Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey there Mouse Ears Universe. Thank you for joining us for the Mouse Ears podcast. Your go to source for all things travel, but mostly Disney. Sponsored by Fairy Tale Journeys Travel. Whether you're a first time visitor or a pro at the parks, we're here to bring you the latest news, insider secrets and fun stories from the happiest and most magical places on earth. Make sure you give us a like and a follow on whatever platform you are listening to or watching us. And don't forget to check out MouseHear blog.com where we dive even deeper into Disney tips, trip planning and all the park magic in one location.
Now let's jump in today's epic episode because the magical journey to Super Nintendo World and the Isle of Birth starts right now.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: Foreign.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Mouse Ears podcast.
Tonight we are here. We are ready. We are vibing as a vibe here tonight on the Mouse Ears podcast.
And with me we have Jenny back, the star herself. Jenny, how are you doing?
[00:01:26] Speaker B: I am good. I am.
[00:01:27] Speaker C: How was your play?
[00:01:28] Speaker A: Yeah, how were things down at the Forum?
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Oh, they were funny. There was lots of ad libbing.
We were a little bit concerned when a church bus full of elderly people showed up for the show.
[00:01:43] Speaker C: I guess they also liked the entertaining comedy hour.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: Yes, they definitely comedy tonight.
It was, it was a really good show. It's probably the most fun I've had on stage.
I've done three shows this season. I'm a little bit tired so I am moving to the other side of the table and I am going to be assistant directing the next show.
[00:02:09] Speaker C: Hey.
[00:02:10] Speaker B: Yeah. So I'm excited. I'm excited.
I miss the stage though. I just look at it and I'm like, oh, but it was good. But I missed you guys.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: Well, we missed you.
Yes.
I mean this is true.
Some epic things have happened.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: But with us also, we have the Face herself. Steph. Steph, how are you doing?
[00:02:37] Speaker C: I'm so, so tired.
But it wouldn't be Thursday if we weren't podcasting. I do my best to never miss this. So yes, for all of you listening out there, I have just arrived back home today from being at Epic all day yesterday and I made it home just to be able to podcast with all of you guys and give you the lowdown.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: We live in vicariously through you yesterday.
[00:03:06] Speaker C: Brooks, I wish you were there. I both you and Kelton and Gen 2, you've already done it. But I really wish we could have all been there and experienced that together. I won't even lie.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: That would have been great. That's how I felt when I was there.
[00:03:19] Speaker C: Yeah. A few weeks ago, there was a moment where I was gonna FaceTime you guys, and I was like, the only reason I'm not doing it is because A, y' all are at work. And B, my.
I was going through battery packs yesterday.
Going through battery packs.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: And honestly, I can imagine.
[00:03:38] Speaker C: Well, the heat also made that the battery packs weren't really charging my phone all the way. It would always overheat. So, like, I honestly say for like a whole hour straight with the battery connected to my phone, my phone was not moving up 10% charge because of the heat. And it was until we sat down to eat where it finally, like, kind of cooled down up to charge a little bit. But, I mean, it just drained it. It was hot, guys. It was. It was brutal. But we will eventually. All of us.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:04:09] Speaker C: Yeah. Epic.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
But before we get into tonight's episode, we have some breaking news that was just announced yesterday.
[00:04:25] Speaker C: Disney Wednesday.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: Yeah, Wednesday.
[00:04:29] Speaker C: Not yesterday. When this drops different yesterday.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: So, yeah, it is always Thursday here on the Mouse Ears podcast. Thursdays are for the potters.
Saturdays are for the boys. Thursdays are for the potters.
But Disney has announced plans for a seventh global theme park resort. Disneyland Abu Dhabi, marking the company's first venture into the Middle East.
The park will be situated on Yas Island. I don't know.
Yes, a prominent entertainment hub in Abu Dhabi, already home to attractions like Ferrari World.
Say that five times fast. With my speech impediment.
Warner Brothers world.
Say that one five times fast. And SeaWorld Abu Dhabi. The artwork and is stunning.
And it's.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: It is going to be amazing.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: It really is.
But stay tuned for that.
There's going to be a lot of stuff announced, but I was not expecting. Yeah, I don't think anyone expect that.
[00:05:46] Speaker C: No one expected that.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: I mean, if you gave me 10. If he take. If he gave me 10 guesses on where they would put another park, I would not have guessed Abu Dhabi.
[00:05:55] Speaker C: No, the question is, where would be your guess? Number one?
[00:06:02] Speaker A: Texas.
[00:06:03] Speaker C: That would be my first guess, actually. No, I don't think they put a third one in.
In Australia. No.
They have three in Asia, one in Europe.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I would have thought that they would vote Brazil.
[00:06:22] Speaker C: Yeah, Brazil maybe. Potentially.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: I would have thought they would have opened up a fifth park with. In Disney World before they would have done a whole other resort.
[00:06:33] Speaker C: Yes, right there.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: But we can talk. We can theorize on that all day. But we have an epic episode planned for you tonight.
But we have a Trivia question have we? Do we? We did not decide beforehand who's I can even take the trivia question too.
[00:06:53] Speaker C: Whatever you want. I don't mind doing it or you do it.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: Okay, well, today's trivia question is brought to you by Fairytale Journeys Travel. Next time you want to book a Disney cruise, let the agents at Fairy Tale Journeys Travel take care of all the details for a stress free experience at no additional cost to you. When you book with Fairy Tale Journeys, not only do you get expert advice, but you can also receive up to $1,000 of onboard credit. This offer is exclusive to bookings made with Fairy Tale Journeys Travel. So contact them today and let them that the Mouse Ears podcast sent you enjoy a magical Disney cruise getaway.
So tonight's trivia question going along with our second installment of Epic Month with Super Nintendo World and Isle of Burke. We are going to go to Walt. We're going to go to Super Nintendo World and the iconic green pipe warp pipes that guests walk through entering into Super Nintendo World is exactly how many feet tall?
[00:08:01] Speaker C: Oh, that's a good question.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: Stay tuned to the end of the episode to find out.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: So I have no idea. It was a lot bigger than I thought it was.
I thought those entrances would be little.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: But with that we are going in.
So last week we did a brief overview and we tried to keep it as brief as we possibly could. We were just a tiny bit, just a tiny bit over an hour.
Which for us, the fact that it was not a two part two parter or even a three parter or first ever three parter episode is baffling to me.
But we're going, in the words of Tiana, we're going to dig a little deeper into Super Nintendo World in all of Burke.
Two of the worlds that I'm most excited to see.
One is my childhood and one is a bond with my brother with Olive Burke because his dog Augusta basically was toothless.
It was a black boxer lab mix. She had a very small circle of trust, but if you were in that circle of trust, she loved you fiercely and she also liked to climb up in your lap and she was like a 90 pound dog.
[00:09:20] Speaker C: Cutie pie.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: So. But if you don't know, if you've been living on a rock and you don't know exactly what Epic Universe is, Epic Universe is Universal Orlando's fourth theme park. If you're counting Volcano Bay.
[00:09:40] Speaker C: Which they do.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: Yes. Which you should. It is a fantastic water park, but it's their fourth theme park and they have five lands in this theme park. So they have Super Nintendo World, they have Isle of Burke, they have the Wizarding World Ministry of Magic, they have the Dark Universe. And then they also have their completely original Celestial park, complete with three hotels, including Helios, which is connecting to the park. Mind blowing.
