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Episode 116 - Having a party!
17 Plays2 years ago
This week on the premier comedy roller coaster podcast Ben and Zach talk about the removal of KidZone at Universal Studios Florida and speculate on what might replace it, the current state of Six Flags specifically Great America, our upcoming meetup with our homies from Ride This One podcast and much more!
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts' States
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the worst roller coaster podcast on the internet. Now, let's join Ben and Zach as they tell you why your favorite coaster sucks. I'm Zach and I'm high right now. I'm Ben and I'm not later. That's the inverse of the thing I said.
00:00:32
Speaker
But also, I think you should be. But it's true. Don't worry.
Party Preparations and Road Trip Plans
00:00:40
Speaker
I'm going to I'm going to take a quick hit. There it is. And I'm getting into party mode, not going to lie. Like right now or next weekend,
00:00:58
Speaker
For next weekend, I'm like, I'm starting the the party prep in my mind right now. I'm getting the party switch flipped. I'm prepping. I'm priming the pump. Which I'm ready to hang the fuck out, man. The non sexual. Yeah, I'm getting there. I still I have to I still got to book flights, but
00:01:28
Speaker
I should do that today. Oh, I'm ready. I'm ready. He says without having a flight booked. But no, I found out today that we're going to road trip together. So that'll be fun. Yeah, it'll be nice. I don't mind driving at all. And it's only nine hours. It's not too bad.
00:01:57
Speaker
And we might have another buddy join us for the trip. I think the highlight of the weekend. Yeah. I mean, I think the highlight would be staying in Indianapolis.
Hotel Experiences and Meetup at Great America
00:02:12
Speaker
I'm pretty pumped about that. The pre-party, the night before party.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. Any of you that are going to make it to the meetup that are heading from the Chicago area and they're driving, we'll have a night before party in Indianapolis. And most likely like a La Quinta or Holiday Inn. Yeah, like a cheap off the interstate hotel, hopefully with a continental breakfast.
00:02:49
Speaker
At least a cigarette. And like, I will say the continental breakfast have been. Like, I'm always disappointed. I don't know what I'm expecting, but even even nice hotels, it's basically a box of donuts, a bag of bagels, a. Said that one, right, I think, and like an orange juice dispenser.
00:03:14
Speaker
Yeah. The bag of apple juice and orange juice in the machine is always a little, uh, but so to be honest, so is like Dixie cup. Yes. Or like, uh, uh, like, um, you know, China type of cup, but the juice cups are so small. Those are so fucking like a shock glass. But the good thing is you can go up and fill it up like 18 times.
00:03:44
Speaker
I mean, yeah, but still it's, I don't know, it's Minibilite. Or you take like five with you. Yeah. What about like continental breakfast? They have the rack. It's like the drawers with the baker. I'm using air quotes about as hard as my fingers can go right now. Bakery items.
00:04:10
Speaker
Like in the clear plastic on the toaster. Yes. With like the drawers or like upwards. You grab like a really sad looking plain bagel from out of there or like an even sadder looking cinnamon roll. Yeah, I know. Or the worst. It's just the worst. The pieces of like white bread that are individually in a bag.
00:04:41
Speaker
I don't know if I've seen the individual white bread, but I've seen like, it looks like they just, yeah. They usually right there with the bakery shit, you know? Yeah. I've seen like just the loaf of bread that was purchased at the store, just like thrown on the counter. It's usually open. Yeah. There's only one continental breakfast I remember going to that actually was like pretty decent.
00:05:11
Speaker
There was somebody like, it was like a Hyatt. They're not paying us. Hyatt, give us a free race, but it was out in Texas, Amarillo. They had like a guy cooking sausage and eggs. Yeah, that one specifically was pretty legit. I mean, I don't eat the sausage or the eggs, but it doesn't mean I'm not aware of what the fuck is on that line. Usually my options.
00:05:41
Speaker
Yeah. I know Hyatt breakfast is good. I, I mean, I stayed, I stayed in 2018. I stayed like 82 nights in a Hyatt of that year. Jesus. I hate that breakfast every night or every morning. Yeah. A lot of points. Yeah. You know, I also think,
00:06:09
Speaker
We, when we went to adventure land for free RT, we did the breakfast at that Hyatt as well. And that one was pretty good. That was really convenient because it was basically like right across the street from the park. You know, I personally, damn it. Why is it paying us? We just did a whole goddamn ad for them. I don't think coaster enthusiasts are they're demographic.
00:06:42
Speaker
What? They could be. They could be. Yeah, I feel like Kingda is $80. I can't see. The thing is like, if you're going to like, if you're going to like six flags over Texas, I feel like the enthusiasts are going to pick the $70 like Kingda over the $165 Hyatt.
00:07:07
Speaker
Although I'm sure there's some people out there that would say otherwise, but we're talking about the average. That Hyatt, I gotta say the Hyatt room layout is really great. If you're going to have like three or four dudes in a room, like the typical like Hyatt place layout. Yeah. There's like a bed and a TV, but then there's like this half wall deal with like a couch
00:07:34
Speaker
Like it's almost like a half sectional couch on the other side of the bed on that wall. Yeah. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Yeah. That is a perfect layout for sitting like four people. Yeah. Oh, for sure. I mean, I've, uh, yeah, I've stayed in, I've easily stayed in like, I don't even know 20 plus different diets.
00:08:02
Speaker
Yeah, when I was, so like when I was consulting, all of my colleagues were strictly Marriott and they said, everyone would always say that Marriott is better and the points are better. No, this is that. And I, I don't know, man, like Hyatt, I think has the best point redemption program because if you stay at a Hyatt for five nights, you basically have like a free night.
00:08:25
Speaker
on a, like an off night. I mean, it's, I mean, it's not five to one all the time, but like, let's say you're, I don't know, like, let's say you stay in like a, like a nice height for five days for work. You could stay in a lower end Hyatt on like a Sunday night on an off peak night for probably that amount of points. So it's just, I don't know. I, I, plus like, here's the thing, like Hyatt's like their, all their interior shit is super generic. It's, uh,
00:08:54
Speaker
It's like that pseudo modern shit. And I don't know, it's kind of a plane and sometimes the buildings are older, but I just think it's, it's fine. It's kind of like, uh, it's what you call it. It's like generic luxury. Everything's at least clean. Yeah. My only major gripe with Hyatt is that
00:09:23
Speaker
Some of their locations in like downtowns can have really fucked up parking. Right. I'm specifically thinking of St. Louis and Denver, goddamn Denver twice that fucking Denver that high at Denver.
00:09:47
Speaker
completely fuck me on the parking because their deal is that their parking lot is on the first floor of the building, basically. Meaning that they don't have enough spaces for rooms. Yeah, but the good thing is, is that are you talking about the Regency or the Grand Hyatt? Oh, fuck. I think the Regency.
00:10:12
Speaker
I can't remember exactly where it's at. Like, I want to say 7th or 17th. Seems familiar. Yeah, I mean, the both hotels are probably like four blocks apart. OK, but yeah, but I mean, like if you're but the good thing is, is like
00:10:34
Speaker
As far as like parking, I mean, you could always use street parking, although that kind of sucks. But on California, on the, on the Regency, that's, that street's one of those that they don't start ticketing until like nine. But yeah, I don't know. Like, but that's the thing. Like those, those are strictly for like business travelers. You know what I mean? Like I feel like that's high. It's like major clientele is just people that are in town for three nights and they're expensing everything.
00:11:04
Speaker
That makes sense. I mean, I really probably would have never been staying at Hyatt's myself, but my wife did a lot more business and just travel. Or before we got married and before Covid, so she already had all those points. So we've been staying in a lot of Hyatt's and it's worked out nicely. The places are always great. Well, like great is relative.
00:11:31
Speaker
but I've never had, we've never had any issues other than the parking thing. Yeah. Yeah. The only issue I ever had with a Hyatt was when I was in, I think it was, um, I think it was Houston because Houston has like three different ones. And I stayed in an old Hyatt that's downtown that has like 35 floors or some shit ridiculous. And, uh,
00:11:58
Speaker
The air conditioning didn't work. The air conditioning didn't work. So this is my. But I had orientation for or it must have broke or something. It's like it's one of those hotels that have has so many goddamn rooms that if something doesn't work like and you don't report it, like it's probably never going to get fixed. But this is my fault. But I went to.
00:12:26
Speaker
Fifth Wonder or Fourth Wonder, Bury in Houston. And it was the night before my orientation for Deloitte.
