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RIP Ghoul Juice
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Pour some hateraid - our spills this week are getting sassy! Hold onto your collector's item popcorn bucket as we dive into Deep Dish Stumble: pool parties, pizza casseroles, and the Wrath of a Rakshasa at Six Flags Great America. Plus the full HHN Orlando food and beverage lineup has dropped: Kelli is in mourning (why is the rum gone), we want our PB&J fried, and what's with the eggs? We're so excited HHN is almost here, stay tuned to our Instagram @thrillschillsandspills for our first visit!
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Transcript
Episode Introduction: Theme Parks and Spooky Events
00:00:00
Speaker
are
00:00:09
Speaker
We're going to play a little game we call Spill the Tea.
00:00:15
Speaker
What is up, everybody? Welcome back to Thrills, Chills, and Spills, where we spill the tea on all things theme parks, special events, and especially spooky season.
00:00:26
Speaker
I'm Tyler. I'm Joey. I'm Kelly. And I'm Rafa.
Spoiler-Free Haunted House Experiences
00:00:31
Speaker
We have an exciting episode tonight. Guys... Right now, it is team member preview. Literally right this second as we're recording.
00:00:40
Speaker
People are walking through Terrifier. That is so exciting. And getting wet. Yes. when orja Or dry. Or dry. In theory. We'll find out soon. In theory. Yeah. I'm going to try to avoid spoilers, though. It's going to be really hard, but.
00:00:54
Speaker
I really don't want to see pics of the houses. Yeah, don't either. Especially since we're going so early this, like last year, I looked a little bit because I was going so late in the season. But this year, I just like want to make my own opinions. And it's only a week away. and know.
00:01:08
Speaker
So close. Wild.
Popcorn Buckets Trend at Theme Parks
00:01:11
Speaker
Well, we have a lot to cover tonight. um Obviously, some HHN updates. We have full food and beverage menu was released. ah We have the map released. We've got um some more news with the podcast.
00:01:24
Speaker
And we also have Istanbul to cover. So lots of exciting stuff going on. We are going to start out with our spills, though, as always. Who wants to go first?
00:01:35
Speaker
Any burning spills out there? I can go. Don't sound though and so enthused. This was prompted by seeing the Megan popcorn bucket on Twitter. um i don't i don't think it was even exclusive to HHN, but they are going to have them there, I suppose.
00:01:57
Speaker
um And it's like got a weird removable face and whatever. Anyway, my spiel is, what's with these popcorn buckets? I don't get it. why Why do people care? Why do people buy them?
00:02:10
Speaker
I'm all for like collectible things, but it's bulky. Like it it takes up so much space. Like I see some people with these shelves and it's just like massive shelves of all these popcorn buckets.
00:02:23
Speaker
And then once you have it, you don't even use it as a popcorn bucket. Like so many of the popcorn buckets, especially the Disney ones like that that are fancy are not even practically usable as a popcorn bucket.
00:02:34
Speaker
They'll have like a tiny little opening and it's like you can't use that. That's a popcorn bucket. So why is it a popcorn bucket? I don't understand. Well, a lot of people they take it very seriously, though.
00:02:47
Speaker
Why? i don't know. i don't know. And I mean, I'm so okay. I go to the movies a lot. um And every new release, they always have like a brand new bucket for like every movie.
00:02:58
Speaker
So I feel like I mean, the sales must be doing pretty well at the parks as well. But I don't know. I feel the same way. I kind of feel like it's ridiculous. I get I mean, like I get having a reusable thing in the park, like if you get, you know, one of the big buckets, and then you can refill it.
00:03:13
Speaker
That kind of makes sense to me. But so many of these specialty ones are not even like practically usable as a bucket during a day. And they're so big, like you're carrying that damn thing around. I'm like, what? People don't even try to use them though. like I know. i'm pretty sure they'll buy 12 of them and put them on eBay. You buy the bucket and you get popcorn in it when you buy it and then you bring it back to get a cheaper refill, right? like People aren't even putting popcorn in it the first time.
00:03:37
Speaker
No. Sometimes the capacity is so small in there because it's just all like – The plastic and the decoration. The aesthetics of it all. Yeah, it's just to make it look cool, but you really can't put much in there. I guess it's like it has to be like a gimmick to make it marketable in a way. Because if it was just, let's say, like it was just a figurine, then people wouldn't be as interested in buying that. But because it's like, well, we're going to make a popcorn bucket for every movie or for every whatever, everything at Disney. Figment's going to have one,
Haunted House Entrances: Portals and Connections
00:04:05
Speaker
then people go crazy. Yeah.
00:04:06
Speaker
I just don't get It seems like they're easier things to collect. Right. Exactly. I take up much less room. That part. and Anyway. i just i need to see how they put them up like in their rooms or something because it's like they're so big.
00:04:22
Speaker
Right. That's the part that's blowing my mind. Like if you're really collecting them that takes up a lot of space. Yeah. And then dust. Yeah.
00:04:31
Speaker
Pretty much. Pretty much. Anyway, I'm just being a hater. Well, I guess I'll be a hater to some of the... I was going to say,
Roller Coaster Restraints and Comfort
00:04:39
Speaker
I'll be a hater too. You go first. I feel like we can all be haters here. I'm not really... i mean, okay.
00:04:44
Speaker
It's not that I'm being a hater, but I'm just not understanding where this whole naming the entry to the haunted houses... When did they start being called portals? Like, is it because of Epic?
00:04:56
Speaker
like um It has to be because of Epic. like I've noticed it in so many like TikTokers and like theme park YouTubers and all of that. They're all saying, like look at the portals. They're all up. like Where did we get that from?
00:05:07
Speaker
Literally the house sign with the TV that's going to tell me it's a 90-minute wait. Exactly. There's nothing to it. like If there were something that like if they had like something new or they had like full-on like sets going into it, okay, fine. I'll take it.
00:05:21
Speaker
But it's literally just a sign Epic. with It's a directional sign. yeah Literally. And especially this year. Trust. It looks very industrial. Exactly. And this year, obviously, like how we have those four houses in the beginning, which we'll get go more into detail later, that even more so, it's just a sign. Like there's nothing to it.
00:05:39
Speaker
i just, I don't get it. What was that? Portals. Yeah. Portals. I will not call them portals. I think it's historically been a term that's used, but it's probably picked up now because of Epic. And people are like, look at the portals.
00:05:52
Speaker
the The park themselves have not used that term, right? No. okay I even went back to some of these panels where they were talking and I'm like, I have to hear it somewhere where they can call it a portal. And I never heard it.
00:06:04
Speaker
So I have no idea. I think it's just the blogosphere and Twitter sphere picked it up and pretty much yeah spreads. Yeah. So that's my spill.
No-Scare Necklaces at HHN: Impact and Debate
00:06:13
Speaker
Hey, I'm a hater too. And it's of old B&M Vest Restraints sponsored by X-Flight. love a wing coaster, but I cannot love X-Flight.
00:06:24
Speaker
I've ridden it two times. Once was like, don't know, two years ago or whenever we were there, whenever I was there the first time. And i had a full on panic attack on the brake run because I could not breathe. The thing compressed my freaking rib cage so much.
00:06:38
Speaker
And then this time i was determined for that to not happen. So I was like, trying to make myself as big as possible, but it still happened. It compressed my chest so much that I was like having to take deep breaths while we were stacked on the break run. I'm not trying to be dramatic. This is really what happened to me twice.
00:06:56
Speaker
And I can't enjoy that ride because of it. And I've ridden plenty of newer B&Ms with newer vest restraints that are much better. So thank God they figured it out. because that thing is like, I was thinking like, I can't be the only one that's experienced this feeling. There have to be there has to be people that like cannot breathe.
00:07:12
Speaker
Yeah, especially the taller you are. Yeah. Like the more it rides up on your shoulders, it's worse, I think. And also the funny thing about that is I am like 90% sure based on some conversations I've had with like maintenance people that it's a park controlled thing.
00:07:29
Speaker
Like there's a tensioner on that vest and they can choose to make it tight or choose to make it looser. And a lot of the parks have kind of loosened it up to make it more comfortable, but not there.
00:07:40
Speaker
That's what I was going to say, because I don't remember it being tight. Or if it is tight, you can just kind of push it out and get a little bit of slack when you're on the break. room Yeah, that's what I like. on play No, I'm literally pushing with all of my might. And it is it's not even like flex, like flexible to like move a little bit like there's nothing it feels like it's a hard restraint, literally.
