[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Mouse Ears podcast, where we talk about all things travel, but mostly Disney. Brought to you by fairytale journeys. Travel.
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Mouth Seers podcast. I am one of your hosts, Brooks, back from my week break. And with me are just. Are the ladies of the Mouse Ears podcast. We have Jenny in North Carolina. How are you doing? Hi, Jenny.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: I'm doing well. Welcome back.
[00:00:43] Speaker A: Thank you. And we have steph down there in the. In the floridian state. Flow rider.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: Hello, everyone.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Hello. And with us tonight, Kelton, sadly, cannot be with us. Man, he just works too much. He needs to take a break every.
[00:01:00] Speaker C: Once in a while. Oh, yes.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: But with us tonight, we have a special guest. You know him, you love him.
We have Robbie up in Mizzou. Robbie, how are you doing?
[00:01:14] Speaker D: Hey, guys. Happy to be back. I am. I am ready to do this. I'm ready for Halloween.
[00:01:20] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Aren't we all? Speaking of Halloween, okay, I have to.
I saw this the other day, and I have to ask you all about it. And I even have it written down. Y'all know the song the monster mash?
[00:01:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: You know, it was a great graveyard smash. Okay. I even have it written down here. Okay. With the monster mash, everyone on YouTube, you can see it here. The monster mash is about is when they're in there, they're talking about the monster mash song.
It's talking about the monster mash dance, which is a dance that you do to the monster mash. Right. That's how it canonically goes. However, the song that we all know as the monster mash is not the song that they refer to in monster Mash as the monster mash song.
[00:02:11] Speaker C: Brain hurts.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: What?
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:02:16] Speaker C: This is some inception stuff.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: I was gonna say, like, a butterfly effect kind of thing, because.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: Mandela effect. I don't know.
[00:02:23] Speaker C: Like, I'm trying to keep up, and I want to say, I understand, but there's so much monster.
You lost me, Robbie.
[00:02:34] Speaker D: Well, I'm sorry, guys. I got dropped. The. The ghoulies were playing with my Internet connection.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: So. Okay, so talking about the monster mash song, right. Monster mash song that's referred. That we all know is talking about the monster mash dance.
[00:02:54] Speaker D: They did the monster mash.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: The monster mash. It was a graveyard smash.
So they're doing the monster mash dance, but the dance that they're doing it to is to the monster mash. But that's not the monster mash song that we know of. The song that we know is about the dance that they're doing to a completely different monster mash.
[00:03:14] Speaker D: So it's like inception, but with Frankenstein and Dracula and we don't know a real monster mash is. Is what you're getting at.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: I'm so confused.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: And that goes into putting down. Yes. And that goes into our episode. We're talking about Halloween horror nights.
[00:03:35] Speaker C: Everyone's brains are hurting before the episode even starts.
[00:03:44] Speaker D: Like that, too, because they, you know, they actually said, this is like, he's. He's saying it's thriller, but you're.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:03:52] Speaker D: You're being thrilled by it, so.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Right.
And at the end, is. Is he alive? Is he one of the monsters?
[00:04:02] Speaker D: Yeah. And, like, what was Vincent prices? You know, deal with the whole thing.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: Oh, no. Who's Billie Jean? We never know these things.
[00:04:13] Speaker D: That's a whole other podcast.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: But before we get into everything, everyone, again, welcome to the Mouse Ears podcast. If you're watching us on YouTube, help us spread more magic. If you love all things travel, but mostly Disney. And also strange theories that may come up in my mind in the middle of the night, once you click that, like, button, subscribe to our channel and smash that little bell for your vip pass to be notified for every new and special episode, you might learn a thing or two, or you might wake up in the middle of the night thinking about monster Mash.
[00:04:53] Speaker D: These guys already educated me before we even started the episode on the latest and greatest Disney news.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:04:58] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:04:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: So going into the news, we have special anchor Steph for the new news. Steph.
Do I not get a jingle?
[00:05:14] Speaker C: I'm waiting for my cue.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: He's kind of like me now.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: I am not guilty. I am sorry.
[00:05:24] Speaker C: All right. I really do love that jingle. For all of you guys listening out there in the Webbernet, if you like the effort and time that Brooks and Kelton have put into finding all of our music and songs and jingles and whatever craziness, let us know, because they've got a lot more craziness in their. In their. I. Bye. That's for sure.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: Speaking of, we have a mystery noise that we can. That we can guess what it is. So, everyone, what is this sound?
If you know what that sound is, let us know in the comments. So, Steph, onto you with the new news.
[00:06:12] Speaker C: All right, so I'm going to try and get through this as quickly as possible because there is a lot of new news for this week that we're covering, plus a lot for our topic today with Robbie. So bear with me.
First stop, Disney announced a new Lightning Lane premiere pass pilot which will launch in Disneyland on October 23 and Walt Disney World on October 30. This new and limited cut the line experience includes one entry to almost every lightning lane entrance at any time during the day of purchase. So magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, epcot, Disneyland or Disney California Adventure? Actually, Disneyland and Disney California adventure are one or serve as one pass.
There's a lot of details that comes with this new pass, so I really encourage all of you guys to check out the Mouse Ears blog website.
