Latest / That KEVIN Show / Top Tips & Tricks for Planning a Successful Family Vacation to Universal
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: From the birthplace of radio's greatest era, now from New York,
- 0:06Speaker 1: it's Radio Night Live with Kevin McCullough. Unlike anything else
- 0:14Speaker 1: on radio today, it's a front row seat for great
- 0:17Speaker 1: information with today's leading experts. Travel with a third generation
- 0:21Speaker 1: travel icon, Linda Perillo. The Fox News Medical All-Stars featuring Dr.
- 0:26Speaker 1: Mark Siegel, Dr. Marty McCary, Dr. Jeanette Nishwat, and the OG, Dr.
- 0:31Speaker 1: Nicole Sapphire. Legal analysis from former prosecutor and court journalism
- 0:35Speaker 1: superstar Imran Ansari and Christine Nicholas. The quintessential heartbeat to
- 0:40Speaker 1: New York hospitality. All joining legendary broadcast pro Kevin McCullough
- 0:45Speaker 1: on a mission unlike any other. United to bring back
- 0:49Speaker 1: New York. Now, live from Studio 111, here's Kevin McCullough.
- 0:57Speaker 2: All right, welcome in. It is Travel Tuesday at Radio
- 1:01Speaker 2: Night Live. She is Linda Perillo. I am Kevin McCullough.
- 1:04Speaker 2: And it is just a joy to welcome you back.
- 1:07Speaker 2: And this episode brought to you in partnership with our
- 1:11Speaker 2: good old friends at Medjet. You can always get travel insurance,
- 1:15Speaker 2: which I always recommend. Linda always recommends.
- 1:18Speaker 1: Absolutely.
- 1:19Speaker 2: But Medivac benefits from those fancy credit cards or that
- 1:23Speaker 2: travel insurance policy will not... get you back home to
- 1:28Speaker 2: a hospital at home. They will get you to the
- 1:30Speaker 2: nearest adequate place in a medical emergency. And if for
- 1:35Speaker 2: just a few dollars more, you could guarantee that you
- 1:37Speaker 2: could get all the way home, I recommend it. I'm
- 1:41Speaker 2: not going without it. It's very, very inexpensive. MedJet Horizon
- 1:46Speaker 2: membership is what I have. And Linda, what I like
- 1:48Speaker 2: about that is that they will even extract you if there's...
- 1:52Speaker 2: political trouble or hotspot. Those things start up. You want
- 1:56Speaker 2: to get out? Medjet is excellent at that. You can
- 1:59Speaker 2: find out all about it at medjet.com, medjet.com, and go
- 2:05Speaker 2: see that today. But glad to have them back on board.
- 2:09Speaker 2: And they have something special coming up on, well, I'm
- 2:12Speaker 2: just going to tell you, you know, what do they
- 2:15Speaker 2: call it? Black Friday through Giving Tuesday, that weekend following Thanksgiving.
- 2:22Speaker 2: I'm just going to say, be looking out for something
- 2:24Speaker 2: very special from Medjet in that particular weekend coming up.
- 2:27Speaker 2: Just teasing you in advance.
- 2:29Speaker 3: Well, I already bought my membership for the year. So
- 2:32Speaker 3: what does that do for me?
- 2:34Speaker 2: Well, you have the benefit and the knowledge of knowing
- 2:37Speaker 2: you're going to be safe.
- 2:40Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 2:41Speaker 2: Mine just ran out and I renewed it too. So, but,
- 2:44Speaker 2: and for, for me, for a family of five to
- 2:46Speaker 2: be able to cover everybody for like 600 bucks. And
- 2:51Speaker 2: even if you're in the United States and you're more
- 2:53Speaker 2: than 150 miles away, like they will get you all
- 2:57Speaker 2: the way back to your home, like all the way
- 2:59Speaker 2: to the hospital at your home. So you just can't
- 3:03Speaker 2: beat it. It's really good stuff.
- 3:05Speaker 4: You know, so interesting. I'm always telling everybody, always take
- 3:11Speaker 4: travel insurance. It sounds like you're going to pay, oh, God,
- 3:15Speaker 4: I just paid for this vacation. Now I got this
- 3:18Speaker 4: on top of that. It's insurance, right? So it's for
- 3:22Speaker 4: catastrophic reasons. And catastrophic could mean anything that you need
- 3:27Speaker 4: to get you home. So I did, and we're going
- 3:30Speaker 4: to talk about my trip to Universal, purchase. And unfortunately,
- 3:35Speaker 4: some of these insurances, Kevin, you have to purchase per trip, right?
- 3:39Speaker 4: So there is, my kids say Jafar, it's Kfar, C-F-A-R insurance,
- 3:46Speaker 4: which is cancel for any reason insurance. So if you're
- 3:49Speaker 4: going to drop the dime on any insurance at all,
- 3:52Speaker 4: that's the insurance to drop the dime on because you
- 3:55Speaker 4: can cancel for any reason.
- 3:57Speaker 2: When we went to Italy with the whole family, this
- 4:01Speaker 2: is a couple summers ago, I think the whole trip,
- 4:05Speaker 2: all in, everything, it was like, By the time we
- 4:08Speaker 2: spent what we spent there, I think it was like $ 20, 000. Oh, easily.
- 4:12Speaker 2: For seven, ten days in Italy, five people. We were
- 4:16Speaker 2: in Rome and the Malfi Coast. And I was like, wow,
- 4:21Speaker 2: that's a lot of money. And then I saw the insurance,
- 4:26Speaker 2: and it was $ 2, 500, $ 2, 900, I think, for the five
- 4:29Speaker 2: of us, something like that. And I did it because
- 4:33Speaker 2: it covers that, you know, The stuff that you need
- 4:37Speaker 2: to have covered, it covers it.
- 4:39Speaker 3: Yeah, it does.