00:12:35
Speaker
And the owner, I was talking to the owner and he ended up giving me like five free beers. I got really drunk and passed out. But then I remember waking up in the middle of the night, Houston heat, and like my bed was completely soaked. Not from piss, but from like sweating, from sweating so much. So he wake up at like 4 a.m. Your body's completely depleted of water. You've had a shit ton of beer and it was like the worst hangover I've had. But I bet.
00:13:05
Speaker
But it was a literal puddle. Like the whole bed was soaked. Yeah. Gross. You better not do that at fucking the cabin. No. That was in Texas. Well, that's true. Texas is a lot fucking worse than Tennessee for heat and humidity, especially at this time of year.
00:13:35
Speaker
Yeah.
Meetups at Dollywood, Great America, and Mount Olympus
00:13:37
Speaker
But I am so fucking stoked for our meetup. And I want to remind all of our listeners. Especially if you're down in the area of Dollywood, we are going to be in the Seeverville Pigeon Forge area. Enjoying ourselves. We'll be at the area attractions on Saturday, the 12th and hitting Dollywood on Sunday, the 13th.
00:14:03
Speaker
Please come out and hang out with us. We would love it. It'll be great and awesome. Um, we'll be recording a podcast live with all of our friends and you know, our buds that ride this one, um, on Saturday, the 12th at our cabin. So that is a thing. And, uh, come on out. It's going to be a blast.
00:14:34
Speaker
mean there's there's not much else to say it's gonna be fucking awesome and I will guarantee you will have a good time if you come now then I do want to tell you we don't have to go into too great detail here on
00:14:51
Speaker
air. We can discuss it much more on our upcoming road trip, but I think I may have found a fun way for us to do a Great America Meetup and make it really unique. We meet when they're closed? Well, yes. I didn't go to Denny's.
00:15:15
Speaker
No, no. So, um, and then it's like, Oh, sorry. They, they canceled and then it's like, okay, but we can go to Denny's. Yeah, exactly. No. Um, a friend of ours has, um, how do I put this? Maybe like a very opportune space, really close to great America.
00:15:46
Speaker
for us to be able to have like an after park live podcast and hang out. Yeah, remember when, remember when Rob had that TPR party at Magic Mountain and then they did a private showing of like a new DVD in their apartment theater, movie theater.
00:16:14
Speaker
Yeah, actually, honestly, thinking about it, that's pretty genius. They rented the clubhouse at their apartment complex. That's a pretty genius way to do a meetup when you're gonna host a bunch of rollercoaster people from the internet. Yeah. It's pretty genius. I mean, not gonna lie, might even look up what an Airbnb would be.
00:16:41
Speaker
if we do a great America weekend or meet up. But what do you think? You think that'd be fun? You think you'd be able to make it out to Chicago area? You could make me ball it in with a trip home if you wanted. Yeah. Let me know what you think. Maybe we can make some plans on our road trip and formalize it and make an announcement.
00:17:09
Speaker
regarding 2023 meetups, and that's as we're coming into our first meetup of 2022, which is late, but our third meetup, which is really fucking cool, I gotta say, that as we've only been around for three years, we've had a meetup every damn year. Well, that's good. Fuck COVID. Well, I mean, technically we started in 2019,
00:17:37
Speaker
Yeah. And we didn't have a meetup in 2019, but we started in September. So we did our first meetup early 2020 to another one, um, mid 2021. Then we're doing this one late 2022. So maybe we'll try and do a couple next year. What did we do? 2021 we had Hollywood nights. Oh, that's right. Yeah. That was a great time.
00:18:06
Speaker
Met a lot of people, that was fun. So I guess the question also stands, where would you guys like to see us throw a meetup? Because maybe we'll try and do two next year. We have been, full disclosure, kind of talking and planning with our friends over at Ride This One for another meetup, much like the Dollywood one we're doing next week, or next weekend,
00:18:34
Speaker
do another one next year in a different area with different parks. But we're not announcing that until after this one. But no, I think doing one here at Great America, because we actually haven't had an actual meet up at Great America yet. No, I mean, that's good for a home park shit. I mean, I'm into that. It's like Great America, Mount Olympus.
00:19:04
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I was thinking is maybe we, maybe we combine it and do Mount Olympus too. Cause it's what like two hours apart, two hours to two and a half hours. It's not terrible. It's easy enough where we could do a full day, great America, stay in the gurney area and then drive the next day and do Mount Olympus.
00:19:28
Speaker
And for anyone who would have to fly, you would be fine to fly out of fly into and out of either Milwaukee or Chicago. Honestly, you'd be fine. I mean, I'm excited now with the prospect of talking this over with you because our buddy actually invited Rian and I over to show us the space. He's been working on it and running events there. He was doing some work.
00:19:54
Speaker
Sunday night, we were up at Great America. He said, hey, stop on by. Say hi. I'm just kind of doing some work here. Space is beautiful. It's wonderful. It would be awesome for. Yeah, it would be awesome for what we do. It would be a lot of fun. And it's really, yeah, like I said, about a 10 minute drive from Six Flags, so not bad at all. And maybe
00:20:23
Speaker
Maybe if enough of you listeners are interested in a great America meetup, maybe perhaps we can look at doing some sort of group rate or something. I'll keep it 100 with all of you. Uh, we, we can't afford ERT, especially at a park like great America. That's not in our budgetary, uh, realms, but we are DIY motherfuckers, so we'll throw a meetup regardless.
00:20:55
Speaker
We'll cook hot dogs in the parking lot. And that's, that's, um, certainly one thing is that I think, you know, the, the space is more or less like a, a BYOB friendly space. So that could be pretty advantageous. Yeah. Yeah. So that can be pretty advantageous. So I don't know.
00:21:21
Speaker
Maybe. Yeah, I guess we'll be having a great America made up next year. I'm calling. I'm just going to say it now. Let's just do it. Yeah, let's do it. We're going to have a great America made up and you all should come. We'll figure out the details and give you some concrete details on the announcement soon. But yeah, come out to great America. Meet us. If you haven't been to great America, definitely come out to great America.
00:21:52
Speaker
Yeah, we'll put Mount Olympus in there too. Now, if enough of you all are coming, there's a good chance that we could possibly arrange for ERT at Mount Olympus. I'm curious what they charge. It can't be that much. I think what we should do is we should probably, we should say we're like a church organization just so they, and then like,
00:22:22
Speaker
I don't know. Make up make make up something. I bet. I bet you could slip them like 200 bucks and they'll give you two rides on Hades before they open. Oh, I'm sure. Hell, I'm pretty sure you could slip them a bag of weed. Or just bring a chihuahua. Okay. How far can he go? But I will warn you, Ben,
00:22:52
Speaker
Don't bring Ruger to this meetup. Oh no. Yeah. Ruger doesn't like getting, Ruger doesn't like getting kicked. I mean, I've not kicked him. I'm just saying he does not like getting kicked. I literally haven't. Oh, holy moly. So there we go. We dropped some big news. We're going to have a meetup at great America next year.
00:23:21
Speaker
with likely a live podcast recording. So, boy, aren't you all gonna be excited to be there? You better be. I don't know. Shit, let's
Theme Park Changes and Concerns
00:23:35
Speaker
see. I made a whole rundown.
00:23:37
Speaker
We could talk about some stuff. I saw actually some breaking news as of recording. Universal Studios Orlando has announced that their kids zone or kids area, kids, whatever. I forget the name of it, but it's going to close on January 16th, 2023 for future development. Interesting.
00:24:07
Speaker
I'm guessing another kids zone. Possibly. Because I remember that the rumor was originally before Epic Universe was announced. Super Nintendo World was supposed to go in that location, I was pretty sure. Oh, that's right. Yeah, that actually was really cool. I saw some pictures of it recently.
00:24:36
Speaker
Yeah, Epic Universe looks cool. And I mean, Universal Hollywood has got a lot going on, too. They got their Super Nintendo World under construction. That's going to be open just a few months, spring 2023. And they're also getting supposedly. Like an Intamin
00:25:03
Speaker
multi-launch that's going to go between the upper lot and the lower lot. Oh, that's that's interesting. Yeah, I mean, it should be pretty damn cool. I mean, it doesn't seem like they have that much space, but if they did something like. They should do it more like a blitz coaster, more of like a maverick. I think that's it's going to be more like Velocicoaster type of thing.
