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The Single Rider Line Episode 6: Top Thrill Gravy!
31 Plays1 year ago
On this episode of The Single Rider Line, Lunarus talks about Top Thrill 2, Good Gravy!, and his trip with his Mom to Kings Island!
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Transcript
Thrill of the Unknown: Facing 'The Beast'
00:00:04
Speaker
Sunday! Sunday! Are you ready for the highest and fastest poster in the world? Are you ready for a real thing? This island dares you to come face to face with the beast. The beast. 7,000 feet. You can't hear my voice. The Loch Ness Monster lives. This man can't handle it.
00:00:40
Speaker
Oh, no. Mr. Pop.
Podcast Schedule Update and Apology
00:01:08
Speaker
All riders waiting and on top of those rapture, we are currently experiencing a mechanical issue and we do not know the length of the delay. How's it going? Happy, happy August. It is Friday, August 4th at 654 p.m. as I am recording this. Happy Friday. Well, actually no. Happy Monday. That's when this is going up.
00:01:36
Speaker
Hopefully we can have a good start to your week. I'm sorry for being gone. Uh, I was going to upload an episode last, uh, last Friday and then things kind of fell through and I wanted to wait for the dragster news. So I didn't record on Monday, which is when I typically record. I typically just record and upload the same day. Um, cause it only takes about half an hour or so to, uh, get a, uh,
00:02:03
Speaker
episode edited and all that jazz. But how's it going? How is it going? Hopefully it's going good. We've got some news to talk about. Again, if you've been living under a rock. We're an announcement season, so we've got two major announcements.
Coaster Season Highlights and Summer Enjoyment
00:02:25
Speaker
One of them is far better than the other, and I'm obviously referring to
00:02:32
Speaker
the uh good gravy that is the far better announcement of the two okay let me back things up well first off welcome back to the single rider line good to have you back and uh hope you've been enjoying your summer and enjoying the coaster season it's uh it's been a good season so far i know i talked about this last episode but it's it's
00:02:59
Speaker
It's good. We're finally, uh, you know, it's good. We're finally kind of getting to the latter part of the season. It's, it's sad, but I'm glad we're getting there because that means announced and start rolling around. Uh, the Halloween events start getting their marketing going and that sort of thing. But it's a, it's been a good season. It's been a good season. Don't have any park trips to talk about. Unfortunately, actually that's not true. I do have one and that was with my mom. Um, it wasn't for.
00:03:29
Speaker
It wasn't for anything super special.
Family Dynamics and Coaster Podcast Mention
00:03:33
Speaker
So this is a story for another time as far as how I grew up and my childhood and that sort of thing. But just to keep things simple, the relationship with my parents is pretty strained due to some religious factors.
00:03:53
Speaker
that I will save for now. I've talked about it on the Your Favorite Coaster Sucks podcast. If you wanna go give that a listen, go check them out, by the way. Great podcast all around. But if you want a more comprehensive view of it, that's probably your best shot for now. And I'll talk about it at some point on this podcast, but I'm gonna save it for
Kings Island Trip: Coaster Experiences
00:04:20
Speaker
now. That requires a whole episode.
00:04:23
Speaker
for itself. But I went with my parents to Kings Island because they're not enthusiasts. They go maybe to a park maybe once a year, maybe. If at all, you know, they're they're busy. They got stuff going on and trying to plan things is not exactly not exactly the easiest of things. But yeah, we ended up going to Kings Island.
00:04:52
Speaker
And my dad does not like wooden coasters, period. He doesn't like how the train vibrates on the track, which I don't understand. But you know what? He is over 50 years old. So I'm not going to judge him because as a 20 year old, I don't know. You know, I don't know. I'm not going to pry about that. So but so he.
00:05:18
Speaker
You know, and Kings Island is known for their wooden coasters, so that kind of eliminates a lot of his options there. So that gets rid of mystic timbers, that gets rid of the beast, it gets rid of both sides of the racer. So that's not a good majority of the lineup, but it's a lot of the major coasters there are two of the major coasters. And there's a few steel ones he still won't do. Like it's not because he's scared of them, he just doesn't want to get sick.
00:05:47
Speaker
I drank some pre-workout before recording this because I'm going to go record or going to go work out after I'm done recording this. But some of the powder is like caught in my throat. Thank you, sick star. Wonderful.
00:06:05
Speaker
time for a lawsuit. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I love their, I love their stuff. If you're looking for pre workouts, protein powder, that sort of thing, this is not sponsored. Uh, six star has, uh, has some good, some good pre-workout and that sort of thing. Um, but yeah, he also won't do like flight of fear or in vertigo. To be fair, those coasters are in vertigo is just bad. Uh, flight of fear. It's okay. We've talked about this last time and my girlfriend's obsession with it.
