Podcast

From Disneyland Magic to Universal Hollywood Thrills and Vegas Horror

Dis & Hers

March 25, 2026
44 min read

From nighttime spectaculars and surprise medical detours to first-time theme park experiences and a whirlwind Vegas finale, this episode of Diz and Hers captures a packed family adventure across Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood, and beyond. Eric and Lauren Hersey share the highs, the mishaps, the meals, and the unforgettable moments that made this nine-day trip one for the books.

From Disneyland Magic to Universal Hollywood Thrills and Vegas Horror Transcript

Eric Hersey: Hey, welcome to Dis and Hers, the show about what’s happening in the Disney community from his, hers, and your perspective, and I’m Eric.

Lauren Hersey: and I’m Lauren and we are gonna switch it up today. That’s my best scratch.

Eric Hersey: You should not do that scratching. There are audio engineers that can easily make a scratching sound.

Lauren Hersey: All right, we’re switching it up today. So we just got back from an epic trip to Disneyland that started with a spa appointment and ended up with a trip to the hospital where Walt Disney passed away and tons of money spent on new birds in the meantime. we thought you’d give you a little special edition of Disney Hers from his hers in your perspective about our recent trip to Disneyland. First time visit to Universal Hollywood and we bookend the trip with Mr. Jim Hill out in Las Vegas. So Eric, first thoughts about being at Disneyland? This is first time not there really during a holiday. I we’ve not rode Hauna Mansion before. But it’s like, what did you think of California in March?

Eric Hersey: thought the weather was fantastic. So the last time now we’ve been there in July, which was super hot. And we’ve also been there in August, which was hot enough. I remember getting sunburned on both occasions. So this March trip was much better for my fair pasty skin. I love hoodie weather and I got to wear hoodies and long sleeves for the majority of the trip. I got to wear some cake worthy, what I like to call the nerdy lumberjack look, which has Monsters Inc and characters on but it’s a flannel and but shorts so I was very comfortable this entire trip loved loved loved I kind of fell in love with the California weather and darn I would go in March next year if somebody would should ask

Lauren Hersey: Yes, and I mean, just be aware though, that we did not know when we booked our trip that this was also the opening weekend for the Food and Wine Festival. So pack your sweatshirts, pack your patience and have a have a good dive. So the weather obviously was fantastic. We had a day that got up to 90, which worked out for us because last time we went to Disneyland as a family. stayed at the Disneyland Resort and we had the full Disney treatment and experience. It was fantastic. But there are so many wonderful good neighbor hotels out on that coast. If you’re not familiar, there’s only three Disney hotels. So we were broadening our horizons a bit and we ended up booking. It’s called the courtyard, Marriott theme park entrance and the hotel was probably a quicker walk honestly to the front of the park than staying at the Disneyland Resort and it had a full water park so if you’re in downtown Anaheim that’s not really typical you’ll get like a pool and stuff but multiple water slides, a splash zone, a big hot tub So that was really a selling point for us. How did you feel being out of the bubble?

Eric Hersey: Far better than you because you would complain about the walk. So I You didn’t complain because it was too far. You didn’t like necessarily being out of the bubble It was fun because we would walk just the main drag and we’d walk by a panera bread and we’d walk by a McDonald’s which dare I say is open till 2 a.m And every single time I passed you would not let me go get a big mac and a couple other hotels and you did have to cross the street and we do it as a mass sea of humanity and on the corner there you would either have someone preaching at you, literally preaching at you, or there was a man with a couple macaws and you could have some birds sitting on your shoulder, somebody selling some waters, and my favorite, which I only saw the one day but had the running joke of the guy with the reptiles and snakes, which he would let you pet that snake if you would give him five dollars, and we never did find out how much it would be if you would actually put the snake around your neck or hold, I’m guessing it was up to 20.

Lauren Hersey: You

Eric Hersey: That it was enough for Lauren to be like yeah This isn’t as magical as my my bubble experience while walking from the Disneyland Hotel Which has you going through the downtown Disney, but is a longer walk so I personally had no problem with our hotel was clean. had Starbucks or some type of coffee shop. There was food you could get. You could go to the little store and get snacks and the room was big and comfy. And from a price perspective, I didn’t do any of the booking or any of that, but it seemed to me like it was more affordable than the hotels at Disney.

Lauren Hersey: More affordable at Disney, but it would still have been like a deluxe like out of the bubble So it’s still saved about $200 a night from the Disneyland Resort and I liked it. The room was bigger had two bathrooms and bunk beds For any moms that are listening that stuff actually matters, but yeah, it was it was clean and I actually have a quick little You know sped up video. It’s I’m telling you probably four minutes maybe 15 minutes from the hotel like actually into the theme park enjoying your day and the cool thing was if you are you know swimmers have kids you it’s directly across the street from the Matterhorn from Space Mountain so they leave the pool open 10 11 something like that so you could actually watch the fire

Eric Hersey: 10 o’clock. We know this from a story that we might share a little later. Yeah.