We have an extensive blog on there for you guys to be able to read, review, and get familiar with this new pass that's being offered later this month.
Next on the new news is the candlelight processional narrators for the 2024 Festival of the holidays have finally been announced. Yes, it's crazy to believe that the holidays are just around the corner.
I always feel guilty, like, talking about Christmas and the holidays when we still haven't even gone through Halloween.
You know what I mean? Because I love Halloween and I want to really, like, I want to enjoy it. I want to enjoy all my decorations, you know, the purples and the oranges. And then, you know, my mind's already preparing for Christmas, and it's like, oh, but why?
Anyways, this year there will be three new celebrity narrators, and the rest will be returning fan favorites. These new narrators include Nico Santos on twelve one and twelve two, so December 1. And second, Titus Burgess on December 8 through 1210, so December 10.
[00:08:33] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:08:34] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:08:35] Speaker C: And lastly, Ralph Macchio from December 13 through the 14th, dining packages for the candlelight processional will open up to guests starting October 29. You don't want to miss this holiday. Favorite.
Personally, very excited for Josh. Gad. I don't know if I'll be able to make it to see him, but that would be my number one choice, and he's the first narrator of the list. Moving along, the new Disney cruise line megaship, the Disney Adventure will officially open for booking starting on December 4, 2024. Depending on your castaway club member tier, this magnanimous ship will set sail out of Singapore starting December 15, 2025, with three and four night offerings. Mainly, there is a select five night itinerary, but we're starting the inaugural season three and four nights for the most part. For more details on the incredible new dining experiences and the first ever. Actually, I might be totally wrong about that, but I'm gonna get excited about it anyways. Roller coaster at sea, visit mousearsblog.com because there are two blog articles up on the most recent news that was released on the Disney adventure this week. But, yeah, there's, like, the whole Marvel landing section is gonna have three different attack attractions, one of them being a full on roller coaster on a cruise ship, which, I mean, I know there's, like, water slides and things like that, but, like, a full on roller coaster, it's exciting.
[00:10:16] Speaker D: You can get seasick and motion sick at the same time. Yes.
[00:10:21] Speaker C: You know, package.
No kidding. The other thing that was really exciting, too, about that announcement was the mike and sully restaurant, which is like a.
If I remember correct, reading correctly, it was like a restaurant that obviously was inspired by the Monsters, Inc. Japanese restaurant, but it's got, like, three different sections to it. So different. Three different cuisines or food style, like ones, like hibachi ones, like sushi ones, whatever. And, yeah, it just seemed so cool. And that's one of the premier dining experiences. But if I was on that ship, I would absolutely make a reservation for that one. But I'm also a big monsters, Inc. Fan. All right, anyways, Brooks, do you want to take this one, this next new news?
[00:11:14] Speaker A: I mean, I can. I want you to.
[00:11:17] Speaker C: So thank you for offering.
[00:11:21] Speaker A: Voluntold. So, everyone, a new partnership has been made between Brooks running, not the world famous new news anchor Christian Brooks, runner, and run Disneyland. So if you're not familiar with Brooks running, they. They make incredible running shoes. Apparel. I own several pair, not just because my name is Brooks, but they are just incredible shoes.
Starting in 2025, Brooks running will be the official running shoe for run Disney.
I mean, and also, I think Brooks is going to be coming out with Disney themed running shoes.
Take my money. When they. When they do a Donald duck.
Take my money. Yes, everyone, I mean, I have to ask, are you a Brooks fan?
[00:12:26] Speaker C: I mean, absolutely.
[00:12:29] Speaker D: Decide which one.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:12:31] Speaker C: Hashtag number one fan.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: So if Brooke's running Brooks runner, I mean, you can't lose. So, steph, back to you for the rest of the new news.
[00:12:45] Speaker C: Thanks, Brooks. I felt it appropriate for you to announce that one.
All right, so last two news that we're going to cover today, and, yes, people, there was a lot more news than what we're talking about today, but for the sake of time, we're just going to limit ourselves. So National Geographic expeditions announced two new private jet itineraries across the continents by private jet and south american discovery by private jet. If you're interested in learning more about these or other national geographic expeditions, there are quite a few discounts out there.
Reach out to our amazing
[email protected] to get paired with an agent and receive all and any of their services, which are all for free.
Lastly, and quite possibly the most epic news of the week, no pun intended, can I get a drum roll? Can I request this?
Epic Universe is officially opening May 22, 2025.
Select tickets and bookings for the new Helio resort and the park will begin to go on sale October 20, 2024. So next week. But by the time this is on air, it'll be this week. Contact your FTJ agent to get on their waiting list before booking opens.
You don't want to miss out. You don't want to wait because when they release these tickets is going to be in limited increments and they're first going to open up to annual pass holders for Universal and they're the only ones that are going to be able to purchase a single day ticket to Epic Universe.
Then after annual passholders, they'll open up to the general public and you will need to purchase a three day ticket to Islands adventure, Universal Studios and Epic. I repeat, there are no single day tickets to Epic universe. Otherwise, again, limited quantity. They're going to try and crowd control. So get on a waiting list, get with an agent, get with FDJ. You don't want to miss out. If this is, if you want to be there for the opening, you know, month, this is what you want to do.
