna get on that thing. It's too intense. It's too much for the average for like average people.

Ace 13:29

I wonder if people are gonna get on it and not really know that it's all those stats.

Sahm 13:35

I mean, you just gotta even look at the arch to just know how insanely tall that is.

Ace 13:40

Like, you think people just go there, look at that, and go, oh, I want to get on that. Maybe, maybe. Some people are that brave and insane. But that's the weird part. I kind of want to get on it, but I think I need I think I got a new goal now. I think I got a new goal to work my way up to.

Sahm 13:56

Yeah.

Ace 13:59

We got we got we got a lot of guys to hit before we do something like that. And before we even do anything like Falcons Fight, we gotta we gotta do Cedar Point.

Sahm 14:09

I cannot wait to do our Cedar Point trip. I literally cannot wait. I'm scared. I cannot wait.

Ace 14:14

Well, I promise this to Josh, and I'm gonna promise this to the viewers as well. Uh we don't unlock our Cedar Point trip until I go to King's Dominion and ride Pantheon. Yeah, you literally have to.

Sahm 14:26

I have to.

Ace 14:27

And it's because two of the Giga Coasters.

Sahm 14:29

Yeah, two of the eight Giga Coasters are in Cedar Point. In the world, right? Yeah, there's eight, there's in the world. And eight, that's including the new one that isn't even open yet. So technically, right now there's seven rideable.

Ace 14:38

And there's So, dude, we're about to do three of those guys.

Sahm 14:43

Yeah, there's yeah, there's four. There's four of them in a vis in our vicinity. There's the one in King's Dominion, there's one, there's Orion at Kings Island, which is the south of the Six Flags Park, like south, and then the two at Cedar Point. So we have we have half of them available to us. I've ridden one and I haven't the other two, the other three yet.

Ace 15:05

Oh man.

Sahm 15:06

And then once once oh I think it's called Tormenta, the dive one. That one's opening in Texas, so you know.

Ace 15:13

That's what I was talking about earlier. I was trying to name it Tormenta.

Sahm 15:17

Wicked name.

Ace 15:19

Yeah, sure is. Um, well it would have been cool to go to a great adventure and do King Deca, but yeah, he's just he's just not there anymore. And you know, I I don't feel weird calling him a he because it was a king duh. Queen de qua. Queen de quoi is five feet tall. Anyways, we finally got word on what's replacing Rip Ride Rocket. And looks like we were both wrong.

Sahm 16:16

Yeah, it was it was the obvious choice.

Ace 16:19

It obviously wasn't gonna be Shrek like I told you.

Sahm 16:22

And it wasn't gonna be Ghostbusters like I told you. It was the very obvious answer. I was trying to do Tokyo Drift, but it didn't work. I can't play it because I don't know if there's like weird copyright with it.

Ace 16:40

Yeah. We'll probably we'll probably put a fart sound over it instead.

Sahm 16:44

No, but yeah, it is Fast and Furious Hollywood Drift, which I'm gonna address the elephant in the room, bro. People that are the people that are upset about the name, oh my god, get over it.

Ace 16:56

Okay, can you explain that to me? What are people upset about?

Sahm 16:59

Because it's the it's the it's the name Hollywood in the new in the New York section of the park. Oh which I on surface level I get, but then when you're thinking in the context of studios, it's literally a studio park, you're riding behind the scenes, you're not actually in a fast and furious movie, you're on the stunt cars. And Hollywood is a reference to like the movie part of it, not the location. Also, Ripride Rocket literally was called Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket. Come on now. Like think about that. Can we can we just can we just can we just like focus on the fact that we're getting an insane, we're getting an insane drift coaster? The tallest drift coaster, the tallest coaster in Universal.

Ace 17:40

I mean that is a fun part of it. 175, right? 170. 170. Okay, yeah, 170. Eh, rookie numbers.

Sahm 17:48

I mean, it's taller.

Ace 17:51

That's gonna be a lot of people's tallest stuff.

Sahm 17:52

It's taller than Rip Ride, it's taller by like four feet.

Ace 17:57

It was 166.

Sahm 17:59

Yeah.

Ace 18:00

My goodness. Are you sure about that? Yeah. I thought it was a fat 160.

Sahm 18:05

It's 166.

Ace 18:07

That's a that's a weird height.

Sahm 18:09

Yeah. Um the top. Which man no pitching. I am sorry. Anyways, but yeah. The and also it is going to be a different layout than the ha than the than the Hollywood Hollywood Studios one.

Ace 18:27

Okay, that's the part I'm wondering. So here here, check this, okay? So originally I was a little irritated because I I was thinking, really, we're just gonna do the same IP, but less of a hassle to get another IP.

Sahm 18:41

Yeah, and it isn't the only park, it isn't the only ride that's gonna have two different versions of the park. There's two different mummy rides called the mummy.

Ace 18:49

Oh, yeah, I was that's the next thing I was gonna mention. I as somebody who's ridden the mummy in Universal and or sorry, as somebody that has ridden the mummy in Orlando and Hollywood, they are both different rides.

Sahm 19:02

Yeah, it's just gonna be the same thing. Like the Hollywood version, the Hollywood version isn't gonna have the spike or anything like that, but the one in Orlando is and is gonna have a different layout. Um so people, I mean, a lot of people are excited for it, but people were just like getting real heated about the name, like weirdly enough. I think they just wanted to be mad over like it just being a fast and fierce coaster, which I get I get it, but like objectively speaking, it's gonna be a sick ride. It's an intimate launch coaster. Come on now. It also drifts.

Ace 19:32

I'm kind of split on both sides because I love the idea of both parks having different stuff to offer, but not everybody's trying to travel all the way to the west coast and the east coast. Some people kind of want to stay in their coast, yeah.

Sahm 19:47

I don't I don't feel like going all the way out to like Hollywood for the for just one coaster.

Ace 19:52

Okay, so yeah, let's talk about that. Do you have any incentive to even want to go to Hollywood to try the Drift Coaster now? You probably don't know. I don't, I don't see that that irritates me because four months ago we were talking about how cool it would be to go to Hollywood just to try that drift coaster. That would have been a a very good that that would have been a great exclusive at the Hollywood location. Yeah, that's my only con to that.

Sahm 20:21

Depending on the layouts, how different they are, it still might be worth it. But man, that spike is gonna be so insane.

Ace 20:27

Oh, that layout in in Hollywood looks crazy. Yeah. Because when I went there, they had the track built already, but I guess they were working on the interior.

Sahm 20:35

Yeah.

Ace 20:35

So it was cool just looking at the track going, ooh, ah, like seeing what they were gonna do.

Sahm 20:41

I I just really can't get over the spike that we're gonna have. That's well, that's like the element I'm focusing on because it's 170 feet. For context, for those who have ridden Hagrid, that that spike that had that that like spike is 65 feet. Oh, yeah, it's almost it's all the the spike is almost triple that. And you're on a spinning track. You're on a spinning car.

Ace 21:05

Like, like yeah, I I just motioned it to Ethan so he can see it.

Sahm 21:10

Also, also also the ride vehicle spins.