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, we will. will share that story firsthand. So and I mean, speaking of stories, so we get there the first night and we get to partake in all of the evening festivities at Disneyland. So much is happening at night. And we were finally excited to see paint the night. It did not disappoint a tapestry of happiness. Also on the front of Small World. Fantastic. but what we did not get to do in our five days at Disneyland is we still have yet to see the fireworks. This time was due to the Santa Ana winds. Do remember why we didn’t get to see the fireworks last time?

Eric Hersey: because we didn’t know that they were only on weekends. That was the main reason. We sat, we thought we had this premium awesome seat and it turns out that there were not gonna be any fireworks and that’s why no one was lining the streets. So this time around, they did go over the loudspeaker and they, I think they did the projection show. And we were like, yeah, no. I mean, I think we watched a little bit of it and we were like, we’ll just beat the rush. So there were no fireworks, but like you said, Paint the Night, we saw that multiple times. It is fantastic. Darn, I say the best I’ve seen. Only because I love the Main Street because it’s super nostalgic. The only reason I think that it could, you know, clash a bit, but that is a different thing. This Paint the Night was everything it lived up to be. and as advertised, so I’m glad we got to see it.

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, speaking of getting to see things, what’d think of Walt?

Eric Hersey: okay. here’s so number one complaint. I think the ride footage and I the footage that’s before is is it same thing as one man’s dream just with with Bob Iger talking like the footage is so much the same like they get to the point where where they start talking about live-action movies. It’s the exact same clips of the nutty professor or or or What’s the dog one? Gold Yeller. It’s the exact same clip and I’m like, you know, could have made it slightly different. But Walt was interesting because we know what he looks like and we know how he moves and it is his voice, but yet it is now an animatronic. And I think we get away with using animatronics of people that we’ve never seen or heard and it seems fine. It was fine. I mean, like I wasn’t upset with it. I’m happy to have him in the carousel of progress, but my expectations weren’t imagined like we’re going to see the exact real thing. It’s not, it’s not the Navi. It’s not the shaman. You know, what was your thoughts?

Lauren Hersey: no, they’re not gonna outdo themselves with the shaman. But the funny thing about it was by chance we were in the theme park with our friend, retired Imagineer, Jim Schull, and just happened to be watching that show with him. So the first thing I wanted to know was from an Imagineering perspective, what’d think of Walt? You know, and he was like, it was way too long. The pre-show was way too long. can see that. As far as an animatronic goes, if you’ve not watched the videos online, he is moving and he takes a step and, you know, obviously it’s his voice, but I don’t know. I think it was okay, but it didn’t rock my world. We’ll say that. It’s better than the, well, looking like he’s going to the bathroom statue. That’s an up-cut.

Eric Hersey: and they’re doing a good job keeping Walt alive. mean, at this point in time, he’d be 125 years old. know, like this is, he is still, you still know he’s a real human being and they’re doing a good job keeping that. And I think for the spot, I mean, we went and saw it where the last time you didn’t even see the Abe Lincoln show, like great moments with Mr. Lincoln. So there it occupied, wasn’t a field theater or… but it was something that we went out of our way to do and we’d probably do it again. It was fine enough. So I don’t have an issue with it, but let’s pivot to something that we did, but let’s talk about something that we ate. And one thing that was, the first thing we did when we got there was we went and ate at the plaza, which was my favorite meal, I think, of the entire trip.

Lauren Hersey: And so again, I got a shout out AJ over the Disney food blog. I did not realize the cafeteria establishments throughout Disneyland. I also did not realize that the Plaza was a character meal in the morning and then it becomes a cafeteria style in the afternoon into the evening hours. So first thing we did when we got there was head to the Plaza and Eric got the fried chicken world famous. I got the meatloaf. The kids got some type of alfredo and I think that it was the best food that I could say that I ate on the trip.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, no, honestly wanted to eat there again. That’s how much I wanted to eat. And I was super hungry, don’t get me wrong. We were coming off of the flight and travel day and we ended up at the park. So we probably got there what, two o’clock or so. So we had a good meal and nothing kind of lived up to that. And we didn’t skimp on where we were eating. We did eat at the Blue Bayou for our son’s birthday, which you were not happy with.

