A European Excursion from the Eiffel Tower to Efteling (feat. Scott)

Transcript

Speaker: Hello everybody, welcome back to Thrills, Chills, and Spills, where we spill the tea on all things theme parks, special events, and specially spooky season. I'm Tyler.

Speaker: I'm Kelly. I'm Rafa. And we have our special guest Scott on again. He's been on, what is this, your third time on? think so.

Speaker: Yeah. Thanks for coming on. right Three or four times probably. Yeah. Number one fan, special guest. We appreciate you, Scott. Happy to be here. Today we're going talking about the rest of our European adventure.

Speaker: We talked about mostly just our Paris um section last week, so today we're going to finish it off. And we also have some a recent Halloween Horror Nights IP drops, so we'll talk about those as well along with a few questions. But as always, we will start with our spills. Kelly, do you have?

Speaker: I just want comment that Europeans must be built different than us because these crazy people survived a historic heat wave walking around with zero beads of sweat to be found went home to their humble abodes with likely no air conditioning that none of us could survive in and must have the most dehydrated pee that exists in the history of the world because there's no water anywhere.

Speaker: Yeah, it was rough. was hot. That is a wild. the The heat doesn't even bother me in the parks. I can be in the parks and 105 degrees all day, whatever. That's fine.

Speaker: But the fact that you can't go home to a nice, cool house and recover from that is the worst part. It's like yeah it's literally stressful on your body. like I'm pretty sure there's a stress response related to that. like It's crazy.

Speaker: You guys, it was wild when I got home, which was very late Sunday night, and I took a shower and I got in bed. It's not even like super cold in my house because it's like the way our system is. It's like not as cold upstairs. It's warmer. And I was in my bed with the comforter on and an extra blanket shivering. I was like, am ill?

Speaker: Like my body just couldn't understand that it could be cooled down again. Okay, you're in. Look at It's like when we were walking around that one village in France and you were like, guess the temperature. And I was like 63. And you were like, no, it's 84 still. We were just so used to how hot it was that it literally felt like cool to me at 84 degrees. you Yeah, it was wild.

Speaker: It is time for them to just get in and get ah get air conditioning. Like get a window unit, get something. It's not okay. I don't know how they do it. it is wild to see like the families though that you know like i'll the spanish family in front of us in the crush coaster line just no sweat on any one of them you know like they were just just so comfortable until we're like blowing ourselves off with fans and neck fans and literally towels and you and Adding on to the AC thing, it's been cracking me up. I don't know if you guys have been seeing it on social media, like all the like the tourists leaving for like the World Cup over here. like And they can't like stand not being in AC anymore after being here for however long they were here for.

Speaker: So that's been that's been pretty funny. like I hope that they like start to think, like okay, you know maybe it's time to start giving in to the AC because it's really hot. Yeah, I guess it goes both ways, huh? who I think I'm the only other one with a spill. So I'm just going to do my spill and then I'm going to get into my Barcelona trip because my spill is how I got to Port Aventura.

Speaker: And I didn't tell you guys this because I think it's like kind of a funny story, but... Um, so i booked a bus from Barcelona airport to Port Aventura and it's like, it's kind of far away. It's like an hour and a half drive, which I thought it was closer before I was i'm researching this trip, but it's like an hour and a half drive.

Speaker: booked the bus. It took, I think, over two and a half hours to get there because there was no organization on this bus. The bus driver was just like letting people call out their hotels and just like dropping them off at their hotels. There's no designated stops for what it seemed.

Speaker: So we're just like going through Salud to all the different little resorts and stuff, wherever people want. And we literally pass Port Aventura. I'm like, oh my God, just let me off. if I'll walk.

Speaker: But anyways, my destination was actually Port Aventura Hotel because I read online, or at least I thought I read, that you can store your bags there.

Speaker: because I couldn't check into my hotel yet or my Airbnb. um So I was going to store it and then go to the park and then get it later. So I get dropped off at the hotel after two and a half hours on the bus.

Speaker: And the front desk lady is like, ah no, you're not staying at the hotel, so you can't do that. And the bus is already long gone. I'm nowhere near like where I need to be. So i'm like, okay, where can I store them? She's like, oh, you can probably store them in the park. I think they can do that. I'm like, okay, how do I get to the park?

Speaker: And she like points through the resort. And you stayed there before, right, Kelly? Yeah. We stayed at, I forget what was called, Gold Coast Hotel. Oh, okay. One of them. That's a different one. Well, this like the main one with the entrance directly to the park.

Speaker: But it's like far from the front desk. So it's like 10 minute walk and I walk there and they're like, front desk sent me here. i just, i need to get to the locker. Here's my ticket. and they're like, okay, where's your hotel key?

Speaker: Like, I don't have one. I'm not staying here. She told me I could come here. She's like, no, you, this is only for hotel guests. I'm like, that's what I thought. But she told me that I can come here. She pointed this way.

Speaker: And they're like, no, you got to go all the way to the front entrance. And of course, I'm on foot. I'm carrying these two big backpacks. So I'm like, OK, how far is that? He's like, oh, it's about a 30 minute walk.

Speaker: like oh my god so I walk out I walk the wrong way like five minutes turn around it's a full 30 minutes to get to the front and I'm like walking up and there's literally hundreds of school kids that are walking up at the same time and there's one guy checking bags and most of them have like a little drawstring bag um So it's quick to check.

Speaker: And then here I am with these two giant like duffel bag backpack things for this poor theme park security guy to look through. And ah his eyes when he saw me, he was like so annoyed that I was coming up here with this. he i don't even think he checked them thoroughly, but...

Speaker: um In my broken Spanish, I like try to joke about it. I'm like, oh, lo siento, voy al aeropuerto. I was trying to say, sorry, I was at the airport, but my Spanish is bad. So I actually said, sorry, I'm going to the airport. And he just looks at me and he's like, no aeropuerto aquí. There's no airport here.

Speaker: we just... We just both kind of stare at each other. I'm like, does this guy really think I'm that stupid where I'm trying to go to the airport at the entrance of a theme park?

Speaker: Eventually, I figured it out. I still don't know how to say that in Spanish, but I thought that was very funny. But yeah, it was about a three and a half hour trek from the airport. So think maybe next time I might just rent a car. It's going be much easier, but.

Speaker: Anyways, got into the park. um It's fine. are you the only one that's been there, Kelly? You haven't been, right, Rafa?

Speaker: Yeah, I haven't been yet. Yeah. it's I think I overhyped it, honestly. It's good, but not great. Shambhala is not what I was expecting it to be. i don't know where I would rank it, but somewhere in like...

Speaker: the mid tier of the hypers, I got decent floater at best. There was no ejector. it just really didn't do much for me. And i think the biggest damper besides just me already being tired from the flight and trying to find the entrance was these kids just cutting the line. And it just wasn't like, they had no cares at all to do it.

Speaker: They just did it and they knew exactly what they were doing because one time I saw security was standing there and they saw security and they turned around. So it's not like they're innocent and just have no idea what they're doing. They know exactly what they're doing. But every single line I got cut by some teenager.

Speaker: And sometimes it's after you stand an hour in line and they just sneak their way up to the front and nobody does anything. Nobody seems to care. It's just a wild culture there. um So that definitely put a damper on it. um Dragon Con, not good.

Speaker: so bad. So bad. Headbanging. I banged my head going down the straight drop. That's how I knew it was not going to be good. Yikes.

Speaker: Yeah. And then Uncharted was very interesting. I wasn't sure what to expect. um I wrote, it's a mix between Gringotts and Mummy. Would you say that's accurate?

Speaker: Yeah, I think that's that's good. and You could tell it's newer than them. but Yeah, it's newer. um I think similar technology, but just the the screens were very bad. The theming obviously wasn't as good because you don't have an IP. But the ride system itself was was good. I enjoyed it.

Speaker: That line just stays long all day. It's not themed to like the video game in the movie or it is. I'm not sure it was in Spanish, but. Okay. I watched it on the play. home great yeah Yeah. And I'm not familiar with the video game or movie. Maybe it was. Okay. Okay. I don't know, but the, the screens were very low tech.

Speaker: right Q was cool. Um, Furious Baco is the best ride in the park. and Oh, hell no. I know that's a hot one.

Speaker: yeah That launch is incredible. It does rattle the hell out of your brains, but the launch is so good. And it just doesn't have a lot to compete with, to be completely honest.

Speaker: Yeah, the rattle is too much for me in any seat. Like, it was just terrible every time I rode it. gave me a headache. Yeah, I rode it twice. It also gave me a headache, but it was so good the first time I had to ride it again.

Speaker: um But like I said, Shambhala didn't do much. Uncharted is fine. Dragon Con sucked. like That's pretty much all you have. The theming in the park is great.

Speaker: they just I feel like they haven't kept up with it. It felt like Islands of Adventure if it was neglected for 15 years. It's a superhero island.

Speaker: and Kind of. Pretty much. Yeah. yes um Let's see. Then I went to Ferrari land for like an hour and a half. um Red force was fine. It was pretty rattly. Honestly, only wrote it the one time, but that's just, that's not even a park. That's an hour, two hour at most experience that they shouldn't even be like advertising as a full park in my opinion.

