International Drive Orlando Tour - 400 Foot Ferris Wheel / Epic McDonalds / Forgotten Disney History
International Drive Orlando December 2020
Transcript
0:03
what a way to begin the day
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with pluto and goofy over there
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it's about to check out a pop century
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and
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they're saying goodbye
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i had a great stay fellas
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thanks for
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everything welcome everyone adam the woo
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here
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checking out of pop century
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but i'm still staying in central florida
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until the end of the month maybe into
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the first
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of january into 2021 there still will be
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peppered in disney theme park content
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but not today however or the next
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series of days later later in the month
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today i'm going to be roaming around
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international drive
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might go up in the former orlando eye
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also now currently called the icon
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orlando and just see what there is to
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see roam around see some sights sounds
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and smells
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of orlando
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inviting you to join me shall you
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while on the commute stopped off at
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hotel way hotel boulevard that leads
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into disney springs
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and the amateur athletic union this is
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one of the first buildings on wdw
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property
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prior to 1971
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this was the original
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oh look i'm seeing the balloon over
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there
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the balloon is up at springs
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dang it
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this was the preview center
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for disney world
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and eventually became walt disney world
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his brother roy wanted to
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wanted to honor walt they put his name
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in the front
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before anyone knew what to expect before
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any rides hotels attractions
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or other facades were built
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locals because there weren't a lot of
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tourists would walk inside here still
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looks the same
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oh by the way dylan theme park obsession
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is with me i'm going to show him some of
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the little
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little history around here and we're
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going to go up in the
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you ever been up in the ferris wheel no
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i haven't done either you'll be able to
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see for miles and miles
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pretty neat i've showed this before in
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the past it's been a few years always
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nice to stop off and
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and see it again
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and another photograph it used to be a
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dirt road open daily from nine to five
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the only indication of what this
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property would be
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was disneyland which a lot less acreage
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no one realized the world that it would
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become
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took i-4 aways a few miles and have
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arrived at this apartment complex next
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to lake eola known as post parkside but
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back in the day this is where walt and
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roy announced along with the governor of
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florida at that time to the world in
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news media
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that there would be a disney world back
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then it was called the florida project
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right here in this very building and
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they would have walked right in they
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would have got out of their car walked
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in that very door on the end down there
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sneak there's a tiki bar kind of like
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you kind of get the vibes of the tiki
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room and there's a
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not world of disney it's world of beer
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down at the end but you know i'll kind
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of kind of tie it in as well there was a
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nice-sized banner across the way there
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that said welcome walt disney and the
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press conference took place the bottom
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floor right inside that vest i have my
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magic band on even though i'm not going
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to the parks inside that very door right
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there all sitting at the desk with the
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florida welcomes
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walt disney i have showed all these
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spots these last two spots before in the
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past but always good to restop off it's
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been a few years good to see the
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building still exists in some fashion
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nice little skyline here this is next to
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that same building at lake eola with the
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fountain the majestic fountain there in
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the middle and some of the buildings the
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little skyscrapers down here oh check
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this out the pay phone oh it's not a pay
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phone it's a pay phone
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but there's an atm inside of
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this area is called thornton park and
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this is a parking garage here i went
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with a caramel brule latte a piping hot
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beverage
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oh that is that is warm from the that's
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lot of those little razor scooters those
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razor scooters that they're called i
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think so they're they're like these
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electric
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they're there's like a bunch of
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different companies like bird
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and bird you just rent them on your on
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your phone you cruise around where'd you
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get to where'd you what are you
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consuming i got a banana nut loaf
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and a pumpkin cream cold brew they still
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have the pumpkin flavoring left over
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from uh the fall nice one of my
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favorites
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let's get over to i drive now oh yeah
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see some sights enough history let's do
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some touristy things
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a few different ones
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the bird you mentioned but also razor
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and spin
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you don't really see these in la too
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much anymore
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they kind of oh there's a few even a few
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more
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over there on that corner what's your
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first impression of downtown orlando
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versus l.a
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oh i like this better i mean like
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downtown l.a has it has its pros and
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cons and stuff too but like this one
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it's more spread out it's quiet a little
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more mellow more mellow for sure which
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is like more my speed and like there's a
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lot of beautiful architecture around
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here too while enroute wanted to point
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out this staircase if you've ever seen
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ernest saves christmas one of the scenes
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took place right there on that staircase
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the card is turned off
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up this road
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it's where he's walking up he's dressed
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as a woman and says these stairs might
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as might as well be mount everest
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the
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helicopter flying by there this is
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desert land
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years ago was the fashion square mall
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then became the artagon mall
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and now it is not open but
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the rumors are that there is quite a
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collection of
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classic cars and
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screen used
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movie paraphernalia
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inside here
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see if i can get a little closer now the
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last time i was wandering this property
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was back in july and was told i was not
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allowed to film they had the front
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blocked off but there is no stanchions
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at the entry point
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and looks like it's completely
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accessible now and the murals are
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finished
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it's also interesting there is a
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hamburger and fries over here painted on
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the wall in the corner because that's
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where a fuddruckers used to be
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maybe that's like a little homage now
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that the
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the fuddruckers has been removed there's
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james bond i believe that is connery
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yes
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i like that
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nicely done
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there's tow mater
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the entry point
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really hope this opens at some point i'd
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like to go inside
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you always see tow trucks as this
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character of mater
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from cars are there any other tow trucks
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that are non-maters
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i can't think of any
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oh dang
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there's santa over there next
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this place might be open
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it might be open currently i see i see
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jolly old saint nick
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and marilyn monroe on the hood of that