Ace 21:14

He's sick to his stomach.

Sahm 21:16

170 feet. Then imagine, imagine when you come down and then your car drifts like to the left or the right. It's gonna be so sick, bro. I oh it's gonna be sick. I'm gonna get on it for sure. I'm for sure getting on it. That thing is gonna be awesome. And hopefully, hopefully, Wish Wish Tokyo Drift plays throughout the entire throughout the entire ride. That'd be so cool.

Ace 21:40

Watch it just be turned down for what? Like in the queue for supercharged.

Sahm 21:46

You guys can't see it right now, but I'm like you.

Ace 21:48

He's giving me the straightest face I've ever seen him give me.

Sahm 21:51

Speaking of supercharge, we one is going away.

Ace 21:57

I'm gonna miss it.

Sahm 22:00

I'll miss I'll miss the large Vin Diesel and the Calicopter.

Ace 22:04

I'm gonna I'm gonna Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna miss the really bad actor that played that agent that goes get down on the ground right now Right now Dude And now we wait for Then Vin Diesel rises up You're gonna need protection Well what does he say? Something something stupid something stupid Yeah but mine's a whole lot bigger That's what the rock says Yeah and I can't I can't I can't wait I can't wait to see what the replacement's gonna be because I because like you Ghostbusters back to the future but we doing this again what right now we both lost so it does the score is even I I don't think it's gonna be I I don't I have I don't I don't e I'm I can't even begin to wonder what they're gonna replace Fast and Furious supercharged with. Do you do you remember that one Ethan? That was the Fast and Furious ride. That's gone.

Ethan 23:05

Okay.

Ace 23:06

Because they're taking that out and making it making it a coaster now. Where Rip Rad Rocket was, where the red one was.

Sahm 23:12

Oh yeah, but the station, so the station, the loading main station is actually gonna be past Jimmy Fallon. It's not gonna be in the same area, it's gonna be past Jimmy Fallon. Yeah.

Ace 23:25

That's where it's gonna that's where they're gonna load it.

Sahm 23:28

Yeah, that's where the station's that's where the station's gonna be at.

Ace 23:30

Oh, well that I see the I see the New York Hollywood argument a little better on that.

Sahm 23:39

I mean who cares, bro? It's gonna be a sick coaster.

Ace 23:43

No, we we're supposed to be the unks.

Sahm 23:47

No, not this time. Not this time, not this time, no, no, no. It's too it's an intimate launch coaster drifting launch coaster with a hundred seventy-foot spike, bro. I could care less. It could be called fast and furious. Uh uh don't say whatever. San Antonio, Texas. I don't care. What? I don't care what city it's was being said what city is named after.

Ace 24:07

Anyways. Um we've been doing a lot of traveling recently. Uh you know, we we went Josh went on over to Louisiana, I went on over to Minnesota. You went to Minnesota. I said that. I went over to Minnesota, went to the Nickelodeon Universe thing.

Sahm 24:31

Yeah, how was that?

Ace 24:32

It was fun. The the only real problem with that is that there's not much you can do there by yourself as like a as a 30-year-old man. I mean the three coasters were cool, but then everything else was like, okay, backyard against Dora.

Sahm 24:50

I love Dora. Copyright.

Ace 24:57

Go digo go.

Sahm 24:59

Copyright.

Ace 25:00

Oh, I didn't sing it. Um Yeah, I I wanted to get on this, I wanted to get on this Ferris wheel, and the lady just looked at me and was like, you don't have another person? I was like, what? No? She's like, yeah, there's no single riders on this. Like, dang.

Sahm 25:19

You can't just put me in a cart by myself?

Ace 25:21

Not on the Ferris wheel thing. That's I would have tilted out, I guess. I don't know. Look, there's something that they know that I don't know. I just listened to it.

Sahm 25:32

Oh, sir.

Ace 25:35

The only thing that you know, I just I spent $50 thinking I was gonna ride every ride, and a lot of those rides were kid rides. So I couldn't really get on those. Like they had they had rug wrap bumper carts for like two-year-olds. I can't get in.

Sahm 25:50

Well, you did buy you did buy a ticket to a Nickelodeon universe.

Ace 25:53

I could have messed some kids up in bumper carts. You can't do the face reactions when we're doing audio only.

Sahm 26:01

The audience can feel it. No, they can't. They can. The people listening, they know. They just know. They're feeling it right now.

Ace 26:10

He's clowning me. What is what's the audience feeling right now with the face I'm giving you? What are you guys feeling?

Sahm 26:22

Opposite of what they feel when they feel me.

Ace 26:26

So they feel clean when I talk.

Sahm 26:29

Hey, you're the one talking about wrecking kids. Don't talk to me. Don't listen to me. Don't talk to me about it. My bad.

Ace 26:35

See, you're no, dude, you're making this inappropriate and this is a family channel. Stop it. This is a family channel. Stop thinking about it.

Sahm 26:53

How do you feel about that guy?

Ace 26:57

Don't don't get him started. You want to talk about your first time, Josh?

Sahm 27:12

Um, I was easy, I was 14 years old.

Ace 27:16

Stop it. His name was Ka. Hey, yo, yo, chill. Let my oh Josh get that on hand again. My family channel, Josh.

Sahm 27:37

You're talking about everything. You did first.

Ace 27:47

You're the one talking to staying the audio sample of your DR.

Sahm 27:54

That that reminds me of Monsters Inc. where the clip is like, I'll I'll kill a couple kids to keep this company alive.

Ace 28:03

I'll kidnap a thousand charges with me saving this company. So go back.

Sahm 28:08

Alright, cut like the last like five minutes.

Ace 28:11

No, we can you can you can censor some of that. We'll have fun editing that.

Sahm 28:14

Yeah. Yeah.

Ace 28:19

Next week we're gonna have our funny our friend Andrew on here. That's gonna be fun.

Sahm 28:24

Yeah. It's it's just me and him. It's gonna just be me and him talking.

Ace 28:28

Yeah. It's gonna be amazing.

Sahm 28:30

Yeah.

Ace 28:31

Because your guys' friendship is interesting.

Sahm 28:35

Interest interestingly annoying sometimes.

Ace 28:38

Oh, it's just funny. See it's just funny seeing you get annoyed with a lifelong friend, because it's the same way I get annoyed with Trenton.

Sahm 28:46

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Ace 28:51

I mean, not like annoyed with Trenton, but like when Trenton's just like being Oh, I I get annoyed with Andrew.

Sahm 28:57

He he let he drags his bits on way too long. Like way too long. And he knows he does too. And then he still fing does it.

Ethan 29:04

Oh.

Ace 29:06

Body mouth flag. Bloop bloop. So what my fate, my favorite bit of his was when he was he he just kept turning. We're in line at Epic Universe, Ethan, and he just kept looking at people, going, dude, Ozzy died. People with the most serious face are like, wait, really? He's like, Yeah.

