Halloween Horror Nights 2023

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Introductions and Sponsorship Announcement

[1:10] Welcome back to another meeting of the Gold Key Adventurer's Society.
My name is Dan Leonard. Hi Dan.
And joining me this week in the studio is Heather Strait.
Hiya. And Mr. Jeff Williams. Hey, that's me. It sure is. It sure is.
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It's spooky season. It's spooky season! It's very spooky.
The most wonderful time of the year. It is.
Yeah, a couple months ago we went to the Magic Kingdom and experienced the not so scary, not so very scary clock. A couple of months ago, back in August.
So weird. Yeah, that is weird that we went to the Halloween party two months ago.
First week of August.
I guess it's a traditional start of Christmas, but this one's for Halloween.
It's still not even Halloween. No, dear God. I've already outgrown my Halloween shirt from that party.

Halloween Horror Nights: Dark and Twisted Halloween Experience

[2:31] So, yeah, we saw the tame side of Halloween in Orlando. Now we're going to take you to the dark and twisted side.
Very dark and very twisted.
That's right, Heather and Jeff were at one of our favorite events of the year, Halloween Horror Nights. Hashtag hosted.
Hashtag hosted. Universal Orlando Resorts. So, you braved the fog, made it back to Tell the Tale. Yes.
Tell the Tale. the rain too. It was a little bit rainy the night we went.

[3:05] We had really good luck because there were a couple of times when it was absolute like flood the streets, torrential rain, but they were always when we were in a house or when we were under a covered queue. So we actually didn't get all that wet. Y'all were also under a tornado warning at that time. So you really did get lucky. We did. I mean, our experience didn't get interrupted at all. We spent about three hours there and were able to see seven houses, which.

[3:36] Is pretty fantastic if you're not on an RIP tour to get that many houses in. So this is something new for me this year. We did have the express pass though, so that was great. And that worked great. This was a Wednesday night? Wednesday night, but it was full. It was very, very busy.
And I will say this is the first time I experienced Halloween Horror Nights without an RIP tour and instead using the Express Pass.

[4:07] I got to say it is a great way to do it. It is worth every penny.
And a whole lot less expensive than the RIP. Definitely. We waited, the most we waited in a queue was just under 30 minutes.

Express Pass: A Great Way to Beat the Lines

[4:23] And it was for a house that the standby wait was 180 minutes.
So it was a killer.
Was that Stranger Things that was the longest? That was Stranger Things.
The other one that was really long was The Last of Us.
And that one went fast. Yeah, all those right in a row there that are the ones right under Rip Ride Rocket between there and Jimmy Z Fallon.
All of those four houses right there had crazy long lines, but they were so organized how they get you in and out of those things. They weave the lines around and for the most part they're covered.
So we were in the rain, not much. Pretty great.
The Last of Us is, that and Stranger Things are probably the two premier houses this year.
And the lines were, the standby lines were insane. The Last of Us is back out.

[5:17] Trying to get my bearings, it's back out really behind the parks.
And they built this network of raised- Behind Men in Black.
Yeah, raised carpeted platforms because they've had some flooding issues back there when in the fall you get some pretty torrential rains in the Orlando area.
So they built these raised carpeted walkways to keep everybody up out of the water when it floods back there.
And it was impressive, but it was such a long line.
That weird, fuzzy, not quite an indoor, not like Brady Bunch yard carpet, but it was just a weird texture thing. But it was not slippery at all, so that was interesting.
And the water could pass through it, but it kept you grippy.
Very good idea back there because I've slogged through back there in the rain too before and it's nasty. It's yuck. Yeah.

[6:10] Real quick before we get into some of the attractions You guys mentioned that the express pass was a great option for getting through those houses

Late Night Express Pass and Stay and Scream Options

[6:18] Yes I wanted to point out that you won't see it really advertised anywhere on the websites or anything But if you didn't grab an express pass ahead of time Sometimes when you're at the event, they'll put a late night express pass out for sale and they'll have kiosks out around the park that you can grab those for a reduced price for like the second half of the night.