- 4:40Speaker 2: And then I was talking to Sherry at Medjet, and
- 4:43Speaker 2: she was like, you really don't want to be without
- 4:46Speaker 2: our services because what we provide, a flight all the
- 4:49Speaker 2: way back home from somewhere like Italy on an emergency basis,
- 4:52Speaker 2: could be $ 300, 000 out of pocket. And your $ 2, 500 insurance
- 4:58Speaker 2: coverage is not going to cover that. They're just going
- 5:00Speaker 2: to get you to the nearest adequate hospital. So you
- 5:02Speaker 2: may be in like Berlin or somewhere based on their coverages.
- 5:08Speaker 2: Medjet gets you all the way back home, $ 500 for
- 5:10Speaker 2: the year, everything involved. I said, we're going to do
- 5:13Speaker 2: it now. Thankfully I have not needed a $ 300, 000 flight,
- 5:17Speaker 2: but that's what they cover. And you compare the cost of,
- 5:21Speaker 2: I did both. I did insurance and Medjet because I
- 5:24Speaker 2: think you should do both. But Medjet is certainly worth having,
- 5:28Speaker 2: and you're going to rest so much easier knowing that
- 5:31Speaker 2: your family is covered like that.
- 5:32Speaker 4: So I actually would have a question for Sherry because
- 5:35Speaker 4: I can't remember what the policy is.
- 5:36Speaker 2: Well, that's great because she's going to come back and
- 5:37Speaker 2: be on the show soon.
- 5:39Speaker 4: So now we've purchased Medjet, and we have a family
- 5:45Speaker 4: of eight.
- 5:46Speaker 1: Wow.
- 5:48Speaker 3: Who is allowed, if.
- 5:50Speaker 4: I have everybody covered, who is allowed to leave? If
- 5:53Speaker 4: one person has a medical emergency in my group, who.
- 5:55Speaker 3: Am I allowed to take home?
- 5:56Speaker 2: That's a good question. Like who goes home and who stays?
- 5:59Speaker 3: Right, yeah.
- 6:00Speaker 2: I think it's, well, for us, so when you had it,
- 6:04Speaker 2: didn't you have the individual name cards and plates for
- 6:07Speaker 2: each person?
- 6:08Speaker 3: I can't remember because we did.
- 6:10Speaker 2: And I had them all like I carried them in my,
- 6:12Speaker 2: you know, emergency satchel that had my passport and everything
- 6:15Speaker 2: else in it. But I had everyone's cards. And so
- 6:19Speaker 2: like every covered person has their own, you know, ID card.
- 6:23Speaker 2: And I think that you can you can send them
- 6:25Speaker 2: home if you want to. Our kids are too young
- 6:27Speaker 2: to do that. So we would come home with them.
- 6:29Speaker 2: But yeah. Anyway, thank you, Medjet, for coming back and
- 6:33Speaker 2: being back with us. Lots to get to. We haven't
- 6:37Speaker 2: really talked about travel in recent weeks, so I'm kind
- 6:39Speaker 2: of excited about talking a little travel. But you teased it.
- 6:43Speaker 2: You went to Universal. The cardinal sin for Disney people.
- 6:51Speaker 3: Oh, Kev, we will talk. We will talk. Two different animals.
- 6:54Speaker 3: Completely two different animals.
- 6:57Speaker 2: Absolutely my kids love disney but they've been asking to
- 7:00Speaker 2: go to universal so we need to do it because
- 7:02Speaker 2: they're big harry potter fans and they're you know they've
- 7:05Speaker 2: got their reasons for going but as a seasoned maybe
- 7:09Speaker 2: the most seasoned most expert disney you know princess alive
- 7:14Speaker 2: talk to me about your impression about uh universal if
- 7:19Speaker 2: if you've never been to it and you are thinking disneyland.
- 7:21Speaker 3: So here's the thing.
- 7:23Speaker 4: I want to talk separately about the hotel and the resort,
- 7:26Speaker 4: and I'll.
- 7:26Speaker 3: Tell you why after.
- 7:28Speaker 4: But on the whole, so Universal, really, now we had
- 7:32Speaker 4: my granddaughter, who's two and a half, was with us,
- 7:37Speaker 4: and my daughter... Because she's a brave like her mama
- 7:40Speaker 4: and travels no matter what. And our nine-week-old, now 10-week-old
- 7:45Speaker 4: granddaughter there as well. So it puts into perspective what
- 7:49Speaker 4: it's like to travel with a toddler there and what
- 7:52Speaker 4: it's like to travel with a toddler through Disney.
- 7:54Speaker 3: Now, to be bold.
- 7:56Speaker 4: Really blatantly honest with you, Universal really appeals to an
- 8:02Speaker 4: older set. A lot of, they are, if I tell
- 8:07Speaker 4: you meticulous, they are like wardens when it comes to heights.
- 8:12Speaker 4: and restrictions on rides for kids, and you can't fluff anything.
- 8:17Speaker 4: I mean, they are really, really, really tight. And unfortunately,
- 8:20Speaker 4: a lot of these rides that are fun were not
- 8:24Speaker 4: really conducive to bringing a toddler. So Scotty had to do,
- 8:28Speaker 4: there was a limited amount of rides. So there are
- 8:31Speaker 4: four parks in that are associated with Universal. There's Universal Studios,
- 8:35Speaker 4: the OG, right? Then there's the second one, which is
- 8:38Speaker 4: Islands of Adventure. Then there's Epic Universe. We did not go,
- 8:41Speaker 4: and I will tell you why in a second. And
- 8:43Speaker 4: then they have the water park.
- 8:44Speaker 3: Forget the name. We didn't do that either.
- 8:46Speaker 5: It rained.
- 8:49Speaker 4: Torrentially from the time we got there until the time.
- 8:52Speaker 2: You are there in hurricane season.
- 8:55Speaker 4: I mean, it couldn't have gotten any worse than it did,
- 8:58Speaker 4: but you don't want to waste your time. So we,
- 9:01Speaker 4: I said to everybody, we saw the weather before we left.
- 9:04Speaker 4: We all brought windbreakers. We brought rain jackets and you
- 9:07Speaker 4: can navigate if you're ready and you don't care what
- 9:10Speaker 4: you look like after you're done. Like you can navigate it.
