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00:00:01
We Can't Wait to Talk About Queue Lines!
143 Plays1 month ago
Queue lines are a necessary evil of this hobby...so we break down the best and worst ride queues, plus ways to make the experience better! What are the most innovative ways to improve the time spent in queue lines? We're also joined by our friend Ethan, who calls himself the Queuemeister. We're clearly opinionated on this topic because it's our longest episode yet...oops.
Ethan's Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/boilercoasters/
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Transcript
Introduction and Trivia
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to the Inverted Creative Podcast. I'm Allison. I'm Bryant. And I'm Jen.
00:00:16
Speaker
Hey guys, let's start with a trivia question. Right off the jump. How many roller coasters in the world start with a Q?
00:00:28
Speaker
All of them. All of them. That is correct, Jen. They all start right now. kind hoping Ethan would start trying to list them because I didn't tell him you would put that in our group chat.
00:00:40
Speaker
My dumbest joke of all time. But it's funny. On that note, hi, everybody. Hello. We're back. We're back. but yeah I don't even remember what our last episode was.
00:00:54
Speaker
Coaster Madness? How dare you? right That's right. And Jen was there for that. i' right I was there for that.
00:01:02
Speaker
That was pre-my Achilles surgery. I now had that surgery. Doing okay. yeah It's been boring as hell. I have literally not been outside other than getting it out of cars in a month.
00:01:17
Speaker
um All things considering, though, I would think it went well. I'm in minimal pain, and I'm going to be in a walking boot at the end of next week to start the recovery process.
Ethan Joins the Podcast
00:01:29
Speaker
Yes, heal quickly before theme park season. Here's hoping. Here's hoping. I'm nervous about taking my first steps because I literally haven't put any weight on my right leg in over a month at this point. So I feel like my calf's just going to be like, hey, what are you doing?
00:01:44
Speaker
No. ah We'll see. We'll see. Obviously, so well'll well I'll keep you updated, ah obviously, on this podcast as we go. Cool. Well, have a ah fourth chair joining us again today.
00:01:58
Speaker
like to introduce my friend Ethan. How's it going, everyone? I'm Ethan. um Little plug here. Instagram is Boiler Coasters. Starting right off with the plugs. No need to follow me. Actually, everyone follow Inverd Creative. from If you're watching from my account, follow Inverd Creative.
00:02:15
Speaker
um But yeah, thank you guys for having me on. very excited to be on my first Inverd Creative episode. So the reason I had Ethan join, one, he just happened to be down here this weekend to hang out.
Random Guests and Future Topics
00:02:27
Speaker
Randomly. um But two, in our BuzzBurr server, he is listed as the QMeister. And today we are talking about QLine. So it was kind of destiny for him. Perfect timing. Destiny for him to join us on this episode. Perfection.
00:02:41
Speaker
Allison, I think you just always have a random person in your house. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. You get Gary. Obviously, you know, Mike pops in, but then get, now we get Ethan. Yeah. Jake's always here. Yeah. John Mike's always here. Right.
00:02:54
Speaker
He's not been on a recording yet. That's actually surprising. Yeah. That needs to change though. Yeah. You got get Jake on episode. That'll be very entertaining. Need to find an episode for him to join.
00:03:06
Speaker
Kentucky kingdom history. A whole entire history. Can we talk the theming of Kentucky Kingdom? And just the history of it? Just theming specifically for a creative podcast. They are re-theming it. so That actually would be a decent topic.
00:03:23
Speaker
Talk about like parks that like do an overhaul ah in the theming department. I'm currently making notes. We're just planning episodes as we're online. That's good because ah we don't have our next episode planned yet.
00:03:41
Speaker
I feel like very rarely do, to be fair. It's very on the go. We're very professional here. Oh, yes. We're getting there. So let's start with a trivia question. The trivia question I asked last week.
00:03:54
Speaker
ah last week I believe because it was Coaster Madness themed, I related it to March Madness, I asked of the two defending champions in basketball, both the men's and the women's, name a wooden coaster from each of those states.
00:04:10
Speaker
Now, of course, I mentioned the men's winner because, ah you know, I am from you i went to UConn. Big UConn fan. UConn won last year. So if you said Boulder Dash, Wildcat, or what's the other one? Oh, my go Wooden Warrior.
00:04:25
Speaker
That's correct for Connecticut. The women's champion last year was the University of South Carolina. So you could have said, what's the one at Myrtle Beach? Swamp Fox.
00:04:37
Speaker
There we go. And then technically, I think you could have said Woodstock Express at Carowinds. I think that's on the South Carolina side. I don't actually know. So there you go. Any of those four slash five.
00:04:53
Speaker
Which one?
00:04:56
Speaker
I know Hurler's definitely on the North Carolina side. Ooh, so you got like a trick question there.
00:05:04
Speaker
Kind of a little bit. And then I will wait until the end of this one to ask ah kind of a fun trivia question. It's going to make you listen to last week's episode again. So I think only one person got the trivia question, and I believe they texted you about it, Bryant.
00:05:22
Speaker
Congratulations, Mike with the mullet. You got it right. there to be wonder Because I got no other responses. And I mentioned that and he's like, oh, I just' wrong it guess people just don't know their basketball or they just stopped listening to the podcast all the way through.
00:05:40
Speaker
Nah. but We've got great feedback. So we know you're listening.
00:05:48
Speaker
I know nothing about basketball. i'm just here. Go birds. right Go birds.
00:05:57
Speaker
So is it a Coaster Madness update time since we are into the thick of Coaster Madness now? Yes, we can do a little Coaster Madness update. We are already halfway through the first round, which is kind of exciting.
Coaster Madness Updates
00:06:10
Speaker
um i've I'm enjoying doing the random matchups this year, not just going in order of the bracket. um So obviously, when the results come out, they're all like they're all over the place.
00:06:22
Speaker
So far, I think it's been pretty... Not a lot of upsets and a lot of blowouts, actually. There's not been too many close matchups, which is kind of crazy. It's usually not like that.
00:06:34
Speaker
um I think Outlaw Run ah defeating Lightning Rod was the biggest surprise so far. um I don't know. I thought the light i felt Lightning Rod still had a lot of diehard fans.
00:06:45
Speaker
Apparently, taking off the launch definitely turned some people off. Actually, Silverdale City got probably the two big upsets because then Time Traveler beat Wildfire at Colmarden, which don't think I realized that actually. Yeah, there might be some US s bias at play. Think of Wildfire was that silver dollar city. Well, I guess it is, but you know, the R&C.
00:07:10
Speaker
Most people would probably say Wildfire is the better roller coaster, but hey, the people have spoken. Time traveler moves on. At first, I was surprised that um Millennium Force beat Expedition GeForce. Then I realized, oh, yeah, it's Millennium Force. It's Cedar Point. Of course it's going to win.
00:07:26
Speaker
A lot of great debate about that matchup. There was a lot. That was fun watching all the responses. Yeah. So shout out you guys. Expedition GeForce definitely got more votes than I thought, though.
00:07:39
Speaker
So there's there's definitely people coming down on Millennium Force a little bit. I think its second round matchup will be with Maverick if Maverick wins. Oh, boy. Yeah. So, i you know, I love putting the Cedar Point people up against each other. So that should be fun.
00:07:55
Speaker
Yeah. I'm honestly, I'm going to really be judging people if it doesn't go a specific way really hard.
00:08:05
Speaker
Yeah, but you you like Millennium Force a little more than some, right? I do like it. i like it a lot. um I don't think it's really fair to compare it to a B&M Hyper because it's so different. But that's how I feel. Well, I guess Giga.
00:08:19
Speaker
um But that's how I feel about the Hypers too.
Intamin vs B&M Debate
00:08:22
Speaker
like I feel like it's just not really fair to compare Intamin and B&M for those models because they're so drastically different. But I like the Intamin versions of those.
00:08:31
Speaker
Okay. I would definitely agree about it. Hard to compar compare those two.
00:08:39
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, is that the update, guys? Is that it? Yeah, pretty much. It's just eight matchups so far. Eight days so far. so The only downside to the um random postings is it's a lot harder for me to make the round two graphics in a timely manner because we might not have the second half of those matchups until...
00:09:00
Speaker
A lot later. I mean, I can set up like, okay, the winner of this matchup will face this one and I'll still create a schedule for you. Yeah. Okay. And then, yeah, I mean, you can assume some of the winners ahead of time, probably. I'm also just very behind on graphics.
00:09:16
Speaker
I'm only about two days ahead right now. You're doing great, guys. The graphics look amazing. I'm usually a lot more prepared than this.
00:09:26
Speaker
I think they look fantastic. Oh, no, I think they look fantastic. Insane. I'm just here for the moral support. We appreciate that, Jen, always.
00:09:37
Speaker
And the drama. Did anyone see that I responded to Taylor by me? and that well I called him a sore loser. did see that. And a lot of people liked it, too.
00:09:51
Speaker
I know. People were crying. People were liking it and I was cracking up. i was like, there are probably people who don't realize it. I was going say, the amount of people that might think like you're a hater of his, and and in reality you're just making fun of him as we like to do.
00:10:05
Speaker
I did have to text them because I was like, I have to let you know that like
Social Media Humor
00:10:08
Speaker
the last three or four months, I literally have logged into Twitter. Like I've opened Twitter on my phone, just roasted Taylor and then closed Twitter on my phone. Yeah, that's true. That's pretty much all you've done in 2025.
00:10:18
Speaker
That is pretty much all I did this year Twitter. Roast Taylor. You've added him more than you've mentioned talent. Yeah, literally. i just show up and I roast Taylor and I leave.
00:10:30
Speaker
ah Wait, what was your bet, Ethan, for how long until Talon is mentioned on the podcast? Oh, God. and I was expecting Jen to be the one to say it first. Yeah, I did not say it, guys. Thank you very much.
00:10:43
Speaker
To be fair, I think I've maybe mentioned it more frequently than Jen has. Honestly. Because I'm usually making fun of Jen, like, proactively. I just want to know that's a curse and...
00:10:56
Speaker
like chill with talent stuff or not as much talent like come on I'm behaving I'm proud of you for how little I've had to censor you I'll be honest know I haven't censored all that much and when I have needed to be censored it has been worth it I think it's only been twice and yeah and I'm pretty sure it was in response to the first censor wasn't it like I needed a censor and I was like oh and said another one be like Matt like just get a censor beep ready Yeah. Oh, my God.
00:11:28
Speaker
Everything's fine. All right. Well, so last episode, ah Jen and I mentioned that we were going to be going to Sesame Place to ride ah Oscar's Wacky Taxi.
00:11:42
Speaker
ah we did not good We did not go to Sesame Place because it's confirmed closed still. Yeah, we got the update that is still in its maintenance for the offseason. So obviously Allison and Mike were not going to drive all the way two Sesame Place. um And I was not going to go to Sesame Place.
00:12:04
Speaker
So yeah, that was kind of disappointing cause I still have not been on a coaster this year. oh no. I've been on a coaster with a torn Achilles before. You haven't even been on a roller coaster.
00:12:17
Speaker
To be fair, we talked about maybe going to over Georgia next weekend. Next weekend? Yeah, that's next weekend. Is that when Georgia Surf is opening? Yeah. Or whatever it's called now.
00:12:27
Speaker
Georgia Goldrush. um I don't know if that's going to happen, but if it does not, then my first coaster this year will be a Scene 75 credit that I already have. Wait, which one? The one in Columbus?
Ethan's Atlanta Adventure
00:12:40
Speaker
Dayton. Oh, boo. Because Jen and I rode the other one. Yeah, we rode the other one. The one Dayton's better, though. Yeah, that one's yeah like the extended layout. That was my only one of those that I've ever ridden.
00:12:51
Speaker
That's true. It was your first s SPF. I mean, I've only been on three at this point. so I have been on a lot more than that. I think I did four in one weekend. If you take away your SPF visas, I probably have more credits than you.
00:13:05
Speaker
What are you at right now again? 533. five thirty three I've not been on that many. but Make it closer. sir Make it closer. Yeah. I have another big trip coming up in like a month.
00:13:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think like not to be depressing from like the first week of November to probably end of May. I would have like that's a six month period on. I will have ridden two coasters. o Bolton and Iron Shark.
00:13:36
Speaker
That sucks. That's true. You've been on two coasters with a torn Achilles before I've been on one. Bolt was before I tore Oh.
00:13:46
Speaker
um I've been on a lot. Yeah, you've been on... and also got my 200th credit. Yay. What'd you get on Phoenix Rising?
00:13:58
Speaker
Yes. Nice. The onboard audio was not working. Big shock for our brand new B&M. How was it? Was it rattly? I don't think we ever got your thoughts on it.
00:14:10
Speaker
Oh my God. It was so rattly. Like, was it really? Yes. Like what? How? It's brand new. ah try Like what is going on with B&M? B&M like what?
00:14:23
Speaker
Sorry. I'm done. But it's so sad to me because I grew up at Great Adventure and like, I mean, until recently, not 90% of what's a great adventure is like, be they like fairly good B&Ms. I don't know.
00:14:39
Speaker
have a lot of different models. I really ah like, I love B&M.
00:14:45
Speaker
Orion and Candemonium are like the last smooth B&Ms. I mean, but Pipeline's pretty smooth. There's definitely a rat a little bit of a rattle towards the back of the train, but. Yeah, but it's, I don't think it's nearly as bad as,
00:14:59
Speaker
the ones that came after it. I don't know what the issue is. Penguin Trek is bad. Yeah, so Phoenix Rising is really similar. literally sitting there and I'm like, why why is it rattling?
00:15:14
Speaker
I don't get it. It's brand new. don't get it at all. It makes me really sad. How do you have something glass smooth like Talon last 20-some years and still be that smooth and then you have something that's a couple months old and that rattly but i don't get it i'll be hitting the next three usbnms that open this year so i'll be curious how it compares that would be let me try to name them trivia um big bad wolf the the big bad wolf's revenge whatever it's called right yeah um wrath of raksasa yes i can't pronounce these and what is the third one don't tell me um um damn it what is it sorry
00:16:00
Speaker
Raptara. Geez, yeah, probably. yeah Or, in the words of John Mike, Nissan Raptara. Also, to this day, my favorite Wrath of Rakshasa thing is it sounds like you're trying to eat a pizza roll that's too hot.
00:16:17
Speaker
So, Rakshasa. Rakshasa. I already have a real name for the Big Bad Wolf. I don't even care that the... They changed the name, but I really want it to be Geisvoth, which is one of the options. love that.
00:16:34
Speaker
And it was going to be Geist Talonvoth. Of course. Geist Talonvoth. Acceptable. I'm just keeping it. Geist Talonvoth. Did you name Phoenix Rising? I think I was just calling that one Baby Talon. It's not like a set name.
