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Unprejudiced Epic Universe Review
0 Playsin 7 hours
We saw Epic Universe, we went to Epic Universe, we conquered Epic Universe. Well, we really didn't conquer Epic Universe, but we did put our FOMO to bed as we visit for the day. This was not a preview as the park is now open and we take you through our day at the park, where we ride mostly everything twice. Take a trip with us as you come on our family vacation adventure, and we do find a new favorite DVC resort as well.
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Transcript
Introduction and Summer Plans
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everyone, this is Damon. um Yeah, I haven't been around a lot, so let's see, this is going to be a golden button detours, Damon detours, i don't even know what this is at this point. So let's talk about what I've actually been up to.
00:00:13
Speaker
We booked two trips too close together, but we did go to Epic Universe, which is what I'll be talking about on this trip, and then we'll be going on a cruise and we're staying in Orlando for a little bit. My daughter's playing some tennis and things like that. um It's been a busy summer just with the kids working. We don't have cars around. Everyone's kind of doing their own thing.
Travel Logistics and Road Trip
00:00:33
Speaker
But I felt like I needed to get this out before I went on vacation because that would be terrible. Then I'd have two vacations. I don't don't really remember things as much. Like, I took notes here for Epic Universe, but gosh.
00:00:44
Speaker
I'll probably miss some stuff here and there. So we ended up doing a drive down. arc Our minivan is on its last legs. I knew it wouldn't make the trip to Florida. So what we decided to do was fly my wife down.
00:00:58
Speaker
And then we were going to drive down with the kids in the car, which is what we did. It was actually pretty enjoyable. I'll tell you, we have a Hyundai and that, you know, highway driving assist made it actually way better than driving an old minivan down to Florida. So that wasn't terrible.
00:01:14
Speaker
You know, we got to in kind of chat between all of us and we talked about, and you know, what the kid's favorite fruit was. I don't know how that came up, but it did. It was it was definitely a good ride. But that last 30 minutes when you get to Orlando is just brutal.
00:01:29
Speaker
Like, You're driving along fine and all of a sudden you got to get to, you know, Orlando and then you're trying to get to the hotel and it's just tough.
Hotel Stay and Family Dynamics
00:01:37
Speaker
So we actually ended up driving down and decided that we didn't want to spend the extra money to stay at Universal the first night.
00:01:45
Speaker
So we ended up staying at Riviera. And what's interesting is, is that we own at Riviera, but I never actually stayed there before. So we had a two bedroom. Man, it was great. like It could be my favorite place. I mean, the thing is, the points are obviously a lot higher than o Key West, which is why i love Old Key West. But the amount of beds made phenomenal. And like I said, I don't think my wife listens, so it's okay. But she snores something terrible. it actually is vacation-ruining snoring.
00:02:12
Speaker
Kids don't mind, but for me, it's just,
Universal Studios Visit
00:02:15
Speaker
it's tough. So it was nice because they had that extra bed in the living room, that little small one that exists, and she ended up sleeping out there. I don't know how I got the main bedroom myself, but I knew that we were, you know, going to have a long trip. So that actually worked out well for us.
00:02:31
Speaker
You know, it it is a fancier place. And even when like the, you know different, like not our kids, but when kids were getting yelled at, it even felt like a little fancy. Like it wasn't that like, you know, yelling that like makes you embarrassed. It was high class yelling, high class getting in trouble. and That was okay. Yeah.
00:02:49
Speaker
All joking aside, though, we really did enjoy Riviera a lot. I think we'll end up staying there for some other trips. I think we'll end up using Disney for the next couple years as kind of, hey, we're going to stop here for a day or two before we do something else. that I think that makes a lot of sense for us.
00:03:05
Speaker
The next day, we ended up heading over to our hotel at Universal. So originally, so our days kind of went like this. It was Universal, Epic, and Universal again, right? And by Universal, I just mean the older stuff.
00:03:17
Speaker
And we were like, oh, you know, we're going get up and rush, and we're going to have to run to get our express passes and then go into the park. And I said to myself, you know what, if we have express passes because we were staying Portofino, why do we need to rush? Like, we'll just take it slow. So that's what we did. We ended up getting to the hotel.
