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The Single Rider Line Episode 16: Dallin is here!
28 Plays3 months ago
Lance is back at it again with more roller coaster shenanigans. Today we are joined by Dallin, a good friend of Lance's that met through some odd circumstances. Come listen to Dallin talk about his experiences working at Cedar Point and now Hershey! Come join our new discord!
Dallin's Twitter: @DallinTodd
Dallin's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sir_potato32/
Lance's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/this_is_lunarus/
Lance's Twitter: @lunarusirl
The Single Rider Line Discord: https://discord.gg/s6ADnndH5x
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Transcript
Roller Coaster Anticipation
00:00:04
Speaker
Sunday! Sunday! you ready for the highest and fastest poster in the world? Are you ready for a real... Island dare you to come face to face with the beast.
Amusement Park Delays
00:00:19
Speaker
The beast. 7,000 feet.
00:00:23
Speaker
um
00:00:26
Speaker
You can't hear my voice. The loveless monster lives. This man can't hear me.
00:00:37
Speaker
wow Oh, no.
00:00:45
Speaker
Mr. Pop.
Introduction: The Single Rider Line Podcast
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. Once again, we are- And welcome back to the single rider line. I am Lance, your host, Lunar. It's good to have you guys back. Good to have your ears wherever you are in the world, whatever you're doing, whether it's the middle of the night or the middle of the day or heading to work or getting off
Meet Dallin: From Cedar Point to Hershey Park
00:01:31
Speaker
from work. Glad to have you. We have our guests on today. Go ahead and introduce yourself.
00:01:37
Speaker
Hey, guys, my name is Dallin and I am a supervisor at Chick-fil-A at Hershey Park. Oh, wait. Whoa, wait. So you're so you went from rides to working at Chick-fil-A at Hershey? Yes. OK. All right. Well, we'll dive back into that later. But ah go ahead. go Go ahead and just talk about you know, how we met, that sort of thing. Because I mean, it's that's been that's like a really strange story. I mean, we've got we've got a whole bunch of history together. So I'm kind of putting you on the spot. But yeah, it's been. Yeah. I mean, we already kind of talked about it before in another episode. But basically, um I worked at Cedar Point as a ride operator that year. It was my first year I was contracted to Maverick. That was the ride I was always at. um One of the perks of Maverick is that it goes down a lot if you don't know.
00:02:31
Speaker
It has a lot of downtime. And one of the things when you when you're in downtime is you go and talk to guests. So, you know, I was randomly just talking to these people who were just waiting for Maverick and one of them happened to be you. That's kind of how we met. We kind of just like grew a friendship based on just roller coasters. Cause you know, doozies like to talk about that stuff. You know, when you're talking to a doozy, it's just kind of like you get the vibe from that person.
00:02:58
Speaker
I absolutely hate that word. it its yeah what is there's There's some, there's some good ones and then there's some, there's some, not as good ones, but you know, we're, we're all coaster enthusiasts. Yeah. I think enthusiast is a better word. I think thusey, like it's an unnecessary way to trim that word down for, for particularly no reason.
Reunion Plans and Coaster Adventures
00:03:21
Speaker
And it it sounds just extremely cringe if you ask me, but yeah, I was going to Cedar Point that day, but I was not expecting to ah run into you and then go on a trip with you. And then two, two years later, yeah, that was 2022, right? I think so. Yeah, it was it was like a year ish later. I don't remember the exact time frames. Everything is just a blur for me. Yeah, it was 2022 because that day I had actually gotten done with
00:03:53
Speaker
um Training for sky flyer and it was like four o'clock I know the part that it was the middle of summer and I know you guys closed at 11 that day I believe um um Probably 10 we like 10 Yeah, cuz we never closed at 11 at least not in 22, but I've had heard in years before they have closed at 11 Okay, I know they did ah Yeah, one of those two, but they closed, they closed, uh, I know they closed at 11 this past season. So there was a few times I was there till 11, but regardless, um, yeah, I was not expecting to run into you or to even know who you are. Um, and here we are two years later. So that that was such a strange experience though. Cause I the like, i I remember, I remember this interaction very, uh,
00:04:51
Speaker
Like I don't remember the exact
Coaster Enthusiast Lingo and Preferences
00:04:52
Speaker
details of what we talked about. I just remember like this very brief period of time where in the conversation where we're like still like trying to like feel things out. I don't know how that how it went for you or if you still remember this at all. But I was trying to like not sound like a complete idiot.
00:05:08
Speaker
talking to you and but also Like if you're trying to figure out if somebody is an enthusiast or not and you're talking to them you don't want to just hit them with some random roller coaster stuff and then they just get this look on their face like you just spoke to them in a foreign language and I've had that before. It's not fun. Oh, yeah. I know what you mean. It's like you tried talking to them and then you start saying things that like, you know, coaster enthusiasts would and then they're like, wait, what do you mean? And then you realize, oh, wait, they're not that ah much of a coaster enthusiast.
00:05:41
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You have those people that, you know, I'm going to be a elitist here real quick, but they're not as smart as we are. Um, and, uh, you know, you just gotta like feel out the conversation. I remember doing that and trying to look like I was too worried about not looking like an idiot for some reason. I don't know why I was so like paranoid in that conversation, but I was, but that was a good time. Yeah. I'll be honest. I don't remember anything of that interaction we had. I just remember I talked to you.
00:06:11
Speaker
i Am a very forgetful person. I forget so many details of like everything That was that was still that was still good though.
Top 10 Roller Coasters
00:06:19
Speaker
That's all right. You don't have to remember everything. It's it's okay That's all I'll do that for you. That's my job now yeah and then what like a year if we just follow each other on Instagram what was the next time we hung out after that did we I don't remember um I remember that conversation you I think after that, you came back up to Cedar Point with another friend and I came and we wrote some posters together. I remember right. I'll deal vengeance with you and somebody else who I don't remember her name. Yeah. OK. All right. um the All right. Yeah, I'm not going to talk about her. That was a very good cut. All right. Yeah, I'm going to skip that part because that
00:07:05
Speaker
That whole, that whole just, that was a very strange, she was a very strange lady and I'm, yeah. but so so void Okay, that's fair, that's fair. All right, but yeah, so yeah, I was up there with, with you two and then I think I hit you up in like,
00:07:32
Speaker
What was it like? I think it was around this time in 2020, like the end of 2022 asking you if you wanted to do, if you wanted to go hit up here, I think it was specifically Airy force one. And then we turned it into a whole trip. I think I don't remember how that interaction worked out. I think you posted on Twitter, like who wants to go to Airy force or maybe I will, or I posted it or something. And I'm like, yo, I'm down. Cause like, I didn't really know people at the time. So I'm like, Hey, I'll be down to go on a coaster trip with somebody.
00:08:00
Speaker
And then like, we're like, okay, yeah, we can like plan it out. And then we actually did plan it out. It's one of those things where it's like, you know, the hit them up on the group chat with the the trip and then the trip actually happens. One of those things.
00:08:15
Speaker
those net I feel like those groups those group chat trips like you hear about them and they just Never they never worked out and this one did somehow I'm not complaining about it in the slightest It was an awesome trip, but which um if we want to circle back to that, you know, that last episode was was years ago So feel free to so if we want to circle back to it, we definitely can I just remember us being on a phone call, getting like dates and stuff together. And I had just gotten off work. I remember being on that phone call with you in a Chipotle parking lot. I didn't remember you being, I didn't know you were in a Chipotle parking lot. I just remember being on a Discord call. Yeah, I, I, yeah, I remember getting Chipotle and then I was sitting there. That call took forever. That was like, what, an hour, two hours or something like that. I think getting everything
00:09:06
Speaker
planned out. Oh, we didn't know what the Air Force one opening date was yet, did we? We didn't. And I think we just like hoped it was because we were like, it surely will open before April and then open like the day before. So it just kind of worked out. Yeah, because I remember whenever we got there on that or whenever we were planning that they announced that like the weekend we were going was opening weekend, I believe, if I'm not wrong.
00:09:34
Speaker
Yeah. It opened the day before. So we went on like the second day. Oh yeah. yeah Sorry. I misheard you for some reason. Um, but yeah, that was extremely good and lucky time. Yeah. Which like for any other like park going on the second day of a ride opens, you'll be waiting on like a two, three hour line. But since it's airy forest still, it's still a walk on. I just remember I'm like, we're going to a fun spot park.
00:09:59
Speaker
FunSpark Park that's not even like in the Orlando area, which those don't even get anybody. So it's like I knew we were going to get a walk on that and everything. I think I still have in my notes app the our ride count. Let me see if it's still on there or not. Because I remember I have it in my notes app.
00:10:20
Speaker
Let me see. Or did I accidentally delete it?