Lauren Hersey: no, they might get a letter. so I maybe a little bit halfway getting no. So Miles, our son, is turning nine and he is cute as Christmas. He has his little just to paint the picture for you. He’s wearing little Mickey Mouse ears with like a big cupcake in the middle. And he’s got his Disney birthday boy shirt on. And he has his like half smeared pin that he’s been wearing. This was his birthday, so he was decked out. So we go into the Blue Bayou and one, the food was really not… It was not nearly what we remembered it being. He was so excited to be there. He actually named his fish after this restaurant. His fish at home is named Blue Bayou. Our waiter had a table next to us and there was a little boy over there and they brought him a cupcake and a candle. did not bring my little nugget, a cupcake and a candle, but it was okay. He still had an extremely magical birthday, but please make note that the menu has changed.

Eric Hersey: Or at least we thought it changed. I looked back and I read a blog. when we first went back in 2023 and looked at the food and the food was different that I ordered there than this time around. And I mean, it was fine. It wasn’t anything. It’s just one of those things where like you expected this to be the meal. Like I would have never said if you put them against each other, the Plaza blew by you, which one’s going to be the better meal? Which one was the more value? Which one had a better experience? And I’m like, Plaza wins hands down. Nobody would thought that. So that was an interesting call. And I mean, for the most part, we ate around the parks and we just talked a lot about the snacks that you had on Diz and Hers, but give us a real quick briefing if they didn’t get to watch that episode.

Lauren Hersey: I mean, big fan of the raspberry macaroon, get the baked potato. There’s chocolate chip cookies by the Haunted Mansion. mean, like, I could literally go on and give you a full list if anybody wants that. Let me know. I’m happy to give you the recommendations. But something that I that blew me away, actually, and I won’t spend too much time talking about it, but I did go to the spa at the Grand Californian and I’ve been to the spa there before. But only to get like a pedicure. So this time I had the full like montagne. You’re in a separate area. It’s really, really nice. But something different that they do there, they just had so many little magical touches. It felt like old Disney. Like one of the things was like you could, you know, you have a like earthy spa music or whatever. You could actually like listen to Disney music or like classical Disney music was really cool. And they had these, I feel like they were called like fancy cookies. But when I came out from my service, they had multiple types of cookies, but one fresh baked chocolate chip cookie, Perrier, multiple types of water. Like they really like did the thing. They were like in a Forbes winner, like winning spa, I guess the the spa director came from Elani. And so So he had some, I guess maybe demands he or she and it was a fantastic experience, which I think it may have ultimately led me up in the hospital. I don’t know for sure if that was what did me in or not, but at the top of the show.

Lauren Hersey: I had mentioned that we unfortunately visited the hospital that Walt passed away in with my own medical situation and thankfully nothing life threatening like that. I wouldn’t be sensitive with that. But that next evening everything was fine after the spa. actually we were not fine after the spa. The things went downhill after the spa because we didn’t talk about the story at the hotel. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta take a, put a pin in my Walt story. But, so that evening, the Grand Californian is hooked to DCA where we had planned on seeing World of Color. It was kind of cold and like I said, extremely busy. And so we bribed the kids and we’re like, Hey, if we don’t go to World of Color, we’ll go to the pool at the hotel. They have a hot tub. It’s fantastic. Whatever. So during that time, I had my services at the spa and I had my rings. on and I had intentionally wore my grandma Janie’s ring because you know it’s just sentimental thought you know she’s with us and you know had my service put my rings back on we ate dinner at DCA all good fine went swimming totally fine I’m back in the room in the shower and realized that the diamond it’s a solitaire diamond has fallen out of the ring And in my heart of hearts, I really thought it was gone. It was down the drain. And I was clearly like very, very upset. And this is like a miracle situation. So my little boy who was turning nine, the birthday boy, he had just got out of the shower. He had his pajamas on, looking all cute. And my hero, Eric, the other half of Diz and Hers, everybody took off up to the the pool the hot tub and the funny thing was that like miles said a prayer he had these goggles that he put on and he and Eric jumped into the hot tub and ultimately found this diamond it there it should have been zero reason do you want to elaborate on how that went down