00:06:36
Speaker
So he is fairly limited as far as his options go at Kings Island, but it's the closest we live to. So we end up going there and that also limits me and it also limits my mom onto what we can ride while we're there without leaving him behind. And my mom wanted to get a night ride with my dad and
00:06:57
Speaker
So we ended up doing an Orion night ride. That was pretty good. But she also wanted a Beast night ride, which she couldn't do. She had to pick between Orion or the Beast because they both shut down at 930 for the fireworks and then they reopen afterwards. So we went back to Kings Island on a later date after me and my parents went probably about a month later. So my mom can get her Beast night ride. And it was it was nice.
Mystic Timbers and Winterfest Insights
00:07:27
Speaker
We got there, it was like 7.30, 8. We decided to hop on. Well, I wanted to grab some food because I had not had dinner, so I just used my plan. Went over to Potato Works, got the pulled pork fries. Wonderful, as always. Those are so addictive. Pulled pork fries.
00:07:49
Speaker
God damn. It's like. I don't know how to describe it like OK, I don't know how to describe the food. It's just I don't know how to what I can't talk today. I don't know how to describe why they're so addictive. So it's potato wedge fries.
00:08:06
Speaker
I don't think you can ever go wrong with those. It's got pulled pork on there. It's got some sort of sauce. I don't know what it is, but it's good. And it's got barbecue sauce drizzled on top of the pork. It's not a lot. Well, it's a lot of food, but it's not a lot as far as ingredients go. But it's just so damn good.
00:08:32
Speaker
Like, I could go there and eat that every day all season long. I'm not going to get tired of it. It's just, it's just so nice. It's so nice. Um.
00:08:46
Speaker
They had a carne asada fries last year called the flight commander fries based on the flight commander ride that used to be there. They don't have that this year, unfortunately, because that was one of their 50th anniversary specials. So sad to see. But, you know, pulled pork fries are still there, so I will not. Will not complain. So I ate real quick. We went and hopped on mystic timbers.
00:09:16
Speaker
Again, she doesn't ride coasters as much as I do, but she absolutely loves Mystic. It's and I'm glad she does because that coaster is so good. I've ridden it one too many times for me to not to say for me to care, but Mystic is one of the only two coasters open during Winterfest besides Flight of Fear. So, you know, whenever you ride Mystic like 30 times in the span of a day, you
Night Ride on Orion: A Comparative Analysis
00:09:44
Speaker
kind of get tired of it after a while.
00:09:46
Speaker
So I don't ride Mystic a whole lot whenever I'm there. It's still a kick-ass coaster though. I don't want to downplay it. It's still... I almost said it's the best GCI I've been on, but I might have to disagree with that. Last time I was at Dollywood, Thunderhead was... Thunderhead was kicking some ass. That's a close one. I'm gonna... I'm gonna say Mystic by a tiny smidge, but Thunderhead is a very close second. So...
00:10:15
Speaker
Yeah. All right. I must say thunder. I'm going to say mystic ever so by like a hair. But thunder has a close second. So we got a mystic. You know, we hit the breaker on. She's laughing because we're having a good time. I'm laughing because I'm having a good time.
00:10:34
Speaker
So we get off mystic We head on over to Orion because we had time for that got a front row Orion like a dusk ride Pretty damn good as always you can't go wrong with an Orion dusk ride, you know Or just an Orion front row ride in general I think Orion and any other row besides the front or the back is kind of mediocre But front row when you can feel that wind in your face. Oh My god, it's
00:11:01
Speaker
It's an experience that you can get on other gigas, but as far as getting it within a reasonable amount of time, you can't really do that anywhere else. And I know you're going to say, oh, what about Millennium Force? Millennium Force is the drop is not as sharp on Millennium. It's far more gradual. And I don't think Millennium while Millennium is a speed machine. And I do love that coaster.
00:11:28
Speaker
It's that first drop on Millennium is not anything special. In my opinion, it's it feels like. It feels very, very basic compared to a B&M giga drop. So like like Fury and Orion, those I would take those drops. Any day of the week compared to millenniums. And again, I talked about this last week, but I feel like Orion is just a more complete ride.
