A Birthday Bash: Cedar Puke and the Lost Coaster of Sludge Mountain

Transcript

Speaker: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Thrills, Chills, and Spills, where we spill the tea on all things theme parks, special events, and specially spooky season. ah Today we have a lot of thrills, some chills, and as always, we will start with our spills.

Speaker: Joey, why don't you go first? Oh, gosh. Okay. ah So my spill is just about the Thuzi lore pipeline from the Dippin' Dots man. um I just find it's been hilarious. So now um we've had two projects finally confirmed um that have been kind of pending the rumor mill for a while. One of those was at Silver Dollar City.

Speaker: Which many people were somehow convinced was going to be um a mock striker coaster, um which like was a completely unfounded rumor that just picked up steam out of hopium, I guess. Like, when did you think that with Thunderation closing, they were going to put in like a massive thrill coaster? Yeah.

Speaker: I don't I don't understand. um But yeah, so good for them. They're getting a it is a mock, but it's a it's basically just a sit down regular lift hill roller coaster. It looks really well themed and that's cool. So I'm excited for that to open next year there.

Speaker: And then another one that's been making the rounds is that Kentucky Kingdom was going to put a wild moose inside of their ah old 40 theater building. um There is a like, a I think there's a sign or something out front of it that says 2027 attraction. But I guess people were watching the social media campaign and like heavily speculating that they were going to get one. And guess what?

Speaker: It's going to Lost Island. That's where the wild moose is going. um They're getting a family boomerang basically um wild moose which is very interesting and not what I expected the first wild moose to be but there you go it's not a Kentucky Kingdom fam um I don't know what's going there yet and not even sure if I have an announcement date for it I haven't seen anything about it but I'm definitely curious what's gonna go in that building eventually but um yeah so it's just funny to see how some of these rumors get so massively amplified and like you're just wrong sorry

Speaker: It just surprises me like how Lost Island is as dead as it is all the time and we're still getting like new things over there, which is... so I have to wonder how much money. So when they sold the Birch family, who owns Lost Island, um owned a cabinetry manufacturing company. And it was a family business for a long time. They sold the whole business for like $100 million dollars and invested that money into the theme park. So I'm wondering how much of that is like...

Speaker: still like leftover funds that they kind of allocated over a series of years to spend on new projects or like how it's working because yeah it always seems to be empty so i was just at lost island a couple days ago which i'll talk about in a little bit and i do have some thoughts on that so stay tuned for that um by the way i forgot happy national roller coaster day guys Oh, that's right. We're recording on rollercoaster. We're recording on a Sunday, which is weird, but it is a National Rollercoaster Day, so maybe be good day. I mean, I feel like I have to wish that to you guys because that's how we met. so

Speaker: Yeah. This is true. Yeah. Very true. You guys, I am, as you know, a mock stan, and I'm very excited for my favorite park in the country to be getting another mock.

Speaker: It looks fun. It does. The theming looks incredible. Yeah, I mean, like, it's it's basically a young star coaster, which um I've ridden a couple of those. And, like, there's one called Pegasus at Europa Park that I think most of us have ridden. That thing has more forces than you would expect for, like a small family coaster. So I have a feeling this thing's going to be kind of good.

Speaker: Nice. Yeah. Anything at Silver Dollar City is good. I love that park. so This is true. Yeah.

Speaker: Rafa, you rode some new roller coasters recently, didn't you? Yes, I did. and my spill, um obviously I'll go into detail you know when it comes to Cedar Point in a little bit, but um when we were at Cedar Point, which this is the only negative thing I guess we could say about it, so it was a pretty positive like visit.

Speaker: um But we were waiting in line ah for Gatekeeper and we were waiting at like where the like where they scan your wristband, like over in the bottom, like right underneath the station.

Speaker: They scanned our our wristbands and out of nowhere we noticed that this huge, well we hear the ride close down for a bit. And then all of a sudden we see that they're like pushing off water from the top and it fell on the guests that were behind us.

Speaker: And, i mean, what can we guess that was? That was puke water that they had just cleaned up there, which I was like, Cedar Point, what the hell? What what was that? Like, they basically squeegeed, like, the puke water right off the edge, which lands directly where the fast lane queue is underneath wild oh no yeah which was disgusting and the people behind us were pretty chill even though they just got a bunch of puke water on them and the the the lady that was working there you know at the fast lane um scan thing she was like guys you guys might want to go to the bathroom you guys got puke water and they're like we got what like they were like and i was just like i wouldn't even know

Speaker: I would be like the worst employee at Cedar Point. I don't even think I would have wanted to tell them. I'd be like, oh. Okay. I might be being an extra here, but like from an an infection control standpoint, that could be like an actual major liability. I was so surprised to like see that happen. Like, sure. Like it was probably like, soaked up and or whatever but it's like it's still pure water and it's still a theme park they're not going to clean it like very well it's just gonna be a quick fix and but i'm just like amazed at the fact that they would push that water off knowing that you have the fast lane queue right underneath if i was the employee i don't think i would have said anything that's what i'm saying as the employee like i don't answer i will in that case oh

Speaker: The way I would have ran to guest services if that fell on me, I'd be like, um, that is not okay. like And you can now pay for my yeah ah ER bill when I go get tested for all of the things. Literally. mean, we got so lucky. None of it touched us, thank God. But yeah, the people behind us, they got some of it. And they were like chill about it, which I'm like, I'm better than me, I guess. But it it was disgusting.

Speaker: But that was the only negative thing about Cedar Point that day. But that, yeah, that was just really disgusting. I cannot. Oh, my gosh. Okay, Kelly, you're a Disney mom. Go ahead.

Speaker: Okay, well, on a positive note, Expos this weekend, which for you non-Disney people is basically where all of the big important Disney people come out and announce things coming in the somewhat near future for the company. so Where did D23 come from? That's a good question, actually. why is it called D23? don't know. It's always been like,

Speaker: like where they always announce everything. And I didn't even know it was like, I don't know why at first I thought it was just like park related, but it's like all things Disney, including films and everything like Disney club. 1923 is the historic year. Walt Disney arrived in California and founded the company.

Speaker: Oh, okay. That's what Google AI says. Cause it in California, isn't It is. Yeah. Yeah. So I haven't, I've been busy this weekend, but I did go through and kind of recap what looks to be the most exciting of the announcements. So I'll just go through a couple of those. Starting with movies and TV, they announced Frozen 3.

Speaker: um by having Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel come out and sing a song from the movie. So that's happening. Apparently it will feature Anna and Kristoff's wedding and also Olaf falls in love.

Speaker: So that's coming in a year, a little more than a year. um There's also an animated film coming in November of this year called Hexed, which stars Jodie Foster and Haley Steinfeld and Walton Goggins. And it is about witches.

Speaker: so that's exciting for us spooky people. um The most exciting news ever Coco 2. love Coco. I don't know if I've talked about it on this podcast, but Coco is like in my top three favorite Disney movies ever. It's so underrated. It's not coming until November of 2029 and Miguel is apparently a teenager, but I don't care because it's happening and the artwork for it is incredible. I love that movie so much. Yeah, that movie's really good.

Speaker: i love it. So good. um incredibles 3 is coming in 2028 zootopia 3 okay this is exciting in to spring of 2028 pixar is making its first ghost theme film called ghost market and the storyline involves a mysterious hidden market in hawaii that crosses the living with the dead So that's cool sounding. Interesting.

Speaker: um What else? There's some Marvel MCU stuff that i don't really care about. Sorry, not sorry. um There's a Star Wars movie called Star Wars Starfighter starring Ryan Gosling that's going to be coming. We love Ryan Gosling.

Speaker: ah And by we, I mean, I ah what we do and Disney plus Ahsoka second season is coming just in January of this new year. and then there's a bluey movie coming out in the summer.

Speaker: and Anne Hathaway was there and she teased princess diaries number three. And apparently for anime fans, this is a big deal. Kingdom hearts is coming to Disney plus in a series format.

Speaker: So that's all that's happening. I mean, there's more, but that's what's most exciting. With regard to the parks, I only really paid attention to Disney World. Sorry, people that aren't from the east side of this country, but they talked more about Villain's Land and Magic Kingdom.

Speaker: They announced it as Villains Land being the name. It does have the name Villains Land because they want to keep with Fantasyland, Adventureland, all of those things. um I didn't even realize that the name hadn't been announced because everybody's been calling that. Everybody's called it Villains Land. oh They're like, it's Villains Land. We're like, yeah.

Speaker: um They said that it's going to be similar in size and scope to Galaxy's Edge um in Hollywood Studios, which is cool. They talked a little bit about the Maleficent coaster, which is still happening. I know there was rumors at some point that that was maybe not going to be the case, but it's happening. And then there's a dark ride that appears to be in a boat that is themed after the evil queen's mirror from Snow White.

Speaker: So that looks like it's going to be great. I can't wait to see more about that when we will see any of it happening. Who knows? It's Disney. They didn't announce a year. they give 2032. In the future, it's going to happen.