Guys, I want to hear from you guys, what do you think about this quote unquote epic news?
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Don't all talk at once, which is so flabbergast. We're just taking it back. I mean, it made us speechless.
[00:15:41] Speaker B: It feels like it's been such a long wait and to now be so close and especially the short amount of time we have as agents to prepare for booking all of our clients that are on our wait list and ourselves, it's going to come up really fast. And then I think that I would even be happy just staying at helios and just overlooking the park.
[00:16:11] Speaker C: Yeah, just set in real quick. Yeah, the FOMo was set in real quick.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: And really, like you say, it seems like it's taking forever. They have put up that part.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: They have. It went quick, fast and it looks beautiful. Every week we watch the updates where they're showing all the aerial shots and we've been watching it just go up, you know, a little brick by brick and tree by tree, and it looks beautiful.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Stay by day.
[00:16:46] Speaker C: So the question is, does our audience want to see us, the mouse ears there on the opening week?
[00:16:56] Speaker A: Yes. Yes, you do.
[00:16:58] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:16:58] Speaker C: I don't know if we can make it, but, yeah, we are going to try. By golly, we're going to try.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: Yeah, we need, we need to send out this. Who's saying bat signal.
[00:17:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
Mike's like, I don't know. I really don't want to go to islands of adventure and universal by force just to go to epic. I'm like, take it or leave it, buddy.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:20] Speaker C: Robbie, what do you think? Are you trying to go there? Trying to wait until the craziness dies down a little bit?
[00:17:27] Speaker D: So I definitely blew up the running Ohana chat this morning when they announced that pass holders such as myself are going to get access next week.
We did talk about, you know, things like money and PTo and how unimportant those are when it comes to announcements like this.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: I mean, I can. I can take leave without pay.
[00:17:50] Speaker C: Yeah, I would not judging.
[00:17:53] Speaker D: Love to be there. Last week, I was lucky enough to be down in Orlando, and I got to check out the preview center for Epic Universe and take a deep dive look at the model. Spent probably about an hour honestly just looking it over at all the little details. I'm so excited about the queue for one of the rides in dark universe. The queue just looks amazing.
And, yeah, it's great. I am pumped. I, if you guys do get to go for opening weekend, see if you can bring some of your, like, friends and honorary guests to come along with you for commentary.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: Robbie, you're not putting on right now. Yeah, if I'm going, you're going.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: So, yeah, but, yeah, I think that. Do you think that does it for new news?
[00:18:42] Speaker C: Yes, it does. Thanks, Brooks, for letting me take over new news this week.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: Well, any. Anytime we're. We're all in this together, but as we.
[00:18:55] Speaker C: I'm waiting. I'm waiting for that old that never gets old.
[00:18:59] Speaker A: Never.
And I think we should transition to trivia with our new trivia master, Jenny.
Jenny, you want to take it away?
[00:19:11] Speaker B: I will take it away. All right, so today's trivia question is brought to you by the magic candle company. So next time you want a Disney inspired scent to fill your home or office, whether it's a candle or a room spray or more, use our special promo code, mouse ears, for 15% off. That's m o u s e a r s for 15% off your order with magic candle company. What scent, Brooks, did you just show for the audience at home?
[00:19:46] Speaker A: That is the mouse waffles.
[00:19:49] Speaker B: Mouse waffle.
[00:19:50] Speaker C: Does it smell like syrup?
[00:19:52] Speaker A: I'm waiting for them to make the chero Mickey waffles or chiro mouse waffles.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
[00:19:58] Speaker C: Had those making my mouth water.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: Had those at Crystal palace and made me seriously rethink my whole nutrition goal.
I can gain a couple of points. My a one c. It's fine.
[00:20:18] Speaker C: You know, I'm, I'm going to let Michael know right now. I want a sticker that says calories don't count at Disney because with how much I say it should have been sticker already.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Anyways, all right, so today's trivia question.
What was Halloween horror nights originally called?
It was not always Halloween horror nights.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: No.
[00:20:42] Speaker B: So if you know, drop it in the chat.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: Yep. And by the way, if you're watching it live on YouTube, we'll set it as a premiere. And what, there will be a live chat and there'll be a timestamp you can put in your guests now. And if anyone puts in the correct guests, you may get a special sticker from Sticky Mike and the boys.
We can potentially make it happen. So.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: Alrighty. So we will announce the answer at the end of this episode. So make sure you stick around.
All right, steph, back to you.
[00:21:15] Speaker C: No, back to Brooks. Back to you.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: All right.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: Oh, I got this hot potato.
[00:21:23] Speaker B: Well, we really just want to hear from Robbie. So, I mean, right? He is the star of the show today.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: He's a star every day.
[00:21:33] Speaker D: Well, thanks, buddy.
[00:21:35] Speaker A: So as we mentioned earlier, we're talking about Halloween horror nights at Universal Studios Orlando. So they, and we're talking about especially Orlando because they do have Halloween horror nights at Universal Studios Hollywood in California, Singapore, and Japan.
