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The Single Rider Line Episode 8: Back From The Dead
38 Plays1 year ago
Lunarus is back from the dead! What is he up too?
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Transcript
Exciting Race Event Announcement
00:00:04
Speaker
Sunday! Sunday! Are you ready for the highest and fastest poster in the world? Are you ready for a real race? This lady can't handle it.
00:00:45
Speaker
Mr. Pop.
00:01:08
Speaker
All riders waiting and on top of those rapture, we are currently experiencing a mechanical issue and you do not know the length of the length. Once again, oh boy. Hey, hey guys. Hey. I'm not, I'm not dead. I swear to God.
Podcast Hiatus and New Beginnings
00:01:27
Speaker
So it's been what? Three months now since my last.
00:01:34
Speaker
Episode let me let me check this. What was this laps? Oh god August 14th was the last episode and it's now October 30th, so uh 14th, that's one two one sec. I'm doing I'm doing some math It's been It's but wait, no, I got distracted my brain went somewhere else I
00:02:02
Speaker
One, two, yes, yes. So three months and some change basically since the last episode. I'm sorry. OK, in my defense, in my defense, I bought a new computer. It's beautiful, by the way. It's not very visually pleasing, but specs wise, it's this thing is. I could probably send a rocket
00:02:32
Speaker
to Mars with this thing. We could do that. Wait, no, no, no, no. We could send a rocket to the moon in the 70s or the 60s with like 50 megabytes of data on supercomputers. I could send a rocket to the moon on this thing. But it can it can handle video games pretty well, so I'm happy about it.
00:02:56
Speaker
Was not, uh, was not the cheapest of purchases. It has significantly delayed me buying my 2024 season pass, which I will get eventually. Um, but yeah, that's my excuse for not uploading for three and a half months. Um, I just never got the software set up and, uh, I got the hardware set up because that's the, that's the hard part, but just never got around to recording.
00:03:26
Speaker
And, uh, you know, not busy with life and my job, even though I was, I had a job. I'm going to stop making excuses now. I basically just didn't record. Okay. I'm back though. All right. We're going to get back onto a weekly schedule. I'm going to get you guys your weekly episodes and.
00:03:49
Speaker
For the first time in three and a half months coming back from the dead just in time for Halloween. Welcome back to the single writer line.
Reflections on an Uneventful Summer
00:03:58
Speaker
I hope you all are doing, are doing well. What's been going on in the past, past three months for me, it's been insignificant. No, okay. Not insignificant. It's been not super eventful, but that's not a bad thing. Um,
00:04:17
Speaker
If your life is eventful, it either means you're spending a lot of money or there's a lot of bad shit going on. And mine has been fairly uneventful, which I am happy about gotten some more park trips in. I got I got a lot to talk about both. We got a lot of coasters that are opening next year. We got a park trip.
00:04:42
Speaker
that I got to cover. We're going to save the park trip for next episode because we got a lot of coasters to cover, which I'm not going to get to all of in this episode. Plus a park trip and. Yeah, we get we got to get back on schedule, so we're going to forego. Actually, you know what? I am going to do a park trip. I'm not going to do the California one because I went to the your favorite coaster sucks California meetup.
00:05:11
Speaker
with Ben. What was I saying? My brain just flatlined. Yeah, I went to California. If your favorite coaster sucks me up, that was a great time being able to hang out with everybody there.
00:05:32
Speaker
Yeah, I see I have notes like right here on the side of my screen and I can't even I can't even put my my thoughts into words all the way. Granted, I don't have any notes about the about the meetup because I don't really need any because I wasn't going to talk about this today. What I am going to talk about is a closing day at our most of the northern parks happened
00:05:58
Speaker
This past Sunday or past Saturday, that being the 29th and the 28th. A bit of a somber. Bit of a somber time, you know. I mean, it's closing season or closing day for. Good majority of the northern parks, I mean, we're not going to count Dollywood and that sort of thing.
00:06:23
Speaker
Kings Island, I mean, I guess not technically, but you know, for traditional traditional operations. It's been done so.
Cedar Point Adventures and Updates
00:06:35
Speaker
Was at Cedar Point Sunday, the 29th. Went there with my girlfriend, I got her a pass for next year, so hopefully we'll be able to.