00:10:26
Speaker
Oh, here we go. Yeah. Airy force one rides. Yeah. We got 15 rides that day. We got and we and we put it in every single row as well. So ride one was in row nine. Ride two was in row three. Ride three was in row one. Ride four was in row eight. Ride five. Row three. Ride six. Row three. Ride seven. Row three. I thought we we went on a row three kick there. Yeah. I just remember like row three being the best row and also it was the only row that was open.
00:10:55
Speaker
So it's like, it's, cause it wasn't the front cause I just remember being more of a front row ride than a back row ride. Yeah. After I'm glad it, I'm glad we didn't write it in the back as, uh, as much because I mean, my thighs were already killing me after like eight or nine rides. So if we did it in the back that many times, dude, I still have it as my number two overall coaster. It's it's really, yeah.
00:11:22
Speaker
I actually just did my first ever like, not last week yeah not last week's episode obviously, my the whole top 25 bullshit. But I kind of just did like a general top 25.
00:11:35
Speaker
um Let me finally pull it up, or not nots top 25, top 10. Where did it go? The hell? Okay, here we go. um I don't think you want to know what's in my top 10. Okay, you know what? actually you I have mine pulled up. I want to hear yours first.
00:11:53
Speaker
Okay. Um, just letting you know beforehand, I am a major, what I call myself an RMC frat boy. So my top 10 is number one, Steel Vengeance. Number two, Wild Cats Revenge. Number three, Airy Force. Number four, Iron Guozi. Number five, El Toro. That's our first non-RMC. Uh, number six, um, kind of a,
00:12:23
Speaker
I forgot what the word is, but a copperhead strike, kind of a hot take. There we go. Um, number seven, and sky rush. Number eight, twisted timbers. Number nine, the lightning rod and number 10 storm chaser. So seven out of the top 10 are all RMCs. Genuine question. What, what is the appeal of sky rush? I, I wrote it with the new lap bars back in August and I thought it was one of the most mid rides ever.
00:12:53
Speaker
I don't know if I got a bad ride. I was in the back row on the inside seats. So I don't know if that's just where I sat or like I explain it to me, please. I genuinely don't get it. I think personally for me, the one, the two things I love in a roller coaster are negative G's and positive G's. So a ride like that, where it's just.
00:13:14
Speaker
crushing you in your seat. And honestly, which is why I kind of like um RMCs, because I just like kind of getting beat up on a ride by the negative Gs and the positive Gs. Like that's why I like Air Force so much too, because like it hurts your thighs. And I kind of like that on a ride, but not in like a wooden coaster getting beat up kind of way. I don't like those. OK, so what you're telling me is that you're a masochist? Only a little bit.
00:13:50
Speaker
In a way yes in a way yes each their own I mean if you're into that nothing wrong with it Not how I expected you to respond. Oh Okay So
00:14:19
Speaker
All right composure Lance composure um
Working at Cedar Point: Challenges and Insights
00:14:25
Speaker
I Remember whenever we want on our on our trip as well. Yeah, you were pretty high on copperhead. and I Is it just the hang time cuz I mean that launch doesn't really do. I mean the watch is ah lost long that good but No, it has a lot of great air time the hang time I love hang time too like Kind of that feeling it's really good. It's just like, that's more of my style of ride than like furious. Cause fury, you know, very, so it was really good. It's still in my top 20, but like it has the good floater air time. I'm not much of a floater person. Like I'll take floater. I like floater, but like, I'd rather get ejected out of my seat and just pushed back into it.
00:15:05
Speaker
I was going to say it's kind of strange because ah Copperhead is just so drastically different from everything else on your list. um I mean, I does have a few ejector hills, but it's not it's not a lot. So I guess the hang time is just what. So do you prefer hang time or ejector if you had to pick between the two? Ejector and then hang time would be right below it. OK, I kind of figured as much list.
00:15:30
Speaker
All right. Do you want to hear my top 10? So you can judge me. All right. I will judge you hard. All right. Number one, Steel Vengeance. Wow. What a big surprise. Wow. Number two, Maverick, actually. It's a good three is this fury. Overrated for top thrill to.
00:15:54
Speaker
I may just have the tinted the rose tinted glasses on there. I'll be I'll be honest. I need to get more rides on it and let the hype factor wear off because four rides and and then it's been closed. So um yeah, I think I got six, seven rides. Did you get a I'm assuming you got a front row and a back row.
00:16:16
Speaker
Yes, because they had an employee event. So we were working and then they're like, Hey, you guys can come over. We're having an employee event. They're like, okay. And then we went over and it was just like a, I think it was only like a five minute wait. Oh, I wish. I think I waited first. I got there early. You saw, yeah, we actually saw each other on that day because you were going into work and yeah, I was going to work and I saw you in that long ass line. Yeah. I'm like, wait a second.
00:16:44
Speaker
I waited 25 minutes initially and then bought a shirt because I was getting cold just to add another layer, got back in line. I think it was like three and a half hours, which is actually the ah shortest or which was actually shorter than I expected it to be. I waited a To be fair, this was in 2020, but the longest I ever waited for a coaster was four and a half hours for Orion opening day. But again, that was that was peak 2020. So ah number yeah, number four top thrill to number five Twisted Timbers, number six Airy Force, number seven Pantheon, number eight Mystic, number nine Thunderhead, number 10 tax Max Force. So Max, I know Max Force. Yeah, that launch is great.
00:17:34
Speaker
I love that one. I really like the launch, but besides the launch, there's not much else it does. Yeah. That's the same reason I liked Dragster so much though. Like it's the closest thing. Yeah. There's some people that like all they like, or at least a lot of things they like, they love a good launch. So like, if you like a good launch and it's good for you, then go ahead. You can like it. We just know I'm going to judge you.
00:17:59
Speaker
OK, yeah, that's that's fine. That's fine. I mean, I'm judging. I'm judging all your RMCs you got out there. RMC is good, but. You know, just got to you got to spread things out of it. Spread the love. I have it spread out. I have my lowest RMC is only number 23. What? Which is my lowest RMC is Outlaw Run. Oh, OK. Are you getting the single rails on that or no?
00:18:29
Speaker
Yes, I've only ridden one, and it's Jersey Devil Coaster. I have it at 16. I think Jersey Devil's pretty good. Jersey Devil is so underrated. It is. I was like expecting it to be like you know slow and lame, but it's still got some good air time and some good forces. I just love the way it goes. like Even if it's like... I know I haven't been on the so like ah smaller scale single rails, but Ice Cook does to be really good. but I don't have that bias that other people do. Yeah, I I've been on Railblazer and I I personally like Jersey Devil more whenever you're riding Railblazer. It's not.
00:19:10
Speaker
It's surprisingly rough. Like you can feel every segment of track and those over the shoulder restraints, they're like the comfort callers where they're not comfortable in the slightest and they just dig into your shoulders. I personally i think Jersey, Jersey devil is the, is the better ride compared to the smaller ones. Um, I'll be a wonder woman here in about.
00:19:34
Speaker
or Wonder Woman at Magic Mountain here in three months. So I'll have a trip report then, but yeah, I think Jersey Devil personally is is is better, but you may, I don't know. Considering how much you like the ejector, you may you may like that more. It's just, it's not, it doesn't feel good on your shoulders personally.
00:20:00
Speaker
Yeah, that's fair. And you're also taller, so you have more than I do. How tall are you again? I'm 5'10". 5'10", okay. Yeah, that makes sense. I've got... I can do math. 6 inches on you, so... No, 7. Yeah, because I'm 6'5", so...
00:20:24
Speaker
Yeah, I want off topic, but I got height checked at Maverick one time this summer. Surprisingly, um I don't know. I don't know who, but. I'll be honest, people at Cedar Point are not good at height checking review has a height requirement, a height limit of six foot six and the amount of people that were way above six foot six going past our entrance person, there was a lot of them.
00:20:52
Speaker
Like it's, it's really hard to miss cause you know, we're so focused on the short kids coming in that you don't realize like there's tall people and they just like walk past the the height thingy and they're like probably like super close to it. Yeah. That, I mean, that seems, that seems pretty common. I mean, there's a lot of like guys just in general for the, for the most part are taller than, than they used to be. Like,
00:21:18
Speaker
Maybe I'm, maybe I'm wrong here. Maybe I'm having confirmation bias, but I feel like there's just a lot of, a lot of taller guys out there than there was in the past. Uh, kind of, I'm kind of getting off topic, but since we're on the topic of, uh, high-tracking at Cedar Point, do you want to talk about your time there?
00:21:36
Speaker
Yeah, let's do it. So my first year um was 2022. I worked at Maverick and I was cross trained at Steel Vengeance, which funny enough, Steel Vengeance was the one ride that got re-certified at ah recertified every single year. One ride I got re-certified at. All the other years it was different rides. But I really enjoyed it. I was just a regular ride up, nothing too special.