Eric Hersey: sure. Number one, it was 9.45 and the pool closed at 10. So we, I just kind of wrote it off as like, Lauren, we had been at Disneyland. We have been here. We’ve been there. This sucker’s gone. You’re not finding this happy thing. Good thing we had insurance on it. but, we at least owed ourselves because you kind of came to the conclusion. like, all right, it probably was the jets from the hot tub so we went up there and luckily the pool was closed or not closed but no one was there so the hot tub was empty no jets were really on so it was still and I jumped in and I noticed where like sand or dirt residue would sit and I said all right barefoot I’m gonna step around hopefully something sharp pokes my foot and I kind of circle around with my foot and sure enough notice I said all right let’s see I just assumed it was a rock The funny thing is I yelled or at least complained at Lauren for bringing the goggles. I said, why are you bringing goggles? No one is swimming in a pool like this. Why are you bringing this? And she brought them anyway. But without those goggles, our nine-year-old would not have been able to go under there because he’s like, I said, all right, I’m stepping on something, go look under. And he’s like, it’s it. And I give him a little nudge to get all the way down there. And he grabs that sucker and pulls that out. And sure enough, is the darn diamond. It was the craziest thing. There were four lifeguards there kind of helping us and it was almost like if there was a room of people there would have been a giant applause because it is the most ridiculous thing in the world. if when you hear this stuff it’s always the worst case scenario. Like I lost my ring, I lost it. Like you never find it. But here’s a scenario where we actually found it. So crazy, crazy, crazy story. But we will, how about this? Let’s take a quick break. And then when we come back, you’ll find out why Lauren ended up in the ER, urgent care, same place where our friend Walt had passed away. But luckily we come out of this okay. So stay with us when we come back. We’ll give that and more from Disneyland, Universal Studios, Hollywood, Vegas, Unleashed, and all in between.

Eric Hersey: All right, and we are back. So we talked about Lauren having a day at the at the hospital. But let’s let’s finish up because that is way down the street that is in Burbank and we’re still in Anaheim. So why don’t we finish up the Disneyland trip real quick? And I kind of wanted to start with something that I thought was really peculiar or odd or I didn’t experience it before because we’ve been in the Disney realm for so long. And that is somebody who walked into the park and the first thing they wanted to see at Disneyland was Star Wars Land. I thought that was incredible because we, mean, I’m like, yeah, was when it first came out, it was cool to see Star Wars Land. We were all excited about it, but it’s kind of been somewhat of a letdown for most of us. But those that aren’t diehard Disney fans, still like that’s what they wanted to see. So we invited our friend Colin to come to Disneyland for the first time in maybe what, 10 years? And we meet him at the front of the park.

Lauren Hersey: Yeah.

Eric Hersey: And we were just like, hey, and he’s just game to do anything we want to do. And we’re just game to show him a good time because we’re Disney people and he knows that we’re obsessed with Disney. So I’m just like, can’t, you have to have, we need to show you a good time. So that way you don’t think we’re crazy. But sure enough, the first thing and we’re like, we can do this, we can do this. And then I think we’re like, Hey, and there’s a Star Wars and he’s like, I want to see Star Wars land. And we spent what two hours over in the theme park and that doing rise and doing smugglers run.

Lauren Hersey: The funny thing is we don’t ever even go back there.

Eric Hersey: and No, because we’re Walt Disney World people. We’ve been to Disney, like we’ve seen it a million times. So we’re in Disneyland. Like I want to do Casey Jr. I want to do Mr. Toad. I want to do Pinocchios. Like I don’t want to do anything that the other parks have, right? Like it’s whole reason I still didn’t do Tiana’s. I’m like, yeah, it’s pretty much the same thing. So let me do things that aren’t. but

Lauren Hersey: But it was like the most bizarre thing ever. was like you could see he’s probably about 50 years old. You could see the little like five year old, 10 year old version of Colin just like coming out. Like he grabbed a lightsaber from one of the staff members and was like having a lightsaber battle with our son and just like pure joy. So as Disney people and most of you probably are listening, like remember that not everybody gets to see a reenactment of Star Wars in their everyday life. I forgot.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that’s the thing is you forget and smug and I will tell you we had we often travel in parties of three or four that do smugglers run when you have six and you can pick who the drivers are and who the gunners are and who the engineers are you can get two or three things of coaxium which was like our best run ever because we actually had like Alright, and we set him up. said, Colin, you’re gonna drive and you also get to hit the light speed since it’s the first time you’ve ever done it. And like Miles and I were gunners, so we were real good. And you guys were the engineers in the back fixing and shooting the harpoon. So it was fun to actually be on Smuggler’s Run where we didn’t crash every single time because a four-year-old was the pilot because they just so happen to be in front of you. that is the little… That was me being a slightly negative on how that experience sometimes works with us. no, I think

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, but I mean like seeing seeing Colin see that and then just by chance meeting with Jim Schull in the park and him getting to go up to the DVC lounge and you know, we’ve talked about it on shows before that Mickey or Minnie’s house in Toontown is based Mickey’s house. I’m sorry is based off of his mother-in-law’s house in Texas. And so he was able to show our daughter

Eric Hersey: Mickey’s house. Mickey’s. Yeah.