[6:40] But that's not a guarantee.
It kind of depends on how many express passes they already sold.
So if you decide you want one, grab one of those. But then another great way to get some extra houses in, is what they call the stay in screen.
Yes, I was gonna mention that that's another fantastic strategy.
We saw that staging as just before it launched.
We were leaving the park to go to dinner before we came back for Halloween Horror Nights, and they had everybody in the staged areas ready for stay and scream.
So what you do is you pick a holding area that you want to go to.
They have, I think, three or four of them that kind of give you access to different houses.
So you want to plan out which ones are important to you to get in, and you get into this holding zone right around the time when they're, well, a little bit before they start kicking all the guests out who don't have Horror Nights passes.
And then you get to go into the mazes. You get to go into a specific area of the park early before Halloween Horror Nights opens.
And you can get several houses out of the way. I've heard like three to four, right?
Yeah. When Kendra was there, she did Horror Nights twice this year. Lucky.

[7:53] Yeah, I know. She she got three to four houses and she did the the holding zone that got you into Stranger Things, Last of Us, and I think is Chucky over there. There was another one.
One of the big ones was over there. Can you combine that stay and scream with express pass so you can really bang them out? You sure could. Yeah, that would be a great strategy for seeing all of them on one night without a VIP tour. We went to dinner and we didn't start in the park It was a little after seven o'clock, and we left just after 10 and had done seven of the 10 houses.

Making the Most of Halloween Horror Nights without VIP Tour

[8:29] And if it hadn't been just pouring rain, we would have stayed for another.
But by that time, I was just tired and ready to go.
And we had time for one drink stop, one boozy beverage stop, and got to go through the scare zones as well.

[8:45] So it's a great strategy. It really is worth it. And if you wanna spend a little bit of extra money, there's two different RIP tour options.
One fully private, which is obviously the most expensive option, but you can have up to 10 people with you on your private tour.
And the other one is just public. Oh, that one looks like it's gonna be Kendra. Yeah.
Yeah. The other one is a public RIP tour where you join a group of folks.
And both of those options, you can get all 10 houses and the show and the scare zones.
And they include bar and snack stops along the way.
It's a full night, but really it's worth it.

[9:29] And a buffet dinner before you go into the event and you get valet parking cop.
So it is a good deal. It really is a good deal.
The public one, I think, wasn't it about, it varies the night.
I think it's between like 250 and can go up to 350 a person, a person, something like that?
I know that the night that Kendra did it, it was $347 with tax.
Is the public one that includes the same bar stops and buffet?
Mm-hmm, sure does.
Yeah, that's the one that they did. Yep. They did the public one, yeah.
Yep, and you get those same things with the private one, but you're paying around $3,500, $4,000 for the tour.
For 10 people. For 10 people. So if you're sharing that with 10 people, Yeah, it's the same price. It's about the same price, yeah.

[10:18] And I highly recommend those tours because not only do you get all that extra stuff, you're getting into the houses even faster than the Express Pass because they have their own RIP tour line and it's very short.
There was like no wait at all the times I've done that. They just walk you right in.
It also grants you express pass which is good not just for the houses but for attractions also.
Right. And then you have your own guide who's, as you're walking around the park, is giving you the backstory on all the houses. Which, if you haven't done that research yourself and you're not familiar with the house, you might not understand what you're seeing when you're inside. I don't know if it matters anyway. It's dark hallways and people jump out and go.
Some of it though, I know that Kendra specifically said for the Chucky house, her first time through, she didn't get the backstory of what was supposed to be going on.
And then once the guide explained on her second trip that it was Chucky's piss that these people are doing like a cheap haunted house impression of him. And then it made sense why he was going on a rampage. And she said that actually really did improve knowing the backstory there.

[11:29] There were some things that I wasn't familiar with the IP, so knowing the backstory was nice.
We were being hosted by some Universal Parks and Resorts sales execs, and they are, both of them were Halloween Horror Nights super fans.
So they gave us the backstory on those houses, which was really helpful.
Some of them, obviously, I knew because they're pretty famous.
And what is this, Exorcist? I'm not familiar. Yeah.
The Exorcist house was awesome. Honestly, I loved every single one that we did.

Skipping Chucky: Our Hosts' Least Favorite House

[12:05] We didn't go into Chucky because that was the least favorite house of our hosts.
So we said, you know, if we had to miss, what would you recommend?
And they were like, eh, Chucky is not, Chucky's not our favorite.
So we didn't do that. We started up at the front of the house, or front of the park, and banged out all those houses that are right there along Rip Ride Rocket.
And they were all excellent.
The campground kills Yeti one, that one was great.
We went- And that's so many, we saw a shift change too, and there's like 45 Yetis in that building, it's crazy when they come out. The backstory on that one is that- It means they have at least 90 costumes.
Yeah, someone has killed a baby Yeti, and it turns out that's a bad idea.
Yeah, and Mama Yeti's chest. Weird, I'm shocked. Yes.
We started though at Blood Moon, And I have a, any house that has where you enter a room and there's just like two rows of figures and you know that some of them are real and some of them are not real, that one had two rooms like that and that was the first house we went into.
So I started off the night with wet pants. And that was not from the rain, ladies and gentlemen.
I