Sahm 29:29

Yeah, because Ozzy, yeah, because Ozzy and Hogan died like while we were at the park. And all this, all this this dude does is just look at people. He's like, yo, Hogan, Hulk Hogan just died. Brother, we're at a theme park. Dude, Ozzy died. What? Alright, let's get on this Jimmy Fallon ride. It's like read the room.

Ace 29:56

It's gonna be fun. Um, because even though I had already taken Josh at that point prior to us going. Prior?

Sahm 30:04

Yeah, correct.

Ace 30:05

Um, it was fun to vicariously see Andrew's reactions to all three of the rides. So I thought it'd be fun to bring him on here and just have you guys talk about your experience on there.

Sahm 30:16

Yeah, that one might be a little PG-13.

Ace 30:20

It could be PG-13. Just don't talk about, you know, having you were talking about it first, alright?

Sahm 30:29

No, I didn't.

Ace 30:30

I said I was gonna wreck these kids in bumper carts. I mean I see why that sounds bad. Shut up.

Sahm 30:37

I mean, wherever you want to your like your privacy, like just don't do it in bumper cars.

Ace 30:48

That's the best time to fight. I'm sorry, Ethan. I'm sorry. That's that's why I couldn't stay it. Look, anybody look shut up. Anybody that has ever been an older sibling or an older cousin and went to a theme park with their family knows what it's like to bully smaller children on bumper cart rides. It is hilarious. And if you've never done it, you're missing out. Dude, Josh is trying to hold back laughter because he's picturing it now. Dude, no, you need to picture a little seven-year-old, right? Just going, heh heh heh, we're gonna we're gonna keep this dialogue in there, Ethan, but we're gonna bleep out the sentence he said. That's foul. That's foul. Nasty. A lot of potty mouths tonight. Yeah, potty mouths tonight. No, we didn't say anything about him. Do not.

Sahm 31:54

I'd not I was saying about him, but you know what isn't foul? That's not how we're gonna lead it. Epic universe.

Ace 32:06

That's how we're okay. That's how we're leading into it.

Sahm 32:13

I'm stressing them out.

Ace 32:15

Just a little bit. It's okay. This is what the this is the fun part about podcasts, right? We get the live, live reactions. Yeah.

Sahm 32:24

You know, it's pretty it's pretty ironic where like a like a theme part, we're like coaster like podcasts because of how much like our conversations could just get derailed. He's walking, he got up. He's walking out. Alright, guys. My my my name is Josh. I'm the only host here. Um, so I don't really need Alex for this part, anyways, because it's just my experience at Epic Universe, and I can talk about that by myself to be honest. Um, so Don't you fair Language? This is a family podcast. Anyways.

Ace 33:06

Look, we got ten we got ten minutes to go get everybody hyped up about just us going to Epic Universe. So so being excited for the ride.

Sahm 33:16

It's it's so it's Epic Universe Day.

Ace 33:19

I'm never gonna do that.

Sahm 33:20

I don't so it's Epic Universe Day. It is two months and one day after Grand Opening, and the only reason I know that for know that for a fact is because I kept track because the day we went, it was my 28th birthday. And the only thing I wanted to do for my birthday was go to Epic Universe. I wanted to go to the brand new park, the shiny new one, and it's one of the best days of my life. Truthfully, that park is so great. All the haters and the complainers online, blah blah it's a theme park. Like, be excited, be happy.

Ace 34:01

No, I genuinely still do not understand what the these anonymous posters on Facebook's Epic Universe page is all about.

Sahm 34:10

Bro, they just love to complain. Like, genuinely. You literally you went there and you did almost everything in one day.

Ace 34:16

No, most of them don't somehow. Well, a lot of them talk about how they're not gonna wait for lines.

Sahm 34:22

And then like they complain about rides, they're not riding rides because they're not doing the waiting. What are you doing? So, man.

Ace 34:32

When I walked up there, there was there was one comment that I saw that literally called the Monster Unchained ride Frankenstein. Told me everything I needed to know about how much research a lot of these commenters even do. Like, didn't even ride the Frankenstein ride. Oh my god, bro. Look, I get being frustrated after a bad day. Theme parks can suck when things go wrong. But let's be real. You're putting 100% of the blame on the park when a ton of this is a is on poor planning and unrealistic expectations. Epic Universe is a brand new park and it is a massive expansion, and at the end of the day, breaks breakdowns are gonna happen, and a lot of the headlining lines are gonna have big hours no matter what.

Sahm 35:15

Yeah, especially in the first like year. Come on.

Ace 35:19

The like I don't I can understand people getting mad if they somehow end up waiting five hours for like a four-minute ride, but don't complain about waiting for the long ride when you could have gotten express pass. And if you can't afford the express pass, then that's just the name of the game. I don't know what I'm not trying to sound like a jerk with that. I feel like I am, but I just feel like you have options behind that. Yeah, like it Why do all these guys get to get on the ride before me? Because they paid dis because they paid, because they wanted to go and not act like a peasant.

Sahm 35:55

You see, now you're now look.

Ace 35:59

No, I'm not crashing out. If you are listening to this and you have bought express passes, then you know the feeling to look at the other line and see them as peasants. It's it's mostly funny, but it's it's a real thing. Yeah, you get the express passes and you just look at those people, you're like, ha ha meh. Every express pass holder has felt that at some point. And if you are thinking, oh, you're just rude and you're a jerk. No, I paid the money to skip the line, I paid the money to get in that fast lane. You are peasants to me if I'm paying that money for that. That day, anyways, and trust me, I've only bought the express pass like one time. I'm not that rich. And I didn't get the unlimited skips, I got the one skip before. Man, they have like four tiers of it.

Sahm 36:48

I I gotcha.

Ace 36:53

Also, the only reason I got the express passes that day. Yeah, okay, I guess I am crashing out. Is because I went over to the lady and I was like, how much are expresses today? She was like, 70 bucks. I was like, Really? She's like, yeah, pretty low wait times today. So I probably didn't need him.

Sahm 37:14

But you did anyways.

Ace 37:16

I mean, I got to get on every I got I got to get in the express lane for every ride once. That's the ticket I paid for.

Sahm 37:23

Yeah.

Ace 37:23

Like $90. It's cool. Usually these tickets are like $300 on a busy day, so you better better get your bread up if you want to do that.

Sahm 37:33

Speaking of express passes, apparently, go on base, I'm kinda take this part of the next part of the Grand Sol. But apparently, Hagrid's is having issues with their express pass. Where like the express pass holders are getting like top priority, and it's making the it's making the non-express line go by super slow. Like slower than normal. Apparently. Very, very apparently with that. I've seen a few like posts about it.

Ace 37:59

From what I understand with Hagrid, they try to use that ride as like the guy that just holds everybody. Yeah. They try to kind of have that as like a sponge ride that just holds people in there. And because it's still one of their most objectively popular rides, the most popular ride of Universal, I'd say. So anybody that goes in there and sees a two-hour wait, they're gonna expect two hours and well, Universal will make sure you wait those two hours at that point. That's that's kind of lame.

Sahm 38:32

Yeah, I know, but man, Hagrid's are so good. Which, which, if you've already listened, you already know how much how I feel about that ride.