00:03:34
Speaker
getting our express passes. We were probably over at the park, I don't know, maybe nine or 10. And what wasn't, you know really early, we ended up taking the boat over, which is nice. and And that hotel is really wonderful. It's, you know, a little little bit closer than Royal ah Pacific, which is where we usually stay. And that's actually the only place we've ever stayed. So Portofino was nice.
00:03:55
Speaker
We still ended up taking the boat because it was yeah Florida hot at that point. But it was a great experience. So we ended up running over to Universal.
00:04:06
Speaker
We had express passes. Hagrid's was 20 minutes. I mean, there was nobody really there. i don't know if it was because we ended up going before a lot of schools were out. I mean, my daughter had exams and we left the last day she could have possibly had an exam, which she didn't. So i was great. We left in the morning.
00:04:25
Speaker
But there was not a lot of people there. at all. I mean, it felt like it was pretty dead in the morning. I think a lot of people ended up coming later in the day, but the mornings, and again, even for us, I mean, 10 o'clock is late, but I mean, people ended up showing up, think more like two, three o'clock rather than the morning. So Hagrid's was 20 minutes.
00:04:42
Speaker
It was nothing. ah You know, it was easy. We ended up getting on the bus. You know, what I found very interesting to me was, What I used to feel at Disney with the way that people were in the parks and the cast members and everything, that's what I felt at Universal this time, which is kind of the opposite of when we went last time. I thought it was a little rowdier, this that, the other thing.
00:05:05
Speaker
This time, it was so pleasant. Everyone was so nice. We got on the bus. It wasn't crowded. Everyone was nice on the bus. There was a little chit-chat between people that are going you know to the park with you, things like that.
00:05:19
Speaker
I think made it well worth it. And we ended up riding, you know, everything that day that, you know, we wanted to with no problems.
Epic Universe Exploration
00:05:28
Speaker
We did the Hollywood rocket. Gosh, I forget the the full name of that. But what I found interesting is, is that might we get my daughter on mommy and she is not a rollercoaster person. We get her on that ride, rip rocket, I think.
00:05:41
Speaker
And, you know, we want to go on it because it was closing. And all of a sudden now she loves rollercoasters. Crazy, because, you know, then the next time we ended up going there, you spoiler alert, she ends up going on Velocicoaster, which we'll we'll talk about, because the first day we did not do that.
00:05:57
Speaker
So the other thing that we did that was a little different for us was club level. And you do have this lounge that you can go to. And for us, it was really worth it. So I think for the three days that we were there,
00:06:12
Speaker
think it cost us, you know, a little bit under six, somewhere between four and six hundred extra dollars on top of the rooms. And nevertheless this in the rooms are expensive regardless. And we ended up eating breakfast there.
00:06:26
Speaker
Dinner there. And the dinner was good. Like, you know, there was roast beef that they were carving. One night there was ah carved roast pork. It was really, really good.
00:06:38
Speaker
We ended up getting a bunch of drinks there and things like that. And breakfast, while it was the same, pretty much, the pastries were very good. And, you know, the eggs and everything were fine. Like it was well worth the cost of the money. We really only had to worry about lunch because we weren't rushing to, you know, go to the park in the morning. And, and you know, us like we're not coming back super late. So we would come back, hit dinner at the end. And then I think after dinner, there's a dessert that's like for an hour.
00:07:06
Speaker
So we would, you know, eat dinner, kind of mosey around and then come back for dessert. But again, we love the hotel. i don't know how I got talked into all of this, but we went to the gym every night. Like, you know, my daughter wanted to go. The boys want to go. We're at the gym every night.
00:07:21
Speaker
I got stuck one day. We must have hit, you know, 18,000 to 20,000 steps that day. You know, go to the gym and the boys are like, we're doing legs today. We're doing legs. Like, what are you talking about? We're doing legs. Like I just hit 20,000 steps in the park.
00:07:36
Speaker
Stupid me. Ended up doing legs. you know And the boys, okay, no problem. The next day, they're good to go. And I'm i'm struggling a little bit. My legs were a little bit sore than I would have thought for a regular trip, especially as we get a little bit older. It takes a little bit longer to recover from things.