00:25:32
Speaker
Which is very much in in the same type of realm. Yeah. I think it's it's going to be it's going to be cool. I mean, I'll be excited to go visit again in, you know, another year or so because they're going to have a lot more shit. And again, I can't recommend enough if you're going to Universal Hollywood. If you've got it in your budget, man, book a VIP tour, they are well worth the money.
00:26:03
Speaker
just saying anyway, um, fucking, I'm curious to see what they're going to put in that space though, especially given it's probably going to be Nintendo, but they're building Nintendo at Epic universe. Oh wait, which one are we talking about Orlando Orlando? Yeah. So like they're building Epic universe and, uh,
00:26:34
Speaker
The construction on the Donkey Kong coaster looks really fucking cool. But yeah, that leaves that whole space that's going to be closed, the kids area, Universal Studios, Florida. Wide open for expansion. Yeah. Is Universal the best park chain? Depends on how you qualify. I mean, I just I just feel like they've never really
00:27:01
Speaker
No one really ever complains about universal. If you think about it, people complain about Six Flags. People complain about Cedar Fair. People complain a lot about Disney. Sea World. But like, no one ever talks shit about universal parks. Oh, sure they do. They have too many screen based rides. That's a pretty frequent one. I suppose.
00:27:33
Speaker
I mean, I don't think on the whole you hear as many complaints, but I don't think that they take up as big of a market share in any of those spaces, you know what I mean? Because who talks about regional parks other than enthusiasts? And who talks about Disney parks besides enthusiasts and Disney fans, whereas Universal
00:28:01
Speaker
you know enthusiasts will go there but there's nothing like there's not a big enough like thing built up around them I think at this time where as with Disney it's easy to like find flaw anywhere and go well that's not so fucking magical you know what I mean and so like Universal doesn't quite have that reputation
00:28:31
Speaker
But I think there's plenty of, plenty of, you know, valid complaints there. But at the same time, I do think they do a lot of things right. You know? Yeah. Well, I guess with that said, I, I just don't ever really hear people saying that they've left the universal park dissatisfied. And I mean, I don't know. I've never, I've never left the universal park dissatisfied.
00:28:59
Speaker
But when have you ever left a park dissatisfied? Six Flags Parks, Cedar Fair Parks, SeaWorld Parks, Disney. Well, I'll leave Disney out just because it was situational. Well, what specifically was dissatisfying, I guess? Well, I tried to do all the parks pretty much in a day and just get the credits. It was hard to do.
00:29:30
Speaker
frustrating yeah and see that's the thing is like we're not the normies you know we're the weirdos that want to get on every ride or whatever you know i'm saying so like reading satisfaction versus like the average park guest is it's a different metric you know what i mean i think for what
00:29:56
Speaker
for what especially Disney and Universal offer. And and I guess more broadly, even Six Flags and Cedar Fair, once you remove the like enthusiast part of it, it really more boils down to like, did you have fun or did you have a good time? You know, and it's it's got to be a yes, no, there's no like, yeah, except for or no, but this thing, you know,
00:30:27
Speaker
And so I think it's like, once you really boil it down to that, like, did you have a good time? There's always gonna be people that, yes, do have a bad time at a park for whatever reason. But generally, you know, we're all enthusiasts about this shit and stuff. You go to a park to have a good time, you know? I think what I'm getting at is basically like,
00:30:54
Speaker
You go in as an enthusiast to somewhere like Universal or Disney almost with a different mindset, knowing that they're different. But I think also at that same time, it's easy to put a lot more pressure on a Disney experience versus Universal because of the bigger reputation, the higher cost in a lot of cases.
00:31:21
Speaker
And then with like regional parks, it's really easy to get critical to the point of like cynical, you know? Well, with what's going on with Six Flags, I think that's justified. Oh, man. Well, you opened it up, so I guess we're going to talk about it. I'm pretty pissed.
00:31:47
Speaker
I mean, it all started when I realized they took away holiday in the park here at Great America. So you mentioned something about hours reduction next year. What exactly? So did they announce different hours and pull them back or what's there? So they put out an events calendar for 2023 at Great America. In the park that displayed
00:32:16
Speaker
You know, I guess all the events for the season and like nothing on there. There's something pretty much every month, but nothing on there before June and they haven't posted an operating schedule yet. So it seems to indicate. It implies that opening day won't be until June, basically. I don't see that happening.
00:32:45
Speaker
I could see them pushing back to like May 15th, but I don't know. Maybe I'm, I guess I can never see them opening that late. It seems insane. Yeah, but so does shutting off a profitable event. So does removing any operating hours when your attendance is down so significantly. You know what I mean? I mean, I will say,
00:33:13
Speaker
In a slight update, Great America did reply to me tweeting about this and clarified absolutely nothing. What did they say? Well, I tweeted the picture and I said, looks like Great America has reduced their schedule once again for 2023 to roll opening day back to June.
00:33:35
Speaker
you know, and they replied, hi there, this is not our operating schedule, just the list of fun new events for the 2023 season. And I said, so has the season been shortened? Because it appears so, and you provided no clarification. To which they replied, our operating calendar does not appear on our website until closer to the season.
00:34:03
Speaker
You can expect to see our 2023 calendar on our website next year. No new information. No, but that seems pretty normal. I don't think they ever, I don't think they posted the next year's operating hours until the following year. Yeah, but they never posted like the dates of next year's fright festival. They posted the operating schedule either. You know what I'm saying?
00:34:29
Speaker
I don't know. I would bet a lot of money that they won't open that late, but I could be wrong. Well, I mean, here's the deal. They answered and it was neither a confirmation nor denial. True, but I don't think they can, but they wouldn't say that on Twitter. Like that's not something that they can really answer.
00:34:52
Speaker
I'm going to play devil's advocate here. I don't think it'll be, I definitely think it'll be shortened, but also like those are just events like, um, yeah, but like great adventure posted one and they have like a spring break thing for like, you know, early to mid April. Well, I'll be hopeful.
00:35:16
Speaker
As long as it's not as bad as, as long as it's not as bad as it was in, um, what year was that? I think it was like 2012 or 2013 where it was like, I swear to God, it was like basically after the first week of August, they closed at like five or 6pm or something for like, for two, like half of half of August.
00:35:44
Speaker
Because remember we tried to go a couple times and they just randomly shortened it by an hour? I mean, sometimes I think they'll close early. Well, not anymore. But I think back then they would close early if there was just not enough guests to, you know, justify staying open cost wise.
00:36:07
Speaker
Cause like that's pretty frequent for like water parks to do. I just remember there was one time specifically we like showed up and the web, the websites that they were open until like six or seven and we showed up 15 minutes before they closed thinking we had an hour and 15 minutes and they wouldn't let us into the park.
00:36:33
Speaker
And then we tried to go to guest relations and complaining to get tickets because it's like, Hey, like you did not post this on your operating schedule. And then they were just kind of like, yeah, it's one hour guys. Come on. That's literally what they said. That's literally what they said. They were like, okay, you guys tried to come an hour before they closed. Like it's not like you're going to get a full day anyway.
00:37:02
Speaker
I mean, that's I don't remember this, but it definitely sounds like something I would do. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was you. It could have been it could have been our other buddy. I mean, that sounds a little bit more like him than me, but it doesn't it doesn't not sound like me. I'll put it that way.
00:37:29
Speaker
I will say though, that guy, him and I have done some, him and I have gotten some crazy shit back in the day. Um, like the time we got into Darian Lake for free because of his guest relations interactions. Yeah, dude. If you talk to guest relations the right way,
00:37:53
Speaker
then you can get, you can usually get, you know, either pretty close to what you're looking for or something.
00:38:03
Speaker
I mean, you got to be assertive, but also very much respectful and polite, you know? Yeah. I mean, so we, yeah, we show up, we like, we're driving past the park and it was an hour, probably like an hour and 10 minutes before they closed. And so we got into the parking lot, we saw a Superman run and we just were both like, okay, like we have to figure out a way into this park to ride this ride. Like that's all we're going to do. We're not paying the admission.
00:38:30
Speaker
So, um, and so first like, you know, I mean, we were like 20. So obviously we were a little more naive, but we're like, we should just see if we could just walk into the reentry line. Like, let's just try it.
00:38:45
Speaker
And then it was like, okay, let's go to guest relations and just ask. And then basically he did his usual pitch and then got another, and then to where it went from, to where like someone, like a manager or like a area or like a, you know, like a shift manager basically would have to like intervene. And then it was pretty much just like, yeah, can we just ride the ride? And then the supervisor's just like, yeah, just let him in.