00:08:01
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty uncomfortable. I mean, I felt it more on my shoulders when I was riding. um But you do you do feel like like just closing in more and more as the ride is going on. And at the very end of the ride, you're just like, what is going on? Like, get me off of this.
00:08:16
Speaker
Yeah. And also I have boobs. So I feel there's mine too. This is yeah maybe specifically a women issue as well. Maybe.
00:08:27
Speaker
All right. I'm not going to be quite as much of a hater. Maybe a little bit of a hater. but I will. I'll hate on yours, Bill. Let's get it going. All right. So um I don't think it's been officially announced. It's more like it's been leaked. I'm assuming we'll know more about it by the time this episode is released. But um a deathly afraid necklace for Horror Nights. So if you're familiar with the Cedar Fair, it's the same thing. They called it a Nobu necklace.
00:08:55
Speaker
So basically as well. Yeah. Yeah. I forget what they call theirs, but um essentially it's like some light up figure, like a pumpkin or ghost, whatever.
00:09:06
Speaker
And you wear it in scare zones and then the scare actors are not supposed to scare you. um There's lots of strong feelings on this. Personally, from what I've seen in Cedar Fair, it really didn't disrupt operations that much. I really didn't see that many people with them.
00:09:23
Speaker
And everybody was told to turn them completely off before you go into a house. So I don't know. I mean, I guess it can maybe disrupt the scare zones a little bit. I've never seen much of an issue with it.
00:09:35
Speaker
It does seem pretty money grabby in my opinion. Because it's how much? Allegedly it's $20. Allegedly $20. Listen, you're a dirty cat, why the heck are you paying for HHN and you're going to pay $20 more and you don't want to be scared?
00:09:55
Speaker
That's it's like why are you at it's It's not like it's, you know, Halloween Horror Nights is a separately ticketed event. It's not like just the regular theme park that's open during the day and then it just sort of flows into the, you know, the scare part.
00:10:10
Speaker
It's just, it's a fully separate thing. So like if you choose to go to it, like, you know what it is. Yeah. And if you think you're going to be scared enough to wear one of those in a scare zone, you better not find yourself in any of the houses.
Chicago Trip: Six Flags and Social Highlights
00:10:22
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. The houses and where are you going? Like, it just doesn't make any sense. Yeah. Yeah. And Zach brought up a good point in our questions. He said some friends that have worked for Six Flags in the past, they've gotten complaints because they're, you know, just scaring people.
00:10:39
Speaker
They don't see the necklace until the last second and they get a complaint like, hey, you scared me. I paid this money for it. What's going on? So I can see why that's frustrating for scare actors as well. Yeah, what do they especially they're coming from every direction.
00:10:52
Speaker
like yeah i don't know. And I feel like yeah they're like they're in character. Like they're just ready to jump at everybody. And then, you know, like they're about to jump at somebody then they notice a necklace. Like it kind of ruins the effect of it.
00:11:03
Speaker
Especially the way the scare zones work because a lot of times they'll be walking like a different direction and not even necessarily see the front of your body. And then they'll like swiftly turn. And then they're supposed to just like, oops, like back off. I feel like if anybody has the right to complain the most, it's those scare zone scare actors. That would make me so mad.
00:11:22
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. All of that being said, though, I feel like the like Twitter verse kind of exploding about it is probably a little bit overstated because like Tyler said, i find it hard to imagine ah significant percentage of guests going to HHN are going to buy that.
00:11:39
Speaker
Like it might be like, you know, a group of six people and like the one person got brung along who's like, i don't really like scary stuff and they'll buy it. But I don't think it the majority of people are going to be doing that. Unless they make them collectible like popcorn buckets. That's why they price it at $20. They're like, it's collectible.
00:11:58
Speaker
one All right. um So... Everybody was on a stumble in Chicago this past weekend, except for me.
00:12:12
Speaker
I thought you were going the entire time. What? Yes, I thought you were going to be there. and when I saw you weren't there, I'm like wait, where the hell is Tyler? Like, this is so weird. To be fair, I rarely miss one. So you probably just assumed I would be there. I did. I did. yeah but Couldn't make it, unfortunately. But looks like you guys had a lot of fun.
00:12:33
Speaker
Yeah. People definitely had a lot of fun. Oh, we had a lot of um I mean, Kelly kind of missed out on it, but we had, well, and Rafa did too. Friday night. Yeah.
00:12:46
Speaker
We had like a little get together at shout out Tim at his brewery, Beguile. um And they saved some space for us, which was awesome. And we appreciate you guys.
00:12:58
Speaker
um That was great. I think we had like maybe, i don't know, 60 people there um and everybody. it was It's always good to have that social start to the events. And we got Pequod's Pizza brought in.
00:13:10
Speaker
yeah what was that? It was good. It was good. I liked the sauce on it. I thought that was kind of the best part of it. It just didn't blow you away. No, I mean, it's hard when it's delivery, too, because you're not getting it like fresh from the source.
00:13:25
Speaker
um It didn't blow me away, but I did appreciate the like it's it's breadier than the last deep dish I had, which was very cheesy and heavy.
00:13:36
Speaker
So this was more like less cheese, more bread and kind of like pan pizza style. It it was good. It was good.
00:13:45
Speaker
Hate that I missed that. Yeah. Sometimes getting in on Fridays is awkward. Yeah. Yeah, we all had a good time. We just we just hung out and ate pizza and had some drinks.
00:14:01
Speaker
Yes. Sounds like a chill start to the event about the the park on Saturday. Kelly, Joey, you guys had been but Rafa, you said it's your first time, right? Yeah, it was my first time visiting um Great America.
00:14:13
Speaker
ah that That's the one, right? Six Flags Great America? Okay, yeah. so America, America, over... yeah Whatever it is. The one in the one there. Flags Deep Dish.
00:14:24
Speaker
so Yeah, that was my first time going. And I i really liked the park. I didn't have any expectations going into it. But I thought it was a pretty solid park.
00:14:35
Speaker
I enjoyed the lineup for the most part. I didn't have like a bad experience. So I liked it. I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of questions bummer that Max Force and Raging Bull were closed. Yeah, that was a bummer. That was really unlucky for you guys.
00:14:51
Speaker
But that made me feel like, I guess, less stressed about it. Yeah, was like, you know, I could just go to the pool party, which we had later on, and not worry about it. And, you know, I'll be back eventually.
00:15:02
Speaker
Yeah. What do you... um Was there a particular area that stood out for you or a ride or... um
00:15:12
Speaker
Not really. mean, okay, like, it was good. it Like, it was a great park. Okay, well, now that I think about it, okay, I really loved Goliath. Loved Goliath.
00:15:24
Speaker
That was really fun. um I enjoyed that. And the Batman, didn't know that was the original, like, the original, original one. Like, and it was so smooth. It was probably, like, yeah, like, i like, this is probably, like,
00:15:40
Speaker
One of the smoothest coasters here. Like I was so surprised by that. and I loved it and it was my two fiftieth. So I'm not mad about that. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. So that was pretty, that was pretty neat, but, but yeah, I was very surprised about that.
00:15:54
Speaker
Um, wrath of rack how do say it again i was gonna have to be the first person of rightchester i like i didn't want to say it oh but yeah that was that was pretty that was my first like new gen
B&M Dive Coasters: Impressions and Favorites
00:16:10
Speaker
um dive machine um because i've only ridden griffin shikra and oblivion i think oh okay so you've never done the a vest dive yeah i haven't done any of those and i really like this one i really enjoyed it um
00:16:24
Speaker
but What do you guys think? I mean, I know we're going to get into that soon, but... Yeah, we're getting into into Emma's question now. How did you like Wrath of Rakshasa? So shout out to Emma for asking that. What do you think, Kelly? um I liked it. I don't know that I'm ever going to be like...
00:16:40
Speaker
having a ton of positive things to say about a dive. It's one of my least favorite models from BNM. Like I enjoy the float on the drop. And then like, I'm just not really like an inversion person. Like, unless they're unique and fun, I will say it has more of a complete layout as a coaster is concerned. It's not just like the one trick pony, like double drop situation. Like Val Raven is, um,
00:17:10
Speaker
Yeah. liked the layout more. It wasn't super rattly. I think it was smoother than iron menaces. Um, it doesn't have any, it did have like kind of weird profile profiling on like the turns at the end that felt a little bit uncomfortable, but it wasn't jolty. Like some of the other B and M's like specifically iron menace that jolt at the end is pretty uncomfortable. Um, and it was from like day one. yeah,
00:17:36
Speaker
I think the colors look pretty. I think it looks really well placed in the midway. It's kind of just like in the middle of the park and they needed something like big and bright there. um i love that they use the same um bin system as um Canada's Wonderland uses on some of their rides. I think definitely on Yukon Striker, they use it yeah where the bins kind of like move with your stuff in them and meet you at the end of the ride. I thought that was really nice.