00:16:47
Speaker
and probably have to. But it's orange and don't know. maybe talent First of its kind. That's acceptable. It's it's a little baby one. Yeah, it's like the first little Baby Talon.
00:16:59
Speaker
I don't know. I haven't really thought that one through that much. I really have to go through and like actually commit to names for Talon. Talia, that's going an episode one day when we have nothing to talk about.
00:17:10
Speaker
Yeah. How are you, mother? So in our little note. Sorry, Allison, go ahead. was going to do that for like Jen's birthday episode. There we go. Yeah, love tea.
00:17:22
Speaker
So on our notes here, it said Jen did something maybe? Did you do something, Jen? I wasn't sure if you went went to any parks after our last recording. I couldn't keep track of your trips. I don't know.
00:17:34
Speaker
I don't know. I can't keep track of my trips. I don't think so. After I came back from Orlando, no. We did city-type tourism. Okay. Very nice. Yeah. Yeah, super fun.
00:17:47
Speaker
But no coasters. I think my last coaster, I don't know, was something at Disney. You're doing better than me. What? You're doing better than me.
Virtual Queue Frustrations
00:17:58
Speaker
Yeah. I had plans to probably go to Orlando either end of March or sometime in April, but... rip quite literally rip i do though i know i'm jumping in the into the topic a little early um but it has to do my trip i was on the biggest rampage the whole time i was in disney about how stupid the virtual queue is for guardians of the galaxy and virtual queue is now gone and i am so excited i'm so excited
00:18:29
Speaker
Do you know how stupid that virtual queue is? There are multiple times where I waited all day for a virtual queue and then still waited over an hour to get on that ride. If you're putting me in a virtual queue, I better be walking on that 20 minutes at most.
00:18:45
Speaker
And even that is too long.
00:18:48
Speaker
i and I definitely noticed my recent Guardians rides, the wait times were getting longer and longer. Like it was rarely under a half hour like the last year.
00:18:59
Speaker
Whereas when I first rode in 2022, 2023, it was like 50 minutes or less. Yeah, like that makes sense for a virtual queue. But do not make me wait all day for a virtual queue slot to be called.
00:19:11
Speaker
You're limiting me to one ride. on a day, and I wait all day in a virtual queue, and then you call me and you make me wait in an hour. That's insane. That is insane.
00:19:22
Speaker
Alright. Well, thankfully, we don't need to make that right anymore. know I know. Now we just have to talk about the positives of you. That's not entirely true.
00:19:33
Speaker
No, we're talking about the negatives, too. When they're done right. But Guardians of the Galaxy was not know done correctly. I have not experienced it yet, so cannot relate.
00:19:44
Speaker
You won't anymore because it's gone. Good. Now you can ride it more than once in a day, though. Guess what? It averages like right now. It averages like a 60 minute wait. The same thing that I waited in a virtual queue for it. And you can ride it six times if you want to. If that's all you want to do with your day at Epcot, you can do that.
00:20:03
Speaker
That is not all I want to do with my at Epcot. That's all I want to do with my day at Epcot. Maybe bounce between the countries, go back and forth. I was going to say, i would like to drink. Yeah. Line beers every time.
00:20:13
Speaker
Let's go. You still haven't been on Guardians, right, Allison? No. That's crazy. i haven't even been on Slinky Dog. that's fine. I've been on Slinky Dog.
00:20:24
Speaker
It has been a while since I've been to Disney. Proper. I only have one ride on Slinky Dog ever, so... We're not missing much. It kind of like... Obviously, I ride a ton of roller coasters and I don't have any issues.
00:20:40
Speaker
It kind of hurts my stomach. like It's one of the few that just like kind of just gets my stomach a little bit. don't know why.
00:20:51
Speaker
Interesting. but Everybody's different, I guess. yeah i wrote It's like the only roller coaster that really hurts my stomach at all. not sky rush not intimidated through far knows no problem but it's something about the way those airtime hills are if i eat immediately beforehand and i have something in my stomach then it's fine but if i if my stomach is empty it just like the way those airtime hills are laid out it's just like no it does not it's not good for me all fair
00:21:27
Speaker
And our last note here from Ethan. He went to Atlanta, apparently. I have very thorough notes, guys. Yeah. A couple weeks ago, it wasn't really a coaster trip, but I went to see my dad down Atlanta.
00:21:41
Speaker
um i know why I was mainly there to go to the NASCAR race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But while i was there, I did get one credit, my first and only credit so far of 2025.
00:21:53
Speaker
And it's not what you're expecting. It's not at Fun Spot or Six Flags. It's the Georgia Mountain Coaster in Helen. Okay, I've heard about that one. Yeah. yeah um It's a fun one.
00:22:04
Speaker
it was It was fun. There were some good lateral turns on that ride. But the real interesting part of that was the town of Helen. It literally is a German village. like There's drunk people everywhere. The buildings are very German.
00:22:18
Speaker
don't know. it's like It's like America's Germany. don't know. It's an interesting town. I call it Germany light and I definitely went there like a week before going to Germany couple of years ago. Prepare yourself a little bit.
00:22:30
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, granted, I like I grew up going to Helen cause I lived in Atlanta for most of my life. My senior trip, a bunch of friends and me went to Helen for a weekend. So nice. I wonder, that the most Southern mountain coaster in the U S might be right. That could be a good trivia question. I know.
00:22:48
Speaker
Unless there's something like Arizona or New Mexico. Right. in contention. Or like Hawaii. i don't think Hawaii has any coasters. Hawaii has zero coasters. like They may have like temporary ones, but... Jamaica has one.
00:23:02
Speaker
Well, that's not U.S. Did you say U.S.? yeah Fair. Pretty sure... don't know I've done the one in Australia. That's my favorite mountain coaster. Which one?
00:23:13
Speaker
The one Jamaica. I've done that Oh, you've done that one? Very nice. Okay. Yeah, it's only... ah I actually have three international credits, two at Disneyland Paris, and then the Jamaica one. That Jamaica one was like you're going through the rainforest. That's a rare one. Yeah, that sounds really cool.
00:23:29
Speaker
Yeah. I got to POV that after we record. It's really fun. Sounds cool.
00:23:38
Speaker
Well, while I'm waiting to watch that POV, let's talk about waiting.
Creative QLines
00:23:43
Speaker
so My puns when I was like posting about this episode kind of made me happy.
00:23:49
Speaker
i was like, what are you waiting for? Give us your thoughts. As only you can. As only you can. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I figured, you know, I was kind of tossing around some just upcoming idea, episode ideas. And I'm like, hey, what if we talk about Q lines? And Brian's like, yep, let's do it. I'm like, all right, cool.
00:24:06
Speaker
um Because there is a lot of creativity that can be done. it's is such an important part of your experience riding roller coasters or just attractions in general if you have like an awful queue your day could be miserable especially on a very hot day yeah yeah but if it things that go into it like you have to think of so many accommodations so many different like theming elements exactly what you said like if you're in the heat of a queue all day that can ruin your day so thinking into ways to improve that. it's It really is a creative game.
00:24:42
Speaker
And even been thinking about like logistics of like, here's the standby line, like the regular standby line, and how's that gonna weave through everything? What's it gonna go through? Here's a single rider line, here's a fast pass line. All of them gotta work together, still tell stories in some cases.
00:24:59
Speaker
Yeah, very true. Like consequently, you know, you have a good queue. there I mean, we've mentioned some rides even in previous episodes where you almost don't mind waiting like over an hour if the queue is good versus and then the roller coaster itself might not even be like the best in the world, but you can have ah really good coaster with an awful queue that might be like, OK, well, but I'm not waiting for that again. i don't care how good it is.
00:25:24
Speaker
hmm. Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's like everyone would steal vengeance. Like, people will wait in it, but I don't think I've heard anyone ever say good things about that queue. and you don't want you You don't like the lore of Blackjack and Inchess and Digger? I don't like the chaos that happens in that queue. I feel like multiple times I've had people like, we could go to steal vengeance, but then we have to wait in the steal vengeance queue.
00:25:48
Speaker
I'm like, okay. wi it I think the best part of the Steel Vengeance queue is just watching the tracks sway above you. That part's pretty cool. That's about the best part about it.
00:25:59
Speaker
It's still not worth the headache of that queue. It's like the world's worst queue.
00:26:06
Speaker
So our our first question that we've come up for our discussion points is what are your favorite queues to weigh in? I have a bunch here, so I will go last. Should we throw it over to Ethan?
00:26:18
Speaker
Yeah, Mr. Q-Man himself. but Sure, the Q-Meister. Q-Meister. Yeah, honestly, like there are Qs I like for different reasons. um You know, Qs I like because the theming, obviously. So examples I can pick up are Velocicoaster for obvious reasons.
00:26:34
Speaker
um I mean, Hagrid's, really any Universal or Disney park has, you know, great queues, except for rip Ride Rocket. That's the one exception. um But yeah, those are really good queues.
00:26:46
Speaker
ah Another queue I really like, um I know doesn't really have any theming, but I just love Millennium Forces queue. One, because the closer you get to the station, you just hear the music get louder and louder. And it's...
00:26:58
Speaker
don't know, it's just very cool. And then the flyby of the last airtime hill is also awesome. I think that straight away, instead of having like a switchback or anything, like that straight, like it really- That that that bridge going up to the station, you know it means you're getting very close to the front, which- It's a very cool and unique queue. It's so- Only thing I don't like about that queue is all the spiders and bugs hanging from the lights up there.
00:27:24
Speaker
Extra seeming. Yeah. well so well Welcome to Lake Erie. Yep. Shout out Superman the Ride at New England. The cobwebs in like the late summer, early fall.
00:27:37
Speaker
Nightmares. They do not clean them up at all.
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah, those are just a couple examples. I'm sure I'll think of more, you know, the more we go through the episode. I just got to think of some more. how was not expecting me be put on the spot like this immediately. Not bad. in yeah That's what we do here.
00:27:55
Speaker
Awesome. I'm jumping in with a non-Disney Universal on the first one for me that came to mind when when I thought about theming is Robolton.
00:28:06
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Incredible queue. That's one that, like, i haven't waited in a queue in it. I've been lucky enough to be, I've either always had my service dog working or have been lucky enough to be there on not too busy days.
00:28:21
Speaker
um So I haven't waited in that queue very long, but I don't think that I would mind. um It has so much to look at, so much theming. um I really enjoy that queue a lot.
00:28:37
Speaker
Is that your only one? Am I continuing? I was just jumping on the one. um Let's see. What other ones? Big Thunder Mountain is one I really enjoy. um Theming wise, Big Thunder Mountain one I really enjoy, but it brings up To me, one of the biggest downfalls to a cue and downsides to a cue is the space between them.
00:29:01
Speaker
um Switchbacks are very close. It's very claustrophobic. It's a very difficult cue for anyone who has any type of sensory issues, anxiety issues, PTSD. um Anything in those lines um are kind of difficult, but the theming in that cue is incredible.
00:29:17
Speaker
You can't really beat it. um
00:29:22
Speaker
I mean, I got a bunch of Disney and Universal things. Yeah, I don't want to be like the only one talking about like, I feel like we're all going to bring up some of the same cues. So I actually did not bring up Big Thunder Mountain, but it it is I like the I mean, obviously, you get the whole ride in front of you through that whole, you know, house.
00:29:39
Speaker
Plus, the the soundtrack is amazing. Oh, and I love it. It's so nostalgic. You have, like, interactive things throughout the queue, too. And at night, when you look at the rocks, for like, the rock formation, the color on those rocks, it's so pretty.
00:29:55
Speaker
i love that queue. And it always moves fast. You are very rarely, like, stationary for too long, which is great. Yeah, the queue is wild. Is this only talking about roller coaster queues or could also include like other rides?
00:30:09
Speaker
yeah Oh, no. I got some dark rides. I have a good one for that. Hawn Mansion. Oh, yeah. I love the Hawn Mansion pre-show with the elevator and the you know the hanging pictures.
00:30:20
Speaker
I don't know. Just something about that pre-show and queue gets me every time. It's of the best. That's... I mean, bias because I'm a Disney fan. That that might be like the most iconic pre-show in amusement park, theme park history.
00:30:35
Speaker
I have a friend from the college who memorizes the entire you know script from that that pre-show. It's like her favorite ride. i'm sure that could probably get it. Yeah. Yeah,
00:30:47
Speaker
welcome foolish mortals yeah come on machine
00:30:54
Speaker
Allison, you're up. Yeah, I'm sitting here like writing ones down because I was not prepared. um Shout out to European parks because like... Thank you because i would yeah you're our European source.
European Park Praise
00:31:08
Speaker
The few that I've listed on here, most of them are European. um yeah For various reasons. but so First up, Taron and Fly at Phantasy Land.
00:31:19
Speaker
just I will always mention Taron and Phantasy Land. yeah I just covered my ears. ter Yeah, i I feel like I didn't get to experience Fly, unfortunately. But Taryn's up there. Taryn, you're surrounded by the truck.
00:31:34
Speaker
We'll just say that. And it's great. um Lost Gravity. I know none of y'all have been on that, but that's a really funky queue, like going through weird things. There's like big mirrored rooms that you go through and I have some fun selfies.
00:31:48
Speaker
Maybe that'll be episode art. I don't know. haven't figured out episode art. um b Brian, I think you have this one on your list, but Karnan. Karnan is phenomenal. They're phenomenal. So one of the best cues I've ever been in the story that it tells all the different rooms that you go in.
00:32:03
Speaker
Yeah. But the animations like on the walls, it's unbelievable. Yeah. It really gets you in like it makes you more nervous for the ride, which not many cues do that.
00:32:14
Speaker
Yeah, there's there's so much to that queue. I was on my last day of a very long trip in that queue, and I definitely fell asleep at one point while waiting in line, but that's beside the point. It was not because of the actual queue, but that's one my memories of that line.
00:32:28
Speaker
This is a slight spoiler, so skip ahead 15 seconds. I'm about to say a spoiler for Karnan. The fact there's that like randomizer room and you don't know which row you're going to get is awesome.
00:32:41
Speaker
The way they do it is really cool. Yes, yes. It's such a good effect. Cool gimmick that no other coaster really does. No, no. That one tear queue does an amazing job. at making It just instills fear in your entire body.
00:32:57
Speaker
like I haven't been scared for a coaster in a very long time. Oh, yeah. It's like, it's it's like, we mentioned this, I forgot what the topic was, but like, you want to escape the real world when you're at an amusement park, but then the queue can make you like do it a secondary escape where you're just in a completely different zone now. Like you're fully invested in that theme. And sometimes you're like Oh, I'm about to ride a roller coaster. Like with all this, like evil.
00:33:25
Speaker
and Yeah. It's terrifying. It just made me think of another one. Um, still on the Europe list. Uh, Voltron. I was going to say, how can you mention Voltron? Like, Voltron's queue is insane.