Speaker: um They did talk more about Piston's Peak as well, which is the Cars Land that is in Magic Kingdom. And they talked about the two attractions, Ridge Run Rally and Miss Fritter's Daredevil Spin Along. So it sounds like there will be like a classic Cars car ride and then like a spinning ride.

Speaker: So... An E-lister and then like a kiddie thing. um Very exciting. Monstropolis in Hollywood Studios. with So they showed some images of the coaster, which we know is Vekoma. And...

Speaker: They showed some animations of how the, how it works. And it's very fly esque. If you know, fly you've all been on fly, but um it looks like it operates the same. Like you, so I'm not going to spoil for the, for the non-Fontageland people that are listening, but you board the same way it appears.

Speaker: um That is not going to be ready soon, but apparently they're opening the rest of Monstropolis next year. So that'll be cool.

Speaker: yeah um They talked a little bit more about Antonio's Fiesta de Encanto, which is going be part of that new land and animal kingdom. And also a carousel with like different animals is going to open there.

Speaker: They talked about the Carousel of Progress refurb. That's going to open in late spring 2027. They also announced that they are refurbing and updating Spaceship Earth at Epcot in a similar way.

Speaker: um And then apparently Dream Finder from Journey into Imagination with Figment is being restored. That's like another character that I don't care at all about, but ah people are excited. People are excited about that.

Speaker: Those are the main things from D23 that i saw. Not the Yeti? You're not going to talk about the Yeti? Oh, yeah. Well, he'll move a bit. I mean, you go fast, it's so fast.

Speaker: Apparently Betty that's in um Expedition Everest is going to be refurbed and it will move again at the train. For a couple months.

Speaker: Most likely. Yeah, yeah. Me too. The problem with Disney is they just announce things so early that by the time it's ready to open, I'm not even like hype for it anymore.

Speaker: Yeah. Like even announcing a movie three years early is wild. Yeah. I feel like Disney announces things when they have the idea, but they don't know when it's going to open either. Like, I don't know. Like, I just feel like it's always such a long waiting game when it comes to their new attractions, like every time.

Speaker: It also is like they, a movie comes out. People are hype about it. Two years later, they're like, oh we're going to make an attraction about this movie. Five years later, it opens and people forgot about the movie. Oh yeah.

Speaker: Or the Sleeping Beauty attraction. What year was Sleeping Beauty? is he I don't know. But like, even, even just like all this Encanto. I love Encanto, but like it's coming to Animal Kingdom, like way past its prime.

Speaker: i don't yeah like maybe like I would have expected like maybe like a sequel to be announced or something. and then so yeah Sleeping Beauty was 1959. Come on, Disney. You should have opened that one in 1961 at least. Come on.

Speaker: Maleficent came out more recently. Yeah, I guess that's true. yeah i'm here for I'm here for the spooky vibes. Always. Yeah. We'll see. We shall see. Because if it's a roller coaster that's like the dwarves mine that's like really short, I mean. yes Yeah, that's for kids. Yeah.

Speaker: hopefully You would hope it's a little higher thrill than that if it's in a villain's land where kids are going to be scared. They seem to be alluding to that in at least the clip that I watched where she was talking about the coaster that it would be probably, I mean, not inverting or anything, but like that it would be a little bit bigger, I guess. But the renderings are all very rendery and not very like solid. So it's kind of hard to tell.

Speaker: Well, I trust Disney loves Vekoma and I love new Vekoma too. Big Bear Mountain villains. Yeah, that'd be nice. All right, we have lots of thrills this week. We were all at birthday bash. I had a really long road trip.

Speaker: um But let's start with Rafa. You went to Cedar Point, as you already talked about. Tell us more about that. I did. And it was a great time. And I fear that I might not have a visit as good as that ever again. I don't know what to expect from that park, but it was a great redemption visit since I hadn't gone since, you know, when I had COVID and all that.

Speaker: So um it was nice to see the park, everything that I missed, which was like half of it. I didn't see the entrance before. I didn't see Gatekeeper. I didn't see Raptor. didn't see any of that. um So it was nice to see all of that. And we had Fastlane, which was great. Um, but yeah, starting, I'll start from when we got there. We, well, first we arrived at Cleveland airport the night before and our favorite listener, Scott, uh, picked us up there.

Speaker: So you'd shout out to him. That was great. We didn't have to run a car or anything. So that was awesome. Um, but yeah, we met up with him and then we saw, we met up with Zach as well over there in Cedar point and,

Speaker: We literally spent the entire day there, even though we had Fastlane. And it wasn't the most crowded day, honestly. like The lines were long, like if you didn't have, obviously, Fastlane. But with Fastlane, we never waited more than like...

Speaker: 15, 20 minutes. So it was a solid day. um Highlights, because I'm not going to go through every single ride. um My favorite in the park was actually Maverick. um i love that thing. it was so good. And Sirens was also, that was my second favorite, which was actually my 300th.

Speaker: which was exciting. Yes, I know, 300, that's crazy. um But yeah, um that those were my two highlights. um Top Thrill 2 was a good time. i do think that Steel Vengeance is overrated.

Speaker: very overrated i'm sorry i loved it i had a great time on it i truly did it was a great coaster but i don't after my two rides on it i i was good i was like i don't think i need more of that right now like it just kind of feels repetitive like it felt too long in my opinion um Yeah, I don't know. It's still a good time.

Speaker: I'm not hating on it, but I do think it's i do think it's overrated. Maybe because I rode it last... Like out of all of the RMCs that I've done, maybe that's why my expectations were maybe grander and they weren't at that level when I finally wrote it.

Speaker: I think RMC burnout is a real thing. yeah i'm I'm kind of feeling that. And like my number one RMC Iron Gwazi and I still keep it at that. Like I feel like Iron Gwazi way better than Steel Vengeance, in my opinion. um Where do you rank Steel Vengeance in the RMCs?

Speaker: In the RMCs, I think I would put it, i think I have it at four. Okay, that's... RMCs, which is still it's still pretty good. Like, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really good. i just felt like it was kind of overrated. And I felt like it was a little too long for me.

Speaker: but But yeah, overall, it's a great one. It's it's a good RMC. It's it's solid. and I understand the hype. I just think that because I rode it last compared to all the other RMCs, I just wasn't as impressed just because, you know, I rode the other ones first.

Speaker: But what else? What else? What else? What else? Yeah, all in all, I feel like the park is... It was a great time. It was a great park day for us.

Speaker: um I feel like there's just so many coasters there that like you kind of forget about some of these other coasters that are still pretty good. But you know everyone's paying attention to the big ones.

Speaker: But like Blue Streak did not expect to like that as much as I did. I love that little thing. It is so much fun. um I didn't ride Rougarou again, which I didn't care to.

Speaker: um Millennium Force, I got to write again. And I didn't have COVID this time, so I didn't feel like I was going to pass out while i was writing it. Because I literally felt i felt like crap when I wrote it the first time.

Speaker: i don't remember anything about it besides feeling like crap. um What else? Did you write any Dorito Hills? Dorito Hills was fun. i enjoyed it. It was fine. Overrated. is, it is, it is, but i I enjoyed it. We weren't even planning on writing it and we did get to write it towards the end of the night, which was, was fun. It's fine.

Speaker: I, yeah, it's overrated, I guess, but it's just, it's just there. I don't care for it. um What else? I'm trying to think of any highlights. Yeah. Yeah, i think for me, mostly with Sirens and Maverick, Steve was fine. Top Thrill 2 was really good. i enjoyed that. I don't think I would have wanted to wait in that 75, 90-minute wait, though.

Speaker: That's crazy, but... But all in all, very successful visit. Really don't have much else to say. It was just, I feel like that park, I hear more negative than positive. And I'm just happy that I had a positive day while I was there.

Speaker: Yeah, that's good. Did you get all the credits? I got all of them. Not missed any, thank God. i got all of them. um And we finished we finished everything by, i got all creds by 2 p.m., I think. That's a wild. it I'm telling you, it was a very smooth day. Our fast lanes helped tremendously.

Speaker: um Yeah. yeah it was It was crazy how fast we got everything. To an extent, though, it feels like that's the way that you have to have an enjoyable experience there is to go on a weekday with on the weekends with fast lane, even that's kind of a mess.

Speaker: Right. Yeah. well That's what we had heard as well. and We were worried that that would be the case on that day, but it wasn't. It was... really light on weights like like i said the longest that we waited was probably 20 minutes yeah that's not bad at all right zero complaints besides besides the the puke water well can i never hear that term again after this podcast pe sounds like water um something for hhn to put in a house he m disgusting

Speaker: All right. I took a long road trip, so I'm going to start that and then we'll probably break it up because I was gone for 11 days. So hitting a park at least every day. So the first park I went to Six Flags Great America.

Speaker: I love this park. This is probably my favorite Legacy Six Flags Park. It's just so well rounded. It has so many rides. And I feel like it's kind of underrated. i don't hear that many people talking about it as a top tier Six Flags Park.

Speaker: um I think that's because it doesn't have an elite ride. i was going to say that. It's got like five a tier rides, but it does not have an S tier ride. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I completely agree with that. But um this might be a hot take. Raging Bull is the best ride in the park. agree. Yeah, actually. More recently? Yeah.