Ace 38:38

And if anybody wants to know a trick about Hagrid, whatever. Here's the main thing. If you want to ride Hagrid, knock out everything you want to ride before the last hour of closing. So let's use an example. Park closes at nine o'clock. Okay. At eight o'clock, you need to be in line for Hagrid. That's how you do it. That this is some this is some secret, this this is some secret sauce from the universe songs. I don't like that. I need a better phrase than secret sauce. These are some secret tips from the universe. Whatever, dude. Whatever. Let's talk about Epic Universe.

Sahm 39:17

Yeah. So what a day that was. It was blazing hot that day. It was pretty hot. And to be honest, I don't care.

Ace 39:29

Do you do you think Andrew remembers asking us to go back to the parking lot?

Sahm 39:33

Yeah, for his sunglasses they left, brother. Like, I love you, dog, but I'm not walking like how far is how far was that walk being? Like a like half a mile? That was far. Like the walk, the the sidewalk all the way up to the park is long as heck.

Ace 39:49

The stakes were pretty high. We we had the whole day to do the park, but it was also like maybe month two of the park being opened.

Sahm 39:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was the second month of the park open.

Ace 39:58

So these so so maintenance nightmare on every ride.

Sahm 40:04

Every ride. Only only on Stardust and and like Al Ministry, which which are the two popular rides of the park, which you know kind of sucks that we had to sit through that because man, we sat we sat through, we sat at Stardust, and it was broken down for like what, 30, 40 minutes probably? And we only we only got to ride I only got to ride one track. It wasn't even dueling at the time when I wrote it.

Ace 40:27

Oh, you didn't even ride it dueling?

Sahm 40:29

No, I didn't ride it dueling. Because the other car, the the yellow car was cr was no. The one that doesn't the I think it was the yellow one, the one that doesn't do the celestial that doesn't do the spin on the on the celestial spin.

Ace 40:42

That's the yellow one. Yeah. We did ride the yellow first.

Sahm 40:45

No, we we rode the green one because I remember doing the doing the celestial spin on the green. Are you sure? I'm positive. I'm like not I'm like I'm very positive about that.

Ace 40:54

Okay.

Sahm 40:55

Um, because I remember how blown away I was at the end of that ride. Like I was jaw-dropped, speechless. That ride's incredible. And that was the second ride we did. We did Monsters Unchained first because we had a roadmap where we were gonna go to how to train your dragon first. And then and then you you were just like Monsters Unchained, Monsters Unchained. Can we do it, do we do, do it, please, please, please? I was like, I F it, let's go, let's do it.

Ace 41:21

I really wanted to do Monsters Monsters Unchained. That's the guy that I was excited about for like the last two years of Epic Universe being announced.

Sahm 41:30

Yeah.

Ace 41:32

It's because I like Dark Ride.

Sahm 41:34

So despite being my birthday and I wonder why Hick was first, we did Dark, we did Monsters Unchained first, which I'm actually in retrospect glad we did first because man.

Ace 41:41

No, actually, that was a bad call on my end because we did wait like probably like 30 minutes, I think. No, 20.

Sahm 41:48

Yeah, 20 and 25, something like that.

Ace 41:50

I remember it said a 20-minute wait, and we waited actually 20 minutes, and I was very impressed.

Sahm 41:55

Yeah, the yeah, that that's an efficient, that's an efficient ride right there. Also, it has the best queue in the park. Don't add me.

Ace 42:05

It definitely has the best queue.

Sahm 42:06

I I the only the only one you can argue with is like ministry, because that cue's also insane.

Ace 42:13

Some people are saying the cue of that ride is better than the ride.

Sahm 42:18

That's a hot take, but it's I don't think a cue is ever better than the ride. The ride's good.

Ace 42:25

I I know a ride that has a better cue than a ride.

Sahm 42:28

Is it a universal one?

Ace 42:29

Best of Ferry's supercharged.

Sahm 42:32

Yeah, I don't know. The entire the entirety of that entire ride is so terrible.

Ace 42:35

The Q's funny.

Sahm 42:37

I don't know. I the the the Q feels like it's a one and done or like you do the Q once with the actors and then like you should never do it again.

Ace 42:42

So Monsters Unchained, man. How did we feel after that ride?

Sahm 42:47

Oh, I was blown away. If you if have you seen pictures of me on the ride? I've shown you that picture.

Ace 42:52

Do you still have it?

Sahm 42:54

Yeah, I have it.

Ace 42:55

I loved that ride so much later down the line. I I went back and did seconds and thirds on that guy. The only thing that sucked was we weren't able to see the pre-show. Is that my face? No. Is that me and you?

Sahm 43:14

Yeah.

Ace 43:15

Yo, Ethan, look at this.

Sahm 43:17

Yeah, so this is me on this is us on the on the monsters ride. Um, and just and for con for context, for context, we ate some can we did eat some candy before before going. What do you mean? There's some Skittles.

Ace 43:46

I I don't even remember that that part.

Sahm 43:49

I do. Because I just remember being a aghast about the entire queue. Dude, the Q's insane. What do you mean?

Ace 43:57

The Q's so awesome.

Sahm 43:58

And then and then Like, I didn't see anything of the track, and the loading bait genuinely shocks me. The loading bait is so sick.

Ace 44:07

That's yeah, I I forgot. I went on that ride completely blind. I didn't want to see anything about it.

Sahm 44:14

Yeah, I I went in we we went in blind on everything pretty much. We did a good job of not being spoiled by anything. The only thing we had spoiled on was like hiccup a little bit.

Ace 44:23

I think you spoiled that.

Sahm 44:24

No, I you spoiled it for me.

Ace 44:26

Did I?

Sahm 44:27

Yes. It was on accident.

Ace 44:30

The one ride that I definitely did very good at not watching was Battle of Ministry.

Sahm 44:34

Yeah, I didn't watch any of that either.

Ace 44:36

And I guess Stardust Racers technically. I don't think that counts.

Sahm 44:41

No, I know.

Ace 44:42

Um Yeah I was sad that the the in the queue for Monsters Unchained, there's a room where you get to see the Frankenstein animatronic. It's a very massive animatronic that they build. It's one of the most realistic ones they've ever made. Very lifelike. It's nine feet tall. I got to see it on round two, but we're not talking about round two just yet. But I will say that that guy is massive. It's so impressive. It's so cool. Um, even though I we didn't get to see it the first time, and I just remember being so sad because that was like probably the one thing I actually was really excited to see.

Sahm 45:23

And then and then, you know, she was out hunting hunting monsters.

Ace 45:27

Oh, right. I went over to the person, like, hey, well, where's where's Victoria and Frankenstein? Oh, she's out in the looking for the monsters. And I was like, okay, you're you're you're doing a character. I got you. Um are are is the showroom down or is it just not working? Oh, she'll probably be back later, who knows? And I just went, okay, dude, thanks. I wasn't being a jerk to him. I was I just I understood what he was doing.

Sahm 45:58

Doing his job.

Ace 45:59

He's doing his job.

Sahm 46:01

Uh yeah, I mean that also that ride's like four or five minutes long. It's a it's a long ride.