00:33:41
Speaker
If you want to hear our thoughts about the Voltron queue, go back and listen to the European recap episode that Bryant has not heard yet. Yeah. And then, it's not really a spoiler, but Bluefire queue has a launch right next to it, and that's just fantastic to watch that.
00:33:57
Speaker
I actually have not been in that queue Yet, I got the quicker virtual cues every single time. i didn't even know that.
00:34:07
Speaker
what the heck allison i mean it's not a surprise but it's just cool um and then my last european coaster is the uh hashtag like me coaster at plopsaland it's some kids coaster but like you go through like a school it's like a school theme or something and there's just like random edm music playing and there's videos of a bunch of us just dancing through the queue it made me it made me smile but I'm very excited to get more European cues.
00:34:35
Speaker
While we're talking about European cure cues, um also Euromir. yeah. Just because it's like the world's... I really like that soundtrack.
00:34:47
Speaker
I think it's so much fun. i could just like jam to that soundtrack forever. i thought Euromir was also incredibly fun. It's fun. um You're making me excited.
00:34:59
Speaker
Obviously, Velocicoaster. I'm sure we will talk more about Velocicoaster. It's just perfection. Amazing. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Just how there's like a bunch of interactive elements with all the jewels and things like that.
00:35:12
Speaker
Things to keep you entertained are huge. I hate Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Really? i just i hate waiting that long for that short of a ride. Yeah, that too. it I do appreciate the effort with the the the little game there, but...
00:35:27
Speaker
Just something to keep the kiddos And, you know, adults. um And then the last one I have is Hagrid's slash Doin' Dragons. but through the castle Going through the castle ruins or whatever. its just There's some really cool visuals there. that's it um Eric has a good point that we're going to bring up later where I want to mention Hagrid's involving queues where you don't know where the end of the line is.
00:35:54
Speaker
That's a good point. i had something kind of regarding that as well I'll mention later on. Yeah, when we get there, because I think it's a good discussion point for sure. And I think there's pros and cons to it for that I definitely want to mention.
00:36:07
Speaker
um The interactive queue area. made me think about um have any of you guys been at the Walt Disney World Dumbo ride yeah oh my gosh that point was one of my favorite cues so keep in mind any of our listeners that this is like if you're not familiar with the Dumbo ride like it is a children's ride like this is intended for young kids um but they give you a buzzer For like you you get in line and you wait in part of the line and then they give you a buzzer and allow your children to play in a playground for the majority of your queue time. Which is like the coolest queue idea ever for a kid's ride. um That's probably one of my favorite.
00:36:58
Speaker
um Jen, you're 28, right? Yeah. I'm pretty sure the last time I rode Dumbo, you weren't born yet.
00:37:08
Speaker
like I was like five or six. I don't think I've been on Dumbo. Oh my God. You should. It's really fun. I actually never rode Dumbo until I went to Disney with a two and a half year old and I rode it with him, um which made sense. I rode it with a kid, but um the queue line alone is just, it's such a smart idea. It's so cool.
00:37:30
Speaker
um And it is a cute little ride there. Yeah. i haven't even been on like the, when it moved last Dumbo was when it was right behind the castle. Yeah, now it's double capacity and it has the cool queue and stuff.
00:37:44
Speaker
um And then also, same idea, but The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh has a play area in there as well. It's such a good idea for children's rides to give the kids something to do instead of having them sit in a queue. Absolutely, yeah.
00:38:02
Speaker
like a virtual line, but in the best way. Yeah, exactly. Another queue I just thought of that I really enjoyed. One, it was a two-hour line, so was atrocious, but like you know waiting in that queue, there was just so much to look at.
00:38:18
Speaker
I'm talking about Manta at SeaWorld Orlando. Basically, you go to the aquarium. That's a really good queue. If it wasn't an aquarium and it was just switchbacks, I probably wouldn't have weighed in that line.
00:38:30
Speaker
But the fact that we just got to see a bunch of Manta raising sharks in the queue, it made it like extra special. Yeah, that is a beautiful queue. The mantis is fantastic. I just thought of... I'm back on Dark Ride. I'm back at Disney, of course.
00:38:43
Speaker
calm Have you guys done this the Little Mermaid ride? think... Ooh, yes. but don't remember. That queue... It is a good queue.
00:38:53
Speaker
Incredible. It is unlike... That might actually be my favorite queue ever. Okay. Just because the theming and the... The theming is, I think, is unmatched.
00:39:05
Speaker
You're getting scenes right out of The Little Mermaid. You feel like you're actually entering into that story. They do an incredible job. All right let me talk about some of my Disney lists.
00:39:17
Speaker
um I'm happy none of you have mentioned Everest, Expedition
Expedition Everest Anecdote
00:39:21
Speaker
Everest. that yes So I'm pretty sure I watched, this was like the making of Everest. i don't know if it was a VCR or DVD.
00:39:31
Speaker
Um... And I'm pretty sure Joe Rohde told this story. I apologize if it's incorrect. When they were in Nepal, you know, researching the theme of the ride, he said he walked into the store and he said, I'll take it.
00:39:47
Speaker
And when the manager said which item, he said the store. And that's what the cue became. Jeez. I'm pretty sure that's accurate. Because the i absolutely heat it's literally like a museum to the Yeti.
00:40:04
Speaker
There's like so many cool artifacts in there, so much lore. Yeah. It's so well done. love the Everest Q. Tower of Terror is incredible.
00:40:15
Speaker
Even just waiting outside where you get the tower right above you and you get that old timey 30s music playing. It's so creepy. Yeah. It's amazing. And then obviously when you get into the lobby, how dusted and old it looks, the library is iconic, the boiler room.
00:40:33
Speaker
I've written that countless times. it is one It's obviously one of them the tamer drop towers out there versus all drop towers. I still get nervous because of that queue.
00:40:45
Speaker
It puts you in the mood so well. um I want to bring up Test Track 1.0. one point ah
00:40:55
Speaker
ah If anyone hasn't written it, I'm sure there's YouTube videos on it. It was just full of like test dummies and like a bunch of things going on, banging and clanging. yeah It could be an hour away. It was entertaining to just watch everything happen. There was all these different stages of like how they test cars.
00:41:15
Speaker
And then now it's just this big... Well, I guess they're redoing it again, obviously. But Test Track 2.0 was just as big. It was like a... Who was the sponsor? Was it Chevy? Yeah. like A giant Chevy ad. Yeah. It's like... I mean, obviously it's cool that you get to you know make your own car. But I mean...
00:41:34
Speaker
It didn't be what the original was. No, no not at all. Yeah, regarding Test Track, I know this not regarding the queue, but like I've written both versions, the original and the second one. i I was like eight when I wrote the original version, and I kind of barely remember it, but it completely blows out the other...
00:41:54
Speaker
um The new version, the new, the old version is one of my favorite rides considering I'm a big car person as well. it's It's, it's like you're actually doing a car test. It's, it's awesome. It was awesome.
00:42:06
Speaker
It was so good that was one of my favorite rides on the whole property. Um, we've mentioned Velocicoaster. I'm sure they'll come up again. Forbidden Journey. I'm pretty sure people just go to walk through the queue and don't even ride. I think that's an option. Am I wrong on that?
00:42:22
Speaker
It's been a while since I've been on that. I know it's much on Hagrid's. They have a family room on that. I'm sure it's probably also one on Gringotts. The first time you get to- Oh yeah, Gringotts, yeah. The first time you get to walk through Hogwarts is mind-blowing.
00:42:38
Speaker
Yeah, and I feel like people don't talk about like walking through hog Hogwarts, but also the greenhouses. like The detail that they put into those greenhouses is incredible.
00:42:49
Speaker
It's so, so good. like i's still I've been on it so many times. I still love walking through that thing. um To get away from Orlando, I did have one, shockingly, from a Six Flags.
00:43:02
Speaker
don't know if any of you guys have been on it yet. Dr. Diabolical. I've been on that one. That's Six Flags Fiesta Jeffrey Siebert went all out on that thing. It's legit one of the best cues in the country, and it's at a Six Flags park.
00:43:16
Speaker
i'm so ahead I going to say, there's animatronics. There's you know actors on screens playing roles. There's like hidden doors. It's phenomenal. You you completely forget i am at a Six Flags Park and i'm about to ride a B&M dive.
00:43:34
Speaker
That's rattly because it's new.
00:43:38
Speaker
The queue is the best part of that whole attraction, and it's awesome. Going off of that, from the same park, what they did, the Poltergeists. Yes. That station is like one of the coolest stations I've ever seen. It's really cool now.
00:43:53
Speaker
Like the Haunt, really gives Haunt Mansion vibes. It's incredible. Like, I think that's my favorite Six Flags park. Even though it doesn't have the best coasters, it's just the atmosphere of it in general is unbelievable.
00:44:08
Speaker
It's the least Six Flags, Six Flags park. Oh, yeah. I did a poll um for a ah game that we did on the Coaster Cruise for my trivia event. I just asked, what is the best Six Flags?
00:44:20
Speaker
And Fiesta Texas won over Magic Mountain and Great Adventure. Well, I mean... Well, definitely over Great Adventure now.
00:44:28
Speaker
um i Same Chan, same state, different park. But um I think Mr. Freeze's Reverse Blast also needs some love. I think out of Six Flags and like what Six Flags does with her queue, that queue is really cool.
00:44:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's it's it's cool. Ha ha, Mr. Freeze. Wow. And the station. like And part of that is just like, I think the like the sliding loading station kind of adds to it for me. But the theming in that station and then having that type of load, it's just a very, very cool experience getting onto that coaster.
00:45:12
Speaker
Yeah, I could agree with that. And they they also do a good job of the Dark Knight Wild Mice, the Indoor Wild Mice, that great adventure. And I think Great America has one as well. um It's pretty cool in there.
00:45:25
Speaker
Yeah, I think. Yeah, it's pretty cool. First, again, first X-Flex.
00:45:33
Speaker
Now, um to us, to you, to all of us, what are the necessities for a good Q-Line? I got some notes, but know if you guys had anything off hand.
00:45:46
Speaker
Free pass through lockers make a huge difference. Yeah. Then like all the paid lockers at Six Flags Parks or even like like granted like Hershey Park will do like the free lockers or whatever.
00:46:00
Speaker
I'm glad they're free, but like pass through lockers make a huge difference in efficiency. And you can keep it immersed. um I literally put on here high-velocicoaster because that's like the epitome of a perfect locker system, I think.
00:46:17
Speaker
Yeah. i And it is game-changing, even like... This is going sound like totally young person, but... Being able to have my phone in a queue, especially if you're by yourself for an extended period of time, or even when I'm by myself, I like to bring my Kindle.
00:46:34
Speaker
And I will read my Kindle in queue lines. like I've done that before. have no problem doing that. um Having pass-through lockers somewhere closer to the ride station so I can continue to read my book or do whatever I need to do, it's very big for me.
00:46:52
Speaker
mean, even just to communicate with other people in your party, too. Keep track of time. Anything like that. Like, yeah for Top Thrill 2, having the lockers beforehand and then having to wait in that entire line, which is not short.
00:47:08
Speaker
I'm like, you know, at least, like, we have to talk to other human beings around us and actually interact with each other, but... That's true. Like sometimes your your group gets split because you're doing different things and then you can't communicate with them.
00:47:20
Speaker
Like if you're eating after or are you going to meet up next? so It's definitely it's not convenient, that's for sure. yeah And it's not even a matter of like, oh, we're millennials, Gen Zs, we need to be on our phone all time. like No, it's just the way of the world. like That's how we talk to people. you know All the parks that like require apps for cross-land systems or things like that.
00:47:41
Speaker
And then you have to put your phone on. like yeah I'm also going to bring up like a not don't know. It's not really happy or whatever. But especially for like solo women travelers, not having ah a device or something and being locked in a queue line is not safe.
00:47:57
Speaker
Like I will forever say that. I will forever. If you're going to take my phone away, then but you have to provide you have to do it at the end of the queue. It's not safe.
00:48:08
Speaker
I've on my own had to be escorted out of a queue. because I've had people like creeping on me and making me feel insanely uncomfortable.
00:48:20
Speaker
It is not safe for you to take my phone away before I exit that queue. Or before i enter that queue. It's not safe. that's So pass-through lockers are super important.
00:48:33
Speaker
I'll be honest. The one coaster, there was one coaster I'm thinking of that used to have, you had to pay for the lockers at the beginning and you had to pay for and you had to go through the entire line without it. And then i think just last year they added the pass-through lockers. You were probably guess thinking of.
00:48:48
Speaker
El Toro. That changes everything for that ride. They added pass-through lockers? I didn't and actually know that. oh right Right before you go up the stairs to the station. And it literally changes everything about it. It's...
00:49:00
Speaker
King Dakar has, i mean, had. and Not there anymore. Rip. I was having surgery the the morning it collapsed.
00:49:13
Speaker
So I i sent a text to some of our other group, Chad and Megan, like, hey, if I don't make it, I'm riding King Dakar tomorrow in heaven. so but It would be cool to have the same death day.
00:49:27
Speaker
Yeah. Listen, that was my first surgery. It was definitely terrifying. like Yeah. When they're attaching all this crap to your body and they're like, all right, we're gonna put this nerve blocker. You're not going to feel your leg for 24 hours. like, oh, my God.
00:49:40
Speaker
But anyway, tangent. Yeah. That's tangent. No. um Another note that I put on there, employees playing the part, like keeping that theme going. Because it's like, I think of like when you were talking about Tower of Terror, I think that's when I wrote that note down of how those employees, cast members, whatever they're called, continue that story through the entire line when you interact with them.
00:50:03
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know how none of us mentioned this, but Rise of the Resistance is a perfect example. Yeah, yeah, yeah. um If you have cast members that are really happy to be there and really dedicated to their role, the first time that I wrote that, I was, like, terrified.
00:50:18
Speaker
Like, I had fear through my whole entire body because of the way that they were treating me. Like, oh loved it. Yeah. You know why I didn't think of of Rise is because i don't really like think it's a great queue before like the experience starts. I forget like the experience is still technically the queue.
00:50:40
Speaker
Because that's how good that whole like setup is. yeah it feels like it's part of the ride. Right. like As soon as Rey pops up, I'm like, okay, the ride is starting now. Yeah, still technically that's part of the queue. You have the whole separate section.
00:50:55
Speaker
So that's still technically part of the queue. And they do an incredible job with that.
Role of Cast Members
00:51:00
Speaker
But exactly what Allison is saying, the cast members really, truly make or break that experience.
00:51:07
Speaker
Yeah, like i think for I think it was like Haunted Mansion or something like that, where they're just like exceptionally creepy. Um, and I feel I feel like I remember having one like, watch me walk into the queue and just like walk eyes on me and like start following me for a little bit.