Halloween horror nights, if you don't know, is a separated ticket event running on select dates from August 30 through November 3.
Those are the days this year at Universal Studios Hollywood and at Orlando. I think it's the same at Hollywood. I'm not sure, but I'm going to get like trivia on saying Hollywood horror nights. And, uh, this is going to be awesome.
So we're talking about Halloween horror nights. Um, our special guest Robbie was lucky enough to go for, um, all the festivities this year. And not just the Halloween horror nights, but there are other stuff that you can do in addition to going to the severed ticketed event, they also have special tours behind the scenes.
And Robbie did it all this year. So I'm really looking forward to hearing his thoughts, but just a little bit going into before. There are ten haunted houses this year at Halloween horror nights, and they are, in no particular order, a quiet place, ghostbusters frozen empire, insidious, the further universal monsters, eternal bloodlines. And steph, I greatly apologize if I mispronounce this next one. Is it monstros?
[00:23:54] Speaker D: Monstrous monstros.
[00:23:57] Speaker A: The monsters of Latin America, slaughter cinema two, the museum, deadly exhibits, major sweets, candy factory, goblins feast and the triplets of terror. And if you're not, if you not watching us on YouTube, I highly recommend watching us on YouTube.
[00:24:19] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:24:20] Speaker A: But Robbie was just holding up the one of the special merch that had all of the haunted houses on it.
[00:24:29] Speaker B: And I love that.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: Yeah. So growing up, I didn't get to go to that many haunted houses, but I love haunted houses. I love a good scare, but it is just.
They take it to a whole nother level.
In addition to the haunted houses, they have five sinister scary zones.
I believe this is Kelton's favorite part.
You have entered the Blum house duality of fear, demon queens, swamp of the undead, and torture fair.
They also had a nightmare fuel nocturnal circus special overlays on certain rides. That was the mummy and Dagon alley, men in black and rip it, rocket.
Rip, rip. Rob rocket. Sorry.
You also had the Death Eaters encounters, specialty food and themed merch.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, Karabi, but Cabana Bay even had a special theme going on for Halloween horror nights.
[00:25:49] Speaker D: Though unfortunately, this year they did not all of the hotels redid their, their bar areas.
Are you guys still able to hear me? Sorry, I'm having some Internet connections.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: Oh, no, you're good?
[00:26:03] Speaker B: Yeah, we're good.
[00:26:04] Speaker D: Yeah. And, and Cabana Bay last year and in years previous, actually had their own little scare zones. Last year it was all about Chucky, everybody's favorite little doll friend that had some great photo opportunities. I don't know if it was the impact of the hurricanes this year, but the room that is normally set aside to. For, for that experience at Cabana Bay was actually more of a rec center for kids. They had games and things set up. They had kids movies playing crayons.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: So its own little scare. Scare center for certain people.
[00:26:39] Speaker D: Yeah. Depending on how you feel about children. Absolutely.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
So, but then we talked about. I taught the special tours. You had the Halloween Horror Nights VIP private vip tour, which is a guided vip walking tour with priority vip entry to haunted houses and participating park attractions while on tour with the Rip tour guide. And then also there is the behind the screens. I'm masking the horror tour, which is a daytime tour on. Where do you get to pick the houses you want to go to? Robbie, you don't.
[00:27:28] Speaker D: So they are pre selected. In years past, you didn't actually know which houses you were getting. And they do vary depending on whether you did the three house or the six house tour. This year was the first time that they really said, okay, here's how we're doing it. The six house tour consists of these. The three house tour consists of these. And they actually had it so that it was different houses with no crossover. So if you do both, you are able to see nine of the ten houses that were on offer.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: Have fomo not going with you, Robbie.
I have to try to plan that for next year.
[00:28:03] Speaker B: Oh, imagine we are there.
[00:28:05] Speaker C: Imagine if you could plan it where you do Halloween horror night, an epic universe and a tour and a new hotel. I mean, it would be a whammy of a trip.
[00:28:17] Speaker D: I'm in. Let's do it.
[00:28:19] Speaker A: Yeah, let's do it.
[00:28:22] Speaker C: Hey, Robbie. Even Mike was like, oh, my gosh, Robbie's gonna be on today's episode. I'm like, yeah. It's like, I like that guy.
Let's do it. Group trip.
[00:28:32] Speaker B: Love it.
[00:28:33] Speaker C: That'll be our reunion. Our reunion trip for 2025.
[00:28:36] Speaker D: The re game.
[00:28:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:40] Speaker C: And I don't know how Kelton's gonna feel about Halloween horror nights.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: Well, he said he'll. He'll be hanging out at Margaritaville.
[00:28:49] Speaker C: Yes. He'll wait for us, but maybe he'll do the tours, depending. We'll get more into it about how the level of scary of the tours versus the, you know, the special event, actual howling horror nights, but we'll get into that.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So, Robbie, we have some questions for you. Hopefully you're ready for it. First, what is the meaning of. No, I'm kidding.
What were your overall thoughts of this year's Halloween horror nights compared to others?
[00:29:19] Speaker D: Yeah, so a little bit of background on my experience with HHN. This was my fourth time going. My first time was actually ten years ago.
Got to go back in 2014.