00:07:52
Speaker
So that was kind of, like I said, the the first day. I'm going skip over and maybe just continue on this part before I talk epic. Okay. Now let's go in order. I think it makes more sense that way to go in order. All right.
00:08:05
Speaker
So the next day was Sunday. i guess that was Father's Day. And we decided that we were, you know, that was the day we're going to Epic. No big deal. We had actually gotten express passes for Epic, which are and you know and an additional cost, even though you're staying at one of the hotels that give express passes. They're only for the older parts.
00:08:25
Speaker
So we did get express passes. I was a little nervous. Didn't need to be. But what that actually ended up doing for us is it made a little bit more relaxed for us because we knew we didn't have to worry about things. that The bigger worries were when rides went down. We were more concerned about rides going down more than rides actually like, you know,
00:08:46
Speaker
Yeah. so for for us it was like okay we we got that just to make sure so get out of the hotel the other nice thing is is that even if you want to kind of rope drop epic it's not open superduper early so like we didn't have to get there early i think we ended up getting there at ate something for you know nine o'clock opening and that was a okay So the first thing that we decided that we had to do is we had to make a choice. Like, what do we do? Do we go to Harry Potter?
00:09:14
Speaker
Do we go to, gosh, there's something in Isles of Burt that you can go to? Or do we end up going to Donkey Kong because, you know, those are rides that are not included with the Express Pass.
00:09:27
Speaker
So we decided we're going to head over to Super Nintendo World first and jump on Minecart Madness. You know, I'm a big Donkey Kong Like, that's what I play in every single game. Mario Party, you know, Super Smash Brothers.
00:09:44
Speaker
It was okay. we did We did have the Donkey Kong float, and that was good. I think you know i don't like to normally it get like i think popcorn buckets and you know that sort of stuff are just not worth it, but I did get the Donkey Kong float with the special mug because I think there's just something special about having a Donkey Kong mug.
00:10:02
Speaker
So again, we're here pretty early. we we head right over to Mind Card Madness. We wrote it. It was okay. I don't think it was anything special. The theming, very cool. Music, very cool. Like, all of that was really neat.
00:10:16
Speaker
The ride was just, uh, like, it just wasn't anything special. So, I will say, though, that going into Super Nintendo World, the the one thing that Universal just does really, really well with all of these things at Epic Universe is...
00:10:30
Speaker
When you look up, you can't see anything else except the world you're in. Like, you look up, you see the sky and the world you're They built these very tall, and it really gives you that feeling that you're there. You don't see any of the other rides from any of the other lands. You don't see anything from any of the other lands. I mean, obviously, barring Celestial Park...
00:10:48
Speaker
where you can see from Celestial Park into the, you know, other land sometimes, especially with roller coasters, but you don't see anything. Super Nintendo World was definitely fun, but we, you know, Mario Kart, we did have the Fast Pass for it, but the wait was already super long. It was like, even with the Fast Pass, I guess it must have broken down in the beginning. So we decided to skip that for now.
00:11:11
Speaker
We obviously rode Yoshi's Adventure, which is it's kind of fun because, you know, you get to find these eggs and things like that. We rode it twice. I don't necessarily think we need to ride it twice, but, you know, it's still Yoshi, so that there is the ability to hop on a Yoshi and take some pics, right? That's definitely worth it.
00:11:29
Speaker
So after we did that, we decided... i Gosh, I think we decided to go over to Dark Universe. It's funny, again, it's been a little bit. So... We go over to Dark Universe and, you know, the land is really well done. Again, you feel like you're in this village.
00:11:46
Speaker
I think at night it's probably a ton better. I will say that. We did not ride at night. So let's start off with the disappointment. Curse of the Werewolf, it's just not it. Like, there's nothing special about it. spinning coaster. It's short.
00:12:00
Speaker
The wait gets crazy for this in the afternoon. i mean, when we were there, there was no wait. So, you know, again, we just fast passed it and walked on. yeah It was just okay.
00:12:12
Speaker
Now, Monsters Unchained, the Frankenstein experiment, it is like the old Forbidden Journey like kind of souped up, right? So it does use that special arm that kind of brings you into it But you are like fully on your back for a while.