00:51:24
Speaker
And that just it just added to the vibe of Haunted Mansion. It was great. Yeah, I had the Haunted Mansion people when I was in high school. It was my first trip to Disney, like outside being very little. And I was terrified Haunted Mansion because I was like, I don't like when things jump out at me and like potentially touch me. And like, I get really nervous.
00:51:43
Speaker
And I was like freaking out to my friends. And one of them did the exact same thing. But he followed me for like 30 feet. And I was just like, in my mind, I was like, I feel like someone's following me, but I think it's just because of the ride.
00:51:56
Speaker
And finally I turned around and I think I jumped 20 feet. Like he was just like up against me. It was terrifying. But he made the experience. Like I think about that queue time. I don't remember anything about waiting that long. I think we waited like an hour.
00:52:10
Speaker
and don't remember anything about the wait. I don't remember. But I remember having like the best time in that queue because that cast member made it.
00:52:20
Speaker
Yeah, and anytime cast members are just the ride itself where the the theming from the ride is integrated into the whole queue, it just makes it so much better. like Some other added points that I wrote, just anything where you can look at or read.
00:52:35
Speaker
like I feel like Six Flags, they're not known for their queue. I will appreciate if they they make some of an effort to like, all right, at least there's something to read here. yeah know Distract me a little bit. um Obviously, we've talked a little bit about anything that's interactive. Another cue that I have not brought up yet is Soren has this like trivia game that you can play on your phone. It's like all these geography facts, which for obviously me and geography is one of my favorite trivia subjects I'm all about.
00:53:03
Speaker
um You you like play with everybody in line. They keep your stats from like you know past you know people waiting in line. ah Really, really cool thing that Soren does. Soaring actually, someone correct me if I'm making this up, maybe my memory is just bad, but Soaring used to have this game that was kind of like, I can't remember exactly how you played it, but you had to like be in front of the screen completely and you had multiple people and you hit the ball. Yeah, you have to like throw your arms up, right? Yeah, it was so fun. You're not making that up. Yeah.
00:53:33
Speaker
That was what they had, I think, before the the trivia. Yeah, well, because when I was there in high school, I remember it was like barely working. So I'm sure that the trivia works well better, like way better.
00:53:45
Speaker
But I remember it being like so much fun. Yeah.
00:53:51
Speaker
and yeah Anything where, and this is going to go up to Eric's point again, kind of, where the environment is changing. You can go into different rooms, and it's not just the same old switchback for an hour.
00:54:05
Speaker
Always appreciate that. And then anything with a soundtrack. Like we brought, we've brought up time travel before they have this whole like 10, 15 song soundtrack of just like this whole, like, you know, bluegrass covers of these songs that are like, everybody knows.
00:54:23
Speaker
Yeah. We have big Thunder Mountain, as I already brought up anything with music. I'm sure some of the European parks. You're mirror. You're a mirror. Yeah. Well, I mean, force. Yeah. I mean, it's only by the station, but i that soundtrack. It counts.
00:54:38
Speaker
It's, it's awesome. Yeah, it doesn't have to be, like, pop music or, like, music like that. It could be any music, like... Actually, a point off of that, um i don't know if you guys know this, but back, like, 10, 15 years ago, Sear Point used to have a DJ role.
00:54:53
Speaker
So in the middle of the queue line, um remember they would play, they would be, like, a DJ staying there and they would play music on. i think it was, like, Raptor and... Millennium Force definitely had it. Yeah, I know Raptor had, because...
00:55:04
Speaker
i used to I used to work at Raptor, if you didn't know, um for a season. And one of my fellow operators, he worked there 10 years before. And he said that Raptor used to have a DJ in the middle of the line. And I was like, oh, that would have been fun.
00:55:19
Speaker
I just hope they didn't ask for a music request because they would just ask for like the most mean stuff. like They would ask for Baby Shark for the memes. i don't know. that
00:55:31
Speaker
But yeah. That sounds like it would be fun, though.
00:55:36
Speaker
Yeah, I think for me, we covered most of the things that I really find important in the line.
00:55:45
Speaker
Then, of course, there's the negatives. What is the cues that you dread standing in? And why?
00:55:54
Speaker
like That was a very teacher question. Explain your reasoning. That sounds very like philosophical. um Why you don't like it. I, again, i feel like I've talked...
00:56:06
Speaker
A decent amount about this. But the three that come to mind immediately. I've already talked about think Big Thunder Mountain. Jungle Cruise. Jungle Cruise. Their switchbacks are the world's worst switchbacks in the world. They're very tight.
00:56:19
Speaker
People are touching you from every direction. You're right on the water. They're awful. And Matterhorn at Disneyland. like Matterhorn is probably my number one worst queue. like It is the worst queue in the world.
00:56:33
Speaker
And I stand by that. You stand by it? I stand by it.
00:56:42
Speaker
I mean, slight rant for me. I mean, pretty much 90 90 percent of all Six Flags Cedar Fair queues are awful. they They're just boring as hell.
00:56:53
Speaker
Switchback, switchbacks, which is fine. Here's my rant. If you're not going to spend money to theme it up or, you know, have some something to look at.
00:57:05
Speaker
There is no excuse to not have shade on your switchbacks, on your cues. and Absolutely none. You can literally like affect people medically because you don't have shade in your cue.
00:57:21
Speaker
Yeah. And then consequently, if you're not to have shade, at least have bubbles, bubbler. I call it bubblers. I'm from New England. Water fountains in line or vending machine of some sort.
00:57:33
Speaker
Sometimes that you do and then it doesn't work. Yeah. um yeah You got to be better in that department. This also brings me back to Slinky Dog because even the best of parks sometimes get this wrong. Disney World has no shade at Slinky Dog Dash so much that they had to put up little temporary umbrellas that really don't give you any shade.
00:57:53
Speaker
But that was like their temporary solution for it. But that queue, that's actually a lot of the reason that I don't ride it. um Like it hurts my stomach and there's no shade in the queue. There's not a chance I'm getting in that line.
00:58:06
Speaker
i mean, you... There's rarely, I don't care where you are in the U.S. at least, like, there's rarely a day it's not 75 or higher when parks are open. Because when it starts cooling off in the fall, then the parks are really only open at night anyway.
00:58:18
Speaker
Yeah. But, like, yeah it's gonna be hot 90% of the days in parks in the U.S. Like, have shade. Shade your cues.
Queue Challenges at Over Georgia
00:58:27
Speaker
Yep. In terms of shade, I think of, I guess it's now the very short-lived Kid Flash over Georgia.
00:58:34
Speaker
ah it's like a big like round don't giant circle q don't even know it's very confusing looking i thankfully did not have to wait much in it um absolutely zero shade in the georgia sun no with kids especially like not a good time um and then also for over georgia i have on here um batman in the ride In the heyday of it, and there's a giant queue house. I pulled up a picture of it on my phone and I literally might make this the episode art for it.
00:59:05
Speaker
um Giant queue building that's just like sweltering hot and I've waded through the entire thing of it, of Switchbacks. o In my early Foozie days. And it is just awful.
00:59:17
Speaker
Like, i don't know if you've seen that, Ethan. but like I have. I went on that. Oh, my God. It's so bad. I rode that. Good thing I didn't have to wait for entire switchback queue. But when I went to over Georgia, that was on one train ops. And it was, like, a pretty warm day for April standards.
00:59:32
Speaker
So it was pretty atrocious waiting in that line. And even, like, the rest of that line, like, going through the, like, sewage system, whatever, it just radiates heat. And it's not fun.
00:59:45
Speaker
A couple more on my list. Iron Rattler. My first time riding that. We like got lost going up the switchbacks. They're like super narrow. like I felt like they were touching my shoulders.
00:59:57
Speaker
And it was very awkward. I think I took a picture of it. But... That one just, I was not a fan, which is quite the ah difference from Dr. Diabolical and Poltergeist. Right. ah um And then, it's not that I've waited long in them, but the legends of the Zadra key line and the Hyperion key line that are probably about a mile long when you walk the entire thing. still I still can't believe this. like It's...
01:00:22
Speaker
insanity It seems like you're exaggerating, but no, everyone says that. I'm sure people have mapped it out to see exactly how long it is. But I know for Zadra, when that magic gate was not open and people like ran around to ride it again, you have to go through that entire queue line.
01:00:38
Speaker
And I was literally just like, no, I don't feel like going through that entire thing. I'm good. I don't need to ride it again that bad. And like Hyperion is all like indoors, but like you go like up like multiple flights, they kind of spiral around each other and then you go back down the entire thing and you're like, what was the point?
01:00:56
Speaker
I actually think I remember watching, i think Amusement Insider posted a video of that queue. Who's that guy? Yeah, who's that guy? Loser.
01:01:07
Speaker
um I think he posted a video of their queue like a year or two ago. And I think I remember looking at that queue like, and I don't think he even did the whole entire thing. I think it was just like, I remember going up and down steps and a lot of things I wouldn't want to do.
01:01:24
Speaker
Well, if I ever get there, um I'm just going to say, hey, that plaque, that's my name. Open the magic gate. yeah Thank you. ah tweet and i heards do I hurt my foot. I'm recovering. and Well, that's if I go this year. I'm not saying I'm going this year, but, you know.
01:01:43
Speaker
ah One last point. I mean, this could just come down to a staffing issue. Usually I cannot stand when I've waited like, say, 30, 45 minutes and switchbacks. And I'm like all right, I'm at the station. I'm about to ride. And it's just packed with people.
01:01:57
Speaker
And there's no like form of discipline. that's There's like 14 people in each row. And i'm like, oh, there's still another like seven, eight trains. I got to wait. The one example I think of when you say that is Voyage. That's my number one coaster. But the queue line, especially like if you go into the basement.
01:02:15
Speaker
we got We got a Holiday World question or statement later on if we want to save that. because dad Yeah. yeah um Anyways, yeah you guys have mentioned some you know pretty bad queue experience.
01:02:27
Speaker
I don't think anything can top um this upcoming one I'm going to mention. By far the worst queue I've been in is Exterminator at Kennywood. Oh, that key was awful. Okay, I'll describe it real quick.
01:02:41
Speaker
So basically, you have kind of two key areas. The first key is like in the outdoor queue. It's like four switchbacks going through like a force something like that. And there's an attendant at the front of there that lets like 15 people into the indoor queue a time. If you don't exterminators and indoor wild mouse, i can you um they like they let like 15 people in at time. And then they wait another 15, 20 minutes for the next 15 people in.
01:03:05
Speaker
So I waited four times in the outdoor queue and three of them. I was like, no, I'm not, I'm not waiting in this. This is too long. um Even though it was only like, but like three switchbacks long of people.
01:03:18
Speaker
um But the fourth time, it wasn't that bad a line outside. So I was like, you know what Screw it. I will wait in this i' will wait business line. So, you know, I finally get inside. I'm expecting the station to be right there. Nope.
01:03:28
Speaker
Seven switchbacks. Like, seven or eight switchbacks in the dark. No theming at all. No fan or air conditioning. And this is, like, during a hot summer day in July. took, like, at least an hour in that queue. And I was sweating. And this was, like, the first time of the felt like was suffocating. Like, it is, like...
01:03:48
Speaker
all-consuming humidity in that queue. It's awful. And literally, like, zero theming whatsoever. um and And, like, the worst of it all, I mean, i know, like, Milestones, that was my 250th credit.
01:04:02
Speaker
So that was a memorable... I mean, I guess i guess the one positive of riding it is I finally got through the queue, finally got to ride after all these times of, you know, chickening out and getting out of the queue.
01:04:13
Speaker
So... Yeah. Thankfully, the ride itself is always good. It was solid. I rode it alone, so i was getting thrown around. Yeah. and um Yeah, that's the worst Q I've been in, for sure. That's why anyone that hasn't been to Kennywood yet, if you want a cred run, go to Exterminator first.
01:04:31
Speaker
Get it out of the way. Then run to Steel Curtain. If it's ever open again. If it's ever open. I had another bad one that I lost. I can't remember what it was. it was ri What were you talking about before Hyperion?
01:04:47
Speaker
Zodra? Iron Rattler?
01:04:52
Speaker
Man, I don't know. That manned over Torto?
01:04:56
Speaker
Oh, that might have triggered it. Hold on. ah Maybe not. um I might have to come back. no Just a quick note on I feel like Hershen Parks, as amazing as least Dollywood and Silver Dollar City are, their queues aren't, like, great.
01:05:14
Speaker
feel like they... I mean, we mentioned Time Traveler, but the rest of them I feel like you would expect a little more.
01:05:22
Speaker
Is that a crazy take? Wait, um... I mean, i can see that. I'm trying to, like, think through some of the... And you can't, because there's nothing memorable other than Time Traveler. Maybe Mystery Mind puts a little bit of effort in.
01:05:36
Speaker
Yeah. Actually, I wasn't a big fan of Dragonflyer's queue because they were so slow operations. Yeah. That's fair. and And we were not great shape there either. And yeah, we waited at least an hour for that thing.
01:05:51
Speaker
I feel like Big Bear Mountain could have done a lot more than it did.
01:05:56
Speaker
Like there's some like cute theming in there. Yeah, there's a standard version of Parks that you would have hoped for a little more. Yeah. I can't really think of anything else as notable as like the Time Traveler queue. Mm-hmm.
01:06:08
Speaker
went really hard on that one and that's it. I mean, I'm glad. One of my favorite cues is Storm Runner at Hershey Park. It's amazing. I know Allison loves it. I didn't type that.
01:06:19
Speaker
That was you, Jen? Oh, I'm sorry. We had a live ah typer on our ah itinerary and I just want to make fun of Storm Runner. Yeah, because this is the one that I thought of and then we we moved on quick enough and I lost it.
01:06:34
Speaker
Because Storm Hershey for the most part doesn't have very many cues that I won't stand in. Their Mine Train, usually won't. It's really muggy and hot and no ventilation in that like shed.
01:06:47
Speaker
on Laugh track before you get in the building is horrendous. but Oh my god. That's a really bad one too. That one's a really bad one too. But I think Storm Runner, when you're going over the track, like when you come up the steps and going over the track, it is so muggy in that section and you can be in there for a really long time.
01:07:07
Speaker
It's muggy, it's loud. That's a really terrible... build like why the walls being so high around you um just makes everything echo and it's just a it's a really badly designed cue the the part outside i don't think it's terrible like you're pretty shaded it's in a good location but it's that part on the steps and then coming over the track it's an awful cue I love the park, but you ranting about that, Hershey's cues suck.
01:07:43
Speaker
Yeah, actually, like, I don't think they're that bad. And then I started to think about it, and I'm like, all of their cues are great. Skyrush, not great. Great Bear, awful. Yeah. Cyanamonium, awful.
01:07:54
Speaker
They're all bad. Yeah. They're all bad. Wildcats. Love park, but... Wildcats Revenge, I will give them the fact that they put in the water fans, which i think they have them in some of the queues, but they always work, and they're always on.