Took a long time for me to get back down to Florida to both HHN as well as just Disney World and Universal in general. So after that, I went the previous two years and then this year. So 22, 23, 24. For 22, 23, and 24. I did do the rip tour for all three. So I think I can pretty consistently compare what it's like, because I did get to do all of the houses. I'll say this, for 2024, they had some of the most exciting ips that they have had in a very long time. I'm a huge Ghostbusters fan. I think even the last time I was on, I was probably wearing a Ghostbusters shirt. So I was pumped for frozen Empire to have its own house, and it was incredible.
They had a quiet place, which is another movie series that I am just absolutely gaga about. And I was so excited to see what they would do with the clickers or whatever you want to call the aliens from on high. And they did a great job every year they have been doing since, I think, 2017. A house that continues the story of the classic universal monsters. This year's house, eternal bloodlines, was actually about the progeny or the survivors of the original monsters. So it was featuring the bride of Frankenstein, Dracula's daughter, the.
I don't remember exactly what her name is, but a female werewolf who was bitten by the original.
I think she was french. And then Van Helsing's daughter, I don't remember exactly what her name is, but she has red hair and she looked a lot like Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones. So we just called her Sansa van Helsing. And it's all about her taking revenge on Dracula and his family for taking out her brother and her father.
So the ips were just fantastic, and the houses themselves, they never disappoint. They are just an incredible, overwhelming experience to go through. The one thing that I was kind of disappointed in this year was actually the scare zones. They just did not hold up to years past. And, Brooks, I know you read the five scare zones, but, buddy, I'm going to have to argue with you that there really aren't five scare zones, and we can get into that. And why I say that, but I. Oh, it's not. It's not a real number.
The limit does not exist for any mean girls fans out there because, yeah, it was not really five scare zones. So that was. That was a little disappointing. But everything else about it, fantastic.
[00:32:13] Speaker A: Would you say some of those scare zones, like, you look at them, it's like you don't even go here.
[00:32:19] Speaker D: Well, one of the scare zones, the swamp of the undead, I think it was called. Um. I mean, I know that we had just gone through a hurricane, and I am going to be sensitive about that, but it just kind of felt like Florida. Um, it was green and wet and humid and gross. I was like, all right, was that. Was that the scarus owner? Was it just the walk on the sidewalk in Florida?
[00:32:45] Speaker A: Was that our trip in September? Just, uh, wet and humid and gross?
So, Robbie, I imagine what your answer will be to this, but did you have a favorite haunted house. And what was it?
[00:33:04] Speaker D: I had several.
Ghostbusters is phenomenal. I do want to check real quick before I go too much farther into this, because I know this is a family friendly show. I can definitely take care of my own mouth. But the content of HHN, by its very nature, is a little bit more adult. So I wanted to check on just how detailed I can get into descriptions of what some of these houses do.
[00:33:32] Speaker A: I mean, I would say, I will.
[00:33:34] Speaker C: Say that we're giving people enough disclosure. Hey, this can get graphic. If that's something that you're not okay with, maybe skip ahead for some future questions that we might have for Robbie. How about that?
Go ahead, give us the details, because there is people that do want to know, like myself.
[00:33:57] Speaker D: Yeah. So, yeah, this is your content warning. This is your spoiler warning. Going to give you a one, two, three. And we're going. All right. So, yes, Ghostbusters is a phenomenal house. And one of the things that I really, really loved about it, it wasn't just frozen empire. Yes. That was the majority of the house, and it hues very closely to the plot line of the film, but they made sure to include nods and creatures from all of the other Ghostbusters films. Do you want to see a terror dog? Well, Vince Clortho, the Keymaster, is in this house. You want to see a green spud? Our old buddy slimer is present, and he's waving at you to keep on going. How about some mood slime from Ghostbusters two? Heck, yeah, that's present in the house. And you even get some other spooks, inspectors from some of the previous films, and even a. A cut ghost from frozen Empire, who is only viewable within the deleted scenes. But they had already created it for the house, and he is present, so you can see him in his full three d real glory. So, yeah, that was a pretty phenomenal house. A quiet place blew my mind.
They did such a good job. So, so many of these houses are reliant on the phenomenal craftsmanship and acting ability and timing of the scare actors that universal employs. But they actually stepped it up a notch over at a quiet place because the sheer size of those aliens that are constantly attacking our heroes, you can't really do it with the scare actors. So they used full animatronics, they used puppetry of the highest caliber, and you had these ten foot tall aliens just popping out of walls and coming out of the ground and coming around corners just right in your face, and it just was absolutely incredible. So both of those houses just really, really blew me away with their attention to detail and just how immersive they were. I forgot one ip. The insidious franchise. That is a big one. It's a newer one for me. I actually just saw the first three movies about a week before I went down because I somehow managed to miss all three of them. I still have two to go.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: How on earth did you watch all three in one week?
[00:36:15] Speaker D: I watched the third one on the plane ride down to Orlando holding my phone very close because I didn't know if there was anything, you know, too bad in it, a little girl sitting next to me. So I was like, okay, here we go. Not the best viewing experience, but I still really enjoyed the movie.
