27. Minions Land at Universal Studios

My friend and fellow travel advisor, Nikki, is here and we’re sharing with you our fabulous adventure on a non-private VIP tour at Universal Studios! Tune in for this insider look at the new Minion Land, behind-the-scenes experiences, delicious treats you have to try, and a surprising encounter with a Universal Studios insider.

Connect with Nikki on IG @travel_with_Nikki

Download my free guide: 10 Tips for A Luxe Disney Vacation or connect with me on Instagram @michelevisitsmickey.

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This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher.

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Michele:

Hello, my friends, and welcome to another episode of Let Me Adjust My Ears, a podcast that is as extra a f as you are, my friends. Really, what that means is is extra AF as I am because I did something very extra AF yesterday, and I am sitting here with my friend, Nikki. She is in studio. She is in house. Hi, Nikki. Hi, Michelle. And we came down to Universal together, Universal Studios. Oh, well, now it's called Universal resort vacation experiences.

Michele:

And we were invited to an advanced training, and so we came down here and we are staying at the Sapphire Falls Resort. And we got to go experience the Numidian Land yesterday, And we had some training. But based on our training, we decided to do a non private VIP tour. Now you guys know, if you've listened to me from the very beginning, this was my 2nd time to do this, and the experience was a 1000% different. Now remember last time I did it, I said that I would recommend it, but we were just moving and grooving. No pictures. No nothing. No lockers.

Michele:

We were just like, no time for butterbeer. And yesterday, I had a butterbeer. I got a picture of me transitioning through the walls of Platform 9 3 quarters. So it was a 100 like I said, a 1000% difference in what we're doing, and Nikki and I are gonna tell you all about it. So, Nikki, first of all, did you enjoy it?

Nikki:

I don't think there's a way you could not enjoy a VIP tour. It was a great experience. We had an awesome, awesome VIP He got Jim that looked just like John from Jurassic Park, and he was just a fantastic, knowledgeable team member at Universal, and our group was awesome. We've really gelled well. You know, even there We're a variety of ages and kids and families and a solo. We all did really well and Mel did well together, so it was a a fantastic VIP experience day.

Michele:

It really was. And you covered one of the things I wanted to ask you was because one thing we as travel advisers, And I forgot to mention that you've heard Nikki before. She is a fellow travel advisor. Name of her company is Travel with Nikki. And she was also Samantha archetype on our Sex and the City episode, which if you haven't listened to that, you should Definitely go back and listen because it's super fun. But I was gonna ask you because one of the objections that we as travel advisers here is, But what if I don't like the people in my group? So tell us what our guide did to kind of help that initial, like, are we all gonna get along?

Nikki:

Yeah. He was really great in Addressing the group and not making us mash, but at the very beginning, we were all sitting and eating breakfast close to each other. And, you know, he kinda just announced himself, told a little bit about himself, and then asked the different groups what they were most looking forward to so he could kinda get an idea, and we could get an idea of each other. And then what was great is he did just a quick little icebreaker, which took maybe about 90 seconds for all 12 of us. And it wasn't one of those, like, you know, horrible icebreakers that you've done in conference groups before. But it was just a, you know, state your name, tell us where you're from, and It just got us to get to know each other. And then he was like, you know, you're all adults. You're all older kids.

Nikki:

Just figure out who you wanna sit with. You don't sit with the same person every time. Feel free to mix and mingle. So he just gave us that permission to interact with each other.

Michele:

And we did have a solo traveler, which I did it by myself last time and I think she was fine. She always had someone to ride with and she chose to have lunch by ourself, but, like, last time I did it and I paired up with someone else for lunch, and we had a super special lunch. So BT dubs, when you do a VIP, either private or non private, it does come well, non private comes with 2 meals, breakfast and lunch. Private experience, you get all 3 meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And obviously, on a private experience similar to the one that Nikki and I have actually done over at Disney. We did a private VIP tour. Disney doesn't have a non private VIP tour. We didn't have any meals actually because you're paying by the hour and you want to get as much done.

Michele:

This is a 7 hour tour that includes breakfast and lunch. That's the one at Universal Nonprivate Experience that I'm talking about. So we had an extra special guest for lunch.