00:22:02
Speaker
Um, the second year though, I was the training and development intern for ride operations. So every ride operator that goes into Cedar Point, they have to take a, you know, a general knowledge class. And then what's called the IROC or international ride operator certification in order to operate one of our roller coasters. And my task was to teach that class. It was an eight hour class, did it two or three times a week. And I taught over 1000 ride operators that season.
00:22:32
Speaker
god damn um Yeah, there was a lot of them. The biggest class I think was like 60 people and the smallest class was one person. We had a couple that were just one on ones. I really enjoyed that though, because Um, I still got trained at rides. I actually had to get trained at a roller coaster, a flat ride and a kid's area. So I got trained at a bunch of different rides. Um, and then rising and in kids areas you get trained at. Just curious. So my flat ride, I really wanted to get trained at sky ride, but then my boss was like, and I'm going to get you trained at giant wheel triangle.
00:23:11
Speaker
which is Giant Wheel, Troika, and Dodge him, because he was he used to be the supervisor of Giant Wheel, and he loves that ride, and he's really good at training at it, so it was a good experience. So, funny enough, I actually never finished my training at any of those rides, except for Dodge him, which I got trained in pre-season, so I never sent a single cycle with people on it. At least that season, at least that season. And then my kids' area, I was trained at camp,
00:23:41
Speaker
Snoopy, which is how I got the wilderness run credit because I was sent there the last two days of the season and the supervisor there was my suit at Maverick the year before. So I'm like, Hey, I need to get this credit. And she knew I was a doozy. So she's like, go ahead. You go, you know, she said, go open the ride and then you can do the, um, the test ride.
00:24:08
Speaker
So that's how I got the credit. And then my third year, which was this past season, I was the the team lead of Rougarou. So there's a supervisor and there's a team lead at every ride. They're basically the same, except for that supervisor gets blamed for everything.
00:24:28
Speaker
But I really, honestly, Ruguru is one of the best rides to work. I love working that ride. It's so chill, so like relaxed, not like Steel Vengeance where you're, or even like Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper is a factory. You literally just go one after one after one. It's just so exhausting. But Ruguru is just like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, boom, go back to my station, put out my clear, send the train.
00:24:54
Speaker
I mean, aside from hall of weekends, Rougarou doesn't get and much of a major line. I feel like ever, and maybe I'm wrong, but we have never, the longest line we had was, I think it was the second or the third to last Saturday. We, we had the third queue, the last set of queues open. We didn't fill it completely. I think it was around like an hour and a half.
00:25:21
Speaker
But after, I would say every night, except for those busy Saturdays, we would stop having the line like two or three hours before close. And we have never closed the ride with more than a station wait, honestly. We'd always close the ride, like close the line, and then we'd send the last train like two cycles later. Wow.
00:25:44
Speaker
I'm curious as to how much longer that that coaster has left. I mean, that's a really low ridership. I know it has high capacity, to be fair. Um, they still get a lot of riders. Like you, you don't think like you did from an outside perspective, it's like, Oh, they don't get that many riders because nobody rides it. Well, it's because B and&M is a people eater. So we still get like, um, if we were, if we had a line like all day and every night, we'd have just as many riders as, um, like gatekeeper and all them. We just, realize it's nobody wants to ride it. We did not hit over a million riders this year. We, we were really close, but we didn't.
00:26:25
Speaker
That's really surprising. But yeah, we still get a lot of riders. That's because B&Ms are a people leader. They just go through so many people. Well, I guess. Because they're like 32 people per train and you're sending them like, um, technically your dispatch cycle was like every, I think it was 42 seconds. So like every 42 seconds are maximum capacity. I don't remember, but it's like 1200. That's really good.
00:26:56
Speaker
So just from your opinion, do you think Rookaroo has time left the park? Because that's been talked about for forever now, but. It'll stay there for a long time. I don't see it. I don't see them taking it away for any reason. Why is that? um Aside from the ridership. It's still ownership is a big reason, but still. Yeah, it definitely is a big reason. Well, it still has one of the highest riderships in the park. It's very like.
00:27:26
Speaker
Not that much maintenance at all. I would say like there were only like maybe two days where we had like to go home early because of something happening. But like we, especially later in the season, we would not go down at all. We'd had pretty much no downtime. It's really easy to maintain. It's just like there's, you can do no wrong with B and&M and unless it's Valor even.
00:27:50
Speaker
I feel like that thing is always has issues. Like it's down for some reason or did the chain lift snap like last season or the year before? I don't remember. That was the chain snapped and that was in 22. That was in 22. Okay. I know. I, what valor even had like a month of downtime within the past two years. I but i believe I forget what exactly it was for.
00:28:16
Speaker
It was something I don't remember. I don't remember either. I probably knew at the time. Um, but yeah, like, so Cedar Point is divided up into different areas and zones. Um, Valraven and Millennium were both in our zone. So whenever we had to like call an area supervisor for something, they'd be like, Valraven is down. So they'll have to call you later or.
00:28:41
Speaker
Millennium's down, we'll have to call you later, or even better, Valraven and Millennium are down, so we'll have to call you later. What happens so often? I'm so glad Millennium's getting that refurb this offseason. It needed it so badly. I mean, the amount of times it got stuck on the lift hill this year because of whatever reason. I mean, that, that thing was stopped all the time. Like I couldn't go a week without seeing it stopped or somebody posted a picture of it on Reddit but or something along those lines, you know? Yeah. I think I remember at least like maybe 10 different times where I'd like go call for an area soup and said, um, a ride is down right now. And then I'd look over at millennium and it's on the lift. I'm like, Oh, I guess it's millennium.
00:29:28
Speaker
Yeah, it it definitely, it definitely needed it. And then you were, stop me if you don't want want me to talk about this, but that was all through your, you did your schooling through BGSU at Cedar Point, right? Yeah. So it's called Resort and Attraction Management and it's in conjunction with now Six Flags, but it was Cedar Fair.
00:29:54
Speaker
I thought you were going to expand more on that, but never mind. So, um, so that got you, cause I'm assuming that's where, how that got you. Obviously that was, that's why you were working at the park in the first place, but that's what got you to where you're at now at Hershey, right?
00:30:11
Speaker
kind of. so i know So for RAM, which is what we call it for short, your request so you have schooling for you know the fall and spring semesters and then during the summer semester you have to do what's called a co-op or like an internship. So you actually have to find the internship yourself and if you don't like have any ideas or anything they like put you in a basically a like a frontline position. So I actually had to go out and um interview myself to be an intern for Cedar Point, but obviously like being in RAM kind of helps a little bit because they're like, oh, they're in RAM. Like they there's a slight like stigmatism with RAM kids. Like they kind of get more opportunities and kind of
00:31:05
Speaker
depending on who it is, like they have like higher, people see them as like a little bit better, but also like, that's why a lot of people like don't like Ram kids. So you were the bullied for being smart kind of a kind of student sort of thing. Yeah. Except like you don't really learn much in Ram. I'll be completely honest. If, if you are listening to this podcast and you're thinking about Ram don't do it. It is not worth it.
00:31:34
Speaker
Um, and here's why. So one going into Ram, I was thinking it was going to help me find where I want to be. Cause that's what they advertise it as. They're like, if you, like you want to be in the amusement industry, come join this program. So you can find whatever like you want to do. So I go in there.
00:31:55
Speaker
And it's basically like, here's like the base level of every like single degree you could think of, but here's only like the base level and you try to figure out yourself. There's like marketing, food and beverage, all this stuff, but it's like, if I want to go into that like certain area, I would much rather just want to get a degree in that specific thing. Like marketing, who's going to want to be in Ram for marketing. If you want to do marketing, go get a marketing degree. Yeah.
00:32:25
Speaker
So a lot of the people in there are like in the hotel or there's a lot of people in hotels and there is a lot of people that were just in rides. And so, you know, I was, I just kept going with rides because that's what I was like interested in that at the time.
00:32:41
Speaker
That's what makes that's kind of what makes the most amount of sense though because I mean why would you? Yeah, just to reiterate what what you said that unless you're doing hotels, which which makes sense because that gives you ah you know plenty of experience at breakers and castaway and lighthouse and Fucking they have some it was another yeah when people went to Yeah. Like, I mean, that's plenty of hands on experience and whatever else they teach you in class and the same with rides, obviously. But I mean, what else do they offer aside from that? Obviously, he marketing. But yeah, so it was a lot of I'm trying to think of the classes I had. I had marketing class. I had food and beverage. I had games. There were no surprise, surprise. There's no way there's no like rides department section because that doesn't exist in the real world.
00:33:35
Speaker
Um, but they had like a safety class. Like it was all just like, you know, general things. We had a law class, which is kind of boring. That kind of leads into my other point in which why I don't recommend it. All the professors, except for one, there's only one professor that's good. All the other professors, especially the director of the program, they're all just not good. I just don't like any of them. They're just not good professors, even though some of them have been teachers and professors for a long time. Like, I don't know. I just don't like any of them.