Speaker: yeah I still need it. Max Force was fun, but I only rode it one time ever and I like don't really remember it. And then Goliath like hurts me. so Yeah, I did not get on Goliath or Max Force this visit. Lines were decently long, especially for Max Force. I never saw it under an hour.

Speaker: And Goliath was was actually down for most of the day. um So I caught it when it was about to open up, but it already had a queue like... a quarter of a mile long it felt like so i didn't bother with it but yeah i love that park they had a drone show and a 50th anniversary parade which i did not know until i got there and the vibes are just so good for that i love just a nighttime celebration i feel like the atmosphere is so important in a park that's one of my favorite things oh one more thing the log flume have you guys done the log flume there

Speaker: Not yet. It looks like a good though. It's pretty long, isn't it? Yeah, it was pretty long. So it's actually two as far as I could tell, but they only had one that was open. So it's like two completely separate troughs with different rides, but only the one side was open.

Speaker: I don't know if this is normal. If you have been there a lot, let me know. But the water was like spraying up from where it hits the like the bottom of the drop and i couldn't tell if it was higher than where the log was like okay this might be a soaker or i might just like glide right over that water i can't tell I went right through the water. It was like being waterboarded. Like my contact was shifted. Like I was coughing. it was absolutely ridiculous.

Speaker: My gosh. So if you guys have ridden that before, let me know if that's normal or not. That's probably the most what I've ever gotten on a wild flume. um Then I picked up Kelly at the airport the next day and we did a couple more parks. Kelly, you want to talk about that?

Speaker: Yeah, I said I was going to make notes at some point and I never did. So you'll have to fill stuff in. So this is just from memory. We went to Indiana Beach. Well, first we went to Indiana Dunes National Park and it was pretty boring, to be honest. We did like one little trail that was recommended to us when we stopped at the visitor center that included like the dunes and the beach.

Speaker: But it was like nothing more special than any other dunes I've ever seen. I'm sure there was more that we could have seen, but we kind of just wanted to get to Indiana Beach and it was like a little drizzly. So we left.

Speaker: um Not great weather. If you guys didn't know, I'm trying to go to as many national parks as I can as well. I think that was like 29 30 or something. um So yeah, it was pretty much just a checkmark. I wasn't impressed with it at all, especially because it's just surrounded by these like steel manufacturing plants. Like you're standing on the beach and you look either direction and you just see like plumes of smoke coming up from this steel plant.

Speaker: Not good. no So we went to Indiana beach and we had both been there one time before. um Strangely, we both needed the same cred cyclone. So we did that first when we got there, those. Is it still on one train?

Speaker: oh yeah. Four people at a time. That's crazy. Yeah. So we were really lucky. There was like no one at Indiana beach. Like there really was no one. We waited for nothing really. yeah.

Speaker: So we, there were maybe like six people ahead of us in line for that. So we waited for that, but got the cred. um We pretty much rode everything coaster wise, right? I think we did. Oh no, not Tigger or...

Speaker: um We didn't ride that, but we rode triple loop. That was Tyler's first time on triple loop. My second, well, yeah, second time. First time without the old restraints. It is so much more comfortable. It's actually enjoyable. There's like a couple janky transitions, but... You can actually like enjoy the forces from the loops without like um crushing yourself. It never really bothered me that much because I was like careful about how I sat when they were putting the restraint down because I knew about it. But like some people have that as like one of the most miserable rides of their life. So I'm... Glad that we got to experience. We did not ride in the backward car because neither of us are backward people. so we can't go about that. But we did see one of our friends, um Eric, there. And he went in the backwards car.

Speaker: He's like, I didn't even know how that was backwards. He just like got in it. I'm like, okay. ah We rode the, what is the El Loco clone called there? Steelhog.

Speaker: That. yeah log It's fine. It's much better than El Loco as far as like pain is concerned. not Way smoother. Way smoother. um Both of the woodies were great. um I remember the last time that I was there, both of them, especially one, but I don't remember which was like pretty rough. Hurricane. It your hurricane. Yeah.

Speaker: It was fine. It was both of them were like completely fine and fun. And the, it was like a little drizzly here and there. So the tracks were a little bit slick. yeah. Those were fun.

Speaker: lost low Lost coaster superstition mountain. We got in and I had a moment of panic because we had to load with two other girls and I thought that they were going to want to sit forward and Tyler and I were going to be backwards. I was like, no, no, no. um But we they sat backward, thank God.

Speaker: Um, that was fine also. Um, what else did we do there? We didn't do the walkthrough spooky thing. Um, we did the sky ride.

Speaker: I don't know what other rides we did. It was just a nice night. It was beautiful weather that day. There weren't very many people there. Something else we did do is in sky bar. We played trivia. They have trivia on Wednesday nights. This should have been my spill actually.

Speaker: Yeah, it it wasn't traditional trivia. It was... how do I say this in a nice way? um so the most famous feeling person in the town of Monticello comes up with his glasses and his microphone and he's just so ready for trivia. Okay, don't hate on him, though. He was so nice. was so nice, I'm just saying. Like...

Speaker: It was not real trivia. All of the questions were about silly state laws. Okay. Every single question. The whole thing was about silly state laws. Like what state can you not, I don't know. What was a good example?

Speaker: i can't even remember them. They were so silly. um Like what state can not ride a camel in the dark or something like that? like yeah I remember one of them. It was like, what state can you not wake a sleeping bear?

Speaker: Yeah. But every single question was like that. And if that's not trivia. That's just complete guessing. And he gave me multiple choice. So it was four states and you had to guess in the first round. In the second round, it was only two states. But in the second round, you could wager your points. So Tyler and I were winning for, okay, there were eight teams. So we were legitimately winning. But a lot of these other teams looked like...

Speaker: the people of the people of the farmland surrounding Monticello. I don't know. Anyways, they were loud and... they were they were loud and we were a little judgy, but like we were winning for a while. Then we got a little bit too too, silly with our wagering in the second round. It ended up coming in third. We got a $5 gift card to Indiana beach. um So that was fun. i had one single cut water and was feeling it. So that happened.

Speaker: And we stayed on site in one of their cabins And it is like inside the cabin is nice. They're pretty run down on the outside. They definitely need some TLC, but they are super cheap and they have a ton of them just in this one area that would be really good for a cabin crawl. Just saying.

Speaker: Yeah, you can get, I don't know if all the layouts are the same, but ours you could get four people in there and it was like 120 bucks or something like crazy cheap, not super nice, but But like totally fine for if we were to ever do something there as a group. There was like one bedroom with like a queen bed and then the other bedroom had like two single bunk beds and then a bathroom and then like a common area with like a small kitchen and a like futon that somebody could probably sleep on. But it was kind of small, but it's fine for what we needed.

Speaker: um The next day we Can i talk about the park? ah Yeah, you asked me to talk about it. No, I just have some notes.

Speaker: I have to bring up the workers of All-American Triple H. Oh, yeah, this is important. So one of the ride ops, she as she sent the train, she then sat down and smoked a cigarette on the platform while the train's going, and she had an ankle monitor on.

Speaker: I'm like, this is the most Indiana Beach thing I've ever seen. that's It was ridiculous. So Indiana Beach. It was her and her kind at trivia, is what we're saying. Yes. Those were her people at trivia.

Speaker: We lost to a mom that publicly scolded her children in front of the entire bar. So, yeah. Yeah. The only other note I was going to say is...

Speaker: underneath lost coaster so we notice like so some flies around us like tiny little i don't know fruit fly looking things and then i look underneath lost coaster there's like an inch thick of just gunk i and i have no idea what it is it's just just an inch there was like piles of it like mounds It just mystery brown sludge.

Speaker: And I don't know what it is, but I think that's where all the flies were coming from. And it smelled gross. And I feel like I really like this park, but they need a deep clean everywhere. That was the most disgusting part, but that was kind of power one elsewhere. I think just spend the off season power washing the whole park and deep cleaning. I'm not sure it would be a beach anymore if they power washed it, though.

Speaker: Yeah. I might lose some of the charm, but in all seriousness, I do. Disgusting episode. Yeah. In all seriousness, I do actually really like that park and I think it'd be good for an event.

Speaker: Love Indiana beach. So like unique. Very I don't know how else to say it. that it? Are we good now? Yes, you can continue. Oh, we did do that little like dark ride.

Speaker: Like, I don't know if you'd call it a haunted house, but it was kind of like a haunted house. Remember where we had to sit by ourselves because the thing was the cars were so small. Yeah, the lost thieves, right?

Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was fun. Okay, we went to Kentucky Kingdom. No, not Kentucky Kingdom. We went to ah Beach Bend in Kentucky. We did go to Kentucky Kingdom later. um On the way there, we went to Bucky's, which was great because i didn't even know there was Bucky's on the way. That made my whole day.

Speaker: um I've been to this place before, so I was not thrilled to return, but it was part of Tyler's trip and I was just along for the ride. So we went there. I watched him ride the mouse and the spinner.