[13:23] Think we've mentioned before that I jump-scare easily. I like tend to like the ones that are kind of the original stories instead of just some, Walk-through version of the current movie that's out or something. They do some really cool original stuff I like that one blood moon. The Yeti was cool. Blood moon was a lot of gore It's I'm not wasn't really familiar with the backstory. There seems to be a lot of killing People that were pitchforked and they worship the blood moon or something.

Unraveling the Mystery of the Blood Moon Worshipers

[13:57] I don't know exactly what that was about. Was it kind of a children of the corn kind of thing going on?
Kind of, yeah.
It's dark and people jump out of these hidey holes and scare you dressed as various monsters.
Yes. So weird. That's kind of the theme of all of this. I've never heard of this concept. Yeah.
Let's see, in Colonial Era Village, moon worshipers witness a blood moon at their fall festival.
They take it as a sign to hunt down any non-followers, including you and your scream squad.
Oh, awesome. Well, yes, it was very gory. I know, if I look up and I see a blood moon, then I'm like, well, that means we have to kill everyone that doesn't believe what I believe. Ha ha ha.

Stranger Things: Exciting Season-based Iteration

[14:33] This was, what, the third or fourth iteration of Third Stranger Things?
I really loved this one based on the current season.
So you had Owen, Dustin, and what are... Chrissy Wake-up! Chrissy Wake-up!
And they're on top of the trailer fighting off the... Yeah, with the Demo-Bats. Yes.
It's so good. Yeah, that was super cool. And then when you go in Chrissy's trailer, there's the portal up top, and so you can see a whole separate second upside down set above you or Dustin was up in there. It was wild.

[15:15] A lot of kind of that upside down and right side up MC Escher.
He kind of do is very, very cool.
Yeah, it's amazing. It's worth mentioning to people who aren't familiar with how Halloween horror nights, so this isn't your typical set up in a strip mall.
Local haunted house deal. They bring in set designers and special effects artists from Hollywood.
Many of whom have worked on these actual productions. And they do just the biggest budget, most amazing.
The two times they've done Jordan Peele movies, he himself came and designed the house and was instrumental in building it.
So that, like, they've taken, and it's wild. The sets, like, I'm knocking on them.
These are sturdy concrete walls and doors and stuff. Like it's really, really sturdy, impressive stuff.
Incredibly realistic. I was.
Vecna got right in my face a few times. I mean, she might as well walk around with a target on her shirt.
It is hysterical. Everyone knows target me.
Doesn't matter. Well, because you're screaming.

[16:25] But also Jeff Williams pointing at me. The one time I went ahead of you, I was pointing them out.
Cause I know where they're going to be because I know how those things work.
So I would just lean around there and point behind me and go get her.
And they do.
And so when I would look and nothing would happen, she would think nothing was there.
And then they'd, blah, out of the same hole I just walked past.
Stranger Things was one of three houses where I exited out at the end and it was clearly the exit and I was out of the house and then somebody scared me.
Great. Who loves to do that?
Awesome. Yeah, you can see the light from outside and the security guard and you're like, oh good, it's all you. We're done. And this year, so the sets and the costuming are incredibly realistic.
One of the things they did this year with the tactile experience is they seemed to like wet things.
Which was the Yeti one? We had to go through this maze.
Yeah, those wet sleeping bags were the curtains between the doors.
And then they also have wet, I noticed they had this at the year before at the bug one, and this one, and that yellow one, they had wet string.

[17:38] It's just hanging all over in the ceiling. So as you're going through, there's just like, just ick, feels like hair or whatever touching you. It's like, blah, blah, blah. It's so gross.
Those wet sleeping bags were disgusting.
Yeah, I'm gonna have bad dreams about that for a while. Cause you had to like move the wet sleeping bag to like.
Yeah, to get to work.

[17:56] And it was super cold in there.

[17:59] Like the Yeti one, they, very realistic. They made it so, so cold.
So it's wet, cold. Yeah, they're blowing fake snow around and it's like a really, really cold, some kind of sprinkly icy wind going in there and then yetis jumping out everywhere. So good.