It is truly shaping up to be a game changer down there in Orlando.
But we are focusing on two parks today. Super Nintendo World and Isle of Burke, which is based off of how to train your dragon.
If you ever want to throw a fireball like Mario or fly on the back of a dragon like Toothless, you're in for a treat. So we are going to dive in to first. Isle of Burke and Steph. I know this was one of them that I think this was your most anticipated one to visit.
[00:10:59] Speaker C: Yeah, I am a huge, huge fan of how to Train a Dragon. I read the books when I was in middle school.
Was a huge fan back then. When I read the books, then the Animated Series came out. Or came out, was blown away.
Tearjerker for me. I love a bond between a human and their pet. We're gonna call Toothless pet. For all intents and purposes, it's the bond.
And, you know, now this summer, we're gonna get a live action of how to Train a Dragon. I'm actually very, very excited for that, especially because Gerard Butler is gonna reprise his role as Stoic in the movie. I'm really just thrilled because, you know, I love Disney. Obviously, if you listen to this podcast at all, you would know that.
But how to train your Dragon? For me, if I were to. If I were to pinpoint any other animated movie that I love passionately, it's how to train your dragon for sure. Hands down.
And so when I heard that Epic Universe is going to have a whole land dedicated to, you know, how to Train youn Dragon, Isle of Berg, and all the characters, like, yes, I'm excited about all of them, but this one didn't even come close. Like, this was it. Like, I could not wait to visit this in person.
And for the record, you know, with Epic Month, we will be discussing other elements of the park and the hotels. And I just want people to know. Stay tuned for that hotel episode because Helios does have how to Train a Dragon suites.
What does that mean? Stay tuned.
So I love Burke. Let's talk a little bit about that one.
I'd argue that it's actually. At least it feels like it's the biggest land.
It is outside of Celestial park, but Celestial park is just like a strip down the middle and see, that's like you got a lot of walking space. But besides that, Isle of Burke was massive.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: It is very big.
[00:13:17] Speaker C: It does have a lot of different elements to it. You have three rides. You've got Rally Racer. What is it? Let me pull it up. Hold on. We've got.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: Dragons Racers Rally.
[00:13:32] Speaker C: Thank you. The names are a little bit me.
They get me Dragons. That one.
[00:13:39] Speaker A: Dragon Racers Rally.
[00:13:41] Speaker C: Thank you. We've got Hiccups, Wing Gliders and Fire Drill.
So I was able to do two out of the three when I went. I did Hiccups, Wing Gliders. So when we did early entry, we did what most people do and go to Super Nintendo World because really what the only thing that's open is Super Nintendo World World and Celestial park for early entry. If you're saying at a Universal resort, our game plan was from Nintendo World, go to Isle of Work A because it's what I was looking forward to the most. But also be Jen, who had gone to the preview before me, had mentioned how that area is very exposed. There isn't a lot of shade, you know, trying to go there.
Not during peak heat hours. And mind you, at 10am it was 83 degrees. I mean, it was toasty.
I got sunburned. I put sunblock four times on yesterday.
But anyway, so we wanted to go there. And what was interesting was if you're in for early entry, you kind of have free range to roam through Celestial park and you kind of start to form your own line as you wait to get into the next land or portal for that matter. If you're not a resort guest and you don't have early entry, they actually corral you into your own line. You cannot roam. You stay in your line, you're roped off and you don't have that free range that other people do. At least that's what it looked like from my end because there were people that were roped off Isle of Burke and it was. I mean, that line went as far as I could possibly see.
And while the rest of us were just kind of walking or just kind of standing around forming our own line.
I'll say this though, what was a little bit frustrating and I'm going to warn people who are listening to us who don't know what to expect or haven't planned accordingly, everyone, as soon as the portal opens, and it does open like at 11, at 11 right now for early entry or sorry, for previews, the park officially opens at 11am we don't know yet what the Hours are going to look like once it officially opens on May 22, to my knowledge, at least at the time of this recording. So therefore what was happening is at 11 was also the first drop to get the virtual line for Ministry of Magic.
Everyone, and I mean everyone around me was being herded like cattle through the portal while on their phone there was everyone around me, like, I really do hope I get in. I really hope I don't trip and fall. Oh my gosh. This like, it was a very stressful moment. A lot of people walking through. People don't even know where they're going. It's not like, you know, when you walk down Main street, you know exactly where you're going out, right? Tomorrowland. And you kind of navigate like, this is brand new territory. I mean, as soon as you go through the portal, which is gorgeous, there's a massive, like stone and there's some inscription on one side and there's like a map and like a nice painting on the other side. But if you're not paying attention, you'll just walk smack into it and there's all these people. So the beginning portion, I almost feel like for me kind of like was not as like for that only because the trying to get the virtual line for Ministry of Magic at that moment was. Was very stressful and was so important to every, myself and everyone around us.
So just be wary of that. When the park opens May 22 and there on after, we don't know what the times are going to look like, if it's going to be the same or not. But that was an interesting experience. But anyways, from there, once you realize that you A, got it or B, did not get it. Now you're okay. Race against time. Where are we going?
So we booked it.
Two hiccups, wing gliders.
And at the time that we got there, I think it said it was like a 35 minute wait. I mean, I. I'm gonna just go on a limb and say they just threw a number out. There we were. It was like three or four minutes after 11. There's no way. I mean, who am I?
But we got in line.
Ooh and ah. Like you see all these little details in the queue in the arena around you, the lockers, the speakers, everything, the music, the smells. You go in and halfway through the queue they have lockers and that's where you go in and you get your locker. And the locker is now facial recognition. It's not a code, it's all facial recognition.
So we got in, we put Our things down, get back in line. I'm sorry, there's a delay.
Oh, gosh. We were gonna get through that line probably within 15 minutes. We did not get on the ride until I think, 45 or so after because it broke down, or not broke down and had two delays while I was in line. Oh, it was so frustrating.
But it was still. I mean, that ride, I knew going into it that it was gonna be the most unexpected roller coaster of sorts, because that's what I've been hearing, and that's exactly what it was. And Michael, who had not had any prior knowledge of it, it's like, oh, this is gonna be a kitty ride. He's like, wow. I wasn't expecting. Expecting that they shoot you without it being, like, crazy G4s. They have unbelievable animatronics. The music, the voice, just the whole experience. The land, it gives you a perspective of the land when you haven't walked through it. To see some of the stuff. It beautiful. Like, beautiful.
It's as close as you can get to feeling like you're on a dragon.
[00:19:50] Speaker B: I swear, it was a lot of fun. It was very surprising how. How much fun that was. I was like, yeah, we'll get on this. Because when we went, it was a really short line. And I was like, we'll get on it.
Oh, my goodness. That's one of my favorite rides there, 100%.
[00:20:08] Speaker C: And we wanted to go on it again at night to see how the difference was, because Isle of Burke didn't really have a lot of lighting at night. It was pretty dark.