01:08:10
Speaker
Comet. Sorry, i keep ranting. but thomas Oh, my God. um Why can't I not think of the name? Hershey Park. Fairlight. Oh, I said Fahrenheit. Yeah, it's awful. Oh, you did terrible Q for a terrible ride. i Never ride.
01:08:27
Speaker
Honestly, the only Q I really kind of tolerate at Hershey is lightning race because there's never a line for it. There's never a line, yeah Jen and I, I think we're the rare people that kind of crap on Fahrenheit because I also don't like Fahrenheit that much. don't like Fahrenheit either. There we go. Okay. A lot of people are like, oh, yeah, it's so good. I'm like. no I don't mind. it it's It's mid to me.
01:08:47
Speaker
It's one of my least favorite intimates. I think Fahrenheit is the worst intimates. that's That's it. It's at the bottom. So everything else at Hershey, I love it. Hershey, you do amazing things.
01:08:58
Speaker
Fahrenheit? Boo. You suck. There it is. Worst color scheme version. Worst version of the same color scheme that Talon at Dorney Park has. Yeah, exactly. Also that.
01:09:11
Speaker
Worst orange and blue coaster. I don't know what color Fahrenheit is, if it's red or orange. i yeah I don't think anyone cares enough to figure it out, being honest.
01:09:24
Speaker
Yeah, Jen, what do you think of a Talon at Dorney Park's queue?
01:09:29
Speaker
This might be the only bad thing you guys ever hear me say about Tavis. Hey, here we go. um it's It's a bad cue. It's a pretty bad cue. There's no theming. There's, like, no shade.
01:09:42
Speaker
Nothing. No fans blowing. You have to go up those giant thing of steps. The steps wouldn't be that bad if the ops were good. But because the ops aren't very good, you're on those steps for, like, 30 minutes. Yeah.
01:09:56
Speaker
I thought Talon actually did have shade. Am I making that up? No. ah It does not. It's, yeah. Never mind. No shade. The last time I went to Dorney, I got lost in Talon's queue because basically the park was completely dead because there was a ah rainstorm and the rides opened back up like half an hour before park closed.
01:10:16
Speaker
So we I ran to Talon. And like, i was with a group of like couple people. We ran to like the wrong entrance. don't know if it was the fast lane or the exit, but we could not find the entrance to Talon. And so we took, it's like run all the way around and go back in
Funny Theme Park Incident
01:10:30
Speaker
the entrance. It was, it was, it was funny. Yeah. Cause they bring you up a second set, a different set of steps.
01:10:35
Speaker
If you take the wrong entrance. Oh, I have, I have going off of that. I have another nominee for a bad cue, a new Texas giant because of a specific event I went through.
01:10:46
Speaker
So we were trying to get first ride of the day on New Texas Giant. um It was my friend's 200th credit. um And we were like the first people in line. We did like the running of the bulls to get there.
01:10:58
Speaker
And then, you know, we're almost at the front and then there's this employee standing there holding this door open. I don't probably the entrance something like that. We go through it and it like takes us out of the ride queue. Like we have to like put like, you know, and then he closes the game. you have to like, you know, punch on the gate to like have him open it again because he basically deceived us and made us like leave the queue line.
01:11:23
Speaker
So we couldn't even get first ride of the day. And we had to like, you know, ask this guy, get us back in. This is why do you, why do you deceive us like this? don't know. It's funny story, but we we got our ride in. It was, it was good.
01:11:35
Speaker
Yeah. Um, I didn't really bring this one up yet, but this is actually, I think, the biggest downfall to the Disney queues, in my opinion, and...
Critique of Disney Queues
01:11:52
Speaker
Um, the first one that comes to mind when I'm thinking it, ah Haunted Mansion does it too, but the first one that really comes to mind is Guardians of the Galaxy. Um, the way that Disney dumps their pre-shows into these cattle shoots with, like, it's a really bad experience.
01:12:10
Speaker
Um... It's a really, really bad experience. They just dump like 30 to... More than that. It's probably like 50 to 60 people. And put them into a tiny... like It just like cattle shoots into this little like two people wide area.
01:12:28
Speaker
And... That is a terrible queue design. So we're going to give more props to VelociCoaster. I know we've done nothing but good things for VelociCoaster. Building your pre-show into the queue line is so smart.
01:12:42
Speaker
it It allows for so much less anxiety in the queue. No fighting over, like, the amount of people I've seen, like, almost knocked over coming out of that Guardian's queue.
01:12:54
Speaker
it's It is like a free-for-all at that queue Sorry to interrupt, but also like now that it's been open with three years now, everybody, a lot of people have been on it.
01:13:04
Speaker
You get 90% of the room just hugging the right side of the wall and like the actual area is just completely empty because everyone's just pushed against the right because they want to exit yeah it's ridiculous even better when the people just do not care and they push through the doors because i've seen that happen a ton of times it also disables the room i think they have to reset it it like breaks the ride but people will just push the doors open they don't want to wait they'll just push them um it's i just don't understand
01:13:42
Speaker
how they still think it's a good idea to like do the pre-shows are great they're fantastic but you can tell us the story in ah more orderly fashion like Velocicoaster is a perfect example you bring us into the pre-show room and we're still waiting in a line while we're watching that pre-show perfect They probably need to actually put a queue line in both of the shows.
01:14:06
Speaker
and just Yeah. And then sorry everyone goes in order. Exactly. And then when everyone's in, close the door, have the pre-show, and then everyone leaves at the same time. Or the same order that they were in. It's... They got to do something. cause that's ah And the fact that they it's one of their newest attractions that still has a building like that, awful.
01:14:25
Speaker
It's just a terrible experience. No, you couldn't be more right. like the one negative about Guardians. Yeah. It's the... Actually, like, on our last trip, that last... um My second to last ride, that queue door opened, and it was backed up to the point where, like, we barely fit into the room after the pre-show, and I full-on had a panic attack. I had to, like...
01:14:49
Speaker
I was like screaming at them to get me out. Like I didn't even get to ride it. I ended up sitting on a bench outside by myself, like in the little quiet area by guardians. Like I'm like, you cannot. And then you're going to dump more people into here when there's already not room. ah I was like freaking the out.
01:15:06
Speaker
Oh, there it is. Yeah.
01:15:12
Speaker
Oh, it's been a minute since we've had one of those. I was getting really good, guys. I have to keep Allison on her toes. Was that the first one of that ah caliber, um I think, maybe? No. Oh, it wasn't. Oh, okay.
01:15:26
Speaker
Oops.
01:15:30
Speaker
It was a good reason, okay? Very reason, yes. No, absolutely. Please, Disney, stop dumping pre-shows into cattle shoots. It's stupid. That was much better. Thank you, Jen.
01:15:46
Speaker
And I think our last point before we get to our listener comments and questions and holy crap, guys, we get a lot. This is going a long episode. We need this energy for the trivia answers. ah ah So what I mean, we've kind of already addressed a lot of this. What can parks do better in their queue design?
01:16:02
Speaker
I mentioned not letting the station get crowded. um You mentioned, to I think this was you, Allison, the deceiving wait times. Maybe. john I think it was you.
01:16:13
Speaker
The deceiving wait times? I don't know. You know what? I think that is me. Yes, I am. wow I'm not even on painkillers anymore. ah Yes, but like when you let the station get crowded, you deceive the wait times mentally because you're like, and I kind of mentioned this already, like you think you're going to get on five minutes? Nope, you're actually going to wait another 20, 20 minutes.
01:16:35
Speaker
Can't stand that. Having an efficient grouper can be a very good thing. Huge, huge.
01:16:42
Speaker
um oh But like if they're not efficient and like they just completely like don't do what they're supposed to be doing and there's like and entirely empty station and the train comes in, that's not ideal.
01:16:55
Speaker
And I know this is because of the whole money thing, but like with Disney, letting 100 FastPass people go through and then like five regular line people um certainly Like, Tower of Terror is a prime example of this.
01:17:10
Speaker
I waited so long for that thing because there were, like, so many, you know, fast pass people go through. It was just, like, the ratio is, like, way off. and Way more off than it should be. This is gonna pull a different side of that. When did you go?
01:17:24
Speaker
ah end of 2022. Yeah, so, yeah so um We're not going to get too far into this because I have a lot of opinions. um But now that they have completely violated ADA and do not allow accommodations for the majority of people who are disabled to need them, that is not an issue any longer. There are way less people, which limiting it to an extent is okay. But um now that they do not allow anyone to have accommodations, you don't really have that issue any longer.
01:17:59
Speaker
Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. um It still wasn't fun, but for the most part, um it's it's way more what the original like three fast pass ratio was, which is a lot more tolerable.
01:18:14
Speaker
Brings up a good point that I didn't ah remember is when parks can't handle the distribution of fast pass of the normal ah ah normal line. Yeah. um Allison, do you remember our experience at Griffin for the Virginia stumble in 2022? Straight up left the queue, right?
01:18:33
Speaker
No, we waited like an hour, but we were at in the station forever. One, because we were trying to sit together. That was a disaster. But it didn't help that. they were just Whoever showed up at the quick queue, they just let on.
01:18:44
Speaker
There was no, okay, wait for the next ride. Like, oh, you have quick queue? Go on, go on. Like, they were just letting every quick queue person ahead of the regular line. I remember leaving the Griffin line because... Oh, did you leave?
01:18:57
Speaker
Well, there was one where I just like, I think that was the day where it was just like the, it was getting towards the end of my trip and I just kind of hit a wall that day and just didn't want to wait for things. I think was the day. Well, for those that stayed in the Griffin line, it wasn't fun.
01:19:11
Speaker
Yeah. That's what lot of Cedar Fair from my experience does it as well. Like, ah um, especially on like a slower day, they won't man the quick queue lines and they'll just kind of like,
FastPass System Issues
01:19:25
Speaker
kind of like a free for all in and you're just the next one on. I remember Ethan and I had a big, it was and when we did the car, the last weekend at car. Oh my God. That was atrocious. We sat in one spot for half an hour watching the grouper let like everybody else go through except the standby line.
01:19:44
Speaker
And we're sitting here like, we know that it was like running at a reduced capacity because it was on its last leg. But like we were watching all these trains go through and like they've clearly would have emptied out the station by now if they'd let any standby people in.
01:19:58
Speaker
and like that was frustrating the crazy um juxtaposition from that is that like the ops were like really fast that day it's just the the grouper was like i don't know what what was wrong don't know but that that really especially because and and going off of an earlier point you know we didn't have our phones in the line because it was you know lockers so yeah we were just watching trains going by every two three minutes and yeah yeah that's so i was tired after a long day yeah Yeah, one when a park can efficiently manage their quick queue, which like I do think that Disney is one of the ah higher ones there, um it's great. But when they can, it really it really destroys your day if you're not a quick queue user.
01:20:47
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yep.
01:20:50
Speaker
na ah My last note that I put on here is like, I get why Six Flags parks do switchbacks. it's It's a space saver. Just condense everybody into one spot.
01:21:02
Speaker
You can do that in better ways, like more creatively to kind of hide the fact that you're doing switchbacks. um I guess in a way, Big Thunder kind of does this and kind of like breaks up some of the switchbacks, spaces it out a little bit, add some of that interactivity. So you're still going through the switchbacks and like keeping it all condensed, but it can be done so much better than one giant switchback queue house.
01:21:26
Speaker
Yeah. Where everyone's three inches from each other. Yeah. No, very good point. I would agree with that. I also think that switchbacks should just always be wide. Like, there's no reason to have very thin switchback queues, and no one should ever be touching other people in their party because the switchbacks are small. And six bags is... theirs are pretty small.
01:21:49
Speaker
Like, they're a really bad contender for it. um I'm trying to think, like... a queue that there's definitely some queues that do it really well where the switchback Tron when you get on Tron at Disney their switchbacks right before the locker room are like three people wide everyone should just do that if you're gonna do switchbacks
01:22:13
Speaker
I don't you're not saving that much space by making them that much thinner
01:22:24
Speaker
We're very opinionated about key lines, apparently. Yeah, I have a lot of opinions. And so do our fans.
Holiday World Commentary
01:22:32
Speaker
Holy my crap. Oh my goodness! You just see how many of there were?
01:22:38
Speaker
Jen finally scrolled down. I thought it was just like, I was like, wow, there weren't that many. oh ah people have opinions. Yeah, because this will make or break your experience. Like, it truly will.
01:22:56
Speaker
and well Our very first one that I put on here, Hawk Vandele. What a wonderful guest that he was on here. Shout out. I've never seen a more prepared guest on any podcast ever. He was more prepared than any of us.
01:23:11
Speaker
Incredible. um He said my all-time favorite cue is an empty cue. Right on. Not wrong. Not wrong. If Exterminator Kennewid was empty, I'd be cool with it.
01:23:25
Speaker
yeah The, like, ah boost of serotonin you get, is that the right word? Dopamine? Whatever the right. When you see, like, a really good ride, I'm like, oh, my God, it's a walk-on.
01:23:36
Speaker
Yeah. Unmatched. Even better when, like, that's the only time I'm okay with, like, not seeing how nice a cue is. And we just, like, blaze right through it. And then, like, you walk up to an open gate to your seat. And like...
01:23:49
Speaker
ah The best. yeah Honestly, the one ride that I ended up going through, it was a walk on by which I could have like waited longer to see all the theming was good gravy at Holiday World. It was a walk on but like there was so much to say, just like, do I go through? Do I wait? I want I want to get many as I can because it's the Friday Night Lights event.
01:24:10
Speaker
So I was like, no, I'm just going to get on good gravy and i't see the theme in a YouTube video or something.
01:24:19
Speaker
We do get comments about Holiday World. Yeah, we're going to get there for sure. you know ah Cedar Kev, our favorite friend, Cedar Kev, one of our favorites. If he exists, we don't know yet.
01:24:32
Speaker
ah VelociCoaster is my favorite. For me, theming in a queue really adds to the ride experience and also helps to pass the time. We have, of course, talked about a VelociCoaster. Fantastic.
VelociCoaster Queue Experience
01:24:44
Speaker
You know what i haven't... um waited in a while, I think since the very first time he wrote it, is the outdoor queue, even before you get in the building, where you're just pinned up right against the Mosasaurus roll. Yeah. Unbelievable.
01:24:56
Speaker
That kind of makes that extended queue so much better. Yeah, very rarely you're like, ooh, I want to walk through the extended queue, but for like shots, like, oh my god. yeah, that's a perfect spot for photos of the Mosasaurus roll and just that whole area. You can see the top hat from it.
01:25:13
Speaker
Ugh. Yeah, that, I haven't been in that extended queue in so long. I love that extended queue. Things that you would never hear on any other roller coaster. I love that extended queue. Right?