- 9:14Speaker 3: It's fine.
- 9:15Speaker 4: So here's the thing that I like about Universal. Universal
- 9:20Speaker 4: deals with a lot of, obviously... It's very interactive. They
- 9:26Speaker 4: do a lot of, what do we call that, like
- 9:30Speaker 4: virtual reality rides, which are fabulous.
- 9:36Speaker 3: You have to remember, this is a film studio, right?
- 9:38Speaker 3: This is what they do.
- 9:41Speaker 2: Let's leave us hanging right here. We're going to talk
- 9:43Speaker 2: about the virtual reality rides of the Universal Experience, which
- 9:47Speaker 2: is coming to an article very soon in that past week.
- 9:50Speaker 1: Okay.
- 9:50Speaker 2: So we'll get all of this in documented form so
- 9:52Speaker 2: you can actually read more about it. Stay with us.
- 10:02Speaker 1: From New York, it's Radio Night Live with Kevin McCullough.
- 10:07Speaker 2: Welcome back. It's Radio Night Live. It's travel night. We're
- 10:10Speaker 2: talking about Universal, the theme park experience. And it's very
- 10:15Speaker 2: timely because the McCulloughs have been contemplating, is it time
- 10:19Speaker 2: to forego a trip to Disney for a trip to
- 10:24Speaker 2: universal instead? That's the question that the kids and lovely
- 10:29Speaker 2: bride have been talking about for the last year. And we,
- 10:31Speaker 2: we might very well be doing that because you can't
- 10:33Speaker 2: see Harry Potter at Disney and you can't do the
- 10:35Speaker 2: epic stuff and all that stuff. So Linda, you were
- 10:38Speaker 2: talking about virtual reality and it's now new prominence.
- 10:42Speaker 3: In some of these things, right?
- 10:44Speaker 4: So, you know, if you go to the OG Instagram,
- 10:47Speaker 4: Universal Studios you know you start out with rides like
- 10:50Speaker 4: the Simpsons ride which I went on oh my god
- 10:52Speaker 4: years ago when it started and they have added other
- 10:55Speaker 4: rides which are fabulous now here's the thing I like
- 11:01Speaker 4: virtual reality for about 30 seconds and then I have
- 11:04Speaker 4: to close my eyes.
- 11:07Speaker 3: You feel like you're falling.
- 11:08Speaker 4: They do it so incredibly well that you are immersed
- 11:14Speaker 4: in the experience. You really think what's happening is happening.
- 11:18Speaker 4: And that's Universal Studios. They are a film company. They
- 11:22Speaker 4: are all about stunts. They're all about optical illusion. They're
- 11:27Speaker 4: all about this. And they do a beautiful job. And
- 11:30Speaker 4: I will say I was telling my daughter when we
- 11:32Speaker 4: had gone over to Islands of Adventure, which is on
- 11:35Speaker 4: the other side of Universal Studios.
- 11:38Speaker 3: They have something, well, for my granddaughter, called Seuss Landing, right?
- 11:42Speaker 3: It's all Dr.
- 11:43Speaker 2: Seuss.
- 11:44Speaker 3: And when you.
- 11:44Speaker 4: Walk in there, you really feel like it's Dr.
- 11:49Speaker 1: Seuss.
- 11:49Speaker 3: I mean, it's just the colors, the themes, the food.
- 11:54Speaker 4: I think the food is better at Universal than it
- 11:57Speaker 4: is at Disney. I find Disney fast food to be
- 12:01Speaker 4: really repetitious. Um, you know, it's a different version of
- 12:05Speaker 4: a pretzel, a different version of popcorn, a different version.
- 12:09Speaker 4: It's really, um, universal. I think did a lot more
- 12:14Speaker 4: with food. And of course it's crap, right? You're walking
- 12:18Speaker 4: around the park. It's what your kids want.
- 12:19Speaker 2: It's not fine dining.
- 12:21Speaker 3: No, it was not fine dining and no white tablecloth. Oh, um, so, but, um,
- 12:28Speaker 3: When you go into places like Harry Potter World, right?
- 12:31Speaker 4: And Diagon Alley, which is in Universal, which was the
- 12:35Speaker 4: first place for Harry Potter to, you know, spin his
- 12:41Speaker 4: little wand.
- 12:41Speaker 3: People walk around with their wands, with their robes. I'm
- 12:44Speaker 3: not a Harry Potter person. My kids are not.
- 12:47Speaker 4: However, walking back there and seeing what they have recreated
- 12:51Speaker 4: is amazing.
- 12:52Speaker 2: Does it really feel like you're in the.
- 12:55Speaker 4: Oh, it's so cool. I did have butterbeer twice. Now, butterbeer...
- 13:00Speaker 4: You know about butterbeer, Kevin?
- 13:02Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
- 13:02Speaker 2: Everybody that's read Harry Potter knows what butterbeer is.
- 13:04Speaker 3: Okay, so butterbeer, it is non-alcoholic. Linda is a teetotaler.
- 13:08Speaker 1: I don't drink.
- 13:10Speaker 2: You're not. You've had a glass of wine before.
- 13:12Speaker 3: Well, before, but I don't drink on a regular basis.
- 13:15Speaker 1: So.
- 13:17Speaker 4: It is non-alcoholic it is like frozen butterscotch with.
- 13:22Speaker 2: Cream yeah basically that's what.
- 13:23Speaker 3: It is yeah oh my god so we did the.
- 13:25Speaker 2: Frozen which explains why kids love it because it's just
- 13:28Speaker 2: the dessert in a glass oh.
- 13:29Speaker 4: It is the sweet and if you love butterscotch it
- 13:32Speaker 4: is just so you know you could walk around with
- 13:35Speaker 4: your butterbeer which had the longest lines of any food
- 13:39Speaker 4: anything um So, I mean, it is, then we went
- 13:43Speaker 4: over islands of adventure where they have Marvel land, they
- 13:46Speaker 4: have more and they have, um, which the Spider-Man ride again,
- 13:50Speaker 4: the OG of like, you know, virtual reality, fabulous, incredibly done.