Speaker: yeah I didn't get to go to that park because when I was there, it was in the winter and they didn't have winter hours for it. what The time that I was there. So I didn't experience that. And I would say just add on to the theming of the park.

Speaker: It was a little bit challenging to like truly see the theming because it was all like Christmas decorated. And I think that was beautifully done in some areas. But I agree with the with the outdated universal feel.

Speaker: Yeah, it just feels like it peaked a decade plus i ago, honestly. They definitely need need something new to shake things up a little bit there. um On the way back, missed the bus from my Airbnb. I was standing there, and then the bus drove right by me at like 35 miles an hour. And I'm like waving my hand. Oh, no. Yeah.

Speaker: It was rough. And then there was a lady sitting beside me. I speak broken Spanish. She speaks broken English. But basically what I gathered, she was like, oh, hell no.

Speaker: And she got her phone out and she called somebody, was talking to them for like five minutes. And then she told me, don't worry, they're coming back. So a bus comes and picks me up. I'm the only one on the bus.

Speaker: he I didn't know what was going on, honestly. But he takes me to the next town over to meet this bus that I missed. And while that bus is waiting for me and completely full, and I jump on that bus. So shout out to that Spanish lady. She was so nice for helping me out because it was like an hour and a half for the next bus. But yeah, the dude drove right past me. I'm like waving my arms at him.

Speaker: It was red ridiculous. That was really nice of her. That's crazy. Yeah, that was really nice. I think she must have been a local because it is like a big tourist um like beach resort area there. But she was obviously a local and knew how the buses worked and apparently just knew who exactly to call. so yeah Sounds like it might be a recurrent issue.

Speaker: Yeah, this might be a me thing at this point, to be completely honest. But um with all the transportation issues that I have... Um, then i the next day i met up with David. Hey, David, I know you listen. It was cool to meet you for the first time. Um, I see you on the discord all the time, but thanks for showing Erica and I around Barcelona. We got a nice dinner and just kind of Walked around a little bit, so it was cool to meet up with some people for the night. um That was the first English I heard in like four days, so that was very, very welcome.

Speaker: And that's pretty much all I have for Barcelona. It was a good little ah four-day add-on. The city is beautiful, honestly. The beach is so nice.

Speaker: I would absolutely love to go back there. and I've always heard that that's that that's like a bucket list city from an architecture and beauty standpoint. I've always wanted to go. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, the architecture was awesome too. um I would definitely go in the summer because I know, Kelly, you said it wasn't great in the winter. Yeah, so definitely a summer city to me.

Speaker: But now this is the part when I met up with Kelly, Tom, and Scott. So... um We met up in Paris, Orly Airport.

Speaker: And what did you guys think of Paris? Just our little sightseeing day outside of Olivia, who you heard about last week. talked about Olivia. If you haven't heard about her, you should go back to the previous episode. Her aside, what did you think of the rest of Paris?

Speaker: I loved it. I really did. it it like I don't know if it's just like standard... like American thought process to think that like, you know, you hear all these things that like, it's not safe and it's dirty and the people are rude and stuff. And like, I felt like it couldn't have been further from the opposite. I never felt unsafe.

Speaker: It was beautiful everywhere we went, you know, no, no dirtier than any other major city in the world, you know, like definitely no dirtier than New York or LA. Um, and and just overall, you know, the different, all the history and the, and everything that we saw while walking around and just the vibe around the river. And, um, yeah, I mean, I, I, I loved it. I felt like I could spend a lot more time there, you know, just doing all the different things, kind of more, more in depth, just, uh, just Paris trip, you know? Um, so it's definitely on my, on my list of places to get back to for sure.

Speaker: Yeah, I agree with everything that you said and that Tyler said yesterday about France in general. I was so pleasantly surprised. Like in pictures, you always see like Paris romanticized. And I'm like, i don't know if it's really going to like look like that or like feel like that. But I...

Speaker: Really think it did. um We had a pretty limited amount of time to sightsee, like really limited, like, I don't know, six hours we probably spent walking around, but we walked, we walked a lot of miles. We covered a lot of ground. We saw a lot of the main sites. um We did get to see the Eiffel Tower lit up and do its little glitter thing at night, which was so pretty. i would definitely go back. Like it's, there's a lot of cities internationally that I visited that I'm like, eh, like I would return, but I don't need to where I feel like I could like happily spend more time in Paris and would like to go back.

Speaker: Yeah, I was just blown away by how much history and architecture there is. You know, obviously i knew about the Eiffel Tower, the um the main things there, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, whatever it's called.

Speaker: um Obviously I knew about those, but I felt like we just found another statue or another beautiful building like every couple minutes that we didn't even know about. So very productive sightseeing afternoon and evening for sure.

Speaker: including a really cool Parisian carnival with a plus one. Yes. That we, we did not plan on getting yeah they long for the win. It was so funny when we realized this was a thing we were like walking on the complete opposite side of the river and I'm literally on hold with a verbo, like so pissy. And I like look up and I'm like, that's a booster. There's a carnival.

Speaker: And we, it was so nice too. it was It was great. hiher They had ripped off IPs for the little the little cred that we got was all Bugs Life themed and did a King Kong log flume. and like yeah yeah i wonder how permanent that that is because it it seemed somewhat permanent or at least like that space is used for things like that frequently, you know. It sounds like when I talked to shout out Bradley, I'm sure you don't listen. um It seems like it's there for a pretty decent amount of time because he knew exactly what it was and like, had been, there you know, so it must be not just like super temporary. um Yeah, it's fun to find on our walk.

Speaker: Yeah, and like the little garden slash park that it was set in was also really beautiful. You know, like obviously they're, yeah they've got their ah hedge trimming game on point in Paris. They do. They do, for sure.

Speaker: Not all of us got the plus one, though. Nope, I did not ride it because I don't like the stress of trying to track traveling creds. I worry that I'm going to double count it or something, so I just don't typically ride them.

Speaker: I'm a bad doozy, I know. You guys can all tell me. Ha ha ha.

Speaker: I just thought you went to the log flume. I thought you peaced out and said, I'm going log flume. You guys go crap. It kind of gravitate towards the log form. Yeah. Then I found a bench and I was very happy to sit down.

Speaker: We'll just knock out the other city that we went to Ghent. That place is beautiful. Kelly, you had been there before. I guess. Was this your suggestion to stay there? Yeah, um I stayed there kind of almost by happenstance in the past because I was looking for something in Belgium between the parks that I was visiting and came across the city and saw some pictures. And I was like, wow, that's really pretty. Like, let's just stay there.

Speaker: and um Loved it so much. It was in the winter. There were a lot of Christmas markets at the time. It was all lit up and beautiful. So i was a little worried that like some of that charm would go away being outside of the holiday season, but it didn't. It held up. It is one of my favorite cities ever. It's so beautiful.

Speaker: It was absolutely gorgeous. Just the vibes down by the canal, everybody just hanging out there, having a beer, having a burger. Just I love it. I love those summer water vibes in European cities.

Speaker: I knew nothing about that city until you guys put it on the um the the stumble information. And I was like, what is this? I started looking into it I'm like, oh, my God, it's like gorgeous over there.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, Ghent is definitely a vibe. i ah I feel like I've never been to a big, well, bigger city, I guess you could say. I don't know what kind of city to equate it to size-wise in the U.S., s but it ah was just so chill and so cool. And it like the vibe was so evident immediately when you got out and started walking around. you know like just What a place to go about your daily life. you know Those people must must love living there.

Speaker: Yeah, it seems like everyone's pretty happy. There's definitely a large, like young adult population because there's a university there. um But I think it's like the juxtaposition of it being like basically a medieval old town, but like with modern shops, restaurants and conveniences. It's just like it's just it's just a perfect place to visit. I recommend it to anyone that goes to Belgium.

Speaker: Yeah. And in like that square, i know we went to it a couple of times. I don't know what the the name of the square is. I should have looked it up, but you know, it's like a true European city square, but like completely lined by restaurants and bars, you know, like on all four sides with huge patio seating and just, yeah, that it's just so cool. Just such a cool area to hang out.

Speaker: And it wasn't overly crowded either. No, no, we were able to get a table literally anywhere we went. um You know, yeah, overall it was, it was truly, truly special.

Speaker: Yeah. Highly recommend. I'm glad you guys liked it as much as I do. was nervous. I was like, oh, am I going to overhype this city? There is something that you did overhype that we will talk about very soon. Not yet, but, oh but you didn't overhype again. Don't worry.

Speaker: But bouncing back to Paris, some of the parks we went to. The first one that we kind of added a little last minute. Jardin de Acclamatacion.

Speaker: How was that? That was great. Okay. It's just like a little city park. It's got four creds. We weren't expecting much, honestly, but this place was really cute. What did you guys think?

Speaker: I really loved it. It was a great way to kick off the trip with like expectations exceeded. um i thought that the aesthetic was very nice and clean for it being a city park, lots of greenery. The color palette that they used was like,

Speaker: very inviting. They had lots of like interwoven areas for kids to play with like splash pads. They also had like sprinklers and misters in general. Every park that we went to in Europe was really good about having places you could go to cool down in them.