01:25:28
Speaker
Yeah. I remember one time, like, with the original crew, like, before it was even open, i think it was still in technical previews. One time it went down and they cleared the queue and they were like, if you don't want to leave, you don't have to.
01:25:44
Speaker
But they were almost, like, they were inside. Fully inside. And we asked this one write-up and we were just like, can we just, like, sit by the Mosasaurus roll? Like, can we just chill here?
01:25:54
Speaker
And we sent one of our friends for a beer and we just sat right outside of the Mosasaurus roll for, like, over an hour waiting for it to reopen with beers. Yeah. And it was like the best day ever.
01:26:07
Speaker
We just sat there. That is pretty cool. Yeah, that's a moment right there. Yeah, I loved it. I think about it all the time. It was just. It was so good. One other point about the Velocicoaster queue, because that's apparently just the theme of tonight. Well, you know.
01:26:24
Speaker
that well you know um But back when we were there for Velocistumble, I think that was when it was, that was the first time that Megan said, these are my babies in regards to the Raptor animatronics. And I think of Megan every time I go through that queue.
01:26:43
Speaker
Oh, that's amazing. but that That is her baby. don't know. She's on the trip. We're talking about how the Velociraptor is your baby that's in in the cage.
01:26:55
Speaker
i just I have very vivid memory of her. Like, these are my babies. Yes. the they She has claimed them. um I mean, obviously, just the train going by and the raptors on the um the yeah wall is, that's like, the greatest Q effect of all time.
01:27:08
Speaker
It is so good. And just, like, the red warning lights that the launch is about to come. Every room. Every room is amazing. It's so perfect. Anyway, enough about Valsic.
01:27:19
Speaker
Yeah, next we have... also says... Pretty terrible. said lost island has the best combination of great themed cues with no weight it makes me want to take my time getting on the ride um he also says six flags over georgia batman has a sea of switchbacks with metal rails i love watching to see if people weave the whole way through or hop for all pretty terrible yeah so lost Lost Island, ah probably the only park where I'm like, I wish the lines were longer because I want them to succeed.
01:27:52
Speaker
Yeah. It's not really any wait time at all, as you mentioned. I want to say, so and so the the two coasters, the queues aren't anything. Yeah, I'm trying to think. Volcanoe was great.
01:28:04
Speaker
Volcanoe was fantastic. And the Drop Tower also had a little pre-show. Skyborne, Airborne, one of those. Airborne, maybe. Yeah, I forgot. It was definitely themed to Air. So I'm curious if there's going to be a queue for Firerunner. Is that the right name? really hope so. As someone who loves Fire, I'm very excited for Firerunner, and I can't wait to see what they do.
01:28:27
Speaker
Hopefully it's on par with Volcanoe.
01:28:31
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Like kids that skip over switchbacks that are the worst. Yeah. The worst. Usually teenagers. And we know Jen has some some thoughts about teenagers, but maybe that's another podcast.
01:28:43
Speaker
yeah We can have a whole entire podcast with my thought about the teenagers at the parks. Perfect. All right. Next up. So Flight of Taylor.
01:28:54
Speaker
In a very Flight of Taylor fashion, the only response was Fof. I'm sorry, Taylor. I cannot stand the Flight of Fear. Yeah, I agree. It's awful. Oh, I think it's cool. I mean, it's cool. Yeah, walking the ship. That's great.
01:29:07
Speaker
The line doesn't move. And the first area where you're just those switchbacks where you're like outside, but there's the roof over your head. Horrendous. Yeah. I hate it. um so i have That makes me think of another point.
01:29:20
Speaker
Please have proper lighting in your queue. I know there's some where it adds to the theme, but there's some where it's so dark and I've never been on it before and I have no idea where to go. And I'm like literally feeling my way around, like finding the wall, finding like some of the stanchions just to get my way through queue.
01:29:38
Speaker
We have to shout out Alex because the Flight of Fear queue was where we learned that he could twerk. That's that too. I forgot about that. That was incredible. and Anytime I think about that queue now.
01:29:53
Speaker
Kings Island version. That was incredible. I don't want to wait in that queue because I don't want to ride the ride. Yeah, that too. I think it makes it. Oh yeah. I'll also remember but my ride with you and your commentary.
01:30:07
Speaker
Oh my goodness. I thought I was going to be decapitated. Versus that my head was like woof like... I don't understand your love for that ride.
01:30:18
Speaker
You got to get on the King's Dominion one. Yeah. Sorry. I really tried. i really tried. I like the queue a lot. i like the ship. Yeah, that part's cool.
01:30:30
Speaker
But yeah. so That also made me think of ah Adventure Express and how much i actually really like that queue because they put so many Easter eggs into it now. that's good point. They did like the redo of their queue line.
01:30:42
Speaker
Oh. They have like just like the subtle references to like Son of Beast in there. Yeah, the LR. Yeah, Last Ride of the Night on Adventure Express. Yeah, that's good. I feel like King's Island in general has a lot of great Easter eggs in your queues. Like you got Orion, you got Foth, you got- They definitely put in the F-R. All graves of all the old attractions. Yeah, the Son of Beast Grave Zone. Yep.
01:31:04
Speaker
Yeah. That's um the Banshee line, honestly. and And the view of the Zero G role is pretty cool too. um Easter eggs and queues, I also have to call out the Mission Breakout at Disney's California Adventure.
01:31:23
Speaker
That has some pretty cool hidden like Easter eggs in that queue, which makes that queue way more fun. I think the only thing remember about that queue Rocket kind of poking his head up and like sniffing around different things.
01:31:37
Speaker
Yeah, he does that, but also there's like, if you look close enough, there's a figment somewhere. If you look, there's like a Yeti from um Matterhorn. You have to like really look for things in that queue, but there are a lot of um little Easter eggs for Disney things.
01:31:55
Speaker
Like past Disney attractions and things. This is the time in the episode where I just can't believe that I've never been to Disneyland.
01:32:04
Speaker
The Disney fan and rollercoaster fan in me. And it's also just like the best park in the world. I've never been to Japan, but Disneyland is my favorite Disney park. It really has like everything you want at Disney park.
01:32:17
Speaker
I totally recommend it. The fact that you've been to Japan Disneyland, but not... And Paris. And Paris. Yeah. To me, like that I don't think... And I haven't been to Tokyo or Paris yet.
01:32:33
Speaker
Yet. To me, just like nothing beats the charm of the original Disneyland. like It's completely and utterly unmatched. I'll definitely tear up walking down Main Street. Just, you know, the...
01:32:44
Speaker
the Walt Disney history buff that I am. Yeah, you're going to tear up. You're going to tear up as you walk in and then you're going to turn into that. e Where's the castle? Yeah, that little. I've been to many golf courses with bigger casts.
01:33:01
Speaker
I was crying and then instantly turned that corner and I was like, and just start cracking up. I was like, this is not real life. It's a little bitty baby castle.
01:33:14
Speaker
All right, we got C. Pred. We've already commented on this one, but let's bring it up again. One of the longest queue lines at Zadra, unless the magic gate is open. i Yeah.
01:33:26
Speaker
Whenever I go, um you know, probably years from now, I'm excited to see what the magic gate is all about.
01:33:33
Speaker
The music is really good in the line. I love the soundtrack on the line. And you have plenty of time to listen to it when you're walking through. Excited to find out one day.
01:33:45
Speaker
Give our plaque some love. Yes, for sure. Oh, this is a... The next one's a good one. um We have Whiskey Nick. He said, early days of Magnum was a hot, sun-filled queue.
01:33:59
Speaker
Disaster transport was top-notch. Revenge of the Mummy is always good. Cobra's Curse, Copperhead Strike, Twisted timber have um Timbers have fun storyline queues.
01:34:12
Speaker
Building the story in a queue is huge. you can There's so much time for you to build a story. Yeah, Revenge of the Mummy. I don't know how I didn't bring that up or any of us didn't bring that up. It's unbelievable.
01:34:23
Speaker
It's literally like a museum. Yeah, that that's very cool. I'm really glad someone brought up Disaster Transport because... know nothing about that at all.
01:34:34
Speaker
So ah Would probably say that, except whenever I talk about my like original, before I was like a coaster enthusiast, when I would talk about my original Cedar Point trip, when the great blackout happened and I was in a queue and everything, and I i always would say, like i remember this queue And it was really, really dark.
01:34:58
Speaker
And it had all of these fluorescent lights. And it was like stars and planets and everything. I think it says a ton about that ride. But the moment that I talked to people about it, like now I know what the ride is.
01:35:11
Speaker
But there were like 10 people where I started, like I told that story. And instantly they're like, that's disaster transport. And I think it says a ton about that queue that I could like, I was six.
01:35:27
Speaker
So this is what I remember from my six year old self. And I remember that cue enough that people are able to just like, bam, disaster transport. That's it. Like says a lot about that cue.
01:35:40
Speaker
Honestly, I'm glad that um he brought up Cobra's Curse as well. yeah um The pre-show is really good. It does kind of suck that the ops are so slow that you have to watch that pre-show like five times while you're in that room.
01:35:52
Speaker
But yeah, it's, it's, it's really cool animation in my opinion. um yeah For, especially for like, you know, considering it's not Disney universal, it's SeaWorld. But yeah, I like Cobra's Curse Q a lot.
01:36:05
Speaker
Yeah. I think, I agree. i think my own only thing with that, though, is I don't even remember the last time that queue was on.
01:36:16
Speaker
I've never seen it. I think I've seen it. When it's on, it's incredible. But I think like i think maybe my first time I went, it was turned on. And other than that, maybe one other time. And I've been I've been there like at least 60 times.
01:36:34
Speaker
over the past three or four years. um But I agree. when that When that pre-show is on, that's one of the coolest cues.
01:36:42
Speaker
In copyright strike, Twisted Timbers, it's where, I mean, yeah I think you have to have a different mindset where you're not used to theme in the Six Flags, the old Cedar Fair parks. So when they try, you appreciate it So both of those definitely try, but in the grand scheme of like all parks, it's still not like, holy crap, this is amazing.
01:37:05
Speaker
Right. Yeah. I'm trying to think Twisted Timbers, other than like the tree. what Do they have anything, Amy? Yeah, they have like apple or... like They have like um crates of apples on an old truck. yeah, that's good.
01:37:17
Speaker
Yeah. It's very similar to, I think, Mystic, where they have like that truck out front, and they have like the security cameras of the forest. Yeah. So nothing crazy like nothing too crazy, but at least they're trying.
01:37:33
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. You definitely appreciate it. It's better than just plunking a fun TV in the middle of the wine and calling that entertainment. yeah Looney Tunes trivia. Yay. Not the Looney Tunes trivia.
01:37:48
Speaker
Oh boy, here we go. You want to read it, Allison? here What's up? You want to read the next one, Allison? I mean, we can divide it up. There's like... That's true. So our friend Eric with a K, he did multiple tweet responses to us or X posts, whatever they are.
01:38:05
Speaker
um Said, i love a queue where you can watch the coaster zooming around you. I'd rather watch the ride in action than look at some stupid artifacts or something on the walls. Artifacts, I think, have their moments, but I do agree.
01:38:17
Speaker
Watching coaster around you, on especially the nerds that we are. We will sit and just stare and watch it go by every single time. Try to find new photography angles.
01:38:29
Speaker
I would wave like no other. Like I would have no energy by the end of the day.
01:38:35
Speaker
I mean, we mentioned Millennium Force. That aspect. I mean, and and anytime you can like see the the drop from the queue is really cool. Obviously we said the Mosasaurus roll and the extended queue. Yeah. Very, very good point there.
01:38:48
Speaker
Also like the first drop of Steel Vengeance. Yes. Yeah. looking up and seeing it That's really definitely definitely helps when you're like creating content where you're you're saving time. Basically, you don't have to, you know, you don't have to go outside the ride and waste, you know, 30 minutes trying to get good shots.
01:39:05
Speaker
It's kind of killing two birds with one stone. We can do it right in queue.
01:39:10
Speaker
Then this, so this I think is his most interesting point. So this may be a hot take, but I tend to hate queues where I can't see the end of the line. It's so disheartening to wait in one room or hallway, get to the end, only to find more queue waiting for you.
01:39:23
Speaker
Even if you're familiar, I hate not being able to see what's going on if the line stops moving. Was there a breakdown? Are they sending test trains? Did someone throw up? Did someone die? Who knows? So this is a fantastic point because I do think there's some pros and cons to it.
01:39:41
Speaker
I feel like if you don't want to switch back, it's going to be this style where it's immersive, but you don't know when it's going to end.
01:39:53
Speaker
And unfortunately, you can't always trust the posted wait time either. Especially like you said, if it just stops randomly, you don't know what's happening.
Hagrid's Adventure Queue
01:40:02
Speaker
So in my first ever time waiting for Hagrid's, and I think this is the one that I, one of the better examples for this point is Hagrid's queue just keeps going on and on and on. You have no idea when it's going to end.
01:40:13
Speaker
And as much as I did enjoy all the different rooms, I, there was a point in me that's like, Oh my God, I just want to ride this thing. And I'm like, okay, the next room is going to be the station.
01:40:26
Speaker
And then it's not. And then, yeah know there's probably two or three other rooms before we finally get to the station. So I both get that, but I also think it's hard to truly theme a queue without doing this.
01:40:40
Speaker
There's definitely a balance in there. Yeah, I think that's the key balance. So I also do have to bring up that Joey texted me and was like, I need you to bring this up on the podcast. And then I saw this question because it was like his biggest pet peeve.
01:40:55
Speaker
I feel like the worst examples of this is Hagrid's the rooms don't bother me as much as the endless hallways with nothing going on.
01:41:08
Speaker
The caves. The caves where you just turn and turn and turn and turn. Those... I get like... I just get so worked up over those. And the same with rise the Rise of the Resistance. Like the same exact room with two switchbacks over and over and over again.
01:41:31
Speaker
yeah That's one I can't stand not being able to see. um Avatar is has a lot of rooms too. That one just goes on forever. Yeah.
01:41:43
Speaker
Yeah. I'm like, when am I going to get to the actual red? Especially when it's your first time on it and you have no idea how long that queue is. Yeah, that one really does just go on forever as well.
Need for Shaded Queues
01:41:58
Speaker
Yeah, this is a really good point. This is... It's definitely hot take. I think it's just, it's it's a good... I honestly agree with it. with Especially with the last part saying, you know, not me able see what's going on at the front of the line. Like,
01:42:11
Speaker
why are there no trains moving? Like, that's honestly, like, I totally agree with that. Yeah, no, for sure.
01:42:18
Speaker
but Jenny, you want to leave, read the last part? Well, I can. um As someone, as someone who's had melanoma, it really bugs me that Cedar Point and many other parks just leave giant sections of queue completely uncovered.