Nikki:

We did. We invited Jim to have lunch with us. He was our tour guide. And, you know, Michelle and I, we love to hear a lot of, a, the behind the scenes of the park, but behind the scenes of the people. Like, why is he a VIP tour guide? What brought him to it? And so it was really nice to hear his story. Because I always say everyone is a person first, so let's treat him like a person. So just being able to ask him those questions and him being so open to answer them for us was really fun. And we actually got to learn That he, while works at Universal, loves Disney.

Nikki:

And anytime he goes to Disney, he dresses up in dapper. So if you don't know about Disney Dapper Days, he basically does that anytime that he goes to Disney.

Michele:

And what's the name of this Facebook group?

Nikki:

I will look that up, and we'll chat

Michele:

about that. Of you should definitely join his Facebook group. It is Disney focused, but he shows his hats. It's amazing.

Nikki:

Yeah. All of his hats, he either helps make or he has A person that helps him make them that's here locally in Florida. So his Facebook group is Florida Mouse Magic, And he's just trying to get a group started of people that love Florida, that love Disney, that possibly love Dapper, And just sharing experiences, sharing thoughts, building a community. So if you're looking for a very positive and small Disney community, You should look up his Facebook group, which is that Florida mouse magic because he's doing a really good job at getting that going.

Michele:

He's also a granddad, and he had a lot of tips about how to do the park as a senior and what rides you can do. He did several of the rides with us yesterday. One thing that I didn't know from when I did this as a solo or when I did this VIP tour last time as an solo individual is that the guide your VIP tour guide has to be asked. You have to invite him or her to go on the rides with you and or to sit with you for lunch. So at the beginning, we didn't know this until after we had had lunch with him, and it was a total fluke that we even figured out to invite him to lunch. And so I'm so glad we did that. It was probably one of my favorite parts of the day. But after lunch, we started inviting him on the rides, and he could choose whether or not to come with us.

Michele:

And he did a lot at a time, which made Lara, our solo person, have a partner.

Nikki:

Yeah. That wasn't always the same partner. We did have a family of 3. So with her being an individual, a lot of times, she was Always riding with the family of 3, which he didn't seem to care, but it was kinda nice, you know, when he would come and join, the numbers balanced out a little differently.

Michele:

So what was your favorite thing about the tour? Okay. Couple different things because I

Nikki:

can't just pick 1. So definitely Not waiting and, like, not even walking through the express queue, but just, like, going right to the ride platforms. That was really awesome. And then I loved, of course, hearing more about each of the rides. So Jim, our guide, was a really good Storyteller, and his background is in theater, so he loves telling stories. And he did a really good job of setting the scene before each ride. So even if you miss things in the queue, you still got the story because the guide was telling us. And then Probably favorite experience of the day was going underneath the mummy ride.

Michele:

Mine too. That was mine for sure.

Nikki:

Yeah. So being able to be under the ride track at the end of the mummy ride in this super dark Studio area and hearing, like, the cars come in, hearing the same thing over and over from Brendan Fraser. Somebody get that dude a cup of coffee. But that was really awesome to hear the ride mechanics, see the ride mechanics, and learn more about the tech that goes into the ride. That was a really awesome experience. I know it took kind of a larger chunk of time. And, yeah, we could have done 1 more ride during that, but it was just so

Michele:

Something you could not do even if you just bought an Express Pass. So I finally learned in this advanced training that we did. And why I've never heard this or read this in any of the Facebook groups is probably I just don't have the time to spend in those Facebook groups as much as maybe some other people. But an express pass will typically cut your time in line by half. So even if Jurassic Velocicoaster is a 120 minutes, Your wait time is only gonna be cut down, so you're still gonna have an hour with the express pass that you're waiting. Whereas with the VIP, just like Nikki just mentioned, you're not going into the express lane. You are going on to the ride platform. So that's a huge difference, and we got in.

Michele:

How many attractions do we get in yesterday?

Nikki:

So by my tally, if we include the transportation, which VIP tours Don't include that in your final total, but I feel like Hogwarts Express is an attraction. Ditto. We did 13, which also did include us getting a little sneak peek at one of the haunted houses, the stranger things haunted house. Like, we got to go into The very first scene of that. So that would be 13 that we did in 7 hours, which included a lunch stop.

Michele:

Yeah. That's a lot. And we were definitely feeling the hot tub afterwards. We were tired. Yes. So one thing that when he first Came and introduced himself. One of the things that he asked was thrill ride, higher, better, more times you get tossed upside down, and that was the majority of the group. But as you guys know, Hagrid's motorbike is, like, the most sophisticated roller coaster that I personally we will go on.