Ace 46:07

Very decent length, and the platform is it's it's it's designed the same as it's it's the same ride design as the forbidden journey, the ride in the castle in Ogworth Castle. But it's like almost like 50 feet taller.

Sahm 46:27

It's tall.

Ace 46:28

It's you see the floor under you, and you're like, oh, where's that floor?

Sahm 46:32

You're super high up. It's really cool. But I think it's definitely more flexible. Um I guess flexible is the word I want it where I want to use here, but it's not actually, but in terms of movement, it's definitely more it moves in more directions than Forbidden Journey for sure. Like in the pre- in the pre-show, what's his name? Igor.

Ace 46:54

There's a lot more stuff.

Sahm 46:54

Yeah, Igor, Igor shows a demonstration of you on the ride and just moves in like all different directions, and then you actually do that on the ride.

Ace 47:01

Most of those.

Sahm 47:02

Yeah. And all the animatronics that are just like top-notch, top quality. The storytelling is also very, very sick as well. Um, it's not it's not hard to follow what's happening on the ride itself. I mean, you're just the Victoria has control of all the current classic monsters and she's trying to control Dracula who just escaped, and that's pretty much the story, and it's very easy to like keep up with.

Ace 47:23

Spooky enough to make the kiddos frightened, but I don't think it's intense enough to scare them.

Sahm 47:30

No. I if like a five-six.

Ace 47:34

It'd probably be frightening the young children.

Sahm 47:36

Yeah, yeah. Like five anywhere from like five to like eight, nine, probably are gonna get. Yeah, that that yeah, you'd children are gonna be scared of that ride.

Ace 47:44

But now keep in mind, dude. I rode that ride with like the second time I rode it, I was with these like little girls. Yeah, they were they were screaming, but like laughing. Yeah, they were like having a fun time, yeah.

Sahm 47:56

And that's good.

Ace 47:57

And I was like, okay, that's what all that's what it's about. It's it's adorable.

Sahm 48:01

But yeah, and then we got off Monsters Unchained, and then we booked it to Stardust Racers on the other side of the park.

Ace 48:06

Yeah. Um, we didn't we didn't get a chance to ride Curse of the Werewolf, unfortunately.

Sahm 48:12

No.

Ace 48:13

Um Round two when I went again for my birthday. I will say that I only waited like 20 minutes. Or no, sorry, I waited like 30 minutes.

Sahm 48:25

Yeah.

Ace 48:26

But it said 15 minutes. So I was like, really? 15 minutes? I got in there, it broke down, I waited like 15 more minutes and then I got on. Because by the time it broke down, and I see this big line forming behind me, I was like, Yeah, I'm not leaving this. I'm not getting out of here. So we didn't get to ride it when I went with you. I will tell you though, when I got on the ride, yeah, dude, my fanny pack, I wasn't able to buckle it in time by the time it launched.

Sahm 48:54

Yeah.

Ace 48:55

So I'm just holding on for dear life the whole time, like, And there was a point where the person next to me was trying to like help me. I was like, no, it's fine. No, don't touch me. Right after that ride's when my microphone broke too.

Sahm 49:12

Oh, I didn't know your microphone broke.

Ace 49:14

Um, the one with the lightning cable broke. Gotcha. So that kind of sucked.

Sahm 49:20

My bad.

Ace 49:21

Yeah, so we we we headed on back over to Stardust Racers and Bro, waiting in that line sucked.

Sahm 49:28

It was that was like that was when the the heat was peaking. It was like noon.

Ace 49:33

It was getting pretty hot at that point.

Sahm 49:34

Yeah, it was getting bad. That that sucked.

Ace 49:37

And the ride broke down, so we sat at that loading bay for oh god knows how long.

Sahm 49:44

Like 30 30 minutes easy.

Ace 49:46

My favorite part about that was people kept cheering for no reason.

Sahm 49:50

Yeah.

Ace 49:51

You remember there was a point where that ride attendant was like, I don't know why y'all are cheering.

Sahm 49:55

I don't know. Oh yeah, that guy was kind of a jerk. Uh yeah, he was. That guy was kind of a jerk for that. Um yeah, and then we only got to ride the green track, and even without the dueling element, that coaster is so elite.

Ace 50:10

That coaster is just some people ride that ride without the sometimes the audio doesn't play on the ride.

Sahm 50:17

That's so unfortunate. The audio is so good on there too.

Ace 50:20

The the soundtrack does that ride so much justice.

Sahm 50:23

I love that ride. I wish I I wish I could I wish I wrote it again that day.

Ace 50:27

Okay, so do you do you think it's more intense than Velocicoaster on par or less intense?

Sahm 50:35

Uh I will say for sure on par. I haven't ridden it enough to have a solid opinion. Um, I'd have to rewrite it.

Ace 50:43

Velocicoaster is more intense, but I think Stardust Racers is the better ride. Velocicoaster is just sheer force, sheer intensity, sheer just fast bite the bullet craziness.

Sahm 50:56

Yeah, I think I'd have to ride each track of start like three to four times. I have a solid opinion against the two, to be honest.

Ace 51:03

Would you fair? Um, let's see. We didn't ride Constellation Carousel when we were over there either.

Sahm 51:11

Yeah, we pretty much only hit like the big Marquee attractions.

Ace 51:18

It's got a really good soundtrack to it. The lighting is incredible. The way the entire the way the the like what do you even call the carousel horses that you sit on? What do you call them? Sure.

Sahm 51:35

The vehicles. Just call them vehicles.

Ace 51:37

The way those move around is really cool, almost like a ballad-like orchestra vibe. And if if you really want to get the best experience on Stardust. If you want to get the best experience on Constellation Carousel. If you want to get the best experience on Constellation Carousel, I would recommend riding it at night, but just keep in mind that that's probably when there's going to be higher wait times.

Sahm 52:05

Yeah, I probably will hit that at the end like towards the end of the day when the next time I go.

Ace 52:11

After riding everything and you just want to chill, it's a great ride to get on.

Sahm 52:14

Yeah, I agree. Man, I just wish that park was open a little bit later than like why is it nine o'clock, I think. Okay.

Ace 52:23

I I wanted to point that out because it said the park hours were open till nine, but what they did for at least for the first year, they without telling anybody, they kept the park open till ten. They gave everybody an extra hour without telling anybody. They just nine o'clock passed by and nothing was shut down till ten. It is awesome. And I remember the day before that, the guy that we were in line with Velocicoaster told us that.

Sahm 52:51

Yeah, that good luck on that guy.

Ace 52:53

Yeah, that was like some of the best advice. He we you you I remember you asking, like, you gotta need Epic Universe advice, and he said, Don't worry about the time, they'll give you an extra hour at the end of the night. And you're like, Really? He's like, Yeah. It was awesome.

Sahm 53:09

Um and then after Stardust, we hit Battle of Ministry, which we waited a whopping three hours for.

Ace 53:18

Nobody was happy about that either. You and Angie were fussing the whole time.

Sahm 53:23

Uh, it was getting to a point. It was getting to a point.