00:12:28
Speaker
And again, what's really cool about this, which was cool when they first opened Forbidden Journey, is you're really close to some of these monsters. The Draculas, and and like they did a great job.
00:12:40
Speaker
The animatronics, crazy, right? Like all the special effects, crazy. This was probably our favorite ride here. I think in general, we wrote the just rode this twice and we really did enjoy it. I think, you know, doing this at night, even though it's an inside thing, just coming in and out of the queue, I think at night would be even better. But I thought this was a very well done ride.
00:13:04
Speaker
Again, i don't, I think it's a really good job at something that they've done previously, but it's just a better job at that, right? that That's again, where I think here, you know i was looking forward to epic universe everything is kind of like you know top-notch thing so right instead of just getting a burger at a burger joint like it's like you're going to somewhere where they're doing the best burgers you've ever had but it's still a burger at the end of the day and you know while monsters unchained was great nothing really
00:13:37
Speaker
you know, super different or anything like that, but very well done. The animatronics in Epic Universe in general are just, you know, phenomenal. So we rode those two things. We ate at Das Steakhouse or whatever that place is called.
00:13:51
Speaker
The theming for that is, again, very well done. The food is okay. The buns are like... blackish blue when they do stuff with your poo, right? You have to watch out because all the kids complained the next day, kind of um things were colorful. Let's just say that. But the food with food was very good.
00:14:10
Speaker
So I think at this point is when we kind of asked my daughter, like, hey, what do you want to do? Do you want to go to, um you know, the Celestial Park and go on Stardust Racers? Or do you want to? And she was not going to go on that. Or do you want to try and see what the weight is for Harry Potter and the Battle of the Ministry?
00:14:31
Speaker
Because the thing is, is that's another ride where there's no fast pass for it. So she made the decision of going to Harry Potter, which was the best decision we could have made.
00:14:41
Speaker
20 minutes. That was it. You know, and it wasn't broken. And at this point, actually, they had just opened up Stardust Racer, so it was not running in the morning at all.
00:14:53
Speaker
But the queue at Harry Potter... is just something extraordinary. I don't even really know how to explain it, except that I truly might have been the first time i felt like I was in a movie.
00:15:10
Speaker
It's just everywhere you look. And the thing is, it's tall. It's inside, but you know it's a couple stories tall. And just looking up and kind of seeing the ministry and everything around it, like you truly feel like you're there.
00:15:25
Speaker
you You really do. So I think that that part of it kind of even is better than the ride itself. The ride is fine. um You know, you're in this kind of this box and, you know, you're going left, right, up and down and all that. And you're following along with Ron, Hermione and all of them.
00:15:42
Speaker
The only thing here that kind of stood out was my wife kind of thought the Death Eaters were real actors, like the animatronics for them were so well done. You know, again, we kind of harken back to the fact that the thing that Epic Universe, I think, does so well are the animatronics or, you know, next gen, which is what we would expect from a park that's brand new.
00:16:01
Speaker
So that ride was fine. yeah know Again, i don't think it beats Monsters Unchained. I think it's probably, in terms of the ride itself, just, you know, a step down. But again, there's there's nothing out there that, you know, encompasses this queue and being inside of this mystery. It's just, it's mind-blowing. it Again, I just...
00:16:23
Speaker
Don't think there's anything out there like that. I thought that was great. So we did ride that. We
Comparing Coasters and Attractions
00:16:27
Speaker
also so did get frozen and regular butterbeer every single day that we were there, all three days. Just $150, I think, just on butterbeer alone.
00:16:36
Speaker
But it was it was well worth it. So after that, I think that we ended up going over to the Isle of Berk. I don't understand why everyone is so hype about this. Everyone says this is the best park and it looks so awesome and things like that.
00:16:54
Speaker
I didn't necessarily feel like that. and Maybe it's because, you know, how to train a dragon. I don't think I've actually ever seen it. And I'm an animation guy and i don't think I've ever seen it and haven't seen the live action one. So we did ride, uh, hiccups, wind gliders.
00:17:09
Speaker
Again, it's a family coaster. It's multi launch, which is kind of cool. But ah again, it is what it is. It's, It's a good transition coaster, I guess, for some people, especially like if you're looking for something with a little bit more pizzazz, but not necessarily going to Stardust Racers.