Not like some other or some other lands, but just to kind of see the contrast. But unfortunately, by the evening, things were moving in a weird direction with us, and there was some lighting in the area, so they actually closed that one. So pro tip, if you know it's gonna rain, prioritize this ride as an outdoor ride. It will close down if there's lightning or thunder or rain in the area.
So that is Hiccups Wing Gliders.
So I booked it over to Hiccups Wingliders. But on the way to Hiccups Wingliders, there was a kids playground.
So stinking cute.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: And that thing is huge. It is so big.
[00:21:00] Speaker A: And that's the Viking training camp, right?
[00:21:03] Speaker C: Yes, yes, yes.
And you don't even. Really big, but they don't even have, like, a sign. You just see these wooden dragon sculptures. And it's beautiful. Like, it's very. This whole land is very vibrant in color. It's. It's very captivating. I Didn't realize what it was for a few times until I started seeing kids running and screaming and playing around. It was really, really cute.
But that's like a. I. I'd almost argue that's like a hidden gem in there. Then past that, you have grog and gruel, which is one of the quick service kiosks that they have. It's one of the two locations that do sell the famous cones. The Mac and cheese cones that you've probably seen on social media. You've looked at them.
Then after that, you see.
What is it? Dragon. What is it? The Dragon Racers Rally.
And if you haven't seen videos, it basically looks like two massive hammers with seats, multiple seats around each of the hammerhead. And it.
The actual hammer kind of does the swinging, like a. Like a rotational motion, but you're not upside down or anything like that. It just kind of has, like, this glide genuine on it.
What is that experience?
[00:22:18] Speaker B: Okay.
I was freaking out in this line. I'm like, there's no way I'm getting on this. It looks like a carnival ride. I'm not getting on it. And Brian's like, yes, you're getting on it. Yeah. He's like, you're getting on it. It's gonna be fun. What I didn't know is that when you sit in your seat, little whatever dragon thing, the wings, you can move, and if you catch air the right way, you can do barrel rolls.
[00:22:46] Speaker C: Oh, I did not know that.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: I did not know this. So now I'm like, I'm going to pull something wrong, and I'm going to end up doing a barrel. I was completely freaking out about this, and I'm like, I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I'm like. Like, I just did every roller coaster that's in the park, and I' I don't want to do this.
[00:23:04] Speaker C: That is too funny. Oh, it was fun.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: It was fun.
It was a lot of fun.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: Yeah. I would definitely be trying to do the barrel rolls.
[00:23:15] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:23:15] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm gonna figure that out.
[00:23:17] Speaker A: And not tell Kelsey that you can do that.
[00:23:20] Speaker C: Well, you look at that. And Michael's like. Michael was like, this looks awful. I'm like, no, it doesn't. Like, there's. That line was probably the lowest I saw it all day. Was probably 45 minutes. Now, more to that, it. Because you can only have. It's two rides at a time.
It's not a continuous coaster that gets loaded and unloaded, loaded and unloaded. So the Wait time for this one is longer in my. You know, from what I can gather. And there's no single rider.
[00:23:52] Speaker B: No. And it doesn't hold a lot of people there. It doesn't have a large capacity. Is kind of. It is what it is. So.
[00:24:00] Speaker C: So turnaround time isn't the best if you see it a low way time run. But if not, prepare yourself.
But thank you Jen because I didn't get a chance to go on it and I was, I really wanted to, but there's a lot to see.
There's a lot to see.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: Also if you're wearing flip flops on that ride you. It's kind of like soaring where you just slip your flip flops off and it brings you right back down to where you were and you can put them back on again.
It's very convenient because I wore flip flops and I found out all kinds of fun things about shoes in that park.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: So anyways, between the entrance you get to the left, you pass all this. Then you get to hiccups wing gliders. And then as soon as you come out of hiccups wing gliders you've got a few things. Up ahead to the left you will see a bathroom and then Mead hall. Mead hall. If you've seen pictures or not, basically the way that I described it, it looked like a massive Pride Land statue. Like it's just like a very pointy, big pointy rock mountain of sorts. But in there it is a Viking quick service location.
You've got delicious things like Swedish meatballs and salmon and you've got.
Yes you do.
[00:25:26] Speaker A: This is coffee.
[00:25:30] Speaker C: You've got a few select beers too that are unique to that land. One's called stoics something. I don't know.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: Maybe something like that. I don't know.
[00:25:42] Speaker C: It was a stout but it makes sense if it would. You know, it rolls off the tongue.
But they also have this chocolate mousse fish over some cereal. It's called like Storm fly something.
I. Sorry guys. When I tell you I'm tired after the trip, it is not an exaggeration but I'm going to pull up a picture because this was probably one of the last things that we tried like food wise it was just unbelievably good. Here's a picture. My ring light will allow it.
So it's. It's a. It's a fish but on the inside it's like this mousse and there's like the cereal on the bottom. It is light and it's not very overwhelming. We Were trying to be picky with the stuff that we were trying to, especially with the heat.
And we had this word the other day and we thought it was going to be like a dense chocolate. It's not. It's very, very good. But anyways, Mead hall, walk out of mead hall and right in front of you they've got a little like merch and snack location with a animatronic head. A dragon animatronic head right outside. And it is. If you watch how to Train youn Dragon, it is the mother's dragon.
I don't know what its name is.
Sorry guys, I really am a fan, I promise.
Yeah, remember those names.
It was so cool to see this animatronic. Just like, right, you know, there's people walking around, there's, you know, there's gorgeous fountain, just spraying water. If you wanted to put your hand in there and you know, get a little dose of a cool, cool, cool splash, you could do that.
But anyways, I was blown away. This was at this point the first animatronic I had seen outside of a ride in how to Train youn Dragon area, the Isle of Burke area. And there's quite a bit, there's quite a bit. You just have to look for them. So actually if you keep walking just a little bit, you will see.
What's Stoic's best friend's name? Crap.
[00:28:04] Speaker A: Are you talking about the guy with like the one leg and, and the. Yeah, yeah, I know who you're talking about.
[00:28:11] Speaker C: Oh gosh.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: I know the person that voices him.
[00:28:15] Speaker C: I had a whole conversation with him too and I got on a recording which looks fabulous on the Osmo, but crap, I forgot his name.
[00:28:23] Speaker A: Yeah, how did Meepee do? Real quick?
[00:28:28] Speaker C: Meppy died on me at the very end.
Well, you know, battery.
[00:28:34] Speaker A: But he held on.
[00:28:36] Speaker C: He held on that he was a trooper. He went on fire drill with me and I really genuinely thought I would be able to record. Fire drill.
No, you get wet. You get very wet. Because I had to stash them in my pocket. But anyways, love Meppy, love my Osmo. I actually have a story for you with some universal people who asked me about Meppy. I'll tell you after the fact.
So anyways, you get to, to this area where you're interacting with a character and there's another massive dragon that's actually a grow rogue. Oh my gosh, why can't I remember the name? A gronkle. The Gronkle.
That dragon was there sleeping, snoring, opening his mouth, closing its Mouth growling. I mean, it is. It is unbelievable. Very. Everything is very lifelike. You look upwards and you see all the different dragon houses where they're supposed to be sleeping overnight. They're like, the details, the colors.