00:34:05
Speaker
Who was the best professor? Um, his name is Jared. He, um, trying to explain, he just, the way he sets up this class makes you, helps you succeed in the class. Like all of his project, he'd tell you not what's on the test, but like tell you the subjects. He'd tell you everything about the class. He may think instruction's extremely clear, which is what all the professors didn't do. All the other professors didn't do.
00:34:35
Speaker
They had like, I want to say there's one professor every, we had one class. I don't remember what class it was, but every single project we had, it was right. Um, I think it was like, right. A two, like a two page essay about this specific thing, right. A 10 minute presentation on this, right. A 10 minute presentation on this and present it like that was the only instructions we had. The only other like instructions we had were like the rubric, which were like,
00:35:03
Speaker
You do it in ADA format, you present in 10 minutes, you do this. So it's like, there's no instructions on how to do anything in that class. It was just, I just didn't like any of the classes besides the one that Jared taught.
00:35:18
Speaker
That's not really teaching you. That's more so just vague instructions and do the research yourself is what it sounds like. Is that correct? or Yeah, that's pretty much what it is. Then what's the point of paying however much fucking money you had to pay to go? What were you doing for four years? or What, three years? Two years? Three years? How long were you there again?
00:35:42
Speaker
Um, it's a two year program. So what were you doing for two fucking years? I was sitting in the classroom using chat GPT for all my assignments. The second, the second year I use chat GPT for literally like almost everything. And I got away with it. Teachers would like have their, um, exams just like, you know, on canvas quizzes and there'd be like no like lockdown browser. So I'd copy all the questions, put it in chat GPT and just,
00:36:12
Speaker
get the answers. thats
00:36:16
Speaker
you know I'm not going to knock that because I would totally do the same thing if I was in your situation. so Yeah. If there were classes I cared for and there were classes like I actually wanted to learn in, then I wouldn't do that and I would take the time to learn. But like I didn't feel like I was learning anything in those classes and they were all like, I don't want to do marketing, why should I take a marketing class?
00:36:38
Speaker
Do you know how much it costs you to go through the RAM program or or no? um It's BGSU um what is it tuition. So my tuition was $8,000 a semester because I had an out-of-state tuition.
00:36:54
Speaker
Oh, my. So that was so eight thousand for four semesters, eight times four. I can do basic math in my head. Thirty two. Yes, I think. And that's not including the two some the two summer semesters because the two summer semesters to tuition was like five thousand. There's like four thousand. Oh, wait. Oh, wait. So you had so you had it so you had 8,000 a semester, and then you had the two summer ones, and those were an additional 5,000. Yeah. So $42,000 for everything.
00:37:34
Speaker
Wow. Holy shit, dude. Yeah, thankfully my parents paid for all that, so I don't have to worry about that. That's good. don't Don't have them listen to this episode then, otherwise they're not gonna be happy about that. We paid $42,000 for him to learn fucking nothing. Yeah, thanks for coming to my graduation yesterday.
00:38:00
Speaker
That was yesterday? Yeah, that was yesterday. Wait. Oh. Yeah, yesterday I graduated. Congratulations, sir. um I saw your picture. I didn't know that was yesterday. I thought that was Friday.
00:38:15
Speaker
Yeah, congrats I would say um I learned more at Cedar Point in my actual job positions about what I want to do than
Transition to Hershey Park: Roles and Challenges
00:38:24
Speaker
at school, which is, I mean, I do appreciate. That's the one good thing about the program is they make you go out into the field and like kind of go into position. Yeah, you have to find it yourself, but like they can't just give you an internship. They can't.
00:38:40
Speaker
So, um, they can't just have all the Cedar Point, um, ride interns be just ramp because they have, they open it for everyone. Yeah. You have to do it. Yeah. That makes sense. I mean, so if you want a $42,000 education, go work at Cedar Point for two summers and, uh, just become an intern. So but's yeah that's, that's really the intern spot though. You have to interview for it. So, well, go keep that in mind.
00:39:10
Speaker
Don't be a dumb ass piece of shit. Do good with the interview and you'll be fine. I think I think as long as you wear like something presentable and not not shorts in a shirt and you know what you're talking and you're halfway competent, I'd say you'd be fine.
00:39:32
Speaker
Whenever I whenever I was applying for my rides position at Kings Island back in twenty twenty two, I went I went there. I was wearing like khaki pants and I was wearing a button up dress shirt and I wore a tie and then I put to just for shits and giggles. I had I took my vortex pin and I put it on my put it on my collar and I walked in there and I was like and everybody in there was just wearing street clothes. I'm just thinking I overdressed for that.
00:40:03
Speaker
i mean if you're yeah If you're applying to the regular write-up rule, they they literally take everybody. As long as you don't apply in August. Just don't apply during August, and they'll take you.
00:40:16
Speaker
I mean, like I walked in there and I'm thinking, man, this is, do these people just not care or do they just realize that this they'll take it? I don't know what I was thinking going into that, but I know I overdressed and I felt like, I don't know if I was out of place or if I was, I don't know how I felt. I'm trying to, trying to describe it and put it in the words, but No, I get it. But it's better to overdress than to underdress. so That is true. I should have walked in there dressed like Jesse Pinkman and up in the and the camper. you know That would that be my getting to work vehicle. And just just slide them something under the table and say, hey, I'll be a ride operator. here's some
00:41:09
Speaker
Here's some crystal meth for you. That's a joke. You take this, I'll be your ride operator. Yeah, exactly. I promise I won't do it. I promise I won't be on meth while I'm operating these coasters. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Actually, no, I want to break the record for the most amount of safeties possible by one employee. How quickly can I get fired? Getting fired speed run.
00:41:40
Speaker
I'm just trying to think of the fastest I've seen someone get fired. I've seen somebody last two weeks. That's pretty atrocious. What do you do, just not show up?
00:41:55
Speaker
um Actually, you you'll stay there longer if you don't show up rather than show up at Cedar Point, just the way attendance works. how It's weird whole situation. But what this, this person was just like, they trying to explain, like they definitely had something mentally wrong with them. So they just weren't like fully there. I think they train. Yeah. I think them trained. ah They trained.
00:42:29
Speaker
them at Valraven entrance. And once they thought they felt comfortable, they left position to go get their meds, which, you know, it's a big no. Um, they think they, if you leave your position, like that's almost guaranteed. You're put on like taking a couple of steps, um, which at Cedar Point, they don't call them safeties. They call them steps. I think it's like four steps and you get terminated.
00:42:57
Speaker
Okay. But, you know, he already gets in trouble for that. And then they keep trying to like train them on the platform positions and he is not doing well. So they put them at an easier ride, which is the train and the train. Do you know what you do? You stand there and then once every 20, I think it's 15 minutes, you hear the little buzzer. and You say the gates are going down and you put the gates down. Oh yeah. And like,
00:43:25
Speaker
This guy didn't know how to, he just couldn't do it. And so they just terminated him. I feel kind of bad about that guy now. Yeah. It's like kind of looking at it. It's like, I don't know why HR would hire some of these people. That's, I would say this a lot about a lot of people that came through the IROC test. I'd be like, how did HR let these people through? Like they literally are letting anybody become a ride operator.
00:43:54
Speaker
Yeah. Like, like for that guy specifically, I mean, I don't know what, what he has going on, but clearly, but you know, clearly that right operating wasn't, wasn't for him. And I don't, I'm not going to jump the gun and blame him. Cause that feels, you know, that's not, yeah it I don't know his situation. his fault it's i didn't know either That's just what I've heard from other people.
00:44:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's, yeah, but I think HR should have put him either in a different department or, or done, you know, done, done something else. Cause that's, yeah, that's pretty, that's pretty shitty to, to fire him after that. You you could, you could, you could find something else for him to do. I mean,
00:44:34
Speaker
Maybe, I don't know. um i don' I can't really speak on this, so I'm just going to shut up now. Yeah, that's fine. I don't want to say something. Anyway, next question. Yeah, next question. um so So you abandoned me in Ohio, ah left the greatest roller coaster park on Earth to go work at Chick-fil-A clearly. um So what's that going like now?
00:45:00
Speaker
Well, first of all, Cedar Point is not the greatest roller coaster park. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm sorry to admit it. I'm sorry to admit it. Cedar Point is not my favorite roller coaster amusement park. It's not even at top five, I don't think. What?
00:45:18
Speaker
i would i mean i would From working there, I think I have a little bit of a bias from for not liking it as much, but I like Kings Island more. But my favorite amusement park is 100% Silver Dollar City. That park is so beautiful. I love that park. I'm talking about from a roller coaster perspective. You think Silver Dollar City has better roller coasters than Cedar Point does? I'm saying overall, I like Silver Dollar City more.