Speaker: He rode their like haunted dark ride thing. And it was actually so good. You guys, like it was shocking that this thing was in there. Like it was actually scary.

Speaker: Like they had like the way they did the lighting is it would be like completely dark. And then they would jump scare by lighting up like whatever figure was there. And it was just like really well themed and done. I was like, Oh my God, this is middle is like fairground.

Speaker: um we ro Kentucky Rumbler after a major downpour. So we like had to take cover and then they opened the ride back up. i don't even know if they ever closed it, to be honest, but we did not ride it during the downpour. We rode it after. um it was fine.

Speaker: It's like a middle tier. Yeah. Middle to bottom tier. Yeah, I agree. Um, and then we spent the rest of the day in their water park, which was actually so fun. It was not super crowded. There were definitely more people in the water park than there were anywhere in the dry park, but, um, they had a nice lazy river that we went around like four or five times. And then they have some newer slides that,

Speaker: We did, there's like four of them, two are similar and then the other two are similar, but we did one of each of those. They were two brides and they were really fun. They have like the giant bowl that you kind of like go around and then drop through down to the rest of the slide.

Speaker: Those are fun. The wave pool was fun. I read the book outside of it. It was nice. was very warm that day. Nothing crazy there, but good for an afternoon for that size park.

Speaker: Mm-hmm. We also stayed at a Drury Hotel, which I literally have never heard of before because they're not on my side of the state. But it was so nice. They give you so many things. Do you guys know about these places? They're really nice. There's actually one that they just remodeled. Well, not just, but I think it was remodeled like two, maybe three years ago in the Disney Springs area.

Speaker: In Orlando. Yeah, and it is so nice. And we stayed at one... forgot where we stayed at one. I think it was... Was it in? Damn, we should change our HHN reservation right now. It's it's really nice. Yeah, like they have they have really nice hotels, especially now. Like they've redone a lot of them because I think they weren't the greatest before.

Speaker: But now they're like all like fixed up and everything. And now all the new ones look just like the remodeled versions. Like they just look really good. Yeah, I don't know that this was like super remodeled or new. It was like probably kind of in the middle. But like the things they give you dollar drink tickets and then you get like their buffet dinner, their buffet breakfast, popcorn for free. It's normally free drink tickets, but Kentucky law is weird. So they had to sell them for a dollar. But you normally get three drinks per person and then like a buffet for dinner, basically included in your stay. Wild. We had all our meals there.

Speaker: this cool nice what did i miss anything uh no that's about it just yeah i went and rode those like crazier water slides while you were reading oh yeah yeah yeah they didn't have um you know how water slides typically have that pad at the bottom to kind of stop you from going directly underwater Yes. You kind of like you hit them and then you bounce up a little bit, just kind of staying on the top of the water.

Speaker: These didn't have those. So you come down the slide and you just go head first directly like underwater and trying to figure out which way is up. It was this, but it's on brand for that park, I would say.

Speaker: Yeah. All right. On the main event. The reason that I did this road trip pretty much. Buzz bars. bert eight That was cooler than that was cooler than like a lot of the other stuff we did. The cave you found on the drive.

Speaker: Oh, you just kind of ruined my intro to birthday bash. You were going to skip the cave. I forgot about it. um Yeah, there was just this random cave in Bowling Green where you take a boat.

Speaker: It's filled with water. Well, the boat isn't filled with water. The cave is filled with water. Right. you take the You take the boat through the cave and it's got like lighting in the cave.

Speaker: it was really cool. I mean, the cave itself wasn't that special, but just the fact that you can take a boat into an underground cave was pretty awesome. What was it called? I don't even remember.

Speaker: i don't remember. Okay. It's like near downtown Bowling Green, Kentucky. so It was a little touristy, but it was cool. You had to like completely duck flat in the boat to like enter the cave.

Speaker: It was neat. That's pretty cool. okay Lost River Cave, fam. That's it. that's it That is it. It was cool.

Speaker: Okay, go ahead. Do your intro. Guys, we went to Birthday Bash. That was so sad. Sorry, that's all I got. We went to Birthday Bash.

Speaker: Joey or Rafa, do you guys want to talk about birthday bash? How about this cabin crawl guys? That was so fun. Oh, the cabin crawl was great. Yeah. I think did anybody else do anything before that?

Speaker: Would you say Joe, do you guys do anything before that? Or did everybody just kind of converge on the cabins? Yeah, we just converged on the cabins. I know that some people had been in the park on that Friday and they were having a good time because the holiday world was not super crowded on that Friday. So it sounded like the lines were were pretty quick and stuff. I didn't personally do that either. I was in Louisville picking up cupcakes.

Speaker: yeah How do we want to start? Let me start with the cabin crawl. I mean, yeah, that was the first official event was the the fifth anniversary birthday bash cabin cabin crawl.

Speaker: um We had 16 or 17, 16, I think cabins and every single one had a food item, a drink item themed to one of the previous Buzz Bars events. as kind of part of celebrating our anniversary. um So Kelly, Tyler, and I were at the Velocist Dumble cabin. So we had theming obviously related to that.

Speaker: And then Raphael's was Dribblesburg, right? yes Yes. Which was an event at Kennywood. Is Gerbilsburg or is it Gerbilsburg? Nobody knows. We still don't know. Oh, because I was like, wait, was I pronouncing it wrong this whole time? I was saying Gerbilsburg whole time. But yeah, that event was at Kennywood. um So that was kind of the inspiration behind y'all's.

Speaker: um we did, what did we have? We had um some raptor nuggets, some dino nuggets, and some, well, we were planning to have churros, but we had cinnamon French toast sticks as a substitute for churros. was great. Yeah. We were a bit of a procrastinating group on this one, I will say. Yeah.

Speaker: Kelly very impressively like free-handed last minute a Jurassic Park arch sign that we put up. It looks so good. It was so cute. That's a funny story, actually. We were literally sitting in the cabin. like um I think, Joey, you were about to like start – or no, Scott was about to get there.

Speaker: And then you and him were going to go cooking um our stuff. And then we were just kind of looking around, and we see everybody setting up decorations. And we're like, oh, my gosh, we have nothing.

Speaker: so we're like, what do we do? Can we do anything last minute? It starts in like an hour. Literally an hour. I look it up and there's a Dollar General like two miles away. So ah Dex, Kelly and I all hop in the car and go to Dollar General and just walk the aisles for like 10 minutes finding anything vaguely dinosaur themed.

Speaker: We bought some poster board. Kelly's able to freehand the VelociCoaster like arches. And I thought it looked incredible. Like I was so impressed that you did that.

Speaker: It was great. Especially at the last minute. We got some little. pulled up a picture and I was like, what materials do I need? We bought some little dinosaur figurines, um some pipe cleaners. We made them into flames, some little like balloons. It was very last minute, but I think we made it work pretty good.

Speaker: It was good enough. It was better. Yeah, you guys placed. Yeah. You guys definitely put in that work. You guys were good. but Yeah. I was sweating for like 40 minutes, I would say. Yeah. We did get first place on our costumes and the margin was like huge. I think we got like 60% or something of the votes. Yeah. Hell yeah. I've never seen these movies. Somebody sent me a picture Laura Dern in Jurassic Park and I dressed like her. Yeah. I spent some money on it. Dex nailed his.

Speaker: He did, yeah. Dex looked incredible. yeah like I was like, what is this? was like, oh my god. Yeah. those was really good You guys all look great. The fits look great.

Speaker: The little arch was great. Dinonugs were great after a couple drinks, let me tell you. um yeah you guys did great well let's talk about your cabin because you guys had potato patch pizza you did was delicious oh god it was so good perry killed it with that pizza he made like i think he made like eight or nine pizzas like he made a lot yeah he he made a lot but they all came out great was really good Let me tell you though, Rafa, when I saw that you guys had a freaking shot roulette wheel, these sober spirits slapped me in the face and said, don't you do that. You really love about that though.

Speaker: spoiler Spoiler alert. um It is coming to every cabin crawl that we have. Okay, well, I did it anyways. yeah are you And you got a good one. You got a good one. But I know grown i love doing it mostly because the people that are going for their first event or have not done the wheel before have no idea how bad it is. It is so bad. It is the best thing. I don't know. It's so funny. I love seeing the reaction of those that have never done this before. And they're like, what is this? A wheel? like They get excited because we're like hyping them up. We're like, spin the wheel. We said that like over and over. I lost my voice just yelling that that night.

Speaker: So everyone's spinning it and then getting the nastiest like 99 root beer. It's college. It's disgusting. But it was so fun. You and Bethany were trying to peer pressure me so bad and I did not give it in. I'm proud of myself. Oh, good job. I gave it. Yeah. Which one did you get?

Speaker: I got choose your own. Yeah, you did. It was your choice. So you picked out like a. think it was like a was it one of the little like moonshine thingies yeah yeah yeah yeah it was a moonshine it was the taste was but it was something fall and i was like i like that ah yeah yeah yeah yeah towards the end of the night like when people started spinning like after our 30 minutes were up we're like just spin it but you could pick whichever one you want But yeah, well his son it was really fun. Yeah, we had the shot wheel. And then we also had Shay and I won a a lavender margarita. We had never made it before. And we mixed everything in there. And it was really strong. We're like, okay, we have to put some bottles of water in here. So we started dumping water in there. Like we're like it. We really had to tame it down because it was disgusting. But it was pretty much.