Speaker: um But this was the first time we like saw it. There were sprinklers to kind of run through and their rides were just like very well themed and maintained. Like it just felt very like a very small but well cared for park.

Speaker: Yeah, i I concur completely. It was beautiful because, you know, it's in it's in actual larger park as well. So the setting's great, right? It's all greenery all around it. And you're right you're right in Paris. I mean, you know, it's it's a stone's throw away from the Eiffel Tower, maybe a five-minute walk away from it, you know, maybe 10. But it's...

Speaker: the rides were so all super smooth you know sometimes when you see like a small park with all small coasters you think like this is going to be jank city you know and but all of them were were really smooth and to your point like exceptionally well themed for the size of the park as well like the there was the one you know that had the asian dragon theme and the one little kiddie coaster was like fully built inside that pirate ship. Like, yeah, it was, it was really, really cool how, how much effort they had put into, to what they had there.

Speaker: And I think I saw it and been open since 1816. If I remember correctly, that was like when, so, you know, a lot of history in, in the park itself, you know, so that's, that's really cool. It's almost, you know, or maybe 1869. I can't remember, but either way it was 1800 something.

Speaker: ah rcdb says opened in 1860 1860 okay so maybe that ferris wheel was built in or the carousel was built in 1869 or something like that yeah i was seeing that date somewhere yeah so well over 100 years 100 year old park you know I just love parks like that, that sort of blur the line between theme park and like city park, you know, just you have the roller coasters, but then you have the little splash pads that the kids are playing on playgrounds, like unique jungle gems.

Speaker: I just love that kind of vibe. And, uh, We weren't feeling great because we saw a closed cred. We were like first park of the trip and we were already been spited. But it turns out that one has been SBNO for like a year or something and was not going to reopen.

Speaker: And then we found the fourth one that we weren't sure existed. So that was a good surprise when we went four for four there. Next park. And I think we all love this one was Park Asterix.

Speaker: and i think that yeah i think i speak for the group in saying that this was such a pleasant surprise with the park like i knew i would enjoy it but i don't think i realized how well themed and well taken care of this park is yeah two total park asterisks for the dub it it really blew me away in regards to I mean, literally everything about it. I mean, the operations were incredible, you know, all the coasters, even Guterix was pretty good for what it is, you know, like they're like, it really, i mean, I, I was, uh, such a great diversity between water rides and, and coasters and 40 theaters and food options everywhere. And, you know, it

Speaker: it ah I don't know. i mean, I had good expectations for it, but I didn't have great expectations for it, and it deserved to have great expectations. it was really it was really an awesome park, and Tutatis is elite. I don't care what anybody says.

Speaker: It is. It's so good. It's way better than Pantheon. Pantheon is not even close. Yeah, I don't know where that comparison came from initially. um i I think with regard to the whole park, I agree with what you guys said. I need to research and understand the IP a little bit more because it's very character driven. There is like a show that you can watch that explains it more. There's just a lot in French. Yeah.

Speaker: But I didn't really get. But the areas were very well themed. The park was beautiful. I agree there were lots of food options that were open and readily available, which is not the case at every place. But with Teutatis, I think I expected it to be a little bit tamer overall, just maybe because of the comparisons that I've heard to Pantheon.

Speaker: But there was like very extreme ejector in a few places, like not the level of Gotham City escape ejector hill. But like there was really, really good airtime that I didn't expect. um There was a little bit of vibration, like the typical Intamin vibration that you get. Not as bad as Velocicoaster. Didn't detract from the ride at all. But depending on where you sat, you could kind of feel that a little bit.

Speaker: The queue process was great when you get to, i mean, they didn't use this all day, but when you get to the station, you can choose the front half or back half of the train and then you kind of get batched, which was nice um for us to kind of choose which way we wanted to go. um The theming in that area was beautiful. The ops at this park overall, but especially on Tutatis were absolutely incredible, like really moving guests, really organized, really um yeah i was blown away by that ride and it's i mean we can talk in a later episode maybe about where these coasters fell for us like ranking wise i don't know if you guys looked at it more but it's definitely like within my top 10 15 probably probably top 10 it's great yeah it definitely landed in my top 10 um you know i mean i have less than half of the credit count than you do but uh

Speaker: it's definitely a top 10 ride for me. I think that people compare it to Pantheon because of the swing launch section, you know, just being a similar element, but that two Tadis swing launch with the elevation change that it goes through. And like, it feels like more of like a double down and a double up as opposed to a speed Hill, like Pantheon is, you know, and, uh,

Speaker: Yeah, just just a great first section. Really cool to go through that swing down into the tunnel and stuff. And, you know, the airtime hill was was awesome. That hard bank into that roll was awesome.

Speaker: um And, yeah, like the the ops, their even their loose article system at Asterix, I thought was... clever if not the most efficient when you're getting off the ride super efficient when you're getting on the ride you know so that that that part was really cool um like the way that they just wheel the bins in and out of the queue areas um something i've never seen done at any other park i don't know if anybody else has but that seemed like a one of one for me to see loose articles handled that way which is really cool yeah same let's talk about zeus

Speaker: Okay, this is what I wrote in my notes. was that ride? I wrote, WTF, this layout is elite. I said, what just happened? That was like my first line.

Speaker: we were shook by this ride. It was insane. It was truly insane. I... i It felt online unsafe for my body. Like I could not, it was, it was like voyage level in places.

Speaker: And some of that was because there was transition between they have like smooth new track and then like rough old track. So some of that was just like the jarring between the two, but yeah um there were some crazy moments and quite a bit of airtime.

Speaker: The first part there's i think it's 208 is on there and it was very smooth. i'm like, oh, this isn't as bad as I thought it would be. And then you hit the transition and it is just absolutely jarring.

Speaker: Yes. Very, very jarring to say the least. Yeah. Especially if you're a larger fellow. think if they can smooth out that ride, I mean, that's like a top 15 Woody and like that I've ridden, like it was so good. I was not expecting that layout at all.

Speaker: It certainly keeps its speed. That thing hauled from start to finish. Granted, we were there on ah on a 98 degree plus day, but it was that thing was moving.

Speaker: Yeah, incredible. Loved it. Loved it so much. Definitely my second favorite ride in the park like by a lot. Agreed. um Otherwise, Osiris was pretty good.

Speaker: It was pretty good? I it's still in the mid-scale. Like, it's pretty good. Okay. Oh, shoot. I think he liked an invert.

Speaker: No, never. um It's definitely my kind of invert. It's it's not a compact, tight invert um like Black Mamba and Mantu. It's definitely more drawn out and like swooping and sweeping. And those are the kind of inverts I typically like more, like Banshee you or Alpengeist.

Speaker: Um, there was a little bit of like shuffling in places where I was sitting. Um, and ah a couple, a couple instances where the pacing maybe slowed down, but it was kind of enjoyable that way because it allowed for like a little bit of floater in some sections, like a little, little floaty moment.

Speaker: Um, yeah, it's, it's definitely like upper mid tier of inverts for me. I enjoyed it. I think it could have been a little bit better though. Yeah, very cool. ah Very cool layout, really floating roles, cool first drop. um And, you know, i for me, the whole like Cleopatra show on the way in just added to the theming and the experience too, because there was doing they were doing this whole Egyptian like show in the ah and kind of the area right out front by the fountain and everything. the way it interacted with the fountains and the water was pretty cool too.

Speaker: um But yeah, very, very unique. And, you know, I very much enjoyed it for for inverts that, you know, I don't i don't hate on them like Tyler does, but I really liked it.

Speaker: I like it for an invert. For an invert. I think another thing to mention about this park was the employees were carrying around like squirt guns and like squirting guests to keep like to keep you cool. Like we got off the log flume and the op was just like holding a squirt gun and like got me right in the face. I was like, oh my God. no That op was holding a water bottle with a hole in it. That's what he had. Oh.

Speaker: And he was just squirting every guest in the face as you got off the ride, which it felt great. It was 102 that day, so... No complaints here. ah The boat ride was good. The log flume was good.

Speaker: um We did the sky bar. That was pretty cool. That looked really cool. Yeah. So basically you just, you buy a drink at the bar and then you go and sit at the circular bar and then the ride attendant, what was his name? Philippe?

Speaker: Philippe. Philippe, yeah. Philippe for the win. He takes you to the top, and you go up and you spin around. You're up there, I think, for about five minutes. And don't know how tall it is. It's probably 100 feet or so, maybe even more. Yeah, I think it was roughly 150-ish, I want to say.

Speaker: Yeah, we we were up there. And then Philippe was great. He was so personable. Yeah. Just keeping us entertained while we were up there. But yeah, very cool. um us He was so fun. Yeah. Taking pictures. He was a, ah he said he had been an airline pilot for like 40 years, I think before he was doing this. So yeah, the, um,

Speaker: odd that you couldn't get rum and a pina colada and that my mojito was made with cider instead of like soda water so that that was definitely unique to drink a mojito that was cider based but it was still good it was okay the drinks themselves were not good at all and i feel bad because the work was very nice but i was more just looking at it as an admission ticket to get on to this attraction like it's for the experience yeah for yeah yeah best upcharge attraction ever yeah yeah it's like here's you get upcharge to do this but you get one alcoholic beverage out of set up charge you know yeah exactly all right um next park plopsaland depan hmm uh-oh yeah

Speaker: This was my least favorite park of the trip. And that's not saying that it's a terrible park or anything because our lineup was absolutely stacked with top tier parks.