00:45:46
Speaker
OK, as a park, as a park, fair enough. Silver Dollar City, I think Dollywood's better than that. I've never been to Silver Dollar City, so I'm using Dollywood as my point of reference. um I think, looks wise, Dollywood is far prettier than Cedar Point is. So I'm assuming Silver Dollar City is on the same tier um or has the same general look to it. um Yeah. um we you but You and I both, we both went to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I would say like, that's my, that's the second prettiest park I've been to. Like Silverdarl City is just, it's like even more prettier. I don't know how to explain it. Like you just have to go. It's literally like in the mountains. They have themed for everything. Like they're, everyone is super nice there. Like just overall, it's just a great park to go to.
00:46:37
Speaker
I've it's in my it's in my general to-do list as far as 2025 2026 stuff goes I'm more worried about epic universe at the moment, but I will I will get there in the near future hopefully I would Didn't it to outlaw run get some track work done recently or no or it's still rough as shit. I Don't know um All I remember from outlaw run is that there was the worst pothole ever, ever at the bottom of the drop, but I think not. It was smooth. Wow. Okay. I will take your word anyway. Um, so funny story and how I got to Hershey park. So my girlfriend and I were looking at, she, she always does internships cause she's still in school. So she was looking for internships and she's like, maybe if you could look at, like you know, some other.
00:47:32
Speaker
parks see if they have any open positions or anything. So I was looking at Hershey Park, and they had a position out that was like assistant area assistant an area manager for Chick-fil-A. And we were like, that'd be really fun and cool if I just like applied for it, because why not? And so I applied for it, I got two interviews in, and they're like, I'm sorry, we picked someone else for this spot, but you should try applying for our full-time team supervisor position.
00:48:00
Speaker
And I'm like, okay. And then like two days later, they're like, you're accepted. And I'm like, oh, wow. That was quick. Yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with it's a full time year round position, which Cedar Point, everything is seasonal. So that like makes it hard to like want to stay there because you have to get, you have to have Cedar Point in the summer and then in the off season, you have to find another job.
00:48:29
Speaker
Um, so this is full-time also, I was realizing, you know, I really liked being in rides, but there was like no opportunities or if there's not a lot of, you know, full-time positions, you know, how many full-time positions there are in Cedar Point and rides department. I'm guessing, I'm guessing just one in that being maintenance.
00:48:53
Speaker
Well, there's seven. There's only seven positions. Seven full-time positions, okay. So there's maintenance, yeah I'm guessing. Yeah. No, that's that's a different department. This is just in rides department. Out of 1000 people that are in the rides, there are seven people that are full-time. And oh everyone else, including area supervisors, have all the supervisors for the rides, they're all seasonal positions. So wow okay yeah, once um once November hits, you're out of a job until like April. So like, well, okay. And yeah, so during the off season, I was at my local Chick-fil-A as a shift supervisor. So I'm like, I could take both of those positions being a Chick-fil-A shift lead and a Cedar Point ride supervisor, put them together to be a full-time Chick-fil-A supervisor.
00:49:47
Speaker
So you just, so you ended up obviously not going to, but so says Oh, the Chick-fil-A in Hershey. Oh, yeah. Yeah. the chi Oh, OK. I was I was confused there for a second because I was like, where is the there is the Chick-fil-A there? And then I remembered, oh, yeah, it's actually in in the park. So you're so even whenever the Chick-fil-A is obviously closed because because Hershey is only open till through New Year's, I'm guessing for their Christmas event. um Yeah. The last day is January 1st.
00:50:22
Speaker
So when, so what do you do during that timeframe between park close and park open for opening day? Um, so a lot of deep cleaning, um, there's going to be a lot of reorganizing. We just went through, they just went through a renovation. So they're still trying to figure things out.
00:50:43
Speaker
The restaurant is way too small to for like the demand it should be. It's just a small kitchen. So we don't have a lot of room for any anything. So they're trying to do that. And ah the biggest thing is hiring for the next season. That's the biggest thing that we'll be doing. We're at other parks or like and all the other concession stands. eight ah The recruiting team recruits all the people for them. But since Chick-fil-A has a different standard,
00:51:13
Speaker
We do all the recruiting for Chick-fil-A, the part-times at Chick-fil-A. Okay, so you so I'm assuming you're the one conducting the interviews and that sort of thing, correct? Yeah, it'll be me, the assistant area manager, and then the area manager. i but you have Well, will you have have you interviewed interviewed anybody yet or no?
00:51:34
Speaker
No, we closed the the check. We haven't opened it yet for the next season because it's still in the main season right now. I think we'll open it back up in like January or something. OK, so I was going to say, I'm sure you'll have some interesting some interesting stories once that rolls around with people you had to interview. That'll be that'll be fun. I'm going to have you back on in like a year's time, and I'm going to ask you about that. I know probably that'll be some great. You'll probably have some great stories to share.
00:52:04
Speaker
You know, what's funny is, so the past couple of weeks, the the right now the park is only open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So during the week, I'm just in the office, you know, learning stuff. So I've been done looking on the computer and all the files and I found all the files for all the interviews they had for the position I applied for the assistant area management position. So, you know, obviously I'm going to snoop through them. And one of them,
00:52:31
Speaker
And it had all the interview questions and it was like, what do you do? And this person was like, Oh, I'm a manager at Applebee's or whatever. And then the next line is she talked about being pregnant. That's all she talked about was being pregnant. um That is, that is not something you want to talk about in an interview is being pregnant. Oh so no. Oh my goodness. Why?
00:52:56
Speaker
Why no people so let it be known she was not the one picked Really? I'm surprised was there any other ones that were That were interesting and or or was that or was that it? I think there was like one other application that I saw and it was just you know pretty average Okay, and you just had the better resume than the other person. So Well, this was for the assistant area manager and So this is my boss, the first one I applied to. okay So there's two full-time, two full-time positions at Hershey Park or the Chick-fil-A. So it works differently than all the other concession stands. Chick-fil-A and Starbucks are the only two concession stands that have full-time like supervisors. So they have what I am, a full-time team supervisor, then they have the assistant area manager. So they're like an area manager,
00:53:55
Speaker
but they're only over Chick-fil-A. And then there's an area manager over Chick-fil-A and a couple of the other concession stands around. So they only have the, like my position for Chick-fil-A and Starbucks. And right now I'm the only one, but they're trying to get more people to be in the full-time position.
00:54:14
Speaker
Okay. I mean, that that makes sense though. I mean, you don't want to get a manager and then have them, you know, be gone for three months or have to go get a new one after three months. And, you know, that'd be a pain in the ass every year if you just decided to, or if you made them only a seasonal employee. So yeah, that's probably, we do have the, we do have the part time supervisors, but they're just part time supervisors that have like worked their way up from being the, you know, baseline. Yeah, that's what I was. Yeah, that's what I was getting at because, yeah, part time part time makes sense. But, you know, full time. No, absolutely. Absolutely not. So. So how are you? How are you liking it so far? You've been there for like you said you got there in November. So you've been here for like what a month now. I've been there for two weeks. Oh, only two weeks. Oh, OK. Yeah. I think it's a big adjustment going from
00:55:13
Speaker
a normal Chick-fil-A to this Chick-fil-A, just because they run very differently. Not surprisingly, they have they're basically a Hershey Park like concession stand, but with the Chick-fil-A name slapped on it. They have the Hershey Park POS system, so you have to change it learn a new POS system. Um, they only have a limited menu. Yeah. A new piece of shit system. This one's even shittier than the other one though. Oh, it is. just Well, I mean, it's, it's not that shitty. It's just like, I don't know how to use it because I'm so used to the Chick-fil-A one. So it'll take some time getting used to, but, um, we have a limited menu. So we only have the Chick-fil-A sandwich, the spicy chicken sandwich and the nuggets. And then we have fries and chips.
00:56:00
Speaker
milkshakes. That's all we have. We don't have any produce. We don't have, we can't do deluxe sandwiches. We don't do salads. We don't do strips. It's just a very simple menu, which is honestly good for this because if we had the full menu, we would not have enough space for anything. Yeah. You were telling me it was already, I mean, you said it was already smaller than a traditional Chick-fil-A store. So Yeah, the kitchen is about half the size. Oh, yeah. And those and the and even the Chick-fil-A kitchens in general, from what I see whenever I go into like full size restaurants, those are small already. I mean, people are stepping over each other and maybe I haven't worked there, but was that how it was whenever you worked at the normal one? Our Chick-fil-A was good sized.
00:56:51
Speaker
I didn't have any problems with it being super small. and Okay. Maybe that was just the, maybe it's just the one that I've seen then. Cause the one near us is, isn't the biggest. It's in a hat, like a half unit. And on the other side is a AT and&T store. So I don't know if that's, I don't know. I don't know. I haven't seen it so, but it's, it's probably a little bit smaller than mine. Ours was a pretty big store.
