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Hot Takes and Hot Chocolate
47 Plays23 days ago
We're starting out the holiday season strong with a visit to Busch Gardens Williamsburg's Christmas Town event! Hear our takes on the shows, the lights, and the hot chocolate. Plus...spooky season is never really over, so our first HHN 35 speculation begins!
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Transcript
Introduction to Thrill Children's Spills
00:00:09
Speaker
We're going to play a little game we call Spill the Tea. Hey,
00:00:15
Speaker
hey everyone. Welcome to Thrill Children's Spills, where we spill the tea on all things, theme parks, special events, and especially spooky season. i am Kelly. I'm Joey. I'm Tyler.
00:00:25
Speaker
And unfortunately, tonight we are missing Rafa. He will be back next episode, but tonight it's just the three of us. Spooky season is officially over.
00:00:37
Speaker
or is it? We'll talk more about that later, but... We are jumping right into holiday season today.
Christmastown at Busch Gardens Overview
00:00:45
Speaker
All three of us were recently at Christmastown at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. So we'll cover that and we'll have some questions.
00:00:54
Speaker
um But first, Spills, Joey, what do you have? So um this week is IAPA, which is the large trade show for the amusement park and theme park industry.
00:01:08
Speaker
um And ah basically, it's sometimes it's very exciting. And this year, unfortunately, it is not particularly exciting. um And that's kind of my spill is that I wish...
00:01:20
Speaker
There was more interesting things happening at IAPA. um a lot of the stuff that we're seeing revealed has already been announced. So we might only be getting like a train reveal um or something of that nature or like projects that are like we kind of already knew about are being confirmed. Like the Zamperla Double Heart in Latte World was confirmed at IAPA. So, my but my one kind of like highlight that I wanted to to make sure that people noticed, because this kind of came out of the blue, S&S had brought their Rail Rider attraction. um They've shown off the the train for it before. They did bring a cute version of like a mine train themed version of it this year, which is cool, but not particularly exciting. It's like a family coaster and I'm not even sure they're going to sell any because it has bad capacity. But anyway,
00:02:09
Speaker
The cool thing that came out was they they literally posted a video without a description of this pretty large scale looking roller coaster that looks like an evolved gale force, um like with a swing launch, but with a complete layout um that looks very tall next to a drop tower. And for a minute, it was like, where is this? Like, what are they even showing us? um But then...
00:02:34
Speaker
Some people on the floor like walked up to SNS at their booth and said, is this video that you guys posted real? Like, is this just a rendering or is it happening? And they were like, oh, yeah, it's happening. So apparently someplace called Mango's Tropical Cafe in Orlando, Florida, is going to be building this large scale LSM coaster with an SNS drop tower next to it.
00:02:58
Speaker
um And for those people that haven't ridden Gale Force, I think there's been some debate about the comfort level of the the restraints and everything. But I think the layout's fantastic. um It's a very aggressive, forceful ride a small layout. And this looks like double the size of it. So I'm really
Trade Show and Coaster Announcements
00:03:15
Speaker
excited about that. And I think that's the most interesting thing that has come out of IAPA so far.
00:03:20
Speaker
um We'll see how tomorrow goes. But I thought it was pretty cool. I think I missed the location. So Mango's Tropical Cafe is the one that's building it? Yes. Where?
00:03:32
Speaker
I've never heard of this place before. i guess they want to kind of jump on the train because, you know, so many places are adding in attractions to draw people in. I don't know. I've been... There's Hibachi place right next to it, if it's the one near Universal. I think that's a chain. There are multiple ones, but it's just like... um Like a bar nightclub type of thing. And there's no space there. I'm very confused. It's like right off of, I think it's off of Sand Lake.
00:04:01
Speaker
Like it's right near Universal. There's no space there that I can think of. ah I don't know how they're doing it. There's like the rendering is kind of vague, um but that's where they're saying it is. That's crazy. So I don't know. Oh my God. It looks cool.
00:04:18
Speaker
Yeah. I'm interested to see you how they manage that. Yeah, for sure. um Hopefully what happened with Gale Force doesn't happen here because they had to completely replace all the track on Gale Force the first time they built it. yeah.
00:04:34
Speaker
I was also surprised to see Family Kingdom getting an RMC. Yeah, that was the other surprise. was like, what the heck? Now I have to go back there? It was a hundred feet tall, custom layout, which makes sense because if you are familiar with their plot of land, it's strangely shaped and like i don't even know how they're gonna fit it in there but i was pissed there's my spill real spill i was pissed i was like i literally went to family kingdom this year and i cleared all of myrtle beach and you're telling me i have to go back there now same damn it rmc i did it last year i did it last year in like six hours i went there for six hours like to myrtle beach for six hours and then flew back home
Holiday Season and Hot Chocolate Obsession
00:05:16
Speaker
Literally, same. I did a day trip. was like, now i have to do it again. I'm happy for RMC to get a sale because it's been a minute, it seems like, since they've announced a new project. so Well, hopefully it's better than Joy. joy We shall see.
00:05:32
Speaker
Buzzbars Myrtle Beach Wobble coming soon. Oh my gosh. Joking, maybe.
00:05:41
Speaker
Joking for now. For now, i'm joking. Swamp Fox is really fun, though. so It is really fun. plus We do love a beach. And a beach. That's true. It'd be a very chill one. Anyways, do you have any spills? Are we still spill-less?
00:05:57
Speaker
ah Yeah, I can't think of anything. Okay, my spill is that I think I'm officially moving my Uncrustable, I'm retiring my Uncrustable obsession and moving into seasonally here, hot chocolate obsession, which is not new for me. i love hot chocolate every like cold season.
00:06:18
Speaker
Um, but this weekend started it off cause we had excellent hot chocolate and we'll talk about that in a little bit, but I'm very particular about my hot chocolate. It can't be too hot. Can't be too cold. Like I'm not trying to burn my mouth, the roof of my mouth. That's the worst thing ever when you have a skin flap hanging down.
00:06:35
Speaker
But if you order hot chocolate and it comes and it's lukewarm, that's the worst. That's even worse than it being too hot. So it's gotta be just right. That's why I like to drink it though. I like it lukewarm.
00:06:47
Speaker
o Well, if it comes out hot to begin with, you can allow it to get to your preferred temperature. So I think i think that's better for everyone. Yeah. Take some time. Also, if it's cold, it's nice to hold it.
00:07:02
Speaker
feels great. Yeah, unless it's 65 degrees when you're at Christmastown. True.
Christmastown Shows and Decorations
00:07:08
Speaker
True, true. Yeah. Okay, well, that that brings us to Christmastown. So this past weekend was the first weekend. Apparently, it was it was re like named or re-advertised as like Christmastown previews. um I'm going to let either Tyler or Joey lead this section a little bit just because they grew up going to Christmastown and it was my first time. So I feel like they'll they'll be able to lead this a little bit better.
00:07:36
Speaker
Go ahead, Joey. Okay. um Well, first of all, shout out to my mom and grandma who came along. um It's been years. since he Grandma was working. She could rope drop with the best. Yeah, she's a trooper. She really is. um She's 87 years old and she can. Yeah, I know.
00:07:54
Speaker
She can walk. So good. I know she's I'm super impressed by her and I always tell her I'm like I don't think i'm going to be in your condition am i at my at your age like I'm impressed by her um always and the fact that she can keep up especially with the hills at that park I always get worried I'm like we need to slow down because um it is geographically challenging but um Yeah, and it was it was good to be there with them because we've gone to Christmastown, you know, many times over the years. But it's been like, I think, five plus years since we've gone together, um especially since Christmastown became an upcharge um where like the platinum passes don't get in. um and They have like a legacy platinum pass that that doesn't get them in as opposed to the memberships that they have now. So it's been a while. um So that was fun. Yeah.
00:08:41
Speaker
We we can skip over the first show we did since um that was sort of the end of your night. But we all got together um in England. It was still daytime. So we went right to um the Ireland area to see Gloria while the sun was still out. And we were kind of waiting for the lights to to come out. um That is a show that I think has been running since around 20...
00:09:07
Speaker
12 ish and then had a little bit of a break and came back this year. um It's, I think, probably the best show in the park. um it's It's like for a theme park show. I think it's elevated um above kind of the normal type of show that you would see in the way that it's presented in the way that the.
00:09:30
Speaker
arrangements are. um It's obviously like a um kind of inspired by, you know, like the the religious story of Christmas with Jesus and the story of the wise men traveling there and Jesus and Mary and all of that or Joseph and Mary. um And it's ah primarily vocalists. It's not really a dance show until the very end, kind of, but it's more of a movers thing than like a real dance show. It's choir dance. yeah Exactly. It's got some choir moves.
00:10:01
Speaker
um And it also has live musicians, which I believe is now the only Christmastown show that features them. um Because I didn't see any in the fest house when I saw that show.
00:10:13
Speaker
um So that's always nice to see because um there's not a lot of parks that have like real live music. A lot of times they just use tracks. um That being said, it used to have like 10 live musicians and now has five. So they've cut the budget a little bit there.
00:10:27
Speaker
um I do think that like it's a very impressive thing. visual show like they use projections quite well um the first year that they did it it was a little low budget and then they came back and were like okay let's like make this better and um they significantly improved all the graphics and everything so they they use like a scrim at the front of the stage and it kind of kind of makes it look like their performers are like in the midst of the projections happening which is pretty neat um what do you think of that I loved Gloria. i was like, I did not feel in the Christmas spirit because, you know, it's like November, in middle of November, it was warm. um There's not like Christmas stuff out really elsewhere unless you go to like Target, but like people don't really have their decorations out. This just worked out for us for when we could go. but I left there like feeling a little Christmassy, I'm not going to lie. The vocalists were so good. Like I was so impressed that they are coming from sea is parked. Like i I just haven't really been to a theme park show outside of like Disney and Universal where the like performance quality is that impressive. And the the projection, yeah, initially that like kind of got me. I was like, how are they doing that? Like that looks so good. And I know it's like older technology. Like you could tell it could be updated some of the projections, but like how it looks and especially in the beginning, um it was so cool. I really enjoyed it and would see it.
00:11:53
Speaker
I would see it every time I go there. If I go back. I love that show. It's been my favorite Christmas town show since like you said, Joey, it started in like 2011, 2012, something like that.
00:12:05
Speaker
I loved it so much back then. I even went on New Year's Eve just to see like the last show of the season. So I was very happy when they brought it back. I would say if you're not a religious person,
00:12:19
Speaker
Don't let that deter you from seeing this show. I think no matter your religion or lack of religion, I think you can definitely enjoy this just based on the musical talent and the vocalist and the way they use the effects and everything.
00:12:33
Speaker
Yeah. It's um it's definitely vocally the most impressive show um at the park. Like they put the singers over there. Oh, yeah. Who really can can make it happen, um which, like you said, like, I don't know. I I feel like a lot of theme park shows tend to go towards. um pop arrangements and this is decidedly not that it's kind of like soulful jazzy it's not um like a super upbeat kind of cheesy uh arrangements of songs um it's a little more maybe a little bit too self-serious at some moments but like i appreciate that that it's a kind of different arrangement style that you might see from a a typical theme park show yeah there's really only one song that i don't think really hits the one about like
00:13:23
Speaker
Where the the woman's up there solo with the present PowerPoint presentation. Yeah. Yep. With the blue dress. Yeah. yeah That's the weakest moment. um Because it doesn't really like follow this the story necessarily. But it's still not bad by any means. It's just the weak point.
00:13:42
Speaker
Yeah. um So that was fun. And then we started, i think... Was it dark when we left that show yet? Yeah, it was pretty dark. Yeah. So already. And I think it was only like, what, like 530 or something. Yeah. Six ish.
00:14:01
Speaker
So we just started walking around the park, um seeing the lights. ah We headed all the way from Ireland through to new france um and then we took the christmastown train over there um it was a pretty like the way that they managed the line is kind of a mess for that um but it it looks really intimidating but it really didn't take that long it felt like to for us to get on it so it looked way worse than it actually was but there's just There's no way to manage that line. So I think they did the best they could without opening up the entire Lascut queue. Yeah, yeah.
00:14:41
Speaker
what do you think? I liked it. Yeah. I feel like... I have, so we have this thing around here called lights in the parkway where it's like very similar thing. And a a a bunch of places have it. Hershey has one where it's basically you'd like a drive through the light display thing. And I've definitely seen much more impressive lights. And I don't know that this is meant to be that this is obviously just like, they have parts of the park decorated with different lights that you're able to see while you're on the train. But I feel like,
00:15:15
Speaker
There was some like empty, I mean, i don't know. It was, it was, it was nice. It was relaxing. i think it, I'll always love a train ride regardless of what I'm looking at. So it was fine.
00:15:28
Speaker
It was fine. Yeah, it's not like a blow you away experience with the lights. Like some of those drive through attractions are wild. Like they truly have so many lights. And this is not really that. um I will say that there are at least some parts where you get to see lights that you can't see anywhere else really from the train.
00:15:47
Speaker
um But there was a particular dead spot. I don't think it used to be this way. But now that Big Bad Wolf is there. that whole area is kind of a dead spot because I think there's just not really space for them to put lights there. But I wish they had a little bit more going on over there somehow.
00:16:02
Speaker
I got the vibe that we definitely got a first weekend experience. I think they're going to continue adding lights out there as the season progresses. Yeah, it's very, very possible. I will say, though, like it was pretty close to what I'm used to seeing. There was just a couple things here and there that I was like, hmm, maybe something's missing there.
00:16:22
Speaker
I think the, I don't know if you were going to bring this up later, but I think the like in park decor was really nice still. Like everything looked great walking around. I loved the entrance area with like the classic white lights and the greenery. And I like how each, each like country has kind of its own vibe. That's a nice touch.
00:16:42
Speaker
Yeah, that's something that Christmastown has established from the very beginning is that each of their lands were kind of this their own vibe. um ah The entertainment director at the time was like very specific about wanting to do that because I think a lot of parks just kind of put lights everywhere and they're all kind of in the same theme, essentially. um Or they just kind of like throw stuff up randomly and it doesn't really have a rhyme or reason to it. I kind of felt that way about Hershey. Like they have lights around that are like nice, but there's not like a specific through line through any of it. Whereas at Busch Gardens, like in England, you walk in, it's like the classic wreaths and the garland and the white lights. And then you go into Scotland and it's like the really like um cool blue lights. And then you go into Ireland and they have the green one. So every every section has its own thing.
00:17:33
Speaker
Let's see.
Food and Shows at Fest House
00:17:34
Speaker
Where do we head next? We headed to the Fest House. um Me and my family got some food. You guys did, too, but not in the Fest House. um And we saw like, I would say 80 percent of the show that um goes on in the Fest House, which this year is new. It's called Christmastown Live.
00:17:54
Speaker
What did you guys got a pretzel, right? Pretzel and hot chocolate. It was from the the like the main pretzel shop. So the. Yeah, the one right across from Revolta in places hit or miss, but it hit that night. That pretzel was so good. bor Yeah. Like they do actually have fresh dough there. They don't do frozen ah stuff there, but sometimes it sits out too long. So if you get like a fresh one, it's really it's really good. Yeah, it was fresh. The line was 20 people out the door, so they were they were going through pretzels for sure.
00:18:29
Speaker
Right. Yeah. There was a pretty long line in the fest house for the food, which is kind of to be expected, but it didn't take us terribly long to get through it. um We ended up like looking at the sort of Christmas food that they had and it was like roasted chicken and vegetables and stuff. And it just looked so Cisco for lack of a better word that I was like, yeah i don't know about that. So we ended up just getting a salad and some of the pizzas, which the pizzas looked better than we expected. um And they were actually decent. They weren't like amazing. But um and they had we got ones that had Italian sausage and bacon on it, which was a little different for a theme park pizza. And that was that was all right.
00:19:07
Speaker
Nothing particularly exciting, though, really, for the food in there. It's just kind of end show. The show was cute. um it When I first saw it advertised, I thought it was going to be a little bit more of a throwback to a show that they used to have there called Deck the Halls that felt very um classic Christmas and the way that they sung the songs was kind of in that classic style, um which this was...
00:19:35
Speaker
It had like a 50s TV show like that's what the live is. It's like they were recording a ah TV show live in front of you and they had like these cameras. They were rolling around and stuff. So and everybody was wearing costumes and stuff emblematic of kind of the 50s, 60s era.
00:19:52
Speaker
But the arrangements of the songs and stuff were still kind of modern poppy. It didn't really feel as like rooted in its time. um Which is fine, though, because ah the other shows that they have don't really have that element right now. So I think it's appropriate to have like a a more pop driven show. It just wasn't necessarily what I expected.
00:20:13
Speaker
um The dancers there for sure were. working it out like that was kind of the the the main dance show I would say if out of all of them that we saw um so yeah it was fun it's it's not um super plot heavy or like where you need to focus a lot on it which works for that venue because a lot of people are sitting and eating and you know like you're not paying 100 attention to it at all times um so yeah I think it worked Yeah, I liked the pretzel. I'm not like like hot pretzels are not my go-to snack usually because I feel like a lot of them, especially at theme parks, are very like bready.
00:20:52
Speaker
Like it' it tastes more like bread than pretzel. Like I love an Annie Ann's pretzel and this was kind of close to that. It it was really good. And my body was craving all the salt. So like it just it just hit. And then... um the hot chocolate was really, really good. It was like a pretty big cup. I don't know if that's like their standard, but it was like $4 and something for like a generous portion of hot chocolate, bigger than you'd get probably anywhere else. And it was like pretty sweet, pretty rich, but like you you don't get sick of it drinking it. Like I easily drank the whole thing.
00:21:26
Speaker
And then you got the peppermint one. Yeah, I had the peppermint because I've never had it before. um I think I probably prefer the original better. I'm not the hugest peppermint fan, but it was good.
00:21:40
Speaker
um I drank the whole thing. I do feel like the cups are way bigger than they've been in the past. like It almost seemed like it was the first weekend and they just like didn't know which cups to use or something because at a Seas Park, there's no way we get that good of a deal.
00:21:57
Speaker
was wild. Preview hot chocolate. and That was probably... That was probably like 14 to 16 ounces of hot chocolate. Yeah, that was a cup. It was nice size cup for sure. I was searching all over because y'all had gotten it and then I hadn't gotten it yet, but I needed to get it later. So I was searching all over the park for the darn hot chocolate. And there used to be, I feel, so many stands for it.
00:22:23
Speaker
And I couldn't find any. So there was like only at the... um uh like at the main food locations and of course they all had these crazy long lines so i eventually ended up going to the same exact one that you guys did ah and got hot chocolate there um but yeah i get the peppermint one i've gotten that for for years um i really like it um i like i've forgotten how good it or had forgotten how good it was um and then i tasted it and i was like oh yeah that's nice i will say the one thing about the peppermint is the way that they do it is they like put
00:22:54
Speaker
like a little peppermint thing in the bottom and then they pour the hot chocolate over it. So as you get closer and closer to the bottom, it gets stronger like peppermint, um which is kind of funny. I wish it was more like evenly distributed in there, but I understand because it's, it all comes out of the same like vat basically it's all hot chocolate in there and they just add the little mint into it for, for the peppermint. Oh, I didn't know that. So it's just a little candy and then it just melts. It just dissolves. Yeah.
00:23:20
Speaker
Yeah. Interesting. Oh, I feel like when I, that's crazy. Cause I feel like I sipped yours when it was like still pretty full and it still tasted pretty pepperminty. It does. Yeah. Yeah. It definitely like it, it, it gets through the whole thing, but definitely when you hit the bottom, I feel like there's like a little unmelted part because it gets super strong. Yeah.
00:23:43
Speaker
um But it's it's still really good. I i enjoyed it a lot. um Okay. And then we walked through Italy. um Saw some of the lights there. We walked past the show there happening, which I can't remember the name. Oh, I think it's called Wise Men, um which is like three singers. So that's kind of their smallest scale show.
00:24:03
Speaker
It's in the Italy Pavilion, which is right next to another food venue. So it's kind of a nice place if you want to grab some food at the Marco Polo marketplace and then just sit down and and watch a show. um i will say I, I don't know if it's just because it's preview weekend or what, but they used to weatherproof that pavilion and I didn't see all of the panels put up to like keep it warm inside. I'm wondering if they're going to do that um maybe for next weekend because it was beautiful when we were there. But once it gets cold, it's awful to watch a show there if it's if it's not like insulated. Yeah.
00:24:33
Speaker
Yeah. um So then we walked up to the kind of surprise of the weekend, I guess, um because Pantheon was open and it's not on the list of Christmastown attractions, but it was running.
00:24:47
Speaker
And it had 15 minute wait and all the other coasters had like an hour wait. So that was a huge win. was great. um Yeah, it was really fun. Really good.
00:24:59
Speaker
hmm. It felt like boost mode or something for for winter weather, even though it wasn't that cold. because Maybe just because I had been running for a while when we got there, but it was it was really fun.
00:25:11
Speaker
And my mom got to ride it at night for the first time, and she was like, I don't know this like layout well enough to know it's coming. It scared me. at ah Yeah. um Unfortunately, we couldn't get your grandma on there.
00:25:26
Speaker
Yeah. i don't why I don't think grandma can take Pantheon. She refuses to ride basically like all roller coasters now. um I really tried to convince her to do Big Bad Wolf. I'll talk about that in a minute, but ah she still wouldn't do that either. So.
00:25:42
Speaker
ah ah So we walked through Italy and then we walked um through the Pompeii area, which is probably for me, that's kind of like the highlight ah lighting thing in the area.
00:25:55
Speaker
Yeah. Like the entire face of Pompeii is lit up with all these beautiful lights. And then the the whole pond is full with the sparkling blue lights and all along the pathway. ah It's purple. And then they like play this very relaxing music, which I like a lot.
00:26:10
Speaker
Um, and And then that was kind of the circle of the park that brought us back to Scotland. So after having like been through all that, I'm curious, Kelly, like what, what areas were your favorite or like what stood out to you just in terms of the decor and the lighting and stuff?
00:26:26
Speaker
Yeah, I'm a sucker for like the classic white lights. Like I always think they just look like classiest. So I really liked like the entrance and England. I loved Pompeii. I thought that the blues were really pretty. And then I liked Italy also.
00:26:43
Speaker
and like the really bright lights, like that tree that was lit up. That was in Italy, right? Yeah. the The branches. Yeah. I really liked that too. i I mean, I think everything was really well done. I just like, if you're going to do, I like colored lights if it's all the colors together. And I like the bigger bulbs, which is very specific, but that's just like my taste for Christmas lights. But I thought the whole park was decorated really well.
00:27:08
Speaker
been a parks, I've been to a lot of parks, internationally to during the holidays that, that do decorations. And I think this is definitely like on par with some European parks or better.
00:27:21
Speaker
Yeah, you had mentioned Europa Yeah, yeah. It it gave me Europa Park vibes in some areas because they used real trees. And that's what Europa does. They just plop down real trees everywhere and put white lights on them. Like literally just in the middle of walkways, there's just plopped trees.
00:27:36
Speaker
um But I think like comparatively, there's nothing up here that is done like that, you know? Yeah. Dorney doesn't Dorney isn't even open Hershey used to be that beautiful I feel like it's really fallen off in the past couple of years last year I was really underwhelmed we're gonna go again this year so I'll be able to see what it's what's going on there but like great adventure it like doesn't decorate like this so yeah was nice to see I'll um Dollywood I really love too i love Dollywood Christmas but
00:28:07
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like Busch Gardens is kind of competing at that level, like with Silver Dollar City and bush and Dollywood level compared to like some of the other Six Flags parks, um even like the former Cedar Fair parks. Some of them have like a good amount of lights, but they're not necessarily as like coordinated or that kind of thing. Yeah. I've been at Kings Island Winterfest and it's kind of like, yeah, there's lights around, but none of it's like at that level, I guess.
00:28:34
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I think VG Dubs is the best um Christmas event. I haven't been to Disney or Universal, but it's the best one I've been to. I've done Winterfest. I've done Holiday in the Park. I've done Hershey, which that sucked last year. That was my first time. Hopefully it'll redeem itself this year.
00:28:55
Speaker
um I think Busch Gardens even beats Dollywood and Dollywood's beautiful, but I think Busch Gardens clears it. Just like you said, the the coordination of each country and combined with the quality of the shows really just puts it ahead.
Comparing Christmastown to Other Parks
00:29:11
Speaker
Yeah. I think they just have the most like well-rounded event to offer. Yeah. Very well rounded. Yeah. You can definitely spend, um, like you could not go in on any rides and still have a good time there, which yeah I don't think that a lot of these parks that have Christmas events could say. Yeah. Um, imagine going to Six Flags Great Adventure and not riding any rides. Right. Imagine, which happens a lot because they're not open. That's true. But, um, no shade to our friend Ryan. Um,
00:29:43
Speaker
He has nothing to do with that, but, and I'm sure he's not listening, but just in case, just in case. Um, but I think also, um, like we were there for six hours and I would have happily like stay, been there longer and seen more. And I was even thinking today, i texted Tyler. I was like, i really want to take the kids to Christmas town. I'm like, that's a really hard drive, but there's just nothing around here. That's like done as as well. And I really think that they would enjoy it. So I don't know. I might look at the calendar. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what they've been really successful at is kind of,
00:30:15
Speaker
capturing families building memories there and then you go back for you know every year it's kind of because of tradition and it shows based on the crowd levels i mean a christmas event barely two weeks into november and we were they were in overflow parking i don't know if you saw that joey but oh did they did they i saw the tram picking up to go into overflow which is crazy but christmastown is the best season of bush gardens williamsburg in my opinion and If they put half the effort into Alice Scream as they do for Christmastown, would be so much better. but
00:30:49
Speaker
Yeah. Not everybody's spooky like us. I hear that. Okay, we'll finish out the circuit. So on the way out, um and actually for us on the way in, we saw Scrooge No More, which is in in the Globe Theater in England. And this is basically a 30-minute version of The Christmas Carol.
00:31:07
Speaker
um But definitely with a twist because it's a musical um and there's some like special effects that are pretty cool. um Kelly have been falling asleep. Not that the show wasn't good. It was just a long day. i was just yeah tired. But it it was from the parts that I recall seeing.
00:31:25
Speaker
It was good. I liked Gloria more, but I still really enjoyed it. Mm hmm. I think this is my second favorite at the park, Belling Gloria. um i think it's really well done. like it's i You guys had an effect that didn't work um with one of somebody flying. But did the rest of the flying work, like the fairy and the first yeah ghost? Yeah, the rest of the flying worked from what I remember.
00:31:50
Speaker
Okay, that's cool. Because yeah, they have like actors flying around, they have um like fog and strobe lights. And this is in the theater that they built to be projection mapped. So there's a lot of projections and technology behind it. It's it's pretty neat.
00:32:09
Speaker
I don't really have a lot to say about it because it's the Christmas Carol. And I feel like everybody knows the show. Yeah. Yeah, it was good. Yeah, good quality. I do think um the first time I saw it when the, I call it the Death Eater, ah but there's like the third ghost, um the Ghost of Christmas Future comes and it's like this massive death character that's a puppet. It's super tall. yeah it' it is like a yard It looks like a yard decoration that you could find at Lowe's for spooky season. Like my neighbor had one that was a vampire, but it looks kind of like that. Yeah, but I was like just surprised the first time I saw it. I mean, this was years ago now, but I was like, oh, wow, they really went like spooky vibes for this for this one and more than other productions I've seen. I thought it was kind of interesting.
00:32:55
Speaker
um So that I think that was all of the shows. I'm trying to see if there is anything else to mention. Oh, um so me and my family, we did ah the sky ride as well. We were just happened to be walking. So we we watched there's a um a recurring light show that happens on Pompeii's lights like every 30 minutes. I think um we just happened to walk by with you guys like off of one of the times it was happening. But I walked back and saw it.
00:33:24
Speaker
It's um interesting, like it's cool, but also I feel it could be a little better done. Some of the graphics in it kind of look like Windows Media Player, but um a little bit like stock, but it was still neat to see. So then we walked from Pompeii over to the England Skyride Station and saw that the line was Not as long as it normally is, which could be like over an hour.
00:33:49
Speaker
um And so we decided to take that and we rode it over to France. And it was neat to see the park from above and see all the lights below and and everything there. um Then we finished out the night by walking to the big tree in front of the fest house, which I don't think you guys saw like one of the shows happening on that, did you?
00:34:11
Speaker
Okay, there is also like a choreographed with music show that happens on that tree, um which is pretty cute. We watched that. And then my mom and I were like, Hmm, I wonder now that it's like 930 in the parks about to close if Big Bad Wolf is, you know, kind of quieted down because we saw the line earlier in the day that was long.
00:34:31
Speaker
So we walked back there and the sign said five minutes and we were like, yes. Nice. um We sat down on the train and then it immediately broke down. know So we got dumped off of it. um But I could tell that it was like a quick reset. So we just like waited for them to cycle four trains and and got to ride it at night.
00:34:49
Speaker
um That was pretty cool. There was like, little lanterns out in the village set that you kind of fly past. um And that was cool. It definitely feels like faster at night.
00:34:59
Speaker
um We tried to convince grandma to ride it. And then after I rode it, I was like, maybe it's a good thing she did it. And she needs something like really basic. yeah I don't know if that was it. feel like it's a pretty decent night ride. The back back half is pretty dark back there.
00:35:15
Speaker
It is, yeah. That boneyard has no other lighting um across the train tracks. There's just no other infrastructure. So it's pretty pretty neat to to ride back there.
00:35:26
Speaker
um I think that was pretty much it. Yeah. Any other really fun final thoughts?
Halloween Horror Nights Speculation
00:35:34
Speaker
Yeah. It's a good time. You guys did not overhype.
00:35:37
Speaker
and It was good. You're the overhyper around here. When? When? When do I overhype? Always. That's not true. Fried Uncrustables.
00:35:52
Speaker
Okay, but that's just like a me thing. I didn't say everyone has to love Fried Uncrustables. We did miss one show that is going to start later this month.
00:36:03
Speaker
um I'm hoping to make it back a second visit, maybe sometime in December. So hopefully I can talk about that show. the Twas That Night, the ice skating show has not started yet. That's pretty cool. I've seen that one before and it's definitely worth seeing if you get the chance.
00:36:18
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:36:22
Speaker
All right. Cool. um So we are now going to move on to some HHN coverage. We talked last time about holding off on talking about HHN for next year until this episode, which initially was just going to be like some basic thoughts and some some rumors. But since then very early, we have...
00:36:48
Speaker
seen the permits were filed for Orlando with the code names on them. So we can talk a little bit about that as well. I think this is wild how early it is. I mean, obviously, they know this information very far in advance. Obviously, prior to even this 34, they probably had a lot of 35 done. you know Obviously, I don't know they their timeline and schedule. But last year, I was looking, and I think it was December, like mid-December that we got code names or even later than that. I know the first spec back version came out that Christmas day. It was like version zero or whatever. It was just like really basic. um
00:37:28
Speaker
But this seems early and feels early. Yeah. i So did we ever go back for 34 and like look at the the code names relationship with the actual house?
00:37:44
Speaker
We Didn't necessarily like we don't have any confirmation of like what the a lot of times on Horror Nights Wiki, they will like say what the code name is and why.
00:37:55
Speaker
But I think this year when I at least i haven't looked at it, you know, in the last couple of weeks, but they just kind of mentioned what the code name was. And I think we just did a lot of speculation around that But yeah. there's a lot of people that say like, oh, the code names don't mean anything. And it's like, I kind of disagree with that because I was able to make ties to like every house this past year and the year before that that it tied to it as well. And I think this past year, they were even more so relevant to what was going on in the house. So I don't know. I don't think we can, obviously it's just like for fun, right? Like this is just all early speculation, but I don't think you can completely say that like,
00:38:35
Speaker
the code name is not related to something in the house. There's probably, it's probably not going to be like super obvious, which some of the speculation around some of these is very obvious at this point. So they're probably not correct, but I think there's some relationship to something going on in the house or a theme. Yeah.
00:38:52
Speaker
I just wonder like, because it's come out so early in the event just ended at this point, do the creatives actually have themes picked out? They probably, I'm sure they probably have IPs already. Cause that's kind of like,
00:39:05
Speaker
there's contracts and stuff related to that. But I wonder if the originals are completely fleshed out yet. um And they're that ahead of things, or if they kind of have like a general idea, and they just pick the code name based on that. And then it sort of develops even more over the next several months.
00:39:21
Speaker
Yeah, I was under the impression that by by the years that they have next year's event, like the houses decided by the current event, like I think they do a full year in advance. I don't know if that's true. That's just like what I've heard in the past.
00:39:34
Speaker
Yeah. um but You might be right. Some of the originals might just be like a concept and not like fully fleshed out, but enough that they can give a code name. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know how to, how much like it being, everybody talks about it being like in an anniversary year, it's a five it's 35. So I don't know how much like it makes the event.
00:39:54
Speaker
I think Rafa would be able to probably better answer this, this question. Cause he's been to, you know, multiple anniversary years, but. I did look back and do a little bit of research and they do bring Jack back on most of the five and zero anniversary years. So there's a lot of rumor about his involvement in this event. And I wonder, you know, how much it being an quote unquote anniversary year has to do with some of this like stuff being released a little earlier? or Are they gonna, are they gonna give us some?
00:40:26
Speaker
Cause like last year they didn't release like official details on houses until very late. Like, remember we were waiting and we were like, Oh my gosh, it's like the middle of summer and we're like still not hearing. And yeah in years past they had released an IP, you know, in this time of the year, even sometimes. So it'll be interesting to see how it all kind of plays out. I'm excited to go to my first,
00:40:47
Speaker
anniversary year, if we can call it that or whatever that means, see if it's elevated at all. I think 34 was such a good year. It's, it's kind of hard to imagine like it being even stronger than that. I hope, I hope it meets expectations, but I guess we'll see. So we can jump into some of the code names. I did a little bit of research. I did some of my own digging. And then I also like scoured Reddit a little bit and and Instagram and saw what other people were talking about. But I think last year it was a little bit earlier, easier to make connections with the code names because they were flowers. So it's like flowers carry a lot of symbolism and meaning. So you could kind of, make connections to anything with those. And that was kind of the fun of it. This year, it's a little bit trickier.
00:41:36
Speaker
The code names are all like transportation. um So it's a little bit less like symbolic or a little bit less vague.
00:41:47
Speaker
so I think it's, I don't know, we'll see when we go through what you guys think, but i think it's a little bit harder to like make, make any type of guess off of some of these.
00:41:58
Speaker
other than maybe like the theme around it. And you I don't know if it's that literal, you know? But I guess we'll start. 22, which was where Artista was last year, the code name is Balloon.
00:42:09
Speaker
This one I actually have the most written down about. So... the The two that come to mind immediately, which I'm sure are not it because I feel like it's too obvious are it and black phone too. So it Pennywise carries that red balloon. There's also that like new hbo show. Welcome to dairy, which I have never seen it.
00:42:34
Speaker
I've learned going through this that I need to really up my horror movie game. Like I need to get it together because I had to like Wikipedia all of these movies, but apparently there's a new show. Welcome to dairy.
00:42:44
Speaker
That is a prequel to the It movies. um Last of Us was also on HBO because I was like, would they take something from HBO? But Last of Us was HBO. So I don't know. It's a possibility. And then Black Phone 2, they had Black Phone. The initial Black Phone was in a split Blumhouse house a couple of years ago. So I don't know if they would...
00:43:06
Speaker
du do the second iteration. There's black balloons featured in that movie. So that was one that came to mind. And then this is not just me, everyone. I'm not being crazy. I saw other people talking about the balloon, a hot air balloon being tied to Wicked or Wizard of Oz and like it being like, yeah, a dark wizard house or I don't know. I'm still on that train. Like if we can push for something wicked and universal last year, people are like, Oh, universal is not really going push wicked.
00:43:34
Speaker
Have you guys seen all of the wicked stuff in the park? They have yeah giant merchandise areas for wicked. So I disagree with that wall and ball and who's not listening and anybody else who hates on wicked.
00:43:47
Speaker
It's definitely in the parks. It's definitely in the parks. I don't think it'll be at horror nights, but one can dream, you know, um Other thoughts, i saw um Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is coming out this month. I guess like that's a thing people are talking about, and I will literally rip my eyeballs out if that happens to be the case. We don't need that two years in a row. No. No.
00:44:12
Speaker
Do you guys have any thoughts? Balloon. Are you going to say nope to everything? Am I just going to talk by myself for the next 10 minutes? Yes. next thirty minutes probably no No, no, no. Okay, I'll go faster.
00:44:28
Speaker
Okay, out of those, do you think any of those are are possible? Or do you think that's too obvious? I feel like it is really obvious, but it would make sense. Just speaking about speculation in general, I think you can find a pattern in anything, especially when you're specifically looking for patterns.
00:44:47
Speaker
So yeah like you said, we'll never know. what the connection for the flowers to the houses exactly was. But we can basically make up any sort of connection that we want. So yes. And it's fun.
00:45:04
Speaker
I don't love Tyler's face is so annoyed right now. This should have been Tyler's spill. he He was just leaning back on his couch with the most annoyed face. Like, I can't believe i have to listen to this right now. I just, I don't love speculation.
00:45:20
Speaker
Just let me know when the houses are announced. I'm the same with roller coasters. I am the same with roller coasters. I don't look up the plans what that are filed with the county or the city and all that kind of stuff. Mm-hmm.
00:45:32
Speaker
Tell me when there's a layout or a name or something. That's what I want. I can be on board with that, but not when it comes stage again. Sorry. Sorry about it. Sorry if you guys don't want to hear it. Just get ahead.
00:45:43
Speaker
It is fun to do, but also it just it doesn't carry lot of weight this early in the season, I think. But it is fun to think about what it can do. And I need it. It gives me something. that's how you get through Yes. The dark times. Okay. In 23 a, which was WWE, the code name is car, which is the worst. i i couldn you literally the heck You could literally anything. You could twist that. Yeah.
00:46:10
Speaker
It's going to be a back to the future house. Literally, it could be. It could be that. What I saw going on on social media, I saw people talking about Twisted Metal, which I didn't know what that was, but apparently it's a post-apocalyptic action comedy based off of a video game, which they tend to like to do there.
00:46:28
Speaker
And there's a car featured in in it because it's about, like, Are all of these just going to be, there's a car in it? There's a car in it. I don't know. It's about a car.
00:46:39
Speaker
I don't know. Okay. I also thought because can, we can anticipate, I feel that stranger things five will be at the event next year. They've done every other stranger things house.
00:46:50
Speaker
Which one of these code names is Stranger Things? Maybe it's a car. Do you drive cars in that show? They do. They do. They drive cool cars in that show. And then the other one that I thought of myself is I saw some speculation a while ago.
00:47:06
Speaker
you know how they typically do like the Universal Monsters house? They didn't have one this year, but they've done it in the past. I have seen some stuff places about them wanting to do a creature from the Black Lagoon um house, which I think would be awesome.
00:47:20
Speaker
Obviously, there's no code name for like anything on water. But apparently. When this movie came out, it was featured in a lot of car commercials.
00:47:33
Speaker
There you go. That's the link. There you go. cool and I would like to see Black Lagoon. That would be Okay, next one. Okay, next one is 23B, which was five nights this year, is a bus.
00:47:49
Speaker
Hear me out. Okay. Okay, the first one I saw, which was not my idea, was Jeepers Creepers, which i don't I don't know what that is. I mean, I know what it is, but I've never seen it. So I don't know if that ties to a bus, but people were saying it's Jeepers Creepers.
00:48:04
Speaker
um What I thought about is Stay with me here, okay? There was a movie in like a long, long time ago that utilized a type of scare called the Luton bus. Do you know what that is?
00:48:22
Speaker
It's when you build suspense to something and it turns out to be like nothing. Like it's like a type of scare utilized in movies and that was the first time it appeared. And the movie it appeared in was called Cat People.
00:48:35
Speaker
Do you see where I'm going?
00:48:38
Speaker
lady of crooked lane the house we gotta have some originals in there this is my own speculation i don't know that they would do it ah immediately but it seemed to be a very very popular zone amongst the peeps you know so i would be here for it you actually go in the house now yeah yeah i'd be here for that yeah okay And I feel like that codename is loosely related.
00:49:09
Speaker
Like it's not so obvious. So maybe it's real. It could be.
00:49:16
Speaker
Guys, any of you listeners, if you like to talk speculation, please find me because my co-hosts do not. Okay. The next one, which was grave, is train. the next one twenty four b which was grave
00:49:33
Speaker
So we got a couple of specs about this. Number one, Terror Train, which was a slasher in the nineteen eighty s that I have not seen. ah Seems too obvious. It's literally in the title. um Creep, which there are multiple movies called Creep, but the one I think it's referring to is a woman was locked in like the London Underground. Okay.
00:49:56
Speaker
Don't know about it. I also saw... one person speculated hatchet and chains number two, because of the train in hatch and chains.
00:50:07
Speaker
I feel like it'd be weird to do that back to back years, years in a row. I'm not feeling it. I saw a lot of people talking about an Ozzy Osbourne house. Crazy train. Yeah. Crazy train. Okay. Yeah. Which I feel like that'd be very obvious.
00:50:22
Speaker
That would be very obvious, but I feel like that's almost ah in the same vein as like the WWE wwe house, like kind of, uh, uh, a remembrance type of house. Like, I don't know. I feel like that was that it never had a long line, but I feel like people generally liked wwe WWE and it really like had a good emotional backstory. So doing something like that could be successful. But, and then the one that I love the most, I don't know if it's going to happen. I doubt it. Well is sinners, which is a movie I have seen and I love and two of the main characters, Mary and sack met at a train station.
00:50:58
Speaker
I'm here for it. Yeah. I like that. love sinners. Love it. I feel like they could have some great, like themed food and beverage to that movie too. Um, and then they also have another permit filed under 24 B. So I don't know if that was a typo or if they're like splitting that soundstage into two houses. They did not use the same house. Terrifier was in listed on the permit permits this year. 25. So they had two 24 B's.
00:51:25
Speaker
um And the other one was chariot. And the only thing I've seen people say is an original to like Poseidon mythology. and land of fun Poseidon's fury over in islands, maybe.
00:51:40
Speaker
Yeah. Like they did the dragon house. So I think it's cool when they kind of tie in their attractions to horror nights. I would be down for that. Yeah. That'd be fun. Put some fire in there.
00:51:51
Speaker
Yeah. That seems. Have they done that before? Yeah. They put fire outside. i don't know about it. Fake fire and Gulkin. That's true. This is true.
00:52:02
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. In the Fast and Furious location, which is where Jason was, the code is helicopter. What I have is the thing, which is a universal pictures movie that starts off with a helicopter scene, I believe.
00:52:21
Speaker
Cloverfield, lots of helicopters in there. That feels like it would be weird to bring to Horror Nights now. That was like popular when we were teenagers, no? Yeah. yeah JJ Abrams. um Resident Evil, which I know nothing about.
00:52:36
Speaker
Apparently there's helicopters in that bad boy. And then other people are saying, is this Stranger Things? When was there a helicopter in that? There was. There was when they were looking for Eleven.
00:52:49
Speaker
Oh, okay. Yes. yeah there was What season was that? Last season? Four? well I don't even know. That's the thing with Stranger Things is we don't have season five yet. So we don't know. we don't know what's going to happen. ho then That's true. There could be a chariot. We don't know.
00:53:03
Speaker
Yeah. The balloon in Stranger Things. Could be a hot air balloon. the balloon. balloon. Yeah. yeah Okay. Moving on to the tents in tent three, which was where Fallout was. The codename is Tractor. Tractor.
00:53:18
Speaker
So this is exciting. People are speculating maybe a return of Scarecrow, which I never saw the original. Okay. They do have that in the Horror Unleashed now.
00:53:28
Speaker
Yeah. Interesting. Interesting. i also saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Children of the Corn being discussed, which are all farm-like IPs. Yeah.
00:53:40
Speaker
Signs. Signs. An endless list of that type of... I haven't seen any of I did see Texas Chainsaw Massacre. i'm not I'm not that far out of horror movie land, but I need to get it together here because i can't talk about the rest.
00:53:55
Speaker
um Tent four, which is Gulkin was, Hearst, but they spelled it H-E-R-S-E, which I thought was a typo because it's spelled with an a But apparently H-E-R-S-E was the original...
00:54:13
Speaker
like spelling back when it was more of like a Latin came from Latin roots. And apparently it it referred to a farming tool or a triangular candelabra for candles that you would put over a coffin before it referred to the vehicle that you carried a coffin in.
00:54:30
Speaker
So I don't know if that's purposeful, the misspelling or I'm sure it is. It has to be purposeful. They can't mess that up on a permit. I'd feel. Yeah, that's interesting.
00:54:41
Speaker
So some people are saying that this might be a house, an original for the caretaker who was one of the icons of the past. I don't know that they would have multiple ipod icons back in a year if they're going to do Jack, but that would be cool. And then I also saw speculation around the movie Hellraiser, which has been like pretty heavily speculated to be coming. I must watch it because I don't.
00:55:03
Speaker
That could be interesting. Yeah. Google says that spelling of Hursk was also a figure in Greek mythology. oh Tyler are you speculating i just sell it to I just googled it in five seconds and read what the AI thing told me if that's speculating then I guess yeah that would be fun actually like a ah Greek themed house yeah yeah would be cool it would be really cool I feel like people have been wanting that for a while so maybe maybe Mr. Aiello is listening maybe and yeah like ancient Greece or ancient Rome that would interesting
00:55:43
Speaker
In tent which was where Hatchet was, the code name is Shuttle.
00:55:49
Speaker
The only thing I saw about this was a video game called Dead Space, which was made into a movie. I got nothing else. Yeah. Shuttle. Shuttle. old one I mean, that's pretty neat.
00:56:03
Speaker
That could be several things. Like alien things. Is that a space shuttle? Is it yeah another type of shuttle? i mean, what does that mean? Yeah, i don't know. And then the last one in tent two, which is where dolls was, is Wagon. And this is where people are speculating, people, including me, an Oddfellow versus Jack House.
00:56:29
Speaker
This is where Oddfellow's Twisted Origins was. however many years ago that was. And there were lots of little added treasures apparently to the last evening of HHN, which I wasn't there, but in Artista, apparently there was Oddfellow's little like insignia was written somewhere on the, at the end of the house. And then some, there was something else that referred to Oddfellow and Jack hidden somewhere.
00:56:54
Speaker
um in the event i think maybe in gulkin i heard or something like that or somewhere somewhere over there so i saw that too then his symbol started showing up and i was like hmm interesting that would definitely be interesting to see the both of them they they have different vibes as characters but i could see like the overlap in the carnival type thing yeah the yeah And there was some like in in the Oddfellow lore from a couple years ago, it talked a little bit about his like crossover with Jack. So I'd love to see that. That's true.
00:57:31
Speaker
That is part of his backstory. Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah. Maybe we'll get some podcasts next year. Maybe. Like not when the event's actually starting and I'm already there. Right.
00:57:45
Speaker
Yeah, so that's what I have so far for spec. It'll be interesting to see if ah Horror Nights Nightmares, our friend without a face, um has a spec map ready early this year, like last year.
00:57:58
Speaker
That's when it's really fun when we start getting symbols, I think, because you can try to tie them to the code names even though they're not even in the same location, but it's fun for me. Right. But it looks like we're still we still got 10, because that last year there was this whole thing about 11. it does look like 10.
00:58:13
Speaker
And I would assume, and I don't know if this is correct, that it's good they're going to keep it the five and five even split with IPs and originals. But sometimes they don't do that. So who knows? Yeah.
00:58:25
Speaker
I think it works like that. I like it that way too. And I feel like it's much easier, obviously, as for us to speculate IPs because they're things that exist. So any of these could refer to like any original, really.
00:58:36
Speaker
um Okay, so let's move on to some questions. We have some questions specific to HHN 35 that we'll start with that were previously submitted. So CProd asked, what would you like to see for HHN 35?
00:58:52
Speaker
Just stranger things. That's all i have right now. I would love, obviously everyone knows I would love to see something Wicked related or Wicked Witch. I would also love another music house, music based house.
00:59:06
Speaker
That'd be cool. Yeah. still waiting for Lady Gaga house. Yeah. Do any of these vehicles speak Lady Gaga? You take the space shuttle to Chromatica.
00:59:20
Speaker
I don't know. Amazing. um But that would be really cool. I'd love to see. I don't know. I really enjoy the the I there are the originals that are kind of rooted in like something so specific like Galkin was like so of its time kind of. And I think that's really fun. And I would love to see more like specific choices like that in the originals. um I don't know why I'm thinking of water. This is probably because of like Dead Man's Pier but I would love to see another sort of like watery something like that house in the future yeah I wish there was a boat codename right yeah where's the boat all of these are land vehicles I guess maybe shuttle chariot they all could be yeah well besides a balloon a boat could be a shuttle that's true the ferry shuttles people
01:00:18
Speaker
Yeah, it's true.
01:00:22
Speaker
Thanks, Cepred. What are you guys wanting to see at HHN35? Let us know. um Tom asked, it has now been, insert number of hours, it has now been like three weeks since HHN34 ended.
Spooky Season and Holiday Timing Debate
01:00:38
Speaker
What IP do we consider a lock for 35 and why will Stranger Things Q be worse than Five Nights? Well, he answered his own damn question. Yeah, that's Stranger Things. But I actually don't agree. I don't think the queue will be worse.
01:00:55
Speaker
I don't think so either. Five Nights is the worst one I've seen. but Yeah, and like the Stranger Things. Yeah, in history. And the Stranger Things houses of the past weren't horrific. Like people liked them, obviously, but they weren't horrific.
01:01:11
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It's going to be the same fans. Mm hmm. Um, other IPs. I don't think anything is a lock. I've heard the most about Hellraiser so far, as far as like movies, but I would assume stranger things. Yeah.
01:01:28
Speaker
Yeah. Um, and then this wasn't a question. I don't know why I left it here, but I think these were just rumors that I was hearing initially right after the event, we kind of talked about potentially no more nightmare fuel. We talked about Hellraiser and Oddfellow versus Jack. So.
01:01:42
Speaker
Those were some rumors early before the Codenames came out. um Carl asks, should spooky season extend into November and Christmas decorating before American Thanksgiving be outlawed? oh boy.
01:01:56
Speaker
this is This is a controversial topic, Carl. Well, on this podcast, it's always spooky season. so Yes. Spooky season is extended into November and the whole rest of the year.
01:02:11
Speaker
But practically, i disagree. I'm actually okay with like the events that have their spooky stuff still going on the first like weekend of November because sometimes it kind of spills over.
01:02:21
Speaker
um But I do feel after that it's kind of run its course, especially how early that they start now, like at the end of August and stuff. Yeah. What I love this, what this question made me think of is there is a haunted attraction in Florida. I'm not going to remember the name of it, but it's like a haunted trail or somebody's, it's like a private thing, but they, they do their Halloween event and then they have limited weekends of a haunted Christmas trail, a haunted Valentine's trail. Like they do Sir Henry's Sir Henry's. That's what it's called.
01:02:55
Speaker
They do other holidays, but it's still like spooky themed. That's kind of fun. Yeah, i love that. So if any of you are in Orlando during any of these other holidays, you should go. Yeah. Tell us how it is.
01:03:10
Speaker
What about the second part? and This is like an American debate. i don't know. I don't really care. i feel that Thanksgiving is just an overlooked holiday at this point because the stores start putting Christmas stuff up before Halloween has even happened.
01:03:25
Speaker
um As evidenced by us trying to buy a fog machine ah the day but or the day of or did before Halloween and finding the Christmas stuff already at Target. Um, so it, it doesn't bother me that much. That said, like, I feel you should probably wait at least until like November one to put a tree up, but some people don't do that even. So yeah, do what you want.
01:03:50
Speaker
When's your tree going? How you feel? That's not how you feel. Personally, i wouldn't do it until after Thanksgiving, but I also did attend a Christmas, Christmas event in like the second week of November. So, Yeah.
01:04:05
Speaker
Here's the thing. i used to be so far on the side of team no Christmas until Thanksgiving is over because Thanksgiving was such a huge family holiday to me that I didn't want to overlook it. And I still loved like having out all of the fall colors and everything.