00:06:48
Speaker
park a few times. I did not buy all season fast lane for next season. I used it plenty this past season, but it's a huge, huge money and time equipment. I'm willing to commit the money to it. It's just I don't want to buy it and force her into that, you know, because if you want to get your money's worth for the all season, considering it's a thousand dollars,
00:07:15
Speaker
Plus everything else on top of that, you know, you're looking at 20 plus visits to King's Island or Cedar Point. If you want to get your food money worth and your fast lane money is worth. I don't want to force her to do that, you know. You know, that's kind of kind of rude. So we just start to regular passes. Obviously gets us into all the Cedar Fair parks because I'm going to take her to Cedar Point and King's Island.
00:07:44
Speaker
Anyways, walked into the park top thrill to the progress that they're making on that is awesome. Being able to see that tower finally be constructed and not just a picture is a it's just great. So that's that's so that's that's good to see. It's.
00:08:06
Speaker
It's kind of surreal because it's only a third of the way done. And I know they already have one tower that's 420 feet, but seeing two towers that are going to be both. 420 feet, even if you don't necessarily get up to that 420 foot mark on the spike, that's still nuts. That's that's still kind of fucking insane. What else is insane is Falcons flight, but we'll talk about that next week. I have a whole lot to say about that.
00:08:38
Speaker
But yeah, we stopped by Top Thrill 2 just to see what's going on. It looks just so damn good. The paint job on the main tower, they're starting to finish that up. They still gotta finish up some of the supports. The new paint looks awesome. Love the red and white being on top of the top hat and not just on the track below. I think the new paint job looks way better than the original. We walked on over to Millennium Forest Scott
00:09:07
Speaker
We only rode everything. We only rode stuff once, by the way. We did not have fast lane because it was rainy and soggy and we were only going to be there for a few hours anyways. Got a Millennium Force ride. Just kind of picked the middle. I don't remember what road we rode in. It's Millennium Force. You can't go wrong with a Millennium Force ride. I still prefer Orion, but you know, it's Millennium Force.
00:09:33
Speaker
Overrated or or not, it's it's it's still a good coaster. I don't think I don't think it'll ever be a bad coaster. Opt-off Millennium Force went over to Maverick. That was about a 30 minute wait, which isn't bad considering its cedar point. Honestly, Fastlane alone at Cedar Point is worth it for Mavericks Fastlane because Fastlane there is absolutely ass at Cedar Point.
00:10:02
Speaker
Um, except for Mavericks, Mavericks is a walk-on, which is how all of them should be. But you know, that's a different conversation. Um, actually, no, that that's a conversation for right now. Cedar Point fix your fucking fast lane. It's so bad. If I go there and pay 200 and they, okay. They lowered it this year. It was only $230 a peak.
00:10:28
Speaker
2022, I paid $260 for fast lane on top of my ticket. Um, since I didn't have all season in 2022. I should be able to basically walk on everything. That's how it is at Kings Island. That's how it is at a majority of Cedar Fair parks. I don't know why it's not like this here. I understand that you're some of your stuff is lower capacity. Like the seal vengeance fast lane lane line is a joke. The millennium forest one is a joke.
00:10:59
Speaker
Um, the Magnum one isn't terrible. Uh, I just don't like that ride in the first place, to be fair. Um, Val Ravens is pretty good. Blue streaks is pretty good, but it's none of the major, major attractions. Dragsters was awesome. Um, but now that's gone. So we'll see how top thrill twos is top thrill twos. That's going to be hard to say. Um,
00:11:25
Speaker
But yeah, I don't think that's going to get fixed anytime soon. But you know what? I can pray. Pray to the Cedar Fair gods that their fast lane is going to be fixed sometime soon. Wait about 30 minutes for Maverick. Kick ass ride, as always. So glad I got to ride that one last time before the end of the season. Went over to Steel Vengeance as well. Got one last ride on Steel Vengeance. We got row eight, I believe.
00:11:55
Speaker
Towards the back, no complaints there. Last time I was at Cedar Point with my girlfriend, she absolutely despised Steel Vengeance because it hurt her thighs. This time they didn't staple her because I was like to the ride off as he's coming by and like don't staple her, don't staple her.
00:12:15
Speaker
just because I, you know, that hurt her last time. So we got off. She likes Maverick more still. However, she does like Steel Vengeance now. So mission accomplished. I didn't need for I didn't need it to be her absolute favorite coaster, but I needed it to be. At least enjoyable for her, and now she can enjoy it. So I'm glad I'm glad we've reached that point now.