00:57:15
Speaker
That's probably why we, yeah, we, the trick flance and dusky was just built and it opened in 2020. So it's very new. Lucky. You got a brand new store there and ours is like, I don't know. It's from 2018. I think 2019 pre pre pandemic you know and they had, they had to shove it in there though. Like, did you get, you guys have your own building for it though. Right?
00:57:39
Speaker
Yeah, we have our own building. ah Gotcha. OK. Ours was like retrofitted in there. So it wasn't designed to be a Chick-fil-A. It was just added in afterwards. OK. All right. do you want to get some to Do you want to get to some news, or do you got more you want to do you want to share? Actually, I do have one other question. You don't have to answer this if you don't want to. You met your girlfriend at Cedar Point, right? Yes. But not the same girlfriend I had.
00:58:09
Speaker
than when we went on the trip together with. Oh, I. Yeah, I know. Yeah. She's not listening to this. I think we're fine. I hope not. But anyway. Yeah. That was something, dude. So both me and my girlfriend, we were both interns. I was trying to get development intern, obviously. And she was an auditing intern. So we were both worked under the same boss. We both worked in the same office. But her job.
00:58:38
Speaker
So she went around to all the rides and she audited them. So she, there were four, I think there were a couple of different audits she did. So there was the fast lane audit. So basically she'd go up to the fast lane line with like a different color wristband and like try to get on the ride and they have to like, you know, stop it, be like, Hey, that's not the right color. And they're like, okay, you passed or something to just leave. Um, that one was like, it's like an okay audit.
00:59:06
Speaker
They've changed the way they've done that, especially with the new scanning system. I was going to say it's kind of hard to fuck that up with the new scanners. Yeah. But the other audit she did, the important one was called the IROC audit. So she would go to a ride location and she'd watch them. And if they did anything wrong, then she would deduct points. And if they did something very seriously wrong, then she would get that, you know, associate in trouble for not doing the right thing.
00:59:34
Speaker
And then the last one was cleanliness audits. So she went around to the right area and made sure that the rides were clean. And she did that for every single ride, every single week for the entire season. Sounds so to get like kind of monotonous after a while, you know? Yes. She said that, you know, the first couple of weeks you're like, Oh my gosh, I'm riding Maverick. Cause you know, they failed in.
00:59:59
Speaker
Or if there was also, that's right, there's also an ADA audit. So we have our ADA eight passes, our alternate access passes, and they would like purposely put something on there, you know, trying to get on root, root with the cast that says they can't ride. But if, you know, they sign it and they put them on, then they fail the audit because, you know, you're technically not supposed to be on it. But she said that, you know, the first couple of weeks is fun.
01:00:23
Speaker
It seems like a fun job to do, but since you're doing every single ride, every single week, it just got so draining and so like boring. She's like, Oh, I got to do this again. and I got to do this. And it's like a lot of work. So she didn't really enjoy it as much in the end, but I think she still liked the experience. That's good.
01:00:43
Speaker
that's kind of That's kind of the vibe that I was that i was getting from it. Because you know yeah that's just sounds that just sounds monotonous. So so you two work together. So how did how did things come together if you want to share that? Or if you don't want to share that, you can tell me to shut up. Well, it mostly just came from hanging out with each other. The one thing I really enjoyed about Cedar Point is how close you get with everybody. Um, like you just work directly with everybody. So it's like, you're with them all the time. So being care is being together all the time. Um, both hanging out at work and after work, you know, just kind of grew based on that.
01:01:26
Speaker
Okay, that sounds good. I'm happy for you too. i was ah before Before I had you on and I was going to DM you on Instagram, I took a look at your ah your Instagram page. You two are so cute on there together. You got that picture in front of Sky Rush. You two are great. So glad so when are you proposing? When are you popping the question?
01:01:50
Speaker
Um, and won't kill her until she's done with school, that's what I, because she still lives in Indiana and I'm out here in Pennsylvania slash Ohio. So we've been long distance for the past year.
01:02:02
Speaker
Uh, okay. I was kind of joking with that last question, but I didn't expect you to answer it. So, but hey, hopefully i I hope that gets, I hope that works out for you. So, so if you want to find a girlfriend, go work at Cedar Point. And, uh, that's, that's probably the best way, the best way to go about it. Um, this to just go, just go work at Cedar Point. So yeah. All right. If you were looking to get a lot of friends, like.
01:02:29
Speaker
Cedar Point I have some of my closest friends that I've worked with like you meet so many people you get close with them That's the one like one of the best things that why I liked working at Cedar Point was just the friendships you make I've been wanting to take a summer to go to go work there as a ride up, but that's just not a good idea with the job that I have. I would have to tell them, hey, I'm gone for a summer. Or I'd have to tell them a year in advance and then like make up some story like, oh, I got the chance to travel Europe for an entire summer. I'm traveling to Europe. By Europe, I mean three hours north in Sandusky, Ohio.
01:03:07
Speaker
I'm going to pray to God. None of you guys show up here this summer and see me working.
01:03:14
Speaker
It would be, it would be a good time though. So, uh, we got some news. Do you want to go ahead and go over that? Um, yeah, let's get more, or to get more to share. Um, that's, that's pretty much it for now. We can always have another podcast I could talk about more, but news, big ones, Six Flags Fiesta Texas.
Theme Park Updates: Six Flags and Intamin
01:03:37
Speaker
They're doing their transformation from Goliath. They're being a, being a.
01:03:42
Speaker
I said B&M twice. Batman, B&M clone to to be what is it called? Chupacabra, that's right. Doing a ah theme rebrand and also like the little area. I think it's really cool. That park is one of the best Six Flags parks for a reason because it's not the first time they've done it. They did it Like they announced in their trailer video, they did it with Poltergeist and it honestly adds a whole lot to the area because you're not changing the ride. You're just changing the color. You're changing, like giving a whole new facelift and it looks like a brand new ride for probably like an eighth of the price.
01:04:23
Speaker
I like i like what they're go where they're going with this. What I don't understand is what is it with parks and them naming their their rides, stuff that's like impossible to say for for most people? Like Chupacabra. I know what it is because I've heard it said to me before. But if you had me read that, I would have no idea what how the fuck to say Same with Wrath of Rakshasa. That's such a tongue twister.
01:04:47
Speaker
People get Orion mixed up. They don't know if it's Orion or Orion, so I don't want to imagine what this is going to be like. If I had a dollar for everyone mispronouncing roogaroo, I'd have a million dollars. Yeah. They get in line, they're like, what's this one? Rag-a-row or ro-ga-row. I'm like, it's ro-ga-row. They're like, ho, ro-ga-row.
01:05:12
Speaker
It was really funny. What the fuck's that accent, dude? You just gave us Southern accent for absolutely no reason. Not that I terrorized. I had someone with a Southern accent ask me that. That's probably why I did it. It's interesting because I'm pretty sure Rougrou is a is part of like Southern folklore. I'm pretty sure it's a Louisian and werewolf. It's French. It's French. Rougrou is French.
01:05:41
Speaker
Yes, it's like a legendary French werewolf beast or something. All right, Google, help me here. Rookaroo myth. Oh, it is Cajun. Rookaroo is a mythical creature from Cajun folklore that resembles a werewolf. I thought it was French.
01:06:04
Speaker
Um, yeah, it's American American folklore who represents a variant pronunciation of the original. So it's in ah the original French word is it's originally a French word, however, it's. Yeah, according to Barry Jean, a sillant, an American expert in Cajun folklore, University of Louisiana. The
01:06:31
Speaker
Both words are interchangeable in Southern Louisiana. Uh, a review of legend has been spread for many generations, either directly from French settlers to Louisiana, uh, or via French key to immigrant. Okay. So it is. So it's both French and American. Okay. um I guess that makes sense because Louisiana is like a, was a French territory. So just transferred over.
01:06:57
Speaker
I type in Ruger, it pulls up the Wikipedia page and then you scroll down and the third result is Cedar points website. Yep. Hell yeah. All right. so So I have yet to have been to Fiesta Texas. I want to get there. I especially want to go during a roller coaster rodeo. I've been told that event is really good.
01:07:18
Speaker
But it's dab smack in the middle of June which is When our work is the busiest and we are quite literally not allowed to take time off work during June unless we plan it Like at least eight or nine months in advance um Because it's Yeah, that's our busiest time of year and they need all hands on deck during then so hopefully I'll get out there and to check that out and everything else that they have there. but when When were you there at Fiesta Texas? I've never been there. Oh, kind it may you made sound like you made it sound like you've been there before though. No, I'm just like you know seeing all the initiatives that like and all like the
01:08:03
Speaker
things that like Six Flags Fiesta Texas does. Everyone that I've seen go to it have just been like, yeah, there's a reason why this is the best Six Flags park. And I can see it even just by not going to the park and seeing what they do with their rides. like they they fully They got new trains for Wonder Woman because of how bad the rattle was or how rough it was they're like Why don't we just give it new trains and give it a paint job even though it was built like in 2018? I was not aware of that.