00:11:58
Speaker
in general. But yeah, you can feel the wind in your face just so well on the Orion front row ride. It gives you that better sense of speed that you don't really get any other rows. And that's one thing I'll give credit to Millennium on. No matter what row you're sitting in, you feel that sense of speed, which I think is nice about Millennium. I still think Orion is the more complete coaster, but I think Millennium does have the edge on
00:12:28
Speaker
Overall sense of speed across the entire train compared to. Compared to Orion's. So we got off Orion. Took some pictures of Orion. Went on over to the beast, waited probably. 45 minutes an hour in line because whenever we got there, it was like 945.
00:12:55
Speaker
And they shut the line down already. So we just kind of had to sit there and wait. Scroll through social media, play games on our phones. And then the fireworks went off. So that was that's always good. So those fireworks. OK, there was one firework in particular that went off that night. It exploded extremely low to the ground. OK, I'm not a firework. I'm not a. What's the term for people who light off fireworks?
00:13:25
Speaker
I'm not an explosives expert, but that was extremely low to the ground. It had to be 75, 100 feet, maybe. And. Yeah, that was that was pretty damn close. But. Nothing got set on fire, so that's good. Glad the beast hasn't burned to the ground yet. Surprised it hasn't, to be honest. But.
00:13:55
Speaker
You know, we waited, waited some more. And there was this group that was there. It was a bunch of like. 12 to 16 year olds, they were all wearing a shirt for this organization that took them on coaster trips. I forget the name of it, but it had like all the parts they were going to on the back and they were going to Canada's Wonderland, Kings Island, Cedar Point.
00:14:24
Speaker
I believe King's Dominion was on there as well. And it was really interesting because I've never seen a group like that before. It was like a summer camp from what I remember correctly. I really wish I would have been able to do that whenever I was that age.
00:14:45
Speaker
have a company take me all over the United States for, I'm sure, like a flat rate. I'm not saying it's cheap, but, you know, my parents play a flat rate and I get to go travel. That'd be pretty cool. Unfortunately, religion would not allow me to do that, which I am not religious anymore.
00:15:08
Speaker
And I will get into that in another episode at some point. I'll look into it some more. But yeah, it was really interesting. They filled up the whole line behind us. They reopened to the ride. We got our Row 17 Beast Knight ride. If you know, you know.
00:15:29
Speaker
And, uh, of course it's a beast night ride. So it kicks ass. I have not been on a voyage night ride, which I've heard is leagues better. I'm hoping to fix that next year at Hollywood nights, but, uh, we will see. So that was a good, that was a good trip. I got to spend some time with my mom, you know, strained relationship or not. It was, uh, it was still good to spend some time with her and to
00:15:56
Speaker
be able to get another beast night ride with her. So it was a it was a good time. All right, we got some news. The wait is finally over. It has been months and months and months. It has been almost a full year of speculation now over a full year of speculation. And here we are.
00:16:26
Speaker
Here we are. We are in August of 2023.
Top Thrill 2: Reimagining a Classic
00:16:30
Speaker
The dragster incident happened in August of 2021, so two years later, here we are. And top thrill dragster reimagined is now top thrill two. I'll be honest, the name was pretty dumb whenever I first read it. I was like, are you serious? That's.
00:16:54
Speaker
I was thinking like this is the most lazy thing ever. But, you know, the more I think about it and the more I've read it, the more it's grown on me like top thrill, too. Yeah, it works. It's still it's still top thrill dragster, but it's not a dragster anymore. But it's also not a brand new ride, but it still is.
00:17:17
Speaker
So Top Thrill 2 just kind of works. And for anybody asking my opinion, I believe Top Thrill 2 is 110% a new credit. And if you disagree with me, then I hate you. I'm kidding. I would like to hear people's counter arguments as to why it's not a new credit.
00:17:39
Speaker
My guess is going to be like, well, it's got the original top hat and it's the same track, which I do agree with. But it also has a new element and new track on it. It's a new experience. So that's my reasoning as to why I believe Top Thrill 2 is a new credit. But let's look at the press release. I've already read through this, but I wanted to.
00:17:59
Speaker
give you guys a bit of a run now. So top thrill to the world's tallest and fastest triple launch Stratocoaster. I don't like how that's worded. It's just the world's tallest and fastest triple launch Stratocoaster. Like there's already like there's another triple launch Stratocoaster when there's only two Stratocoasters at the moment. So it is getting a swing launch like how
00:18:30
Speaker
Uh, like how Pantheon is and how that new Intamin and Icebreaker is and how that new Intamin is at a fucking that one place.
00:18:45
Speaker
I'm gonna be honest, I absolutely love how this coaster looks. My expectations were low, not in like a bad way low, just like, you know, keeping them realistic. And I am pleasantly surprised by this. So what did I say? Keep your expectations low and you will always be pleasantly surprised. So this whole announcement is just a massive fuck you to all the Coaster YouTubers
00:19:08
Speaker
who totally over hyped this thing or like it's gonna have a five hundred foot spike guys it's gonna have an extended layout x y and z no it's not chill out. God.