Speaker: But this one was just obviously not up to par with the rest. I agree. The star attraction is Ride to Happiness and we rode it three times. Is that right?

Speaker: Yes. I was hoping I was going to get it by the third time, but i i really just don't get it guys. I don't know how people have it so high. I mean, it, it might crack my top 25, like 23, 24, 25 or something, but I don't know how some people have it. One, two or three.

Speaker: Ducks. Yeah, Dex, I heard this was your number one coaster, dude. Explain. Yeah, it's, um I mean, it's a great roller coaster. Don't get me wrong. I've never done time traveler. So this was literally my first, you know, experience with the Mach Extreme Spinner. um And I just expected it to be, this is going to sound crazy based on how people talk about it, but I expected it to be more extreme.

Speaker: I got, yeah you know, like we got, we got plenty of spinning, you know, like there were, there were one ride compared to the other, every element felt totally different. So like, I don't want to not sing the rides praises cause it has many, very, very many. And it's a very cool theme.

Speaker: um and somebody for, as somebody who's always wanted to go to Tomorrowland, I love the theme. Um, but it just didn't, blow me away like like i expected to but i also you know that might be in part like it like i had mentioned me over hyping it or just thinking too much about what it was going to be like you know like i i was legit nervous to ride it like and that doesn't really happen you know so um but yeah it it was still a great ride um but not just not quite the uh world beater that that i kind of expected it to be you know

Speaker: So I am one of the people who have it ranked really high. I had it three going into this trip. I rode it in 2023 in the winter. it was cold.

Speaker: I was blown away by my first ride on it in the back car, just like the ejector I got off the top hat and i just had like really good rides. I will say that not every ride was as incredible as that first one that I had that the first time I was there, but I still really enjoyed it. And I actually...

Speaker: There was so few people there that I could ride in every row, and I did, just to, like, get different spins and stuff. um This time, i will agree that I was a little bit underwhelmed with the rides that we got. um it just didn't, like, completely meet the expectations that I...

Speaker: or it didn it didn't meet the caliber of the rides that I had, i guess, on my initial visit. I did move it down in my rankings just a little bit. It's still like in my top five, probably just overall with my experiences. I will say I thought that the back car would be the road to be in because that's what I enjoyed the most last time. But I think I had my most unhinged ride in the front row um of our last ride. It was just like a lot more punchy. It felt faster. felt a little bit more extreme. Like I remembered the ride feeling. So i don't know. I mean, with these extreme spinners, even if you sit in the same seat multiple times, you're going to get slightly different experience. I think every time you ride it, just based on kind of how the spin is, um, it is controlled, but there is some gravity at play here. So I think, you know, and obviously the, the heat of the track and and all of those things. So

Speaker: I think not every ride is elite, but some rides can be elite on this, on this coaster. I still really enjoy it. i I will always have the memories of the first rides that blew me away on it. Um, I am bummed that not everyone had as great of an experience on it. Um, but everybody likes different things.

Speaker: yeah and like i can totally see that right like i i remember thinking to myself like man it seems like that car is is really spinning a lot and the front row the front car rides that we got were totally different than the back car rides that we got and the one train thing kind of hurt us too that day they only had it on one train which made it what would have been near a walk-on with the line that was there i feel like it it did make it like You know, a little tough to, because that little hot corner in the queue there where you're in between the stair sets, you know. um but But, yeah, it's still a great, great world-class attraction.

Speaker: You know, park, eh, not so much. but But Ride to Happiness is awesome. Rafa, we were attacked by these teeny, tiny little black bugs falling from the trees. It was disgusting.

Speaker: Ugh. lots I would have had me pissy between that and the heat I would have been like I was like i would have been raging yeah yeah the little thrills trills or whatever they were called yeah thrills I think we're making thr now ah rip we call them no-seams in Michigan we have them in northern Michigan they're called no-seams but ah Whatever they were, they were gross and they were everywhere. Falling from the trees.

Speaker: Anyway, that's about it for Popsaland, honestly. There's not much else to say. like Like I said, it's not a bad park. It just it doesn't stack up with the rest of the parks that we went to. It had some very stiff competition on the trip. like We were coming off Asterix in Disneyland. like It's going to be very tough for any park to live up to to those. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, it's so very tough competition for it. I will say, though, too, this park was the lead the most difficult to find any freaking food open whatsoever. Yeah. We basically went that whole day without eating until we were done with parks because there was just, like, nothing.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, we that's true. We didn't eat anything at all while we were there. Yeah. Not good. But the bakery, the bakery though, or the morning was was great.

Speaker: Good old Ghent coming in clutch. Yeah. Yeah. um This day was actually a split day. We found, well, we knew about this park, but we decided a couple days before that we were going to add it. But we went to, I've been calling it Belleward. Do we think that's how it's pronounced?

Speaker: Belleward. Belleward. Belleward. Sounds right. I mean, based on how it's spelled here. Belleward. yeah If any Belgium or French people are listening to this, you are probably rolling your eyes at our pronunciations. but We're going to call it Belloward. It was about 50 minutes away from Popsaland.

Speaker: It's a plus five. I didn't know much about it, honestly. i had heard about it. Couldn't have told you a ride, I don't think. Um, but the standout ride there is Amazonia, which is just a bizarre looking water ride. So basically it's got the, the ride vehicle of like a rapids, but you're going down sort of like a slide that you would find in a water park section.

Speaker: And it's got a little half pipe. It's absolutely insane. Um, I think it just opened last year, right? Or two years ago. Last year. Yeah. i ten new yeah And then it was down for a while, but a new Intamin contraption. um I guess maybe we don't spoil. Yeah, it was awesome.

Speaker: Yeah. There are some surprises on this thing that we won't spoil. Yes, there are. We were all shook by this. My my jaw literally dropped.

Speaker: Like, I think I just stared at Tyler for like 30 seconds after the ride was over because I was like, what just happened? I wrote in my notes what the actual heck. um It was incredible. I did hurt myself on each. We did two rides on it right at the park close and I hurt myself both times. The first time...

Speaker: I bashed my head into like the handrail. It was weird because you know how long when in you're in a water park and you do a family tube ride, it kind of like climbs the walls. This thing didn't really do that. It kind of just like bumped the wall. so it was like very jarring when you were kind of like jammed into the, it was just uncomfortable, the seating arrangements. And then the second time they put so many people, all of us were in the same raft with multiple other people. And i had no room for my long legs and I'm pretty pretty sure i almost cracked my femur in half because it like jammed into the bar that was next to me. And I, the first half of the ride, I was unwell. Like I was nauseous how bad it hurt. Like it was wild, but the ride was really cool. I just really hurt myself.

Speaker: Yeah. And we ended up only getting three of six creds here. We actually skipped getting another cred so we could ride this water ride again, which is, i think, unheard of for this group if that tells you how good this ride was and how much fun we had.

Speaker: Yeah, it was a standout attraction for sure. yeah And it was like, it wasn't even really a question. We were like, no, we're riding that again. like wasn't was daniel know We didn't even think about it, but we did screw up a little bit. We didn't get there until 3.30.

Speaker: ah We thought it closed at six when we got there. We found out it closed at five. um So we screwed that up for sure. And that's why we missed the creds. But I have no problem going back to that park.

Speaker: have you a little million They had like a little zoo section there. They had what looked like a jungle cruise. I think another Rapids ride.

Speaker: That looks like a fun park from what we saw of it. Yeah. And full water park too. Full water park. Full delicious looking food options. By that point, I was so hangry. Yeah, we hadn't eaten anything for the whole day, I guess, besides breakfast. so yeah And ed shout out our parking guy. Bain Road, three lefts park in Mexico.

Speaker: Yeah. So we pull into the water park and then people are like, the two parking tenants are like confused that we're pulling in there. So we roll the window down and ah we're like, Oh, we're just trying to get to the theme park.

Speaker: So the one guy, he's like, Oh, the theme park, take a left, take your third left park in Mexico. We're like, okay, thanks. Take a left, take your third left and park in Mexico. like, all right, we got it. We started to pull out.

Speaker: We're like, the car is literally moving at this point. Take a left, take your third left and park in Mexico. was drilling at home. He was making sure we knew anything.

Speaker: And literally we're probably 15 miles an hour leaving the parking lot. He's 10 feet behind us. Take a left, take your third left, park in Mexico. That's crazy.

Speaker: It was wild. He's going to go with you guys just to make sure you guys make it. Four straight times, the exact same phrase. We're all looking around at each other like, what is going on?

Speaker: I thought he was going to just sprint beside the car to make sure we find Mexico. Oh my God. That was too much. I mean, we can't say that he isn't dedicated to his job because he taught us where we needed to go. Definitely. This is true. This is true.

Speaker: But yeah, surprising, very cute park. I will definitely be a back be back there. um Next day, we went to Wallaby, Belgium.