But yeah, if you're a fan of that, they have characters and ghosts and demons from all five films, even the ones that I haven't seen. The behind the screen store did give me a little bit of info on how they work. They are all present and that house literally has the most scares that HHN has ever put into a single house. There is a point where you go through about a 75 foot hallway that features no less than 23 different spots for scare actors to jump out and grab you or grab at you because they don't actually touch you. It was awesome. Just awesome.
[00:37:14] Speaker A: Was there one that, what would you say was the most popular houses?
[00:37:20] Speaker D: Insidious and quiet place had some of the longest wait times. Ghostbusters was about mid range. And then of the original houses, the one that was consistently busy was actually major suites candy factory.
That is a great house too, and I am a big, big fan of it. It has a little bit of a lineage particular for me two years ago, the first time that I went for the rip tour and kind of reignited my, my Disney and universal fandom, or at least my, my physical appearance at their parks. One of the scare zones that year was actually major suites candy parade. And the story again content warning was about this magnate named major sweets who comes back to this town and decides to open a candy factory. It's very exciting. The people are thrilled to have him there. He's going to be providing jobs, and on Halloween night he decides that he's going to throw a parade, giving free candy to all the children of the town. What they don't know is the candy is not only poisonous, it actually drives the kids insane and causes them to go and kill all of their parents and every single adult that they see.
[00:38:33] Speaker A: This is why kids don't need to eat candy.
[00:38:35] Speaker D: Pleasant, creative what this house does is it's actually a prequel to, literally the hours before that first scare zone from two years ago. You are grown, taking kids on a field trip to the factory to try the candy so that major sweets knows whether or not his devious plan is going to work. And as you work your way through the house, there are clocks around. We may or may not know this, but HHN always starts at 06:00 every year. When you first enter the house, the first clock you see shows that it's about 05:43 p.m. on October 31. There's calendar there, too. As you keep going, if you keep watching the clocks, it gets closer and closer to six until the very last clock you see in one of the final rooms shows that it is 557. And that infamous parade from two years ago is about to start in just a few moments. So I love that. I loved the.
[00:39:29] Speaker A: That is continuous storytelling.
[00:39:33] Speaker C: That's brilliant. Can you imagine being part of that creative team? That's awesome.
[00:39:39] Speaker D: A dream. A dream.
[00:39:41] Speaker C: That's awesome. Thank you for sharing with us. Because, seriously, that I had no idea, and I absolutely love that. I love a good background story.
I had a question real quick. So we were talking about which were the most popular houses. Did you have express pass this time around?
[00:40:03] Speaker D: So that was the plan. That was the intent when I originally set this up. The way that the trip was supposed to go is the first night we were going to do the rip tour, which has built in express passes. In fact, it's got a. We'll call it a super express. Cause you actually jump in front of even the folks with express passes. And the next day, we would have done the behind the screams, unmasking the horror tour. And then that night, we would have gone back with express passes to hit all of the houses again and just get our, you know, our 2nd, 3rd, 4th run through of any of the ones we really wanted to do.
Hurricane Milton had some different plans. It hit the two nights that my buddy John and I were supposed to be at HHN.
So I had to do some scrambling. And I will say that the folks at universal were so accommodating and so helpful in trying to help me get everything rescheduled. Spent about a half hour on the phone while at Animal Kingdom, actually trying to get my tours rescheduled. And I was able to get the behind the screens and the rip rescheduled to the following Saturday, which is what we ended up doing. That was the only night I got to go this time. So it was quite, quite a lot to fit into a single day.
But I will say that last year I did the express pass and I found it to be, if not necessary, extremely helpful.
Speaking for years past when I went without express passes, you could get maybe three, four, five of the houses in if you're willing to stay there pretty much all night, because you're looking at consistently wait times between 45 minutes and 2 hours, and it's just tough to get it done. With the express passes, you can usually get through a line in 25 minutes or less. Sometimes you can even walk on, depending on what the house is.
[00:41:59] Speaker C: So you would say that the lines for this time around two consisted of like 45 minutes to two hour wait range.
[00:42:07] Speaker D: It did, you know, it was a little different this time because I think so many people that were there had had their plans reorganized or shifted, and it was a Saturday night, which is definitely the hardest night to do it.
Yeah, we did see wait times were consistently over an hour for just about every single house, I think.
[00:42:27] Speaker C: And I absolutely love how many hornets. I haven't been in too long.
Those lines are not fun. No, they're makeshift lines for people that have never been. They're not. There's no built in queue. Like we have always talked about Disney having, you know, no entertainment stuff. Yeah, it is. We're talking rope and we're talking a silver post, and you're just crammed in there like sardines behind some of the buildings in the parks. And standing in those lines for an hour plus is very boring.
[00:43:01] Speaker D: Yep.
[00:43:02] Speaker C: And it can get very hot and just. Just wet too.
Yeah. But anyways, that's good to know. Yeah. I can imagine that a quiet place had probably an average of 2 hours. I saw, like some pictures and videos and that one just seemed. I mean, I didn't see all the lines. That one, I know, was towards the front of the park and just consistently had a very long line.