Ace 53:27

I think everybody gets in line and just fusses in line on that ride.

Sahm 53:31

Uh, I mean, for the first time, yeah, it's a little irritating. Also, it was raining, my guy. I know. That's I'm I'm gonna look at positive, but man, three hours. Also, that queue just felt like it just went on forever.

Ace 53:43

Like, you know, it rained. Josh. I know it rained. It rained for the three hours we waited for two of those hours, it rained.

Sahm 53:51

I know.

Ace 53:51

So we literally had nothing better to do than to wait for that ride. Yeah, I know. So I think we timed that so excellently.

Sahm 53:59

I just think it's funny that like there's so many cue, there's so many rooms in that queue. You just think it's like, okay, it's gonna be the next one, and then it's not for like six rooms.

Ace 54:10

Dude, shout out to Hoover. Yeah, love Hoover, man. Cleaning up McGonagall. I mean, not shout out to Hoover cleaning up excuse me. What's her name?

Sahm 54:22

Uh, damn it, dang it. Um I'm blanking on the name. We're tired. We're it's yeah, it's it's it's yeah, we're tired.

Ace 54:30

Umbridge?

Sahm 54:31

Umbridge, yes.

Ace 54:32

Shout out to Hoover. Who Hoover cleaning up Umbridge's messes.

Sahm 54:38

Yeah.

Ace 54:38

That that lady stresses that poor vacuum out.

Sahm 54:41

The the craziest part about it is that the ride broke down as soon as we got to the loading bay. Like we we walked to that to the room where our cart was, where our vehicle was at.

Ace 54:50

That's right.

Sahm 54:51

And then the ride broke down.

Ace 54:52

We bonded very well with those cast members. They were very nice, dude. Josh, that guy we talked to was operating the ride when I went there the second time.

Sahm 55:01

Oh, that's sick.

Ace 55:02

I said what's up to him.

Sahm 55:03

Is it you remember?

Ace 55:04

I mean, the amount of people he sees, no, but he thought it was cool that like I remembered him.

Sahm 55:10

That's cool.

Ace 55:11

I told him the ride broke down and and you were very entertaining with me and my friends, and he and he and he was like, he's like, that's so awesome, man. He's like, unfortunately, that doesn't really narrow down a lot of situations I've been in, but like that's right, because that's comedy on this ride. Yeah, but it was still cool. Yeah, he he thought it was cool that I remembered him. And then he asked how many times I've I've been to the park that year. I was like, two. And he and he's and he was like, hey, he's like, that's more than a lot of people, man. That's awesome.

Sahm 55:42

Yeah, it was awesome. Uh thankfully, it was thankfully the air conditioning was like on and blasting when we were standing there.

Ace 55:47

So like a ride. Nothing but AC. Oh, yeah. That ride is a great AC ride or AC break.

Sahm 55:53

Yeah. Um, and then we go on the ride, and the ride is fantastic. Probably the would you say the animatronics in that ride are better than monsters?

Ace 56:07

Better than monsters?

Sahm 56:09

I mean no, but I can see the argument because the the Death Eater, I think that's what those guys are called.

Ace 56:17

Oh, yeah, a lot of people think that they're real people.

Sahm 56:20

Dude, I thought I thought they were part of the screen. And then I look closer, I'm like, wait, that's an animatronic. I think I I might have talked to you in that round. I was like, Alex, that's animatronic.

Ace 56:28

My second time riding that, one of them wasn't moving. Oh, that's funny.

Sahm 56:31

He's just funny. And then that one that one beast I rhino thing. Magic, yeah. That was crazy.

Ace 56:40

Spoilers. That guy was so cool. Yeah, and then Oh her, I think it's a girl.

Ethan 56:47

I don't know.

Sahm 56:47

But and then at the and then at the end, you have your other your other animatronics, the spoiler alert. Uh Harry, Ron, and Hermione ones. Those are sick too.

Ace 56:57

Insane that it took this long for them to finally do a Harry, Ron, and Hermione animatronic.

Sahm 57:02

I just don't think they're pretty still. They don't do much, but I just don't think they have the they don't have the technology for it. Because if they had done it kind of half, you know, then you would have gotten hiccup animatronic, and that's just not good. The hiccup animatronic. Which after battle ministry oh wait, we want what we did start us, we did start us, then higher training dragon, battle ministry. We skipped one.

Ace 57:31

Oops, it's okay.

Sahm 57:32

Yeah, so before before all the battle ministry stuff, we went over to Isle of Burke, which was the land I was the most excited for because Higher Train Your Dragon is one of my favorite movies of all time.

Ace 57:41

I swear, Andrew and Josh for 40 minutes did nothing but like wait in line for food.

Sahm 57:48

That's fine. I was taking it all in. It was great.

Ace 57:50

I was walking around just like, can we do something? And you're like, dude.

Sahm 57:54

No, what happened was that Andrew went to the bathroom for like 20 plus minutes.

Ace 57:57

Oh, that's not his fault.

Sahm 57:59

Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, I can't give him any any crap for that.

Ace 58:04

The only person that can give himself crap is him.

Sahm 58:07

Yep. Uh the the mac and cheese cone. Fantastic. So good.

Ace 58:12

Oh yeah. Give us the give us the official review.

Sahm 58:16

Alright, so I don't normally eat at theme parks because most of the time I am broke and theme park food. I mean, I'm being transparent here. Theme park food for the most part just seems like very selling point. It just seems pretty overrated for the most part. Like, I'm just gonna be transparent here. Like, like I love crusty food.

Ace 58:34

It's all pretty broke usually, and the food is pretty overladed, not gonna lie. No, no, no, no.

Sahm 58:38

Theme park food in general is overrated. Like, I love Krusty Burger, but at the end of the day, it's just a burger. It ain't nothing that's blowing my socks off. But this mac and cheese cone at Isle of Burke with the pork on it and the bacon jam, sign me up every time. I don't care how I don't care how much I spent on it. It was like $13.

Ace 58:59

I remember when we went, Fire drill was closed. But they had what is the mean tossing game? Oh why am I blanking?

Sahm 59:11

No. Uh why are we blanking on things today? Uh oh, dang, what is that called? Ethan. The oh, cornhole.

Ethan 59:25

Okay, yeah.

Sahm 59:26

I don't know why I don't know why Ethan looked at me and it just came to my mind.

Ace 59:30

Because he's a cornhole. He's a cu-hole. So in front of fire drill, the ride was closed, but they had kids playing cornhole, and anytime the kids shot, it didn't matter if they made it or missed, they would yeah, they they would applaud him. They'd go it's so funny. You know, the kid would shoot, too, like that was the whole that was what was entertaining about it. Is every time they shot, they would get praised. And even when they made it or missed, yeah, they were clapping, and it's funny.

Sahm 1:00:03

I I wish I wish I had a I wish I could have meet Toothless, but I wasn't gonna wait an hour for that.

Ace 1:00:08

Yeah, I don't blame you on that.

Sahm 1:00:10

That is But the Anima Drag is so cool.

