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The Single Rider Line Episode 9: Our First Guest and Cedar Flags
50 Plays1 year ago
Lunarus has his first guest! Lilac (his former Kings Island coworker) joins him to discuss the Six Flags and Cedar Fair merge and some Kings Island stories from working
Video Refrences:
https://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/202311/9877/
Follow Lilac
Twitter: @LilacandLola
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lolalilac
Follow Lunarus
Twitter: @Lunarusirl
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Transcript
Introduction & Roller Coaster Tease
00:00:04
Speaker
Sunday! Sunday! Are you ready for the highest and fastest poster in the world? Are you ready for a real... Island dare you to come face-to-face with the beast? 7,000 feet. You can hear my voice. The Loch Ness Monster. This man can't handle it.
Meet the Hosts: Lunaris and Lilac
00:00:40
Speaker
Oh no. Mr. Pop.
00:01:08
Speaker
All riders waiting and on top of those rapture, we are currently experiencing a mechanic with you, and we do not know the length of the delay. Once again, we- You know we just talked about this, not having an intro whatsoever, but I don't- I don't care. My name is Lunaris. Go ahead. Oh, is it my turn? Okay. Yeah, it's your turn. Yeah, it's your turn now. This was already off to a rough start. Alright, then. Alright, hello guys, I'm Lilac.
00:01:35
Speaker
Nice to meet you. I've never met you in my entire life. Totally. It's not like we used to work together at SkyFly. Yeah, I definitely never met you IRL or did anything with you.
Guest Introduction: Lilac from SkyFly
00:01:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:55
Speaker
Alright, so anyways, this is Lila. We used to work at Sky Flyer together at Kings Island. I've talked about this on previous episodes and I was looking for people to bring on to the podcast because we have never had anybody on. So you are our first guest ever on the podcast. How do you feel about this podcast? It hasn't even run for 10 episodes and has maybe one listener.
00:02:20
Speaker
You know, honestly, I think that this could honestly be beneficial. But, you know, you know, you never know. I think that one person that's out there, it's enjoying themselves hearing another person on this podcast. Beneficial for what exactly? Like, look, like, never mind. You answered your own question. I'm hanging on to words here.
00:02:49
Speaker
This is
Major Merger: Six Flags and Cedar Fair
00:02:50
Speaker
a smooth start, guys. This is amazing. This is a fantastic start to a podcast that, you know, I've never done.
00:03:00
Speaker
Well, anyways, welcome back to the single rider line. I don't know if you've heard, but a lot of shit has happened in the past week, like the biggest acquisition or merge ever or anything like that. You know, spooky.
00:03:21
Speaker
Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, you know, too big, just, you know, two largest amusement park chains or regional amusement park chains merging together, you know, even though they've. Yeah, it doesn't seem too important, you know. No, not at all. It's not like King's Island is owned by Six Flags and Cedar Point is owned by Six Flags now. Yeah, totally. And it's not like Six Flags Over Georgia is now owned by Cedar Fair.
00:03:49
Speaker
No, not at all. Not at all. It's not like Salim Basul is now a part of the Cedar Fair Board of Directors or anything like that. Not at all.
00:04:00
Speaker
So we haven't really talked, I mean, we lightly discussed this before recording, but like, give me your full thoughts on this from every angle you want. I don't care, but I want
Merger Impacts: Financial and Management
00:04:10
Speaker
to hear it. Okay. All right. Well, I'm going to go ahead and preface this first. If you have a problem with what I'm saying, do not come after me. These are my own opinions and I don't really care what you think. That's what the block button is for. Yeah, you're just going to be blocked on Twitter.
00:04:31
Speaker
Anyways, so there are many different ways that I can take this, but I'm going to go ahead and just take it the way that I explain it to people who don't really know much about amusement parks or anything of sorts. So basically, there are many benefits that you could get from this.
00:04:53
Speaker
when merging two companies together. First of all, you actually have a bigger team when it comes to finances. You have a bigger team when it comes to management. You have a bigger team when it comes to pretty much literally every single job title you can think of in a business. There are a couple of things that actually could end up being some problems for each and every park.
00:05:22
Speaker
And that could be that certain parks are going to be favored over others. And then they're going to try and equal every single park out to where they almost all seem the exact same. Which could be a good thing, could be a bad thing, depends on how you think about it. But
00:05:40
Speaker
It could also go into a way where you don't really, I don't know like how you would put it, but basically it could get to a point where you'll make it to where everything seems the exact same to where every single guest like will think, oh, it's just another amusement park. There's like nothing special about it. There's nothing that's like, if I go, let's say for instance, let's say you go to Knott's Ferry Farm.
00:06:11
Speaker
Let's say, oh, Ghost Riders, that's the pinpoint staple of the park. That's the one coaster that everybody goes to. Then you go to King's Island, and you're expecting a Ghost Rider ride. And then you're just like, oh, OK. Looks like Mystic Timbers is the closest thing that's to it. There's nothing special about this anymore.
00:06:37
Speaker
Hold on now. Hold on. Hold on now. What are you saying about mystic timbers? Okay. Okay. Okay. Hold on now. Hold on now. I'm not going to take this blast from me about the best GCI in the United States. Okay. Okay. Okay. You have your opinions of mystic. I have my opinions of mystic. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. We can fight about this later. Okay. Go ahead. We can fight about this later. Sounds good. Anyways, but
00:07:07
Speaker
Each park has something special about it. So when you're emerging to companies that have two different completely ideas and two completely different staples, it could kind of get lost to where certain things can be like famous. So you're gonna get lost in it anyways. But another thing is too, is that financially, you're looking at a bigger roadmap than most other
00:07:36
Speaker
than what you would look at for like one single park. Now you're looking at a roadmap for however many parks are in the US. I don't even know that answer. So if you know that answer, then good for you.
Merger Details: History and Attempts
00:07:50
Speaker
Just checking that they have they're gonna have 17. Is it? Wait, no, not 17 parks. Hold on. That's 17 states.