Michele:

So I was very, very excited to see the brand new Minions Land, And I think it's called Minion Land.

Nikki:

We're gonna call it Minion Land.

Michele:

We're gonna believe that's

Nikki:

a a good term.

Michele:

And because it is new, he did make sure that we got To ride the brand new Villain Con? Villain Con minion blast. Villain Con minion blast. And I shouldn't say that we wrote it. I should say we got to see the attraction. Nikki, tell everybody because Nikki went twice. I was at the end of the day, I was done. And so we should also mention that when you do the VIP experience after your 7 hour tour, you do have an unlimited express pass to go back and do things. So I wanted to check out the food at minion land.

Michele:

That was way more important to me than doing the attraction the 2nd time, but Nikki did it. So, Nikki, explain exactly what this attraction is. It's not a ride.

Nikki:

No. It's not a ride. I would say it's an attraction, and it's a playthrough attraction. I did it the 2nd time to Try to learn a little more, and I wish I could've done it one more time, but the park was closed. So you're, like, almost auditioning to be a villain. So you're given a little blaster, and the blaster has 2 triggers on it. 1 is, like, a regular just, like, blast, pew pew pew, and the other is kinda like your special blaster. So throughout the attraction, you can shoot different boxes and icons to then get, specialty shots.

Nikki:

So either bananas or different, like, special features from the different villains that you're going up against. And so you basically stand on a very, very slow moving people mover going through different sections, and you see Some of the different villainous 6 villains from the minions movies, and you go through different scenarios. And you're actually you're supposed to Shooting minions, because remember you're auditioning to be a villain, which is really odd to shoot minions because they're

Michele:

so cute.

Nikki:

They're too cute. They're too cute.

Michele:

I didn't wanna shoot them.

Nikki:

But minions are resilient. They bounce back just fine. So you're shooting the different minions, and then you do actually shoot the villains as well. And it's a lot that's going on at once. There is an app that you can actually sync your blaster to your app to track your score. It has a lot of replayability in that way, especially for people that like video games, that like achievements. You know, you can continue to increase your score, increase your rank for the day, increase your rank for, like, the game overall. There's different leaderboards.

Nikki:

Then there's other different achievements. So there's kinda, like, little secret hidden Easter eggs in the different rides. So if you hit the right coins, if you hit the right boxes, if you Gather the right materials, then you can gain different achievements in the app as well. It is a little tricky to get the app loaded, And I highly recommend if anybody's doing it, do your research first because once you're there and you're trying to get everything linked up, The team members are just trying to get everybody, like, through the ride, and they don't have time to stop and explain how to use your phone, how to use the app. So do some research beforehand if you are a game enthusiast like my family is so that you know what you're doing, what to look for. The ride itself has not had a very long line, and it has Express Pass. If you have Express Pass, you can go and use that. I use Express Pass, and it got me right into the main area that's really well themed.

Nikki:

It's like you're walking through an expo.

Michele:

The queue is fabulous.

Nikki:

Yeah. Like, you're walking through a trade show floor expo with For villains. For villains.

Michele:

It was awesome.

Nikki:

So, you know, you're seeing their different Stolen items. Their fashion, their travels.

Michele:

Fashion. We loved we loved their travel destinations, like, travel agency for villains. It was awesome.

Nikki:

They have, like, a pickpocketing guide in their little travel section. So just, you know, anything a villain would need to go on vacation, they Do It Ups Wild. So that's where the express drops you into, and I would say it was maybe a 4 minute wait in that area until I got my blaster or I got on my little spot to do my pew pew pew throughout the different scenes.

Michele:

And you're not sitting. When you say get your spot, It's like a standing room only.

Nikki:

It's like a colored twister spot. It's on this slow moving walkway.

Michele:

The conveyor belt. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know. I mean, for me, I mean, it was fun to just hit, but I really wanted to watch the screen. And so that's how I kinda differentiate it from Toy Story Mania is Toy Story Mania, you're seated, But other than the fact that targets are coming at you, there's not, like, extra stuff on the screen. A storyline playing out. There's not a storyline in those screens.