Dueling Dragons: Choose Your Fate, Sci-Fi Fantasy Adventure

[18:13] I thought Dueling Dragons, which they, this was, I don't know if this was the first time, it was interesting that they made a house based on one of their own rides.
That one was cool. It was very cool. It was not scary. It was more like sci-fi. Not scary.
I had somebody jump out from either side and get right in my face.
Yeah. Jumped two feet in the air.
They usually get you from one side or the other. This was a, both of them came out at the same time.
It was like, there were startling things that they tried to do, like the setup itself is more like kung fu-y and mystical and sci-fi.
Yeah, like fantasy. True.
And this is one, it seems like the last few years they've really enjoyed having one, houses where the outcome is different for you. At the end you choose, choose your fate. Two different lines.
Right, since it was, since it was based the Dueling Dragons racing roller coaster, you could choose which dragon you wanted to follow for the finale. And they change up the finale, so depending on which one you choose. And I don't remember choosing anything, I just was following the people. We just followed them, yeah.

[19:19] Merlin lost in the one that we chose. His severed head was brandished in my face at one point.
That was fun. I have no recollection. It's all just booga booga holes to me.

[19:33] I gotta say, I'd love to walk through there alone where you weren't being pushed from behind and pulled from ahead, or you could really take these sets and stuff in, because there's rooms that are so amazing with the lighting and the effects and the sets I just want to like step to the side and look but they always have staff. That's.

[19:54] Rightfully so you can't stand around. Yeah, man, I'd love to go in there. I know they have a, Lights on tour that you can do. That's an upcharge I would love to see that sometime but I'd love rather than lights on just to buy myself, No, the boogers, but just let me go through and see the lights effects And I want to see in the dark with just full effects. Yeah buy yourself the private VIP tour and yeah.

[20:19] Yeah, but even then, you know, you got people in front and behind you.
There's just no way to ever to really take that stuff in. And it's so great.
Like, I just love the art behind it all.

Monsters Unmasked: Classic Universal Monsters Return

[20:29] My favorite this year was the classic Monster's House, the monsters unmasked.
And I didn't know what to expect from it.

[20:37] I had no idea that the first, a good bit of it was Phantom of the Opera. And killer. So cool.
They went back to the original, original Universal Monsters.
This was all the oldest ones. Phantom of the Opera, Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
The Invisible Man. The Invisible Man, like when we were in, I didn't know where the hell we were until I realized it was Phantom of the Opera, because it was like, oh, this is so beautiful.
You're in like a theater, and then you realize it's the opera house, and then he's doing his thing.
But then you come out of that into like the Invisible Man stuff, and the effects they were doing in there, they had multiple people in the room, in a very dark room that they would hit just with a flash of black light.
And he has the white bandage on his face. So all you could see was just a face here, an arm there, a leg there, and part of his torso. So cool. But they had multiple actors, they'd hit with these different lights and it looked like he was disappearing and reappearing in front of you.
Crazy.
So, so good. And then yeah, into the Hunchback of Notre Dame, which there's an effect that they do in there that where he's up on his bell tower and he apparently you don't always get this but he's on like he falls and.

[21:54] His feet stay planted, but the rest of his body, fully bungee, boing, boing, like right towards your face.
And he happened to do it, like I stopped and stood up and he did it to me.
But apparently he can only do 20 minutes at a time. It's one of those jobs that- It's a stunt. High risk, like Tinkerbell at Disney.
So they can only do 20 minutes, then they have to be off two hours or something crazy.
So then they're swapping it out and it'll be, nobody will be up on that bell tower for bits while they're swapping out characters.
Yeah, because they got to hook him up to a rig and all, but that effect is wild because you're looking up and then the whole thing just starts to come towards you and then boing, he's falling off as the bell tower collapses. It's crazy.
Really, really cool. That house was really, really awesome. I'm so glad they're leaning into their classic monsters because they've got so many great IPs and they've done a great job updating them.
Yeah. I think that was my favorite house last year as well, that that was the one the Bride of of Frankenstein screamed in my face and it scared the crap out of me.
That was the year before. Was that the year before? Yeah, I think three years running, they've had to play Wolfman.
The first one was Wolfman and Dracula and Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein.
And then last year was different ones. And then this one was from the 30s, crazy. Very cool.