00:08:02
Speaker
25 parks 15 water parks. So okay. Yeah, so do the math you you you know But Yeah, now you're gonna be spreading yourself thin on money at that point but you also need to make sure that your consumers all the guests that are coming to the park are also
00:08:24
Speaker
giving their money to the park in order to raise that financially up. So you have both sides to it. I don't really know what else I could say about this other than those two specific things, because for the most part, I've been keeping quiet about this, so I don't have riots happening on my social media page to where everybody's mad at me.
00:08:50
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's a very divisive topic. I mean, some people hate it. Some people are looking towards the future with it with optimism. It's I'm kind of sitting in the middle ground at the same at the moment. I mean, it's it's a little weird to think about. I mean, every so it's something apparently that's been in place for like three years and they're just now putting this out to the public. So.
00:09:17
Speaker
been in place for that long? Are you serious? Yes, it has been. Yes, it has been in place for about three years. Because I know in I think it was a article that Six Flags put out to where they said that they were actually in communications with Cedar Fair for a while and they wanted this to happen at some point, they just didn't know when they wanted it to happen. So when they actually
00:09:47
Speaker
put out to the public on the whole meeting that was going on a few days ago or whatnot. They already put out their yearly plans that started back in 19 or 20. I know there were talks of Six Flags trying to buy out Cedar Fair and then
00:10:11
Speaker
Cedar Fair countered offered and then that didn't happen. And then I know that was like the start. That was like the start of how the whole entire thing kind of like ended up happening.
Six Flags' Financial History
00:10:22
Speaker
OK. And then that was like the start. I'm pretty sure SeaWorld tried to buy out Cedar Fair as well. That was last year. And I think about it. That was that Craig was as well. I don't know that created a buzz to where I honestly had so many different opinions about that.
00:10:41
Speaker
With the way SeaWorld is spending money, I'm kind of glad that that didn't go through because... Yeah, at that point, everybody would go bankrupt. Yeah, it reminds me of I wasn't alive for it or wasn't sentient enough for it. Whenever Six Flags was spending tons and tons of tons of money in the early 2000s and late 90s.
00:11:02
Speaker
I don't know if you've heard about that, how they were adding like two or three coasters. I vaguely knew about that. I vaguely know about that. But yeah, no, my my whole entire family and community grew up with Kings Island. So I don't know that much about Six Flags. I mean, I grew up in the same area as well. I'm just going based off of like YouTube videos and that sort of thing.
00:11:26
Speaker
So they can only go so far. That is true. That is true. But I mean, there's there's some documentaries on YouTube that are not necessarily about coasters, but well, that's not true. El Toro Ryan has some pretty good stuff. You know, hour plus long documentaries on
00:11:44
Speaker
on different parks and, and such. So that's where I've learned a majority of things. We got some numbers about the parks as well. So combined for Six Flags and Cedar Fair together, they're looking at three point, they're worth 3.5 billion now. They've reconsolidated their debts.
00:12:07
Speaker
They've totaled between both Cedar Fair and Six Flags, 9.3 million guests in the third quarter. That's interesting because when working there, it does not feel like that. That's for six. OK, I take that back. Sorry. OK, if you were specific. Oh, my goodness words. If you were doing like a specific like wavelength of like
00:12:35
Speaker
or a specific park, like, yeah, I don't think you made
International Parks in the Merger
00:12:38
Speaker
that clear. No, no, no. Yeah. Sorry. Let me reread this. Six Flags. I'm kind of skimming through this article from NPR. Six Flags announced a 16 percent rise in its third quarter attendance, which totaled to 9.3 million guests. So that's for all Six Flags parks around the world or around the world as in the United States. Yeah, we're hopefully you're not looking in or taking account into Mexico's Six Flags Park. So.
00:13:06
Speaker
Would that be a part of it, though, and I think about it? Yeah, well, I guess here's the thing, because the deal was was for all the Six Flags parks in the USA. They never specific size, specific size what they wanted to do with Six Flags in Mexico. They never said anything about that. I'm going to look that up. I'm genuinely interested if that's part of the deal.
00:13:35
Speaker
Six Flags and Cedar Fair will have a geographical overlap anticipated $120 million in cost savings within the two years of closing the deal. Let me look that up. Is Six Flags Mexico? This is how planned we are, guys. OK, now I'm actually interested. Now I'm looking this up. Thanks so much.
00:14:05
Speaker
Yeah, it includes Canada and Mexico. So that includes Canada's Wonderland, Six Flags Mexico. OK, so OK, so I guess we are going nationwide, apparently. Nation international as well. International. Either way, either way. I know what you meant. Yeah. I'm genuinely curious as to how this is going to affect
00:14:32
Speaker
specifically for us, Kings Island. I mean, that's definitely a major park in the Cedar Fair chain before this before this merge. I don't think the six flags, I don't think the six flags name is going to get slapped onto it. I mean, Kings Island in of itself is too much of a brand. Yeah, I think that they're going to go ahead and keep every park's name the same. Like, I don't think anything's going to really change. About that, so.
00:15:02
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, if you change, I know there's some jokes thrown around about Cedar Point getting changed to Six Flags Cedar Point or to Six Flags over Ohio. Oh, that don't disrespect Ohio like that. Yeah. Don't do that. Yeah. I mean.
00:15:22
Speaker
I understand why they're going with the Six Flags name for the name of the merge company, just because Six Flags has more of a
Potential Park Closures and Sales
00:15:30
Speaker
brand presence. Yeah. But if we start seeing Six Flags merge at Cedar Point, which is that that that would hurt. That would hurt. That would. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. And I'm curious how this is going to affect the effects investing as well.
00:15:53
Speaker
Like I know we just, it's going to affect like most of the investments and everything like that. I think it's going to affect a lot more than what people are thinking or are saying. Cause I don't, cause I think with like the merchandise and everything like that, like that sold at the parks, like I don't think anything about the parks is specifically going to change. I think it's more of like the investments and everything that are going into the parks.