- 13:55Speaker 4: My kids did some other stuff that I didn't go on,
- 13:57Speaker 4: but Kong, another great ride. Um, And they did the
- 14:02Speaker 4: Simpsons ride like three times. I think I did the
- 14:04Speaker 4: Simpsons ride like three times. New ride, which is relatively
- 14:10Speaker 4: new for SNL and late night people at the NBC
- 14:14Speaker 4: studios there, was Jimmy Fallon's Race Through New York.
- 14:20Speaker 3: Another with the panda.
- 14:24Speaker 5: I mean.
- 14:25Speaker 4: crazy but really a lot of fun they do not
- 14:29Speaker 4: have a plethora of roller coasters or up and down
- 14:33Speaker 4: you know like i die kevin in the simpsons section
- 14:39Speaker 4: the ride is called the i can't even because they're
- 14:42Speaker 4: so funny the whirl and hurl it's the name.
- 14:46Speaker 2: Of because there's a There's a desire to first whirl
- 14:53Speaker 2: and then hurl.
- 14:54Speaker 4: You forget how funny the Simpsons are.
- 14:59Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 15:00Speaker 3: Until, Kevin, you get.
- 15:02Speaker 4: Older and you're 50-something and you start understanding all these innuendos.
- 15:07Speaker 3: And you're like, oh, my God.
- 15:09Speaker 1: How?
- 15:10Speaker 3: Again.
- 15:11Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 15:11Speaker 4: I said to Albert, who just turned 18. We went
- 15:13Speaker 4: there for his birthday. I said, do you realize that?
- 15:16Speaker 4: that if the Simpsons were around today, they'd be canceled.
- 15:21Speaker 4: They are so rude.
- 15:23Speaker 2: Aren't they still on?
- 15:25Speaker 4: Yes, but I'm saying if their genesis was today, right?
- 15:30Speaker 2: Well, here's the thing about the Simpsons. And they were,
- 15:35Speaker 2: by every stretch of the imagination, one of the most
- 15:39Speaker 2: complicated television shows ever produced. And I had several of
- 15:44Speaker 2: the writers on the show once, and I asked them
- 15:46Speaker 2: about their formula. And they had two things that really
- 15:50Speaker 2: stood out. One was their goal was to make nearly
- 15:55Speaker 2: every line of dialogue in every episode a punchline. So
- 15:59Speaker 2: the reason The Simpsons is so funny is because... And
- 16:03Speaker 2: they had 53 writers working on the episodes. They tried
- 16:07Speaker 2: to make every.
- 16:10Speaker 2: Of Marge talking to Bart and Bart talking to his
- 16:13Speaker 2: sister and the dad. But they tried to land as
- 16:17Speaker 2: many of those as every single line could be into
- 16:20Speaker 2: a punchline. Secondly, one third of their writing cast came
- 16:25Speaker 2: from a Christian background. One third of their writing cast
- 16:28Speaker 2: came from a Jewish background. And the other third was
- 16:32Speaker 2: everything from agnostic to Hindu to Buddhist to whatever. And
- 16:35Speaker 2: they purposefully... included things that were very incorrect about religions.
- 16:43Speaker 2: And they did it with the combined approval of all
- 16:46Speaker 2: of the writers coming from these different perspectives. But when
- 16:50Speaker 2: you sat down and you looked at how intricately designed
- 16:53Speaker 2: they were in terms of what they were trying to
- 16:56Speaker 2: accomplish and how that... You now understand why it's run
- 17:00Speaker 2: for 40 years or whatever it is. I mean, it's
- 17:03Speaker 2: been on forever. It'll be, I think... If it has
- 17:06Speaker 2: not concluded, because I don't watch it regularly, I did
- 17:09Speaker 2: for a little while, but if and when they are
- 17:13Speaker 2: ever done completely, they will have been maybe the longest
- 17:17Speaker 2: running TV show in all of TV history. And the
- 17:20Speaker 2: reason that it had such staying power was because they
- 17:23Speaker 2: were really insistent upon trying to make it as funny
- 17:26Speaker 2: as And as politically incorrect as.
- 17:29Speaker 3: That possibly could. Oh, it is so irreverent.
- 17:31Speaker 4: And Albert goes, well, I don't know if I like
- 17:33Speaker 4: this better or Family Guy. And I said, but you
- 17:36Speaker 4: have to remember, they.
- 17:38Speaker 2: Family Guy was a cut and paste.
- 17:40Speaker 3: They preceded Family Guy. I mean, hysterical. But I'm just
- 17:44Speaker 3: thinking of the Simpsons ride now. There's this Maggie takes
- 17:47Speaker 3: over Springfield. And As you.
- 17:55Speaker 5: See this huge Maggie in Springfield, you start to smell diaper,
- 18:01Speaker 5: like baby diaper, like not smelly, like that sweet, clean baby.
- 18:06Speaker 4: I mean, it is hysterical. And I said to the kids, now, Kevin,
- 18:10Speaker 4: I don't know if you know this. Why did they
- 18:13Speaker 4: choose the name Springfield?
- 18:16Speaker 2: Isn't it because there are more municipalities named Springfield across
- 18:20Speaker 2: the U.S. than any other single name?
- 18:23Speaker 3: It is the most.
- 18:24Speaker 2: In fact, I think all 50 states have a Springfield.
- 18:27Speaker 3: You are correct about that.
- 18:29Speaker 4: So bringing it to just like you said, now it
- 18:32Speaker 4: becomes anywhere USA. Anybody because they never mentioned the state.
- 18:37Speaker 4: They just talk about Springfield.
- 18:39Speaker 2: Maybe not Alaska and Hawaii, but I think all of
- 18:41Speaker 2: the 48 contingent have.
- 18:43Speaker 3: Springfield because it's very generic.
- 18:45Speaker 5: Right.