Speaker: We put 1800 tequila. We put triple sec. We put lavender. And what else did we put? And lime juice. And lime juice. Those were the four ingredients in there. And a a bunch of water because we had to like water it down. It was way too strong. It came all good. it was It wasn't bad. And it had a cool purple color like Phantom's Revenge. or So...

Speaker: That's the name of the ride, right? ran Phantoms? Yeah. I was like, wait, that sounded weird coming out of my mouth. I'm like wait, that's the right. I've never been to Kennywood, by the way. So, so yeah. But, yeah, it was it was really fun. It was really fun. I do wish that I got to see, like, I missed so many of the cabins.

Speaker: um Like, seeing, like, all the, like, I didn't go to, they were talking about, a lot of people were talking about the, which event was it with the, the one that won first place for the food.

Speaker: Sumble 325. Sumble 325. Totally, totally missed that. Didn't even make it him. He made a whole goddamn meal. Man. Yeah, I heard about it. like, man. I was like, that's what I get for having too much fun with this wheel.

Speaker: Yeah, I did manage to make it out to all of them. um There were a lot of it was really creative and and fun to see all of the things people came up with. Like um ah Chris and Marie had set up like Skyrush run because a bunch of people ran to Skyrush at that event when it opened.

Speaker: um What else was there? There was like people brought back the the the Top Thrill Stumble wanted posters that were on one of the cabins. Ethan had a Buzzbars walk of shame. Yeah, a bunch of like fun notes on there. Yeah, there was a there are a lot of fun features.

Speaker: Ashley wanding people down yeah before you go in There was a metal auto detection. yeah um There was the Viva Las Wobble cabin was pretty wild.

Speaker: It looked like a casino. They're decorated. They had some great decorations. um Oh, and um James Haley, shout out, had 3D prints and a bunch of stumble across the pond coasters that he was handing out. I have one of those. it's awesome.

Speaker: They do? I think I have it. Oh, no, I don't have it here with me. But, yeah, that was really cool. Yeah, I got one of those. And they also got, like, authentic English snacks, basically, to give out. Like, the the Tato chips. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, I was just very impressed with all the hard work and creativity that everybody put into it. And I am at every cabin crawl. Love it. Yeah. they can never They can never, every time we have cabins, like, it has to happen. Yeah, it's so fun. It's best thing It's really fun. Yeah. All right. Next day, we started the day with some water park ERT.

Speaker: Had you guys ridden those before? Yeah. Yeah. They are so fun. Yeah. Talk about waterboarding, though. Oh, my God. Yeah. So we had e rt on two water coasters, Wildebeest, which is, I guess I would say the more traditional water coaster with the cylindrical raft. Toboggan, yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, Toboggan. um I think that's one of the first of its kind. I don't think it's the first, but I know it's been around a long time. want to say it was the first with that LSM style launch. Yeah. Okay, gotcha.

Speaker: Yeah, so that one's really good. and then Mammoth is a circular tube, but it's also that style of water coaster, which I don't know of any other ones like that. I'm sure they exist, but I have never ridden one. so that's um There's one in the Middle East because they have some really fancy water parks. really but That's the only other one.

Speaker: Okay, gotcha. Yeah, they're sick, both of them. So then after the yeah ERT, we most of us just went into the park. Some people went back to change and everything, but I just ended up staying at the park all day.

Speaker: um i actually stayed at the water park until it was time for lunch. What did you guys do? Same. Yeah, I did the same. Yeah, I was there for most. like We changed. Yeah, we were there until we had to change, and then we went straight to the to the lunch. I got so much done. It was super fun. like um ah Most of us ran over to Cheetah Chase right at Park Open because that thing gets a really long line.

Speaker: um And that was more fun than remembered. It is a little bit crazy with the water, but like it was it was fun. And then we did like the toilet bowl slide. We did the the funnel slide, um the mat racer, the lazy river. Like there's so that's a great water park. It really is. it does Yeah, it's one of the best in the country.

Speaker: Yeah, it's so good. The mat racer. Oh, my gosh. I got so much air on that. It's crazy. I was completely off of the slide. Yeah. I didn't hit the ground until it almost evened out. I was genuinely scared because I was trying to get air. Like I lifted up as I'm coming. That's what I always do on those, um, that rides, but I was terrified and I will not be doing that again. on Yeah. That, that caught me a little bit off guard too. I forgot how much air you get on that thing. It's, it's kind of wild.

Speaker: I did the opposite. Cause I was afraid i was like, no. ah Yeah. Yeah. Well, I used to ride the one at water country all the time as a kid, and I would do that on every one and like try to win on everything. so This must be the water park with some of the most airtime in the world.

Speaker: yeah has to be. It's like the water coaster, the mat racer. Yeah. yeah Then we went to the picnic, which the food was fine, I think. you know I mean, it wasn't bad, but nothing to write home about. yeah um But the main event of that picnic was the Q&A with park staff.

Speaker: What you guys of that? so we had um Leah Cook Blumhart, who is the director of communications and the fourth generation owner Holiday World. And then her husband, um Matt Blumhart, who's um the director of operations, I think. And then Matt Eckert, who's the CEO of the park, all there, which is super cool that they all came out together to...

Speaker: answer questions. I thought it was one of the best Q&A's I've ever seen. They were like super candid answered yeah yeah questions very with a lot of detail talked about like their future plans pretty transparently. Frankly, it was really cool.

Speaker: They were really fun with it too. like I don't know. i feel like they were like just very conversational. like it didn't feel like like It didn't feel so like i a strict, I guess. like It just felt very easygoing. Obviously, we asked some questions that they could not answer, which is understandable, but they weren't like tiptoeing around it awkwardly like a lot of Six Flags parks have done.

Speaker: um They were just very candid. like We pretty much just asked... is there a chance that you guys will buy Air Force One? And they were just like, we thought about it and no. but yeah What was really funny was that, was it Keith that asked that? Yeah, of course it was Keith. Yeah, he asked, but he didn't even say Air Force One. He's like, is there a chance that you guys would purchase something that has recently, something like that? And I just love how she, right off the bat, was like, so basically he wants to know if we were interested in buying the Air Force One or not. It was really fun. She's savvy. think that's one of my favorite things about them. like you know they're They're one of the only major independent parks left in the U.S. like If you think about it, it's Holiday World, Lagoon, and Knoebels. And kind of Waldemere, but they're on the brink of being like a major park. um And so like when you think about those parks, they all have very...

Speaker: um distinctive like ah settings and and distinctive ways that they operate and they all feel like well run places that people like the local communities love to go to and everything. And I really respect that. And it was interesting to hear them talk about their plans. Like the cabins that we stayed at, Santa's Cottages, they recently acquired that. um And she spoke about them wanting to acquire more lodging. They nice.

Speaker: They really were. They were great. Yeah. um And yeah, like they weren't walking distance to the park, but it was so close that like it was worth it to be in like really nice cottages. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker: um And I did mention that like maybe someday we'll see a birthday land at Holiday World, which is a pretty cool idea. So we'll see. Yeah, that would be fun. But with the Q&As, you can always tell when this is just somebody's job and when it's their passion.

Speaker: yeah They were so passionate and knowledgeable about everything. I mean, they really just they felt like other enthusiasts, honestly. They really know their stuff, um and they knew their audience as well, and they played to that. And I think that's easily the best Q&A we've had with Buzzbars.

Speaker: yeah Yeah, for sure. Do you guys do anything? I don't know. Oh, I was just going to say, like, sometimes and like, not that I'm not grateful for everything that parks offer us as a club, but like sometimes I kind of dread those like forced like meeting group things, whether it's a Q&A or like, I don't know, something similar. Sometimes I'm like, I don't really want to be like stuck sitting here.

Speaker: And that was like the complete opposite experience that we had. Like, I think a couple of people might have left to go ride rides. Y'all missed out. and good yeah yeah yeah definitely because they told us they announced that we were going to get trimless voyage which was pretty exciting yeah yeah though they didn't hear that until later on they left yeah we were hoping for that but i think that was our first official confirmation that they were doing that for us so yeah got a big round of applause from us for sure yeah it's great time to you guys

Speaker: Did you guys do anything notable before DRT? I just kind of like bounced around the park. Just yeah, we didn't ride um like legend takeover. bunch of people went with that together, which was fun. Yeah. um There was a kickball game that happened back at the cottages that was i did not participate in, but was entertaining to watch because it was such a mess.

Speaker: um Yeah. Yeah. ah yeah It was so hot. I don't think I could have done kickball. I was in the shade. I was like, nope, I needed a break. Yeah, I stayed in the park. I didn't go to kickball, but um I heard there were some shenanigans. Yes, people were falling.