00:16:19
Speaker
Yeah, I know they refinance their debt because Six Flags was not in the greatest of spots financially. So now that that's combined, they're selling off California's Great America to help pay that off. Do you think any other parks are going to go? That's been tossed around online about some of the smaller parks land being sold off to help pay that off.
00:16:41
Speaker
yeah i've heard about that um honestly in my opinion i think with the merge that's happening i think what's gonna actually happen is that the parks that don't get that much attendance or or people kind of forget exist in general i think they're actually gonna go away like
00:17:01
Speaker
have them go away with that because if you don't if you have a park that isn't well known and not many people aren't going to then it's almost becoming a financial burden because you're doing all the maintenance and keep up on the park when not many people are going to be there in general as a whole so that's probably where this is going to be taking it but that's also from like every single small park that's in
00:17:32
Speaker
the nation as general. I mean, if we look at like, gosh, I just totally blank Michigan's adventure. I mean, they haven't seen an investment since the 2000s. And even then that investment was a hand me down coaster from Geauga Lake. And that they have not seen anything new.
00:17:55
Speaker
sense they haven't seen anything new in a while and i know when i went up there like i think it was like five years ago or something i don't even remember honestly at this point but i know when i went up there you could definitely tell that
00:18:10
Speaker
they need something and they just haven't been given it because they have like the branding and everything like that but there's like nothing new there that would make people want to go there because it's kind of more like oh like the big staple is like I'm going to blank on the name of the ride but I want to say it's like shivering timbers or something like that
00:18:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But basically people are like, yeah, I should bring timbers. That's like the only reason why we go there. So go ahead. Oh, I was done with my point. Oh, I was done. I was done making my point, but
00:18:55
Speaker
I can restate it if you want. No, you're good. I thought I thought you had more to say. Yeah, shivering timbers is really the only reason you'd want to go up there. I mean, the people that go to Michigan's adventure are either. People like us who travel for this sort of thing or the locals, I think it's not something you travel to like larger parks like Magic Mountain, Cedar Point, Discovery, not Discovery Kingdom.
00:19:25
Speaker
God, I can't think tonight. It's like an investment there does not make financial sense because you're going to put, you know, millions of say you put millions of dollars into a new roller coaster. Are you really going to get that in return, especially with the new?
00:19:43
Speaker
upkeep and maintenance, you have to do on it. And that sort of thing. And yeah, and when you think about it, when you think about it, all of the new or well, all of the parks that are getting new rides or new things in general, those are also from like the more like major named parks. They're not from like the smaller parks that like people barely even know. Yeah.
00:20:09
Speaker
I'm gonna pull up a list real quick of the Cedar Fair and Six Flags parks because I kind of want to go through them and see like just to just we have an overview like which parks do we think are kind of on the chopping block because I think that's you know Michigan's adventures on the chopping block I mean that one I'm pretty sure has been on the chopping block for a while and people just don't want to admit that it needs to go
00:20:39
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's great land you can sell
Untouchable Parks List
00:20:41
Speaker
off. You can send those coasters. No, never mind. You can't really. Yeah, no, I don't. You really can't because those are built specifically for Michigan weather. So I don't think you can really do much with that. That and they're old. Like you can't really show very true. Very true. Wooden coasters are.
00:21:02
Speaker
you know, you can move them. They just just doesn't typically go very well. It never goes well. Like I can tell you this, it will never go well. Because as as somebody whose family like helps give things to theme parks as a general, if you're trying to transfer things, it never ends well.
00:21:27
Speaker
Yeah, I get what you're saying. Okay, so this actually I did find a list. This guy is this is Robert by Robert Niles. He are actually already has this posted on theme park insider about parts he thinks is going to go and parks he thinks is going to stay. So parks he he labels them as untouchable. He has nots Canada's Wonderland Cedar Point Kings Island Six Flags Magic Mountain, Great America and Great Adventure thoughts.
00:21:58
Speaker
That's the parks. Okay. No chance of going. No chance of going whatsoever. Do you agree or disagree? Okay. Well, I don't have that list in front of me. So I'm going to, I'll send this to you real quick. Send me the list so I can see what I'm looking at. Okay. There you go. And if you scroll down, he's got untouchable, probably not touchable international parks, definitely touchable and definitely gone. Okay.
00:22:25
Speaker
He thinks all those parks are untouchable, which I'd have to agree with. I mean, I don't have to agree with like most of the ones that are on this list because those are the ones that are most visited. Yeah, like as a whole. I know Canada's Wonderland brings in a butt ton of money. Same thing with Cedar Point, King's Island. Same with Knotts. Knotts has insane attendance because Knotts is so crazy. I can tell you that as somebody who went there this summer, they have an insane amount of people that go there.
00:22:55
Speaker
I have never been I went to California's Great America before it left, but I need to get to knots to knots knots is a really pretty place. I'll tell you that it's really pretty. And it definitely is like more of like a two dayer.
00:23:15
Speaker
OK, I will keep that in mind. Speaking of knots real quick, there have been postings online of Accelerator now being reopened. So it is up and running as of as of November, November 7th.
00:23:32
Speaker
2023 accelerator has reopened. I probably won't get there until 25 but you know it's that's like the one that's the one coaster that when I went that was like the one coaster that I wanted to get on so badly and when I saw that they were doing maintenance on it I was so mad I think it's been closed for almost two years now has been like it has been
00:23:58
Speaker
And I thought they reopened it, that they were going to reopen it this year when, like in the summer and when I went, that turns out that was a lie. And I was so sad. Besides storm runner, isn't that the last accelerator launch that it's been accelerated launch in the country from that wrong? I think so. Yeah. We got to keep those alive. Those are so much fun. I know. They are so much fun.
00:24:26
Speaker
Like I propose that we start a petition to go ahead and keep those and move on to like every single park that can have one. So that are given another shot because like technology has evolved so much since the since the early 2000s. I bet they could make an accelerator launch that is far more reliable than the ones they had back then. I don't see any I don't see how that's not possible.