00:18:06
Speaker
That definitely seemed to help with the operations. For sure. They were pushing out trains pretty well. I didn't know what to expect from that when I saw it like going into the station. i was like, how is this going to find me later? Should I actually put my phone here? Yeah, and it worked perfectly. It's a very smooth system.
00:18:23
Speaker
Yeah, I think overall I was... um i My expectations were exceeded, but my expectations were pretty low, to be honest. um I just don't love a B&M dive. But I think it's what of it's definitely in like the upper tier of them, just because of the complete layout, like I said. like I think I still prefer Griffin and Yukon Striker to it, but of like the newer ones, the newer, smaller-ish ones, I think it's better than most.
00:18:53
Speaker
This was my favorite dive for me. I loved it. So I would rank this, but then again, i don't have too many, but I would rank it at the top for sure.
00:19:03
Speaker
Yeah. I think I'm just such an airtime person that it's hard to beat the old dives with those restraints where I just literally like float six inches in the seat or whatever until I hit the shoulder things. Yeah. um I agree. Yeah.
00:19:14
Speaker
But for the for the vest dives, I mean, yeah, it's it's up there on the vest dives, like Kelly said, just because it has more of a flow, more of a complete feeling layout. It doesn't have a mid course, so it doesn't stop halfway through.
00:19:26
Speaker
um i was I guess I was expecting a little bit worse of a rattle and it didn't have as much. So that was good. There was like one jolt and I don't know if it was just like inconsistent or if it's actually there every time because I only wrote it once. But.
00:19:40
Speaker
um I was happy to see a little bit more theming. There was kind of like the statues around the queue and they themed the station a little bit and had banners and stuff. It looked more elevated than a typical Six Flags install. So that was good to see that the Cedar Fair influence leaked over a little bit. And yeah, I thought it looked great in the park, like the way they built the midways through it and the way that it interacts across the pathways is is really great.
00:20:08
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, I'm not super excited about dives. So I wrote it and I was like, yep, I don't necessarily need to wait for that again. Same and did not. Exactly. yeah I didn't do it again either.
00:20:20
Speaker
Yeah, dives are fine. They're fun. But I mean, you know exactly what you're getting with them. It's not going to surprise you. I do think it's going to be good for the park, though. Like, I think it's going be a popular attraction. and Yeah, general public loves them.
00:20:32
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. about the pool party? Looks like we got a little... Wild, maybe. That was my favorite part of the weekend. Yes.
00:20:43
Speaker
I love a pool. and And a party. And a party. And didn't love the park. I mean, I i don't dislike Six Flags Great America. i agree with you, Ralph. I think of a Six Flags, it's one of the better parks.
00:20:57
Speaker
Just really stinks that like two of their marquee attractions were closed. And I was really underwhelmed this trip by Goliath. I had a pretty rough ride in the second row. And then at the end of the night, I rode in row 11 and it was better. But it's just such a short layout. Yeah.
00:21:11
Speaker
It doesn't offer a lot. And, you know, now that we've ridden so many RMCs, I'm just kind of like meh on it. And the only other ride that I was really excited for was Viper. I really enjoyed that last time. And this time it didn't really offer as much airtime. So i was a little upset about that.
00:21:27
Speaker
um But I think like my biggest surprise of the park, I know I'm like going back to the park and not the pool party, but I agree Batman was so good. I think it was maybe my favorite ride of the day. Like it was just so smooth and like forceful, but like didn't give me a headache. And that's rare for a ah Batman clone. But yeah, returning to the pool party, I think...
00:21:48
Speaker
It was really fun. I think most people went to it, which I was surprised. I didn't know how many people would like want to leave the park in the middle of the day, especially if it was their first trip there come to the pool party. But it was like pretty well attended.
00:22:01
Speaker
I think it seemed like. Yeah. Thank you for bringing me Malibu. Oh, that's right. Oh my God. I forgot about that. and Shay was out here doling out tequila shots. Oh my gosh. Between Shay and I, we were both pouring all of the shots, giving everybody a shot.
00:22:19
Speaker
It was hilarious. And yeah, I've never- You had portillas, right? we Yeah, that happened too. yeah Yeah, it was good. We had a lot of meat. A lot of meat. Great to soak up the tequila. a lot of bees around the meat. Yeah, the other bees were wild.
00:22:34
Speaker
I was like, I gotta get away from here. And Tim was like teaching people how to make a Chicago dog. That was hilarious to watch. There are so many things on it. I was like, that's gross. and There's like mustard and pickles and relish and tomatoes.
00:22:47
Speaker
It's crazy. Bethany was like, that's just the salad now. Yeah, literally, it's a salad with, like, a little bit of meat underneath. I've never taken a tequila shot with an orange slice before.
00:22:59
Speaker
I always do lime. I do it, too. And that's Shay's, like, favorite thing. like i yeah My life has changed. Really? Yes. was like, wow, this is so good.
00:23:11
Speaker
Yeah, she is always buying an orange, like, to have with the tequila. I'm like, are you, like, you sure? like I'm not a big fan. I prefer lime.
Santa's Village, Cedar Point, and Ride Experiences
00:23:19
Speaker
But that's her thing, so... glad you like that but that's like her thing every time it's like the lime is already kind of like sour and like the tequila is already a little rough for me so it's like to have something that i would actually like eat like an orange i was like oh yes this is game changer Thanks, Shay.
00:23:41
Speaker
I think it's healthy if you eat the orange with it. Yeah. It erases the calories from the shot for sure. 100%. It dilutes it with the orange juice. yeah
00:23:54
Speaker
Any other thoughts on the stumble itself? Joey, I know you had you extended it a little bit, but... ah Yeah, I was mostly whoring on Sunday, lots of driving. um But we went to Santa's village, which was pretty cute, actually.
00:24:08
Speaker
It kind of reminded me of Dutch Wonderland with the Santa theme. umm There were three coasters there that we rode. I mean, we're in there for a very long, but yeah, it was it was cute.
00:24:19
Speaker
I think a a decent number of people made it out there across the ah weekend.
00:24:27
Speaker
How about, um I guess, Monday you went to Cedar Point? Is that right? Yes. That was yesterday. That's crazy. So this just kind of happened spur of the moment because I found out that ah Larson was going and then he was like, does anybody want to go? And I was like, hmm, should I go?
00:24:47
Speaker
And then I was with Tony and Brent. Shout out Tony and Brent. The best. um I was hanging out with them on Sunday. We were doing ah we did Santa's Village and some other. Oh, we went to.
00:25:02
Speaker
We went to Sunny Anchors Farm. We bought tickets to ride their wacky worm, walked up to it, and there's this massive sign that says 12 and under.
00:25:12
Speaker
And we were like, oh, no. they didn't tell you that when they sold you the tickets? was to say, they sold it to you anyway? Javi bought them online. he like went a QR code, and so we didn't know.
00:25:22
Speaker
So we walked up, and we like, oh, shoot, we bought this already. So we talked to like the employee, and he was like, I'm not allowed to. I'll get in trouble, but you could talk to that guy. So then like... Brent pushes Tony to you the front and is like, talk to him.
00:25:35
Speaker
And then she's like, hi. And then Brent is like, listen, we need to ride this. We drove here specifically to ride this coaster. It's so funny because he literally always does that. Like when we got to Timothy O'Toole's, we got sat at like a high top table and none of us wanted to sit there. We were like a little...
00:25:53
Speaker
Anyways, um he's like, Tony, go do your thing. Like, get us one of those booths. And she just like gets up and goes up. We didn't get a booth, but like, it was really funny. So like you saying that story, I'm like, yes, I've seen this exact thing happen.
00:26:07
Speaker
But the funny thing was that like she got in one sentence and then he took over because he was in cred mode and he was like, yeah, we need to get this. So this poor manager is like looking over at the ride and like seeing how long the queue is. And he's like, oh, yeah.