Speaker: Conda. That's all I have to say about this park. Conda. So good. Best ride of the trip, in my opinion. I predicted this. had been to Plopsaland and Wallaby Belgium before. um So I knew that Conda, I knew that Scott and Tyler would both love Conda. Like I just, I just knew that.

Speaker: I mean, it's a great ride. It actually moved up a lot in my rankings too. But I knew it was their kind of ride. So yeah. I'm glad they liked it. um I wrote about it. It remains elite. It's better in the back. In my opinion, you have elements on the first drop of where you're getting like I don't know. I hate this term, but like flowjector. And then you get like ejected halfway down, kind of like Skyrush-esque because it like turns to the side. um The low point of the ride for me is they have this turnaround. That's a non-inverting Cobra roll. And it just gets like a little bit slow on that part. But the rest of the ride is so, so good. So smooth. um The theming in the station is like one of the best. They have great music, great lighting.

Speaker: You guys can say the rest. That's all I have on content. yeah i mean it it's a super elite it's the first time i've ridden like a new age intamin like that isn't launch based like that too you know so it was cool for for me to you know the drop is definitely like somewhere between hyperia and sky rush you know with like the the way that it kicks you out to the side um incredible first airtime hill it's like It's like VelociCoaster and Mako combined on the airtime hill, you know, like just, just awesome, awesome, long extended floater air after getting ejected out of your seat and a crazy second half, really low to the ground, like fast paced, hard hitting airtime pops all the way back to the station.

Speaker: it was an instant no new number three for me. Um, and I, I felt very confident in that and, it only It only bolstered that position with the the rides that we got on it later on. And truly an elite ride, for sure.

Speaker: Yeah, it just it's really just my type of ride. Big drops, crazy airtime, not heavy on the positives. That's exactly what I'm looking for in a ride. The ending actually kind of felt like Steel Vengeance a little bit, except actual comfortable restraints.

Speaker: So I really love that. I don't know where I rank it. I haven't ranked these. I might do that after, after we end this pod today so we can share it maybe next time. i don't know. We'll see, but that'd be fun.

Speaker: Yeah. It's, it's up there for sure. It's top 10. Definitely. It, um, I will say when I wrote it last time, i only got two rides. Um, there was a debacle about, woheo that that's a story for another time, but, um, I only got two rides and i don't remember there being positives at all. There definitely are some like little helicy areas that there are some positives. And I think because it was so hot, every ride's positives were getting to me. I'm like, I am dehydrated. i am near gray out on like every single coaster I'm riding.

Speaker: And that like starts to give me a headache. So I almost had to like tap out riding conda at the end when we were like repeating it just because I was like the the intensity with the heat was starting to get to me. But i it doesn't detract from the ride at all. it's just like something that I experienced and I think was unique for the the heat wave that we were there.

Speaker: Yeah, for sure, which was literally unprecedented. so But, yeah, it awesome, awesome ride overall. And the park in general, too, like that whole back half, which I know i know we're about to talk talk about, but the whole Tikiwaka area and Meclodon and everything, i just – you know, I can't wait for them to get their new um RMC and get that front right corner of the park redone.

Speaker: Cause it's going to be just an absolutely standout theme park when, when that's done. Cause the front left, like where the boomerang is, is still fine. It's still pretty well themed, you know? Um, but, but not the two front halves are really nothing compared to the two back sections, you know, from a theming standpoint. And, but yeah, it just a great, ah great, great park overall. And you'll appreciate stacked it is going to be stacked with like one of the best top two in the world and some really really good supporting coasters yeah for sure they were playing like a i know rafa will appreciate this they were playing like a steel drum version of billy jean in the tiki waka section and so like that you know i immediately thought of you and shay was like oh yeah there's our boy that's awesome

Speaker: Yeah, that park has a lot of potential, and it could be one of the best one-two punches in the world once that RMC. is built. But speaking of that RMC for 90% of the day, loop guru was closed and we thought we were getting a permanent spite on it.

Speaker: We're literally on the way out and we are passing it We're like, we're going to check one more time. And it's running. We were so happy to get on it. um I think the ride itself, it was fine. I think it's going to make a good RMC.

Speaker: What do you guys think? I actually really enjoyed it. Like I know we got, I was in a knot wheel seat, so it wasn't as like shaky and sputtery. It was definitely shuffly and needs some help. But I thought that the layout was really fun and enjoyable. i agree. I see it being a good RMC candidate. I know that they're doing some adding on to the structure. So it's not just based on the current ride path, but I think it's going to be great. It's pretty fun as it is. There's some good airtime moments. So I know that that will just be,

Speaker: um exponentially improved by whatever the design will be. So, glad to have it. For sure. The reaction of of everybody seeing it was open was one of the highlights of the trip in general. Just so much joy that they that the the spite wasn't going to be permanent, you know?

Speaker: um But yeah, well it was fun. it There really were some surprising airtime moments on it, and and overall it was it was fine. um as as ah As the resident Woody critic slash hater, it was fine. Hello, Woody. Yeah.

Speaker: um Tikiwaka and Meclodon. Tikiwaka was good. What did you guys think? I remember it being good my last trip. it's like ah Both of those rides, the duration is very long for like kind of like family thrill coasters.

Speaker: Yeah, it was good. I loved it. um It didn't stand out above other bobsleds to me, but I did like it. I liked how it went over the water. Yeah. Yeah, really cool layout. And like truly... ah a weird like so like I don't know like soft serve airtime on that last hill that was really really cool I don't know how else to describe it but it felt like different than any other airtime I've ever gotten i don't know why but it's just like going over a hill in your car you know but like a little bit more than that i don't know it was really it was really fun I loved Mecladon I think I probably liked Mecladon more than everybody else on the trip I just I thought that that ride was awesome we rode it in the front row

Speaker: And there was like some moments that were truly shocking from a airtime standpoint for a family coaster. And, uh, i I really, really, really liked that ride. I almost bought a Meclodon t-shirt. That's how much I liked it. So, you know.

Speaker: Yeah, I thought it was really good. I feel like it's still in that family category. um And it's not quite as good as something like Big Bear Mountain, but I really enjoyed it. And again, with the interaction with the water, it's a great ride. and I think it's a prototype, right?

Speaker: From Gerstlauer? i think so. Yeah, i don't I don't know of any other ones that exist, but. Yeah. Had what, three launches? Yeah, three different launches, if i remember correctly. Yeah. I mean, that in the back car, I'm typically a back row person if i have a like if I can choose. There definitely were some really great airtime moments. It was enjoyable. The theming was really impressive. They did a great job with the station and the whole area around it, like the dock. and I guess it's like, I forget what the name of it was, but it was kind of like a dock theme. And they had some really like funny, cheeky like posters about seafood and... it was just it was It was just well done. It was fresh and well done. I think I was a little bit underwhelmed by Meclodon just because it's been hyped up by some people a lot in our group. Not that it's a bad ride. It's just like I kind of expected to be a little bit more surprised by it.

Speaker: Yeah, i agree with that. I would agree with that too. Even though I liked it as much as I did, it did, it, it like, it did feel more chill than even it looked when you're watching it track around the course. It like looked more intense than it actually ended up being, but yeah yeah in a good way, like for, for a family coaster, like,

Speaker: I could see that being the the perfect ride to step up a young and budding enthusiast, you know, like to, to get them to like be okay with that next year of intensity on a roller coaster.

Speaker: I know my kids would love that ride. Yeah. Yeah. What'd you guys think of the log flume water? o I passed.

Speaker: The water is so gross. It looked like it was just connected to the sewer system, honestly. oh it was not good, but I still wrote it.

Speaker: It was a bummer because the long flume was actually really fun. There was like a backward section and a double down, but the whole entire time I was just like guarding my like face and mouth. That's the worst. yeah Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what that was about, but good flume otherwise.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Anything else for Wallaby, Walibi, whatever? We rode the Power Splash and I thought it sucked compared to Aquaman over Texas.

Speaker: Yeah, that thing was not. That was my first one of those and it wasn't good. was bad. Very clunky. That's the best way I know how it. Yeah. yeah heavy Heavy on the clunk.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. ah The technology is really impressive, though, how they're able to get that much water in there for the splashdown just while you're up on the spike. But I want to ride the over Texas one now.

Speaker: Yeah, it's much better. They had a very bad SLC and a terrible bad boomerang. Every boomerang is bad. Yeah, I actually enjoy some SLCs, but this one was this one was bad.

Speaker: It was real bad. Yeah, it was the the shuffling was the problem on this one. Yeah, vampire. They're taking it out for the RMC, though. So sayonara, we got the cred.

Speaker: Yep. You will not be missed. Oh, they had two um shooter dark rides there. There was a popcorn themed one and then like an Egyptian themed one. They were fun. It was nice to see the Egyptian.

Speaker: Were they both trackless? ah No, I think just the Egyptian one. Okay. Well, either way, they were pretty well done. Yeah. They were good. Especially for a themed wall.

Speaker: yeah Yeah. For coveruffr context, earlier in the day, we didn't know it was a shooting dark ride. We just thought it was like some background wall seeming, you know, like and then we walked by it later in the day when we were leaving Condon and we were like, oh, it is a ride. Yeah.