00:24:55
Speaker
Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, like there's no way that like just because it was like something in the past doesn't mean that you can bring it back to the present. Like with the technology that we have now, in fact, more or less the technology that they're using for
00:25:18
Speaker
Uh, top door dragster, like it's, you can literally just bring that and just merge it with those old time launch coasters. I know with the new LSMs, they have the ability to provide a launch that's faster than a, uh, accelerator launch, but they're choosing not to for an odd reason, for some odd reason. Um, if you go into the whole.
00:25:48
Speaker
details of it in DriveTech, who makes the LSMs, not for Dragster, but for Intamin roller coasters. They're able to get it to go from zero to 155 in two seconds. That's nuts. That's crazy. So if we could see that, I would be happy with that. I would definitely be very happy with that.
00:26:15
Speaker
the fastest accelerating launch ever. It doesn't have to go 155. Just have it go from zero to 102 seconds. I'd be happy with that. Even then, even if it was something as fast as, I don't know, 60, 70, 80, I would still be happy with it. Yeah. If you look at Doda Dampa in Japan, I'm sure you've heard of that and how insane that acceleration is.
00:26:42
Speaker
All right, I'm getting off topic. Touchable on the list. Carowinds Dominion Six Flags Fiesta Texas over Georgia and over Texas. I would I don't agree with this because I think carowinds with how much is definitely so untouchable. Yeah. Carowinds is so untouchable. I don't even know why it's in this specific category because they bring in so many people.
00:27:12
Speaker
yeah i especially with how much they've invested in fury i mean they're putting a ton of money into the into the park they're moving their headquarters to charlotte which is right where carowinds is i i don't know why it's in the probably not touchable list on this for those of you who are wondering by the way this is this is on theme park insider if you're looking for this list that we're looking at i'll put it in the uh notes of the description for the uh for the episode
00:27:40
Speaker
if you wanna give it a look. But have you been to Carowinds? I have been to Carowinds, yeah. So what are your thoughts? Let's see here. I think it was more interesting because I went during their 50th anniversary, so. Nice. Oh, this past summer? Yeah.
Lilac's Carowinds Visit Experience
00:28:01
Speaker
Nice. Yeah. I will definitely say that
00:28:08
Speaker
I think because when I went, Fury was still out of commission and I did a whole entire dumb YouTube skit about it being out of commission, which was really funny. Feel free to shout out your stuff, by the way. Go ahead and subscribe to Lola and Lilac on YouTube. Anyways. Nice. She was fog. Okay.
00:28:37
Speaker
I know when I was there is that they definitely know how to run a park.
Lilac's YouTube Channel Promotion
00:28:45
Speaker
Like they definitely know how to run a park. So it's very clean. Their operations are really smooth for the most part. So I don't really understand why it's on this untouchable list or probably not touchable list, but it definitely needs to be moved. Yeah, agreed.
00:29:07
Speaker
I was there twice this past year in the middle of January and then back in March. So operations weren't as pristine. I mean, it's technically the offseason, which they've canceled, by the way. I don't know if you saw that. They're not doing it. I did see that. And honestly, I, in my opinion, I think that's a really good thing on their end because
00:29:29
Speaker
Let's be real here, literally everybody that works in a theme park is literally a high schooler, a college kid, or they just pick up the job because they have nothing to do with their life. So... So what do you think about us in this situation? We both worked at SkyFlyer in 2022. Well, I'm still working there, so... Okay. All right. All right. So what are you saying about yourself in this situation?
00:29:56
Speaker
OK, well, I'm saying about myself is basically I am literally there because it's a fun job, but also because it pays really well. But again, if you have me there like twenty four seven, like that is not OK with me. Yeah, agreed. Agreed. That is such a fun job, though. I so wish I could work there again. I miss you need to come back. I can't. I got I got a.
00:30:26
Speaker
or a proper job. As much as I love working there, I can't pay for an apartment on $16 an hour. Very true, very true. It's a good side job for me. I don't think that will be doable again in the future. I wish though.
00:30:48
Speaker
Well, if it makes you feel any better you I actually personally took The change I put I actually wrote legend and slapped it on your ID card in the shelter So you guys have what how'd you have one of my ID cards? You left one there. What I left one there. Yeah It's on the side of our lockers I
00:31:15
Speaker
That's where the other one went. Oh, I got lost my other one. Oh, yeah. Whoops. Well, cool. I am forever immortalized in there. Well, here's the thing. They had, they had you, uh, as a different label, but I took the person. I personally made sure that it said legend and not rip.
00:31:44
Speaker
RIP that was probably I'm assuming that's the bad one, but I don't know I was never in the loop on that RIP when did I die? Did I just die there? You died the minute you left Gotcha makes sense makes sense. Yeah, I wish I could come back So now my name is forever immortalized on the sky flier shed at Kings Island I know my name is in Sharpie on there in there as well. I
00:32:12
Speaker
yeah it's still it's still there i think that's going to be there until maintenance decides that we need to have a new shelter which should be here soon because uh you kind of destroyed it how'd you destroy it okay a couple a couple different things happened this past season that should probably not be said like if you think anybody from king's island management is listening to this then you're on
00:32:42
Speaker
Hey, you never know. You never know. But I promise you they're not. Okay, so. Alright, so basically what ended up happening is that all of us like to hang on the racks where the suits go and everything and we've hung on it so much to where it's physically like pulling out of the wall. Oh, you could just you can so like we can physically like take it off. We can physically like take it off if we wanted to.
00:33:11
Speaker
Oh, it's fine. Yeah, you could just you can just nail that back on there. That's that's fine. You don't need a new whole new shed for that. You guys are fine. Curiosity. Did you guys write? Did you write your name in any of the other ride buildings at all? Okay, so
00:33:30
Speaker
It's funny that you mentioned that because I didn't know this at all until somebody else said this to me. But apparently my name is somehow in the South Pie closet. Interesting. I've never worked. I don't know why it's there, but it's there apparently. Huh. I have never worked any of the pies. So there's just like a closet you guys all hang out in or what?