00:39:13
Speaker
And then so they escorted us to the gate and just led us into the park. And then we show up. So we show up to Superman or I guess it was just ride of steel at the time. And they closed the line because they had a concert. So they're trying to cycle the ride out quicker before they close.
00:39:37
Speaker
And we're like, Oh no, fuck this. So we went up to the exit and then we asked them, we're like, Hey, so we just drove all the way from Chicago. Like we just showed up. We're just here to ride this ride. Is there anything we can do? And then like, yeah. And they're running one train operations. The line was probably an hour and a half. And they ended up giving us the front row. Wow.
00:40:03
Speaker
Jesus Christ. You lucky motherfuckers. Yeah. That was a great moment. As far as like coaster memorable times, like that was up there. I bet. That's a pretty, uh, that's a, that's a pretty epic story. That same guy almost got kicked out of six like St. Louis for hopping the, the queue line at boss.
00:40:33
Speaker
Um, when he tried to like go back around, so we were trying to do night rides on boss. So we go down the exit and the, they closed the line off like 14 minutes early. And so.
00:40:50
Speaker
You know, what we understood was that like, you know, oh, it's a policy that closed the ride at the closing time. Kind of like how Cedar Fair used to do six minutes after close, they'd close the line. OK. Yeah, so we're like coming down the exit and. The we saw that there is a gate, so he's like, well, fuck, let's just hop this fence and just hop back into the queue. So you know how there's
00:41:21
Speaker
You know, it's like a, almost like a wooden deck ramp. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And on the exit, you're kind of like, you're probably like eight feet above the entry, like switchbacks. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So like he climbs over the fence and falls like eight feet down, like, like falls down.
00:41:49
Speaker
and falls down in the area. Supervisor ends up like radioing up the person to the station. And then suddenly a bunch of other kids started doing it. And then like, I was like, all right, fuck it. And then we all run up the exit, we all run up the entrance ramp and we get to the station and they denied us in the station. They were like, yeah, like we were told not to let you guys ride.
00:42:18
Speaker
because you hopped the fence. Slin, Slin, you know, buddy, at the end of the day goes to guest relations. Oh my God. And complains that we couldn't get a last run on boss because they closed the line early and ends up getting like two other supervisors into the, into the conversation because like he wouldn't let it go.
00:42:47
Speaker
He was like, no, like from what I understand, like you guys have a policy, like the ride should stay open until the closed time and they clearly closed it like 13 minutes before 10 o'clock. And they're just kind of like, okay, like what do you want us to do? And he's like, well, it would just be nice to have something like maybe like an exit pass or. And then his line would be like, yeah, that's not really good enough.
00:43:21
Speaker
Jesus Christ. Oh my God. Yeah. That I'm surprised I've never heard that story before, but that's about the most that dude story. Yeah. There could possibly be. Cause see the thing is like, I know it would have been a pain in the ass.
00:43:47
Speaker
But if instead of jumping over that shit, you would have like booked it over to guest relations, they might let you get on one more time. Oh, like they close it before they closed and then say that they closed it. Yeah. Like book it over to guest relations as quick as possible. Yeah. Like, hey, we just tried to ride boss again, but it's already closed.
00:44:11
Speaker
Like we just wanted to get one last ride before we went home. Cause then they could probably radio the supervisors and confirm like, Oh yeah, it's closed. And then be like, okay, if you guys go walk over there, they'll let you in or something, you know? Maybe, but like I got the vibe from my vibe, my guest relations experience there was that like, it's just one of those small regional parks where everyone's been working there for 20 years. So they kind of just like, don't give a shit for something like that.
00:44:41
Speaker
Maybe. Because that's kind of like what they ended up radioing the ride supervisor and they're kind of like, yeah, so like we have a guest that says you close the ride line early, blah, blah, blah. And then they're and then they basically just radio back. They're just like, yeah, because I was doing the rounds and just closing everything. And then they're just kind of like, yeah. So like Tracy, she closes the ride line when she feels that it's needed to be closed. So like it's her decision type of thing.
00:45:11
Speaker
Yeah, but what I'm saying is if you would have shown up there, even if it was just a few minutes before closing time, the odds of you getting anything substantially better would have been good, you know? Yeah, sure. Like if they close at 10 and you show up at 9.49 and say, hey, we tried to ride one last time and it was already closed. Yeah.
00:45:40
Speaker
then the odds are much better than they go. Oh shit. Yeah, it's before 10 now. You know what I'm saying? But I know that's not that person's style. But also that's applying, uh, you know, what I know now to a story from back then. Remember Coasters After Dark 2007. Oh Jesus. God damn. Yeah.
00:46:10
Speaker
Dude, 2007 was a shitty year. That was also when we were fucking acting a fool in that Taco Bell drive through. Mm hmm. Keep your pants on. My mom was so pissed. That was back when I was under her. I was 17, so still under my parents rule.
00:46:33
Speaker
And I was, and I was like, yeah, it's going to meet me in Milwaukee and we're going to drive the six flags together. That was the only way they would let me do that drive for some reason. Which wasn't true. We met at the Gurney Arby's and then drove to the park. But I was supposed to be home by like midnight or something, but ended up coming home at 3 a.m. Wow. I got chewed out.
00:47:04
Speaker
At 3 a.m.? No, the next day. Oh, you should have been like, I got home in. One. No, like there was it was one of those things where they were still up, you know, I don't know. They were weird. They thought it was weird for a 17 year old to drive two hours to meet friends they met on the Internet at six flags and stay out till three. I mean, that sounds pretty reasonable.
00:47:32
Speaker
Especially way back in 07, because that was a mere like few months after meeting IRL for the first time. Right. I mean, where they were probably more chill about hanging with me or our other buddy by like 09, right? No, by then they figured it out because I mean, well, once I turned 18, it didn't matter. I mean, I was able to like drive to Chicago and see you whenever
00:48:02
Speaker
Yeah, I regret not like coming to visit you in West Bend more. In that basement apartment. Or the apartment basement. Although being honest, considering everything that happened the one time I did come and visit you, probably for the better. I'm going to leave that exactly as is. No more needs to be said. Ask me to meet up. I won't answer.
00:48:35
Speaker
Do you remember when A took that drive with that girl? Yeah. And we were just watching DVDs on my place, like waiting for him to come back. Yep. And he's like, she's pretty cool.
00:49:06
Speaker
I just remember like being in that basement and just like smoking cigarettes. Because like what else are you going to do? God, every time I went over there, this is one thing I don't miss. I'd come home to like my mom's super clean house and I would just reek of smoke. So bad.
00:49:34
Speaker
Like, you know what I mean? It was so bad. Yeah, I mean, like if you if you're outside smoking a cigarette, you could just walk for a moment or two. And, you know, you'll still smell a bit like it. But yeah, if you smoke inside, dude, you will fucking. Yeah, that's the worst. It sticks so badly. Although smoking inside feels like such a badass move now.
00:50:05
Speaker
Like in 2022, you automatically feel like a bad-ass if you're smoking indoors. It does feel kind of weird. I like, I feel almost obligated to smoke if you're able to indoors. I mean, that's really the only time I'll have a really, a cigarette really is in like a casino just because I can.
00:50:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's like you go to Vegas. It's like you have to have a cigarette. It's like. I don't know something about it. But hey, there was some good news I read today. Shanghai Disney closed due to Covid-19. Yes. That was kind of scary, actually.
00:50:57
Speaker
But no, the news I read is that Carowinds is adding almost all of their roller coasters to Winterfest. Yeah, that's good. I mean, that seems like something you could do in the Carolinas. Yeah, it never seemed outside of the realm of possibility. But now that they're doing it, that's pretty exciting and really pretty enticing to someone whose home park decided the holidays are no longer worth celebrating.
00:51:28
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, any park in the South that's not open year round doesn't make sense. Or at least for a holiday event. Yeah. Cause I think like Six Flags Over Georgia might be closed January, February, and I'm excited, uh, that Dollywood's Christmas lights will be up when we're there for our meetup. Oh, that's right. Yeah. They do full Christmas. That's cool.
00:51:53
Speaker
Yeah, so, you know, it's not too late, guys. Book a hotel. It's next weekend. Come on, y'all. Come see some Christmas lights and hang out with some of the worst podcasters on the Internet. And also the Ride This One crew.