00:19:23
Speaker
All right. So top thrill to the world's tallest and fastest triple launch Stratocaster. It's going to have a height of 420 feet on both on both of the elements. So the spike in the back is also going to be 420 feet. Obviously, you're not going to get to that 420 foot height on that back spike.
Top Thrill 2 Ride Mechanics Explained
00:19:43
Speaker
But I'm not complaining. I mean, the original top hat is 420 feet. So it's it's it's fine.
00:19:51
Speaker
So you're going to have a forward launch of from 0 to 74 miles per hour. It does not talk about the acceleration rate.
00:20:05
Speaker
So you're going to go into the original top hat. You're going to get the rollback. It's only going to go about a quarter of the way up, which I was thinking about. And people were kind of upset at the fact that you don't go all the way up on that rollback. But it makes sense because launching that high up and having to fall back down
00:20:25
Speaker
going to make the ride that much longer and considering how they have to push trains through and the fact that this is cedar point and it's a swing launch like that's the entire ride is a swing launch that's it but yeah you probably don't want to launch all the way up just so that you can keep the ride at a fairly short at a fairly short time but
00:20:55
Speaker
But yes, you're going to go from zero to 74 on that first launch. Climb up the original top hat. You're going to start falling backwards and you're going to launch to 101 miles an hour. Go up the back spike, which is again, 420 feet. And you're probably, I'm not sure how high up on that you're going to get. I would say if you're sitting in the back, it'd probably be three quarters to five, six of the way up the, up the spike.
00:21:24
Speaker
which is going to be really cool. That's going to that's going to provide some serious weightlessness once you're falling back down. That's that's going to be good. I'm excited for that. It is 90 degrees, by the way. Yeah, it's a 90 degree, 420 foot vertical tower, as they call it, and you're going to get weightlessness and then you're going to fall back down and you're going to hit that original 120 miles per hour.
00:21:53
Speaker
And you're going to climb the original top hat, clear it, and go back down and hit the brakes. It sounds like a good ride experience to me. I think this is a good successor to the original Dragster. And I am not going to complain about this. I can make some minor nitpicks if I really want to. But I don't have any complaints. It looks good.
00:22:21
Speaker
I know some people aren't going to be happy with this, but. That that's your problem, not mine. One minor nitpick, I'm not a huge fan of how the trains look, or at least the one shown in the promotional, because it's showing a I got way too close to the mic there. It's showing a like blue train.
Cedar Point's Transformation and New Attractions
00:22:45
Speaker
I don't think it looks very good, but again, that's a minor, minor nitpick.
00:22:52
Speaker
And I'm not gonna complain about that much. I did order a Top Thrill 2 shirt from Cedar Point's website because I am super excited for this. Yeah, this looks really good, man. That pullout from the original pullout into the new Spike looks insane. That's going to provide some incredible geez.
00:23:22
Speaker
Damn, yeah, that's gonna be that's gonna be a lot Okay, yeah Yeah, I'm excited for this thing man no complaints here So this is also going to just completely change the Cedar Point skyline For the foreseeable future like to 420 foot towers Yes, please
00:23:51
Speaker
My question is, what is there to complain about on this? People are going to be like, oh, it doesn't have an extended layout. Oh, they could have done more. This is perfectly acceptable. I don't want to know how much that 420-foot power costs just to build that alone.
00:24:07
Speaker
Dragster itself, whatever it was first built was $22 million. So, you know, to build another one, I don't, I'm sure we'll get some form of pricing at some point later, once this thing is completely built, but they have not said anything about how much this is going to cost the park. It's also gonna come with a new section just called CP Racing, which I really like. I'm glad they kept the racing theme.
00:24:34
Speaker
I think a space theme would have been incredibly lame. And this is going to. I just like it. I don't know the new entrance plaza. I'm not a huge fan of. I like the CP racing logo, but from the from the concept art that they're showing. It looks a little. A little tacky, but besides besides the entrance to the coaster, I think it looks good. They've got the.
00:24:59
Speaker
Bleachers are still there. It says TT2 Cedar Point Racing and it's got covered bleachers. So that's nice because the old ones were not covered. It looks like it's just concrete so people can still sit there and watch it go by. So that'll be fun. And that is pretty much it. It's keeping the track is going to be white and red and the supports are going to be solid gray throughout the entire thing.