00:33:58
Speaker
I think it was because I got sent there so much so many times last year to where it was ridiculous. That makes sense. But that's how my name is. That's how my name is on the Orion station. For those of you who don't know, there is a under the Orion station platform. There's a heat. There's a cool building for all the computers for the for the ride, as well as like a small break area that nobody really uses.
00:34:26
Speaker
that has all the employees names that have worked there. And that goes for all the rides, by the way. Yeah, it's not always visible to guests. But if you look hard enough, you can you can find them in some interesting places. Speaking of which the
00:34:46
Speaker
The Beast still has the names of the people that worked there from like the 1980 season, 1979 season. It's pretty cool. The fact that their name is still on that piece over there, you know, 50 plus years, or not 50 plus years, you know, 40 plus years later. It's been 40 plus years. They just had their 50th two years ago. No, one year ago. One year ago. I know what time it is. I know. You worked there during the 50th. You know.
00:35:17
Speaker
Good, good point. Good point. I still got my uniform sitting up there. Sometimes I put it on and I get depressed and sad because I want to work there again. But I can't because I just can't. So that's it's a bit unfortunate. All right.
00:35:36
Speaker
back on track that we definitely we started we started it we got to start it we might as well finish it um i mentioned international parks loron and six flags mexico okay well i have no idea where north of loron is hold on where Montreal it's in montreal it's in montreal yes okay that'll probably be why i was so confused
00:36:06
Speaker
Yeah, I don't see Mexico City going anytime soon or Mexico. That one I don't think is going to go away. Honestly, I feel I feel like if we're if we're talking about international ones, I feel like those are not going to go away just because of. First of all, different countries, different rules.
Operational Challenges in Canada and Mexico
00:36:31
Speaker
So.
00:36:33
Speaker
that and besides the United States not saying theme parks aren't plentiful but in Canada and Mexico specifically well run theme parks are few and far between unlike the United States where they got some distance between them but you know there's plenty of amusement parks here in the United States. Yeah.
00:36:54
Speaker
Mexico has some very lax rules as far as the park safety goes. So the fact that Six Flags has their, their name slapped on that park just brings in everybody. So yeah, I don't see any of these parks going in there. Definitely touchable frontier city that should be
00:37:16
Speaker
I don't know. Six Flags America, Discovery Kingdom, St. Louis World's a Fun Valley Fair. World's a Fun and Valley Fair should be bumped up a notch. Yeah, those definitely need to be bumped up. I feel I feel like those aren't going to go anywhere. But I think they might put some more effort into them. But I definitely don't see them going anywhere. They just put money into both of those parks. I mean, World's a Fun just got or not World's a Fun Valley Fair. Wait, we're fun.
00:37:46
Speaker
Next year, I forget. Or was it Zambezi Zinger? Hold on. I thought. Yeah, they just got Zambezi Zinger. So World of Fun just got. OK. And then Valley Fair, I believe, is getting because they're getting something next year. I know that. Hold on. I try to stay on this. OK, Valley Fair isn't getting anything next year.
00:38:15
Speaker
Well, when was the last time they even got anything?
Future of Valley Fair Investments
00:38:19
Speaker
Good. Hold on. Let's let's try that. Let's try that. Was the park that's getting higher Venice? I the new dive. Oh, what are you talking about? Right. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Dorney, that's Dorney. Yeah. Dorney is getting it.
00:38:45
Speaker
Dornie is not on this list. The hell? Oh, wait. Yes, it is. Yeah, it is. It's down there at the bottom. If it's at the bottom and they're getting like a new ride, that has to be bumped up at least. I don't like this list. OK, like there are like the pros and the cons of this list, but these last two.
00:39:07
Speaker
categories like that there needs to be a whole entire new like a list that needs to may make them because half of the half of these parks like they need to be moved up. Yeah. Well others need to be moved down like Yeah, I didn't scroll I didn't scroll down far enough. So there's actually more coaster or more parks on this definitely touchable list. There's Dornie Park
Darien Lake and Michigan's Adventure Closure Risks
00:39:30
Speaker
as well. Great Escape Michigan's adventure in Darien Lake and Six Flags New England.
00:39:35
Speaker
Doherty Park, I don't agree with. World's a fun. I don't agree with Valley Fair. Yeah. No, no. That was debatable. Honestly. Yeah. Yeah. I would say I would say that belongs where it's definitely touchable, but I don't foresee it going. Michigan's adventure. Absolutely. That one's got that one has to go. Bye bye. Yeah. That's that park needs to go. Darian Lake, maybe depends on what six bodies wants to do.
00:40:02
Speaker
Well, this is the first time I'm even hearing about Darian Lake. So you've never heard of Darian Lake? No, I never have. Huh? OK, well, it's I never have. I believe it's in New York for me to check this. Yeah, it's like I believe it's right next to. The Niagara Falls. Huh?
00:40:28
Speaker
Yeah, because I just typed it in and yeah, I've never heard of this. I've never heard of this park. Yeah, so it's it's right outside of Buffalo. It's close to Niagara Falls. So you're you're right next to the Canadian border. That is so funny.
00:40:52
Speaker
The problem with Darian Lake is it has so much competition. Like you get the locals from Buffalo. But I mean, looking at the map with Pittsburgh and stuff, they're all going to go to, you know, Dornie Dornie Park. They're going to go to Great Adventure. You know, all the larger parts in the area. I mean, besides the locals, I don't really see Darian Lake really getting a whole lot. So I would say it seems like it's right in that.
00:41:18
Speaker
in that in the entertainment trap to where everyone's going to be fighting over where they want to go. So. Yeah. I mean, you're right next to Niagara Falls within. It's a trap. Yeah. How far of a drive is that? Let me see from Niagara Falls to just just set a curiosity.