[00:43:30] Speaker D: Yeah, they. They always put the. It makes sense. They put the ips, you know, the known property right up front, because that's. That's big draws. And those are where your long lines are going to be. If you're there just to be scared and try and experience everything, it's worth it to go to the opposite end of the park. In fact, some of the best houses are the ones that they put way out in their undeveloped fields where they've got their storage sheds for floats and their Mardi Gras stuff and everything that they temporarily will convert over to HHN houses because not a lot of people are willing to walk that far. I mean, Brooks knows what race pace is, but even at race pace, it'll take you 1015 minutes just to get over there, to get in the line. And those are not bad. Like, we kept checking the times after we finished our rip tour just to kind of see what it was. I think we're five minutes, ten minutes, 15 minutes. They never went above that just because they're so far on the other side.
[00:44:26] Speaker C: Of the park as a pro tip. Honestly, at the end of the day.
[00:44:29] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:44:30] Speaker C: Anyways, thanks for indulging me in those questions.
[00:44:33] Speaker D: Of course.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: Yeah. So moving away from the houses for a minute, we.
You got a little bit into it. So we're going to go ahead and get into the.
I guess. I guess you say the quote unquote scare zones.
[00:44:49] Speaker D: Yeah. Okay.
[00:44:50] Speaker A: 2024.
[00:44:51] Speaker D: Let's talk about it. So in particular, last year's scare zones were the probably the best that HHN has ever done. Are you guys familiar with the HHN icons where they have, like, a figurehead character that is kind of like the. The poster child every year for Hhn?
[00:45:11] Speaker C: Yeah, doctor something last year, right?
[00:45:13] Speaker D: Yeah, doctor Oddfellow. Bonus points.
Yeah, that'd go.
[00:45:18] Speaker C: There was an f in there. I wanted to say doctor facilier, but, like, obviously I'm just wrong.
He knew as a doctor, that would.
[00:45:27] Speaker D: Be really interesting if doctor faciliers of Hha.
[00:45:30] Speaker C: Honestly, though, let's talk about that for a second. Imagine if they did, like, Mardi Gras but, like, flip it around for Halloween and they had some.
Some. What are those? I don't know what they're called. The medians. That'd be creepy. I'd be cool creepy.
[00:45:46] Speaker D: I have to. I have to share. I got. For my trip out to California for the Disneyland Halloween half marathon. I got a new shirt. It's got, like, doctor facilier's face and hat with, like, the school makeup and it says fortunate soul on it.
I did have a chance to meet Donald.
[00:46:06] Speaker C: I love doctor. That's awesome. That is awesome.
[00:46:10] Speaker D: You shake a poor sinner's hand. Oh, he loved it. It was great interaction.
[00:46:15] Speaker C: Oh, I want to see that. Side note, totally unrelated, did you do oogie boogie or.
[00:46:19] Speaker D: No, I did.
[00:46:20] Speaker C: It will be for another episode and another conversation. But anyway, scare zones, please.
[00:46:25] Speaker D: Boogie. And Mickey's not so scary this year.
[00:46:27] Speaker C: So you are just all halloweened out right now, aren't you?
[00:46:31] Speaker D: Oh, I got plenty more, but yeah.
[00:46:38] Speaker C: Oh, I want to be you and I grow up.
All right, sorry.
[00:46:43] Speaker D: Continue.
So, yeah, last year's icon was Doctor odd fellow, and he was actually introduced years before as kind of a side character for another icon. So I don't think a lot of people realize this, but there is an ongoing narrative throughout HHN with these icons. The way the scare zones work, the stories behind some of the houses, including the sequel houses, that is a really, really interesting thing. And it's not something that you can get unless you seek it out. It's not going to be handed to you, it's not food sped spoon fed to you. You have to go and you have to look for this stuff. They've got a great podcast that I didn't even know about until this year that kind of gets into this stuff. But the thing that was great about last year is Doctor odd fellow is this immortal who is a soul collector. He steals people's souls to continue his own life. And the way that they did, the five scare zones, they were actually different periods throughout odd fellow's life. All five of them took place in different decades. So you had like the early 19 hundreds, you had the swinging twenties, you had the fifties, you had the free loving with vampires in the sixties. And they told this story about this guy and the way that he has altered his appearance and altered the way that he is going around collecting souls. And it was Chef's kiss, you know, Halloween, chef's kiss. So maybe monster bite this year. They didn't do any of that. Their icons this year are called sinister.
And Brooks, do you remember the other one? I'm actually drawing a blank. But it was these two female icons. The thing that they thought was really clever, and I guess it is, is they replaced the ease in their names with threes because this is the 33rd. HHN and these two icons were supposed to represent psychological torture and physical torture. And one of the scare zones, the very first scare zone, I'm going to use air quotes from now on when I call this a scare zone, is it was literally a 25 foot platform with them standing on top of it. And. And that's it. That's all that was the scare zone.
[00:49:10] Speaker A: Sinister and surreal.
[00:49:11] Speaker D: Sinister and surreal. Thank you, Brooks. Appreciate the alley oop. Yeah, so sinister and surreal with threes instead of e's. And they stood up there and they just walked around and looked down menacingly and on top of it. They weren't always there because on occasion they would leave their platform to go to their own individual scare zones elsewhere in the park. So when we walked in, they weren't there. It was actually just an empty platform way above us a fog machine.