Speaker: Oh, I will say, and this maybe impacted our our opinion of the days, we did do like a middle tier fast lane at both Asterix and Wallaby Belgium to get through the cred so that we would have more time to like do other things in the city, which I think was the move for sure.

Speaker: 100%. yeah those, I mean, the fast lanes were like, just like auto walk-ons to everything. And you got to pick your row. Yeah. While in Belgium, which was really cool. Like you, you just got to go pick whatever row you wanted when you were in the fast lane, as long as you were the first one up, you know? Yeah. So.

Speaker: That does not seem like a popular option at that park. And I didn't love the way they did it because it's very awkward because you're just stealing somebody's row, basically, because you're boarding before they open the main gates. And people are like huffing and puffing that we stole their row and now they're not lined up with their friends in the row next to them. It's kind of awkward. Yeah, that sucks.

Speaker: Yeah, on the ones on the ones where you board from the exit side, that the stank eye was real. Like, no matter what row you picked, because it just meant they were waiting another cycle. Whereas some of them you batched in just ahead of the other rows. You know what I mean? If you if the line came in on the same side as ah as the regular line did. But yeah, that is a little awkward. I'd like to boomerang in the SLC for sure.

Speaker: Yeah. But if it's your first visit to these parks, definitely consider getting some sort of fast lane. Just it's going to make your day go by lot smoother. All right.

Speaker: Yeah. Rafa, what did you do while we were gone? I feel like you haven't talked at all. I know. And I wish I had something to talk about, but I did nothing. Nothing fun at all.

Speaker: Nothing. No, I'm telling you I'm telling you the Rafa's rendezvous episode was was was it. It was it was it but but I'll be with you guys at Carowinds, so there's that and the birthday bash. All four of us at both of those, I'm pretty sure.

Speaker: yeah so Assuming the 33,000 mile trek across the country goes well for me. yeah It will, it will. yeah Yeah, nothing exciting on my end, so I'm just enjoying your stories, what you guys have to share. Well, we're about to talk about a park that you've been to.

Speaker: I know. I'm excited. I'm excited to hear about this. Was this anybody? Well, I know that you've been, Kelly. you You guys have been, but was this, well, Scott, I know it first time, but Tyler, was it yours? No, I had been there before. It's been four years, but yeah, I'd been there. But the park we are talking about is Fantasial Land.

Speaker: um Zach V has a question. and And Scott, I think I'll let you answer this. Thoughts on the Charles Lindbergh hotel during the heat wave.

Speaker: So it's yeah so, okay. I want to make sure that I preface this by saying that the Charles Lindbergh hotel is beautiful and it is a really cool experience. Yes.

Speaker: But when it is not cool outside, it makes that experience trying to say the least. So, ah not only are they burning candle, like, i mean, the candles are one thing right in bar 1919 there was at least 150 candles burning and it's like 90 degrees in the bar you know it's like that was a little a little shocking but it was it was so hot that you know i feel like i had done pretty well with the heat uh not to tap not to pat myself on the back but maybe ah maybe better than others in the group uh with the heat up to this point but the night at charles lindberg i mean tom and i literally we're talking door propped open with the stool

Speaker: just laying on the bed for the whole world to see and nothing but our underwear, like just no sleep at all. Like it was just so, so unbelievably hot in the hotel room. But, you know, maybe if anybody walked by the room, they got a show, i guess, you know,

Speaker: yeah and the bathroom flooded i flooded the bathroom was there's you know a moment of of being completely panicked in my birthday suit in the lindberg hotel room so it's overall overall a trying 12 hours for your boy but once i got on the spinner in the morning i snapped back into reality that i was at fantasia land and i needed to have a little checkup from the neck up so you know And just to be clear, he flooded it from the shower.

Speaker: Okay. Yes. yes you know that No. Yeah. I mean, if you flood a European toilet, you are really doing work, you know, let's be honest. But yeah. also flooded the shower, but it wasn't quite as bad once Scott and I compared. Yeah. Like we're talking almost all the way to the front door of the room. no. There's a lot of water.

Speaker: Oh my gosh, that's so bad. It was, uh, I was able to save Tom's towels for though. So there there was enough towels to make it work where we still had dry towels to shower with what I, it was my fault. I literally turned the shower head on didn't angle it right. And then like,

Speaker: walked back out into the other part of the room for like three minutes so by the time i realized what was happening is because there's water at my feet my bed you know like i i didn't know what was happening i was just spraying the floor of the hotel room effectively yeah yeah glad we experienced it i really wish it was at a cold time I can imagine you staying in that hotel in winter being like the elite of elite themed experiences that you can have in a hotel though. You know, like I truly, truly can. Like I want to give it its, I want to give it its credit. It is a beautiful, beautiful building and, and very cool.

Speaker: It is. i don't think I would stay there again though, even in the winter, the rooms are just too small. You can't do that. That's how I feel about it. it it's workinging a one down And you're,

Speaker: There's no place even for your bags. Like, I don't know. Well, there is, but it's not very helpful. Yeah. There's like ah a cabinet and then like a pullout thing underneath also. But, um...

Speaker: Yeah, it just felt too cramped to me. Yeah. Super well-fueled. I wasn't the biggest fan of it. I mean, like I enjoyed the experience when I went last year. like It's an incredibly themed um hotel, and it's really cool. And the breakfast was great. The dinner was great.

Speaker: you know Getting the um like the fast passes for Fly was pretty great. Yeah. And even walking around at nighttime was really cool too. But it was just it was just too hot. Like I didn't enjoy it. I maybe got like maybe like an hour and a half of sleep while was in there. Like I could not get any sleep in there. was way too hot.

Speaker: The struggle was real. The struggle was real. I stayed at Matamba the last time I was there. And that room was wonderful. But it was also winter. so Yeah. I also stayed at Matamba. It was good.

Speaker: But anyways, the park itself, it is my favorite park in the entire world. Same, still. Yeah. What were your first impressions, Scott, having never been there before?

Speaker: um Incredibly beautiful. um Perfect sightline management and just overall... to, to take a park that is truly just, you know, there's no IP to anchor a theme and to make, to make the theming that good into immerse you so much into a world where you don't have a backstory going into it was, was really, really impressive. Um, you know, every section,

Speaker: even, you know, like the, the fantasy land type or like, you know, whimsical area where the spinner is, was, was awesome. The, you know, the whole tree and and all that stuff was, was mind blowing. That was a really cool ride, by the way, too. I really enjoyed that, uh, that ride. And, uh, you know, like the little things in the, in the deep in Africa section and, um, you know, the, uh,

Speaker: the Klugheim area. Like, it yeah, just, you know, ah it's not my, you know, it's not my number one in the world, but it's, it's my number one non-universal park for sure. Yeah.

Speaker: Just the way the sight lines are done, Disney take a note because that's how you do it. yeah nothing skimped right. Like, no, just like, no, like just like flat walled facade, just to block off a sight line. Like everything was like fully detailed all the way to the top, you know, and, and yeah.

Speaker: And uh, incredible clarity of the water on the log rides you know just feeling like they were pool level clean after the day before was also so well welcome you know or on the water rides not the log rides on the log flume in the in the river ride i should say yeah but helpless and river quest and shout out to the to the german bros that we rode river quest with they were great they were they made that ride a lot more fun i felt like yeah yeah they were fun um terren kind of stays the same to me i think um i don't remember it being as positive heavy as it was this time around but i also got some better air than i feel like i got last time so um i think yeah i think that ride's gonna stay right where it is which i think it's like top 15 ish something like that

Speaker: think it landed at seven for me with my updated rankings. I'm pretty sure is where it landed. It, uh, super intense ride, like ah way more intense than I expected it to be. Like awesome launches, you know, i mean some of the best, you know, just coolest setting for a roller coaster to be in too, you know, the way that it just looks like, like a spaghetti bowl of track, but it's so much better than a spaghetti bowl. though It's, it's awesome.

Speaker: Yeah, it was um definitely not quite as good for me. I preferred it in the winter. um and I think maybe some of that was the positives with the heat, too. um I just don't remember it being so intense. um i I was surprised by it this time. i enjoy it. It's probably still ranked in my teens as well.

Speaker: Yeah, but the the vibes, the beer garden vibes, the Crepe and Stein, you know, like that that was that was super fun. um That's got to be one of the best beers you can have in a park anywhere is getting that glass Stein and just standing and watching Taryn in the beer garden. i would Yeah, I would say that that that is, I'll give that number one in in the world as far as park beers goes. It's by far the best park beer in the world. i need a beer next time.

Speaker: the best park crepe in the world. And I feel qualified to make that statement because I go out of my way to find crepes in every park. I had five crepes on this trip at different parks. So yeah, still goaded crepes.

Speaker: You know, the Crepenstein and Taryn that's where it's at I need to try more of the food and I need a beer because when I went last year, I don't know what was going on with my stomach. I really didn't try much while I was there because I wasn't feeling too hot. But yeah, next time I need to try all of that.

Speaker: i i had a little bit of a struggle the first few days we were there too. it's Oh my gosh. I already got tummy issues, man. like And that sucked. I was like, oh man. i was like, I want to eat everything, but I know I'm going to ruin my trip if I do that.