- 18:46Speaker 4: But again, the rides are like that. Very immersive. Men
- 18:50Speaker 4: in Black, another great ride.
- 18:54Speaker 2: Hold on one second. Got to take another break. I
- 18:56Speaker 2: have to ask you a certain question when.
- 18:57Speaker 1: We come back. And now from New York, back to
- 19:07Speaker 1: Radio Night Live. Here's Kevin McCullough.
- 19:10Speaker 2: Welcome back. She's Linda, and I'm Kevin, and it is
- 19:13Speaker 2: Radio Night Live, Travel Tuesday. And I am curious, in
- 19:17Speaker 2: the land of the Universal Theme Park... You said there's
- 19:21Speaker 2: a Men in Black section.
- 19:22Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 19:23Speaker 2: Do they zap you so that you forget everything that
- 19:26Speaker 2: you experienced as you leave the section?
- 19:28Speaker 3: Very funny. No, they don't.
- 19:31Speaker 4: It's just so, so, so well done. And we even
- 19:35Speaker 4: did a stage show with Mike.
- 19:36Speaker 2: Do you get to see Eggert drinking sugar water? No,
- 19:39Speaker 2: the guy that the cockroach takes the body of in
- 19:43Speaker 2: the first episode of Men in Black, and his wife goes,
- 19:46Speaker 2: he doesn't normally drink that. Eggert's drinking sugar water. What?
- 19:50Speaker 2: because he's become a cockroach.
- 19:53Speaker 3: But I'm trying to think.
- 19:54Speaker 4: So we did, there was a show for the kids,
- 20:00Speaker 4: which was fabulous with animals. So they had a lot
- 20:02Speaker 4: of the actor animals from the movies there that participated
- 20:07Speaker 4: in a stage show.
- 20:08Speaker 3: Very, very cute. That was great for my granddaughter.
- 20:12Speaker 4: So listen, all in all, fabulous experience. However, definitely geared
- 20:18Speaker 4: to an older set. You cannot compare Universal to Disney.
- 20:23Speaker 3: You just can't.
- 20:24Speaker 2: All right. You said you wanted to do... two critiques
- 20:28Speaker 2: and that's that's of the park itself you said you
- 20:31Speaker 2: had some thoughts about the hotel experience so.
- 20:35Speaker 4: We stayed at portofino bay uh which so let me
- 20:39Speaker 4: tell you what universal does do which is fabulous so
- 20:43Speaker 4: we stayed at universe we stayed at portofino bay so
- 20:45Speaker 4: there are a few deluxe properties i hope i get
- 20:47Speaker 4: them all right there's portofino bay which of course i had.
- 20:50Speaker 3: To stay at portofino bay of course there.
- 20:52Speaker 4: Is hard rock which is right next door There is
- 20:57Speaker 4: Royal Pacific.
- 20:58Speaker 2: These aren't sanctioned or licensed by Universal like the Disney
- 21:03Speaker 2: places are.
- 21:04Speaker 4: Lowe's is, but they're considered Universal properties. And the reason
- 21:09Speaker 4: I'm going to tell you right now, when you book
- 21:12Speaker 4: at one of these properties, you get an automatic express
- 21:18Speaker 4: pass for every park but Epic Universe. We did not
- 21:21Speaker 4: go to Epic Universe because of this reason. Because the
- 21:24Speaker 4: lines would have been too long. So if you stay
- 21:27Speaker 4: at these properties, you will get an express pass automatically
- 21:32Speaker 4: for riding the rides in the park.
- 21:34Speaker 3: So you're automatically... Whereas Disney charges you up the.
- 21:39Speaker 2: Yep.
- 21:39Speaker 3: Wazooty for.
- 21:42Speaker 4: These lightning passes now, which sometimes you need, or you're
- 21:45Speaker 4: going to be online for 120 minutes.
- 21:47Speaker 2: Staying at these hotels, did you get to go to
- 21:49Speaker 2: the park early? Because that's the other thing.
- 21:51Speaker 3: You do that too.
- 21:52Speaker 4: The other thing I find, which is great about Universal,
- 21:55Speaker 4: where we were at Portofino Bay, and then I'll tell
- 21:57Speaker 4: you a couple of things went wrong, and then I'm
- 21:59Speaker 4: going to give you my.
- 21:59Speaker 3: Take on that.
- 22:01Speaker 4: They have a launch, which takes you over a boat
- 22:04Speaker 4: launch from the Portofino Bay Piazza to right over to universal, right?
- 22:11Speaker 4: When you arrive at universal, you can either go to
- 22:13Speaker 4: islands of adventure to the left or go right into
- 22:15Speaker 4: universal studios. Um, it does not stop at any other hotels.
- 22:20Speaker 4: That's another thing Disney does. If Disney has a boat
- 22:23Speaker 4: launch nine times out of 10, they will stop at
- 22:26Speaker 4: the hotel that is adjacent to your property, right? Even
- 22:30Speaker 4: on the monorail, the monorail makes three or four stops.
- 22:32Speaker 4: This is streamlined there and coming back, which I loved. Um,
- 22:38Speaker 4: So we had a few things go wrong. My keys
- 22:42Speaker 4: stopped working in my door. They didn't send up room
- 22:46Speaker 4: service for pizza. We had ordered, my daughter was getting
- 22:49Speaker 4: in late. I tried, they forgot the order. Let me
- 22:51Speaker 4: tell you something. The way, Kevin, to really critique a property,
- 22:58Speaker 4: and one thing that they do do, which I loved,
- 23:02Speaker 4: every guest that stays in that hotel gets a text message.
- 23:08Speaker 4: So you can text your hotel during the day and say,
- 23:11Speaker 4: I need towels. This isn't working. And they respond. So
- 23:17Speaker 4: we had a few things go wrong, the doors, the pizza,
- 23:21Speaker 4: some other stuff. It's not about how when things are
- 23:26Speaker 4: going well, right? It's about how does the property respond
- 23:32Speaker 4: when things are not going well? How do they recoup?