00:52:13
Speaker
Let's see. Hey, Ben, making a podcast is pretty tough, right? Yeah. You got to like record stuff and then you got to upload it and it sucks. I know it's a fucking bummer and it's a lot of effort, but I just found out about anchor.fm, which lets you record and edit directly through their website or app, as well as upload and publish to platforms such as Spotify and Apple podcasts.
00:52:36
Speaker
So anchor dot FM is not a porn site, right? Not yet, because it's still free, too. So, you know, they'll start charging once they got only fan style content. That's good. That's good to hear. So if you want to jump on the train before it's all titties and pussies, download the anchor app or go to anchor dot FM to get started. Definitely do it. All right. You ready for the Disney Minute? Yeah. Let's fucking do it. The Disney Minute.
00:53:23
Speaker
Is it playing? Go get our tickets and head to Disneyland.
00:53:29
Speaker
Oh shit, I don't hear it. I'll start. Shanghai Disneyland closed due to COVID-19 with guests still in the park.
00:53:55
Speaker
Tokyo Disney pushback to operating day for fantasy Springs. Construction began on the expansion of Disney's grand Floridian hotel. Magic Ben is expanding the work more shows at Disneyland resorts. Okay. So Ben, you couldn't hear it, but we didn't quite make it in time. But, uh, yeah, we got our Disney news. Uh, there you go. Yeah.
00:54:20
Speaker
Some interesting shit in there. A few nuggets. Yeah, what's what's this thing with Shanghai, Disneyland? So they closed with guests still inside the park. I think they the government made them shut down. I think there was concern there was an outbreak in the park and they made people test negative to get out. What the fuck? Yeah, right. How fucked up is that? I'm going to see if there's like a
00:54:51
Speaker
So they basically like basically like had prisoners in the park. Yeah. I'm not sure what the update is. So if you find anything, you know, let me know. Maybe it was, uh, Xi Jinping trying to consolidate his power further. One of the CCP members was inside of there and they're like, we can take care of
00:55:19
Speaker
man, that's, that's really crazy. So you like member in the beginning and COVID everyone thought that we were like, we're going to become China. It's like, well, clearly not. It's a pretty big, it's a pretty big gap. We're not shutting people inside of Disney parks. God, that's so crazy. Yeah. I'm watching the video now. There's just people like, yeah. And the officers are blocking them out. Holy shit.
00:55:48
Speaker
Unexpected lockdown at the happiest place on Earth. Yeah, temporarily the most infected place on Earth. All right. Too soon? OK. All right.
Shanghai Disneyland Lockdown and Snack Rankings
00:56:05
Speaker
So I was feeling lazy. And I also wanted to open up the floor to all of our incredible awesome listeners. So.
00:56:18
Speaker
I open the floor for questions, Ben, so we got some questions. So first off, Coaster Bro from Coaster Cozies. Shout out to Coaster Cozies podcast and Coaster Bro. Go check them out. He he says we should talk about Heidi Klum being a badass worm for Halloween. What is this?
00:56:46
Speaker
Google Heidi Klum Halloween, 2022, open up a new tab. Like if you type Heidi, it should come up recommended. Okay. Yeah. It's an incredible costume. Who's Heidi Klum? She's a model. Oh my God. I clicked on a fucking new site. Now my computer is getting shut down with fucking ads.
00:57:14
Speaker
Well, it's so bad. All right, I got the image. That looks pretty crazy. Yeah, it's a badass costume, right? I think it's crazy as fuck, man. I like that shit. That's crazy. There's like a close up of her face. That's fucking nuts, man. Is Heidi Klum also a furry?
00:57:43
Speaker
I mean it is a pretty pretty you know involved costume so I don't know maybe gonna be honest if that was in a in a like a scare zone at a haunt that'd be freaky so hopefully you know Horror Nights or something see something like that now here's
00:58:11
Speaker
Here's, and I want to thank Coasterbro for sending that in, thank you. Here's something, Drew the Intern says we should give an update on Ben the Elevator enthusiast. So Ben, what's going on with the new hobby? Well, I've only ridden one elevator since that show, so I don't have too much to give an update on.
00:58:38
Speaker
Have you like found any Facebook groups? Uh, no, I haven't. The, the scene here in Denver is pretty small, but, um, I did actually, um, I went to go see a movie probably like a month ago and you know, and you know, like Schindler, the elevator company. Yeah.
00:59:05
Speaker
So some of my group made a Schindler said, kept saying Schindler's lift. Of course. Yeah. Made some people uncomfortable. Was he like, was he like, I support yay. That's it. Yeah. Wouldn't it be crazy if we just randomly at him as a guest next week? Kanye.
00:59:33
Speaker
His like tier of like his like fame just keeps kind of like or is his reputation just keeps kind of dropping. He ends up on a roller coaster podcast. I mean, his stock has dropped so far. We might be able to get him, but I don't think I want to platform him. You know, I mean, well, that's when you just cut the you edit it so intense just to make it funny.
01:00:04
Speaker
For that, we might as well just take clips of him talking. Yeah. But yeah, I feel like if we did reach out to him, there's like probably a 50 50 chance at this point he'd be on the show. I feel like we got officially better odds of getting Kanye on this show than Taylor Bobby. Yeah, that's not far off.
01:00:31
Speaker
Which is an interesting thing to think in 2022. If you could tell yourself that. Two years ago. Without any context, what would you have assumed had happened? I'd assume that was it would be as great of a chance as a Sam Perla Stratocoaster.
01:01:01
Speaker
Hey, it's, it's also not out of the realm of possibility. I like the idea. Um, I just liked the idea of dragster being tire driven. That'd be fun. Not going to lie. I mean, the Hulk launch is pretty good. Yeah. But also I was picturing in my head cause it was more fun this way. Single propulsion tires, more like the station kind.
01:01:33
Speaker
Yeah. Like that Intamin single rail. It's just like, yes. Exactly. I was thinking I like pictured that more in my mind and it just made me chuckle. Oh man. Um, so our buddy Prairie Coast in Logan, that guy from Saskatchewan asks,
01:02:04
Speaker
And this is a very, very apt question for this episode specifically, since we're going on a road trip in a week from the release. What's what's we got to rank our top three road trip snacks and beverages? OK, top three. So like. Um.
01:02:32
Speaker
I always get that stupid canned Starbucks cold brew nitro. That's like four fucking dollars or five dollars depending on where you're at. Of course you do. I just try to avoid anything with sugar. Well, that's also the McDonald's crispy chicken sandwich. Oh,
01:03:01
Speaker
That's disgusting. Every time I, I mean, the last three times I've driven to Wisconsin, I'll get at least four of those throughout the trip. One way. I'll get two for lunch and two for dinner. Damn, dude. Number three is, uh, the stupid Perrier sparkling waters because they don't sell it. Cries typically.
01:03:30
Speaker
at like truck stops. Nah, I know you like that sparkling bullshit. The Perrier is a rip off because it's, um, it's not a, it's like a half a liter or whatever, like a standard, I think it's less than like a, like a Pepsi bottle. And, uh, they always charge like some stupid amount for like three bucks for a bottle, two bucks for a bottle.
01:03:57
Speaker
Yeah, the only one I really like of sparkling waters is Topo Chico. Yeah, Topo Chico is good. It's just a glass bottle. They have this plastic. Oh, well, the glass bottles are are where it's at. Sparkling water in a glass bottle. OK. I'm just saying I'm just saying sparkling water in a glass bottle is the only way to drink like sparkling water. So she when it's cold and it's hot as shit out.
01:04:27
Speaker
You're on a level I'm not prepared for, you bougie motherfucker. That's not bougie. You can get a glass, you can get a glass Topo Chico and a gas station in my neighborhood for 99 cents. Okay, well, my neighborhood only has the one in the plastic bottle. Well, that sucks, because you're missing out. I can get a case of the glass ones, but that's like 20 bucks.
01:04:53
Speaker
I mean, yeah, like the ones that they sell at Costco or the store is not worth it. The, um, I used to buy the, the 16 ounce glass bottles with Topo Chico at the, um, at like the Costco that's for restaurants with the restaurant supply Costco. That was the show. Okay. That was nice. You get like a, uh, like a case of 16 ounce bottles for, I don't know. It was like 16 bucks.