Lauren Hersey: So like just seeing things through other people’s eyes Like that is a part of like why you pay for the Disney Vacation the Disney experience is quite quite magical But I mean, I think I checked off everything that I could have possibly had on my bucket list besides my chimichanga Did you check everything off of your? bucket list before we go to Hollywood

Eric Hersey: Yeah.

Eric Hersey: Well, I mean, I did get to like I got my big thing. This trip was every time we went the last two times Space Mountain was down. So I never got to experience Space Mountain out there. And I know it was different, but it’s similar. Right. But we did get to do Space Mountain twice. So that was the big thing on my list that I was like, I want to do Space Mountain. I get to do Casey Jr. I got to do all my dark rides that you can’t do anywhere else. And so, yeah, I think so. I mean, I would have loved to do in credit coaster more. only got to do it once. I discovered their single rider line, but it just was crazy. over at DCA this trip. And so we did get to do the big ones, but there’s little things. I feel like the only thing that I have left is Tiana’s. We have not done Tiana’s, but I think everything else we’ve checked off. I even did the pal around wheel, non spinner, non moving. Like, and that is so much more tame and I can handle that. So I feel we did turtle talk. So we didn’t do that. So maybe the animation, we still have to do that. We did fill our magic this time around. So interesting takes, had a really good time. Disneyland lived up to the hype. Super happy to see the paint the night. They literally need to keep something like that around. I mean, we used to complain about not having a nighttime parade at Walt Disney World. be happy with Starlight. But something’s better than nothing. But boy, the paint the night was amazing. Any lasting thoughts before we move and take that 40 minute to an hour long drive on an Uber down to Burbank in LA?

Lauren Hersey: Now that pretty much sums it up at Disneyland and hopefully we will see y’all back there in August for D23.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, yeah. So, all right. So let’s let’s talk about it. This this was a major reason why we wanted to go was for those that listen to the epic Universal podcast. I have not been to Universal Hollywood and Jim talks about upper lot lower lot tram tour all the time because it is a very historic property. And I unfortunately all the time like I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, Jim. I have no idea what CityWalk looks like this, that so forth. And I get all those hateful comments online of like, why do you got a guy on here that’s never been there? So I had to fix that. So we went and stayed at another, where was it, another Marriott? No, this is a Sheraton.

Lauren Hersey: It was another Marriott, yeah it was another Marriott, was the Sheridan. So if you’re not familiar with Universal Studios Hollywood, they don’t have their own hotels, so they equivalent, they have two on property. One is a Sheridan and one is a Hilton and they both looked kind of old and they’re kind of smushed up against City Walk. But like nothing is flat there. So as far as Sheridan, The Sheridan goes, in my opinion, it was lovely. They had a free little tram if you didn’t want to be lazy but like us and not walk up the giant hill to get to City Walk but like we could have walked to the theme park in how many minutes? Maybe 10?

Eric Hersey: 1015 I would it was a hill we walk I walked back twice and it wasn’t bad walking back twice Walking up the hill. No one wanted to do it I was gonna do it one day because the trams, know, the little shuttles maybe took 10 15 minutes to go around if you were lucky But no the overall the the room was fine I think we were on floor 16 had a cool view of just like the mountainside and traffic and perfectly fine room and the location was great we didn’t have to really

Lauren Hersey: it was like a hill.

Eric Hersey: Uber anywhere, so we saved some money in terms of going to the parks, but let’s just cut to the chase here, Lauren. You stayed night one, and the next day you woke up, and what was the problem?

Lauren Hersey: my gosh, so my face was like five times the size that it normally is. If you’re watching this as a video, this is what I normally look like. Like unrecognizable. And I don’t know exactly what caused it, but it was brewing. Mr. took a photo and, no, Mr. Schultz took a photo and sent it to Mr. Hill. And he even said to be like pre- knowing this that my face looked puffy back at Disneyland but it just got, I mean like it looked like I just got my wisdom teeth out. Is the best description? Yes.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, and I have wisdom teeth pictures of you as an adult. Yeah, and it looked almost worse. So we woke up bad-faced, not sure what was going on. And it could… Yeah.

Lauren Hersey: my tongue started going numb and like going down towards my throat area and so that’s why we

Eric Hersey: So unfortunately that day we had to adjust our plans. We were gonna take a tour of the Walt Disney Animation Studio, which we were super jazzed about, but it was one of those things like, unfortunately not today. So you hung back and sooner or later, once you said your tongue was like swelling, we got some local information to find out the best location, urgent care to go to, and we ubered on over there and we’ll cut. Story short, you ended up getting a shot and some Prednisone’s and we got you cleared up well enough. But that was not the best way to spend our first day at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, I didn’t even go. So we had two day tickets. So Eric and the kids got to go a couple times. I did not get to go. So my first full experience would have been we met Jim Hill there on Thursday and we had a full day in the in the parks. So any highlights from your experience?

Eric Hersey: Yeah. yeah, yeah. mean, overall, I very much appreciate it. I’ve become obviously a Universal fan over the last couple of years. We’re nearing our 100th episode of the Epic Universal Podcast. Can you believe that? We’re getting close to that. So I have helped. Yeah, well, whatever you would call that. But either way, I’ve covered a lot, so I’ve heard a lot. So I was very much able to appreciate it and see it with my own eyes. I really love City Walk. It kind of came out of nowhere. I think it is, it looked like a towering city to me and it was bright and flashy and they had this giant neon King Kong which like I want off the side of our house. I will, we have a basement that’s themed like the utilidor, why can’t I have the house themed like City Walk? Yeah, well.

Lauren Hersey: He has a full-size wrestling ring. Why not add a King Kong off the house?

Eric Hersey: Right, people aren’t looking at me weird anyway, right? No, but I very much enjoyed the nostalgic aspect of it to do something like the tram tour, which I’ve seen online was super cool. And also to, you know, see things like the Waterworld stunt show and the secret life of pets and to see the upper and lower lot, all the escalators and the views and just kind of seeing another. theme park that was clean and honestly when you step into a brand new theme park like the first time we stepped in Disneyland or DCA or even you know something like California event or you know Hollywood studio anytime you go somewhere new that is of a good quality you have this nice feeling so I I enjoyed it but let’s hear your general thoughts because we pretty much got to do mostly everything or I did

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, there’s a lot of duplication between Hollywood and Florida. so like Eric was saying, you know, at Disneyland, he wants to just tackle the things primarily that we don’t have on our coast. That’s how I felt going into it. But seeing Waterworld, that stunt show was really good. Secret Life of Pets would be like the equivalent of the Dr. Seuss. I even went on the Jurassic World

Eric Hersey: really good. I think it was slightly I mean I think it was better than Florida’s version but I liked it yeah.

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, it’s like small. It’s smaller in scale, like like even to go to the lower lot and see Super Nintendo World, like it really is far larger versions, kind of like the supersized version on the East Coast, like the castle. But like it was charming and it was clean and it was nice. And we got to look at we got to go in the new Fast and the Furious, Hollywood Drift, like gift shop, no new merch just yet. But like I thought it was a really nice experience, really liked their version of City Walk. I’m not sure what the big difference was. Maybe it feels more quaint or like authentic, I don’t know. But like I just, it gave me the feels, I liked it.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, yeah, I think overall the and I mean you guys can hear an entire Jim and I sit down in the park and we give a general overview and an episode so you if depending on when this comes out you’ve either heard that or you’ll get the full fledged up and down plus stories and so forth so make sure you listen to that but I thought universal Hollywood was it lived up to the hype the tram tour I did face my fears and and saw Bruce Jaws himself I did not sit directly next to him but I did see him with my own two eyes and yes when the music starts playing my heart did race a little bit but I It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought. There is something still that still triggers old emotional trauma for me. I really, they advertised that King Kong was down, but we got to witness it and I’m very happy we did because they did have the finale, which was the Fast and Furious down and it was a very abrupt end of like, well, there you go kind of deal. But overall, yeah, and you got to do it twice.

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, the idea the tram tour was weird, certainly. Yeah, I it twice. I mean, was pretty, you know, it was pretty similar. I just wanted to sit at a different angle to see. And I mean, it really, if you’re not familiar, I think it is like a 60 minute experience. So it is something that you to be patient for. But that was the one thing that I really wanted to soak it all in. But like if the Hersey’s had not had enough at that point, Jim Hill was like, let’s get

Eric Hersey: Mm-hmm.

Lauren Hersey: more let’s do some more Vegas Vegas Vegas and so

Eric Hersey: Yeah. Well, let’s real quick, real quick. Let’s let’s give you know, Jim doesn’t like taking compliments probably be but this man hauled all our bags. So we flew we flew from Vegas. Yeah, from from Burbank Airport, which I was not necessarily a giant fan of to Las Vegas and got there in several hours. But Jim was a knight in shining armor and grabbed our all our luggage that was heavy as all hell and drove it for our to meet us there because he had a rental car and we stayed at the Luxor and there is a reason for that. Yeah, it’s a pyramid but there we were going to Vegas for number one reason is Horror Unleashed which if you’re not familiar is the year-long Halloween Horror Nights experience by Universal that opened up I dare say in August around this time August I think and it is an area in a place called Area 15 and Jim and I have been covering it and from start to finish and I have never been to a Halloween Horror Nights and obviously for Universal fans that is a huge deal that is a big thing and I needed to experience it just like I needed to experience Hollywood like I’m committed to being a good podcaster or at least knowing what the heck I’m talking about good is probably relative but I we went there with that hopes because Vegas is not necessarily doing so hot and we fear that something like this might go away because there’s not enough good things happening in Vegas to keep it afloat. So we’re like, we better get out there sooner than later. So we tapped this on and because we’re out there, there is so much history and fascinating with themed entertainment. We said we’re going to do like the themed entertainment tour and it was going to be a family of we’re now having six. It’s our five and Jim got to hang out and see what it’s like to be tourists with us because he rolled. So

Lauren Hersey: And he rolled.

Eric Hersey: We stayed at the Luxor because we’re gonna find out in coming weeks or months. We’re gonna probably do some series on Vegas in which we’ll talk about the three attractions they had at the Luxor and why they’re no more and who was involved in that but Your opinion and Jim’s opinion and almost everybody’s opinion of Luxor was not that great, right Lauren?

Lauren Hersey: no, leave that, don’t do that.

Eric Hersey: She did not we should have we watched bright side films months ago, and he did a tour of it and like trash Yeah, yeah, he did, but I don’t care. I wanted to I needed to experience for myself, but but Jim had great jokes He’s like this Yeah, so

Lauren Hersey: Jake warned us. Thanks. Oh my gosh, he said it was a sadistic contemporary. Because you really are, not going up an elevator, you’re going in an inclinator. And because it’s going diagonally, because you’re going up the side of a pyramid. And so they have all these different like red elevator, gold elevator. I can smell it from here. So let’s leave Luxor in Vegas.

Eric Hersey: Yeah. Yeah, well, all right. we, Lauren and I have traveled to Vegas as a couple and we’ve stayed at a little condo and we got to do like the double-decker bus tour and we did our touristy things and had a really, really good time. We brought our kids this time around and we stayed in a casino and yes, everything did smell like smoke and we all got headaches at certain points in time and the kids were not necessarily as thrilled with everything. So this time around was not a great Vegas experience. We had as much fun as one could, but… Nonetheless, it was a unique experience and I dare say I would much rather go with Lauren by myself and stay somewhere else next time around. But we did have some highlights. If you are interested in the take on Horror Unleashed, I will tell you this. I liked it. I am now a Halloween Horror Nights fan. I can handle it even though I don’t like jump scares. There is an entire 60 minute episode that will be coming out on the Epic Universal Podcast where Jim and I highlight everything. So let’s talk about some of the other elements, Lauren. We went to the sphere.

Lauren Hersey: Well, no, first you were you were missing my highlight. That is not fair. So they dropped us off at Universal Horror Unleashed. Like they tossed us out of the Uber and we’re like, good luck, because we weren’t going.

Eric Hersey: What is your highlight?

Eric Hersey:

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, so I do have to say that there was a pop-up Malibu Barbie Cafe across the street at Area 15 and that was a really fun surprise. So my little guy, Miles and Laney and I, went over there and for the price of admission, you got like $10 off like the food at the cafe and like five bucks towards merch. But they had, you know, make your own ice cream sundaes and cupcakes and all the all the photo ops like I saw lots of lots of Barbie girls. I mean, we saw all Barbie girls and young Barbie girls and boy Barbie girls. All Barbie girls. Yeah. So anyways, and then there was also some really fun like Malibu Barbie roller skating. So that pop up will be there to the end of March. So fun. But we did go to the sphere like Eric said, that was another Jim was hoping to witness the Wizard of Oz at the sphere. and your thoughts, sir.

Eric Hersey: Well, I was one that actually purchased these tickets. We got them through, I think Sam’s Club had a slight deal. So a friend of the show gave us some tips to go to Sam’s Club. So I got to pick the tickets. I did pick the cheapest tickets. There were six of them. Right, so that is my problem is that when we were there, the cheap tickets were all filled and then the pricier tickets, the seats were empty. And that means you guys. that the price of admission, people feel that like, we’ll pay this, but we won’t pay this. And I think that they should adjust so that way everything is full. And for the seats we have is 50%, maybe even, you know, even if it’s 30 % off, it would make it more reasonable. I have a, the experience was nice. It was interesting, needless to say. I… There were some elements that were super cool, for the price, I expected this sucker to be 3D in my face and immersive the entire time. In my opinion, it was cool. We watched the Wizard of Oz. There were some falling apples. There were some leaves that floated around. There were some monkeys that kind of seemed immersive. man, I would not pay for a family to do it again. You would have to really get a movie that, dare I say, really moves me to do it. say a Star Wars could probably do something like that, I… man, it would be really tough for me to say it was worth the price of admission. It was cool, but worth the price of admission is what I’m trying to state.