00:41:49
Speaker
Niagara Falls to Darien Lake. So it's a 54 minute drive from Niagara Falls. So if you're in the area and you're willing to drive an hour, I mean, that's that's about it. You're just capitalizing on Niagara Niagara Falls tourism. And even then that's only during the summer months. I mean, Niagara Falls has tourism all year round. So I'd agree with that. Yeah.
00:42:17
Speaker
And then there's one more at the very bottom. Definitely gone. California. America. Rest in peace. Oh, RIP. I have not talked about that trip yet, but that was that was a.
California's Great America Closure
00:42:31
Speaker
That you can tell that park is going downhill just because they know it's going to be gone here in the next 10 years. It's it's sad. It's sad to see, but.
00:42:44
Speaker
Another interesting thing on here on definitely touchable is Discovery Kingdom. I don't foresee Discovery Kingdom going because I mean, that's within an hour's drive of great America. And considering that they're owned by the same company now, you'd think like they want to keep some presence in the area. Maybe I'm wrong. That's just that's just me, though. You there.
00:43:12
Speaker
Yeah, I'm still here. I I don't really have an opinion on that, honestly. OK, fair enough. I wasn't sure. I don't I don't really have an opinion on that. I thought your mic died for a second, like it did earlier. Yeah, no, my mic didn't die. It's still alive and not on fire like it was earlier, but it was on fire earlier. What'd you do? You know, when it breaks, it likes to catch on fire.
00:43:40
Speaker
How is it still working the hell? I don't know. But I am exaggerating. I don't know this. Mike has been through a lot. Maybe you should take a therapy. Maybe I should. Maybe I should or I or I should give it a little bit more love and use it more often. Because the last time I used it.
00:44:08
Speaker
Well, nevermind. You were answering my question. Go ahead. The last time I used this mic was about three months ago when I was doing a voice acting audition. What were you voice acting for? I was trying, well, okay. So I was trying to do a project that, um,
00:44:32
Speaker
somebody was reaching out to people about and they're like, hey, I need literally female voice actors. So I'm like, I'll look into it. I'll see if I can do it. I looked up the references that they wanted to do. And I'm like, this seems reasonable. And then for some reason, the file got lost and then it kind of poofed that. So they lost the file for the.
00:44:59
Speaker
No, I lost the file, but it was also really stupid because the minute I found the file, they already found the voice actor for the part. So I'm like, okay, that's fantastic. That's that's unfortunate. I'm sorry.
00:45:17
Speaker
That's what was the project. You don't have to tell if you're not. It was like a it was a it was a comic dub that they wanted to do like a comic dub that they like wrote out. That's a lot of dedication to get voice actors to do that for your own comic. Whoever is working on that. Good job to them because that's a lot of work. I don't remember who they are, but yeah. Interesting.
00:45:50
Speaker
Go ahead and let me know on Twitter If you want to shout out your Twitter too, I don't know if you did earlier or not. I shout out my YouTube. I didn't shout out my Twitter Shout out your Twitter then Well, let me pull it up because I don't have a memorized I don't memorize my Twitter account I changed
00:46:14
Speaker
I changed it so so many times to where I don't remember it anymore. OK, yeah. Follow me at Lilac and Lola. It should say Lilac the elf on it for right now. So. Be sure to follow. Go do that or we'll.
00:46:32
Speaker
Well, you can put in the description if you want. We'll make sure I will do that. Yeah, we'll make sure that your local park has a blackout on opening day. There we go. So that's, you know, actually, we'll make sure your park gets sold. There we go. Oh, OK. We'll sell your home park if you don't go follow her on Twitter. All right.
00:46:57
Speaker
Um, just out of curiosity. Actually, you better do it. Otherwise, I will personally go to your home park and burn it down. Arson, you love this. Yeah. So I know you haven't. I don't really talk to you about this, but the 2023 season, I know you mentioned you hanging on the the suits, the suit hangers from the shed. How's how the season go for you? I know that.
00:47:26
Speaker
I know if the season's over, I wasn't there. So any other good stories? There are a lot of good stories. There are also a lot of bad stories too, but we'll stick with the good ones for now. Let's see here. Oh yeah, this is a very funny moment, but I'm out on flight line and I'm on con. If you don't know what con is, that's controller. So basically you're literally operating the ride.
00:47:55
Speaker
Um, for the most part, but basically I, I don't know who was with me on flight line, but what ended up happening is we had a heavy flight that we were trying to catch. So they grabbed the loop and I don't know what specifically or how it happened, but the loop head flat out came completely off.
00:48:22
Speaker
Oh. So you just see these guests holding onto the loop handle and there is me and the other person just staring at the ground where the rope is coming back in and we're like, okay, looks like this is what's happening now.
00:48:43
Speaker
And what was worse is that every single supervisor was on break or wasn't in. So I'm just like staring at it. I'm like, what do I do about this? Like two flights after that, like the supervisors come in and I'm like, yeah, we had a fun flight line.
00:49:09
Speaker
that's gonna be the biggest like oh shit moment ever on on flight life like that was the moment where I flat out went like I flat out like died and then came back like I just had a heart attack right then and
00:49:26
Speaker
That isn't in the training book, if I remember correctly. It is not. You're not prepped for the loop. Yeah. I mean, I'm assuming you just catch the flight manually. Tell them to drop the loop and then grab this one. Yeah. Well, they had to hold on to it because if they dropped it, then we would lose it. So we're like, well, somebody keep a hold on that and then just catch and then just grab the manual. Because there was literally nothing we could do about it.
00:49:53
Speaker
If it was the loop, if you just dropped it in the grass, I mean, that would have been, wouldn't that have been fine or? Well, I mean, you have the risk of it either going into lockout or you have it, or you have the risk of it falling onto us. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. So, okay.
00:50:13
Speaker
All right, makes sense. By the loop, you mean just like the physical part they grab on to not like the entire. Not the entire loop. If we broke the entire loop, I'm pretty sure that all of us would have been fired. OK, gotcha. Gotcha. That would have been your fault, though. It would have been our fault, but we're the ones who were operating it at the time. So yeah, that's we would also get that blame.