01:05:22
Speaker
Nice with the bougie fucking. Oh, you got to drink a glass bottle. It makes it so much. I'm just saying. Yeah, LaCroix don't come in a glass bottle, motherfucker. Yeah, and LaCroix sucks. I mean, it's fine if you want to slam like 12 sparkling waters in a day, you know, LaCroix. Yeah, the no, I used to. So
01:05:49
Speaker
Like two, probably like two plus years ago, I'd buy the box of LaCroix at the grocery store in the morning and crush the whole box in one day. Jesus. But it's just water. You know what I mean? Yeah, but how much would you like fucking burp? A lot. That's what I'm saying. Like you really want that much gas? Geez.
01:06:18
Speaker
You're like, I just drank four, four La Croix in two minutes and I'm going to explode. Yeah, that's great. This is chief here on work calls. Well, you know, for me, I got to say for road trips next, Cardetto's has got to be in there. Yeah, Cardetto's is good.
01:06:45
Speaker
And like I do like the special request garlic rye bag, but. I like getting the mixed bag. Because, like, here's the deal. If I get the just the rye chips, then I find myself always going. I kind of want one of those breadsticks, you know. Yeah. But Gardenas is up there fucking. I like.
01:07:14
Speaker
I like Monster Energy because I'm basic on the road trip. Take a good big can of Monster. Yeah. Remember the BFC? I do. I don't sell those anymore.
01:07:33
Speaker
God, there is probably like a month period where I drink one of, one of those every day before school. Oh my God. Yeah. No, I would buy your liver was like, ah, no, I'm pretty sure I did some kind of damage to my body. Um, yeah. Every day before school on my way to school, I would get at least the, um, two of the tall energy drinks per day. Like, um,
01:08:03
Speaker
So what's the one between the regular can and the BFC, like the, like the 24 hours? Like that resealable can. Yeah. So I'd get two of those every morning. Oh my God, dude. Yeah. No wonder I was fat. Like, um, I'm just going to look up the calories quick. Yeah, dude. I'd eat, I'd drink energy drinks and eat McDonald's and little Caesars and go to Chinese buffets.
01:08:34
Speaker
Smoke cigarettes. I was super healthy back then. Yeah, me too. I did all that same shit, except I didn't drink that much energy drink. Although I do remember that for a while, like at Speedway, they had like a house brand energy drink on the soda fountain. Yeah. And so like when I would go to the Speedway and like get cigarettes and gas and fucking gas station hot dogs and nachos.
01:09:04
Speaker
I would get like a fucking 32 ounce cup of energy drink and sip that shit with a straw, smoke a Newport for attorney. Oh, the attorneys were the worst attorneys were terrible. Oh, there were a few times like four dollars at that time. So, yeah. No, there were a few times I bought those on a nostalgia.
01:09:32
Speaker
You're like, ah, these are just as shit as I remember. Yeah. No, I wish it was when I worked at Cedar Point, there was a speedway that was 20 minutes away. And so.
01:09:46
Speaker
And so sometimes I'd buy like a few packs. So it was really funny because before I still remember this before I went to Cedar Point the first summer, I lost like 70 pounds and I quit smoking and I was all on like health shit. And then day one of Cedar Point, it was two meals of, it was two meals of Taco Bell. And then I bought a pack of cigarettes like the first day and I was like, Oh God, this is,
01:10:16
Speaker
This is it. I mean, to be fair, you kind of need a cigarette to help digest two meals of Taco Bell. Yeah. Plus working in the theme park, like when you're 20 and you're working at a theme park, that's the probably like one of those acceptable times when smoking cigarettes is okay. Yeah. When you're in your twenties working at a theme park, that's a really good way to meet people. I mean, that's how I met all my, so,
01:10:42
Speaker
Yeah, when I lived in Commons, there was a smoking section, which was this section of the housing complex that was behind everything. So it was like behind the rec, like this rec center. And there were like probably like 10 picnic tables in this super dark area. So it was always kind of funny because you walk up to it.
01:11:04
Speaker
and there were no lights on it. So you would just hear, you would hear like people laughing and this like ambient cloud of smoke floating above it and then just a bunch of like, you know, intermittently glowing orange dots. You know, you like kind of approach it and then suddenly you'd see like 20 or 30 people back there. That's like how I met all of my friends at Cedar Point was the smoking section.
01:11:30
Speaker
Yeah, it's really easy to make friends. If you both are, if you're, if you're like in your twenties and you are at the smoking section of a part, although I don't know if that works nowadays. Yeah, probably not. People probably still vape though. Yeah. I'm sure there's plenty of people vaping. There's probably still people that smoke sometimes. Yeah. But I don't know if people still smoke at work like that.
01:11:58
Speaker
Yeah. And a lot of people now won't only smoke if they're drinking. Right. Yeah. There's I feel like I've encountered so many more people. That would bomb a cigarette, but never have one to bomb out. Mm hmm. That makes sense. Lately, I mean, you do kind of hit a point, though, where it's just like right now, I don't think I've I don't think I've really smoked any cigarettes in 20 in like this year.
01:12:29
Speaker
I was like the last probably like six, seven years of my life, I've been, uh, maybe 15 a year. You know what I mean? Like it'd be like a special occasion where you just like do three or four or five, then like four months goes by and then you do in a couple more. For me, it's probably been a couple of packs every year for the past couple of years. Yeah. Like a handful, maybe it's definitely never,
01:12:59
Speaker
as much as like even one a month. It'll be like if I'm going on a road trip or something, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Or, you know, my wife and I end up in Vegas a lot. And like we said, if you're in Vegas, you kind of have to smoke. It just, it's part of the arrangement. Kind of like, uh, you gotta, you gotta have a big ass drink when you go to Vegas.
01:13:30
Speaker
Yeah, the giant Bud Light Cup around your neck, on beads. Yep. You got to get some sort of, I mean, out there, usually it's the frozen daiquiris are the ones that are easy to find. Fuck that. Nope. Oh, they're good, though. They'll add shots into them. Yeah, but it's so much sugar. Yeah, but the good ones already have alcohol mixed in them.
01:13:55
Speaker
No, I know. I'm sure it's good. I'm sure it tastes good going down. It's just the after. But you're in Vegas, you know? You don't worry about that. You worry about that when it happens. But the other thing about, you know, I remember, well, I just got one. There is one night, this really fun night I had with one of our friends of the show in Vegas when he still lived there.
01:14:25
Speaker
We filled a big gulp cup up with tequila. Oh my God. And just sipped on it. And then like randomly hit poppers walking around the strip. Oh Jesus. Oh God. That much tequila would fucking kill me. Yeah. It was, uh, it was fun.
01:14:54
Speaker
This is the thing is like, I love going to Vegas now, but I drink more Pedialyte and water than anything else when I'm there. Oh yeah.
Las Vegas Drinking Stories
01:15:03
Speaker
I mean, now it's gotten to the point where if I go on a trip like that, every morning I wake up and work out just so I feel better about myself. I don't think it really helps, but that's a level of dedication. I can't, uh, you know, say I adhere to, but what I definitely make sure I do
01:15:25
Speaker
enough in the way of hydration. Yeah. Yep. Especially, you know, Jesus, the desert you're drinking next weekend. I'll be doing my shit to make sure I'm hydrated. That's for sure. Slater had his Tiki bar set up for Halloween. I don't know if you saw those pictures. Yeah. I saw the, yeah. I saw the photos. Well, it's pretty cool.
01:15:48
Speaker
Oh, shit looked amazing. Yeah, I wish I could have gone and hung there. But he was saying he's got a whole ass load of leftover booze. And I was like, well, we do have a meetup coming up and he's like, yeah, I was kind of thinking that now. And then he sent me a picture of all his booze. I'm like, oh, fuck. So I guess hydration is going to be very vital.
01:16:15
Speaker
Oh, especially I got it. OK, I have to remember this shit. OK, so last time I was at Dollywood for their Christmas event this time of year, all of their water fountains were shut down. Oh, shit, that's good to know. And it completely fucked me up. But so, yeah, that's. I don't know if they let you bring water into the park, but I yeah, I just remember that being like a big deal.
01:16:46
Speaker
So unless you want to buy like 10 Dasani's. Oh, well, I mean bring a, an aluminum bottle. Yeah. Cause they'll let you bring that in. I'm sure.
01:17:00
Speaker
Yeah. And then just a matter of the food cells let you fill up your water for you, which I don't know why I've had encounters. So like, I don't know, I'm a douche right now or I've been for probably the last seven years, but like I carry a like a hydro flask with me everywhere. Oh my God. And sometimes like places won't fill it. It's like, really? It's a fucking bottle.