00:17:24
Speaker
It was okay. So Fire Drill, we've kind of done a similar ride at Dollywood and didn't really have a lot of interest there for that. And the kids just would not do Racers Rally. They just didn't want to wait for it and just had no interest. So we didn't actually do that. But for us with the older kids, that was the one land that just was not really fitting for us. And and it's odd because, again, I know a lot of people love it.
00:17:51
Speaker
We did not do the Constellation Carousel because... this Kids didn't want to, but it is, you know, cool looking in Celestial Park. Stardust Racers. So, you know, again, the green side is better, obviously, but I think it was, it was a good coaster.
00:18:08
Speaker
So, you know, we've been on Dueling Dragons, so we understand the kind of the dueling multi-launch coaster. I thought it was really well done, but I just don't think it beats Velocicoaster. And we're going to talk more about that when we talk about Velocicoaster.
00:18:22
Speaker
It's good, though. There's no doubt about it. But because you have Velocicoaster and Stardust Racers in universal, right? They're both kind of in universal. It doesn't seem as big of a deal anymore. so oh, and then after we were all done, we went back to Super Nintendo World and rode Mario Kart Bowser's Challenge, and it was okay.
00:18:44
Speaker
So, again, i think Epic Universe was was great in terms of just kind of ratcheting up certain rides and making you know them better, like I said.
00:18:55
Speaker
I think Monsters Unchained is a better, you know, forbidden journey. Harry Potter and the Battle of Ministry, again, don't even know where I go with that one. it's It's interesting. Again, the queue, phenomenal. Again, there's there's nothing out there that beats the queue for that ride. Nothing.
00:19:09
Speaker
Absolutely nothing out there that beats queue for that ride. So it was okay. Epic Universe was okay. Enjoyable? Yes. Do I need to go back next year? and Absolutely not. I think that, you know, we wrote everything, like I said, twice excluding Battle the Ministry. So I'm kind of good with that.
00:19:27
Speaker
The other thing too is...
Revisiting Universal and Family Fun
00:19:29
Speaker
you know, we didn't see any vloggers. It was really nice. There was really no people out there filming. It was, you know, it was really nice. We also kind of, you know, you you kind of forget, like when you're doing, you know, self, you know, self-ordering, you're not playing paying any sort of extra fee or any tipping. Like it's kind of nice to not have that screen be put in your face where it's like, oh, you want to, you know, add a tip or anything like that.
00:19:58
Speaker
We did see Mario and Luigi. Characters seemed a little harder to find than I would have thought. So we never felt like it was rushed. And, you know, again, it was a great park.
00:20:09
Speaker
but I don't need to go back for a little while, right? That's kind of how I felt. But again, these lands are very well done, very immersive. Everywhere you look, you felt immersed. Like I haven't ever felt that way at Disney.
00:20:20
Speaker
Even in Star Wars, like I didn't feel the same way like I felt in each one of these lands. I really felt like I was there, immersed, and really enjoyed that aspect of it. You know Universal knocked it out of the park in terms of their way that they kind of landscaped and set up these lands. so So that was the second part. That was us, you know, kind of getting over to Epic and doing things like that.
00:20:45
Speaker
I really wish we were able to have gone to Volcano Bay. It just didn't fit in our schedule. This was a quick trip that we made knowing that, you know, my daughter would be out school, the boys would be home. We just wanted to make sure we got to Epic Universe because our schedule looks a little crazy. We knew that we probably wouldn't be able to go for a year and we have some other things planned for next year. So that was Epic Universe, though. We can take the boat back to the hotel.
00:21:07
Speaker
were back kind of early. Like I said, we we ended up knocking out there, getting some food, getting our you know drinks and things like that. And then the next day we went back to Universal. So we did go on Velocicoast, right? Probably, know, well, let's talk about that last. So I ended up going on all the rides we've been on before, right? Mummy, all that sort of stuff. You want to hit that again, that was fine.