Like, I was so in awe. Just from this little plaza area between Mead Hall, Hiccups, Wingliders, the. The little treat store, the. The animatronics, the fountain. I said the fountain already. And, like, the working area for Stoic's friend. I. There is no picture or video that could do it justice. None, none, none.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: I agree. I agree. There. There really isn't.
[00:30:08] Speaker C: Yeah, it's. It's gorgeous. It is gorgeous. The details.
So anyways, also in that plaza is fire drill. Now, fire drill, when I was there, was closed all day long. All day long it was closed.
When we went back in the evening to do, like, another lap around, get some video content, it opened up as soon as we walked out. I was checking to see just like, wait times, and all of a sudden it popped open that it was open. I booked it, and I mean booked it to fire drill. There was only a few people in front of me, and I was able to get on within 10 minutes. And when I got off of the ride, the line behind me was ridiculous. That ride was only open for one hour, the entire day. And I just so happened to be in the area to be able to try it out because I was very, very, very much looking forward to this. I had, you know, seen that it was kind of like a shooting game, so it was gonna be more interactive, more kiddie. But, you know, I want to be able to experience everything and be able to tell my clients and friends and family who want to go, hey, this is what you can experience.
You will get very wet on this ride. And this shooting game, this water shooting game, you can get other people and other boats wet. It's not a very long ride, but it's actually just like, perfect. It's very fun.
You can sit or you can stand.
There's like a little handle which is where you would pull back and forth to kind of basically squirt the water out.
And all around you, there's these targets, these wooden targets. And basically it's the two.
The two twin Vikings. It's like their play area, basically.
And the targets are like. They almost look like they're the shields. So you. You shoot at them and they just start spinning.
But it's not like a target that's keeping track. So it's just really. It's for fun.
It's hard to really be competitive when there's not something keeping track of what you're shooting or if there's points or anything.
But honestly, on a hot day, really cool ride. Very, very, very, very cute. Very colorful. I definitely recommend they even have some. They have two drying stations that you can experience or you can pay for. If you really get wet and don't like to be wet, you can dry yourself off. All right, I gotta keep. I gotta keep the train going. But there's just so much to talk about. It's hard.
[00:32:53] Speaker B: You.
[00:32:54] Speaker C: We could literally spend a whole episode just on each land.
Okay, so past fire drill to the left.
That's where you have the Spitfire. Is it Spitfire? Gosh. Hold on guys.
Yes, Spitfire Grill.
And Spitfire Grill is another location that does offer the cones, the Mac and cheese cones, but they also offer bowls. They'll offer like shrimp bowls and pork and steak bowls with different sauces and rice and. Looks fabulous. Absolutely fabulous.
And more to the animatronics I would watch. That was talking about just the left hand side of this quick service location. You actually have a snow dragon and he's in full on motion, just growling and roaring and it'll sometimes shoot mist and cold air at you. It is so cool. It is so, so cool. All the little details further up ahead, if you keep walking past this quick service on your right hand side, you do have a meet and greet area.
And that is where guests were able to do meet and greets with Hiccup and meet Toothless as well. Very, very cute. I did not get a chance to do that.
They did film. They were filming some commercials in that area with Hiccup and Toothless for a good portion of the day. And then when I went at night, we were just prioritizing other things instead of that. But very, very cool. I really like that. As I'm walking around through Isle of Burke, there were one or two other characters that were walking around and interacting with guests.
Which streetmosphere factor? A plus. A plus.
Continuing on towards the back of Isle of Burke. They do have a theater venue and that is where you will be able to experience the untrainable dragon this show.
Wow, guys, don't sleep on it. I had no expectations. I had no idea what, what the plot or the storyline or anything.
All I knew from pictures that I've seen online that there was Hiccup and Toothless that would fly over the audience members off of the stage. And true to what I saw on social media, it happened exactly like that. It was freaking cool.
Spoiler Alert when it happens. When Hiccup and Toothless come out and they're flying over people in the audience, they missed the crap out of the. The theater hall.
So it looks like they're in the clouds.
I.
It is something that, like, it's worth appreciating and fangirling over it because it's little details that made it just so much better. But for those of you that don't know, they do sing, they do dance, and they do have animatronics and they do have phenomenal, phenomenal costumes.
So don't miss out. I want to say that the show probably was like a 25 or so minute show.
Not super long, great AC break and plenty of space. It did fill up. I went at 3:30pm and there was like eight showings. There was quite a bit of showings throughout the whole day. The last one was, was that like 7:30pm it was packed. Like we had to get there 20 minutes before it started, just to make sure we can make that one. Because they cut off the line to be able to get in 10 minutes before the show started.
So. And that wasn't during pre. That was during previews before full capacity. So plan accordingly if you do want to go to that show.
So just to kind of round up, when you leave, you can either go to the right. When you leave the show, you can either go to the right and it'll take you back over to like that central hub that I was telling you where you find Mead hall fire drill, that area. Or you can go to the left and basically come back where you came from, which is walking past Hiccup and Toothless and Spitfire Grill. And you keep walking and you can exit. You'll actually on your way, see other dragons.
Animatronics. They'll have some baby animatronics.
Animatronic dragons, too.
Getting some fish and stuff like that. It's just very immersive and they have just little things everywhere. Even the benches. The benches are carved out of wood and. And. And are in the shape of different dragons that you see in the. In the movie.
The whole like lagoon area.
I think Michael was on that, told me this, that he thinks that there might be some sort of like a wave simulation to make it look like there's a current and there's waves in the water.
And like the boats are just perfectly, perfectly placed in there.
The Viking boats, that is. You've got the shields, you've got the, like the Viking totems, if that's what they're called. The water is blue. The colors are so vibrant. I mean, it is stunning.
Truly, truly, truly a place where you could easily spend a few hours. You got character meet and greets. You got three rides. You've got three different locations. Yes, you can get similar foods and two of them, but you've got the options. You've got a nice large area to be able to sit. Sit and eat the food from Spitfire Grill and also watch people going by on the fire drill ride, which is nice. There's like, bridges and stuff. You've got characters, you've got snacks, you've got treats, you've got merchandise.
You've got a show. Y' all was everything I could have wanted. Isla Burke. Any questions? Questions from the audience?
[00:39:00] Speaker A: I mean it. I now want to go to Isle of Burke so bad.
[00:39:04] Speaker C: It's beautiful. It is very, very beautiful.
[00:39:07] Speaker B: Stunning. It almost blindingly stunning. Like, when you first walk through, when you get around that big rock, it's like, it's hard.
[00:39:19] Speaker C: It's one of those places. Yeah, I'd say it's like one of those places where you're like, I don't want to leave. Like, I could live here. I want to live, live here. This would be cool.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: And it sounds like it's very well balanced. Like, it has. It has thrills, but, like, it has a show. It has stuff for the kids, like that play area as well.
It's a very good balance.
[00:39:42] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's spread out. I mean it.
And you have. You. You've got, like, so everything. All of the rides, all three of the rides are susceptible to weather delay.
There is very little cover and shading. I mean, you've got cover in the theater.
Yeah, you got cover in the theater. You've got cover in Mead Hall. You've got cover in, like, the sitting area where that Spitfire Grill is, and then the merchandise stores.
That's about it.