The Last of Us: A Terrifyingly Well-Done House

[23:13] The Last of Us, great, I loved the show. The house was actually based on the game.
The video game. But I understood it, having watched the show, it made sense to me. Clickers. That was very cool, yeah.
He just looked like a different guy. He didn't look like, what's his name? Pedro Pascal. Pedro.
Great stuff. Yeah, really, really, really well done house. And while you're in the queue, that clickety sound that those things make is unnerving in the dark. It's very amplified, very all around you. They had the music going as you're outside in the queue, which, gets you amped up for going into that house, which is great. That was the one where we were in just torrential rain and we were under this shed. Luckily we were. Right as we stepped, There was like 50 yards. We had to stand in line and the race the rain stopped. It was like, Hand of god. It's excellent. Yeah, it was crazy.

[24:10] And then of course, there's the scare zones Also good fun. Um one that, Really got me this year Yes, like 70s vampires. It was woodstock. It was woodstock themed. Yeah, So real quick though real quick though the scare zones if you haven't attended halloween horror nights These are like just the outside areas in the park. You're walking through and different areas of the park are themed to different, Horror themes and so the actors are roaming around on the sidewalks Scaring you and they like to do there always seems to be at least one stop where there's kind of like a stage setup So do little shows musical shows going on and stuff, but they really have some cool themes going on there And so the one was, I forget the name of it, but it was like a zombie or a vampire attack happening at a Woodstock festival.
Yeah, it was terrifying because they weren't super obvious costumes.
So I couldn't tell. You know, Halloween Horror Nights, a lot of the attendees are dressed.
There's a lot of great people watching people dress up.
I couldn't tell who the actors were and who were the other attendees.
So they kept freaking me out.

[25:23] And it was very foggy.
I was looking through pictures from there, and I was like, you can't, you can't, because they're in just regular clothes, and there's just like a random dude with a bloody face.
I'm like, why did you take a picture? Yeah, a lot of tie-dye.
Yeah, until they opened their mouth with their, they had their fangs in your face, you couldn't tell that they weren't just a, and it was very, it was a very well-attended event that, night. There were a lot of people out.
They had some like sexy vampire go-go dancers, they always do a little bit of some kind of go-go monster thing.
So it's like sexy girls dancing that are a werewolf. Or this year it was the, you know, the concert goers in the hippie gear, like Woodstock dancers wearing go-go boots and stuff, but they were all rotted face. And it was, it was great.

Chainsaw Gang: A Goth Disco Experience

[26:13] And then of course, my nemesis, the Chainsaw Gang. The squad of chainsaws this year is so cool.
They have these guys that, yeah, they look, I don't know what the theme is.
A little bit like Hellraiser guy pinhead. It was kind of like a goth disco Chainsaw crew, I don't know what but they'd come 30 of them at a time.

A Terrifying Encounter in the Fog

[26:38] So I'm like, okay, I'm speeding up and somehow they managed to get in front of us in a section, Yeah, they blast it with fog and then they start stepping out of everywhere, but there was this one dude It was crouched down in the fog and they blasted she could see that he was waiting on her and they filled the street was such Thick fog. You couldn't see anything till he was like an inch from her.

Safety guidelines and interactions with scare actors

[27:07] We'll get near you and scary and all that they do not touch you can't touch and allowed to touch or do anything like that So some of the effects or like I was saying the string or the wet backpack kind of our wet sleeping bag Yes, that, That's tactile. The scare actors do not touch that. Nobody's ever gonna touch you out there.
Whether in a scare zone or in a house. Try not to punch them in the face when they scare you.
Try. Apparently that's a very real hazard. I was carrying an umbrella this year because of the rain and I didn't smack anyone with it.
That makes a really good tool for if the person in front of you is a scaredy cat too.
You have a wet umbrella that you can just touch to the side of their face in a dark something.
When they're on edge because they're in a dark haunted house.
So if you predict that scare actor's gonna come from the left, you just hit them on the right side.
So they turn that way and then, bah, from the other side, they get scared.
Yeah, it's delightful, delightful.
So fun. It's me, I was doing that. Yes.

[28:13] It's shocking, shocking. But it is such good fun. It took me a long time to warm up to the idea of going to this event because I scare easily, but it's so fun.
You just gotta, you know, relax and scream and it's a ton of fun and so, so well done.

[28:35] Incredibly well organized. I'm always just so impressed at how they can have that going on in the middle of a park that's also open for business during the day.
It is unbelievable, the logistics behind this thing. And it's gotta cost so many millions of dollars to put on and out, you know.
But then they're selling out, you know, a hundred buck tickets.
And their resorts sell out as well, because it's an event that goes pretty late.
You can stay, I think, as late as two o'clock in the morning, if I'm remembering, yeah.
So a lot of people will grab a hotel room and stay really close.