Ace 1:00:13

So is it a I guess it's a puppet, right? Is it does it stay in that spot? Does it move at all?

Sahm 1:00:19

Uh it stays Does it wheel out?

Ace 1:00:21

Do they wheel it out?

Sahm 1:00:22

No, no, it stays in the spot, but like it moves. Like the front right paw is stationary, but like it's just pretty much like his back and head moves and its eyes move, it's very expressive. I think the wings move too. Sure. It's pretty similar to the one that's on the ride.

Ace 1:00:35

Is it in a room?

Sahm 1:00:36

Uh no, it's outdoors.

Ace 1:00:37

They don't keep that thing outdoors, do they? Just all day overnight.

Sahm 1:00:41

Like when it's in like it's in like a it's in like there's an awning and everything, so it's protected from weather damage.

Ace 1:00:47

Uh they should, yeah. That's a little bit deeper than anything I would probably try to figure out.

Sahm 1:00:54

Yeah.

Ace 1:00:54

Uh Dragon's Racer Rally.

Sahm 1:00:56

Yeah, we didn't write that one. You did though on your on your round two.

Ace 1:01:00

It's got it's got cute theming. It's kind of just like letting little dragon trainers know not to be afraid. Um, the little wings that shift and can make you flip. If you hold one up and one down, that's all you gotta do, and you'll turn around apparently the whole time.

Sahm 1:01:16

That's fun.

Ace 1:01:17

I didn't flip, but I didn't mess with the wings at all because it said if you don't touch the wings, you'll just coast. So I just did that because I was just trying to do the ride challenge. I was just trying to I'm gonna flip it. I'm next time I ride it, I'm gonna flip it for sure.

Sahm 1:01:32

Yeah. But then But then we rode Hickam's Wing Glider and Haggard Jr. The thing is, is that I went into this ride with a lot of expectations and it and it didn't live up to them, but after thinking about it for some for some time, that's my own fault, and it doesn't tame my view of the ride. I still that ride's still fantastic to me.

Ace 1:01:55

It didn't live up to your expectation?

Sahm 1:01:57

No, because I was expecting it to be like the Haggard of Epic Universe, and and then it's just not, but it's its own ride, it's it's its own ride. I think it's a bit on the shorter side. I expected it to be like a little bit longer. Like the second half of it could be longer, in my opinion. That's just my personal opinion about it. But that's not to say that the ride is bad. It's not even bad. It's a fantastic ride, truth be told.

Ace 1:02:23

What about the land? What did you think about the land?

Sahm 1:02:25

Oh, the land's fantastic. It's arguably the best land of the big five out of the five. The the attention to the only one you can make an argument for is Mario World. And that's really gonna come down to who you ask or who you're asked, because the level of detail in both of those lands is just spectacular.

Ace 1:02:37

Well, that's the only Isle of Burke they made.

Sahm 1:02:39

Yeah, and yeah, that that's another point too. Like, it's hard to say because they both do, they both both those lands do something very differently. Because like when you walk into the Isle of Burke, the scene that you get is just fantastic. You just get the onsite, the onsite of the two Viking statues and the aisle in the middle with the lake, with the lake and everything, and you're just blown away. But then at the same time, when you're doing the Mario War, you're going up the escalator and it's building that anticipation. You walk in the castle and you walk out, and you're just meet with Super Nintendo World. So it's like it does the same thing, but it's a different.

Ace 1:03:15

The music is really cool too.

Sahm 1:03:16

Yeah. It's it's really gonna come down to like which one you're more fan of. And I'm more of a fan than of Higher Training Dragon than Nintendo.

Ace 1:03:24

Um see, I went in knowing my brother was my brother's a huge fan of it. My brother's a huge fan of it. So he was always he always watched the movies growing up, so it was so it was cool for me to see it and send him all the pictures of it and just seeing him freaking out over the all the little dragon animatronics.

Sahm 1:03:43

What you walk into, it's just fantastic. You get this oh good.

Ace 1:03:47

I mean, showing me like I wasn't there with him.

Sahm 1:03:49

I know, but I was just reminding you.

Ace 1:03:54

How many of those dragons that are like in the little hill?

Sahm 1:03:57

Yeah. Are like regular characters in the series? Um I'd have to think. I'd have to think about it.

Ace 1:04:06

You see them like sleeping in their little tails wagging and they're like breathing and stuff.

Sahm 1:04:11

The one that sh the one that blows the ice is a character. Did we see that one? I don't think so. We definitely didn't spend as much time in that land as I had liked to. I don't think we explored it as thoroughly as I wanted to. Mostly because that's when it was starting to rain. Yeah. Um we start heading over to Battle. And we didn't see the sleepy one that breathes fire. That's also a dragon. That's a dragon that does appear like regularly in the in the movies. And the Tooth is there. That's the orange one, right? The orange one, the orange one is the one that's like sleeping with the fire.

Ace 1:04:41

Gronkle or something.

Sahm 1:04:43

Gronkle. I think Gronkle's the breed of the dragon. I don't know. It's I don't know what the name of it of the dragon is for the character off the top of my head.

Ace 1:04:50

Did you watch the live action yet?

Sahm 1:04:51

I have not watched live action.

Ace 1:04:52

Do you intend on watching it?

Sahm 1:04:54

Uh, not particularly. I don't really watch live actions of the of like anime movies. I think you lose the plot most of the time. But that is one I'm willing to watch because apparently it's good, but I'd have to watch it.

Ethan 1:05:07

I got you.

Ace 1:05:08

Yeah, so right after that, I guess was when we moved over to Mario Land, just because we were kind of hoping the it would die out by the end of the night, but it turns out everybody had the same idea.

Sahm 1:05:19

Yeah, no. No, unfortunately not. Um, because honestly thinking back now, I should have just done Donkey Kong over Mario, but yeah.

Ace 1:05:27

Look, dude, Donkey Kong is a good ride, but that weight is brutal.

Sahm 1:05:33

Yeah, I know it's like an hour and a half. It's like Haggard times.

Ace 1:05:35

The round two wait was absolute nightmare for me.

Sahm 1:05:39

Yeah, it was it's Haggard wait times for a ride that's not good for a ride that I assume is not as good as Haggard's.

Ace 1:05:44

I feel like we said it already in the show. In case we haven't, it's because when they built that ride, they were building that thinking it was gonna be a little kid ride.

Ethan 1:05:53

Yeah.

Ace 1:05:53

And and when they built it in Japan, they thought it was gonna be a kid ride.

Sahm 1:05:56

Yep.

Ace 1:05:57

They did they didn't think moving it over here would be as popular when Was it was with adults. They were kind of like, well, what?

Sahm 1:06:04

What do we do?

Ace 1:06:06

Nothing. You keep the cue the same and just yeah.

Sahm 1:06:12

The Mario Ride is yeah, I wouldn't wait an hour for that again.

Ace 1:06:17

Hot take. The LA Mario World is better. That's just my opinion.

Sahm 1:06:22

I'd have to see I liked it. I'd have to see both to have an opinion on that.