Like, if it were to rain, if I'm planning on, like, a rainy day, I would plan to be seated inside Mead hall. And that's be the only place that I would really want to weather out the storm if I'm in Isle of Burke. That is the only downside I see from the. From that land is the lack of shade.
But I guess it's just trying to be very authentic as to how that land should be in recreation, you know, in recreating a very genuine replica of the movie. That's what I'm trying to say.
[00:40:53] Speaker B: Yeah. It was noticeable from the other lands. I know a lot of people are complaining that there's no shade at all in the park.
I didn't find that to be true, except when we got to Isle of Burke and I was like, okay, it's.
It's pretty open, but it goes with the theming.
[00:41:13] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:41:13] Speaker A: Now, which one would you say is worse with shading? Toy Story or Albert?
[00:41:18] Speaker C: Toy Story.
[00:41:19] Speaker B: Toy Story.
[00:41:20] Speaker C: Yeah. It's just the difference, I think, is just like the theme.
I don't know. Like, Toy Story just feels hot.
[00:41:30] Speaker B: Yeah. But there are areas like where that big playground is, where the Viking training camp. There is some shady area over in that place. There's a little bit.
Just a little bit. But I think because of the way everything is built up, it doesn't seem like you're just out in the open on just a slab of concrete.
[00:41:53] Speaker C: Yeah, I agree. Because you've got, like, the water area. You've got that water feature, multiple water features, and I feel like that really helps just disperse the feeling of heat. If that water feature wasn't there, I might be thinking differently.
[00:42:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:09] Speaker C: Because that. The blue, the. The cool color, really, I don't know. It makes a difference.
That's just the best way I can describe it without going without reading too much into it, because I could probably dissect that too.
Yeah.
But I'll say this to those of you watching, and if potentially you're curious, a huge difference.
Huge difference that I see with Universal Epic Universe specifically and Disney. Each land isn't isolated from another one in the sense of I can see other lands from the land I'm in.
When you're in Isle of Bird, you see Stardust Racers. It's right next to it.
You can see a few other elements of. I mean, you're not seeing a whole lot of things. If you're on Hiccups Wingliders, you do. Because actually, when you're on Wake Up, Wake Up Hiccups Wing Gliders, you actually go towards the back of Isle of Burke and see some of the construction that's happening in the back. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, expansion.
But you do get to see certain elements. So you're not totally isolated, but when you're in there, you are feeling fully immersed. Either way, it is very well done.
That theme and the details.
Excellent. Just across the board.
Excellent. It does not feel Brooks, to answer your question. I don't think it felt as hot as Toy Story, despite the lack of shade and. No, there's, like, no trees there.
You're on a cliff. You're on a cliff island. There's no trees.
But There's a lot of color, and it's beautiful. The stone, the water feature, you've got some water rides. It helps cool it down. I really do think that.
[00:44:06] Speaker A: Well, I mean, we could talk about. We could talk about dragons all day, but we're going to pivot a little bit from dragons to the pixels.
More importantly, the Super Nintendo pixels in Super Nintendo World. I mean, I.
I would say even from when they first showed this, announce this land in Hollywood studios, Japan, and also in Hollywood, like, I've been excited to go to.
Just look at this one. And when they said it was coming to Orlando, I was so excited.
But, Jenny, you got to spend a lot of time in Super Nintendo World, didn't you? I know you at least sent us videos.
[00:45:06] Speaker B: I know. I.
I did. That was our, you know, our first stop because we stayed on property. And, you know, the last two weeks I was out because of the play. The week before that, I didn't mean to be out, but I had the chance to go to Epic. So my trip was actually three weeks ago.
And, you know, I was kind of the guinea pig of people going, so.
[00:45:35] Speaker A: I will have gladly been that guinea pig.
[00:45:38] Speaker B: I know.
It was amazing. We had great. We had perfect weather. People kept asking me if the sky really was that color or if there was like some kind of covering that was that color blue, because it was just a beautiful, perfect day. But I think I giggled the entire time.
I shed a few tears going up the escalator. For those of you that don't know, Universal doesn't have the.
The footprint that Disney has in Orlando. So instead of everything going out, everything goes up.
So we take this escalator up, and I will say that you can see a lot of things from.
From each land, you know, from other parks, Nintendo. That area is a bit more isolated, I would say. It's a bit more isolated. It's also a lot smaller. So, you know, we were there with.
Yeah, yeah, there's high walls because you're, you know, in a castle, but you go up the. The escalator and you're like, technically in a pipe and it's making noise and there's lights. And where Disney uses smells, I think Universal has used nature elements, like with all the water, but also sound.
The sounds in Epic are just amazing. So you go into the pipe and it makes that little doot, doot, doot sound and there's lights and you come up and you're walking through the castle and you walk out and it was literally like walking into a video Game. I just was just like, I just. Even now I have goosebumps.
It was incredible. So you go up and you're coming out on this second story, which is probably a little bit higher than that, and you just overlook everything. But there's so many different levels to everything that it's very overwhelming. It's a very overwhelming land to go into. It is probably the most immersive experience that I've had in a theme park.
So we went down the stairs and I did not know this because it was one of the first. I didn't know that there was a central block area and that's where you can meet Mario and Luigi. I didn't know that they weren't out there then. So we posed and did a bunch of photos. Like, hey, look, we're hitting the block. You know, so if you want pictures there, you can do that first thing in the morning before the characters get out there.
And it's, it's really tall. So when after you go down, you're just standing there looking up and there's just things moving everywhere. And you know, it was just incredible. The piranha plants and the, you know, it was so good.
So we decided that we were going to go ahead and. And rope drop. We were a little bit late for it.
Minecart. Mine cart was running when we were there. So we went to mine cart and I think it was about a second 70 minute wait at that time.
They had single rider open and my husband Brian was with me. And we decided early on that the goal was to get as much done as we could. And if that meant that we didn't experience something together, that was okay. So we did the single rider line.
Inside the building where you're in line, it is air conditioned.
So keep that in mind. They have fans and they have air conditioning.
[00:49:41] Speaker A: That's a game changer.
[00:49:43] Speaker B: Yeah. And I was like, okay, let's do this.
So we went in and it was about, I don't know, maybe 15, 20 minutes that we waited.
So it went pretty well. And you know, Brian and I were split up. We were just one car away from each other.
I have heard people say that mine car was worse than Space Mountain with all the jerkiness. I did not find it to be like that. I felt it was a little bit more on par with Thunder Mountain. It is a lot faster than it looks in video. So if you go to YouTube and you're watching the ride along videos, it's a lot faster than that. But I would say it's pretty similar To.
Yeah, I would say to Big Thunder Mountain. If I had to, like, compare the two. Of course, the theming is completely different.
It was so much fun. It was just so much fun.
And how.
[00:50:46] Speaker A: I want to know, how did it feel to jump the tracks?
[00:50:52] Speaker B: So I was expecting like a.
You know, and maybe it's like that in the back. I was more towards the front.
And so I didn't feel like a big jump. It was kind of like just a little.
Yeah, just a little blip. I was expecting something a little bit more than it was. But I know that's probably hard with, you know, with that. But it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun.
I was afraid after watching videos of it that I would be bored and that the theme wouldn't be that great, but it really was.
And as we were walking out, because when you walk down, it's kind of over to the right.