01:42:34
Speaker
Like, how much can it possibly cost to throw up a simple stage structure? And I have no choice but to stand out there. Preaching the choir there. I find it funny that he said at Cedar Point like he was tacking the part.
01:42:47
Speaker
He might have in the in the tweet. He shared a post that he had done before. eff He shared a previous post as a response to it. Throwing a bit of shade at Cedar Point. No pun intended.
01:43:00
Speaker
That's actually good. No, that's and it is like, ah Brian brought this up. It's a it's a safety concern. It's a health concern. There's so many skin cancers like sunburn, sun burn some poisoning. I can't tell you the number of times that I walked out of ah ah park with sun poisoning, even after reapplying sunscreen, just because I have really light and fair skin.
01:43:19
Speaker
And I'm not the only one. I'm sure you guys have walked out with really bad sunscreen as well or sunscreen sunburn as well. It's definitely... how like How expensive is it? Just put up like a tent. like yeah It's not cheap.
01:43:34
Speaker
I mean, it's not expensive at all. Maybe it's not cheap for me. I mean, but... or Or just do what a holiday world would do and add free sunscreen in the queues.
01:43:45
Speaker
yeah Yeah. But even that, even when I reapply my sunscreen, like, a ton, like, I manage to not burn my body or I'm wearing stuff that's covering. My scalp, and Allison, I feel like you will get this.
01:43:58
Speaker
I can sunscreen my scalp, but you can only sunscreen your scalp when you have, like, with your hair so many times before it just, like, gets stuck in your hair and built up.
01:44:08
Speaker
i I... get like I get sunburned down my part in my hair so bad. It's like... And sometimes I try to wear a hat, but it's like, I can't wear a hat every day.
01:44:23
Speaker
It's also 100 degrees. You want me to cover my head? Also, like you're dehydrating people but before riding a roller coaster. yeah not great yeah Not great.
01:44:34
Speaker
It's just like, it makes no sense. Water fountains and queues are great. And it makes the wait feel so much longer. Like if you're roasting um in a queue, people are going to be more angry and they're going to feel like they waited so much longer.
01:44:52
Speaker
and it could literally take you out a commission for the the rest of the day sometimes. Yeah.
01:45:01
Speaker
Next one. Some guy named Mullet. say Cues that go alongside a launch are chef's kiss. Yes, no, for sure. The one example that I can think of probably because I'm pretty sure I have you on the launch and mullet ah full throttle.
01:45:19
Speaker
Yeah. Magic. la yeah that Really good pictures of us. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's that's one example I can think of. I'm sure there's many others. um The fire, which was the picture I posted for the call for comments and questions, whatever.
01:45:35
Speaker
trying to think of others. I know one that y'all have talked about probably 10 times already. Blosscoaster. Not by the launch. It's... Oh, I guess a lot of times.
01:45:48
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that's true. And you're seeing the train go by the second launch. Honestly, it's kind of weird, though. like When you're looking at it, it almost looks artificial. like It doesn't look like there's like real people on a train that's going by so fast.
01:46:02
Speaker
I questioned if it was fake for a while. think lot of people question if it's fake. It definitely... It's interesting. Also, like, Skyrocket at Kennywood. Like, i know every i've I've gone to that park with Thuzies plenty of times, and whenever we are almost at the station on the stairs, there's always phones just filming through the fence lines, just filming the raggulms at launch.
01:46:27
Speaker
That's, like, the Thuzies shot. Yeah. Oh, and Rockin' Roller Coaster does this really well, too. I completely forgot about it. You're, like, right next to that launch. Which one? Rockin' Roller Coaster.
01:46:38
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yep yeah, yeah. think Max Force, you kind of get a good shot of the queue little bit. don't know. Maybe that's just the station. I forgot. Yeah, I mean, you can hear it before you see it, usually. You can hear it from the other side of the park.
01:46:55
Speaker
and next up, we have Kyle Boggs as best expedition ever. So much detail that immerses you in the ride experience and setting. ah Almost makes me wish for the line. Almost. I'm not there yet.
01:47:06
Speaker
ah and We kind of harped on that. Same with the worst part. He mentioned any cattle pen cue where the coaster's on one train. Oh, my God. It's on one train. That is hell. ah I like I would if the line is continuously moving, it's a little more tolerable. But when you're just like stopped for five to ten minutes at a time, nothing worse, nothing worse.
01:47:31
Speaker
Kyle also mentions theming in detail key for larger parks to keep guests engaged ah for small parks. They might not have the budget. Guest comfort should be a priority. Absolutely. Shades and fans. Yeah. Fans are also very important ah to keep guests cool in the hot summer months and efficient ops to keep lines moving.
01:47:50
Speaker
That is actually a good point about budget. Not every park is going to have the budget for this immersive theming. No. They can still do what they can. Like you said, for guest comfort, that's priority.
01:48:01
Speaker
Yep. the I like that they brought up Ops, and I think a really, really great park to look at is SeaWorld Orlando.
01:48:13
Speaker
um Because if you look ah Manta, if you look at... And i I understand that ride means a little bit longer to dispatch, um but Kraken, Pipeline, Icebreaker, any of those rides...
01:48:27
Speaker
Those Qs could have the same amount of people Mako and makeo and be like quadruple the weight just because their ops aren't really moving and they don't really have it's just kind of a chill station where almost always the Mako crew is just like we're here to keep things moving and get things done that Mako crew does not play around and that's a huge thing if you don't have the budget or um the ability to enjoy
01:48:58
Speaker
add theming or dimension into your queue, making sure your ops are on point to get the people out of the queue as quickly as possible, I think is so important.
01:49:09
Speaker
Could I agree more? And we're on track. I know i'm not the time guy, but I'm on track for longest episode. No, think our longest episode was the ah Europe recap.
01:49:20
Speaker
um maybe um I would have to look.
01:49:25
Speaker
right, Jen, I think you're up after Kyle. I was. Sorry, I muted for a second. Ahsoka is crying. on CoasterRider1 said, currently Symbolica's indoor queue and the queue of Fly are the best I've seen.
01:49:41
Speaker
I'll be honest, I've heard of the name Symbolica. I do not know what it is. Alton Towers? No, it's Alton Towers. I've not been there, but I think that's Efteling's Dark Ride. So let's not talk about it. Because I may be going there, you know.
01:49:57
Speaker
in the next 10 years. Oh, Galactica. Yeah, it's at Efteling.
01:50:03
Speaker
ah trust you. I'm excited. And I'm sure Fly is amazing. Yes, it is. Yeah, just thinking about the area that Fly is in, I'm sure is amazing.
01:50:15
Speaker
Mark from a the Drunk Riders said, a covered queue makes such a big difference. Oh, yes. As we have said.
01:50:26
Speaker
Yeah. It's true, though. and um Honestly, I did not look at any of these questions beforehand or these comments beforehand. And a lot of it is just harping on what we've already said. So right on, guys.
01:50:39
Speaker
I'm glad we all agree. Yes. Because Matt says the best thing parks can do is build high capacity rides. I mean, that that goes without saying for cues for sure.
01:50:51
Speaker
Yeah, just build high-capacity rides and have good ops. The good ops is an important part there. Who cares about a high-capacity ride if it's not operating at the capacity? Going off high-capacity, I'm very curious to see how Stardust Racer's queue moves, considering there's going to be so many trains on each track.
Efficient Ride Operations
01:51:11
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
01:51:12
Speaker
Can't wait to see. I wonder if he'll move faster than Vloss. Vloss Coaster, I feel like, is like the gold standard for how fast a a line can move. I'm very curious to see if Stardust Racers can top it. Voltron's up there, too.
01:51:25
Speaker
Yeah, i think Voltron, for me, is like the fastest Q I've seen. There's the one guy, though, that's not great, right? and What's that? There's the one guy, Voltron, that, like, things all the time.
01:51:38
Speaker
no Yeah, he's Dutch. That's jerk. Yeah, watch out for the Dutch ride-off, guys. um Next, we have Hopaman.
01:51:50
Speaker
um They say Hopaman. Hopaman, sorry. um Just about any Disney World Universal queue line. Yep. Worst.
01:52:00
Speaker
Yeah, pretty much. Worst is Maverick. The way it's set up makes it seem like it's not a bad line, but once you're up the ramp and see the covered area, it's always packed.
01:52:13
Speaker
It's a good point. Maverick's Q ain't great. It moves very slow. That's probably the one gripe I have with it. See, i I think that it's ah one of the better ones because it's so shaded.
01:52:25
Speaker
yeah and We have been giving Park's crap for not being shaded. That is true. Yeah, it's still pretty hot in there, but they usually have fans on and it' it's shaded. So to me, is it perfect?
01:52:38
Speaker
Definitely not, but I definitely think it's one of the better at Cedar Point. You also can't see any of the ride in the Maverick queue. Yeah.
01:52:49
Speaker
I think what's the best Cedar Point queue?
01:52:53
Speaker
Is it Millennium?
01:52:57
Speaker
I mean, kind of thing i mean i see but like Maverick is like ah the only one that's fully in the shade, at least once you're in the indoor part of it, honestly. like it's But with the slow line too, I don't know.
01:53:11
Speaker
Probably Millennium.
01:53:16
Speaker
Yeah, none of them are really great, honestly. Yeah, they're very average. Yeah. All right, Ethan, you can talk on the next question if you want to read that one. All right Billy says, for how cute, I guess, of the part yeah how they said how cue how cute of a park it is, Holiday World needs better queues and theming so bad.
Pantheon Queue Critique
01:53:36
Speaker
Yeah, I agree with that. yes um But the good thing is they just got a coaster with you know a good queue, which is good gravy. I'm very excited to check that out one day. Um, yeah.
01:53:47
Speaker
Like imagine like if voyage had like twice the width in that queue line, especially during Hollywood nights in the basement queue. So let's bring up a certain year. It's the only year I've done Hollywood nights, 2021. That was the, before they cut the, you know, uh, attendance of the event that ERT and that weight in that basement,
01:54:14
Speaker
Maybe a top 10 most miserable hour of my life. um The VO o and the sweat was real.
01:54:27
Speaker
And then on top of that, you had all of these Thusies. And I say that as in this ah case as a negative connotation. Chanting the names of roller coasters.
01:54:40
Speaker
Any roller coaster they could think of. For like a half hour. It was just pure misery. That sounds awful. It was so awful. It was not ERT because there was so many people there.
01:54:57
Speaker
It was like over an hour away. um that's I mean, I know it's ah better now and then maybe one day I'll experience like a proper Hollywood nights. I had a great time, don't get me wrong. was like the first time I met people ever.
01:55:11
Speaker
But that one... That one hour was just, good lord.
01:55:17
Speaker
that Enthusiast hell.
01:55:22
Speaker
Yeah, Holiday World needs a better cues. I'm glad Good Gravy is ah improving on that. Good Gravy step in the right direction. yeah you know yeah Also, Raven's cue is atrocious to wait in as well.
01:55:34
Speaker
Especially with how slow the ops are on that thing. Yeah, that's another one that could be improved. um We talked about... a bunch of wooden coasters now and actually shocked none of us mentioned this but you know something I really do love about a queue that I don't see very like it's not super common but it's like the flybys the only coasters I know to do it are wooden coasters but like Thunderhead where you're waiting in the queue and the train like
01:56:09
Speaker
through the queue area. yeah So good. so much fun. I know a steel coaster that does it. I know you've written it. Let's go.
01:56:20
Speaker
Oh, does let coaster do it? ah does It does a roll through the station. I didn't know that. Wow. think Phonix that does that too, I think. I think so. I didn't know that.
01:56:32
Speaker
I didn't know of any steel coasters that did it. um I could only think of Thunderhead and Woden. Well, I haven't ridden any of those steel coasters that do it. um Actually, there might be one I end up going on later this year.
01:56:45
Speaker
Doesn't the a new coaster Emerald Park have have a station flyby? don't even know. We don't know. know it may It may or may not. I'll have to see when I go there in a couple months.
01:56:56
Speaker
yeah Can't wait. I feel like it's not something I think about very often, but I'm always happy to see it. like I have never had that happen and not been super hyped. I'm like waving and Yeah. so very easily You kind of forget about it and it just scares the crap out of you.
01:57:13
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
01:57:15
Speaker
Yeah. All right. So Brambo had a lot to say and so he straight up messaged me instead of doing ah responses on Instagram. um Started off said Helix is such a labyrinth and you can never figure out which part of the queue is next.
01:57:31
Speaker
I will see that firsthand this summer. All I know about Helix is the soundtrack, because it's on my on-repeat playlist right now. um But we'll see how that goes.
01:57:44
Speaker
said, ah worst off the top of my head immediately is Pantheon. Just sad that there's essentially no theming. but The theming they do have is the cheap stick-on decals, which had been vandalized to blank.
01:57:54
Speaker
within the one season sho I was hoping you would slip there. No, I'm better than that. Sorry, Jen. I felt like a huge insult to Jen right there. I felt bad about that the second I said it.
01:58:05
Speaker
It's okay. ah Literally just wooden walls and netting on top, which provides no sunshade, no air movement at all, so it's hot AF when you have to wait in line. That time he actually said hot AF.
01:58:16
Speaker
They didn't even add misters. yeah i'm um I'm shocked Brambo's criticizing anything about Pantheon. Ugh. But ah yeah, no, that could not be more true. Pantheon's theming is now infamously just everyone knows how bad it is.
01:58:32
Speaker
um like Especially the the decals that he mentions that people sit and peel off. I work in that industry. They're so easy to just reprint and do it again. It's cheap as anything to do.
01:58:45
Speaker
Granted, that's not the best solution because it's already cheap to begin with, but you can do so much better for not super expensive. How do you go from Verbolton to that?
01:58:58
Speaker
Funny you should mention because he has a second part. Busch Gardens Williamsburg as a whole applies to a park that could do better. ah They used to do so well with theming, but have really dropped the ball in more recent additions. Verbolten, while still a great queue, it did used to have so many more things working within the queue, such as the audio and the video screens with themed scenes playing.
01:59:17
Speaker
He feels like he hasn't seen those on in years. I think I second that opinion. I don't think. think my first time on Verbolten, I remember there being a lot more going on. I didn't even know that happened. So like, as I said, i had always been with my service animal or straight walkthrough. So I didn't even know that.
01:59:37
Speaker
So I would imagine, yeah, feels like it goes downhill if you lose those. i mean, I do go to give them a shout out because they did dress up Blockmas and it is was really, really well done.
01:59:49
Speaker
um While the ride is underwhelming for me, I do like the queue of Dark Coaster. Um, obviously a lot of that was left over from the old ride, but i think they did a pretty good job at that. Uh, but yeah, Griffin, not a good queue. Apollo, not a good queue.
02:00:06
Speaker
Um, Alpengeist, not a great queue. Town of the Alps. Oh, but they Plaza for queue itself might not be really good, but I consider that Plaza part of that ride. And I think they do a really good job there. Like the locker system. This for Alpengeist?