Incorporation of Harry Potter section and other attractions

[29:10] This is one of the years, it's very recent that they incorporated.
Harry Potter Diagon Alley section into Halloween Horror Nights. We didn't go back there, but they have the Death Eaters roaming back there. And then there are some attractions that are still, running that you can ride as well as the houses. Yeah, for several years now, they've had that open. This was the very first year that they had the Death Eaters come out during Horror Nights.
And that's the only time that's- It's weird. Yeah, it's the only time that they're out there too is they come out during Horror Nights and and they do this whole thing. They throw, they cast the dark mark and they're looking for.

[29:47] Recruits come join them. It's really cool. And then we didn't, we didn't make it back into the Harry Potter section at all. Yeah, we were focused on houses. Understandable. That's, that's the signature there. They have some other stuff going on too. In City Walk, the red coconut club becomes the dead coconut club. Very cool. To celebrate Hornets. We got to see that last year. Yeah, they usually have some entertainment up there, musical groups.
Some characters. We had the wolfman scare the crap out of a lot of us in there.
Kendra had the Bride of Frankenstein, literally, and Frankenstein's Monster, right up inches from her face. Nice. It's a really cool video she got of them.

[30:31] So there's that at Cabana Bay Beach Resort, they've got this cool, it's kind of like one of those selfie museums where you can go and there's different photo ops set up and they're all different Chucky scenes.
So there's like, there's like one where there's a giant Chucky doll and a giant like bird, cage and you can get inside there's like Chucky trapped you, Chucky pushing you off the top of a building. Oh, cool. All kinds of cool stuff like that. So that's really fun.
Of course, they do their famous tribute store in the park that's open all day long, not just during Horror Nights.
And there's a video that I made just of that that's up on Key to the World Travels Instagram.
I'll link it on our stuff. It is so cool.
The whole theme was, this year for that was like old pulp horror comic books, like Tales from the Crypt. The tribute stores are so well done.
Very... There's an attraction in itself.
The most recent one I enjoyed was the Jurassic Park tribute store.
Very cool. Yeah, that one was really cool.
Jeff had an encounter when we stopped at one of the bars at Halloween Horror Nights.

[31:41] Did you get scared stupid? Yes. I don't even remember what that was.
David asked pumpkins.
Oh, yeah. No, yeah. Yeah, I love that guy. That guy does a great David S. Pumpkins and people were loving it.
It was funny.
Our, the guy that was hosting us is Tom Vallee of Universal Sales.
He didn't know who that was. He's like, do you know who that guy is?
And I told him, he goes, man, everybody but me knows who that is.
I did not know who it was. He thought it was a guest. He thought it was a guest and couldn't figure out why everybody was so into this suit this This guy was... Yeah.

[32:21] I love it. He's very funny. And they have themed food and beverages all through the park, which are fun. I had a, I cannot remember what it was called, but it was, Oh, it was a peacock tail and it was purple gin drink.
It was delicious.
We didn't have of course blood ones and all different colored and there's just bars everywhere. Some of the normal bars that are usually there, but then they have just stands all around with beer and white cloths and that kind of stuff to carry around.
And you can just carry it around with you, even in the houses.
They didn't care if you brought in your drinks. We had dinner at Toothsome right before, so we didn't stop for any snacks because we stuffed our faces at Toothsome.

[33:08] They do have some really cool food that's themed even to some of the specific houses.
So Chucky's area, they have a couple of things are kind of like carnival themed food. They had some Nashville style hot chicken wings, but they're in like, it was popcorn chicken, so it was in a popcorn bucket.
And they also had this really weird hot dog that had Kool-Aid pickles and the bun was like a fun fetty cake, but a hot dog bun. Weird.
Apparently the Kool-Aid pickles were really good. Kendra is very, yeah, it's just, it's apparently a southern thing you you dump out the pickle brine and you fill the jar up with cherry kool-aid and you let the pickles marinate she kendra is like a big pickle fan and she no i love pickles but i'm just so i'm making that face because what south do they live in i've never i don't know it's some other part of the south florida florida please tell me they had mushroom soup for the last of us.

[34:10] They had this amazing, it was actually a mushroom ravioli. Made with bits of real face.
Yes. It was a mushroom ravioli, but it came in this tin can, because the whole thing there is the food stands were supposed to be a ration distribution center for, because of the plague or whatever it is.
So you go and you get in line for your rations and you get this tin can with a label on it that's like food ration and it's the cordyceps mushrooms, mushroom ravioli. Nice.
There's fungus sticking up out of your canvas. You got some photos of that.
That is a great idea.
Yeah.