Michele:

It's Just like an arcade game, so to speak. I mean, a sophisticated fun arcade game. I love Toy Story manias. So this one is, like I wanted to just watch the show that I was riding through, so I wasn't very good at shooting. And at the end, my score did display, but I also have no idea how that is in relation to anyone else because It wasn't like you're in a car where at the end of Toy Story Mania, they show the whole score and you can be like, oh, I really sucked at that. It was like, oh, okay. This is my individual achievement. Yay.

Michele:

Yay me.

Nikki:

That's where the app really comes into play because then you can go and see how you ranked against others. I think that's also good because, you know, if you have a child that's maybe really competitive, they don't get that letdown of, oh, I was the worst in the car. They just know their score. They can compare with anyone that's around them. And then I think, you know, a lot of what you said, Michelle, leads to the, I'm gonna say replayability or rewriteability of that attraction because if you go through the 1st time and you're just looking for everything, then taking in the show, then the 2nd time you Start to shoot and build up your score. And as of right now, the line is so manageable and reasonable that you can replay Play it. Something like Toy Story Mania, you have your one time lightning lane, but then if you wanna play again, you either have to time rider. You're waiting 40, 45 minutes.

Michele:

Or you have to be on a VIP tour.

Nikki:

Or on a VIP tour. Yeah. So it's different, and it sets itself apart that way.

Michele:

Okay. So as I said, Nikki got to write it a 2nd time, but I got to check out the new Minions food. Baked Food My Day. Baked My Day, which was so adorable. I actually From seeing the pictures online, I thought it was gonna be like a little sit down dessert kinda restaurant, like, with a little table, But it is completely walk through, and the treats are really good. You can see pictures on my stories under the Universal studio or Univotal Parks of some of the treats that we got. But it's so cute, and the minions are in there getting in their little mayhem, which was adorable. And then there is another cafe that is, like, quick service food.

Michele:

And then they also had minion ice popsicles, which, believe it or not, at this point in the day, it was, like, 555. It was too cold to have an iced popsicle. So we didn't stop there, but we got to go in and see the quick service food. And it's interesting because you go in, You find a place on the table.

Nikki:

I was gonna say so Michelle and I walked in, and we're like, where do we order our food? Well, duh, There are now 2 places at Universal that are mobile service only. So it is Leaky Cauldron and then, Minions Cafe. So what's kinda great in that is instead of having so much space set up for cashiers, which, Of course, they still have 1 because some people still like cash, some people don't have the app, etcetera, so they accommodate that. But instead of having all that space for cashiers, You actually have more table space and more theming in there. Yeah. Because you just go in. You do your mobile order. You put in your table number.

Nikki:

Like, if you've ever done that at Panera or whatever quick service eatery you have near you, it makes it so nice. And I was thinking that is 1 bougie AF amenity of the Minions Cafe because sometimes I don't wanna talk to anybody. I don't wanna stand there and try to pick something out on the menu. I wanna sit my booty down in a chair, look at the menu, order what I want. You know, the rest of the people with me, they can do the same. Everybody's seated, which makes everyone a little less grumpy after you've been in the park all day. And then, you know, you can order and it gets delivered right to you. You don't have to worry about dropping your tray.

Michele:

Yeah. It was very cool. And one thing, again, I would like to mention, and I know it has been many, many years, but I just still appreciate it that much more. Universal is a Coke theme park and resorts. They got rid of the Pepsi contract, but this girl right here is a Diet Coke girl, and I loved having a Diet Coke at lunch. It was just, like, dreamy. Yeah.

Nikki:

Okay. So I'm gonna have to disagree. I am a Pepsi girl through and through, but I will tolerate my Coke 0 and my Diet Coke. So I, like, cried when Pepsi left and they took over Coke, but it's fine. I will live.

Michele:

Go to your nearest Marriott. They are so Pepsi centric. Okay. But one other beverage that we each had was

Nikki:

Oh, Okay. So my favorite beverage in all of Universal is a warm butter beer. And, generally, this time Of year when we went in October, it's too hot for a warm butter beer. But like Michelle said, it was a little too chilly for ice cream, Says the Texan, the Michigan girl, would have had ice cream if I had room in my stomach. But warm butter beer, if you can get it, Get it. It is only available traditionally at, like, the restaurants, so Leaky Cauldron, 3 Broomsticks, Because of how they have to make it, it used to only be seasonal, but they serve it year round now. It is Delightful. It was really warm.