00:26:20
Speaker
well there's not very many people over there but if you guys ride it then the parents are gonna want to ride it and then eventually it was like fine that's you can do it and then the most funny thing was it was kind of empty and then like we got on it and then like some more kids and families came in afterwards and some dad just sat down on the train and we were already on it and at that point the ride-off had nothing he could do so he just said isn't that guy too yeah but at least we paid like we paid to get on it so yeah anyway it worked out yeah for real in the midst of all of that like driving between them i had talked about going to cedar point and brent and tony were like hmm they went to indiana beach later they drove all the way down there and then i got a message from them at like eight o'clock after the park closes it's like we're doing it
00:27:08
Speaker
And so they drove back up north and came across to Cedar Point and came with us the next day. So I was with them. um Larson, Javi, Wade was there. Alex was there. We had a good little crew. It was cool. going to guys had a nice little group there.
00:27:24
Speaker
Yeah. And like people faded out throughout the day. But um ah yeah, it was a good time. We were hoping that because it was a weekday after school was in session, it would be a little less crowded. And it wasn't like empty by any means. But for Cedar Point, I mean, we waited ah less than 20 minutes for Steel Vengeance at one point, which is.
00:27:44
Speaker
That's unheard of. Yeah, that's wild. And like in the morning, Top Thrill 2, I mean, it took like probably 15, less than 15 minutes to get on it as well. um So that I think it worked out really well. The only disappointing thing was that Millie has been closed for a couple of days and continue to be closed during our visit. I think it's still closed today as well.
00:28:04
Speaker
Intamin, gonna Intamin. For sure. When I was there, it opened for, I think like the last four or five hours of the night and and was closed.
00:28:15
Speaker
It was closed all that day, opened for like five hours, closed all the next day, closed the next morning. I saw somebody walking up on the lift. So there's something going on. Yeah, there's open a few hours for me as well. There's something weird going on. I have really bad luck with that ride.
00:28:30
Speaker
um But anyway, the the primary reason I wanted to go was for Siren's Curse and Tothrill 2, which were new to me. Um, top thrill two. i was a little underwhelmed, especially on my first ride. I feel like it's been a little overhyped.
00:28:45
Speaker
Um, I know that Tyler probably agrees with me based on what I just read. we were literally talking about this like 20 minutes ago on discord. Yeah. Um, the launch is,
00:28:58
Speaker
a very, very dark shadow of its former self. Um, it just sort of rolls. Um, and that's like the part that always would get me like hyped up and like ready to go on the old ride. Cause it just takes off so fast.
00:29:11
Speaker
I really miss that aspect of, of the ride. Um, and to be honest with you, I know a lot of people were talking about loving the sensation of speed, like going back and forth on that straight track for me.
00:29:23
Speaker
That didn't do much. Maybe it's because like the acceleration wasn't as fast. I was just like, I can tell it's fast, but I'm not like feeling it as much for whatever reason. But I will say the spike is great.
00:29:35
Speaker
You get some nice float up there. The view is really cool. It's like Pantheon times four, you know, to like be staring down at the whole park in front of you. That's super cool. Um, yeah. I wouldn't say I got ejector over the top hat, but definitely some floater that wasn't there before on the old ride. And then as you do go down, especially in the back row, once I finally got a back row ride going down, you do get kind of like pushed out of your seat and then you go through that twist and it really yanks you, which is more violent than the old ride. So I liked that a lot.
00:30:04
Speaker
um I thought it was like really good, but it wasn't like elite or i wasn't like, you know, jumping up and down. but I it was like, that was really fun. Fully agree. Yeah. It's not number one in the park. Like some people. Right. It's crazy.
00:30:18
Speaker
That is crazy. Number one in the park. Yeah. To me is, is a little wild just because like, even, even with the added aspects of the layout, it's still kind of a one trick pony. Like, yes. sorry Yeah.
00:30:32
Speaker
So, but I mean, credit to Zamperla, like the trains ran well, I didn't feel like they were shaking like crazy or anything like that. It was very comfortable. um The restraints double lock, which is kind of wild. Cause if you get a little bit of space, they don't go down.
00:30:47
Speaker
And so like one of the rides, I got a little bit of space and I was like, OK, I just flew a little bit. um Yeah. and And credits to Zamperler again for the operations like it was and the and the crew. It was churning trains like almost the entire day. I saw it go down maybe once or twice for 20 minutes a piece. It it really was a workhorse the day that we were there. um So good for them.
HHN Drink and Food Menu: New Additions
00:31:11
Speaker
And then Siren's Curse. I know that Kelly talked about it. I pretty much agree. And Tyler, I pretty much agree with everything you said. Like the theming package is super cool. ah love the audio around and the the the water and like all of that stuff leading up to it creates a good atmosphere.
00:31:28
Speaker
And then the ride itself. Yeah, that onboard audio like... elevates the experience of the ride for sure. Super cool. um The experience of the tilt itself is like bizarre and interesting. And i the the part that surprised me the most was the unlatch from the tilt.
00:31:47
Speaker
Kind of violent. Like it's very abrupt. It is. So I think Larson said one of the times he like smacked his head on the backrest because it just released so hard. um So that was cool. And then the rest of the layout is just kind of what I've come to expect with modern Vekoma, very smooth.
00:32:04
Speaker
Um, I was surprised by the corkscrews. Actually, they had more airtime, like going through them than I expected them to, which was cool. Um, and then, I mean, the rest of it is pretty much just like airtime and some positives. Like it's, it's very, very well done.
00:32:17
Speaker
Yeah. Um, I get a night ride on it. No, the park was only open till 8 p.m. So was kind golden hour as we were leaving. But like around that time we were in the queue and we could see the lighting better.
00:32:30
Speaker
And I can imagine how it would look at night, like super cool. um I'm not sure where I would place it amongst all the rides. ah I mean, it's hard to say that that's better than Steel Vengeance or anything. and But I think I probably did come away liking that better than Top Thrill 2.
00:32:47
Speaker
Like at the end of the day, when and we had ridden Top Thrill 2 three times and Sirens Curse three times, it was like, I'd rather do Sirens now if I'm doing one more ride. and Unfortunately, some weather swept in like the last 15 minutes and that didn't happen. But that was what we were going to do um if we could have.
00:33:06
Speaker
But yeah, to be like the opposite of TDR, I thought the park was running besides Millie. I mean, the the park was running well. The operations were good. um People seemed happy and like excited to be there, the employees. So was ah it was a good time for sure.
00:33:20
Speaker
Don't go on a Saturday and you'll be fine. Yeah.
00:33:26
Speaker
right. think that's all we have for trip recap. um So we have a full HHN food and beverage menu. Um, let's see.
00:33:37
Speaker
I'm just going to read off. So they have two signature drinks that are available pretty much every location. I'm just going to read those real quick. So you have the Phantom Punch. It's New Amsterdam vodka, 360 vodka, Sorrento lemon, triple sec, lime, orange, cranberry juice, dragon fruit syrup, and simple syrup.
00:33:58
Speaker
And then you have the deadly nightshade, which is tequila, lime juice, grapefruit juice, pomegranate, simple, and blue curacao. Phantom Punch just sounds like...
00:34:11
Speaker
I don't even know what you would call it. Jungle juice, basically. So much in it. Yeah. Yeah. Just a little bit of a ten Long Island. Like what color is this going to be? Yeah.
00:34:23
Speaker
I'm assuming like a purplish. Yeah, probably. But I'm also thinking Phantoms Revenge purple. So maybe that's. Yeah. Skewing. That kind of leads into Javi's question though, right?
00:34:35
Speaker
Yeah, so Javi is are asking if we are sad that Ghoul Juice is gone. um I don't know. and i'm sorry, Kelly, but no. Yeah, I don't think the Phantom Punch sounds that different from Ghoul Juice. I think they're both just a whole bunch of crap put together that tastes very sweet.
00:34:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Gull juice was my like start of the night drink that I would always get. And I'm going to be completely honest. I only got it because rum is my favorite liquor and like it was available at all the locations. Was it like an amazing drink? No. And last year it was really bitter. Like it did have some bitter stuff in it, but like last year it was even hard for me to get down. So like, yes, I'm upset that there's literally like one drink with rum in it on this whole menu.
00:35:24
Speaker
but But um you can still get like a premium cocktail with rum if you want rum. um And I think some of the other drinks are interesting too. So I will try new things. I'm not heartbroken. Yeah, I've just never been a fan of the mass like pre made drinks.
00:35:44
Speaker
They never seem to be exactly right. There's always something a little bit off about them. If I'm getting a cocktail, I want them to like make it right in front of me with the bottles and everything. Yeah.
00:35:56
Speaker
Yeah. The pre mixes are hard. Like the balance is hard to maintain. I think, especially things settle in that like tank. Yeah. for so they They don't taste too great after some time. Like maybe in the beginning of the day, they don't taste too bad, but later on, like you can start hoping it doesn't matter by then.
00:36:13
Speaker
Yeah, it doesn't matter by then. Yeah, neither of these two excite me a ton. i feel like they're two main beverages. Like, obviously, they're available at most locations, which just makes it easy in the like, well, stay and scream is different now. But it it was always easy to choose one of those two to like take in line while you're waiting for the first house because they're just everywhere, to put like, you know, regardless of where you go. yeah Neither of these excite me a ton. Like, I think I probably prefer vodka based drinks to tequila based drinks.
00:36:44
Speaker
But like the other stuff in the nightshade sounds more appealing to me than the punch. So I don't know. I probably will choose like my own thing or go to a different booth that has, you know, more of a specialty beverage than either of these two personally. Were any of the other like specialty drinks stood out to you? Because I have some.
00:37:07
Speaker
Oh, yes. Yeah. Well, we know that there's there's two rum drinks. Yeah. They also, outside- Are there two? i only see one. There's one called Dark, and it's easy to miss.
00:37:18
Speaker
Oh, yes. It has multiple rum rum in it. Yes. multiple But did you guys notice that they also got rid of the lacto cooler? They did. Yeah, which I'm happy about. I'm sorry. I didn't like that one like either. like It was a very weird aftertaste, but I'm really excited about the Tripping Animals thing.
00:37:35
Speaker
collab that they have going on this year, which I did not expect. That's my local brewery. So I'm very excited about that. um And it's the Tripping Animals ah Fresh Fangs Sour Ale, which I'm very excited. I'm not a big sour person, but this brewery does have really good ones like they have The last time I went, they actually had high C flavored um sours, which were like the grape and the orange and the fruit punch high C, which were so good. So I could see that working well, um you know, with HHN. So I'm really excited for that.
00:38:09
Speaker
See, this is where it's good that we're going together because it's going to be really hard for me to pay... multi-teen dollars for a drink that I know I don't want a whole yeah size of. Like, i I really want to try a lot of these, so I think sharing is going to be the move.
00:38:26
Speaker
Sharing is caring. Yes. For sure. For me... for me My most anticipated beverage is the Pineapple Passion, obviously. has rum and pineapple in it, which is my jam.
00:38:41
Speaker
um it also has lime juice, passion fruit. I think that probably is like the safest bet for me, something that I definitely am going to like. yeah And then the other one that was most exciting for me when I was going through was the Blood Orange Screamsicle from the Dolls Booth.
00:39:00
Speaker
That has vanilla vodka, blood orange syrup, and lemonade. Simple. Sounds delicious. We love an orange yeah cream. That sounds really good. So good. Might get my own of that one.
00:39:12
Speaker
Yeah, I was looking for like other liquors because I don't know about tequila drinks. So I saw this one's at the Fanta Bar in New York by Transformers.
00:39:25
Speaker
It's called Lavender Mist. It's gin, lime juice, lavender syrup, and Fanta Chucky Punch. Not sure exactly what that is, but I like a gin drink. It's kind of like a gin and tonic sounding thing.
00:39:37
Speaker
100% thought of you when I read this one. was like, oh, Joey's going to like that. That's my drink. And then the other one I saw that ah sounded interesting was Dead Man's Hand, which is at the HHN bar, which I never knew this was called the HHN bar, but it's the one in Battery Park, like by Mel's.
00:39:54
Speaker
um And that is whiskey, bitters, and sparkling apple cider. Again, just three ingredients, but it sounds like a good mix. full. Yeah. and You don't need eight ingredients for a good beat. No. Yeah, no. Agree.
00:40:07
Speaker
Agree. All right. um Yeah, there's tons of different drink options that we did not go over, along with plenty of mocktails as well. So check out the Universal website if you want to see all of those.
00:40:22
Speaker
I think the most notable mocktail was the, what was it called, Kelly? The Fallout 1 Radaway? the Radaway mocktail. I feel like I might want to try this. Lemonade with chipotle pineapple and spiced brown sugar syrup, and it's served in a bag, like a blood bag. Yeah, it's straight out the series. That's so interesting.
00:40:41
Speaker
Like that bag. Yes. Kind of collectible. Kind of collectible, yes. We haven't had the blood bags in forever, so that I think that's pretty exciting. But there's no alcohol in it. Because they think that's dangerous, I'm sure. But like, what am I going to do with this bag once I get it and walk around HHN? The same thing you would do with the buckets. Nothing. Literally. yeah Nothing with it.
00:41:03
Speaker
you'd be like tempted to throw it out at that point. You're like, I don't want like carry this around. I'm going it in one of your pockets because my pocket won't be big enough. Yeah.
00:41:14
Speaker
All right. Now we got a bunch of food. um Anything good that you guys absolutely want to try?
00:41:26
Speaker
yeah
00:41:29
Speaker
I think I will say before we get into anything specific, I think that as a whole, this event is going to be better than the last couple of years of HHN. I think like just the the house lineup, the scare zone, attention to ze detail, the um the theme being kind of interlaced throughout the event, the food menu left me a little underwhelmed compared to the last couple of years, I will say.
00:41:57
Speaker
It's not bad, but it's just not very creative, I feel like. I feel like it's either really simple items, which, like, honestly, is probably what I'll eat, or, like, a couple of the really weird out there things that they put together all in one item, and you're like, I don't know how that's going to go.
00:42:14
Speaker
Or, like, if I want to spend $14.99 for it. You know what I mean? but Like, for me... I saw the... Where is it at? It's at like the clown face one. I think it's Cursed Carnival where i like the booth looks like a clown face. It has Death by Cheese Stick.
00:42:31
Speaker
So generic. It's a giant hand-breaded mozzarella cheese stick with spicy marinara. I'm 100% going to get it. I'm never not going to get a cheese stick. That's my favorite appetizer in the world. right like It's not that like inspired.
00:42:43
Speaker
yeah and They had just had like corn dogs there. There was some chicken tenders, wings. like There's some... There's some basic stuff, um which I mean, like it's crowd pleaser, so I get it. But yeah, I feel like they're kind of afraid to see. Like, i don't know. I feel like they're kind of scared of like people not wanting to get some of these items.
00:43:02
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, we saw it in Epic, like with um Pizza Moon when they cut like the majority of its menu. um i feel like they had a lot of flavors or a lot of like toppings that were so out there Pizza Moon. Yeah.
00:43:15
Speaker
And they decided to just remove all of them probably because not many people were buying them, but it kind of sucks. Cause it's like, it's fun to see those options. And so, you know, I'm the type of person that likes to check out these very weird flavors if I could.
00:43:26
Speaker
Well, they're not, they're not without some weird flavors. Cause we have plenty of weird flavors. This year that I'm like, what is happening? yeah table like They had that corn dog with like cheesecake in it or like, yeah. i don't And there's just, they, they put some very strange things together, I think,
00:43:45
Speaker
For me, highlights, I obviously was excited about the mozzarella stick. um I think both food, all of the food items at the L'Artista booth sound really good. The um garlic bread with tomato pulp on it and cheese, that kind of reminds me of how Eggs and the Further was last year without the egg. it was kind of the same vibe and that was like my favorite food item. They also have um grilled shrimp there and then they have churros so I'm like okay I'm gonna like eat everything there for sure well and the churros idea is cute because it's like an artist's palette it's a palette with different dip different sauces yeah yes but and the shrimp was on my list too I was like yeah this stuff sounds good yeah that was and uh the other one for me is the low taste I love me yes yummy corn that's at Jason right yeah that's it yeah
00:44:40
Speaker
You can either get it with um like cheese and spice or Flamin' Hot Cheetos. And the Flamin' Hot Cheetos are not for me, but to each their own. One that sounded interesting to me was um this fried peanut butter and jelly with maple syrup and chili. That's what was going to bring up.
00:44:58
Speaker
I wonder if it's just like an Uncrustable. Well, it says mom cut the crust off. It probably is, but that still sounds good. I love an Uncrustable.
00:45:09
Speaker
yeah I can't imagine it fried. But I will eat it. I've seen that like at the state fair though. Yeah. everything It's definitely a thing. Yeah. Yeah. They also have um this very weird, but maybe good dessert at the fallout booth. They're doing, they're calling them deviled eggs, but they are not eggs.