[34:51] Yep. But yeah, so a lot of the houses have those themed food.
They have the iconic twisted taters that are spiraled French fry potato things.
French fried potatoes. We're coming up on the end of this year's Halloween Horror Nights season.
It's true.

[35:12] I'm so thrilled we got to go. I was afraid we weren't going to get to go, because our fall travel schedule has been bananas.
And we managed to squeeze in a night of it, so I'm thrilled.
I'm sorry you didn't get to go this year, Daniel. We are going to have to do a Gold Key Adventurer Society Halloween Horror Nights trip next year.
I agree. Yeah, they'll be running for a couple more weeks, because they typically give you one or two days after how I think this one ends on the fourth. Yeah.
So there's a few days and they haven't announced Christmas at Universal Orlando yet.
They're canceling it at this point. They might as well. Holy crap.
People are so people are so antsy to find out when they're going to be able to book, breakfast with the Grinch.
We saw one of the areas I was in front of the last of us houses where they had parade float storage normally under that shed where they had the queue and so there was still like five or six giant they wrap them like marine boats do when they're dry docked so they were all wrapped and they were those were the.

[36:23] Christmas things but the people we were with said they'd been having the Christmas parades out and practicing everything so you got the whole place looks like haunted Halloween and then late at night they're out here practice there early in the morning before opening, practicing the Christmas parade in the middle of chainsaw land and stuff. So it's very funny to think about. And then during December they'll probably be running the Mardi Gras parade. Yep. Getting ready for the next one every time. I'd love to know sometime how many people they hire to run this temporary thing because it is Astonishing the number of so we were there a couple of different shift changes for these houses and like a hundred plus people come out of each house in full blood gore costume like elaborate costumes not a, shirt and sure I mean these are incredible and then another crew goes right back in and.

[37:21] You know, that's hundred plus at a time in each house because wild the number of temporary people they have to have besides the people that are running it and doing it and performing and lights it's just what an undertaking I love it yeah it's huge it's huge we should mention too as we're recording literally hot off the presses news Oh Universal shared a little bit of information about this attraction that they've got coming to Las Vegas we talked about this a while back they're going to have a year-round horror night's attraction in Las Vegas.

Universal's Year-Round Horror Nights in Las Vegas

[37:56] Yeah, I'm super stoked for this. It's in area 15, which you were familiar with. I was not familiar with this. Is that where we store the UFOs?

[38:07] Well, it's something like that. Yeah, it's Area 15. So it's where we store the OFUs. Ah, perfect.
Yeah. Area 15, they called it an immersive entertainment area.
And that's where they have the Las Vegas branch of that Meow Wolf immersive art exhibit thing that you may have seen where you go into the weird grocery store and end up in a twisted kind of psychedelic trippy fantasy world.
But they're going to be building, they're going to be expanding that site.
And there's going to be this, they released a name, it's Universal Horror Unleashed.
And there's not a ton of information, but it's going to be a permanent year-round horror experience.
It's a great idea. Inspired by horror nights, there's going to be multiple immersive horror-centric experiences with eerie eateries, highly themed bars.
They're going to have multiple maze-type areas. So it's going to just be, if you're a fan of horror, go get your fix there.
It's going to be, it's going to be really cool. Yeah.

[39:11] It sounds more involved than I was expecting. I thought it was going to be like one building with maybe a couple of mazes or something, but this sounds like there's indoor outdoor elements to it and multiple places to eat and the whole themes thing is going to be elaborately themed.
I'm sure this is very exciting for me.
Yeah. I love. Yeah, and they specifically say next level immersive experiences.
I think it's not just going to be a walk through haunted house, but it's going to be something, a little bit more that puts you in into a world which sounds just so good.
Yeah, and if you see the stuff they pull off on a temporary basis every year, I can't imagine if they've got the tech and the money to do a permanent Las Vegas installation, it's going to be just off the chain.
It's going to be bigger and better, it's going to be amazing.

Exciting Future Plans for Universal Destinations and Experiences

[40:04] Cannot wait. Cannot wait. It's going to be very exciting. Well, you're gonna have to, because they just started building it.
Dang it.
All right, I'll wait a little while, but not too long. You know, they're still working on that new park in Orlando, too, so.
And Texas. They've got, oh, that's true, the family park in Texas.

[40:24] They've got a few irons in the fire, that's for sure. They're throwing that Comcast money around.
Yeah, there's some great stuff coming from universal destinations and experiences.
That's right.

[40:40] Yeah, they've got a lot. Fingers crossed for some classic monsters at Epic Universe.
Oh, they'll be so cool.
I mean, it's not confirmed, so I'm not gonna say that there is, but there's some castles.
When they released the drawings of it, everything over there looks like a gothic village.
It sure does. And they sure have spent a lot of time and money re-imagining the universal monsters in the last four years since they announced this part.
It seems like a hint.
It's a bit of a churro stand they're building there. Right, I would definitely put my money on it. 100%.
They also still haven't confirmed how I met, or what, how to, how to train your dragon.
How I met your dragon.
How to train your brother. How to train your dragon, even though there's already the ship and the statues and the old clip from the movie.
30 foot tall Viking statues and gigantic dragons, but no, we don't know what's going on there.
No, I don't know, it could be anything. Nothing to see here, keep moving.
They were telling us even like, we can't confirm anything with more Wizarding World stuff.
I'm like, yeah, except you can see the Ministry of Magic and we can see France.
The entire world knows because. Yeah, we have helicopters and drones.
And Freedom of Information Act, and we can look at permits and stuff.
It's not hard to figure out.

[42:05] Well, I mean, they didn't confirm the VelociCoaster until they were flying in Velociraptor statues.
And installing them. I mean, it was like a week after the thing opened that they actually had. I mean, not really.
That's what I felt like. You learn that about Universal until it's just like quite obviously fully built what it is. They don't even say anything.
Unlike Disney, who announces things 10 years ahead of time, and then may or may not actually Yes. I want a happy medium. I don't.
It drives me nuts. It was cute the first time, Universal, but how about you give us a little bit of information?

[42:39] That's they don't do that because then if they change their mind everybody's pissed like we are at Disney when they don't build stuff I know but once they get to a certain point, there's no turning back. They can at least throw. Yes. Yeah, I think they also are trying to, temper the effects of people saying well I'm not gonna go to Universal in 2024 when they've got something new opening in 2025.

[43:02] 100%. And that's a real thing.
But there is so much to see there right now that it makes sense to plan a trip and see it now.
There's constantly a revamping and reopening and doing stuff.
I mean, there's so much good stuff. If you think you need to wait until that third park opens to go to Universal, I would not.
Because honestly, everything is going to be way more crowded then.
So you should go and enjoy what's there now and then go back in a couple years. Yeah, for sure.
Probably the best time to go because 25 is going to be so crowded with the new sparks.
Well, I'm going to say thanks for hanging out with us again this week.
No problem, Dan. Oh, you're talking to the audience, my bad.
We should do this more often.
If you're excited to brave the fog at Universal's Halloween Horror Nights, can you do a little bit of travel?
Or in Orlando. Both of them. That's what we need to do.
Next year we need to do a bi-coastal Horror Nights extravaganza. Yes. Yes.
Make that happen. Sold. Somebody look up a travel agent.
If you're excited to brave the fog at Universal's Halloween Horror Nights, Key to the World Travel has a creepy demonic circus tent full of expert travel planners and the ready-to-make-your-vacation.

[44:18] Music.

Subscribe to the Show and Stay Updated

[44:35] And send them our way. You can find links to subscribe to the show on your favorite apps, dreams a reality.
And all the latest Gold Key Adventure updates at www.goldkeyadventures.com.

[44:44] Music.

Contact Information for Questions and Travel Stories

[44:50] Goodbye, everybody. To ask a question or share your travel story, you can reach us by smoke signal, carrier pigeon, or send an email to goldkeyadventures at gmail.com.
And make sure you follow the Gold Key Adventure Society Facebook and Instagram. A huge thanks to our sponsor Key to the World Travel. For, all your travel planning needs visit www.keytotheworldtravel.com for a free quote and help planning the trip of a lifetime. Tell them the gold Key, Adventurers sent you. That's www.keytotheworldtravel.com. Key to the World Travel, your key to a magical vacation.

[45:30] Music.

Introduction: Outer Vibe's Song "Hoka Hey"

[45:36] Thanks to Outer Vibe for the use of their song Hoka Hey for the intro and outro of our show.
Find them on Facebook at The Outer Vibe or check out www.outervibe.com for tour dates, music, merch, and more.

[45:49] Music.

Farewell until the next meeting of the Gold Key Adventurer Society.

[45:57] We'll see you next week for another meeting of the Gold Key Adventurer Society.
And until then, remember, life is short and the world is wide, so go have an adventure!