01:08:40
Speaker
They just get so they just bought new trains for it. What hold on. I believe you. I'm just yeah, they they bought the so there it was so that Wonder Woman was the first person Would it whichever one I think very blazer came out like a week before but it was like, you know the first The first single rail they had the first prototype trains and they have since updated the trains to be a little bit better so they got the newly renovated trains and Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm taking a look at it on their, uh, or on, on Reddit. That's cool. So Zamperla, take notes since you clearly can't build a train. and
01:09:27
Speaker
Uh, that, that is cool though. See, I wish that every Six Flags park was like that because there's some that just do not give a shit. Like I've heard so much garbage about, uh, Iran and how shitty that park is. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm wrong, but, uh, that's, that's what I've been told. I haven't. I have not heard a lot of good things about La Ronde either. I don't know if I'll go there anytime in the future.
01:09:55
Speaker
Yeah, like I'll go if I'm in the area, but I don't. I'm not going to go out of my way to go to go to La Ron. I'm headed to Canada next summer. So now I'm curious as to how far La Ron is from ah Canada's Wonderland.
01:10:13
Speaker
I think it's like three or four hours from Canada's Wonderland. Oh yeah, it's in Montreal, not Toronto. Yeah, it's way up there. Oh shit, it's five hours. Yeah, I'm not going- It's further than you think it is.
01:10:28
Speaker
I'm not going five hours and 20 minutes to go to go to Iran. I'll I'll pass on that one. So six flags. This text is a good job. I like it. ah Six flags could be according to. so So this has been public knowledge for a while. But intimate this is the first time Intamin is confirming it that they have finished track work on Falcon's flight.
01:10:56
Speaker
um It was a curved piece at the top of the first drop off the cliff face. um And there's plenty of construction photos. You actually posted one on your story um that I saw that Intamin, or that obviously you didn't take, but you reposted of one of Intamin's pictures. This thing's massive, dude. It's huge.
01:11:19
Speaker
Like you don't realize how tall like obviously like it's not I wouldn't say it's 600 feet tall Because the 600 foot mark is on top of a cliff so it's just rides down the cliff But like that airtime hill after that like 500 something feet tall it's crazy to think of how tall it is that airtime hill is genuinely like imposing but even just looking at the pictures it's it it looks I know it's not AI generated I know it's not fake but it almost doesn't look real if you get what I'm what I'm getting at but it looks like something you would make in in planet coaster 2 you know like yeah let's let's just give it a 500 foot airtime hill fuck it why not you know
01:12:06
Speaker
like the amount of people who have compared it to like the St. Louis arc, which I've been to in person. And like, it's crazy to think of the, a, an air like just an airtime hill being that tall. It's like, how is that possible? How tall is this? the same o It's like 30, 40 feet taller than the airtime Hill. I remember seeing something on Instagram about like,
01:12:35
Speaker
being it can be six hundred and thirty feet tall god damn it airtight like yeah it's it's it looks almost exactly like the airtime hill for it let me hold on I gotta to look up the ah airtime hill again Falcons flight airtime hill how do we find it on Instagram six hundred and seven feet tall. God, dude like this thing is just.
01:13:14
Speaker
Don't look at the for anybody who's listening to this, if you're looking at pictures of it, don't look at the POV or don't look at the the rendering of it. Go look at a picture of it. Just go on to Intamin's Instagram and they have a picture of it from on top of the cliff. This thing is it's insane to look at. It's genuinely just
01:13:37
Speaker
Oh my God, dude. Have they given a price for how much this thing is going to cost? Like, have you seen that floating around at all or no? I have not. You have not. OK, let's see if let's see if Falcons flight build price is floating around. Build price for Falcons flight. OK,
01:14:03
Speaker
okay so there's no.
01:14:09
Speaker
So there's no exact price out um but the estimated build price is roughly a hundred and seventy five million dollars give or take That's that's the rough estimate for it That's that seems pretty reasonable but that does seem pretty reasonable I mean I wasn't expecting it to be like a Overly expensive, but I you know expected to be like close to one of the most expensive Roller coasters, I think I know the expense most expensive roller coaster right now is Guardians of the Galaxy I'm trying to remember how much that was 500 million I Think that's what the some of this guy on reddit is saying I mean not that you can trust everybody on reddit, but I Have no reason not to believe him um Yeah, I'm seeing like 500 million
01:15:06
Speaker
See this is this is what if Disney wanted to build just something absolutely massive they totally could like it If you're going to spend 500 million dollars on a roller coaster, you could blow Falcon's flight out of the water. I mean, if if let's let's say for the sake of hypothetical, this thing costs even 200 million dollars. That's still an extra 300 million. You could you could break the 700 foot range if you really wanted to. I mean, that's that's ridiculous. I love the sound of your keyboard, by the way. Oh, thanks. That is very satisfying. My ears like that.
01:15:45
Speaker
I'm trying to remember what it is, but I can send it to you later. um I know the second most expensive roller coaster is Hagrid's and that is 300 million. I think right after that is Mount Everest. I know Everest is 100 million.
01:16:07
Speaker
so disney we need you to build a uh a 700 foot roller coaster please and build it in the united states i will gladly pay any amount of money that you want to go ride that thing please Get B and&M, have them build a 700 foot model of their hyper model, a 700 foot version of that, and we'll be good. We'll be chillin'.
01:16:39
Speaker
Yeah. Do you think being it would do that if they were, if they were given a budget like that, do you think that they would build something 700 feet? That's just essentially one of their giga coasters. Just that much dollar or no. Um, 700 feet. No, 400 to 500. Maybe. I think there'd be a good possibility for something over 400, but I feel like there has to be a cap with their like lift Hill, which I don't know what that would be.
01:17:09
Speaker
Eventually, you'd have to just put an elevator lift on it because I mean, that many steps would take forever to climb up and down. Yeah, have it like Maverick or not Maverick, Millennium. Millennium has a a funicular. Yeah, that's what they would. That's that what they would essentially have to do. I mean, they've already done it on Valerie and that's got an elevator lift on it. I know that's a dive coaster, but it's not like they don't have the technology for it. So.
01:17:35
Speaker
They should be and them get on that. Disney, get on that. I know. that I know that your executives listen to this podcast all the time, clearly. ah So go go build that, please. That'd be I mean, I wouldn't bet on Disney doing it, but I'd bet on. I wouldn't bet on Universal, but I'd say Universal has a bigger chance of doing that. They also have some expensive roller coasters. I get I get it, but I also don't. You know, why would you spend?
01:18:05
Speaker
Like if I have the budget to build something that's three hundred million dollars, I wouldn't spend it on the Harry Potter IP. I'd spend it on building just the the most roller coaster tycoon ask roller coaster. Well, here's the thing. Disney is not for roller coaster enthusiasts. They are made for families. They will make. Oh, no, absolutely not.
Universal vs Disney: A Roller Coaster Comparison
01:18:30
Speaker
Attractions. Yeah. But like Universal has that more.
01:18:33
Speaker
thrill esque rides because you know they have a veloc coaster and all those rides they're more attuned to making ah they you know have made those bigger and better roller coasters in the past so it's like i feel like they have a greater chance of spending that kind of money Yeah, if I wrote about money on it, I'd say Universal were to do it. It's just saying, you know, if I had that sort of budget and I owned a theme park and I had that and I had land to burn, that's what I would do with it. Personally, I that would be, in my opinion, the way to go. But, hey, instead of Disney makes or spends five hundred thousand dollars to make a mid-ass ride.
01:19:12
Speaker
I'm trying to remember where I have Guardians on my list. Oh yeah, I have it 82 82 82 out of 238 That's not bad. It's in the top half at least I mean, yeah, I mean it's good but at one point The way people sit, I know people that are like, Guardians is my number one coaster, Guardians is this, Guardians is so good. It's it's literally like a Vekoma family coaster, but like in a cool building. That's all it is.
01:19:53
Speaker
Like it had, like I'd even, I think I, I mean, I have it as my favorite Disney coaster, but like I'd even, yeah, it's not saying much. Like I literally have all of the B and M's above it. I have a whole bunch of other rides that are just like, you know, just basic stuff, but.
01:20:13
Speaker
You know, Disney likes to spend their money so that they can make it really cool, which that's like, you know, that's their thing. They make it look cool and make it IP brand so that they can market it and, you know, have people like it more. So, I mean, that's what I've noticed this day and age is it's not about what you build. It's about, I guess it is about what you build.
01:20:34
Speaker
It's not about what's being built. It's about how you can market that, which is why you don't see like being them floorless coasters or anything like that.
Marketing Strategies in Theme Parks
01:20:43
Speaker
Um, they need to find something that can get people to go to the park. You know, Cedar Point isn't going to make a Vekoma, a new gen Vekoma with a lift Hill. They're going to make it with a tilt track because then whatever you're going with that for us.