02:00:24
Speaker
Yeah. No, it's true. and It is shaded. But that's another one that I've never been in the queue. So I can't speak for actually walking into the queue. But the entry point seems like it has really good theming. So I am shocked that it falls off.
02:00:41
Speaker
I think every queue at Busch Gardens is shaded. Except maybe Pantheon. ah but
02:00:48
Speaker
So... Your Bolton reminded me of one other like big negative I have for some lines is when there's like a lot of yellow jackets in the line. o I no it's not freak out. like I do not like bees of any kind or yellow jackets. And this was really bad in a lot of European parks, actually, during the summer.
02:01:09
Speaker
i remember River Quest at Fantasio Land. There were so many bees outside, and it just ruined that experience for me. Oh, yeah. I would freak out. I do not like all these bees.
02:01:20
Speaker
hate them and so like when there's like one it's like just go away whatever but like when there's a lot of them and you're trying to avoid them it is not fun no it's an easy fix just get rid of them anyway jen i think the next one's for you the next one is for me oh this is this is a good one laro xl200 said best cue is velocique with a velocibeer and velocifriends yes um And worst cue is Steel than Vengeance, the vibes are off, or any cue without shade or air conditioning.
02:01:57
Speaker
Yes, Veloci-Cue with Velocibeer and I've actually never had the Velocibeer. The Velocibeer so good. no I'll get a hot butter beer and then get in line for VelociCoaster.
02:02:11
Speaker
No, you need a Velocibeer. The Island New Blark. It's not in the summer. It could be the middle of summer and I will take my hot butter beer.
02:02:22
Speaker
The Island Nublar IPA. i don't drink IPAs. I think my cheap ass was, I can say that, ah would rather donate the $18, however much the beer is, to like a park ticket somewhere. like So the beer isn't like, Universal and Disney, when it comes to an actual price of a beer, is better than most parks.
02:02:44
Speaker
It's only 10 to 11 for a beer. Okay, yeah, that's pretty standard for a leica. It's like, if you're drinking beer at those two parks, it's very doable. It's not like Six s Flags where it's 20 plus for a beer. Unbelievable.
02:02:58
Speaker
But... the island nublar ipa is the ipa that got me into beer um it's like very citrusy heavy like grapefruit taste oh oh my gosh i love it think my issue is i i just can't drink when it's hot out yeah like my but my body can't take it anymore it needs to be like 75 or under if i'm ever gonna think about drinking The last time I was at Orlando with Laurel, I actually made her get a Velocibeer just so I could have a sip of it.
02:03:27
Speaker
I was like, I can have a single sip of Velocibeer. Like, that will be fine. I was like, I need you to get that. Love it. Sorry, I'm really excited. This is officially now our longest episode yet. There we go.
02:03:40
Speaker
we we have five more. Five more. We got Tim. Six Flags kind of went hard with the original Batman. I think he's talking about Batman the Ride. I do like they have that like tunnel thing that you go in.
02:03:54
Speaker
That's kind of cool, especially for you know rides that came out back in the 90s. Yeah, they put a little bit of effort into the Batman movies. Yeah, it definitely could be worse.
02:04:05
Speaker
I think Grey America in general has some solid queues. Compared to like other Six Flags parks, I feel like they do a pretty good job.
02:04:15
Speaker
don't know if y'all can hear the cat in the background. I did actually hear that. is in the other room meowing like crazy right now. Is this Nemi's first appearance on the podcast? It might be. Oh my god, did Nemi make an appearance before Ahsoka?
02:04:29
Speaker
No, Ahsoka's easily been on the podcast before. Oh no, I mean today. This episode, yes. Luckily I was muted when we first started because right as the music ended Ahsoka was just screaming.
02:04:40
Speaker
Just wanted to put her say in. Yeah.
02:04:47
Speaker
Sorry. What? Brothers in Black Row said, Best line, worst payoff is Fast and the Furious. Love the live actors and cars. Booty ride. Yes. I can agree to that.
02:04:58
Speaker
I never did Fast and the Furious. Ever. It's not good. Because everyone's like, don't ride it. Don't ride it. It's dumb. so good. It is so good. It's like one of those, it's so bad, you can't help but laugh at it.
02:05:10
Speaker
It is so bad. It's my favorite ride. Go ahead. go ahead and No, go ahead, Ethan. I think I saw the Coaster Studios video when he did the, like, riding all of the bad Universal rides, and Fast and Furious was one of them.
02:05:26
Speaker
And the pre-show, like, there was, like, a person at the control desk, and she was, like, commenting along with it. That goes along the point of, like, you know employees who make the queue line better. um But then, like, and then, don't know if it was Sarah or something that, but she said, like, that was, like, the best part of the ride. Because, like,
02:05:45
Speaker
The whole Ryan general was a disaster. It also makes me think of a run to the other. I was before disaster studios. um ah It makes me think of a shoot. um Rock and roller coaster.
02:05:57
Speaker
How about some free passes? Whatever that I mean, that shows just iconic. Yeah. You know, Aerosmith in there in there like 40s when they're, you know, old men now. but so Just the employees who like have that one line to interact with the pre-recorded free show.
02:06:12
Speaker
One these episodes, and this is such a tangent, I want to talk about my idea for a Taylor Swift roller coaster that will never replace it now that they're having Muppets, but i I've come up with the greatest roller coaster of all time.
02:06:26
Speaker
Let's just
Fast & Furious Queue Criticism
02:06:27
Speaker
say that. Do need a Taylor Swift episode? Yes. Ouch. We said NSYNC. Very quickly. like Making a note of it though. question Taylor Swift episode question mark?
02:06:40
Speaker
Yes. I mean our 13th episode is in two episodes. or saying Maybe our 22nd episode. Yeah we need a Taylor Swift number. on I think though you guys are wrong. Fast and the Furious ride is so good.
02:06:55
Speaker
So good. i The one in 2026 will be good. That's sure. yeah I truly love that ride. Like, a i the one thing I will say about it is, like, I laugh harder than I think I laugh on any ride.
02:07:09
Speaker
Like, ever. I laugh the entire time. It's The graphics are so bad.
02:07:19
Speaker
is so funny. i love it.
02:07:24
Speaker
I just remember it as Earthquake. That's what old I am. Yeah, no. I've only been going a Universal since it's been Fast and Furious, and I love it.
02:07:34
Speaker
I think it's so good. Also, random tangent, not me checking Twitter while we're recording, like the ah fantastic co-host that I am. um Taylor just tweeted that um Silver Bullet has a two-hour line currently.
02:07:50
Speaker
Silver Bullet? Oh, God. He said not worth the two-hour line it currently has. Silver Bullet where? Not... don' Don't remind me of Knott's after when I went through with that part. Yeah, but I don't know how we haven't brought up Knott's and they're usually not great with lines at all.
02:08:07
Speaker
I've heard some bad things. Well, I mean, I've been to Knott's. The Ghost Rider's awful. I was going say, I've heard some stories about the Ghost Rider queue.
02:08:16
Speaker
um You guys can't mention Silver Bullet without me saying that Silver Bullet at Frontier City is like one of the best rides ever. heard Diamondbacks closed for the year.
02:08:28
Speaker
It's not great. Oh, wait, really? that That's actually... Not Kings Island. I think I read that. Whoa, sad. That ride was so much fun. Best roller coaster in the park.
02:08:39
Speaker
Anyway, Jackson loves roller coasters. Favorite. Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout. The worst. Steel Vengeance. That lion moves so slow.
02:08:51
Speaker
That's a good one. Never been to Disneyland. Didn't know about that queue. And then, obviously, we've talked about Steel Vengeance quite a bit. Yeah. Honestly, I forgot about the mission breakout queue because I was just focused on how it would compare to Tower of Terror.
02:09:03
Speaker
yeah Just the ride itself.
02:09:07
Speaker
But it was I thought it was a good queue. It was based on what I remembered. Yeah, I like that queue a lot. There's just so much to look at.
02:09:19
Speaker
And Evan said, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey has the best queue. I know we talked about that one before as well. And then I love Good Gravy's queue so much that I don't even need to ride the coaster. It's very cute.
02:09:32
Speaker
I'm very, yeah, I've seen like pictures. I've tried to, any new ride that there's something cool, I try to avoid like videos from it. So I've seen a little bit of Good Gravy, but I'm i'm excited to fully check it out.
02:09:46
Speaker
And then um Alex, is that is that our Alex? Yeah. He wrote kind of a book. I think he said this in kind of last minute because it's the last one. I find it funny because he writes a lot, but there is not literally not one point he made that we haven't talked about yet.
02:10:03
Speaker
I will say he did not. he wasn't like and He wasn't the last one to get it in. It was just in my DMs. Oh, okay. Yeah. So here we go. Single Rider Lines. Check. Rise the Resistance. Check. Forbidden Journey. Check. Gringotts. Velocicoaster.
02:10:16
Speaker
Good Gravy. Flight of Passage. All covered. The Worst. Voyage Basement. Check. Millennium Force. o If you have to wait in all the cattle pens, it sucks. oh yeah yeah It's only good from that like ramp on.
02:10:31
Speaker
Yeah, i was just it was just funny how we kind of thought that. I bet i bet this person probably hates spiders as well. That's probably another reason why. don't know if Alex hates spiders. He probably doesn't like them. Who does? don't know. Alex, let us know. Alex, why don't you send us a video of you twerking?
02:10:48
Speaker
i have as we talked i have video when we had our Coaster Studios Patreon meet up at Epcot ah after after some drinks. i I do have video of Alex twerking.
02:11:01
Speaker
We need your explanation of why it's the worst cue while you twerk for us. Thanks. How to improve less cattle pins, interactive elements that are engaging, adequate shade and climate control, provide hydration for free, make spaces feel more open and make line cutting policies clear and enforce them. Alex, have you been listening to the podcast?
02:11:22
Speaker
We've talked about all of this. Have you been listening to this episode that has not posted yet? We can make fun of Alex. If you've been on the show, you we can make fun of you forever. so yeah Note to Ethan. We have to make fun of you forever. Alright, I'm watching. I'm watching.
02:11:36
Speaker
um We made it through the listener comments. Oh my god. made it through the comments, but it also one of these reminded me of one that again, I don't know how this one wasn't brought up in the whole entire episode. um Millennium Falcon Smuggler's run Like, it has a lot of the points we talked about as good queues. That's one... it has Easter eggs.
02:11:58
Speaker
it You can't see the end of the queue. It doesn't have a lot of tattle pins. it Like, it has every single thing I think that we said is a plus in a queue.
02:12:11
Speaker
It's just a shame that you get on Smuggler's Run at the end. I haven't been on Smuggles Run. i I also have a bonus edition where we talked about Hansa. Navgarad.
02:12:22
Speaker
didn't talk about... Yeah. Navgarad is amazing because you've got different rooms as well. You've got that effect where you stick your hand in and then like the guillotine like comes down. i legitimately remember absolutely nothing about that kid.
02:12:35
Speaker
You exit on a slide. Yeah, there was And I broke my Coaster 365 friendship bracelet that Kelly made me. I'm sorry. Sliding down that slide. It went everywhere.
02:12:46
Speaker
Yeah. And then there was a maze. But then after the slide, there's a maze. I remember the maze. But yeah, that was like the very last coaster I rode on that entire trip. And I was just mentally done. And now we're at lit. Yeah, that cute...
02:13:02
Speaker
That ride was incredible. Like, as a whole. But the queue. That's one of the most underrated roller coasters in Europe. Nobody talks about it and it's phenomenal. Yeah. it's the I wouldn't even put my hand under the guillotine effect. I was, like, scared.
02:13:18
Speaker
um since it was pretty terrifying. Nessie? Because, like, air blows out too. Nessie. it's like and It's like walking into a medieval castle. It was really pretty. I love Nessie. Everything about Nessie.
02:13:30
Speaker
We have a lot of coasters we could talk about on this, but we are ah two hours and 15 minutes in. yeah And I'm going to ask a quick trick question before we go. This has nothing to do with roller coasters. Again, has everything to do with re-listening our podcast with Nathaniel and a Coaster Madness recap.
02:13:47
Speaker
ah If you guys want to look at the matchups again. You're going to re-listen to the show. Sometimes I like doing this. I did a whole video when I ranked Cedar Fair Parks where I tried to mention as many Tortured Poets songs from Taylor Swift as I could, as naturally as I could.
02:14:03
Speaker
I decided to do it last episode with Sabrina Carpenter songs.
Easter Eggs in Queues
02:14:08
Speaker
I mentioned you probably didn't notice a whole ton of Sabrina Carpenter songs during the episode 10 about Coaster Madness.
02:14:17
Speaker
So um you obviously are not required to do this, but if you can tell me how many songs that I dropped, you'll ah I'll Venmo you $5. How about that?
02:14:29
Speaker
Like by name, like list the songs out. Yeah, I mean, I'm looking for the number, but ideally you list the the names as well. I mean, you told me that list and then some of them I'm like, okay, I can kind of you like remembered one.
02:14:40
Speaker
Hmm? You like... I think you remembered one. There was one where you set you had said it and I'm like, huh. Yeah, I did the same thing. I was like, why did you say that? And then you told us what you were doing.
02:14:53
Speaker
like to have fun sometimes. You said that after and I'm like, oh my God. It's like it makes so much more sense. Yeah.
02:15:05
Speaker
I'm curious about this one. I'm excited. Two hours and 15 minutes talking about QLEDs. yeah Is that a compliment or an insult to our podcast? I think it's a compliment.
02:15:16
Speaker
I think it's a compliment. we can talk about Very informative episode about the 17th letter of the alphabet.
02:15:25
Speaker
Is it 17? I counted my head before i said it. I know L is 12, so yeah, I guess that makes sense.
02:15:34
Speaker
I was going to say something else and now I forgot.
02:15:37
Speaker
All it's just been It's been a long episode. Yeah, guys, it's been a long episode. I think we're all a little drained at this point. um This is how we spend our Saturday night. I know. I got to get to bed because I have an exciting day of lying on the couch for the ninth day in a row.
02:15:53
Speaker
ah It's going be great.
Podcast Conclusion
02:15:59
Speaker
All right. I mean, hear me. I will be out of my soft cast and into a walking boot to start the, ah that process. So yeah. yeah yeah a Well, Ethan, thank you for hopping on with us and talking about Kings. Thank you, Ethan.
02:16:12
Speaker
Yeah. Thanks for having me. I had have a very fun time recording this with y'all. All right. and I don't know how to end it. Somebody else ended it. I don't even All right, guys. I think that brings us to the end of the episode. We will see you guys next episode. Until next time.
02:16:28
Speaker
Hashtag. And remember to always think inverted. We can't wait for the next episode. Hey.