00:12:43
Speaker
We got some food at Backbeat Q Good as always Park food has really improved. I don't want to say it's like world-class because it's definitely it's definitely not but it has definitely improved since since I was a young kid And I wonder I was eight or nine or so and everything they had was chicken tenders and and burgers and pizza
00:13:12
Speaker
So obviously you still have those options, but you know, you've got barbecue options and you've got other stuff as well, which, which is nice. It's good to see. Uh, we've talked about food in the past though, and I'm sure we'll come back to it at some point. Walked by top thrill too. Again, got a better look at the top hat because we only walked by the back half of it. Um, initially we went over to Val Raven. It was like a 45 minute wait and we're like, no, we're going to pass went on over to gatekeeper. It was a walk on.
00:13:42
Speaker
Got a ride on that. She wasn't feeling the greatest. We went ahead and left. That was about 330. And that was my closing day trip to Cedar Point. Yeah, it was a good time. I wish we could have gotten to ride more, but that's OK. I'll be back next season and we'll have a brand new credit next season. So it was kind of pressing to leaving the park.
00:14:12
Speaker
I think that's how it is for a majority of people who live up here on closing day. It's like, Oh, it's, uh, it's gone or like, it's not gone, but that's what it feels like. You know, it's, you're done for the season. It's, you know, I don't know. It's just sad. Okay. Let me be sad about the park closing. All right. Temporarily. All right.
Technical Glitches and Impromptu Discussions
00:14:38
Speaker
I'm going to pause real quick. Hold on.
00:14:41
Speaker
Okay, I'm back. Sorry about that. I accidentally closed out of Zencaster. I was just pausing because I had to go use the restroom and I accidentally
00:14:52
Speaker
quit the recording entirely instead of just pausing. So that's nice. So now I have completely deleted all my notes on accident. And we're going to be winging this because I'm not restarting this. So I have to merge these two audio recordings together here as soon as I'm done recording this. So anyways, yeah, that was my Cedar Point closing day 2023 trip.
00:15:22
Speaker
I would suggest you go get your own closing day trips, but all the parks have pretty much closed for the season. So there's not really a whole lot you can do about that one. Um, but Hey, enjoy it. Enjoy it while it lasts. And Hey, if, if you live close to a park that does a Christmas event, congratulations, your coaster season is kind of sort of over, but also kind of sort of not really. So, you know, it,
00:15:52
Speaker
Again, and just just enjoy it. That's all. That's all. All right, we got a lot opening in 2024.
2024 Coaster Announcements and Concerns
00:16:02
Speaker
We already talked about some of it. We've talked about top thrill to way more than I would like to admit. We've talked about Snoopy's snowbox. Snowbox soapbox racers opening at Kings Island.
00:16:18
Speaker
We've talked about good gravy opening at holiday world and we got some new stuff that's been announced since I last was live here on the podcast. Um, we've got a new, we got a new coaster opening up at six flags. Great adventure. It is a flash vertical velocity. Um,
00:16:42
Speaker
It is a super boomerang. Um, vertical velocity has been used so many, so many fucking times. I'm kind of tired of that name. Why they just can't use original names is beyond me. Probably makes marketing a lot easier for t-shirts and merchandise and that sort of thing, but whatever. Anyways. Um, so it is a Vekoma super boomerang and it looks
00:17:12
Speaker
Interesting. Okay. Let me, let me give my opinions on this. Um, I think the ride itself looks awesome. I think this is going to be a great time. Um, we'll definitely be riding it next year whenever I get on over there. Um, my only concern about this is it's a boomerang. This thing runs with one train at great adventure. Like,
00:17:40
Speaker
Like Six Flags, what are you trying to do here? I understand that this thing was probably cheaper than buying a full-size roller coaster, but I'm on Vekoma's website and they're advertised, so this is probably not accurate. They're advertised riders per hour is 800. That is atrocious for the size park you have going on there. What the actual fuck?
00:18:07
Speaker
I mean, so eight hundred people per hour, hypothetically. So realistically, we're more we're more looking at like. High six hundreds. Low seven hundreds, you know. Or the part for a park the size of Great Adventure, I don't think that works. We have not seen one of these coasters outside of outside of China.
00:18:36
Speaker
Um, according to their website anyways, so I'm glad we're getting one here in the United States park, the park choice though, questionable at the very, at the very least, I'm just curious as to why, like I understand you want to add a new attraction. I get that.
00:19:02
Speaker
But why go for a super boomerang when you could get something for probably just a bit more. That is a full circuit roller coaster and has three trains that can support. You know, I.
00:19:18
Speaker
more people. I mean, you need that that great adventure. It's that park is not small. I mean, it's not the biggest in the world. It's not, you know, Magic Mountain or anything like that. But it's still it's still pretty pretty damn big draws a lot of people. I mean, you've got the New York install base. So, you know. I don't know, just a bit of bits concerning.
00:19:46
Speaker
Uh, it says the lift height is 52.5 meters on their, on their website. Um, and it will reach a top speed of 95 kilometers per hour. So 60 miles per hour, uh, 52 meters. That's give me a second. I can do, I can do base in my head. 172. That's really tall. God, what? That is way taller than I thought it was. 52 meters. Damn. Okay.
00:20:17
Speaker
It still doesn't negate the fact that this thing only has one train, but, you know, it's. It's six flags. What are we expecting here? Like. All right, never mind. Speaking of six flags, six flags over Georgia is getting a Intamin surf rider.
00:20:44
Speaker
which looks suspiciously like a mock power splash. It looks identical to a mock power splash. I'm going to lie. Literally, the only difference is that the seats spin. Since we like being negative Nancy here on the single rider line, this is I'm not going to complain about it's been providing their own version of another company's design.
00:21:14
Speaker
I kind of like this idea. It's a subtle change, but enough to where it makes a difference because putting spinning cars on pretty much anything changes it wildly. So I'm not going to complain about this. I have yet to be on a power splash.
00:21:37
Speaker
So I can't really lean one way or the other and say, oh, this is going to suck or oh, this is going to be really damn good. It's just I mean, it looks all right. It looks like a water coaster. I'm not going to ride. I'd probably write it for the credit. I don't know. I don't like getting wet at parks, you know, because they always have some policy. I don't want to bring a bag into the park. If I'm going to ride a water ride, I have to become prepared. I have to.
00:22:06
Speaker
bring an extra pair of clothes. If I'm going to go ride the coaster, I have to be in swim trunks already, not have shoes on. And some parks make you require you to have shoes on. So I have to bring sandals, um, either take my shirt off or wear a shirt that I don't care about getting wet. Um, and then I gotta go back out to the car, get changed, and then go back into the park. In other words, it's a pain in the ass for one credit. Um,
00:22:35
Speaker
I just don't care for water rides. If you enjoy them, more power to you. Just not my thing. It's 144 feet tall. Again, you're not going to reach that, but you'll get close. And we'll go at a top speed of 60 miles per hour. If I get down to over Georgia, I'll probably give it a try. It looks like a good time. I would just have to come prepared.
00:23:07
Speaker
Staying on the Six Flags train, because we got some other stuff that's opened up at some other parks. But we got Bobcat at Six Flags Great Escape. This isn't anything major. It's a family wooden coaster by the Gravity Group opening up next year. The rendering that they provided was literally made in No Limits 2. Now I thought there's anything wrong
00:23:33
Speaker
There's anything wrong with that. It's just all of your other rides have like professionally done renders. And this one is just like a screenshot from some guy's computer on no limits to. I mean, I guess it works. It's. I mean. There's nothing wrong with it, it's just.
00:23:59
Speaker
I don't understand why these other ones have professional renderings and professional done, professionally done artwork. And this one does not. Oh, well, doesn't matter. Probably because it's just a family coaster. There's no need to put a whole lot of effort into it.
00:24:17
Speaker
That's not true, because other parks put effort into their family coaster, opening stuff like we saw with Wild Mouse and Snope and Soapbox Racers. God, that is a tongue twister. Yeah, just a real basic family gravity group wooden coaster reminds me a lot of Kentucky Flyer. Kentucky Flyer is for what it is and nothing beyond that.
00:24:46
Speaker
It does its job well, and I think this will do the same. It'll be good for little Timmy who wants to start stepping his way up to the bigger coasters and and such. So that's Bobcat at Six Flags. Great escape. Not a whole lot going on there and fire in the hole at Silver Dollar City. I am excited for this one. I never wrote the original. But I did ride
00:25:14
Speaker
Not Fire Chaser Express. I did write that at Dollywood. Whatever theirs is called at Dollywood. It's very, very similar. Is it Fire Chaser Express? No, that's their Steel Coaster. Their Steel Family Coaster.
00:25:38
Speaker
Anyways, you guys know what I'm talking about the indoor one. Um, this one is getting redone by RMC of all companies in 2024, which I am really happy to see. They put a nice promotional video for it. It's going to cost them $30 million. Um, I understand why it costs that much at the same time, though.
00:26:04
Speaker
You could have built a giga for that price. You could have built so many other things for $30 million. I mean, I'm happy it's happening. It's just the price tag of that. If I was running this park, I would not spend $30 million on that. I would spend 10 million to have the original redone or renovated, I should say.
00:26:33
Speaker
But, uh, Hey, that's, I'm not the one making the call, calling the shots at Silverado City. So I'm going to try and get there next year. Um, I don't have any official plans for next year besides, um, great adventure. And, uh, you know, your typical parks like Kings Island Cedar Point for me anyways, your typical Ohio and parks. Um, so.
00:27:00
Speaker
I'm going to try because this looks like a good time, but it is. It's a bit it's a bit out of the way, I believe it's eight hours from Ohio to hear from where I live in Ohio from Dayton. Dayton, Ohio. We've got circuit breaker, which still has not opened, has been delayed. 2023.
00:27:27
Speaker
or was delayed 2023 and is now set to open in 2024. So this thing has been in development hell for so long for. Not really any set reason. I will be glad once it opens, though, because this thing is such a GP attraction. There's going to be so many posts on Instagram and TikTok of like
00:27:57
Speaker
Oh my God, guys, this coaster broke and fell apart and everybody died and just click bait all over the place about this thing. I would like to give it a try. It's in Texas. Again, Texas is not really in the cards of are not really in the list of places I need to get to ASAP.
00:28:22
Speaker
Another thing that's opening, we've kind of talked about this earlier in the year.
Future Outlook and Industry Recovery
00:28:29
Speaker
The Zamperla LSM launch coaster at P&E Playland
00:28:39
Speaker
I forget what they are, what this initially was called. I know they're redoing. It was initially a hydraulic launch coaster like Dragster was. And this is getting the same treatment that that is. It's not getting a swing launch. It's just getting a LSM launch. So same thing there. And that's about that. OK, there's a lot more, but.
00:29:02
Speaker
That's that's a lot. I think we've covered a good amount of ground here today. As far as twenty twenty four goes, things have really turned around since the pandemic. I mean, you looked at. You looked at twenty twenty and twenty twenty one. We got Jack shit.
00:29:23
Speaker
Nothing. And companies are springing back to life. Finally, you know, spending money on the parks again. And I'm excited to see where this goes. It's going to be it's going to be a good time. And next year, we've got a lot of stuff opening up that looks really damn good. I mean,
00:29:45
Speaker
We got the two got the two headliners as of right or the three headliners as of right now. Top thrill to Iron Menace and Vertical Velocity, the Super Boomerang. And then we got some more, you know, some more family friendly stuff. So Bock, soapbox racers, soapbox racers. God, good gravy. That looks that looks super basic, but I am also excited for that one. We got Bobcat opening up as well. We just talked about that.
00:30:13
Speaker
We got some more coasters. We're going to talk about next week. Falcon's flight is still in production, which I am hyped as hell for. We got a lot coming up. We're going into the off season, but the future for the coastal world is looking as bright as ever. And I am extremely happy about it. It's been a while since we've seen investment like this in
00:30:41
Speaker
In park six flags, not as much. I know they're trying to bounce back financially because, uh, they don't know how to run a company apparently. Um, but Cedar fair and more independent parks along with Herschen looking wonderful. No complaints here.
00:31:00
Speaker
We got a lot to talk about next week. Um, I'm going to keep this one not short, but you know, around the 30 minute marker. So I, I can't tell. This one says 16 minutes and 29 seconds on this recording, but that is not accurate because, uh, I botched the other recording. So I hope you all have a happy Halloween and we will see you next time in 2024.
00:31:27
Speaker
And not in, I won't see you in three and a half months. I'll see you next week. We'll see you next time in the single writer line.