00:21:28
Speaker
And I had never been on Fast and Furious, which we ended up going on, which... was better than i thought i guess because just to the ride vehicle i thought was well done i mean screens are screens at the end of the day um my daughter also went on hulk which i was surprised about and she enjoyed it but we did go on hulk and that was ah tough one because they shut it down right before we got up there and then it was back open and then it was closed and it was open but we ended up getting on hulk And again, surprised that she went on it, but she did have a good time. So i think in the future, we're we're good with her for sort of most coasters, unless they're super crazy.
00:22:06
Speaker
So we ended up going on Velocicoaster, and I just think it's a better coaster than Stardust Racers. That was our first time on the coaster. We rode it twice.
00:22:17
Speaker
And I think I like it because, and and the kids liked it as well. I think, you know, for us all together, we thought it was a better coaster than, Stardust Racers, but it, the buildup of it it, it builds upon itself. And I think that's pretty cool. I think the theming, man, not so much, but I mean, Stardust Racers doesn't have a lot of theming either. So again, we're Velocicoaster fans.
00:22:40
Speaker
I think that the way it builds up, I think works a little bit better. I think, The two huge kind of humps and stardust racers at the beginning kind of are the excitement factor. And then it kind of goes down where Velasco coaster just keeps going up. So that's what we would kind of say. We ate a Confisco. I thought that was good.
00:22:59
Speaker
And then, you know, again, we rode some of the rides that we wanted. And we ended up seeing like some of the people outside of the mummy. We went to Megatron, but we didn't realize that you know the Megatron that you see on Instagram all the time is the one out in Hollywood. It's not the one at Universal in Florida. So I was talking to the fellow that was you know the handler, and he was saying that, no, this...
00:23:25
Speaker
Megatron really doesn't say as much. So it was a little bit of a disappointment. I think he should. You just like the one out in Hollywood. I think that's the fun part of it. So that part was a teeny bit boring in terms of a Megatron, but the kids did get some pictures and some video.
00:23:40
Speaker
So we go back to the hotel after that, and a few things happen. Here's a pretty funny story. So we'll start with the fact that, like, you know, we were driving, so I kind of asked at the club level if we could take in an extra soda or water for our trip home, and they ended up giving us so much. i Still drinking the soda now.
00:24:00
Speaker
You know, weeks later, they gave us so much. I thought that was very nice. And like I said... the portofino was huge the kids loved it loved it loved it loved it and everyone there was just so nice and went above and beyond and he felt very comfortable there so we come back and i don't think i had been at the pool yet the kids might have been at the pool but i had not been at the pool yet so i want to make sure we get to the pool this is just so funny so It's me, my middle son, and my daughter. My oldest son's girlfriend lives in the area, so she was coming over to visit us, and she ended up getting a little bit later. So it was the three of us, for the time being, that went to the pool while he was waiting for her.
00:24:42
Speaker
My wife had not come down yet. And we're just sitting there kind of talking about how, like... You know, there are like crazy families here though, right? Like at the end of the day, there's people that are at the pool that are just letting their kids run wild and they're just a little crazy.
00:24:57
Speaker
And then out of the blue, we're kind of at the end of the water slide-ish area, but like in that cove that exists over there, this little kid comes over And he just starts talking about haymakers.
00:25:11
Speaker
Like, hey, I'm going to throw a haymaker and knock you out. So he says this to my middle son, who's, you know, 19. But he works with kids all the time. So we're like, okay, this is kind of weird. And then he starts climbing on him and gets right in his face.
00:25:24
Speaker
And he's like acting like somebody from like the Little Rascals almost at this point, right? He must have been somewhere between five and seven. he just talking about, I'm going to start throwing haymakers. He says,
Reflecting on the Vacation
00:25:35
Speaker
you know, I throw haymakers at my brother. And we're like, well, how old is your brother? he's older than me, but I still throw haymakers at him all the time. I don't know, maybe if he just learned the word or whatever it was. So it was hysterical though.
00:25:47
Speaker
So then, you know, we're just kind of sitting there and he's, you know, kind of climbing on my son a little bit, still talking about haymakers here. and tells us we can't talk to any girls, otherwise he'll throw haymakers us, right?
00:26:02
Speaker
Well, then his brother comes along, and he said, oh, that's my brother, Drake. And I said, okay. So then, you know, we're kind of like, hey, Drake, your your your brother's talking about throwing haymakers.
00:26:16
Speaker
and And Drake comes over, and Drake may have been like 12, takes his brother, who again at this point, have to remember, is in a life vest. So there's a lot of like him talking smack, but he's still in a life vest in the pool, right? It's not like the pool's that deep or anything. i didn't like And Drake proceeds to pick him up,
00:26:37
Speaker
And like body slam him in the pool and like almost drown him. So to the point where like I thought I'd have to get involved because he's been pushing him under the water. The other poor kid starts crying. mean, it's his brother, right? Parents still nowhere to be seeing it all.
00:26:51
Speaker
I'm starting to feel a little bad about this. We're kind of like, oh, maybe we shouldn't have anything to Drake, right? Because this poor kid's drowning. Now, after it was all over, the brother, you know, Drake came over and was talking to his brother and they made up and they were hugging. Because i think that the younger kid was like, I'm going to go tell mom. And I think maybe that scared Drake into acting better.
00:27:08
Speaker
But it was pretty funny for all of us just kind of seeing that, especially after we were just talking about, you know, how crazy families just just leave their kids and don't really care what they're doing. And there we kind of got it firsthand right in our face. So that was funny.
00:27:24
Speaker
You know we drove home uneventful as well. Like I said, the drive back wasn't so bad. My wife ended up, I think she took, and maybe, i think the hotel was able to get her back to the airport. And then she took whatever the mirror service from airport to Universal. So it wasn't terrible.
00:27:47
Speaker
I think that worked out fine for us, you know, in terms of just having to drive one car This is what I will say, though, to some of the people that have older kids.
00:27:58
Speaker
Well, now let me take that back. For some of the people that have younger kids, this was probably the best family vacation we've ever had. I think as the kids kind of gotten older. So now right now we're talking about, you know, again, they're not even kids. They're adults. So 15, 19 and 21.
00:28:12
Speaker
But, you know, they're still living with us, still going to school. we like we had a great time it was a lot less pressure for us as parents because they were able to make decisions and again like my daughter made the you know decision for us to go over to oh no let's go over to battle and she worked out perfect right with no line whatsoever thought that was great but just in general like asking them like what they want to eat where they want to go what they want to do just becomes way easier when they kids are a little bit older like i said probably our favorite family vacation together there was
00:28:43
Speaker
No real arguing. No one got their feelings heard. Everyone kind of did what they wanted to do. And if they wanted to do something else, they were old enough to go do it. Like my one son, one day, I was like, I'm not going to the gym. I don't care which guy. not going to the gym. He's like, I'm going to gym. It's like, all right, fine. Go ahead. Go to the gym. There was no problem.
00:29:00
Speaker
So overall, great vacation. Was Epic Universe worth it for us? Absolutely. I mean, it is someplace to go see for sure. You know, I thought that that's, you know, was a great place. Do I need to go back anytime soon? Absolutely not. Right? Like I can go a few years.
00:29:16
Speaker
You know, before I need to go back, to that I think they would almost need two new lands before I go back. I don't know if one will necessarily do it depending what's there. But we did love the hotel. I think that we would stay there again.
00:29:29
Speaker
i mean, again, we love Royal Pacific too, so either one worked out well. You know, it's tough to know if you should get the express passes for Epic Universe. We did. We probably didn't need them. But, you know, again, did I think that it was nice being able to ride everything twice by waiting online once and then express passing once?
00:29:44
Speaker
Absolutely. Especially if you're only going to go for a day. You know, there's no sort of issue with us wanting to ride something. We got a little scared because Stardust Racers was down for a while.
00:29:55
Speaker
We didn't know if we were going to be able to ride it, but that worked out well. And were also kind of scared because that of the ministry obviously was down for a little bit as well. I say obviously because I think the ride goes down a fair chunk, but we were able to get on that as well. So overall, that's kind of our epic trip and stay tuned for, you know, with this cruise that we have coming up. I don't necessarily know if I'm going to be on any of the shows in the summer, maybe not back to the show until August.
00:30:20
Speaker
September, ah probably late August, let's say. So you're going to get these, you know, one-off detours from me every once a while. So have a great day and make sure to listen to the next one when we're back from our cruise.
00:30:33
Speaker
Thanks.