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other vehicle
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i'm peeking through the window
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check the door it was locked at least on
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that side
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no signage for an opening date there
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were people in there
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getting ready for something coming back
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up on got to turn onto i drive
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once again just tough to believe that
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many years ago the way i remember this
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area
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was as wet and wild now it's a universal
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studios off-site hotel
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good to see this delorean still parked
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here in front of george's music
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gotta love a classic twisty treat
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ice cream cone that you can walk up to
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and get a soft serve
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this almost resembles
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hub grass right here
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i'm not focusing on that i want to focus
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on this alien creature that has been
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in front of bargain planet for quite
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some time
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and the whirly dome
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which went out of business about a year
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ago has been transformed into something
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called
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bronze kingdom
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a giant ufo
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my apologies for the noise
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do a little cleaning of the parking lot
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this has been overlaid a number of times
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looking across the way there there's a
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lighthouse and standing by that door
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appears to be a football player of some
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sort as well
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kind of guarding the door
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it is just about 1pm the the big wheel
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does not open until afternoon at once a
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few minutes until good thing to check
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the hours because it wasn't sure it
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wasn't moving even though it's slow
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moving it is not shifting around but it
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will be just a few moments so we're
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going to make our way to the courtyard
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and then inside get tickets and
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head to the tippy top of this
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magnificently
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gargantuan
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wheel
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i can still remember back when they were
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building this i would visit town and i
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would see it kind of taking shape from
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the interstate going up now we have
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boarded into our pod and heading sky
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high
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really can't get a great perspective of
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everything up here
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convention center off in the distance
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over there
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zoom in on the coasters of sea world
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yep
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sea world coasters
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over the other direction
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you have downtown orlando way off in the
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distance
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the interstate going by
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so kind of look closely but you can see
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tall buildings of downtown
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way off over there
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then volcano bay
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water park universal water park
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and universal islands of adventure
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and universal orlando
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now dylan you might know more than i do
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on this but isn't this where
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universal epic universe will be is it
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called epic universe yeah i think the
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universe will be right there that's uh
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it's gonna be a very large theme park
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right down in this grassy area right
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the great
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oh it's gonna be oh over there
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like a true orlando dreamer 400 feet in
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the air 400 feet up okay i said okay
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it's over there see i thought it was
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going to be down here
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okay
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just about reach the top there's the
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courtyard down there
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and over there is disney property off in
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the distance oh wait there's that
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balloon at disney springs that's up in
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the air that thing's always teasing me
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and i believe that is fun spot one of
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the two there's one in kissimmee old
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town but that's the orlando fun spot
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and now heading about a block or two up
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to chewie's
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my favorite spots here long i drive so
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close in fact it is within with an eye
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view of the wheel over there the parking
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lot we could have walked but we just
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decided to get in the rental and drive
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over very elvis thing now these are all
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over the place not just here in central
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florida but there's elvis everywhere in
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inside outside
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it you have to you really can get the
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elvis vibe now i've eaten here before
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but this is the first time i've ever
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ordered the fajitas i went with the
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chicken and beef fajita platter i
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believe it was
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16.99
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with all the the additives there with
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the the salsa sour cream cheese
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lettuce
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and dylan what did you get you got a
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burrito of some sort yeah i got the
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ground beef burrito and it came with a
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little bit of rice and oh it was really
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good it comes with refried beans inside
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look at all that steam starting to flow
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off the top of it it's fogging up the
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camera
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at the crossroads of international and
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sand lake used to be
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what they refer to as the world's
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largest mcdonald's and then they change
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the name to epic
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mcdonald's now it's just a
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a larger than usual
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mcdonald's but i want to walk over there
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they do have something on the second
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floor i want to point out but i also
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recall
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over in this parking area
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many years ago they stated they were
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going to build the world's largest and
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tallest roller coaster
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and i might be off on that but i believe
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it was going to be right over there
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where that perkins sign is and that crab
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on the top of the
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billboard but i haven't heard anything
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about that in many years
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maybe that got scrapped and it's not
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happening anymore it's going to be kind
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of just its own little entity over there
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wonder what happened
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the sky flex entertainment complex and
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the coaster was going to be called
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skyscraper
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i believe it went out of like the
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company that does it either went
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bankrupt or they scrapped the project
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entirely because of its cost
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so we will not be having a gigantic
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coaster here on this corner
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no because it would have been 500 feet
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tall that's that's a few million dollars
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in itself plus the structure so the owl
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is probably too expensive
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with the signage wedged in a couple of
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fast food establishments good to see
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hogan's beach shop still
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going strong used to be a an old
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7-eleven that was repurposed and when
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you step inside there are a few
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full-size life-size hulk hogan's
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hollywood also thunder lips in the flesh
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from
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rocky iii check it out it's not jimmy
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hart ringside but it's a ghost face from
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scream oh i almost forgot about no holds
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barr i always think of rocky iii but no
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holds bar is another
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santa with the muscle
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that is funny i totally forgot about
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jingle all the way with arnold
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hogan was the santa it was in disguise
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but it was
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clearly hulk hogan
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and as i stated a moment ago
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inside mcdonald's there's a there's a
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very large ronald there on the side but
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i gotta talk about ronald on the second
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level go up the stairs mr mac tonight
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will be singing at his piano singing a
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few tunes for those who are enjoying
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you know their soda or burger i was
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being very patient up there waiting
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waiting for mac to sing he never did he
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just uh just was sitting still well
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that's fine at least i got to see him
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with my own eyes
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once again
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we're being escorted this way
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be careful oh thank you thank you
15:07
they just
15:08
they just went across
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that's gonna do it for today if you're
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