Speaker: Oh, rough. Yeah. But next time, next time we'll be better Maybe it won't be as rough for me. ah Black Mamba mid, but pretty good.

Speaker: It's not mid. It's so good. I do think um the interaction with the waterfall is so good. Yeah, Black Mamba great. It's just an intense, intense invert. You know, like that that was...

Speaker: probably like that's on like that after burn Montu level of intensity, in my opinion, you know, maybe again, it was just the heat, but, but they were, they were pulling some positives through those helix. you know It's up there. and they Why is the break run in complete darkness? so weird I was like, and it's very dark. I don't remember that. from last Not a speck of light. i don't remember that. No.

Speaker: pitch black couldn't see my hand in front of my face it was cool it was cooler in there though so i welcomed the reprieve both times but yeah yeah um let's see i missed crazy bats again i've been twice and i still don't have crazy bats closed all day so um can we please talk about colorado adventure that was mad yeah that thing is wild Truly, it's so good. It's got to be the best mind train there is, right?

Speaker: Yeah. yeah Yeah. Fully. hundred It is so much fun. I moved it so much in my rankings that it's like, I don't i don't even know because i haven't i haven't solidified any of this yet, but it is it is way up there. Let me see what I put. I i love this thing so much. like i am still thinking about it and how crazy it is.

Speaker: Is it your highest rated in the park? um No, Taryn still is. But I have it higher than Fly. Wow. I don't, but I i i respect it. i respect it. Because it's so good. and Fly isn't for everybody. like And I think when I wrote when i ro Fly, I felt like it was a little overhyped for me um going into it. I was like, okay. i was like It was great. Theming was incredible. like you know The ride system itself is is really cool, but it just was it was just a fun one for me. like It really didn't do that much.

Speaker: Yeah. yeah I remember back in like 2021, people were saying fly was their number one coaster. Yeah. I can't. my behavior to me I got there 22 and it was good, but it's nowhere near a number one.

Speaker: It's not. it's It's really cool. Like, like the sensation of like launching, like in a flying position is really cool. Yeah. Oh, But, and then, you know, like the theming around and and where you're, you know, all the spaces that you're flying through or, you know, it's really cool, but yeah, I don't, I, it's not number one.

Speaker: Yeah. like It's probably my favorite flyer just because of the theming and the interactions and the cool ride system and how you go from sitting to flying was, is so unique.

Speaker: Yeah. It's for sure better than any BNM flyer. Like, like definitely. And and I was lucky enough to get a back row and a front row ride on the two rides and the front row ride truly elevated it in my opinion like that.

Speaker: that sensation of not having anything in front of you while being in that position and, and like the way the airtime hit, but I just didn't expect it again to be so positive heavy. All of the rides at Fantasia land really surprised me with how, how forceful they were from a positive standpoint. That was kind of a, I don't know what I expected. Like I expected it just to be more floaty, you know, but like that you pull some serious G's when you're going through some of those pullouts and turns on fly that I didn't expect.

Speaker: A lot of faith in the ah in the vest, like we talked about. Yeah, for sure. Overall, just an incredible park. So well-rounded as well. Chiapas is amazing.

Speaker: Chiapas is so sweet. That's my favorite water ride. It is so much fun. yeah yeah Yeah, that's one I wish that, like, we could have just done, like, you know, like we talked about, I can't wait for a day where, like, i have sandals and a dry fit t-shirt on, and I can just ride Chiapas over and over again, you know? the squishy socks and the cotton shirt were tough on a, on the 98 degree, hundred degree day, but yeah, I think that was the day it was actually 104. So yeah, both the water rides stayed 45 minutes or more all day long.

Speaker: um So we did hit some, uh, one time single use fast passes. Um, we did buy some of those to maximize our day. We didn't want to wait in lines for the water ride. So,

Speaker: I think that was the right call for sure. Definitely. Definitely. Anything else on Fantasialand? don't think so. Cool. Love that part. Can't wait to get back.

Speaker: Yeah. And Mystery Castle so much fun. Oh, Mystery Castle. Oh, yeah. Mystery Castle. Yeah. and is so much fun. Yeah. I, like, just didn't look up the whole time we were, like, getting, like, I looked over at Kelly and I was like, is this a drop tower? And she was like, I don't know. And so, like, I i don't know how I didn't put two and two together. I thought it was going to be, like. same thing for me.

Speaker: Really? yeah Yeah. I thought it was like a nemesis subterra slash extraterrestrials type ride, like dark ride type thing. I didn't expect it to be the full on, you know, ah I guess it's drop tower, even though you kind of go up first, but yeah, it's, yeah, it was great.

Speaker: Really cool to see the other cars in the tower while you're doing it like that. That's a, a unique thing for sure. Yeah. We shot up so quickly though. I feel like the dude checked the last restraint and then got like two steps away from us. And then we shot up. Like I was not prepared.

Speaker: Yeah. It was thrilling. It was very thrilling. Great, Ryan. Alright, and our last park was Efteling. This was pretty high on my hype list. I was very excited for this park.

Speaker: I would say my expectations were probably met. I don't think I'm going to give it any more praise than that. Maybe i was a little let down. um What did you guys think overall?

Speaker: I really liked it a lot. um i As you guys know, i am like a theme park fan above amusement parks. I appreciate theming a lot and dark rides a lot. And I love Disney and I love Fantasialand. And I really did love Efteling. It was beautiful, very whimsical, very consistent, well thought out theming that kind of extends across the whole park. um I think...

Speaker: what What makes it a little challenging is geographically this thing is huge and they don't have any like standout elite attractions.

Speaker: Everything is very well done. And they had some dark rides that are the best I've ever been on that were like, wow, this is so beautiful and so well done. But like, I still wouldn't say anything blew me away, but I think the park is beautiful, well-maintained, aesthetically pleasing. um Yeah, I would say my expectations were probably met as well.

Speaker: Yeah, I agree. i thought that the Lunchland Hotel we stayed at was great. um Really nice. it was The restaurant was awesome. probably Probably border like outside of Waltz, the best meals we had the whole trip for sure.

Speaker: um and yeah the the the place overall was you know it's a trip for sure you know like some of the some of the theming was kind of like holy smokes like this is like somebody was on lsd when they themed this park but it was it was awesome though you know like it was really really cool like uh dance macabre was great um and i've I've actually got a dip out guys. So going to let you take it from here, but I loved Efteling and um thanks for having me on. And it was an awesome trip and I will see you guys in a week or two.

Speaker: ya. Thanks. to you I can't wait. Bye. All right. um That brings us to Fitz's question. Is Dance Macabre worth trekking out to Efteling again?

Speaker: Okay, don't get me wrong. Yeah, this was my favorite ride in the park like by a lot, I think. But I don't know that it's like worth going back to Efteling for until there's some other new stuff there.

Speaker: Yeah, um i I think I talked about this earlier. like as a group when we were there, but dance macabre is incredible, but it doesn't have the rewritability factor as some other rides do, because there's only so much you can see. And once you sort of know what the ride does, it loses a little bit of its charm.

Speaker: Um, Rafa, do you have any idea what this ride is or no clue? Okay. It's probably good to keep it that way until you go. I've been trying to keep it that way with parks that I haven't been to. I'm like, I'm not going to look at anything. Yeah. but For the best.

Speaker: Yeah. Super cool ride. It's just, I think once you ride it a couple times, you kind of get the gist of it and other rides aren't going to have that wow factor anymore, but yeah.

Speaker: Love the spooky theme. We loved it. ah We did miss three creds at this park. So the red side of Drock, one side of the ah the Kitty coaster, and then Baron were all closed, unfortunately. So I don't think we missed a ton in terms of like thrillingness. I don't think Baron is supposed to be great. And we already rode one side of the two dueling coasters. So We weren't too caught up in that, but still kind of sucks to miss three creds at a brand new park that only has, I think, seven or eight to begin with.

Speaker: But um other highlights, Symbolica was very good. That's a trackless dark ride. I think it's not quite as good as it probably was when it opened just because technology has caught up to it.

Speaker: um i think it opened in 2017, so it's been there a good nine years or so. Um, so there's other things that have surpassed it, but still a very good, very beautiful ride.

Speaker: And then actually my favorite ride of the park was Fata Morgana, which was the like Arabian nights boat ride. It was like basically like pirates, but I'm not going to say better than pirates, but it was really good.

Speaker: Similar, similar to pirates, just hundreds of animatronics. Um, great songs and i just love a boat ride. They're so relaxing to me. So yeah, I really enjoyed that one too That was probably my second favorite ride in the park.

Speaker: Um, there was also, i forget what it was called. The one that was like the, the guided sideways sitting, um, dark ride.

Speaker: Oh, like Dream Noct or something like that. dream dream whatever Yeah, it was um in like a fairy forest. It was just like really pretty.

Speaker: Yes, it's really cool. Very pretty ride. The dark rides are absolutely the star of this park. You don't go there for the coasters. Joris was good. It was it was enjoyable, but I wouldn't have waited again for it.

Speaker: Yeah, it was it was fine. Nothing to write home about, in my opinion, but I do love a GCI. Any other thoughts on F-Swing? I don't think so.

Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I'll definitely go back. um I think Tom didn't love it. He wouldn't go back, but I would definitely go back, get those other three creds, and check out the dark rides. and Oh, we saw the... um like the water show basically, but it was at 5 PM. So it was still five hours from it getting dark. So it's, they do like the, the water projection with lights and music and everything. And it was good, but like, we don't see any of the lights or the projections. So

Speaker: Yeah, it was altered because the park decided to close two hours early that day for the heat. Like we were aware of it, closed at six instead of eight. And that's kind of what we were used to for the European parks anyways. But just like Disney, because of the heat, they altered they altered some of their shows. so Yeah.

Speaker: It was cool. But overall, just an absolute blast of a trip. We hit so many highlights of the continent. um Yeah, you guys did a lot. Yeah, we definitely did. So, yeah. But it also didn't feel as exhausting as like our trip last year. Yeah, well, you didn't have to like be in charge of... yeah there's that factor.

Speaker: Yeah. There was no stressing on whether the bus would show up. Whether, you know, all 70 of us were safe on said bus. Yeah. yeah Yeah.

Speaker: Anyways. Yeah, it was good trip. Yeah. We are in July, and you know what that means. It is deep into announcement season, getting ready for ticket sales season of HHN. So we do have two new IPs that have dropped since we last talked about it.

Speaker: What do we have, Kelly? We have Stranger Things. None of us are surprised. Oh, cool. Not at all. We did get some information that it does sound like it is going to be based on the final season and not like a all series type house. The description says the upside down is invading Hawkins and this time no one's safe in this haunted house based on the final season of stranger things. Join the gang and Hawkins for one last adventure. As you try to survive Demogorgon's and the mind flayer, will you defeat Vecna once and for all?

Speaker: All right, guys, listen. I know I said Conformity Gate was probably over. Oh, no. The clue is going to be in the house. Oh, my gosh.

Speaker: Yeah, for sure. No, but I'm excited. I'm going to watch the whole fifth season again before we go. i think I might rewatch the fifth season. I've been wanting to do it even before, like you know,

Speaker: All the speculation, which we knew was going to come anyway, but yeah, I've been wanting to rewatch that, but I'm just, I don't know. I, when it comes to this house, I'm, I'd be lying if I said that I, you know, that this wasn't my least anticipated. i just, I really don't care about it I feel like this is going to be like almost like every other Stranger Things. I don't think that this season of Stranger Things was anything different. I mean, i mean the one thing that might be different is like the end, like where you're with you know you're facing the mind flayer, but that's about it.

Speaker: I feel like everything else is... Well, I mean, yeah, you do have like Henry's house, and you have... um Like the the area, like that spot that – what's her name again? That Sadie Sink's character, quite a Max, that ah Max hides at. you know In the desert area, yeah. Yeah, so we have a couple of you have a couple of spots that really cool I feel like there's so many choices of scenes like I need to see kid wrapped up in his vines I need to see um I need to see like the Wheeler house with like the Demogorgon coming in and like the home with Mrs. Wheeler like I don't know there's just like so many plot points that were

Speaker: important. It'll be interesting to see what they choose. A lot of outdoor scenery. i don't know how they're going to pull that off. yeah It'll be interesting. Yeah. I'm curious, like to know if they took note from last, the last house. Cause I feel like everybody was so disappointed with the last house that they had just because it was so like Eddie centered.

Speaker: Like they didn't really have much going on besides a bunch of Eddie's everywhere. um It was still like a solid house, but I just feel like they didn't do as much with the scenery. And I feel like with season five, at least like do it some justice. Like it's the final one. It's probably it's probably be the last time we ever see Stranger Things at HHN again. So like, just just go big with it.

Speaker: And hopefully they do because I feel like people aren't hyped for it. And even Universal themselves weren't hyping it up. Like Sinners got a little teaser. Yeah, they seem to knock too much.

Speaker: They got a little tape a little teaser. So I feel like they just were like, okay, here's Stranger Things. lot shorter. Yeah. Yeah. um I always I enjoy these houses more of like from a fan service standpoint than actually like a scary thing. Like, and it was almost kind of I felt the same way about Terrifier a little bit, although I did get scared in there sometimes. It's just like it's just like a fun, enjoyable experience because I'm a fan of the show. So I'll like it regardless. But hopefully it's good. Yeah.

Speaker: yeah And the next one that was announced was Hellraiser, which I have not seen. i don't know hardly anything about It's on the homework list.

Speaker: It is. I will definitely watch it. But our description is, Enter a Realm of per Pure Pain in a Haunted House based on the original Hellraiser trilogy. You'll journey through the depths of hell and bear witness to Pinhead and the Cenobites' nightmarish rituals. Then hope you don't get trapped in your own.

Speaker: So it says the trilogy. How many movies are there? A lot, right? I think there's a lot. I don't know. I um i i just remember like the character and i maybe a few scenes from the movies, but I don't remember anything, honestly. Like...

Speaker: My first reaction when reading this was like, thank you for pinpointing the movies that I need to watch. Yeah. Like, it's annoying that there's three of them, but I'm glad I don't have to, like, choose from a series of, i don't know, like the Jason movies. The whole Jason universe. yeah People are telling me to watch Jason in space to get prepared for this. Like, no.

Speaker: Yeah, i I did notice and I'm kind of surprised by this. um This seems to be the IP that is getting the most like hype, I guess. Like i so I feel like on social media, like fans are going like they're more excited about this than any of the other ones. i was kind of expecting that hype from like sinners, but I feel like people kind of slept on sinners.

Speaker: As far as like the announcement goes, and then like I feel like a lot of people didn't like how Stranger Things ended, so they're not they don't really care for that that much. um yeah I'm seeing the same thing. i wonder if it's just because Hellraiser has been rumored for a while, so people have wanted it for a while, and they're finally getting it, so that brings the hype up. but um yeah I don't know anything about it, so I'll definitely be watching it in the coming months.

Speaker: Alright, a couple more questions. Show asks, any thoughts on Horror Unleashed expanding and adding Resident Evil? I'm shocked that they're expanding. We talked about this after we visited.

Speaker: yeah it kind of pisses me off that they're not saying anything about it, considering how popular Resident Evil is, like at least with like the video game community. like I'm shocked that that they're not saying anything about it. Yeah.

Speaker: I don't know. Universal is kind of like, I don't know. Something's kind of off, like at least like with horror unleashed and like the resident evil thing. And then now everyone's seeing how the kids park is, which I'm sure we'll go into when Joey's back.

Speaker: So we can all discuss that. But, um, I don't know, like, it just seems like there's a little less effort to get this out there. And then we haven't really heard anything about Chicago's location, if that's even happening.

Speaker: yeah I haven't heard an update on that in a while in Chicago. saying Yeah, same. I don't know. i don't know what's going on. Especially like considering like how dead it is. like No one is there. like We were there on a Friday night or a Saturday night or whatever night. But we were there on the night that you would expect for it to be busy.

Speaker: and then I'm hearing that it just continues being that way. i don't know. So my only thoughts really are I'm glad that they are able to expand. I mean, maybe they're doing a little bit better than we think they are.

Speaker: Or maybe this is a last ditch effort to get people to come or they're going to shut down. I don't know. Yeah, who knows? Which isn't even an effort because they're not even trying to tell people about it. Like on the actual like, like horror unleashed Instagram, I don't think. I mean, maybe they do now, but I didn't see anything about the Resident Evil episode.

Speaker: fa you I would imagine that their advertising is much more concentrated in the Las Vegas or like l LA area. i really don't think they're trying to attract people from the East Coast.

Speaker: to get over there. But, um, one more question. spread C Fred says when going through a house, what are your favorite types of scares, jump scares, sensory deprivation and overload, phobia elements, distraction slash misdirection, et cetera.

Speaker: feel like we kind of talked about this last year. I don't remember which episode, but I think mine is like a misdirection, you know, where you're meant to be looking at the cool scenery over on the left side and then you get that jump scare from the right side. Those are the ones that normally get me the most.

Speaker: Yeah, i agree. My favorite is when there is a room full of dummies, but one of them is not a dummy. Yeah, those are. It makes me feel so uneasy when you enter a room like that. And I love that.

Speaker: Yeah, I like that too. All right. That about wraps it up. Anything else, guys? I think that's it. a Yeah. I mean, well, speaking of movies that we have to watch, quick little shout out to Joey and myself. We're actually on an episode with Meg on her podcast.

Speaker: Yeah, for You're Gonna Die Bitch, um we both talked about different horror movies. Joey talked about The Substance, and I talked about Barbarian.

Speaker: Maybe we can talk to Meg one day about Hellraiser. That'd be pretty fun. But yeah, quick little shout out to that, and make sure you listen to that. I don't know if those movies will ever come to HHN, but who knows? Maybe someday.

Speaker: Yeah. yeah Check out her podcast. Lots of crossover going over between the two of us. But if for some reason you don't follow us already, already then follow us on social media. i don't know what you're doing, but that's all we got, guys. Thank you for listening. Stay spooky.

Speaker: Yeah. Bye. That's tea, actually.