Nikki:

Warm butter beer. Right?

Michele:

I think it was my 1st warm butterbeer. I'm no longer a warm butterbeer virgin, but it was good. I woulda had more if we'da had more time.

Nikki:

Yeah. No. It is the foam that they put on top of it that has a little bit of that it's like caramel with it. Someone will tell me I'm wrong, and that's fine. Whatever it is, it is delicious, and it is sweet, but not super sweet, and it just warms Warms you up from the inside out. I'm not a big coffee girl, like, at all. Like, the 1st time I had coffee was maybe 2 or 3 months ago, and I'm like, okay. I kinda like this.

Nikki:

But warm butterbeer all the way. Like, had we not finished our tour where we did back in Diagon Alley, I would have walked myself all the way around because Diagon Alley closed at 5. I would have walked myself over to Hogsmeade to get a warm butter beer.

Michele:

So last time, I made sure to ask How many forms of butterbeer there are? Now that I've had hot, I think I've tried them all. So we have regular and frozen. I had a frozen butterbeer right, that hit the spot. It was as we were leaving Hogsmeade and heading out two of a Lhasa Coaster, I had my frozen. So we've had regular frozen, fudge, I didn't like the fudge very much, ice cream, I also didn't like very much, and then warm. So that's 5. I thought there were 7.

Nikki:

I think there's a potted cream, So that would bring us to 6. I'd have to ask the Google bots.

Michele:

Yeah. So, anyway, we recommend trying Butterbeer in all of its forms. For those of you who are Disney centric and haven't even been to visit Universal Studios, Disney tried with the blue milk to compensate for the butterbeer and hashtag fail. Butterbeer is there's nowhere else that you can get it. It is Super unique. The recipe is highly secretive, which along the lines of highly secretive. I'm scrolling here because we are running out of time. We asked our VIP tour guide a little bit about the new Epic Universe.

Nikki:

I know. Oh my gosh. So in talking with Jim, we learned that his daughter is on the team for Epic Universe, and he said that she gets up and leaves the dining room table because Jim's son-in-law and him will start talking epic universe stuff, And she gets so mad because she values her NDA so much. So it is very, very tight lipped. A lot of rumors and stuff out there. We learned at training that, yes, Super Nintendo World is coming, so we know that one. And then we do know there's something Harry Potter related, but that is all we could get out of Anybody that we tried.

Michele:

Well, we did find out there are gonna be 2 new hotels, and they are gonna be Lowe's Hotels. That we found out, but I even tossed out the rumor that I had heard about Ministry of Magic, and nobody would confirm nor deny. They just said Universal has lots of rumors, So now I'm even questioning that. We will just all have to see. So yeah. Oh my god. We're already out of time. And, Nikki, any last words of wisdom?

Nikki:

Oh, so one thing specifically, if you're coming to Universal and you've had a really long day in the park like Michelle and I did yesterday, We walked out in the city walk, and it was jam packed. And, of course, we didn't have any dining reservations planned because we didn't know how our day was gonna go. So what we did was we went back to the hotel. If you're staying on Universal or if you're not, you can use the boats to get to a hotel. So if it is too overwhelming to eat in CityWalk, go to a hotel, and it will be way less populated. And if you do have to wait, you know, a little bit for dinner at, you know, Amatista here at Sapphire Falls or if you're over at I I think it's Jake's at Royal Pacific or The Kitchen at Hard Rock. At least you have a very comfortable environment to wait in, the lobby, air conditioned seats. Wi Fi.

Nikki:

Wi Fi and not so many people. So if it's 2 people y out there in City Walk, take a boat, eat somewhere else. Eat at one of the resorts.

Michele:

Definitely. And I have eaten it on Matista a couple times now, and I think the food is great there. And The Kitchen always at Hard Rock always has great reviews, and the Italian eatery at Portofino Bay. Anything at Portofino Bay is delish. Yeah. And so we did tours of hotels as part of our training. We did some classroom stuff, so all that stuff is gonna be posted when this episode airs on my stories, and also be sure and follow Nikki at

Nikki:

travel with Nikki. So if, on Instagram, you need to put, like, the underscore between travel with and Nikki. Goran.

Michele:

And we will definitely make sure you can find her in our show notes too. So see you real soon. Thanks, everybody.