Ace 1:06:26

I thought it was sick. Now it doesn't have Peaches Castle, I think. Oh, maybe it doesn't. I just didn't notice it. I actually don't know. I don't know, but the It's very different though.

Sahm 1:06:36

Mario ride, underwhelming. It's like probably like. Uh I'm trying to think of what I can compare it to. It's like. Honestly, I take Men in Black over Mario. What? I'm being so for real. Because the thing with the Mario ride is that like the simulation is like cool and all, but there's the interactivity just isn't there. It's just like you're just pressing buttons and just things are happening. It's that where men in black, it's like kind of a similar idea, but you actually can aim and shoot. And there's actual meta strategies that like you can find on the internet about how to get the most points, like where to share where to aim and shoot. It's really funny. Um but yeah, that ride was very underwhelming for me, and I wouldn't wait an hour for it again. The Q is really cool though. Yeah, that Q is sick. Hey, that's that's that's a ride where the Q is better.

Ace 1:07:29

Twenty the the Mario ride?

Sahm 1:07:31

Yeah, the Q is infinitely better than the rest of the game. I don't agree with you.

Ace 1:07:34

I think the ride is great, but I also don't think they could have made that Mario ride 26 years ago.

Sahm 1:07:40

Oh yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Like, no. It would have never happened. Like technologically speaking, it's fantastic, but like had animatronics, would have been probably cooler.

Ace 1:07:49

A little bit.

Sahm 1:07:50

I think it's just I don't know. It's it's just alright.

Ace 1:07:56

You thought it was just alright?

Sahm 1:07:59

Yeah, like again, if it's like a 20-minute ride short, but if it's anything longer than that, then I'm not going.

Ace 1:08:06

I I think it's worth it for you if you're like a big Nintendo fan.

Sahm 1:08:11

And I'm not a big Nintendo fan. If they add if they add like a Legend of Zelda ride to to to like Nintendo World, then we're talking because I'm actually a fan of Legend of Zelda.

Ace 1:08:20

They will at some point they have a let they have a Zelda glass pane in the park.

Sahm 1:08:24

Yeah, I know. It's gonna be exciting when they do it.

Ace 1:08:26

I don't know how they'll do it though. Hope I hope it's not like an interactive game or anything. I hope it's just a ride.

Sahm 1:08:31

I just I want it to be a I want it to be something indoorsy because like that park, the only gripe that I and a lot of people have is that rain just like kills most of the things they do in that park.

Ace 1:08:42

What does?

Sahm 1:08:43

Rain.

Ace 1:08:43

Oh, rain? Oh, absolutely.

Sahm 1:08:45

Yeah, there's a lot of outdoor stuff.

Ace 1:08:47

We need more indoor stuff.

Sahm 1:08:48

I agree.

Ace 1:08:49

But that only hurts island in epic. It doesn't hurt studios as much.

Sahm 1:08:54

Yeah.

Ace 1:08:54

I mean, yeah. Dude, think about that. The only ride that you couldn't ride in the rain at studios was rip ride. And well, it's gone now.

Sahm 1:09:06

It's gone now. But Fast Furious.

Ace 1:09:08

That's 100% gonna be closed during rain. Yeah, 100%. That's never gonna change. So hey, another fun fact. If you're going for multiple days and one of the one of the one of the days you fall under, it just happens to be a rainy day, yep. That's a good day to go to studios.

Sahm 1:09:29

Yeah. Um, it only rained on my birthday, which it wasn't raining, which yeah, it just happens.

Ace 1:09:35

It rained while we were waiting for Battle of Ministry.

Sahm 1:09:37

Yeah, we just had a good timing on that. Um, but yeah, after Mario, that's pretty much it. I went to ride Hiccups one last time, and that was pretty much it. And then I kind of just walked around and enjoyed the vibes of the park at night because man, that park at that park at night is fantastic. It's so beautiful. Like the fountain show was cool too. The fountain show is so cool.

Ace 1:09:54

Yeah, he he and Andrew waited around for Mario while we were there. I was just kind of conflicted, and we're and where I was at with it, I was like, I I need to do Donkey Kong and make sure I knock that one out. And I really wanted to see if I can get another Battle of Ministry ride. So I I went and did the unthinkable.

Sahm 1:10:14

Yeah, tell me about it.

Ace 1:10:16

I feel like I already talked about it in one of the episodes, but just for a reminder, since while Josh and while Josh and Andrew were waiting for the ride, I just decided, okay. I already rode this in Hollywood multiple times, had a lot of fun, and sure enough, I did enough research to find out that it was the same ride, just a little bit of a different cue, but same ride. And what I ended up doing was I said, alright, you guys need to wait for Mario because this is at least something you gotta experience. They stayed around for Mario. I ran off and did Monsters on Chain two more times, did Stardust Racers two more times, and then I went over to Battle of Ministry and just asked a ride attendant. I was like, hey, park has like three more hours. I just want to be able to do battle of ministry and Mario Kart, and then I'm happy with the day. Minecart madness, thank you. I just want to do minecart madness and battle of ministry. I just want to get these two done and then I'm done, and then I'm good for the day. What do you think? She looked at me and she was like, that might be a little hard to do those two. I was like, really? Just these two rides in three hours? And she kind of smiled and said, Here, let me see. She walked over to a cast member, came back to me and said, Here, you're gonna need these. Gave me these express passes. Just a single entry express pass. So now this isn't this isn't a suggestion to just go harass a cast member for an express pass. They will do this every once in a in a while to like make a dream come true or to like make your day.

Sahm 1:11:54

But this isn't just I said it was my birthday a lot that day. I might have given you one, who knows? I should have.

Ace 1:12:00

But yeah, you you don't go well, I was at Orlando Informer with a birthday pending told me happy birthday. Oh, big flag. Um Yeah, even though you just get mine card madness, it is a good ride, dude. I'm gonna have to come back and ride, I guess. We didn't do Yoshi's adventure either. Uh I I of course did that on round two. Oh no. I guess it's time. I kind of already I kinda accidentally revealed to you that I wrote everything at Epic Universe.

Sahm 1:12:47

I already did.

Ace 1:12:56

Coming soon. I wrote everything at Epic Universe. I'm going to be posting the episode on YouTube very soon. Make sure you check that out on our YouTube channel, Global Island Portal. Very excited for people to watch that. Yeah. Alright, that's it, Josh. I'm happy to tell you that I did write everything at Epic Universe.

Sahm 1:13:17

Well, I thought it was more.

Ace 1:13:18

But did I write everything at Orlando Informer?

Sahm 1:13:22

Who knows? I don't know.

Ace 1:13:23

We'll know when I finish editing that video. That's that one's almost done. That one's taking a little bit, but I'm excited about that. Yep. Um. Yeah, next episode's gonna be fun. We're gonna bring Andrew in here. Josh and Andrew are gonna talk about their time at just all universal entirely. We can just get these idiots to talk for a cup for an hour or two, it'll be great. Um, I feel like that kind of wraps us up here for the night. Yeah. So yeah, thanks. Thanks again for listening, and we'll catch you guys on the next episode.

Sahm 1:13:56

Peace out.