- 23:37Speaker 4: so that you can still enjoy your vacation, right? One
- 23:42Speaker 4: thing I always said, Mario Perillo always said it, you
- 23:45Speaker 4: can never give back. You can return a shirt, right,
- 23:48Speaker 4: that you hated or broke or whatever. You cannot return
- 23:51Speaker 4: somebody's time, their age, their children's age. You cannot return
- 23:56Speaker 4: an experience. You have to move forward. And I have
- 24:00Speaker 4: to tell you, A plus to the Lowe's Portofino Bay...
- 24:05Speaker 4: for doing what they made up for everything. They sent
- 24:08Speaker 4: us vouchers for food. They sent us vouchers for ice cream.
- 24:12Speaker 4: They came up and fixed the door. They took an
- 24:15Speaker 4: engineer up like they were making up for it left
- 24:19Speaker 4: and right. And I really got to give them a
- 24:22Speaker 4: lot of credit because not every hotel would do what
- 24:24Speaker 4: they did.
- 24:25Speaker 3: They were wonderful.
- 24:26Speaker 2: So Disney is like kind of famous for its customer service.
- 24:31Speaker 2: In fact, they have Disney university where other corporations send
- 24:35Speaker 2: their customer service people to go, go through and graduate
- 24:40Speaker 2: and so forth. In fact, here in New York, I
- 24:43Speaker 2: believe that the Christian cultural center, which is a huge
- 24:46Speaker 2: church in Brooklyn, pastor AR Bernard is pastor there. I
- 24:49Speaker 2: believe that at one point in time, he had all
- 24:52Speaker 2: of his staff go down and take the Disney training.
- 24:54Speaker 2: So when you step on campus and, They make you
- 24:57Speaker 2: feel so welcome. There's obviously a science to it that
- 25:02Speaker 2: Disney has tried to master over the years. How would
- 25:05Speaker 2: you compare that kind of expected Disney, super wonderful, gracious,
- 25:12Speaker 2: always outgoing kind of approach to what Universal does?
- 25:18Speaker 3: Well, I think there's an element of that.
- 25:20Speaker 2: Actually, let me take a break and come back and
- 25:22Speaker 2: answer that on the other side. It's Travel Tuesday. We're
- 25:25Speaker 2: talking Universal, and Linda's just back, so she's got lots
- 25:29Speaker 2: to say. Stay with us.
- 25:35Speaker 3: What a little moonlight can do.
- 25:37Speaker 1: It's Radio Night Live. Here's Kevin McCullough.
- 25:41Speaker 2: And we're back, and we're talking customer service and the
- 25:46Speaker 2: theme park experience. And, you know, Linda, when I was
- 25:49Speaker 2: a kid, there was no Disney near me. I was
- 25:52Speaker 2: in the middle of the country in Dallas, Fort Worth.
- 25:56Speaker 2: We didn't have anything like Disneyland. You had to get
- 25:58Speaker 2: to a coast to get to one. We did not
- 26:00Speaker 2: fly anywhere. We were poor. We went to places where
- 26:03Speaker 2: we could drive, et cetera. So Six Flags was huge
- 26:07Speaker 2: for me. And we did a lot of Six Flags trips,
- 26:09Speaker 2: that kind of thing. But when I did get older
- 26:13Speaker 2: and did get to go to a Disney, I did
- 26:15Speaker 2: experience that kind of magical wonder that you have when
- 26:20Speaker 2: you go there for the first time and how they
- 26:21Speaker 2: make you feel so delightfully welcome. And I'm curious because
- 26:27Speaker 2: particularly in South Florida, so many other parks have now
- 26:30Speaker 2: been springing up. Are they mimicking the Disney standard when
- 26:34Speaker 2: it comes to customer service? What say you, Linda Perillo?
- 26:37Speaker 4: Well, so here's the thing. We were talking about this.
- 26:40Speaker 4: Universal is universal, right? I don't think anybody can go, oh,
- 26:43Speaker 4: my God, Universal or Disney Universal. We're talking two totally
- 26:45Speaker 4: different flavors. We're talking two totally different, you know, temperatures, everything.
- 26:52Speaker 4: So you can do Universal and enjoy it and love it,
- 26:55Speaker 4: and you can do Disney and love it. Okay, Disney again.
- 26:59Speaker 4: Much more oriented to the younger set because Disney's Disney, right?
- 27:04Speaker 4: The princesses, everything is oriented really to a younger set.
- 27:07Speaker 4: And everyone loves.
- 27:08Speaker 3: Disney, period. That's just the way it goes.
- 27:11Speaker 4: Disney's customer service is like this. And we were saying this.
- 27:15Speaker 4: Universal are sticklers for their rules, okay? They must have
- 27:20Speaker 4: liability issues up the wazoo-dee also, and they don't want
- 27:24Speaker 4: to get caught doing anything wrong. Disney, I noticed something
- 27:28Speaker 4: with Disney. You could tell anybody at Disney.
- 27:32Speaker 3: Anything, and it's okay. They will not shun you in
- 27:38Speaker 3: any way possible. Everything's fine. Your ticket didn't work? You
- 27:42Speaker 3: can go in. Oh, your child has a FastPass and
- 27:44Speaker 3: you don't? Go ahead.
- 27:46Speaker 4: They do not make anybody feel like doo-doo. They just
- 27:50Speaker 4: don't do it. They find a way to make it
- 27:52Speaker 4: all work. They got so much money coming in, Kevin.
- 27:56Speaker 4: If they miss a few... It's okay, right? So anything
- 28:01Speaker 4: goes in Disney. For the most part, I would say
- 28:04Speaker 4: anything goes in Disney. Any problem you have can be solved.
- 28:07Speaker 4: They never make you feel bad. They never send you
- 28:09Speaker 4: to the back of the line. Everybody's smiling. Universal seems
- 28:12Speaker 4: to be a little stricter about their rules. They don't
- 28:15Speaker 4: really try to make it work for you, but they're
- 28:18Speaker 4: all smiling and they're happy.
- 28:20Speaker 3: So it's kind of like, yes.