01:17:28
Speaker
I can't wait to see you get into a fucking argument with a fucking service worker at Dollywood. But like, OK, I got this. I just got to say, though. No, like here's the thing, right? When you live in a hot desert, drinking water is super important. So it's kind of fucked up when people are like, no, we can't give you water for free.
01:17:53
Speaker
you have to buy a Dasani. You know what I mean? Like that's just, it's so fucked up because it's water. It's like the most important thing you need. Yeah. Well, I have some bad news for you. Yeah. We're in Tennessee. I know. Yeah. I mean, no, I meant more generally. That's, that's the future, bud. Well, that's the next future I'm living in the current future.
01:18:22
Speaker
We're close. I'll give you that. Yeah. Dasani is fucking ridiculous. It's like, how can someone just get away with selling bottles they filled up at Venice beach and then added salt to it? No. Did you know that Dasani adds salt to the water to make you more thirsty? Yeah. And it says it right on the label too. Drink more Dasani.
01:18:51
Speaker
That's why I'm saying it's just like someone went to fucking Venice Beach. I just picture there's a guy, Mr. Dasani, standing there holding bottles under until the fucking bubbles stop. There's a cap on it.
01:19:13
Speaker
Oh, I don't know. Water water is annoying. Like at least at least Nestle sells regular water. But now the design design is a scam that's so fucked up and like a park like Dollywood, especially in a state like Tennessee, that shit they can get away with. You know, well, that's the thing is that all the park chains are partnered with Coke. Cedar Fair used to be Pepsi.
01:19:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's like, so we can't let you bring in a vital resource that you need to live. We make you dump it out. And then your only option is to buy Dasani. Uh, pisses me off. Well, I mean, it is Dollywood. So I think most, most people are expected to just drink Coke.
01:20:06
Speaker
Considering the amount of rascals you see there, I suppose it's true. Rascals with the cup holder that's big enough for a bottle of Coca-Cola. Souvenir bottle? Do you think the rascals have souvenir bottle holders? Yes, they also have popcorn bucket holders. That's probably true.
01:20:36
Speaker
And the basket on the front, actually the perfect size for the trays that serve the food. They probably sell the cinnamon bread at the rascal stand when people come back at the end of the day. They got the dales up there. Yeah, buy five at a time. Five for one, two days old.
01:21:02
Speaker
You know, I was watching some video on YouTube about. Do you know the channel Delish? It's a pretty cool channel. They I first found out about them because they had these videos where their team was going to like a bunch of different parks and just basically like eating all the interesting food.
01:21:29
Speaker
they wouldn't go on rides or anything, but they would try like all the food. And then they, they have another team that's doing like stadium foods. So it's like, uh, it's like one episode is like, all right, we got team A and Dollywood and then team B is like, we're in Wrigleyville. No, I mean like production teams. So to be like the food of, you know, Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, and then there'll be a separate video that's like,
01:21:58
Speaker
the food of Coors Field. And there was one, I forget what field they were at, what fall park, but they made, I think it was the Houston Astros, Minute Maid Park. They made bread pudding out of the old hot dog buns.
01:22:27
Speaker
I don't think they were like old, old, but like, you know, like a day old or whatever. Well, I mean, maybe that's, maybe that's important to bread pudding. You have to use stale bread. I don't know. Could be. I have no idea. I just, I thought that was very efficient, but at the same time, like just kind of like funny, you know? Yeah. Remember the bread pudding at Old Country Buffet? Oh,
01:22:54
Speaker
That's been baking. It's been baking under a heat lamp for like three hours. Bread pudding's extra runny tonight. Yeah, there's like a, there's like a layer of thin, like oil or water at the top, just kind of glistening. And it wasn't like the glaze. It was like the glaze separating from the bread. Here's my question about bread pudding.
01:23:24
Speaker
Who the hell ever invited raisins to any party? That's all I'm saying. Like bread pudding is good, and then you get the piece with the raisin in it and you're like, oh, there's a raisin in here. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, it's like you caddyshacked the dessert with fruit unnecessarily. I mean, yeah, if you're going to add fruit, fucking
01:23:53
Speaker
make it a good fruit. Raisins, raisins are secondhand fruits. What are we going to do with these grapes? I don't know. Leave them out in the sun. It's just the textures off too. It's like you're like, oh, we're in a soft kind of runny, you know, gooey dessert. And then it's like, uh, something hard. Yeah. What's this little piece that, oh, uh,
01:24:21
Speaker
Or you know what, I think the alternative, at a goddamn date, really commit, you know what I mean? Just out of curiosity, are you an anti-nuts in Brownie's person? Oh man, no, nuts are cool.
01:24:46
Speaker
Because the thing is, you know, like you add a chopped walnut to anything, you've spruced it up. You know what I'm saying? Salad, boom. Brownie, boom. As a kid, though, oatmeal, you know, as a kid, though, like nuts and brownies fucking sucked. See, I've always been prone, not desserts. Don't isolate that. No, like, I don't know. I always felt like
01:25:15
Speaker
Nuts in a brownie is like landmines. Cause you're like, cause using a brownie without nuts only requires like two or three chews before you can swallow it. Both nuts, you have to like be careful. I don't know. It was like random crunchy pieces. As an adult, it's fine. But as a kid, it was like, you might as well have just not brought in brownies.
01:25:38
Speaker
Like when a teacher, like when a teacher baked them, like third grade, when a teacher's like, Oh, I made everybody brownies or some kid is like, Hey, I brought brownies for my birthday. Or I need bite into and there's fucking nuts. That's probably a control measure to make sure kids aren't scarfing them down too fast. Well, the exact reason that you just brought up, make sure to add some walnuts to those brownies. They're bringing them to school.
01:26:08
Speaker
Although nowadays with nut allergies, I don't think you could do that anymore. Yeah, that's true. Did you ever bring treats in for your birthday? Yeah. Yeah, same. Store bought cupcakes every year. My mom would always make like a shit ton of things and she always make extras. So it's like, how many are in your class?
01:26:34
Speaker
And it'd be like 22 and she'd make like 50 and then send me to school, which is like a giant fucking top order. That's funny, dude. I don't even remember that until you said that. No, it's like a thing. You shouldn't on your birthday. Yeah, fucking. I did that a few times in in corporate world.
01:27:00
Speaker
office nine to five shit. I would always, I brought, I did that a few times, but the property, my pet peeve was always like, I'd bring, I don't know, like sometimes there's just a box of donuts from like a, like a good bakery that makes them fresh. And then at the end of the day, you're stuck with like seven half donuts and three plastic knives in the box.
01:27:30
Speaker
Cause people are like, Oh, I don't want a whole one. I just want a half one. So they'll cut women in half, but then no one else is like, Oh, I just want a half. So people end up just like sabotaging like half of the half of the donut. And then you're stuck with all these halves. Yeah. I mean, that's pretty bad, but the worst I've seen every office, every fucking office does that shit anyway. But have you ever seen anyone?
01:27:59
Speaker
And all of the donuts are cut in half? Like pre-cut them? Like you don't see somebody drop them off, but you come in and there's donuts, but every one of them, it has been cut in half already. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. You're like, you'll be left with just seven halves of donuts.
01:28:17
Speaker
Right. But what I'm saying is they're not picked over. It's not just like seven sitting there. It's like maybe only one total, one or two total donuts are gone, but everything is halved. So it's like there's a full maple sitting there, but it's two halves, you know? Yeah. I mean, I mean, I don't know. People would do that if they were doing it intentionally, but. And that always drove me nuts because I'm like,
01:28:44
Speaker
So you're going to make me an asshole for taking a whole donut. You know what I'm saying? Because you can't you can't take two halves. You know what I mean? Because then you look like an asshole. Maybe you could try different ones. But even then I'm like, you walk away with two. Everybody else is walking away with one. You know what I'm saying? Like.
01:29:11
Speaker
And once, so like, yeah, once this is shit, this is like back in 2016, my first year here, I brought in, um, like four boxes of Voodoo donuts to my office. But like, it was the same thing. And by the end of the day, three of them were fine, but there's probably like a half left, but it was the same thing. It was all, it was all like half pieces.
01:29:39
Speaker
I guess, yeah, I really think that nobody should cut the donuts in half until you've taken the whole thing. Right? I mean, that should be the ground rule. If you want half, then take the whole thing and then eat half. Have any of you guys ever been frustrated by half donuts?