And as we were walking out, they have. Where you can play a game on the drums and then a rhino will come out. So Brian was playing on the drums and they light up and then the rhino comes out of the box. And that was a lot of fun. And they have, you know, a lot of cute things like the red balloons and, you know, like, they just have a lot of really cool stuff there.
We were trying to decide. I went in and I didn't have much of a plan.
You know, I'm a travel agent, so of course, I'm my own worst client. I had no.
I had no plan. I was like, we're just gonna go and do whatever and just try to wing it.
I don't recommend that.
But we did go into the merchandise shop there. I don't know what it's called, but it's huge. And there was.
[00:52:32] Speaker A: Isn't it like one Up Factory or something like that?
[00:52:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's one Up Factory. And there's a lot there. I'm. The merch in this park is just amazing.
So we were in there and we were trying on things and looking at everything, and then we decided to get a snack because we really wanted to do Mario Kart.
Mario Kart had a like 170 minute wait at that point.
So we went over to Toadstool Cafe. And I don't know if this was.
This was mentioned before, but for the. The quick service restaurants, you go in and you sit at a table, you mobile order, and they bring it out to you at the table.
So instead of going and standing in line to get your food, they have a qr code that it didn't work everywhere.
But you mobile order. And if you have an allergy, there's a banner at the top that says, I have an allergy. And they send someone out to. To talk to you when you order.
But I thought that was really cool. So it was kind of like a table service, but it wasn't. So I think Universal hit it out of the park with that process.
But we went to the Toadstool Cafe and we had a snack. We had the little.
I don't know what they're called, but they're the little bread mushrooms with cheese in them. I don't know what they're called. They were really good and got water because we went. It was like 86 degrees. It was hot, but we had a nice breeze.
And then Mario Kart had gone down to. I think it was like 160 minutes. And I said, well, let's just go ahead and let's do this. Like, let's just, let's just suck it up and do this. Because I was not leaving this park without riding that ride.
Like, I want to drive a cart.
It's going to be fun. We're going to do this. Well, we walk up and it said single riders.
And there was no one. And when you walk in, there's this giant staircase.
And I said, we want to do single rider. Well, I have issues with stairs. And I asked if I could use the elevator. And they told me, if you're a single rider, you cannot use the elevator. Which I'm still not sure that that's the way that works.
So I trudged up and it has to be like three flights of stairs. It was massive. And then you go, you know, around and over and then back downstairs. And so remember 160.
I think maybe it was 160. Five minute wait. Single rider.
We walk past all these people, we get down there. Brian was loaded within 30 seconds and I was maybe 15 seconds behind.
So single rider line, if it is open, use it.
I mean, it's so immersive. You're not going to be looking to whoever it is that you're riding with unless you're like me went through the line so fast you didn't know how to work the visors.
So I was asking the guy next to him, like, do you know how to do this? I don't know how to work this because we really got through that fast. We didn't see any of the safety briefings or anything. We literally just walked onto the ride.
[00:56:20] Speaker C: So my experience with that One was that ride, I think was on average about 120 minutes most of the day. Yesterday probably went up to 170 at one point.
I think I went in when it was about 90 minute wait. Anderson, something to that effect. I think it took us around 45 minutes in the single rider line.
We got very lucky and Michael and I actually got through and sat in the. Sat together. Don't know how that happens. That's. That was a fluke. That was not, you know, they told us to both of us go through. We got lucky.
But Jen, I had the same experience as you did with like the visor and I was there, but I guess I wasn't paying attention enough to the video because there is so many elements to the queue that you're just looking at all these other stuff. And also at the same time around that time it was also another Ministry of Magic virtual line drop. So between looking around and then looking at stuff on the app, I did it. But for people, for you guys to. For you, for those that are listening who are curious, what was. So what's so difficult about the visor? A couple of things. You get the visor pretty early on in the queue.
I don't know why. And you're carrying it for quite too long if I. If you ask me, quite too long.
There is. So when you put it. It's a visor and you can actually. It has like white knob in the back that you can tighten it to your face. And I didn't realize it and this thing just kept falling and Michael's like, tighten it. I'm like, oh.
So you just kind of. It's very easy. You tighten it and then it just kind of.
And then when you get on the ride in the vehicle, there's a second piece that attaches magnetically to the visor that you have on. Sorry, Jen, please continue.
[00:58:13] Speaker B: I could not. I could not figure out how to get it on. The poor guy next to me probably thought I was a complete idiot.
But you know, we, we do the ride, which was amazing. I was really, really afraid that it would make me sick just because of the augmented reality. I don't usually do all that well with.
But I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn't dizzy. I wasn't anything at all. That. That came later with a different ride. But for that one I was good and I got off it. And I won't spoil.
Was everything I dreamed it would be, just everything I thought that ride would be. It was so much fun. If you're a fan of Mario Kart.
You were gonna love it. Absolutely gonna love it.
Also, could not get that magnetic visor off. I still couldn't even tell you how, because the guy next to me, again, was nice enough to.
To do it for me, but I was sitting in the car, like, I don't know how to do this. Like, and it's connected. Like, I don't know how to do this.
So it was fun.
That was fun.
We then did Yoshi's.
I love Yoshi, y' all. And that was the cutest. And Brian said we have to do that again because it has three eggs that you're supposed to find and push the button when you find it. And we only found two because we were just so busy looking, because it takes you on a tour throughout the entire land, and it has all these elements, like, with a piranha plant coming down and, you know, with the.
What is it? The womp womp things. I don't know.
[01:00:14] Speaker A: But the Koopas.
[01:00:15] Speaker B: Yeah, there were Koopas. There were. There were every. I mean, that was so much fun.
And I thought that it would be similar to the one with Dr. Seuss, where you're kind of, like, belted in, but not. It has really high sides, so the sides probably came up about shoulder.
Almost shoulder height to keep you in.
So that was just.
[01:00:44] Speaker C: It's a great. It's a great point of view to see the whole. Like, the whole entrance area into Nintendo World. You don't see Donkey Kong area, but you do see the main, Like, Peach's castle and such.
Well, I'll say about this is.
Yes. They're like. You're kind of in awe because the land is very overwhelming. There's so much to see. It literally feels like you got dropped into the middle of Nintendo World. I know it sounds duh, but it's so true.
[01:01:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:01:17] Speaker C: You really start to appreciate that when you start to see the coins everywhere spinning. Everything is an animatronic in this world. Everything.
It is. It is so shocking how many they have. So I had the same problem as you, Jen, where I only saw two, but frankly, I'm too busy oohing and awing at everything else. Getting the picture, getting the video, getting this. Oh, my gosh, Mike, do you like this? This is, like. So you really.
Is it a kitty ride? Yes, it is. A hundred percent it is.
But it is like the people mover of Nintendo World.
[01:01:57] Speaker B: Yeah, it's amazing. And you get to ride in a Yoshi. I mean, like, come on.
Like, that was just amazing.
[01:02:06] Speaker C: Aw, Brooks.
[01:02:08] Speaker B: I know. I'm sorry. Brooks. We'll take you. We'll take you.
We love you.
[01:02:15] Speaker C: Brooks.
[01:02:18] Speaker B: We did not get to do any of the character meet and greets because we, as we were exiting the land, they had Mario and Luigi down there. I didn't see Princess Peach anywhere, but they had Mario and Luigi and Mario.
They said that the line was like really long and it was kind of hard to tell that it was long because of the area that it's in. It's very compacted and it just kind of like snaked around everywhere. I don't think know if they have an actual cue for that other than just kind of make your own cue.
So we did not meet the characters and I think my son probably would not have forgiven me if I did meet Mario without him. So.
So we did not do that, but we did do, you know, try to like play some of the games like, you know, with the thing with the rhino. And then they have this area that's indoors. And I want to say before I move on that again, the cue for, for Mario Kart was air conditioned. It was all indoors and it was all air conditioned. You will be standing on stage stairs like you will be standing on stairs, but it was air conditioned. So if it's a really hot day, I'd say maybe in the middle of the day, that's probably the land you're going to want to go to. Because everything there was a lot of indoors and I thought that there was a pretty good amount of.
Of shade in that area with the buildings. And then they have these, you know, giant mushrooms and you can see sit underneath. They had a lot of seating in that area.
[01:04:14] Speaker C: Kids roam free. Jen, before you move on with like the interactive stuff, do you want to talk about the power up bands? Because that goes hand in hand.
[01:04:23] Speaker B: Yeah. So if you have the power up band, which is kind of like a magic band, but it's for Super Nintendo World, you can play interactive games and they have like this whole. It's not an arcade, but this whole area where you can go and also throughout the land where you can hit blocks, you can earn coins, you can do all kinds of stuff. But they do have like a digital like I don't know if it's like screens, but you can play games with that if you're going to get a power up band. And I learned this from my stay at the at Stella.
[01:05:07] Speaker C: Terra Luna.
[01:05:08] Speaker B: Terra Luna. Sorry. Terra Luna.
Buy your power up bands at the resort and activate them. Get them attached in your app before you get to the park. That way you can immediately start playing and not have to sit there and try to figure out how to get these bands attached to your Universal. So I did not do.
I did not get a band and I really, really regret it because I think it would have been so much fun to do all that stuff. But there were a bunch of people running around just hitting things and touching things and it was awesome. It was awesome.
I really think that this land really transcends ages.
You know, if, if you were a fan of Nintendo when it first came out, or if you're, you know, or now, or now you're, you know, it really.
I think that's probably one of the lands that's probably better for like multi generational trips because there's just so much, and there's so much fun and there's so much nostalgia there and kids would love it. I'd have to say.
I think that this is probably the.
Actually this is the most kid friendly park of all the Universal parks. There's a lot of stuff for kids to do.
I know that Universal has a, has a little bit of a reputation for not being very kid friendly. Epic Universe is very kid friendly. There's a lot of games and play areas and, and just, you know, where kids can run wild.
[01:06:58] Speaker C: There's a lot of like hidden places too.
[01:07:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:07:01] Speaker C: To interact. Like it was weird because there are certain areas that have like a time, but it's on the app or at least it wasn't for the preview. But you'll walk and they'll be like, oh, it's a 10 minute wait. And you're like, what is this?
Because there's not like a sign that says, oh, meeting, you know, meet Yoshi or something like that. No. Yeah, it's just like an interactive thing and they tell you, like Michael and I, we thought we were trying to exit and we ended up in like one of these like interactive rooms.
[01:07:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:07:33] Speaker C: And there was like a massive bomb, like the Nintendo bomb. And they're like, sorry if you don't have a magic band or sorry if you don't have a power up band. We're going to have to kindly ask you to leave because there's nothing that you can do here.
[01:07:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:07:49] Speaker C: We're like, all right, well at least you got to see it.
[01:07:51] Speaker B: Yeah. And you could very easily end up in one of those rooms.
[01:07:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:07:55] Speaker B: It's not marked. There's just like, there's just openings in.
[01:07:59] Speaker C: The walls so it's easy to get lost.
I'll say the downside And I mean, this is like a genuine downside.
It feels cramped at some point, and there's a lot of people like Mario Kart. When the line is out outside, there is nowhere for you to go. That line for early entry, I'm not even kidding you. Was all the way up into the entrance.
Once you get up from the elevator and walk out of Peach's Castle, that line was. Was. Was covering the entrance. And you're weaving through people to try and get in and see the land.
[01:08:38] Speaker B: But.
[01:08:39] Speaker C: And so. So. So it is a fairly small area, is what it seems like.
Or at least there's so much going on. That's how it feels. And with the amount of people in there, like, it is probably the land that has the most amount of people all day long.
All day long. There is not as much to do in Ministry of Magic. Dark Universe isn't for everyone. Celestial park is very, very spread out, and there's not, like a whole lot you can do there. Like, people aren't just hanging out.
Isle of Brook is spread out. It's bigger.
Nintendo World is not. Is cramped. And. But there is a lot of things that people could do with kids. Like, we were Mike, and it was just Michael and I at one point, we're like, all right, we need to. We need to move.
We need to move. So just something to keep in mind. There's a lot of kids running around. There's a lot of families, a lot of people. It can't feel very cramped. It is gorgeous. Definitely worth being in there and doing all the things. But for people who might be a little bit sensitive to a lot of people, you will find that there.
[01:09:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And luckily, as with all of the.
Almost all of the lands, it's very easy to get back out to Celestial park and get a breather. I know I was messaging you guys, and I was like, oh, my gosh, it's so busy here. But once we got out of that land, I was like, oh, okay. So that's where everyone is. It does feel very, very cramped and very enclosed. And I think that's because of the design with how tall. But it is small. It's not a large place at all. It is small. Small, but, man, was it gorgeous. And I. I really hate that I didn't go back and see it that even.
Yeah, we ran out of time with all the issues with the battle of the Ministry, but plus, there's only an.
[01:10:39] Speaker C: Hour of dark of night time.
[01:10:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:10:43] Speaker C: You know, it's. It's. It's hard.
[01:10:45] Speaker B: I hope that they'll.
They'll, you know, do that. I would say.
I would say maybe not rope drop it. Maybe do that one, like, in the evening, because several of the rides are indoors, or at least one of the rides is indoors. And if there's weather or anything, you can kind of hang out there and kill time for Mario Kart. But I would suggest maybe doing that one for the evening, saving it for then, so maybe you can see some of the lights and hopefully it won't be as busy as when. And maybe things will be different when it, you know, when it officially opens and there'll be something else that you can, you know, rope drop. But it seemed like everybody went to that area first, so.
Yeah, but it was amazing. And I cried and I giggled and I giggled some more and I tried on a little crown veil thing from Princess Peach. It was awesome. I should have bought it too. I really should have.
[01:11:58] Speaker A: You needed the wand too.
[01:12:00] Speaker B: I know.
[01:12:01] Speaker A: And then you could also cosplay as Galinda got Linda.
[01:12:08] Speaker C: Love it. Yeah. Well, anyways, Super Nintendo World and I didn't get to do Minecart because it was closed all day when I went yesterday. I was very upset.
[01:12:20] Speaker B: Sorry.
Yeah, yeah, we had, you know, our trips are only three weeks apart, but different experiences. Oh, completely different.
And that's kind of how it is with theme parks and especially when they're, you know, just opening. But it was wild. We'll get more into that in later episodes, you know, But Steph and I had very different experiences with Epic.
[01:12:50] Speaker A: And I mean, they did say too. I mean, it is a.
A preview. So they are trying to work out kinks. But yeah, yeah, it is interesting how stuff ran differently within those three weeks.
[01:13:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
So it's still.
[01:13:11] Speaker A: It's a work in progress. And I've heard reports that literally after they close, they have people going in and working through the night, trying to fix problems that occur during the day, still under construction.
[01:13:26] Speaker B: So when you. When you get there and you see the amount of detail and the, the tech that's involved and everything, the, the sheer number of animatronics is just mind boggling.
[01:13:45] Speaker C: The amount of animatronics. And you didn't do Monsters Unchained.
[01:13:50] Speaker B: I did not. Because it was closed.
[01:13:53] Speaker C: This.
[01:13:54] Speaker B: I'm very sad.
[01:13:54] Speaker C: This park with animatronics.
[01:13:57] Speaker B: Yeah, all the sh.
[01:14:00] Speaker C: Yeah, all of them.
[01:14:02] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, you know, we were there. We were also there 13 hours and most of the stuff was open when I was there. There were very few things that were, you know, not running.
And we still didn't get to see everything. I remember we were walking out and there's this fountain with Mario and you know, the coins are turning and I'm like, I don't remember seeing that walking in like there. There's just so much that we missed. It's definitely at least a two day park. And if everything's running, you could spend a lot of time there because there's still so much that I want to go back and see now.
[01:14:42] Speaker C: What was very surprising to me as we start to wrap up, there's a lot of stairs. A lot of stairs that I was not expecting.
It is not what I expected. There like all things, there are good and bad things. Right. What were you thinking Universal with all those stairs?
[01:15:00] Speaker B: Yeah. It's not like a little bit of stairs. It's not. I mean we are talking multiple flights of stairs, massive staircases.
I.
I'll have to see if I have a picture or a video of hiccup.
[01:15:18] Speaker C: Spring gliders. Up, down, over.
[01:15:22] Speaker B: I took the elevator. I took. Yeah.
So I asked for the elevator.
After like the first, the first few I was like, I, I can't do this. So I asked for the elevator. They do have elevators, but still it's.
[01:15:37] Speaker C: Just not, it's not, it's. It takes time. That's not fun.
[01:15:42] Speaker B: No.
[01:15:42] Speaker C: And to wait for an elevator.
[01:15:44] Speaker B: I have a thing with waiting on stairs with kids and having kids standing on stairs. I don't, I don't like it. Like it makes me really, really nervous and it could just be me, but that makes me very, very nervous. To have kids just hanging out on a staircase for an hour doesn't sound appealing.
[01:16:06] Speaker C: Right there.
[01:16:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:16:09] Speaker C: Brooks, any questions? Olivebrook or Nintendo World?
[01:16:13] Speaker A: Sorry, I was just living. I was just immersed in Yalls description of everything. I.
Oh, I can't wait to go.
I mean. And so I know you didn't get to do a lot of the in Super Nintendo World. I know you, you didn't have the power up band anything like that. But in stuff that I've seen like you could literally go in and like hit the coins and almost like a time thing of having to hit all these coins in one.
Like, and there's almost kind of like virtual boss battles I believe and stuff which creates a whole new experience within itself. It like almost creates a ride within itself too. Like, or an attraction.
[01:17:08] Speaker C: Well, they have screens like seamlessly embedded throughout a lot of different lands. But actually I'll speak to Nintendo World. They have a lot of screens embedded seamlessly throughout Nintendo World.
[01:17:25] Speaker B: That wow.
[01:17:27] Speaker C: Like, there's a lot of. It's not just the power of bands. It's like screens. Like, when you go into Toadstool Cafe, there's all these screens with Toad, Chef Toad, and other little Toads, and it's just so, so cute. It's not just an. It's not just a video thing. It's an audio thing. It's an audio. It's also audio.
And again, the little details, the.
The thought to make it as immersive as possible really was executed to perfection.
There's no words that'll do it justice.
[01:18:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And I have looked, you know, ever since they opened, you know, over in Japan and, you know, in Hollywood, and I'm like, well, it looks cool and everything, but, man, nothing prepares you for coming out of Peaches and scene like, wow. Just wow.
[01:18:28] Speaker C: Or just the audio going into the tunnel. And for the record, everyone, spoiler alert.
Super Nintendo World is the only portal that has a staircase all the others just walk through.
So on that note.
[01:18:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[01:18:45] Speaker C: Brooks, you want to say trivia.
[01:18:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
So we're pivoting a little bit with the trivia question due to not seeing any other thing saying the exact height of the pipe. The warp pipes.
So forget the. Forget everything you knew about the previous trivia question.
But I do have another one. We're talking about Mario. The Mario Kart ride, which is powered by augmented reality visors and the track features over how many different ride combinations due to the branching paths and randomized enemy behavior. Do y' all have a guess?
[01:19:31] Speaker B: I have no idea.
[01:19:33] Speaker A: Over 100 different ride combinations.
[01:19:37] Speaker C: No.
[01:19:39] Speaker A: So it can literally be a different ride every time you ride it.
[01:19:43] Speaker C: I had no idea.
[01:19:44] Speaker B: That's. I had no clue.
[01:19:47] Speaker C: Wow. You learned us something, and you weren't even there.
[01:19:51] Speaker B: I love this.
I have to go do that again.
[01:19:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:19:55] Speaker A: And again and again and again and again and again.
[01:19:57] Speaker C: No kidding. That's awesome.
[01:20:00] Speaker A: That would be interesting.
With as many combinations as you can do a challenge. Like, how many times riding it before you could get the same experience twice?
[01:20:14] Speaker C: The problem is the line is always long. You need unlimited Express Pass.
[01:20:21] Speaker B: I'm not saying it would be even.
[01:20:22] Speaker A: I'm not saying it would be an easy, easy experience.
I'm not saying it's an easy challenge.
[01:20:28] Speaker C: True.
[01:20:31] Speaker A: Like, which one would you get first? Would you get September twice or the same ride twice on Mario Kart or Star Tours? Yeah.
[01:20:40] Speaker B: So I always seem to get the same ones on Star Tours, though.
[01:20:44] Speaker C: I never knew. Oh, I love Star Tours. Yeah.
[01:20:48] Speaker B: I always get the same ones.
[01:20:49] Speaker C: I am a huge advocate for Star Tours.
[01:20:52] Speaker B: I love it, but I I always get the same one.
[01:20:55] Speaker A: But on that note folks, that just about does it for this week's episode of the Mouse Ears Podcast, don't forget to join our Mouse Ears Podcast Facebook discussion group and our Facebook page.
And also don't forget to follow us on TikTok X and Instagram to stay up to date on all things travel, but mostly Disney. And and if you're interested in having a Fairy Tale Journeys agent book your next trip, visit fairytalejourneys.com and let them know that the podcast sent you. Lastly, if you enjoy our weekly episodes of the Mouse Ears podcast, we would love for you to leave us a review wherever you listen to or watch us until the next episode where we will be breaking down Wizarding World of Harry Potter Mystery, Mystery of Magic and Dark Universe.
Thanks everyone. Let's level up and buy.