And that was it. I was like, wait, this doesn't count as a scare zone. No. No negative points on this one. So I have a little hard time saying that there's five.
[00:49:51] Speaker A: What they should have done is the scare zone is getting up on that 25 foot platform and be surrounded by the sisters.
[00:49:58] Speaker D: There you go. Yeah, I guess they did have the. The usual chainsaw gang, which has been a staple of HH for decades. That's there. Those are. For those that don't know, there are a group of hooligans.
I just like that word. So I'm going to use it. They run around with chainless chainsaws, and they will absolutely charge at you while revving them up, which is a lot of fun, especially if you scare easily.
So that was one of the scare zones. We already talked about the Florida scare zone, which was just a bunch of swamp. Yeah. So that one. Meh.
As for the other three, the torture fair was phenomenal. Imagine going to a Renaissance fair, but everybody is, like, covered in blood and guts, and rather than selling turkey legs, they're trying to sell you weapons. Like, I actually haggled with a vendor at his booth about different types of, like, mallets and swords and blades that I don't know the names of, which was a great interaction as he was trying to sell me on this stuff.
[00:51:01] Speaker A: So probably more historically accurate of a renaissance fair.
[00:51:04] Speaker D: I would say so, yeah, it was. It was gnarly, and I loved it. So that one was pretty cool. And then I'm actually blanking on what the other ones were. All the blumhouse. So this is another one that I actually found a little disappointing just because last year, Hhn introduced the team of Megan dancers. And we're talking about Megan again with a three instead of an e. Wonder where they got that idea that would randomly appear in the park as a group of young women all dressed as Megan that would do a choreographed dance. And it was one of the coolest things in the world. The thing was hard about it is they did not publish when or where they would actually show up. You just had to watch very, very carefully for cast members to start clearing an area that's like, Megans. We're going right now. Which was great. It caused a lot of traffic issues in the park because a lot of people would stop. So what they decided to do this year was to take that concept and turn it into a whole scare zone. So the Blumhouse area consisted of Ethan Hawke's character from the black phone. They had multiple purgers represented from each one of the purge films. There was a Megan up on stage, but they very, very consistently kept people moving along. And you could not stop to watch her, interact with her. And they had a few other characters. Like, there's a couple that I didn't really know real well, like, was that movie freaky with Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton, where they change bodies. They had her there, and one or two that I'm probably forgetting. But it wasn't decorated or anything. It was just these characters just kind of wandering around in the fog. Or for the more popular ones, like the black phone and Megan up on a little stage where you could maybe snap a selfie as you walk by. So it wasn't as immersive as in years past. You didn't feel like you were entering an actual land to experience this. It was more like you were at a trade show, honestly, watching these, you know, different booths trying to sell themselves to you. So I like it. But I would have preferred something a little more immersive, considering the way the rest of HHN works. And then the final scare zone was the demon queens, which was actually Surreal's zone. So occasionally she would show up there, just like the other one, who I already forgot the name again, was in torture fair. Sinister would occasionally go over to the torture fair. The demon queens consisted of four monster women up on a stage doing some kind of spell and some weirdos wandering around, jumping in your face. And it was. It was fine. But, yeah, I just wasn't impressed by the icons or the scare zones this year. It kind of felt phoned in, if I'm honest.
[00:53:58] Speaker A: Don't sugarcoat it here.
[00:54:00] Speaker C: I appreciate background information that's still really, like, awesome. And I feel like your reasoning makes a lot of sense. And I wasn't there to experience myself, but I feel like I could potentially fall into having a very similar reaction than you did.
[00:54:20] Speaker D: So, I mean, you know, I don't want to sell the scare actors short or, you know, the incredible people that designed these costumes and everything, just knowing what they're.
[00:54:31] Speaker C: What they've done.
[00:54:32] Speaker D: Yeah. And what they've done in the past. It wasn't to the pedigree that I.
[00:54:35] Speaker C: Expected either way, though.
[00:54:40] Speaker A: So then, moving on, we talk. We also talked about some of the rides had special layers. Did we able to experience it? Any of those?
[00:54:50] Speaker D: I'm curious about you saying that, because I've never noticed any special layovers for the rides during HHN. There are select rides that are. That are open and available for guests this year. And I think it was the same last year. It was the four that you talked about. Men in black, the mummy, the escape from Gringotts bank, and Rip ride Rocket were the four rides that were open. Rip ride rocket might have some additional music available, maybe some Halloween themed tunes. I don't know. I'm too scared to ride that ride, so I couldn't tell you.
But the other three were business as usual. We did ride the mummy, and it was the same ride, the same great ride that it always is. I'm a big fan of that one. And John rode rip ride Rocket, but I believe he did the black Pearl parade as his, uh, his anthem.
[00:55:46] Speaker A: Oh, didn't see you there. Hey. So we had to break out this episode into, uh, two parts. Robbie just was so amazing and had so much information that we couldn't do to y'all to have a two hour episode, so we're splitting up into two parts. Uh, stay tuned for part two of this Halloween hard nights episode later on this week.
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