01:30:05
Speaker
Please tell us we're not alone in this incredibly minute argument. Oh, God. So Marcelli T asked what we think about what we think the top good addition to the park ride is.
Park Additions and Roller Coaster Anecdotes
01:30:25
Speaker
I guess, like, is there the realistic answer and the ironic answer? I don't know. Because like, um,
01:30:36
Speaker
I don't know. I'll just go with Great America. I think Raging Bowl is probably a pretty great addition to Great America. Like maybe the best. Hold on. What he meant, I think, is like it's a good addition to the park. Oh, legitimately? No. Like that's the canned answer. Yeah. Like, oh, it's a great addition to the park.
01:31:06
Speaker
Maybe, um, probably back in like the mid 2000s. I think you're misunderstanding the question still. I probably am. He's asking of all, of all the riot, like what, what is the most like not what's been the best addition to a park, but what addition to a park is the most like you would, the, the most,
01:31:34
Speaker
Oh, where the media day response would be, Oh, it's a great addition to the park. Well, um, okay. I have a few examples. The first one just in our territory was probably dark night.
01:31:49
Speaker
Oh, that's a good one. I remember saying like mid 2000s, like something around the recession. Cause I feel like that's when it was more prevalent because that was whatever. Um, I think it was 2008 or two. No, it was 2009. Remember no coaster con when Dwayne was would do his presentation and the 2009, no coaster con. It's like, yeah, for the U S there are literally only 11 roller coasters opening this year.
01:32:19
Speaker
And they were all like Katie rides. That was the year the the drive in movie theater coaster opened. The one around the movie screen in Montana. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I got on that shit. That's like a that's one of those credits I'm like really excited about.
01:32:36
Speaker
because the interactions there was so fucking weird because we show up and you know, like, so of course, like our friend, we were talking about the Darien Lake thing. We go to a movie theater like, and this is a small town of Montana, right? Like,
01:32:51
Speaker
So when you show up in a minivan, like two, two 19 year old guys in a minivan and you show up to a drive-in movie theater and is like, yeah, we want to ride the kiddie coaster. It definitely like doesn't connect with the, with the locals.
01:33:11
Speaker
So, um, we like show up and you had, you had to like buy. So the way it worked is like, you can't just go to the park. You have to like go there for a movie. You have to like buy a movie ticket. You know what I'm saying? Cause like it's only open when movies are open. And so like, of course he hit like through a fit at the gate, which is literally just like a tool, like a tool chest.
01:33:35
Speaker
And a little, probably like not even a computer, just like a cash register and a booth, you know, like on a dirt road to get into the theater. And he's like having this fit about it. He's like, no, like, I just want to ride the ride. And they're like, uh, well, this is a movie theater. You have to buy a ticket to get in. We're playing Casper two tonight or something. I don't know. You go to this popcorn. He's like, we want to ride the ride. And he's like, uh, like Dale doesn't come in until eight.
01:34:05
Speaker
And like, it's, you know, like an hour before that. And he's like, well, like, can we just ride the ride? Like, is there anybody here that can operate the ride? So in some just someone shows up in like a truck, like a kid gets out and he had to like, starts the ride and just let us ride. Did you guys stay and watch the movie at least? No, we left. Jesus. At least watch the movie if you bought a ticket to the fucking drive in.
01:34:36
Speaker
Well, I don't know. Let me see. Yeah. Dark Knight's a good one. I am. And I'm not sure if I'm going to top that. Yeah. Oh, no. Oh, wait. No, nine or rough years. I feel like because everything every time a park added something, people in the forums would complain and be like, like, stop complaining. The parks don't cater to you.
01:35:07
Speaker
It's a good addition to the park. Yeah, I remember a lot of people at that time also being like, I was really hoping it would be a giga coaster. Yeah, it's like we've had the greatest economic crash of 100 years. Parks aren't adding good coasters. Which listen up, folks. We might have that again. Possible. I mean, Six Flags already isn't adding shit, so.
Unused Items and Year-Round Park Speculations
01:35:37
Speaker
Let's see, Metal Mikey's got a couple interesting questions. He asked, what's something you own that you've never used? Probably an avocado spoon. Wow, that's a very specific thing. I got one as a gift for some reason, and it's still in the box. I mean, yeah, personally, I'm a little hard pressed.
01:36:05
Speaker
for stuff that I myself personally own that I've never used. But I know that my wife has bought lots of stuff. So it's kind of in my possession as well that we've never used. For example, in my field of vision, if I turn just slightly, there is a cooking preparation
01:36:34
Speaker
thing. Yeah. That's sitting in the, in the box. Oh, you know what? We bought a, we bought a fucking fancy Roomba that's still sitting in a box. We've never used a Roomba. No. Cause every time I mentioned wanting to like set it up, she goes, she goes, we got to clean the place up more. And I'm like, isn't that what the fucking thing is for? Well, it gets clogged fast.
01:37:05
Speaker
I mean, we got the fancy one that empties itself out and mops up all that shit. Oh, cool. Yeah. So I don't know. It's kind of to me at this point, I just don't even bring it up. There's a box and one day we'll have a robot cleaning this fucking place up. But until then.
01:37:30
Speaker
I guess that's that's you know that was easier to answer than I thought. He also wants to know. What's the next park to go to year round operation? And that's really hard to predict, because I know which parks it won't be. Won't be Great America. Won't be Six Flags St. Louis, won't be Six Flags New England. Probably not Valley Fair.
01:38:00
Speaker
Definitely won't be Valley Fair. Won't be Cedar Point. Um, great adventure, maybe. That's possible, but is anybody really actually going to be there mid January? I don't know. It's not, it's not too bad there. It's like probably, I don't know. It's a little warmer than Chicago. I was going to say, um,
01:38:28
Speaker
So over over Georgia, is that technically year round? I don't think so. I guess that one maybe. Or carolins. Yeah, carolins I could see happening. Maybe. Frontier City. Oklahoma's kind of cold, though, in the winter. That's true. Let's see, I'm checking Georgia.
01:38:58
Speaker
No, it looks like Georgia closes after the holidays and they don't have a 2023 schedule posted yet. Yeah. I mean, that's the only park I could think of that could do that. Really? I don't know. Kentucky kingdom. Maybe. I don't know what Kentucky winters are like. They can't be that bad. I mean, I don't know. Louisville could get rough.
01:39:29
Speaker
I'm curious. Well, we'll be driving through there, uh, not, but, you know, a week from the release of this episode. Yeah. So we'll see for ourselves. It's just gray mainly. Oh man. All right. Well,
Meetup Excitement and Episode Conclusion
01:39:50
Speaker
holy shit. We filled two hours without, uh, much on our rundown.
01:39:59
Speaker
Well, that's good. I'm, um, yeah, I'll book flights for the thing next weekend. I should probably do that tonight. Yeah. I have to rush order the t-shirt for the thing. Oh, that's right. Oh, I got one actually. I procrastinated on accident. And I mean, thankfully there's still places that'll rush produce and ship. Yeah.
01:40:28
Speaker
So it's not a big deal. Got to pay for it, but hey, whatever. Anyway, you got anything else, Ben? I'm good. Let's, uh, this is plenty. Yeah. All right. Well, we wanted to definitely hype everybody up for the meetup. Fucking looking forward to it. Big bear mounting coming up very soon, just about a week away. And we'll make sure we, uh,
01:40:56
Speaker
Try to drop an episode for the first day of the meetup. Keyword there is try. Good doing in Indianapolis. Yeah, we could. Actually, that's a pretty good idea. Oh, also that reminds me, you need to bring your mic with. Okay. Because your mic has a room setting. And mine doesn't, mine's super directional.
01:41:24
Speaker
And even if the audio isn't super loud on the room setting, we can always adjust that in post. So please do. Yeah, I can do that. And that'll be exciting. So we'll maybe bring you an episode, uh, from on the road to the meetup next week to really hype it up.
01:41:49
Speaker
But with all that, I hope we get to see all of you at the meetup. Really looking forward to it. Thank you all for listening. And a special thanks to all of our patrons who are awesome. And shit.
01:42:10
Speaker
I think that's about all we got. Give us a call, leave us a voicemail. Five raw, five LA, three, one, two, five raw, five LA. Or your favorite coaster sucks at gmail.com. Join our Discord, link is in the episode description. Come chat with us there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got anything else Ben?
01:42:33
Speaker
Alright, cool. Well then, until next time, your favorite comes from sucks.