00:25:25
Speaker
I'm hoping this thing has a cool light package on it. I'm sure we'll find out more about that as construction continues. But that is pretty much it as far as Top Thrill 2 goes. I almost called it Top Thrill Dragster 2. It's going to be hard to break that. In my mind, this is still Dragster. So I'm sure I will get used to it eventually.
00:25:52
Speaker
That is pretty much all. I'll keep you guys posted on if anything changes on this and if any news comes out. That's not it, though. We also got Good Gravy.
Holiday World's 'Good Gravy': A Thematic Adventure
00:26:06
Speaker
Holiday World's new family coaster, which, in my opinion, is the dumbest and greatest name for a coaster ever. This is absolutely ingenious.
00:26:21
Speaker
Like, as far as the Thanksgiving section goes, well first off, it is one of Vekoma's new age Vekoma's boomerang. So, family boomerang, my bad. And this just looks like fun. You know, you can't go wrong with this.
00:26:44
Speaker
It goes through Giants cut out or like Giants versions of Thanksgiving dinner items. Yeah, giant kitchen objects as they describe it. You go through a cranberry jelly can, which doubles as a tunnel. There's a rolling pin. There's also a whisk. There's a Koch dairy bottle. There's also a chicken timer.
00:27:11
Speaker
And Ruth's stuffing box, which they notate says that stovetop stuffing was invented by Ruth seams. I think that's how you pronounce her last name.
00:27:23
Speaker
of nearby Evansville, Indiana. So they're paying homage to her, but they're paying homage to her invention by naming our stuffing after her, which I absolutely love. This isn't gonna be the most intense thing ever. I have not been to holiday world. I want to get there soon, but this just looks fun.
00:27:44
Speaker
You know, it's nothing. It's nothing massive. It's nothing super special, but it looks fun. Also, this is one of the few coasters in the world that's going to have a purplish pink track. We don't see that just period. I can't think of a single coaster that has purplish pink track. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't think of one. My girlfriend is going to love the fact that's this thing. I have not shown her this coaster yet. I'm going to have to do that.
00:28:15
Speaker
But good gravy. Interesting coaster name. And I think it's one of the I just think it's really good. And the train itself looks like a gravy pouring pot. I don't know what you'd call that or what the official name is for that, but neat. So I guess you could say a holiday world is trying to get in on the gravy train.
00:28:45
Speaker
That slang does not make sense in this context because I don't want to know how much this coaster costs and considering they only build coasters once every 10 years or so. But let me just read what they said. They said, Gee, Wilikers, that's some good gravy.
00:29:04
Speaker
Good gravy. Holiday World's first family roller coaster is a 1,500 foot wide ride to save Thanksgiving dinner. You'll travel forward up a 77 foot spike then backwards to make more gravy and save Thanksgiving dinner. With a 38 inch minimum height requirement and a max speed of 37 miles per hour, this ride is sure to excite the whole family. Your journey begins at Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma Gracie's house. Her sister Abigail spends her time at Gobbler Getaway.
00:29:34
Speaker
Grandma Gracie is renowned for her good gravy, and Grandpa Gavin is its biggest fan. I have a whole storyline behind this. This year for Thanksgiving, the unthinkable happened. The family runs out of gravy. Oh no. It's up to you to help Grandma make more good gravy and save Thanksgiving dinner. We gotta save Thanksgiving dinner, guys, with some good gravy.
00:29:57
Speaker
As you whisk up a fresh batch of gravy, you'll dodge gigantic kitchen accessories and ingredients, including a chicken timer, whisks, rolling pan, cotch, a dairy bottle, and a box of roost stuffing. Just like Thanksgiving dinner, there's something for everyone. Good gravy is dynamic enough for thrill seekers, yet gentle and smooth enough for children, and even Grandma Gracie. It'll have the whole family saying, gee willikers, that's some good gravy.
00:30:30
Speaker
Oh my goodness. And that's going to open May of next year. Same thing with. Top thrill, too. And I think that's a great way. To end this episode with the announcement of good gravy. Again, that's such a that's such a good name. The trail, if you haven't watched the trailer for it, please go do so. It's it's wonderful. It's wonderful.
00:31:00
Speaker
So I hope you all have a great week. You will get through this. Trust me, you will. I hope you have a good Monday. Mondays typically suck, but hopefully this one goes smoothly for you and I can get you through the week. I'm gonna go work out. I can feel that pre-workout kicking in. My skin kind of tingles right now. Yes, that's intentional. Because that's what pre-workout does to you.
00:31:30
Speaker
why or how, but that is where we're at right now. So I'm going to go work out. You have a good Monday and we will see you next time in the single writer line.