- 28:22Speaker 4: Disney customer service is, is impeccable usually, right? Not everything
- 28:27Speaker 4: is foolproof. This is 90%. I would say universal is 85%
- 28:32Speaker 4: because there are much more sticklers about certain things that
- 28:36Speaker 4: I noticed. Um, So, again, you know, we've been immersed
- 28:41Speaker 4: in Disney a lot longer than we've been immersed in Universal.
- 28:44Speaker 4: Universal came along later.
- 28:45Speaker 1: Right.
- 28:47Speaker 4: Because when does Disneyland Disneyland opened first?
- 28:52Speaker 1: Right.
- 28:52Speaker 3: In in California.
- 28:54Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 28:55Speaker 3: I forget what year.
- 28:56Speaker 4: And then the Mecca arrived in the 70s, I think 75.
- 29:02Speaker 3: To Orlando. And it took off from there.
- 29:05Speaker 2: Don't say that to Disneyland attendees because there is no
- 29:08Speaker 2: Mecca except Anaheim.
- 29:10Speaker 3: But I love Anaheim, too.
- 29:12Speaker 1: I do.
- 29:12Speaker 5: I do.
- 29:12Speaker 3: I really enjoy it there.
- 29:15Speaker 4: So, you know, again, we're talking two different things. I
- 29:19Speaker 4: loved it for the more adult experience that Universal is.
- 29:24Speaker 4: We're going back to Disney in March with the whole family.
- 29:28Speaker 4: And I'm looking forward to that, too, because we love Disney.
- 29:32Speaker 4: You've got to sprinkle a little bit of Universal in there, too,
- 29:35Speaker 4: if you can. It's a different experience.
- 29:37Speaker 3: It's great. We had a great time even in the. rain.
- 29:40Speaker 3: We really, really enjoyed it.
- 29:42Speaker 2: Did you get a discount on the tickets for going
- 29:44Speaker 2: in October? Because I would think that hurricane season, they should...
- 29:48Speaker 2: Discount those.
- 29:49Speaker 4: Oh, I have a great guy, Jesse Faust at Marvelous
- 29:52Speaker 4: Mouse Travels. We actually interviewed his boss, I think, about
- 29:55Speaker 4: two years back. And I think we've had Jesse on.
- 29:58Speaker 4: And it's a good thing to have him on again
- 29:59Speaker 4: because he's all about Orlando. So we got a three-day
- 30:04Speaker 4: park hopper for five days. So we got two days free,
- 30:08Speaker 4: which for the whole group of us was incredible. And
- 30:11Speaker 4: here's the other thing I was saying to my kids,
- 30:13Speaker 4: which has evolved since I was a little kid.
- 30:16Speaker 3: Since I was a child, Orlando.
- 30:18Speaker 4: And we forget, Orlando is a great family vacation.
- 30:23Speaker 2: Well, it's all family destinations.
- 30:25Speaker 4: All family destinations. Like, I wanted to go to Gatorland
- 30:28Speaker 4: while we were there. We didn't get a chance to
- 30:29Speaker 4: go to Gatorland.
- 30:29Speaker 3: I wanted to do that. I want to go to SeaWorld.
- 30:31Speaker 3: I love SeaWorld. SeaWorld. I mean, it's fabulous. Then you
- 30:36Speaker 3: have all these other.
- 30:38Speaker 4: Attractions that are around Orlando where if you get a
- 30:41Speaker 4: little theme park saturated, you can go visit them. So
- 30:44Speaker 4: I do think Orlando is another great place for family.
- 30:48Speaker 2: Well, their Chamber of Commerce has no problems attracting visitors
- 30:53Speaker 2: because of all of the.
- 30:55Speaker 3: And they have no beach. Can I tell you? No
- 30:57Speaker 3: good beach. They're inland, right? So just so you have
- 30:59Speaker 3: knowledge of it, Disneyland, California.
- 31:00Speaker 2: Opened in 1955, July 17th. Disney World, 1971 in Disney
- 31:02Speaker 2: World in Florida. Universal didn't come along until 1990.
- 31:18Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 31:19Speaker 2: Universal Islands of Adventure 99 and their newest, biggest, most
- 31:24Speaker 2: flashiest ever, Universal Epic Universe 2025 of last year.
- 31:29Speaker 3: That's why that's a trip.
- 31:31Speaker 4: But our Express Passes did not work there. And an
- 31:34Speaker 4: Express Pass for one person at Epic Universe, which is
- 31:38Speaker 4: why we didn't go, $ 314.
- 31:39Speaker 1: Whoa.
- 31:39Speaker 4: That's on top of the ticket? On top of the ticket.
- 31:44Speaker 4: But you want to get on and off rides? Like,
- 31:46Speaker 4: that's what I mean. It wasn't worth to us to
- 31:49Speaker 4: do it. So, but listen, I love, they had all
- 31:53Speaker 4: the Jaws themed stuff. My husband thought I was crazy.
- 31:55Speaker 1: I'm like, you guys.
- 31:58Speaker 2: Jonathan would have been right there with you. They wanted
- 32:00Speaker 2: to see. And actually, Universal Studios Hollywood began offering studio
- 32:04Speaker 2: tours in their location in 1964. Wow.
- 32:07Speaker 1: Okay.
- 32:08Speaker 2: That was decades before.
- 32:09Speaker 4: I've done Universal Studios Hollywood and that's where the real, real,
- 32:13Speaker 4: he's so fake.
- 32:15Speaker 1: Bruce.
- 32:16Speaker 2: Bruce, yes.
- 32:17Speaker 4: And Psycho's there. The Psycho House is there. You feel
- 32:20Speaker 4: Anthony Perkins just coming out.
- 32:23Speaker 2: Well, you're actually, you drive through the sets of, you know,
- 32:26Speaker 2: some of those classic movies and things.
- 32:28Speaker 3: I loved it. I love Universal Studios there too.