Speaker: Yeah. Ryan, hopefully you're all healed up by now, buddy. Yeah, I think he's doing a little better, but it's still sore. So hopefully he feels better soon. Yeah. Well, nothing else notable at birthday bash, right?

Speaker: Yeah, nothing else happened. We didn't do anything else. Nothing else. That was it. Tremless voyage ERT.

Speaker: Yeah. Well, first off, we were all gathered in the plaza and it didn't start until 8.20. eight twenty The park closed at 8. And I was up front with um the director of operations who was like helping us get in line and everything. And she was like, they're working on greasing it up for you. Yeah. And I was like, okay, I'm not going to say no to that. Like, grease it up. So, yeah, we had a full hour of VRT. um And because it was delayed until 8.20, like, pretty much the first ride was already not, like, 100% dark. But it was it has it was getting dark by then, which was really cool to have on rides.

Speaker: Yeah. Those were... I've done Hollywood Nights twice now, but those were the best rides I've ever gotten on Voyage. God dear. Oh my God. I don't know if it was the grease, but... That thing was hauling. Oh my goodness.

Speaker: Yeah, that was, that was, those are the best rides I've ever had on the voyage. It was freaking incredible. um Also just the fact that like our group was so small compared to what Hollywood nights has turned into, like being able to get so many rides on it in that time. And I know that some people tapped out, which like understandable because it was running so crazy. Like it's, it's a workout to ride the voyage, but i wrote it 10 times. i was like, this is so good.

Speaker: Yeah, I only got six. um I think Bradley thinks he got like 20 because he was just, ho and he was on every train. he was seat hopping. Get off, find an open seat, stay on that same train basically. So um you can't do that at Hollywood Nights, guys. No.

Speaker: It was so good. Yeah, i got I think I got about seven rides on it. That thing is crazy. it was insane. The Voyage hater is pretty quiet.

Speaker: did not go into this weekend a Voyage hater. I was never a hater. it was always in my top 25. I was just underwhelmed my first trip. My second trip, it improved for me. And I do agree, this is the most comfortable and most...

Speaker: enjoyable voyage has been. um i really, really like it. I probably have to move it up in my rankings, but there is something about it where it will, it just will not be number one, two or three for me ever. Like if I have to ride and this could be my age, but if I have to ride any part of a coaster defensively, it's just not going to be my favorite, but that's just, that's just a me thing. Like I can appreciate I mean, it is a work of art that coaster and it was incredible for all of our ERT. I sat in the front row for the first time ever. That was amazing. i had some really good rides all over the train.

Speaker: um I really, really enjoyed it. But like, I also have fear of hurting myself. So that's that's all. Once I kind of remember where I need to brace a little bit, then it's fine. But I kind of have to get those first one or two rides out of the way.

Speaker: And then after that, I'm good. yeah Yeah. It's like the first one. It's like, where are the parts? Because like, it's different every time. Like two, I wasn't at Hollywood Nights this year, but or last year.

Speaker: I was in 24, was my last Hollywood nights. And that was when there was that really bad pothole, um like, after the... Right the mid-course, that little... Right before, yeah. It was like really weird, like, kink right there. Yeah. Yeah, and it was like a jar, but, like, also a pothole. And it was just like, you can't do anything to prevent the pain. You just have to, like...

Speaker: It just you just have to be ready for it and it's gonna happen. But this time there was nothing like that, really. There was like no like spot where I was like, oh, I can't just like put my hand down and hold on and not be okay. But Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, they they they just take such good care of their rides there. I mean, the Raven. who I used to really love it and it just hurts. That's why I thought about Legend. Yeah, Legend was worse than Raven. Oh oh my gosh, yeah, Legend felt worse for me. Yeah. Yeah, I can to me was peak 2021. And this year it did feel a little off for where it usually is for me. Like those two airtime moments still. I i love those. but But there were some pretty shuffling bits in the helix and and a couple other parts that I was like, OK, it might be time to to come back to this one. But I did really appreciate the fact that they did the retracking on Raven after the fifth drop, because when you hit that section, it's such a like a wild difference from what it used to be. The car crashed.

Speaker: but Back to the Q&A, they brought that up. so I think somebody asked, like, do you have any planned retracking for the offseason? And they're like, we know we have a couple of spots on each coaster that we're going to touch up. We do that every year. And they called out, like, which spot that they think is a little bit rough and need some work, which I was really impressed with that. They mentioned one on Raven that I was like, what are you talking about? and then I went and wrote it and i was like, oh, yep.

Speaker: Yeah, you' like there it is. so all right. Anything else from Holiday World? I don't think so. love and appreciate that very much. ERT was incredible. Yeah, the park the park was amazing.

Speaker: um they They were incredible that that day. i love that park, and i just made this decision right now, and this is absolutely clouded with the ERT of that night, but I made the Voyage number one. Really? It feels right. It feels right. Yes! Yes!

Speaker: it's It's really good. Look at Kelly. Okay, I am so disappointed because you are the king of like, I've got to sit on this for a while. like Don't rank coasters anywhere near the time that you ride them and you just get off a coaster and make it number one. What do you mean? It was like a week ago. How long do I need to wait? um but It was a long road trip. He had a lot of time to think about it. Yeah.

Speaker: A lot of alone driving time. it is better than Iron Quasi, that's for sure. That doesn't deserve to be anywhere up there. my god. Alright, we're gonna move on because likewise I can't deal with this negativity right now on my two coasters.

Speaker: Um, we had quite the early wake up call for those of us that went to Kentucky kingdom the next morning. Not everybody made it, but most people did. i was pleasantly surprised with yeah how many people showed up, but we had almost 70 people. Yeah. That was great. Awesome. Yeah.

Speaker: But I think, uh, we, most people left the cottages at like six 30. Yeah. Yeah. It was an early morning, hour and a half drive and you're losing an hour with, uh, going back to Eastern time. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: um to make ERT, we had to leave that early. So what'd you guys think of the ERT? It was awesome that they did that for us. It really made it easy to get, um get through the creds, yeah you know, without having to wait in a crazy line, which, which I saw happening when the park actually opened. yeah So it was really cool. They gave us about plus or minus a half hour on lightning run,

Speaker: What are the hell? Wind Chaser. Wind Chaser now. Yeah. Flying Fox. um So that was nice. They kind of just walked us to each of those three all before the park actually opened to the public. Yeah. The um the marketing and comms director, James, really wanted to show off the the renovated area as well, Discovery Meadow.

Speaker: And it it does look really nice. Like they did a good job with that compared to what it used to look like. Right. That area to feel so just dead.

Speaker: And it feels so full life now. Yeah. Yeah. Also, he we didn't originally have three coasters, right? Yeah, that's right. So the park was supposed to open at 10 and we were just going to do lightning run, but they adjusted their hours. So they decided, hey, we already told you to be here early. So let's just give you some more rides, which is awesome. Appreciate them for doing that.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Especially Flying Fox, their brand new coaster. Because when I was leaving the park, um that line was out of the queue. That queue filled right up. and I was so grateful. I was like, thank God we're getting Flying Fox because this is going to be clutch. And it was. so yeah ah that's saved That saved us a lot of time for sure. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. 100%. What did you guys think of it? I really liked Flying Fox. I was impressed. I think that's my favorite family suspended invert from Vekoma. The layout's good. Yeah, there's definitely some moments of airtime.

Speaker: Yeah. That are legit like floater. And it has like a little bit of intensity in that one, like half helix, I guess, too, that kind of feels like Dragonflyer. It just has a little bit more airtime maybe than Dragonflyer. And the tunnel is cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: But I think for most people that was kind of a quick morning stop. People had flights and long drives back. But for me, that was a perfect way to end Birthday Bash. Just kind of a chill morning, i not really worrying about getting cruds or anything, just hanging out and getting some ERT on some coasters. So um thank you, James. That was very, very kind to go the extra mile for Buzzbars.

Speaker: Yeah, it was great. It was great. The parks definitely on the up and up and I'm looking forward to to seeing how things evolve there. Absolutely. All right.

Speaker: After birthday bash, I went to one, two, three, four more parks, I think. got I'm forgetting one. Maybe it was only four.

Speaker: I went to Six Flags St. Louis, Silver Dollar City, Worlds of Fun, and The Lost Island. So I'm not going to go through all of them, but I am just going to go through some highlights. You went to Stricker's Grove, too. Oh, Stricker's Grove. but Yes. but I went to, too, surprisingly. We weren't expecting to go, and we went that day.

Speaker: You went to Stricker's Grove? I did. it was after you left. We went, like, after their, like, lunch hour or whatever, like,

Speaker: think it was like from four to five. They were closed. Yeah. We got there like, like at four 30 and we, we went like for like an hour to get the two probably just missed you. Cause one, once their dinner hour started, I got dinner and I ate and then I left.

Speaker: Yeah. I probably passed you. You probably yeah parking right left to right when we got there. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for hitting me up though. Yeah. That was good. I knew you left already. or I thought you had already been there already and like you posted something about them being like on lunch. like, oh, wait. I was like, we're here after their lunch. So he probably left already.