01:21:00
Speaker
Because then they can market it and they can have people be like, whoa, this is the tallest and fastest tilt coaster in North America or whatever. So they can have a reason to build it.
01:21:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean I would say for the most part the the coast the coaster wars have been long over since you know, the early 2000s and it's I mean maverick is kind of what is kind of what killed it because You don't have to build super tall and super fast to get people to come in and ride But if you can have it just how you market it, even if it's just some dumbass record You know then they'll ah They'll they'll do whatever, whatever they can. Like Orion was marketed as the tallest, fastest and longest Kings Island steel coaster ever. Yes. Like what? like like What are you going for there? Or like what's the new like atomic accelerator going in six, like England being like the fastest, the fastest straddle character rattle coaster, coaster or something like that.
01:22:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's like, it's just a bunch of random stuff, but like, it's so that they can market it and stuff. whatever Whatever gets people to spend money on passes and tickets and come in and then spend money on food and t-shirts and Completely, off yeah, they're not completely off-topic But ah the sirens curse t-shirts like the I know that the ride isn't open yet But they have ones that they're selling early online and in the parks. They look so fucking bad so ugly
01:22:36
Speaker
Have you seen them? it's a Yeah, I've seen them. I thought it was like, you know, an okay design. It's just the ah standard take the logo and slap it on a shirt.
01:22:48
Speaker
Well, I'm assuming that like with top so to they once the ride opens don't have better merch. Yeah, because like, well, they're like the no the ones that they're selling online, it says like answer the call right on the front and doesn't say the the ride name except for on the back. It's just it's just a straighter. OK, there was some great pre pre launched top thrill to stuff.
01:23:15
Speaker
that I bought that absolutely loved it was the just the logo basic on the chest like right on the on the corner left chest and then they had the logo blown up on the back and then I just said 2024 and then had one of its slogans on there which For the shirt that I have, it says nowhere to go but back, which I like a lot. It was simple. It was clean. It wasn't messy looking. I'm a simple design kind of guy. So please have something like that, Sirer's Curse. I hate messy designs. They're ugly. Well, to be fair, Top Throw 2 had a lot more time for them to develop that kind of stuff than Sirer's Curse. They had a whole like, probably like year. And then Sirer's Curse is probably like,
01:24:03
Speaker
Two weeks, probably two weeks or like, um, marketing team was like, uh, quickly put it on a shirt, do this, do this. um Okay. Let's do it. Let's print them. Nobody was expecting that in the slightest. I mean, I, I don't think anybody see your point. I know we all know the rumors and stuff by now, and I'm assuming everybody listening to this knows what we're talking about. Um, if you haven't been living under a rock, uh, but Yeah, like so you fuck over.
01:24:32
Speaker
i ah Six Flags Mexico to be fair, the government kind of intervened there. um But out of all parts, you could have sent it to you, send it to fucking Cedar Point. You can't send it anywhere else. None of the other Cedar Fair parks haven't gotten a roller coaster in 12 years, 13 years. Valley Fair, even put it at Kings Island, put it in a plot of land where vortex was like literally put it anywhere. Yeah. But they're like, let's let's put it in this one spot where there's literally no room and move the entire road, the perimeter road and this other thing. Let's just move that over there and then we'll put it in right there. I heard some arguments that since the track was already fabricated, they would have like if they were to put it in at Cedar Point or at Kings Island in the vortex plot, since that plot of land isn't flat and the slightest they would have needed to
01:25:27
Speaker
Readjust it like readjust the footers and everything but who cares do it like it's not like it's going to be that much more expensive you're already spending the money to move it just Put it literally anywhere with cedar point They don't need another one. I mean, I'm not complaining, but I'm also complaining Yeah, who knows what went on? They probably had so many options. I'm not in that room. I don't need to be in that room I'm i'm curious as to like why that call was made though. So, so you're a Cedar or six flags. I'm still going to call it Cedar fair and six flags. I don't know why. So you're, so you're a six flags employee or you're six flags, uh, you know, big wig and you have the choice to move that coast, to move that coaster. Like what do, what did they see at Cedar point that
01:26:22
Speaker
what was it What was there? Aside from it being just a flat plot of land, what were they what did they see? I don't know. Probably a recovery path. From what I've heard, people are like, oh, it's a recovery from Top Thrill 2 being awful. So they're going to open it with the next season being better with Top Thrill 2 open and a new roller coaster to like put a Band-Aid on it. I've heard that. But this is what I've heard, people. There's probably so many different things. and I don't care much to know. It's whatever. And then Cedar Point is getting a tilt coaster. And that's pretty cool. It is. I'm excited to write it. I've never been on one. I mean, there's only one in the one in the world and that one. Yeah. And I want to coda land just keeps getting delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed. and
01:27:13
Speaker
It's supposed to open this year, but that's was what was told the last two years. so We'll see at the end of the year. We will. Maybe it'll open this year, maybe it'll open next year, maybe it'll open then, never. so We'll see.
01:27:29
Speaker
All right, Universal
Universal Studios Japan: Expansion and Innovation
01:27:30
Speaker
Studios Japan, Donkey Kong Country opened as an ah expansion to the Super Nintendo area of the park on December 11th. Minecart Madness opened, which for those of you who haven't seen, it's that concept that was posted a while back that floated around where You ride on a like a false track sort of thing. So it makes you look at it like you're able to jump the track, even though you're actually not. um I was looking up on RCDB. They don't have a a listed manufacturer. So I don't know if that was built in house or or what. But I would assume so. That's like my best guess is because, you know, they have the patent for that. So they probably like.
01:28:19
Speaker
came up with it with themselves, like how Disney Imagineers do make things themselves in a patent net, which I feel like the track would come from a certain manufacturer, but maybe they don't, we don't have that information.
01:28:34
Speaker
So don't take this as as fact. But here is this is what is the the closest thing I can find to it floating around on the r slash roller coaster subreddit. So take this with a grain of salt. um This guy says that they used a sensei for their ride vehicles and set point for the track design.
01:29:00
Speaker
um OK. That makes sense. Cause set point was the the manufacturer that made, um, uh, to write them on flyers, which is that ride at universal that you can only ride with the kid. It's ran on flyers. Yeah. It's, it's next to, um, the lost coaster at islands of adventure. ah no So, yeah, but it's a, it's a roller coaster. It's like, you kind of.
01:29:30
Speaker
like hanging there, um, you probably look up a picture of it, but you could only ride that ride with a child. So it's like one of those rare credits. That's like, Oh, I have, uh, uh, tared on flyers. So I'm cool. Like how you say, Oh, I got on this kid's coaster credit, but it's like a better than a kid's coaster credit, you know?
01:29:50
Speaker
Oh, okay. Oh, that looks that looks like fun. What? Why can't I? That's dumb. So you have met for kids. This is why I was designed for little ones. That's why I recommend that anyone taller than 56 inches does not ride unless they're being accompanied by it. They recommend. So if I hold them, ah if I hold them at gunpoint, they'll let me. I mean, it's worth a shot. It reminds me of ah The old, ah what's it called? At King's Island they had the Ghoster Coaster, not Scooby's Ghoster Coaster, not the one at Canada's Wonderland. Scooby's Ghoster Coaster, King's Island.
01:30:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's like the same same kind of thing. Um, yeah. Okay. That was the, the, like the one where you're hanging you like squirt water guns or something. Yeah. I'm trying to find who it was the bat flyer model manufactured by carapio. I think that's how you say it.
01:31:05
Speaker
their their Wikipedia page has nothing on it. So yeah. um Sounds great. Sounds great. So but yeah, that looks like fun. What the hell? Come on. Also 56 inches is Well,
01:31:29
Speaker
hold on.
01:31:32
Speaker
It's too much taller than the ruger real height limit requirement.
01:31:43
Speaker
It says a max height of 56 inches. So I definitely could not ride. I am too tall. So best for kids under seven and tweens seven to 12 and grown ass adults like me. So time to i I could never imagine being one of those people that will like ask somebody to, Hey, can I ride with your child so I can get this credit? Have you heard of people doing that?
01:32:10
Speaker
I've heard of some people doing it, but I will never be that person. I would sure hope not. I will wait till I have a kid and then I will go write it. Or if I go to like a coaster event. Yeah, that would be, I don't think they would, would they let you write it during their ah after hours event? I know that they, they do one of those. My girlfriend was just there for one.
01:32:36
Speaker
Yeah, my girlfriend has written Tarot on Flyers and because so there's the IAPA conference and they had IAPA celebrates at Islands of Adventure two years ago and they had it open for everyone so it wasn't restricted. Oh, that's cool. I'm jealous. I know. So your girlfriend is cool. She has the Tarot on Flyers credit. She has the Tarot on Flyers credit and she has the Dueling Dragons credit. