Orlando's Icon Park

Jared wraps up season 3 with a review of things to do at Orlando's famous Icon Park when you're looking for a day away from the theme parks.

Transcript

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On this week's episode of A Dryer Dose of Disney, Jared talks about his recent visit to Icon Park in Orlando. Welcome to this week's episode of a Dryer Dose of Disney. I'm your host, Jared dryer. And today we are going to be talking to you about icon park in Orlando. And this is a really cool place if you're in the Orlando area and you don't want to do theme parks the entire time that you're there. Icon park is a shopping center that has some really cool stuff out there. And you've probably seen it as you've driven down the I4, which includes the gigantic Ferris wheel that is east of I4. And we want to take you through icon park. What is there, what we've done, what we recommend and some cool things that you can see over there. But before we dive into icon park, we do want to remind you wherever you're listening to us or whether this is in the podcast format, or if you're out there on YouTube. Go find that subscribe button. So that way you're going to get this content delivered into your inbox each and every single week. And you're going to be up to date on the latest tips and tricks at the Disney universal parks. In addition to that this is the last episode of season three. We are wrapping that up and in our next week's episode, we're going to be kicking off season four with a big bang. We're going to be doing probably our most important episode that we've done to date. And so you're definitely gonna want to go check that out and find out more when that episode gets posted. But in the next couple of weeks, we will also be adding the butterbeer episode and we will add the episode about how to go to Disney for almost free that has been only for our paid subscribers out there on Patreon. And we've had a lot of people check those out and give a lot of great feedback on those. And we want to move those over. Over onto a regular channel. So that way all of our listeners get a chance to share in that knowledge and in that opportunity and especially the butterbeer cause it's fantastic. So those are going to be coming really soon here. So you'll get a chance to listen to those episodes yourself, and those will be available on our main channel. But we are going to be replacing those with better premium content for our subscribers over at Patreon, where we are going to be giving out the biggest. Most secret way to skip the lines at the Disney parks. And this is a secret that honestly when we talked about it, we did not want to put this on the podcast. We did not want to give this out to. The general public, because it is such a good secret and it works so well. We didn't want to encourage others to do it and to use it. Because then if the market became saturated and everyone was doing it then at some point we're afraid that it'll change and you won't be able to do those things any longer. So we were real hesitant to put it on the podcast, but we figured, Hey, you know, for our subscribers that are contributing financially to our podcast every single month This is the perfect opportunity for them to get probably the best hidden secret out there for any of the Disney parks. Where you can get to the front of the line for free. So we will be sharing that. On our Patreon page and the only people that get that will be our Patreon subscribers. And we haven't decided what level that's going to be at. So in the next few weeks we will, and again, we record these way in advance. So you know, we'll give you guys ample warning before it comes out. But this will be probably for a higher or mid-level subscriber over at Patreon to get this very important secret. Of the Disney parks. So we will continue to talk about this on our future episodes. That secret will never go to the general podcast. We have too many listeners, too many subscribers. And like I said, we don't want the market to get saturated with this secret. So this will only be available to those that are Patreon. Subscribers. So that brings me though to Patreon. So if you found a tip or trick that saves you time or money we do ask support the podcast over at Patreon. We do have multiple subscription levels, or you can just toss us a couple bucks, but it's our subscribers that keep this podcast going. And we're so thankful for each and every one of you. That's why we're going to give you this. Ultimate secret tip. That's going to be coming in a few weeks here. But you're going to be able to go check that out there at Patreon. Okay, you guys can see, I'm still filming from the Dryer Dose of Disney condo here in Orlando. We are wrapping up our stay here. We just have a little bit of time left before we go back to Denver. And today I'm recording from the second bedroom here with a queen bed. This is our Mickey room. It's all done in black whites and grays. It's really cool. We have a picture in the back from Greg McCullough, which is awesome. It's a charcoal. Drawing actually have Mickey and Walt. And we bought this at Disney Springs a few weeks ago and hung it up in here just because it fit the room so well. But this is a really cool room. You can check out our entire condo and you can also rent it and you can stay here when you come to the Orlando area by clicking the link in the description below for Airbnb or for VRBO. Whichever is your preference. Now I will tell you. Our condo is cheaper than going to a Disney hotel. By a lot. And you're going to get three bedrooms, two bath. So you're definitely going to want to check that out. It's a great place to stay. It's our go-to place. And then while we've been here. I've been working from here at my credit union. So this is where I sit all day, every day while I'm doing my job. So it's been a lot of fun being out here. We do miss our friends and family back in Colorado, and we'll be heading back there shortly. But wanted to give you guys a few more episodes before we finished up here. Now let's dive in. Let's talk about icon park, what it is, where it's at. And what kind of cool things you can do there, and I'm sure you've heard of some of these things, but you didn't know where they were in Orlando. They're all at Icon park. So anything that you've heard of outside of the theme parks is probably somewhere around there. But let me take you through it. So Icon park is just east of the I4, it's pretty close to universal studios. So it is south of downtown Orlando. It's north of the Disney parks like, is it very close to universal? And you're going to go east out there off of the I4. And this is just a couple blocks off they're on international drive. And this is where you can see the gigantic Ferris wheel. If you're driving up and down, I four. So as you go up and down, I four chances are, as you've seen this Ferris wheel, it's massive. It's the biggest thing in the area. And it's really easy to identify that is at Icon park. So there's a lot of really cool, fun things to do a lot of cool rides, a lot of cool attractions. And some of the ones that I want to talk about today is obviously they have sea life aquarium there. Madame Tussaud's. So wax museum. Ripley's believe it or not. They have the gigantic Ferris wheel, which is called the wheel. They have a huge swing ride that takes you up really high in the sky. And then they've got one of those slingshots that will shoot you up into the air that you've probably seen videos online for. But a lot of cool things. And then they've got shops and restaurants, because this is more of like an outdoor mall. So Icon park is a really cool place to go. If you don't want to do the parks the whole time that you're there and just get a chance to try some other tourist stuff. That's in the Orlando area. When you think about going to Icon park, I can tell you if you're going to go, it is worth going online and checking out the sites first, because you can get discounted tickets online for sea life aquarium, Madame Tussaud's and the wheel all in a package together. So. When you go to any one of their sites, you can buy a package for the other attractions as well. That's what we did just to make it a little bit more cost-effective for us. And then you're going to be able to bundle those all together. The one odd call-out is Ripley's is right there. About a half a block away Ripley's believe it or not is not included in those packages. So that is a standalone ticket. They also have a mirror maze at Ripley's, which is really cool. And I'll talk about that in a few minutes. But to all of these things are available together at Icon park. So it's a great place to go. You have a lot of stuff to do. It can take a full day to do icon park. You are going to be paying for each thing individually. I will say it does add up pretty quick. So do go check that out online. But there's a lot of cool things to do there. So we started our day when we went and at Madame Tussaud's. And the reason we did that is I've heard by looking online and reading some stuff about it, that that attraction actually can get pretty backed up during the day. Meaning. As you go through Madame Tussaud's. If you've never done that before, it's a wax museum. They have really cool figures of celebrities, politicians. Historical figures movie stars. They've got it all. And when you go through there, obviously everyone wants to get their picture with some of these cool. Statutes that are there. And so they are going to be stopping to take photos. Pretty much throughout the entire exhibit. So because of that, when you're ready to go to the next statute and check it out, there may be a group of people that are taking a picture, so it can take awhile. So we said, Hey, let's start our day there. That way. No one's in front of us. And we can just go through at our own pace and see Madame Tussaud's and do all that. So we did, and it was really cool. You do get to see a lot of cool stuff, including a, they have a chair with Steven Spielberg, they got ET on his bike, which is why I decided to wear the shirt today. They've got all different kinds of actors, historical figures, like we were just saying. And lots of great photo opportunities. So I definitely encourage you to check it out. It's a great way to get a picture with your favorite celebrity. If you've not met them in person. And you can post that to your Instagram or Facebook, like you met them. And I have seen on occasion. That a real celebrity will make a star appearance there and act like their wax self. And at least Jimmy Fallon and the rock have done that a few times on the tonight show. At their Madame Tussaud's but you can always go through and see these lifelike statues. That are really cool and take a picture with them. So they also have some other really cool effects with the DC superheroes. Like you can get the bat signal to light up. You can get all kinds of different things to happen. So. Really cool experience there. It took us about 40 minutes to get through there. We didn't spend a lot of time at any one statute. We did check them all out. We took a lot of pictures and we had a really great time. What was really cool about it was some of the actors and some of the scenes that they have set up or are from older movies or from a while ago, or maybe a sports star that's not as relevant anymore. And so we had a chance to talk to our daughter who is 12. And explain who some of these people were including the historical figure. So there was an educational opportunity for her to learn a little bit more about who some of these famous people are. But we had a really good time at Madame Tussaud's. So I definitely recommend that. Now. Right across in the same building as Madame Tussaud's is sea life aquarium. So we went there after lunch and I'll talk about lunch in just a little bit. But that one was a really cool. Exhibit there. So it's an indoor aquarium. You're going to be walking through it and it's very straightforward, which way you're going to go. And you're going to get to see probably about 20 to 30 different aquariums with different species of fish in them and different Marine life. And it's just a lot of fun. There are some huge ones, including a tunnel you walk through, which is acrylic all the way around you. So they do advertise it's the first 360 degree. Fully acrylic tunnel. Which is kind of cool. So you can see all the way above you and below you and what's going on there. But they have sharks. They have sea turtles. They have all kinds of really cool things in these exhibit. There. It is definitely geared more towards the kids. But I can say as an adult and especially somebody I majored in biology and I wanted to study sharks, I found it. Very education. I thought it was really a great set up there. I think that they did a good job with the space that they have. And so also a good exhibit. So I would recommend it. This one was a little bit quicker. We did it in about 30 minutes. So it didn't take us very long to get through that. So don't think that you're going to go there and it's going to take you two to three hours. We did it in 30 minutes and we looked at every exhibit. We read most of the stuff. We didn't read every single thing. There's also a kid's journey that they can do and get passport stamps and get things taken care of while they go through their, you know, they can stamp their book and we didn't do any of that. So I'm sure that could add maybe 15 minutes if he did that. But this is about an hour long experience. Madame Tussaud's like I said, that took us about 40 minutes. I'm sure if there were people in front of us, it probably would have taken us about 90 minutes, at least double what it took us. So you know, this is going to make up a couple hours of your day. The next exhibit we went to was Ripley's believe it or not. And this was actually my first time in a Ripley's. I've seen them in different cities. There's one in Branson, Missouri. I've been there before. We've got one here. There's there in a few different cities throughout the us. And these are really cool museums that have really strange artifacts are really strange. Occurrences or things that have happened and they have pictures and displays that show them and they explain who Ripley was. And, you know, he's back in the day with PT, Barnum, and the circus and all that kicking off, and he went and found all these oddities around the world and started to pull them into a collection. And then they've continued to grow their collection over the years with some really cool stuff. So. It's a really cool exhibit. It took us about 45 minutes to get through. Again, just like the other two. It's not super long. So this isn't like a full scale museum or anything like this. It's more of a walkthrough exhibit where you've got probably seven or eight different rooms with different things and facts throughout each one. And you can stop at each one and check them all out. Now my personal favorite was they did talk about the circus and PT, Barnum and Barnum and Bailey circus. I'm a big fan of the greatest showman. So I really wanted to check that out and they show a lot of the people that PT Barnum had at his circus, which is included in the greatest showman. A movie. Those are on display there as well. So that's a really cool feature. And that was a lot of fun. So I enjoyed Ripley's. I would say if I had to choose between them all it would be a tough choice. Probably. Madame Tussaud's was my absolute favorite. But the other two were close second and third and it was a cool exhibit to go through. Now, right outside of Ripley sales, have a mirror maze. This one's not very long, it's not very big. If you've never been in a mirror maze before, it's a pretty unique experience where you could potentially run into the wall know that it only takes about five minutes, maybe 10, if you really take your time to get through this mirror maze. I think it costs about an extra$15 to do that unless you pay it as part of the package. It's up to you. If you want to do that, it's kind of a unique experience. If you've never done it, if you have done it, then I wouldn't do it again. Now. Over at Icon park, there is a ton to eat. So there are so many different restaurants and so many great places to go. I definitely encourage you to check them all out. And addition to that, there's a lot of shopping. There's a lot of VR. Places where you can go do some virtual reality gaming. They obviously have the wheel. I'm terrified of Heights, so we did not do the wheel. But that's that huge Ferris wheel. And when you get in there, you're in a little gondola and they'll take you around, but you only get one. Revolution through this wheel. So you don't get to go around at multiple times. You only get to do at once. So it felt to me a little bit expensive for what you get, but there's a lot of cool stuff like that. And then of course, because I'm afraid of Heights, I didn't do the high swings. I didn't do the Slingshot or anything like that. But those are all available as well. So a lot of cool things to do. You could totally spend a whole day there. We did go to eat at old red which is Blake Shelton's restaurant. And it's a, about a song about his dog. And it's a really cool place. It's very in tune with Nashville or what you may get on Broadway down there in Nashville, which I've been to some of those places as well. And it was a lot of fun. So they've got a different country music videos playing throughout your stay there. They have a huge stage in there similar to house of blues. Where they can do concerts and do different events. But the food was fantastic. In fact the meals were huge and my wife got a Cuban sandwich. That was really good. I decided not to get a full meal. I wanted the sides. They had a Mac and cheese with brisket that looked amazing on it. And then they had a corn bread and I absolutely love corn bread. So I got the brisket, Mac and cheese and the corn bread, two sides just to have as my meal. And those were amazing. So the food there is fantastic. I definitely encourage you to go check that out. But we wanted to go to a restaurant we hadn't been to before, and that's why we chose old red and it was great. So I'd definitely go check that out. When you go to icon park, I'm going to tell you they do have free parking in a parking structure, which is nice. So that way you're out of the sun and your car is not baking all day. But it's only free on floors four and above. We did get there before it opened, because we had the first ticket spot at Madame Tussaud's. I will tell you by about noon. We went to go put some food back in our car. The parking lot was full. There were people waiting for spaces. So do know that parking can fill up down there. So obviously the earlier you get there, the better. But they do have free parking on those upper levels that is paid on the lower levels and they have an elevator. So it's not much of a pain to park at the upper levels and just ride the elevator down. Today though, are I can do this all day. Tip of the day is I want to talk to you about another restaurant that was there, that we did also get a chance to experience, and that is the sugar factory. And I'm going to tell you, don't go. The sugar factory is obviously hyped up as being this really posh place with some really cool desserts and milkshakes. And they do the same kind of milkshakes that you may get, like the chocolate Emporium at a universal studios that have the huge milkshake with a piece of cake on top, or maybe a doughnut on top. And they've got a ton of celebrity pictures on their outside. So we said, Hey, let's go get some dessert there after we were done for the day. And we went in there and I can tell you, it was one of the worst restaurant experiences I've ever had. The service was terrible. The people in there. It's not like one of those 50 character diners where all the waiters are smart ALEKS and trying to say quips that, ER, you. You know, our, our bust, your jaw for something. This is a place where the people legitimately were rude and not only were they rude they took forever. Their service was terrible. We ordered a milkshake and a dessert, and it took like 20 some minutes to get, it was ridiculous how long it took. And there was no one in there by the way. So I don't know what they were doing. It took forever. And then this is a restaurant that they also automatically, no matter your party size. At a 20% gratuity onto every check and you don't get an option to tip which when you have really poor service, like what they had. That's not a very good feeling as a customer. So for me I think a tip is an opportunity for you to reward good service and for you to say. Hey, you know, you did a great job. I'm going to, you know, tip you really well. Or maybe you could use a little bit of work. I may tip you just a little bit less. In this case, the service was terrible, comparable to a McDonald's. And they automatically charged 20% on every single ticket. And when I asked them about it, they got mad. They said, no, this is our policy and this is what we do. And they bit my head off when I just asked the question, like, why is this already on here? So don't go to the sugar factory. I'll say stay away. You can get better milkshakes over at chocolate Emporium anyways, at city walk at universal or at any of the Disney parks. So go check out one of those. Go have a great time there, but do not go to the sugar factory over at Icon park. So with that, we wish you a magical week as you're planning your next vacation. Like I said, this wraps up season number three, next week, we're going to be kicking it off with one of our most important episodes we've ever done. So you're definitely going to want to check that out and we will talk to you next time. Bye-bye.