Speaker: Yeah. um I did meet up with Bradley and Oliver and um sorry, they were like Marty. five people i Marty. Marty. Yeah, Marty.

Speaker: Um, our member from New Zealand, which I never, Marty is so cool. I never met him before. Oh, really? I had never met him and he's so funny. we met him's the liia He goes back to worlds of fun. That's the first time that he encountered buzz bars at a park. Yeah.

Speaker: And then he didn't go to first caro and stumble, but he went to bush gardens before that and met a bunch of people, I think. Yeah. Yeah. um Yeah, Stricker's is interesting.

Speaker: I forgot to even take notes on it. But um yeah while theyre yeah, the I don't even know what you want to call that. The death drop on Cornelio is oh my god absolutely ridiculous. And the thing is, you can't even really see where it's going to happen.

Speaker: Nope. because I knew that it was going to happen. I'd heard about it. And I'm like, is this the hill? Is this the hill? And they all kind of look the same, but you know it when you hit it. Oh, yeah. it's just that I didn't brace for it. Oh, my gosh. it was that was like I didn't know that was a thing. we didn't even think we were going to go here. and like i was After that drop, I'm I don't know what that was like that That was crazy. It was just like one collective shriek from the whole train.

Speaker: It was insanity. Yeah. That's the only notable thing at the park. Exactly. Oh, yeah. Yeah, pretty much. The food was good. um I watched Bradley do Teddy Bear, and they got three laps because they blew through the brakes twice. They were too heavy.

Speaker: And they almost did it the third time, and I thought they were going to to stop them on the lift hill or something because you could tell like the ride ops. They didn't know what to do. Yeah. ah Oh, I have a funny ride-off story about this. um It was on Teddy Bear.

Speaker: i I was next in line. They had loaded the train before me. And I see both ride-offs. And they're both, like, probably 15-year-old girls. Like, they come out twice a year, I think, to work these events, probably. But...

Speaker: but they were just like kind of whispering to themselves and not sending the train. And then they keep keep like looking at this woman and there's a woman in like the third row, pretty large woman.

Speaker: And her bar was not all the way down. Like you can tell when the buzz bar, when it's horizontal, it was up a little bit. And then one of the girls walks up to me and I'm just a random guest next in line. And she's like, i don't want to push her bar down.

Speaker: And I'm like, okay.

Speaker: And then she walks she walks away to talk to her coworker again. And then they call the maintenance guy who doesn't look like a maintenance guy. He looks like some random guy that came off the street.

Speaker: But they like whisper to him and he just goes over and just pushes her bar down like another inch and it's fine. She probably felt so bad that that whole show up was a bar.

Speaker: I'm assuming that's the angle she was trying to come at for me. Like, I'm sorry this is longer because I don't really know what to do. But she's just like, I don't want to push her bar down. And then she comes back to me after that she sends the train and she's like, I'm sorry, I just didn't want to push the bar down. I'm like, it's okay. I don't i don't know what's happening.

Speaker: I guess the children don't know how to talk to people. no No, the Gen Z doesn't know what's going on. um Yeah, that's that's pretty much it for Stricker's Grove. You can get out in an hour and a half. if Yeah. I was going to say if you only want the creds, but there's really not much more. A couple of flat rides. there's um They had that speed thing. You were just like held by a chain.

Speaker: Okay, yeah, that was insane. and i don't know what those are called. Joey, you might know. I can't recall. No. We were staring at that when we were waiting for Tormato. I'm like, there is no way I would ever get on that thing. Yeah. Well, I've seen the ones that are just, they stay flat and you're held against the wall with the centrifugal force.

Speaker: But this one elevates and you're at an angle. So you're basically looking down, but you're still held in just by the centrifugal force and one chain across you. No way. I would never.

Speaker: Hard pass. I would never. I'll ride a boomerang before that.

Speaker: right, let me go through these quick. Six Wags St. Louis, that was my first visit. That was the largest park, I think, in the U.S. that I needed based on cred count. So um ran into Grant and Ashley there.

Speaker: i was in the back row of Rookie Racer, and then they just came and sat right in front of me. I'm like, hey, guys, and they whipped their head around because we did not know that each other was going to the park.

Speaker: So hung out with them the whole day. um Freeze was closed. Never opened. So I missed that cred. Never tested or anything. Yeah.

Speaker: Do you not like it? Really? It's the best ride. Backwards. Backwards fell. Yeah. I've done the one at um over Texas and it was fine. So I don't really have that much heartburn over missing it. But what do you guys think of Boss?

Speaker: I self-reported it. gave me a migraine, it's but I appreciate the i what it could be. Yeah. Like it's rough, but it's not like that bad. I don't know. it It just feels bizarre to me. Like the restraints are weird. It does not feel like it should have those restraints.

Speaker: The first drop is great. And then when you're going down that first drop and you see the double down, you're like, Oh my God, I'm about to die. What is about to happen here?

Speaker: it ends up being fine. The double down isn't as, um, steep as it looks like but once you get to the second half for me it just kind of died yeah slow me andry yeah yeah definitely meanders and did there used to be another helix on it yeah they took it out yeah i can't even imagine another helix on that ride because it's just so meandery at the end. I don't know how it made it through the layout. Yeah, I think that's why they took it out because it was like a valley risk.

Speaker: I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Has it always had those trains? Do you know the Gerstlauer's? I'm pretty sure. Yeah. they said Yeah. Not my favorite coaster train. Definitely.

Speaker: um Yeah, that's pretty much it for Six Flags St. Louis. was very hilly. I was not expecting that. um Yeah, that's pretty much all I have for that park. Kind mid-tier six flags, I would say.

Speaker: Silver Dollar City, I really don't have much to say. it's was my favorite park in the country before this. It's still my favorite park. They do everything so well. Just the theming and everything.

Speaker: um The cave is one of the best attractions in... any park in the country, honestly, in my opinion. Yeah. Yeah. i don't have much to say. and Just the parks incredible. Yeah.

Speaker: That's your favorite too, right? co domestically it's mine as well yeah um worlds of had a short visit there i only needed spinning dragons and zimbizi zinger um i feel like zinger was okay it's probably a little overhated in my opinion maybe just because expectations were so much higher for a lot of people yeah The restraints are terrible. Tightening as you go. Very uncomfortable.

Speaker: And it's definitely rougher than it should be for such a new coaster. By the way, I didn't mention this, but these three parks were completely dead. Silver Dollar City had 2,500 people at the max attendance during the day. wow. That's low. Yeah. Yeah. I walked on to everything except for Mystic River Falls. Yeah. I think the weekend that I went was kind of like the last hurrah of summer. And now like the weekdays in August are just, yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. I would tell people to go to the Missouri parks that same week next year, but I feel like they won't even open based on their attendance for this year. That's trend we've been seeing. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah.

Speaker: There's just, there's no way they're going to make money. um Yeah, worlds of Just kind of breezed through that like two and a half hours or something. Got my creds. Rode everything once or twice and left. Just nobody there. So is it true that Mamba is now trimming to death again on the mid course?

Speaker: Yes, it was trimming. Mamba did absolutely nothing. man, that stinks. Yeah, I did. I've never had a trimless Mamba ride. So it looks like Magnum where you're just going to get yeeted on every hill and then you don't even leave your seat whatsoever. Yeah, well, you used to for a little bit at at least. Oh, well.

Speaker: Yeah, that's the only experience I have had is the not leaving your seat. It got good like after my one visit there and now it's back to not good again. So I wonder what their reasoning is for that.

Speaker: Too much stress on the train. They did it to Steel Force too. They turned off the midcourse and they like sped up the lift hill, but that was only there for like a season. It felt like.

Speaker: Was speeding up the lift hill even do much? I can't imagine that it does. Yeah. Yeah, it felt like it did. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Having ridden Mamba before and after that change. Yes. There was like more airtime over the first Hills.

Speaker: Okay. More than zero. I'm assuming. Correct. Yeah. It existed. Yeah. And then i finished up my trip at lost Island.

Speaker: So I was worried on this day because it was absolutely pouring down rain and supposed to be storming for most of the day. um So i get there, it's still pouring down rain, 12 cars in the parking lot, which I think was normal in the past, but I don't think that's normal this year. i think they've been getting better attendance now. um Yeah, eventually the rain stopped and I was able to start getting on rides.

Speaker: um A lot of stuff was closed for like the first hour, which was very annoying, but I had a completely zen park I've had Zen rides before. I've never had a Zen park. It was insane.

Speaker: Matsugani was down. Did not get on it. Yeah. Bummer. Kind of a bummer, but it made me feel a little bit better because she said it's been down for two or three days and it never even tested. So it's not like I just missed it or anything. Yeah.

Speaker: um Going back to what we were talking about earlier, is Lost Island just kind of coasting on that initial investment in revenue?

Speaker: So a couple of things that stood out to me, there was an entire screen on Volcanoe that did not work. So you're just sitting there for 30 seconds, like the train's moving, but the screen is not working. There's no sound. It's just awkward.

Speaker: And then I mentioned it to the guy. Like I thought it was just my ride that it happened. And I told the guy like, Oh, a screen isn't working. He's like, yeah. Okay. So I assume that's a regular issue. And I wrote it a second time and it did the exact same thing.