00:45:31
Speaker
It's coconut panna cotta with pineapple ganache and tagine. So it's a dessert that kind of looks like it's. that like a double egg see this is the problem with me i do not like a deviled egg i like eggs but i do not like a deviled egg and i don't know if i can get myself to even want to try i think those flavors are
Strange Food Combinations at HHN
00:45:49
Speaker
great but like it looks like a freaking deviled egg i'll be honest i don't know what panna cotta is so it's good yeah it's like a dessert i don't it's kind of like custard or like a flan you know how like a flan oh okay gotcha yeah yeah
00:46:06
Speaker
I mean, there were definitely some like good desserts, but things that you would normally see, like Jason has the bloody s'mores. We've seen the, the state of s'more. We, there's a really delicious sounding caramel brownie.
00:46:20
Speaker
um also like a multi caramel brownie. That one looks pretty good. There's a pumpkin mousse. I am a pumpkin girly. Pumpkin spice. I everything pumpkin. And I feel like they don't always have anything pumpkin. So that's exciting for me.
00:46:35
Speaker
The popcorn thing with Clown Cafe, that one sounds kind of, I mean, well, the picture looks kind of weird. yeah um Because it looks like it's mixed with actual popcorn. Yeah.
00:46:47
Speaker
Yeah, I'm confused. and I don't know how I feel about that. I feel like that's just for advertising. like I don't think that's how they're going to serve it. Yeah, I agree. They should have said Clown Cafe Bloody Popcorn Chicken because it's literally the title is Clown Cafe Bloody Popcorn. Yeah.
00:47:04
Speaker
But it's not popcorn. It's chicken. right's Right. They had souvenir popcorn bucket. They had that a few years ago. I want to say it was for Chucky, but it was just popcorn chicken with like some...
00:47:17
Speaker
I don't know, like spices and herbs on top to make it look weird. And that's all it was. It was fine. it was just popcorn chicken. So I'm assuming something similar to that. I have a question.
00:47:29
Speaker
Yeah. Is the walking taco the same every year or is it different? It's different. It's a little bit look wa che is different. I had it last year and I was like a little underwhelmed, but I will still try it.
00:47:43
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I'm interested in the why not have both pizza and pasta, pepperoni pizza with the baked spaghetti and meatballs. What do you mean with?
00:47:54
Speaker
What does that mean? I'm curious. like yeah How is that going to be served? Is it like a yeah tiny piece of pizza and like some spaghetti? Well, it's a pretty high price on that one, I think, right? I put the prices down on you.
00:48:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think it was $14.99. Maybe that would be a better bang for your buck then. I don't know. Maybe. I imagine it's going to be a little bowl of pasta with like a dipper pizza in it. Yeah. don't know. said they think it'll be a big slice of pizza with the spaghetti as a topping on the pizza.
00:48:26
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. know world well Did you guys see but the muscle man slop option? That was on my thumbs down list. down Okay, so for those that are listening, this is the description. It says beef sloppy joe with jalapeno bacon, Lay's dill pickle flavored potato chips, and cheese sauce on a chocolate almond bun.
00:48:49
Speaker
Chocolate? Why? Why the bun chocolate? I love chocolate, but it's ugly. That sounded delicious. It sounds so bizarre. I mean, look, I kind of want to try it.
00:49:01
Speaker
but but You told us to stay away from black buns. Oh, yeah. Oh, no. but Okay. But this isn't like, oh, you know what? Yeah, you're right. I i shouldn't. But maybe I'll try it either way.
00:49:12
Speaker
Okay, the grossest one for me, the grossest one for me is there's a freaking spam meal. Yeah, that's not no that's not okay. yeah i'm I'm unwell over reading that. I can't even imagine the fact that they would put that out for people.
00:49:31
Speaker
yeah i don't care if it's from Fallout. like I don't care the reason. yeah That's heinous. They also had, this is so like this is all on my what are they doing list.
00:49:42
Speaker
They have an egg Benedict being served at the Five Nights at Freddy Cafe. I'm like, what? I don't get it That my own life. I feel like it doesn't sound terrible, but I don't want that at 11 p.m.
00:49:56
Speaker
That's bad. I don't get I just don't. Maybe I didn't watch enough Five Nights, but I don't get it Yeah, that's a strange choice. And then I put on my down vote list the African lentil coffin because it sounds like the red door thing I had last year that was so dry.
00:50:13
Speaker
So bland. They always have something like that. Yeah, it's not good. um You know, it's another interesting one. It could go either way is at the fallout booth.
00:50:25
Speaker
Aside from the freaking spam, they have buffalo chicken dip, but with served with crispy fried pickles. I love a fried pickle. And I like buffalo chicken dip.
00:50:36
Speaker
I could see that being good. Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah. You gave yellow, Tyler. was very upset about it.
00:50:46
Speaker
i can be convinced. we have but We have a rating spreadsheet going. It's not a red, so. Okay. I'm not a huge buffalo chicken dip guy.
00:50:58
Speaker
I love fried pickles, though. did you Did you see this ramen one? Because I don't know what to make of that. Which one's that one? Where's that one? It's at the Cat Lady booth. It's birria beef on ramen noodles in a flamin' hot birria consomme broth with shaved onion scallions and flamin' hot Cheetos.
00:51:16
Speaker
Why do they love flamin' hot Cheetos? It's too much. Yeah. That's part that's like, what? Because I feel like I would maybe eat that. Like, I like ramen. I like... Birria, I like onions.
00:51:28
Speaker
It's for the team. Why do I need Cheetos on there? I don't want to handle the hot Cheetos. Well, I like a little bit of spice, but I don't like hot Cheetos because it's just pure spice. There's no flavor whatsoever to it. And it's like just filled If it's going spicy, at least have a little bit of flavor with it. Yes. Yeah.
00:51:46
Speaker
You're just coating your esophagus with pain. Yeah. yeah The other thing is that while that sounds good, I'm not sure I want to eat that in the Florida humidity. Like a ramen.
00:51:59
Speaker
Yeah, that does sound kind of... They had soup last year, which was kind of the same. like but The corn chowder, it was delicious, but it was kind of like...
00:52:11
Speaker
It's a little rough. And that was like no November. Yeah. yeah and i had it
00:52:19
Speaker
And pizza fries are back and I'm not mad. i havet I have a confession. I've never had them. You haven't. Kelly. but happened What? Pizza fries. What?
00:52:31
Speaker
know. I knew you were going react. They are so you good. I'll get them. I've had like so many of the different specialty foods there and that was still my favorite.
00:52:41
Speaker
Yes. That's always my favorite. and Okay, I'll try it. We will. somebody shares with me. That's going to be a good time to bring up Hunter's question because that's going to be my answer for it. But he says, what classic HHN food sample?
00:52:57
Speaker
staple would you get rid of or change not going to get rid of it but i don't want crinkle cut fries i want a different type of fry with the pizza fries crinkle cut are the second worst fries there is out of all the fries but they don't taste bad in these like when it comes to this i like that they're crunchy could be so middle though but what kind of fries Anything that's not crinkle or steak fries because steak are the number one worst fries.
00:53:23
Speaker
Okay. case you guys were wondering. So like swirly fries. i agree about the the steak fries, but i like a crinkle cut. Yeah. um What are the other ones that are staples?
00:53:36
Speaker
Staples? The stintators probably I would say is staple. which They're not on a stick this year. They're just served as chips, I heard. Oh, that's weird. Well, they're not twisted then. They're just taters.
00:53:49
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. The twisted ones weren't doing it. they weren never was them I feel like the only staple I got from year to year was the gul juice. And we know that's fate.
00:54:01
Speaker
The fate of that. so Yeah. yeah i think the Would you say the pizza skulls are a staple? I think so. It's been several years now. i don't think I've had one.
00:54:12
Speaker
Yeah, neither have I. i would I would say I would change, not change necessarily the ones they have, but for the pizza fries, I think they because they have the the pepperoni and then they have the vegetarian.
00:54:26
Speaker
I think they should have every year a different third option that's somehow tied to the event. I think that could be kind of cool with like different toppings. They used to have the sweet potato one, which actually wasn't bad. I really like that one. That was with and will sweet potato fries with...
00:54:43
Speaker
um think it marshmallow and chocolate. Yes. Yes. Yeah. It was really
Improving HHN Food and Event Logistics
00:54:48
Speaker
good. That was actually really good. Bring it back. But I don't know if they have, was it on the menu? I don't think so. I think it was just like the regular.
00:54:55
Speaker
Yeah. That was pretty good. I'm not a big pepperoni fan of all pizza toppings,
00:55:04
Speaker
but I'll try them. Yeah.
00:55:09
Speaker
We do have one more food question from CPred. So, He says, ah the TCS team is in charge of food and beverage for HHN this year. What offerings would you pitch to management?
00:55:21
Speaker
So anything that you guys wish you saw that did not end up on the menu? Besides Gould Juice, Kelly? me I wish there were more rum drinks, obviously. But I think one thing i was a little surprised about, and maybe it's because I only watched the one Jason movie without Jason, but...
00:55:39
Speaker
I felt like the food at that booth was going to be a little bit more camp. Like obviously they have the s'mores, but they their other food options are like the sausage and don't even remember what the other one is.
00:55:51
Speaker
is it the Lotes? Yeah, it is. Okay, fair. I guess that's kind of camp fiery. I just pictured more of like, I don't know, maybe like the hot dog there or like chili or like something that you have when you're camping more.
00:56:05
Speaker
I felt like that was a little bit of like different than I anticipated. I saw a lot of people talking and I still haven't watched fallout, but there's some sort of like soda that they drink in fallout that people thought they would have.
00:56:18
Speaker
Do you guys know what I'm talking about? oh Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people thought they would have that. I don't, I don't know much about it, but. I mean, it it would have been similar to the Radaway situation. It would have been like a, not even a mocktail, I guess just an extra soda to offer.
00:56:33
Speaker
Yeah. It's probably some licensing stuff with that. Cause like getting one of the soda makers to like do a custom whatever. Yeah. That's exactly what i was wondering. Yeah. Yeah. I would have liked to have seen,
00:56:46
Speaker
I don't know even know if they've ever done this, but like not fried stuff, like a bowl. You know how you can get like a Mediterranean bowl or a Chipotle bowl?
00:56:57
Speaker
Some kind of something like that, which has felt feels a little more fresh. Yeah. yeah would be nice Something a little more fulfilling. I feel like in years past, there was a lot more focus on like vegetarian and vegan options.
00:57:11
Speaker
And like this year, they have like the... vegan walking taco, but like not a lot of other, um lot of other, other advertised vegan items. Um, and not that like, for me, it makes that much of a difference, but like last year, even they had just like that. Um, it was at the, um Goblin's booth. It was like that vegetable. It was like, um, don't remember exactly what vegetables, there was like squash in it. And like, I don't know, basically zoodles. And it was so good.
00:57:40
Speaker
Like, I'm just surprised there's not more of that. I'm wondering, so like the vegan option, for example, the walking taco, how many people does that actually appeal to? Because meat eaters aren't going to get it.
00:57:51
Speaker
And a lot of the vegans and vegetarians that I know, they don't really go for the impossible meats much. I mean, a vegan chorizo, yeah I just don't know how many people are going to get that. I would prefer like a vegan bowl or something like you were saying, Joey, just beans, rice, some vegetables. Yeah.
00:58:12
Speaker
Like you can make vegetables really filling and delicious.
00:58:17
Speaker
And that's cheaper than getting all of these impossible meats. Yeah, for sure.
00:58:24
Speaker
right. Any ah final thoughts on the food?
00:58:29
Speaker
We'll find out. We will report back. yeah um I feel like once we see it in person, I feel like we'll have better judgment. yeah Yeah. Some of these, we don't have pictures of like the actual what's being served. So who knows?
00:58:42
Speaker
Definitely. We're to have a long recap episode or a multi-part. Yeah. I'm thinking two parts. Yeah. ah We do have the full map released.
00:58:56
Speaker
I know there were some differences in that, Kelly. Yeah. Yeah. Initially there were like some, Joe, you posted the initial thing where there was like multiple paths to the soundstage houses, presumably because of the deconstruction of, um, Ripper ride rocket as part of that. Yeah.
00:59:16
Speaker
Um, but it looks like now there are two paths, path a and path B to get to any of the soundstage houses, a is much closer to the entrance of, um, Wyatt six five nights.
00:59:34
Speaker
And then B is further back kind of by Fallon. And that's closer to grave of flesh and terrifier. And then artist is right in the middle with their cue and entrance being in front of the stage there where they have that, that cue typically.
00:59:52
Speaker
um where the exit points are is not completely clear. It looks like it's going be more of like a loop situation than like the initial version that we saw was like, it'll enter here, but exit here. And then you're kind of near this house, but you have to go all the way back around to like get to the other sounds.
01:00:08
Speaker
It looks like it's going be better than that, but yeah, a little bit unclear where everything will dump out, which will definitely affect like our, our plan and as far as like the order to do things.
01:00:20
Speaker
I'm guessing that like, but at least two of them will dump back into that loop. And then some of the others, like they always have exited next to the amphitheater. yeah think it'll kind of be over there again.
01:00:31
Speaker
Yeah. but But it's nice that it's not a dead end. Cause what we saw originally was a dead end, yeah like one sided path. And now it's at least a loop. So you can kind of approach from both ways and the guest flow will be a little better. Yeah.
El Artista Podcast and Storyline Connections
01:00:42
Speaker
A lot of this will come to late. Like I know last year, a lot of people made their own, version of the map where like all the food booths were listed and all the entrances and exits were listed. And we utilized one Joey that you had a lot. And I hope somebody makes that soon. I'm sure they will since, you know, everybody's experiencing it this weekend.
01:01:01
Speaker
So that will help. But, and then the rest of the house locations are as expected. is at, um, um Fast and Furious. And then we have the two new tents that have Gulkin and Fallout. And then in the corner tent is Dolls and in the tent closest to Central Park is Hatch and Chains. So those were as expected. The shows are where we expected them to be.
01:01:29
Speaker
we kind of knew where all of the zones were because of the the things that have been brought out already. Really the rest is just the food booths. And what's confusing about that is the food booth is not necessarily closest to its house.
01:01:44
Speaker
it the house So like a ton of the food booths are over in the New York area. But then like there's some random other ones spread about that don't necessarily make any sense of what their location is. So that'll be something to kind of look at a little bit ahead of time. But on the app, it's updated. You can see all of that.
01:02:06
Speaker
So going back to the the new path by Wyatt Six, do we think that's going to be sort of like a cue before you split into the cues? Or is it more of just like an extension of the walkway where you can you know kind of hang out, pick a cue, whatever?
01:02:25
Speaker
I think it's going to be more of an extension. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. I think it's going to be like the two new tents where you take the long walk back there and then you choose. I think it's going to be similar to that. okay Gotcha. like The entrances will just be really close to each other. And then what they do after that point could be literally anything. Cause if you actually look at the sound stages, the houses are in, it's never anywhere near where the actual entrance is Yeah.
01:02:48
Speaker
They're like all back in the corner there, but you enter much further away and then kind of get there. yeah. It'll be interesting to see how they do it. mean Especially with like the most popular IPs being there.
01:03:02
Speaker
Like with Terrifier and Five Nights.
01:03:08
Speaker
yeah I think it's going to be busy over there.
01:03:11
Speaker
If it's your first time at HHN, bring your walking shoes.
01:03:17
Speaker
Yeah. So they have released, I think only one podcast episode, better late than never, but um the El Artista, I have not listened to it.
01:03:29
Speaker
Have you guys listened to it? haven't listened to it yet. It's a good one to listen to for sure. Yeah, it definitely gives a little bit. It's not anything like earth shadowing as far as like what the house is. Like the description of the house is pretty much what the house is, but the story on the podcast is,
01:03:46
Speaker
kind of features this woman, Sophia, who's visiting the the mansion um and kind of like looking back from like a historical perspective. She was like a journalist or something or a photographer and she's there to kind of try to uncover some of the secrets or the, of the legend. And um she, while she's there kind of feels like the spirits that, um,
01:04:12
Speaker
that were there in the house that are known as part of the legend from hundreds of years earlier, like taking over her as well. And she experiences kind of what the artist, Sergio, who is the main character of the house experienced when he was there. And it refers to some of his artwork and it refers a lot to the conservatory, which we heard about being like an overarching theme of the event.
01:04:34
Speaker
So we're definitely going to see that. It sounds like it's like a it stained glass encased building that some of His art artwork is displayed on the stained glass.
01:04:45
Speaker
I thought it was also interesting.
Avoiding HHN Spoilers and Merchandise Preferences
01:04:47
Speaker
um Little tiny like, i don't know, Easter eggs to tie in other parts of the event. They mentioned the cat lady in it, um which was cool. And I think that was maybe the only one, but I... I heard Terrifier, because she they're... Not directly, but like ah creepy mime was mentioned. Okay, yeah. And they also mentioned like ah basically an animatronic, which was Five Nights at Freddy's. So there was like multiple things that were kind of dropped or little tie-ins.