00:50:40
Speaker
That would get sent to another ride. All right, you guys can't work Sky Flyer anymore. Go go work in South Pi for the season. You guys have fun with that. That I would say was like the craziest moment at the ride. For the most part, because that was like the one moment where everyone was like, what do we do with this? Yeah. Yeah, that's.
00:51:09
Speaker
I'm glad I'm glad I wasn't there for that. I kind of wish I was, but I was in the situation. You should have been there to see it like fully happening, because even when we explained to maintenance, like what happened, they're like, how did it come off, though? Yeah, that's that's why God. Any other stories from this season that are worth your time?
00:51:38
Speaker
Ooh,
Stories from SkyFlyer
00:51:39
Speaker
let's see here. There are many good stories that have happened this season that it's so ridiculous. Well, I guess it's not really a story. It's more of the changing of the supervisors. So this year, Venture Board opened up, as everybody knows. So we had one of their soups for Skyfire for like half of the season.
00:52:07
Speaker
And so when a venture board opened up, they went over there and everything we thought. So that left us down with two supervisors. And then we ended up getting a new supervisor, which we were like, this is great. This is like fantastic. And then when we found out that it was after the site controller test, all of us are like, this is not going to work out.
00:52:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's I remember whenever I was working there, we had Sam leaving. That was that was really depressing. That was the most depressing time like ever. But yet again, that year, literally all of our suits got taken away from us. Yeah, I don't know what happened there. I know Mirabels working. I'm not going to say that.
00:53:01
Speaker
I probably shouldn't say that. I know somebody we used to work with is working in a different ride in Kings Island now. There we go. Yes. The season's over, to be fair. So it is over. But at the same time, I don't I don't think we need to expose them. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably not a good idea. Yeah. So. Anyways, sorry about that.
00:53:25
Speaker
I may cut that one out. We'll see. If you're hearing this and you didn't and you don't understand the context, I cut out what I just said just out of privacy reasons. Yeah, we don't like to say names of our coworkers because then we feel like we're attacking them and that's not a good thing. Yeah. So anyways, their social security number is eight five four one.
00:53:54
Speaker
They live at 123 Main Street in Neeson, Ohio, and their mother's maiden name is Jonathan. Why their mother's maiden name is Jonathan, don't ask me. No questions, no questions.
00:54:16
Speaker
But yeah, so basically that was like kind of like the bigger hurrah, but there have been like many accomplishments that's quite popular this year that it's like almost ridiculous. Let me see if I can pull up like our end of year chat that we had as a whole.
00:54:38
Speaker
That's always depressing. It is depressing, but I think what's even more depressing is that I'm pretty sure I'm the only returner that's going back to the ride. That's it? Yeah, everybody else is gone. What? Yeah, like the first years that we got like maybe like one or two of them are going to come back. And then one wants to come back to the ride, but I don't think that they are.
00:55:05
Speaker
just do to like other things. But yeah, I'm pretty sure like I'm going to be the only returner that's going to be coming back. Wow. That's a little sad. It's I know it's really depressing, but I'm sure hundreds of people have worked that right since it was installed in ninety nine. But. You know, like I kind of like a personal connection to SkyFlyer now.
00:55:34
Speaker
Like it's I don't think that's weird. You know, I mean, same thing. It's definitely not. It's definitely not weird getting attached to a ride and then all of a sudden I'm leaving it. Yeah, I know it's not as strong with Orion, but working that and dispatching trains on that, like I have a better appreciation for it and and that sort of thing. So what other rides or what other coasts you just have you were just out of curiosity?
00:56:02
Speaker
like out of the two years that I've been there. I'm going to assume a good majority of it, but like, which one? Okay. Okay. I don't name every one that I haven't worked out. How about that? Okay. Sounds good. Okay. So the one major coasters. Okay. So major coasters, I have yet to work out beast mystic timbers or Ryan and Banshee.
00:56:33
Speaker
You haven't worked, you've gotten sent to Banshee ever? What? I have never got sent to Banshee. Okay. There are a couple reasons as to why I never get sent to Banshee. Okay. First of all, I am short. You think I'm going to be able to reach those bars? Oh yeah, I forgot. Yeah. I am short. So I would literally be completely useless there. I would probably be like greeter trained and that's like it.
00:57:02
Speaker
I mean, that's all that's all I was. But I mean, I mean, I would say greeter trained counts as working the ride. Greeter or they wanted they wanted me to get greeter trained because apparently it was down a good solid chunk of the year. But I was like, yeah, nah, I ain't doing that. Every time I was there, it never had an issue. And I was there quite a bit this summer. But maybe I just got lucky. Yeah, I mean, I believe you.
00:57:31
Speaker
Yeah, because there was a haunted like, there was like two days where it wasn't like doing anything. And I don't even remember what they did to it, but like, they couldn't operate it at all. And so like, from dropouts crew and then our crew, we always had to send a greeter over there every single hour. So. Yeah, it's just alternated basically.
00:57:57
Speaker
yeah we would basically call over there and we're like hey you got any like extras cool send them the banshee greeter interesting well i'm glad anyways onto the point that we were going to state earlier um well first things first is that i this was like apparently the first year where
00:58:21
Speaker
Everybody who was going out to being a side controller actually ended up being a coming a side controller Which was good which was Hold on a minute. Let me pull up the specific number That was 20 of us Wow, that's a lot it is and honestly, I
00:58:47
Speaker
Honestly kind of shocked that I was even able to become a side controller Thank you, thank you, you know, I it was interesting cuz that was also the day where we had to Give out where like I think like 10 of us had to write a Incident report to oh God what happened? So
00:59:17
Speaker
Basically, what ended up happening is you have you have guessed that you probably know that they probably shouldn't be on the ride. And yet what do you do? You kind of put them on the ride because they seem like in the right mind state, you know. But what ended up happening is that right after we. Well, it was interesting because that flight I was actually being
00:59:46
Speaker
Uh, watched for the practical part of the test. And, uh, so I was being watched. And so, and so we have, we're going to call him Mr. Skyfire for now or sky coaster, but we have Mr. Sky coaster, like right next to me. And I'm chatting with him. I'm like, I don't know if this is right or not.
01:00:15
Speaker
And of course he's like, well, there's always that one, that one flight, which is true. There always is that one flight that's like really difficult, but anyways, it ended up becoming to a point where they started to insult us. Oh no.
01:00:38
Speaker
And then when, of course, and of course we had security there and everything like that, but like all of us were going on break in general. What kind of just out of curiosity? I am not going to say any of the insults because they were pretty bad. As long as they're not racist, I don't I don't give a fuck. Or let's just let's just say that the insults were. To the point where I think like three of us actually cried.
01:01:08
Speaker
Oh, wow. Okay. Let's just say that. Let's just say that it made it to where three of us cried, me included. But yeah, basically, when we were trying to get them out of the park, they tried to switch the story. And so we all had to write a report about it. So that's how that went. That's how that went out.
01:01:32
Speaker
Gotcha. All right. So that went out. So that was like the major like bad story of the season. Did they get kicked out though? Yes. They are. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Nice. Yes. We did. We did make sure of that. We did. We did make sure of that. Thank God. Yeah. I cannot stand those.
01:01:58
Speaker
those sorts of people. I never had I never had anybody insult me. You do have those people that tried to argue. I mean, I'm sure you've had this. Yeah, like you have you have the ones that you can tolerate. But if if they're like that, then that's like a big old no no.
01:02:15
Speaker
Yeah. You always get those parents trying to argue height and that sort of thing. And it's like, all right, just just chill. It's yeah. It's a safety reason. I'm sorry you don't like it. Obviously, you don't talk to him in that tone. But yeah, don't do that. Otherwise, you're get fired. Yeah. Yeah. Now you just tell your child's too small. Fuck you. Get out of here.
01:02:39
Speaker
But anyway, so that was like one of the biggest kind of rewards of the ride.
SkyFlyer Achievements and Challenges
01:02:45
Speaker
But another one is too, is that we actually got two golden flags this year, which has never been done at Sky Flyer. It's a golden flag. I've never heard of this.
01:02:59
Speaker
OK, so do you remember the flags that we had last year that was for performance? Oh, yeah. Cleanliness and all that. Yeah. Basically, the golden flag is when you get. A hundred percent in all of those categories. Oh, wow. That's that's really good. And we were the first try to do that in the beginning of the season.
01:03:28
Speaker
Good job, sweet. So we got to, we should have gotten more, but for some reason they, they started yelling at us for efficiency, which is really dumb because it's sky flyer. It's sky fire. What, how would you expect us to be efficient? It's, it's the slowest operating ride in the entire park. There's literally nothing that is slower as far as I am aware. Yeah. And especially when
01:03:56
Speaker
It's a pay to ride attraction. Like, where do you think we'll like magically find those people? Yeah. Like, yeah. I mean, so they knock you for efficiency, like with like just lack of ridership or I don't really know because they wanted us to do like 21 cycles.
01:04:21
Speaker
like every hour and we're like we can barely get 21 people in an hour in general oh yeah that's that's some bullshit yeah yeah it's maybe during peak hot hours but like well even during hot we never got that many flyers
01:04:41
Speaker
Huh. In other words, we flat out called our areas out for that. And even then they're like, well, it's not our decision, but we're like, whatever. How much more do they make? Like what, a dollar or something like that?
01:05:00
Speaker
I think so. That whole dollar is doing a lot for. But anyways, but every single person that we had on the crew, like, was fully trained up. So that was like one of the biggest things, I think, for everybody. And then. Let's see here. That's really about it for.
01:05:30
Speaker
everything and then Winterfest is coming up. So yeah, we'll see. We'll see how that goes.
Winterfest Anticipation
01:05:37
Speaker
I'm excited for that start. I miss coasters already. It's getting kind of depressing. I went to Cedar Point closing day. That was that was kind of somber with there with with my girlfriend. She likes Steel Vengeance now. Thank God. She didn't. So I'm I'm really glad I got her. I've got her into that. So you got her hooked.
01:05:58
Speaker
I did get her hooked, hopefully. Not as much as me, but you know what? I'll I'll take something. All right. Do you have anything else? Let's see. Do I have anything else? I don't really have much else to really talk about unless you have something that you need me to talk about. No, I'm I'm good. I was just asking. Do you have it? Do you know how I got? I got nothing. Huh? Do you know how I close this out or no?
01:06:28
Speaker
Um, yeah, I can kind of close a podcast out. It can't be as hard as closing a YouTube video, right? Yeah. We're not, we're not going to do the whole subscribe and like, yeah. Yeah. But I can definitely close this out if you want me to.
01:06:43
Speaker
I know I was just asking if you know how I close it out because I got you. Yeah, I don't know. You personally close it out. All right. I was. All right. I'm kind of stealing this from your favorite coaster sucks. It's another roller coaster podcast I actively listen to. They always say.
01:07:03
Speaker
I don't remember your favorite coaster sucks. So I've got a score on that. And and I have done my own and I say we'll see you next time in the single writer line. So if you'd like to join me in synchronization, we can try our best. This is probably going to suck. But you know what? I really don't care. So I think I think this is a good trial run. This was a good trial run. You should definitely do it more often.
01:07:30
Speaker
Yeah, I should. I was trying to get I'm not going to say their name because I'm sure they'll be on eventually. I was trying to get a another content creator on for. For another episode, so we'll see if I so we'll see if I can get done or not. And we'll and we'll go from there. So. All right. You ready? I am ready. All right.
Humorous Conclusion: Synchronized Closing
01:08:00
Speaker
We're going to do some synchronization is going to suck. I'll do it on. We'll do it on three. One, two, three. We'll see you next time. That was a disaster. All right. That was so bad. All right. Fuck it. We're out of here.