Speaker: And then also on the drop tower, We get into the pre-show and the write-up is like, this has been freezing a lot. So I don't know if it'll play the whole thing. And then he plays it. It plays for like 30 seconds.

Speaker: And then it just stops in the middle. He's like, yeah, that's where it's been stopping. And then he just explained the rest of it to me. So I don't know. I really enjoyed the park. um It's just kind of...

Speaker: insane to have that level of theming in the middle of corn in Iowa but i don't think they're keeping up with their rides yeah that's a little concerning like Volcanoe I would say i would say that's the best ride in the park honestly for you to have basically 20% of the ride just not working yeah that's really not acceptable so hopefully they figure that out Yeah. um Fire Runner was good.

Speaker: i wasn't feeling the joints like I do on a lot of other single rails, at least not as strongly. The SLC was bad, but I think it's not as bad as people say because it's just the shuffling, right? There's no head banging because it has those. Well, it used to have moment in the first inversion where your whole body did like this and slammed you. press But they did do some work on that. So maybe they fix that part.

Speaker: Yeah, I don't remember that happening. so um But the shuffle side to side is pretty insane on that ride. um Yeah, that's pretty much all I have on Lost Island. and I did go to their water park also. Water park is good.

Speaker: um It's definitely older. I think that's been there for 15, maybe even 20 years. It's been around for a while. It's sort of like a lighter on the theming, but same theme, I would say. And much more crowded over there, despite it being like 71 degrees and kind of rainy.

Speaker: So I enjoyed it. Nothing spectacular, but if you can get that combo ticket, I think it's worth it if you aren't going to spend the whole day at Lost Island, which I don't know how you could, honestly.

Speaker: And that's it That was a lot of driving. It was like pretty much four hours between every park. So I would try to split it up, maybe do like an hour at night and three in the morning if I could, just because I'm more of a morning person.

Speaker: um But yeah, I put over 2,300 miles on that rental car. So I don't think Avis was too happy with me, but it says unlimited. So that's what did.

Speaker: Yep. All right. You guys are probably sick of thrills at this point. So we do have some chills. Kelly, I think we had some minor news or updates from Orlando.

Speaker: Yeah, not too much. They did release what houses are including in each of the Six and three house unmasking tours. I'm not going to name them, but you can find them on the website. And then i saw a post yesterday with some of the themed desserts that they put like in the cases um out. And there were some like,

Speaker: Hellraiser ones and um a lot of the IP like villains were kind of utilized in the desserts. They're not like the typical like they're not part of the whole like food menu that hopefully next episode or right before the event will be able to kind of review better. But they definitely have some like theming that they sell throughout the park in their desserts. And that was coming out more construction, more food booths.

Speaker: Hopefully we get the menu soon. The food in there, I feel like is always better to look at than taste. Totally. It's for the, it's for the art. not for Yeah. It's for the Instagram post for sure.

Speaker: We finally have the full list for Hollywood, which I am not experiencing, but Joey and Rafa, you guys will get to hopefully do everything there since you have express.

Speaker: Yeah, we will definitely be doing everything. um It has been kind of trickling out very slowly, but I just wanted to cover it since we haven't really talked about exactly what they're doing. um So Haunted House-wise, we have ah five of the same IPs that are overlapping. So Sinner, Stranger Things 5, Hellraiser, Evil Dead Burn, and Ozzy Osbourne, Prince of Darkness are all um going to be there at Hollywood as well. um We do know based on the interviews that there could be some differences, especially at least in the Aussie house. There's know going to be a kind of different storyline set up to it. So I'll be very interested to see like how those differ from coast to coast.

Speaker: um And then um they have an additional IP house that's not at Orlando, which is Killer Clowns from Outer Space. So that is being featured in a scare zone in Orlando, and they're actually getting their own full house at Hollywood.

Speaker: um And then they announced their two originals this year. So one is called Dead, Deader, Debtist. um And it's based on a funeral home.

Speaker: um it says residents rise from their graves and terrorize the living in this haunted house. And then the other one, which was the last one they announced is Kilsin Yara music by slash. um This one says a vengeful birthday girl summons malevolent spirits to her quinceanera to exact monstrous vengeance on school bullies. And they usually have like a Latin American theme tell. So that's kind of on trend with what Hollywood has been doing.

Speaker: ah They announced that Terror Tram is going to be starring Art the Clown this year as the main character. and then scare zone wise, we have Fort Nightmares, which is coming over from Orlando.

Speaker: I already saw a picture of that battle bus that's been put up in Hollywood. And then we have Hackers, which is the chainsaw one near the front gate. El Cerco de la Muerte and Blood Bog.

Speaker: And then they have street experiences as well. So there's one called Murder of Crows, which is a carryover from last year. But it sounds like instead of like one specific place, they might just sort of let the crows roam around. um and terrorize people everywhere. And then there's one called Shriek of the Banshee, which I'm not 100% sure what exactly this is. I think it's kind of like a ah ah ah carnival tent sideshow type thing, but I guess we'll find out when we're there.

Speaker: Yeah, I'm seeing like they're trying to stick to like the carnival theme, like in both in both coasts. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of. I mean, it doesn't seem like the the icons are as heavy on the Hollywood side as in Orlando.

Speaker: um And obviously the um Jack versus Oddfellow House is not being featured um in Hollywood. So ah it'll be a little different, but I guess we'll see. Yeah, I think the mix between keeping something similar but having enough different is good.

Speaker: um I love to see the similarities and differences between what they do, but I also love that they have their own originals. Yeah. I'm definitely glad there's at least some.

Speaker: Yeah, and then they also have that Purge. purge I don't know if you mentioned it, the Purge show. oh yeah. yeah um Which takes over the Waterworld stage. Yeah. And that show has been running for several years now, I think.

Speaker: um Right. Similar Nightmare Fuel. They kind of have the standard stage show. So yeah, this is your first time as well, right? ah Yeah, yeah, this is my first time for Hollywood, which I'm very excited to see, like, how it compares. um Because even though, like, we said that, like, the Aussie house is very, um like, they they seem to have two different, you know, themes to them, not themes, but like different, like, I guess, settings for each one. Yeah.

Speaker: Like there are other houses, even the ones that are shared, they're all pretty, they're always in the being pretty different. Like I know that last year, remember Scott was telling me that fallout over there was better than the Orlando one.

Speaker: So I'm very excited to see how they compare like the, you know, the ones that we are sharing with Hollywood. Yeah. Should be a fun time to see. All right. We do have a question from Ashley.

Speaker: Now that you've dropped your hype list, if you could design merch for your top houses, what would it be? i ask because it seems like HHN is lacking in this, and I find it hard to find good stuff at parks that I visit.

Speaker: Aliens. Aliens on the planet. Alien merch. Oh, I heard minions. I'm like, minions? Like, what are you talking about? You can find that too. Yeah, that'll be somewhere in there. But, you know, like I've noticed that like they're diving more into the spirit jerseys, which I'm not somebody who buys those. They're so expensive. But yeah, um but i I appreciate that they're diving into that and they are looking cool. They're just not for me.

Speaker: But um I don't know. Merch. Also, you can only wear them in Florida for like a month out of the year. Why why are they selling them? Yeah, that's why I never buy them. I have one spirit jersey that i bought like on a cruise like years ago and I never wear it because it's hot.

Speaker: Yeah, that's a bit strange. They always seem to have... I don't know. The the designs are never that great either. So it's just like... yeah Yeah. I would love if they had more small things. Like if they had like little magnets or pins for houses, i would look more to buy something like that rather than the t-shirt designs and stuff.

Speaker: What about some running shorts? I would wear those. I feel like shorts are not something that parks really do. Yeah. Like they have... Like they have like in, I know not, not here in Orlando, but in, um in Hollywood, they're selling like killer clowns joggers.

Speaker: Okay. Which I'm like, all right, that's something different. They don't look too bad. Like, you know, I'll take that. some of Sometimes these shirts, like, just, I don't know, they they get old. Like, especially, like, the house ones. And I get it Like, you know, it makes, I get why they sell them. i mean you get all of the houses in the back.

Speaker: um But some of the the shirts that they drop, it's just like... they just need to make They just need to make better basic Florida weather clothes that people are going wear. They need better fabric and material. Like I have some of the HHN shirts and they're just like not nice. Please comfort colors.

Speaker: Like yeah I know that everyone likes them, but like they are just durable. They are boxy. They look good on literally everyone. Put the big design on the back, do the Tyler thing and more people will buy their merch.

Speaker: I would buy it. All right, guys. Any final thoughts about anything? Nope. Cool. Excited for HHN. We're so close.

Speaker: Yes. I know we didn't have too many chills tonight, but that will definitely be changing, hopefully for next episode with food. And then obviously after that, once we get to experience it. So ah thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Twitter,

Speaker: Join our discord. If you want, we can probably send you a link. You're probably already in there, but if you're not for some reason, um, and thank you for listening. Bye.

Speaker: Bye. That's tea actually.