- 32:31Speaker 2: Okay, we're going to take a quick break and when
- 32:33Speaker 2: we come back, we only have a few minutes left
- 32:34Speaker 2: in the show, but maybe some, uh, some perillos pointers
- 32:39Speaker 2: on how you would do, how would, what are the
- 32:42Speaker 2: five things people need to pay attention to when they
- 32:45Speaker 2: book their universal trip and make it easier for them?
- 32:48Speaker 2: We'll make it very practical tonight to your own universal experience.
- 32:52Speaker 2: She's Linda. I'm Kevin. Stay with us.
- 33:01Speaker 1: Once again, from New York, here's Radio Night Live and
- 33:04Speaker 1: Kevin McCullough.
- 33:06Speaker 2: Welcome back. It is Radio Night Live, Travel Tuesday. She's Linda.
- 33:11Speaker 2: I'm Kevin. We're glad to have you with us. Linda,
- 33:14Speaker 2: talk to me about the situation with, if I'm listening
- 33:21Speaker 2: to us tonight, I'm saying, you know what? My kids
- 33:23Speaker 2: have wanted to go. It's time to go to Universal.
- 33:25Speaker 2: What are the top three or four or five things
- 33:28Speaker 2: i need to pay attention to when planning that trip.
- 33:30Speaker 4: Uh i would focus on kids that were five and
- 33:34Speaker 4: up uh so that they could easily get on and
- 33:37Speaker 4: off rides they may not be so scared by the
- 33:39Speaker 4: interactive stuff and they might appreciate it more it's definitely
- 33:42Speaker 4: more geared towards older kids and there are a few
- 33:46Speaker 4: things like i said for toddlers um the other thing
- 33:49Speaker 4: number two and this is across the board especially with
- 33:52Speaker 4: theme park vacations Try to really, I know the teachers
- 33:56Speaker 4: are going to get mad at me, pull your kids out.
- 33:59Speaker 4: Even if it's over a holiday weekend like we did,
- 34:01Speaker 4: pull your kids out of school for an extra day,
- 34:03Speaker 4: an extra two days before the crowds get there. Because
- 34:06Speaker 4: especially in Florida, a lot of the natives will purchase
- 34:10Speaker 4: yearly passes and they get a lot of perks with
- 34:13Speaker 4: these yearly passes.
- 34:14Speaker 3: So they will use that as their break.
- 34:17Speaker 4: You have to remember, it's like going to, you know,
- 34:19Speaker 4: an amusement park for the day when you're a Floridian, right?
- 34:23Speaker 4: So droves of people, the difference between when we got
- 34:26Speaker 4: there on Wednesday and when we left, I mean, droves,
- 34:30Speaker 4: totally different, right? You know, and also too, in the
- 34:32Speaker 4: off season, number three, You take advantage of tickets being
- 34:37Speaker 4: you can get theme park tickets for a park hopper
- 34:39Speaker 4: for three days, five days for the price of three.
- 34:43Speaker 1: Do that.
- 34:43Speaker 4: Stay, especially in Universal, stay on property. The perks are
- 34:49Speaker 4: fabulous if you stay on property. It was great with
- 34:54Speaker 4: the free express passes. The launches that were direct to
- 34:58Speaker 4: and from the hotels were great.
- 35:00Speaker 3: You're in your own separate enclave. And I just think even.
- 35:03Speaker 4: If you do Universal as a vacation once, give yourself
- 35:07Speaker 4: four to five days there to do everything.
- 35:09Speaker 3: You will enjoy it. You may not be an addict.
- 35:12Speaker 4: Like people are with Disney, like I am with Disney.
- 35:15Speaker 4: But I think it is very well worth the trip
- 35:19Speaker 4: for sure.
- 35:20Speaker 2: All right. And did you use an online resource to book?
- 35:24Speaker 4: I used Jesse Faust at Marvelous Mouse Travels. We should
- 35:28Speaker 4: have him on. He's got all the goods. He knows
- 35:32Speaker 4: all the ins and outs, and he's great.
- 35:34Speaker 2: Marvelous Mouse Travels, and obviously he handles things beyond the
- 35:38Speaker 2: Disney label.
- 35:39Speaker 1: Yes, for sure.
- 35:39Speaker 3: Yep, he does.
- 35:41Speaker 2: And yeah, Orlando in the early fall, late September, early fall.
- 35:47Speaker 2: You know, maybe you get a discount because of the
- 35:49Speaker 2: hurricane season.
- 35:50Speaker 3: Well, we were in the rain. We were definitely in
- 35:52Speaker 3: the rain.
- 35:53Speaker 2: But you know, the really good thing about all of this,
- 35:55Speaker 2: and it really is a very wonderful thing, I think,
- 35:57Speaker 2: for you, based on last week's show in particular, is
- 36:00Speaker 2: that you didn't have to think about the Yankees once the.
- 36:02Speaker 1: Whole time you were gone.
- 36:05Speaker 3: Well, go read my piece in the Daily News.
- 36:07Speaker 2: No, we read it and passed it around. We certainly, yes.
- 36:12Speaker 3: Let me just comment.
- 36:13Speaker 5: Yeah, okay.
- 36:15Speaker 4: Real quick, they have the third highest payroll in baseball.
- 36:18Speaker 4: The number one payroll in baseball are the L.A.
- 36:22Speaker 3: Dodgers.
- 36:22Speaker 5: Right.
- 36:23Speaker 3: And they're there.
- 36:24Speaker 2: We're going to start having you on the Friday show
- 36:26Speaker 2: when we have Tracy Nipor and Marty Appel on because
- 36:30Speaker 2: you're like the third chief of baseball.
- 36:34Speaker 3: I have to do it as not a statistician. I
- 36:36Speaker 3: got to do it.
- 36:37Speaker 2: You just got to give it your.
- 36:38Speaker 3: I want to be on like a fan.
- 36:40Speaker 2: Your women's intuition about the season.
- 36:42Speaker 3: The mom.
- 36:43Speaker 2: Yeah. All right, friends. Thanks for listening. We'll see you
- 36:46Speaker 2: next time.