01:05:17
Speaker
Yeah. It was kind of like that this this artist... have has all of these different creations. Like he uses different mediums. So he does paintings and he does sculptures and these things. And so it's kind of trying to make you think that, you know, some of the other leads of these other houses have emerged from his creations. work Yeah.
01:05:37
Speaker
Which is a cool way to tie it in. Like clearly this is their like premier house of the event, their premier original that they've talked to most about. So they also today released like a two minute,
01:05:48
Speaker
thing on the cat lady, which is just reading, I think what the signage in the scare zone says, like the story of, of her, it's literally two minutes long. I haven't listened yet, but, but yeah, that i hope they put more out on the other originals. Cause I do feel like it gives a lot of helpful context before going in some of these houses. Like, I feel like I know so little about Galkin and even like grave of flesh. Yeah.
01:06:15
Speaker
Like those two, especially are I'm like, we need some context. Yeah, they're giving out they're showing a lot of favoritism with some of these houses. IPs as well. I feel like Fallout and Jason are kind of on the back burner.
01:06:27
Speaker
Yeah, like we're getting so much Terrifier. We're getting so much um Five Nights and not enough of like the rest of them. Even with Wyatt Six, I feel like they're not talking about as much either. Yeah. Yeah.
01:06:40
Speaker
Yeah, true I mean, a lot of that is just hype from influencers though. I mean, there's just so much out there. Sometimes it's hard to discern what's direct from the park, what's from influencers, what was like third party knowledge from a panel that was in translated via the social media. Like, yeah know there's a lot going on. But also with the merch, I'm noticing that there's like hardly any Jason merch.
01:07:06
Speaker
I feel like I'm not seeing as much when it comes to yeah as well. So I don't know. It's kind of scary because I'm like, damn, like, are we not going to get like the best houses with those, you know, IPs that they're not really giving the special treatment to? i don't know.
01:07:21
Speaker
Yeah. It's so hard because I'm like excited to see what everyone going this weekend says, like what emerges as like the talked about houses. But part of me like doesn't even want to look at any of that and just. Yeah, same. And three days later, like, yeah, I know going to look.
01:07:39
Speaker
I'm going to. At the very least, don't want to see any like walkthrough videos. Yeah, no, definitely. And some of that will be coming out tomorrow, my understanding, like during that media event tomorrow, there will be some footage that comes out. People are allowed to film in there. Yeah.
01:07:55
Speaker
yeah I mean, we're we're there, guys. Tonight is team member preview. Tomorrow is press. Thursday is premium scream. And then Friday is opening night. So...
01:08:07
Speaker
We've made it. We've been talking about it for almost a year. So if anybody posts spoilers, I'm blocking. Don't tag us in your spoilers. Right.
01:08:19
Speaker
Yeah. I'm just excited to see how it goes and what people think.
01:08:25
Speaker
I'm sure we'll see some stuff from the scare zones. It's kind of hard to avoid that. Oh, we haven't really been able to see them at night, you know?
01:08:34
Speaker
Unfortunately, my TikTok algorithm is going to show me some spoilers. Yeah. Yep. Especially since we've been talking about it in front of our phones. Yeah. Yeah.
01:08:46
Speaker
I think like, I was so excited to like tonight, like see what the team members are saying, but that is never, I feel like that's, love to the team members, but I feel like that becomes pretty biased pretty quickly. So yeah, for sure. it does And plus they're, they can't, I guess they can talk about it, but they definitely can't take any pictures or videos.
01:09:05
Speaker
Right. mom I've heard some team members call this the purge night because a lot of people get fired for breaking the rules, taking videos and pictures or just otherwise breaking rules. So hopefully there's not too much of that going on. Yeah. We need them.
01:09:25
Speaker
Um, let's see. We kind of answered a lot of questions as we went tonight. We do have a couple more, from C-Pred again, any merch options that you're looking forward to, or that would be cool to see them offer. Hmm.
01:09:42
Speaker
I always, i don't normally buy merch. I do have a couple of the just, um, like annual shirts with all the houses on them, but nothing really stood out to me this year.
01:09:55
Speaker
I like those. I wish they were like better. Yeah. yeah my houses I don't own any of those. like I'm actually like a huge fan of like the unique designs that they have. like Last year, they had a cool ghost Ghostbusters um tank top that I got.
01:10:08
Speaker
and then... This year I noticed that there was actually a scare zone shirt, which looks really cool. Like the artwork looks pretty cool. um And I guess it there's like a character from like each scare zone on that shirt, which looks really cool.
01:10:22
Speaker
And then there's also also a house one where I guess they have characters from like each of the houses on the shirt as well. Like I guess all of the original houses, which that's a first I've never seen that before.
01:10:33
Speaker
You know, you mostly see that with like a bunch of IPs on the same shirt, but not really the original houses in the same shirt. um So those kind of caught my eye. But besides that, nothing is really standing out too much.
01:10:45
Speaker
Yeah, I'm like a I have too many theme park clothes already. So I'm more of a stickers, magnets and pins person, like something small. um So I don't even know if they do this. But if they were if they had like an HHN 2025 sticker or a magnet, I would totally buy that.
01:11:03
Speaker
especially like if it had like the origins of horror like twisty vines and stuff yeah yeah i'm sure they do they used to i haven't seen a magnet in a few years i don't know i've ever seen them in the in the store i've seen them from 2018 i know i have one bring it back no i definitely should and
01:11:23
Speaker
um Another question from Brayden. Not HHN related, but what is one coaster slash ride that you wish had merch but doesn't? Stardust Racers.
01:11:35
Speaker
Yeah. What the heck? No comment. The Celestial Park game for merch is really poor. Really poor. Merch in general, Fantasialand, their merch game sucks.
01:11:49
Speaker
I love the park. It's the most incredible park ever, but their merch game sucks. Yes. like i wanted there was I wanted to get so much and I did not find anything that caught my eye.
01:12:01
Speaker
Like they don't even have a line of merch for Taryn or Fly Yeah. I got a Taryn shirt because I felt like I had to get something there. That was like the only thing I liked. And the shirt is terrible. It's like that like blue, like what washed Taryn shirt that you see that everybody has. But like it literally like stains other clothes. Like the blue comes off of it. It's terrible. Oh, no. I mean, I know that there was some... I know... i think Caleb had bought...
01:12:28
Speaker
uh like one of the fly shirts which looked pretty cool but like there just weren't many options like it was like one shirt for each like well if you're lucky if you the attraction had any merch but yeah but they did it was just like one option and you know what i think about about coaster merch now is that presentation we had thorpe park i'm like They put so much effort into their coaster merch line. like Yeah.
01:12:54
Speaker
Come on, other people. There are people out there that this is like their dream job. Let people make better coaster merch. Right. mean, even a contractor, you don't need a full-time person to do this. But if you find somebody that's passionate about it and contract them and make a whole thing and just do it once.
01:13:11
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
01:13:14
Speaker
Give Gabby some work. She'd do some great work. I was going to say, yeah. Gabby would love to do that. We need it.
01:13:26
Speaker
All right, guys.
01:13:29
Speaker
Anything else on our last episode before we go to HHN?
Upcoming HHN Event Excitement and Future Plans
01:13:34
Speaker
That's so weird to say. I'm so excited. know. It still feels like the middle of the summer and it sort of is a little bit. That's what feels weird about it to me. We just had an event that felt very summery and now it's like, bam, HHN. Right. Yeah.
01:13:49
Speaker
I love the extension of spooky season. I decorated my house like a week ago because the kids wanted to. was like, yes, I accept Halloween in this house. Yep.
01:14:00
Speaker
Love it. Yep. But we are very excited. We'll be back in, don't know, a couple weeks with um probably a couple episodes. I'm thinking we're going to have split this into two.
01:14:12
Speaker
Probably. Yeah. at least So we'll have lots of food updates, houses, scare zones. And most importantly, I will have a redemption at Epic Universe.
01:14:24
Speaker
Oh my gosh. It's going to be a whole episode and on its own. oh I'll keep it short. I'll keep it short. I promise.
01:14:34
Speaker
But ah make sure you follow us. We're on Instagram at thrillschillsandspills. ah We are on Twitter at what is it, Joey? T underscore C underscore S pod.
01:14:47
Speaker
So give us a follow you don't miss an episode. Thank you for listening. Stay spooky, everyone.
01:14:57
Speaker
That's T, actually.