Lauren Hersey: probably not worth the price of admission, however, it was a very cool, breathtaking experience to be in the sphere, the size and the scale, and it was, there was some immersion. And so like it was definitely an enjoyable experience. Would you fly across the country for that? I don’t know. Like if you are a huge Wizard of Oz fan and the way that they made that work, there was some AI and some, you know, CGI, all those words used to like, yeah, it was a little wonky. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was fine. It was fine. I’m glad that we got to to do it, to experience it. And

Eric Hersey: It was a little wonky looking at times, but I’m not a film purist, it was fine.

Eric Hersey: right, I will I will save the money to buy an annual pass to one of the theme parks that I love as opposed to going back. But we did do a couple other things in Vegas that were interesting enough. I as a wrestling fan, there was a point in time where there was a place called the WCW Nitro Grill. And that was a wrestling themed restaurant that was at the Excalibur and is no longer there. But it does have a Dick’s Last Resort there. So we showed how great of parents we are. And we took the entire family to Dick’s Last Resort. and we were all made fun of for 45 minutes and we left a great tip. Yeah, no, the kids loved, absolutely loved it. Luckily, most of the jokes still went over my nine-year-old’s head where the 19 and the 15-year-old really enjoyed. And so that was like a bucket list item, took pictures, I’ll compare and contrast the old nitro grill elements there. And then of course we went…

Lauren Hersey: Parents of the Year. My kids thought it was great. I’ll get in gym on Circus Circus and the SpongeBob ride.

Eric Hersey: That was good. I was going to say we went to Circus Circus, which is completely no offense to anybody that loves Circus Circus or is staying at Circus Circus. But that is if you’re that the Luxor is the contemporary compared to the Circus Circus. But I we went there and we did the SpongeBob Dark Ride, which was fun. And we and we managed to look into the adventure.

Lauren Hersey: I’m Yeah, we got to see a real, trapeze artist.

Eric Hersey: We saw a clown balance six chairs on his chin. We got to play some of the Midway games In which I was basically telling the kids like guys, even if you’re good at this, we can’t take that giant stuffed animal home There is no room But yeah, I mean it was fun to see circus circus. So we did Excalibur. We did circus circus. We Walked around Caesar’s Palace and we saw the old 1980s animatronic show at the in the Galleria of the Caesar Palace which was Boy it was it was something else but so we kind of made like a little themed experience of Vegas as best as we could and and and

Lauren Hersey: I just think we leave Vegas in Vegas. In the saying, like, what stays in Vegas happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, we’d leave there.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, well, we just, next time we go to Vegas, we’re not bringing everybody along. It was more pricey than, you know, it does live up to the hype that, you know, when you’re buying meals in Vegas for five, six, whatever, it wasn’t, it wasn’t cheap. It was, dare I say, more than Disney prices. So, and Ubering around was not cheap either. So we will, we will save Vegas for.

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, I think it was at the end of the day. Stay in the bubble, thank you.

Eric Hersey: Stay in the bubble, thank you. So we’ll, we’ll stay in our little dis. Diz and hers atmosphere, but Disneyland lived up to the hype Universal Studios Hollywood lovely fantastic and Vegas there are elements that were great unleashed was very very good and I’m glad I did that but My favorite part of this entire trip is we got to literally hang out with some great people I know dare I say we got to experience parks for the first time with some new people and some obviously

Lauren Hersey: man, the best people.

Eric Hersey: Touring with Jim Hill is literally having a tour guide tell you anything and everything about what was here. Seeing some Easter eggs from Jim Schull in things that he built. We had wonderful, we sat at City Walk with a friend that we’ve been wanting to meet for quite some time and a great friend of the show. That was fantastic. you know, walking around Disneyland with a Star Wars fan and somebody hasn’t been there for a while and showing stuff for the new time. Like, that’s great. So overall I had a very fun trip and would do it again even the Vegas part Maybe take out a sphere or two

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, no, I agree. But it was the beautiful nine exhausting days with some of the best people. The memories made, that’s why we do what we do. But I think on that note, that’s going to do it for this week’s episode of Diz in Hers. For more, make sure you’re hitting up DizInHers.com. There you’ll find articles, episodes, and updates. And if Disney’s your vibe, hit subscribe.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, and thanks for hanging with us on this kind of unique trip report episode. If you guys like things like this, let us know. We have plenty of opinions and we can just chat without any type of show notes or scripts. But for the most part, we’re gonna go back to what you guys are saying online. So just remember, watch what you post because you will end up in next week’s episode. Thanks for listening.