01:04:21
Speaker
But when you become a parent and Santa Claus enters your life, an elf on the shelf enters your life, no and Christmas becomes the most magical thing that exists in the history of the world, you decorate the day the Halloween costume the halloween costumes go away and the decorations come down So in my household, it is Christmas.
Hot Chocolate Showdown Setup
01:04:40
Speaker
yeah And the good thing about that is i decorate for Halloween really early because I love it so much. Like when Labor Day happens, it's Halloween.
01:04:49
Speaker
the day after. So I get two months of my Halloween decorations and my fall decorations and then I get two months of my Christmas decorations and I feel like that's fair. Yeah, that's fair.
01:05:01
Speaker
As long as the tree doesn't stay up till March, right? I don't have the tree up and no, I don't like stuff hanging around. That gets depressing to me. Yeah, yeah. I don't like that. Thanks, Carl, for your question. Yeah, good question.
01:05:15
Speaker
Nate asks, for those that have done them, how do overseas Halloween events compare to those domestically? And unfortunately, Nate, I don't think any of us have really done international Halloween events, though I'm sure we would love to and will at some point in life.
01:05:30
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Are there any international bucket list haunts or Christmas time events, theme park and non-theme park? Well, winter trauma at Fantasio land should be on everyone's bucket list. It's incredible. Yes. It's incredible. Um, and then on my Halloween bucket list is apparently the haunt at Wallaby Holland, which is very popular and wild.
01:05:52
Speaker
Supposedly. i would love to go. Yeah. To any of them. That is the only one I've heard about personally in Europe for Halloween. I mentioned that, um,
01:06:03
Speaker
On a previous episode, fuck probably five or six episodes ago. Would love to do that. um I think Thorpe is supposed to be pretty good as well, from what I've heard. And I'd love to go to HHN in Japan.
01:06:17
Speaker
think that'd be awesome. ah And maybe if the UK does their HHN, which is rumored. Oh, yeah, true. we can Did you see what hn what happened at HHN Japan in one of their houses?
01:06:30
Speaker
No, what happened? They had a performer submerged in a tub filled with water. And they popped out of it. That's that's nuts.
01:06:41
Speaker
Oh, I think I did see that, actually. Yeah. i Yeah. Oh, my God. Imagine how pruney they were. Yeah. I think they were wearing like a full wetsuit or something. But still, that is. That's pretty crazy. So it sounds like the houses there are maybe more unhinged. I don't know.
01:07:02
Speaker
Interesting. C. Pratt asked another, another two questions. His first one is what are some of our, of your favorite Christmas themed food and drink offerings at the parks?
01:07:14
Speaker
Hot chocolate. The end. Yeah. That's probably the only one that sticks out to me. I mean, there's, ah it seems like Halloween has maybe, well, not even really. Halloween has distinctive food offerings. Um,
01:07:31
Speaker
I mean, there's a lot of parks that have like signature food, like the cinnamon bread, but that's all season long. It's and blue ice cream all season long. I don't know that there's any that are as like good enough besides hot chocolate to be that distinctive. um Like Christmas specific, maybe like gingerbread type stuff.
01:07:49
Speaker
Yeah, really. Yeah. I love me some peppermint bark. That's not specific to anything other than Christmas. It's great. I love it. i do believe that some um obviously more commonly in European parks, they offer like glue vine, which is, you know, like a hot mulled wine, which is very popular at Christmas markets. And so they also have it theme parks over there, which is kind of cool as well. I like that.
01:08:17
Speaker
um We don't really do that over here, though. I am excited to get, I've had obviously Hershey parks, hot chocolate, but since we just had BGW hot chocolate, I'm excited in a few weeks to compare. keep it in my mind. yeah I remember it being like very thick and rich, but I will absolutely report back.
01:08:37
Speaker
have to see which is better. Yep. Yeah. um And then his other question is what would be some creative ways that parks can do theme rides to the holiday season?
01:08:50
Speaker
Well, Busch Gardens Williamsburg did that. We didn't really talk about that. But in the Festa Italia section, they renamed two of their rides. um The teacups and elephant run got renamed to peppermint twist and reindeer run or something like that. yeah um And they have like they take out the teapot and they put a candy cane there. They put all kinds of like lights and decorations up on it. They put a ah reindeer on the the elephant run ride. I thought that's that's a neat touch to the event.
01:09:18
Speaker
Yeah, I think a lot of parks could do that more. It feels like not that hard to just like redo some signage and they already have a different map for seasonal events showing which rides are open. So it doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to do.
01:09:31
Speaker
Might confuse some people that regularly go and they're looking for like the normal names of rides, but. Yeah, it's like they don't do a lot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, but it's pretty effective. um It's not a difficult overlay to do. So um just add some lights, add some decorations to the ride itself. And there you go.
01:09:54
Speaker
Six Flags Great Adventure, they actually did a good Hanukkah theme for Kingdaka. They themed it to a dreidel because it fell down. Oh, God.
01:10:05
Speaker
oh god That sentence started out and I was like, where is this going? Yeah, I was like what what is happening?
01:10:15
Speaker
Okay. We'll see if that makes the cut. Okay. I think it should. Yeah, that's pretty good. I was scared for a second. um Last question for this episode. Show asks, if you could add Christmas lights on or around any coaster, what would it be? Ooh, that's interesting.
01:10:37
Speaker
Hmm.
01:10:40
Speaker
I didn't think about this ahead of time. Sorry. Yeah. There's a lot of like remove lights from. So I'm trying to think like I want it to be like a pitch black. So i'm like, what would I want lights around? um I feel like something with a launch would be. Exactly. I'm thinking of things that are fast, like to feel this yeah the sensation of speed even more like top thrill two could be pretty cool with like Christmas lights all along it.
01:11:02
Speaker
um What else? vocaoster If they put Christmas lights all over the paddock, that'd be kind of hilarious. And all the the raptors were wearing Santa hats.
01:11:16
Speaker
Or like all the raptors were like blue and yeah everything else was like a different color. I feel like that would be cool. That'd be fun. Yeah. I was thinking the opposite. I was thinking slower rides, like something like fire in the hole, a Christmas overlay or something like that. Oh, yeah.
01:11:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That would be pretty. Now I'm thinking about time traveler because there's definitely like slower parts and I feel like you could see the lights from like different. That would be neat. Spinning around and all the lights. That make me sick though trying to look at this. Yeah. Yeah. yeah um I mean the other thing that you can do to theme a ride is put lights on the vehicle.
01:11:56
Speaker
So yeah that's kind of fun. Like I know a while ago there was some park that was testing light up wheels on the roller coaster and you could do like colors, specific colors like peppermint looking ones, candy cane wheels.
01:12:09
Speaker
um The Skyride at Busch Gardens puts LEDs on the roof of all of the Skyride cabins, which is neat to see them flying around. Um, so that's fun. That's fun thing. I'm here for all the lights.
01:12:19
Speaker
Yeah. I feel like there are some parks that do a good job decorating the stations for holidays. Like definitely Europa did that. Every station like had a different theme. That's true. Um, of lights. And I thought that was really cool and it doesn't take, it doesn't change the ride experience really, but it makes it look nice. Yeah. Yeah. Just put a wreath in the station, like flow it all the way up into the station. Your, your decor.
01:12:44
Speaker
Cool. What else? Anything? Merry Christmas, apparently. Yes, we will be back with some more holiday discussion in the future. We're also working on thinking of some maybe like new segments that we can offer during the off season.
01:13:04
Speaker
um So stay tuned for that. If you would like to follow us on social media, our Instagram is at thrillschillsandspills and X Twitter is at T underscore C underscore S pod.
01:13:19
Speaker
And as always, thanks for listening and stay festive and spooky.
01:13:29
Speaker
Bye. That's tea actually.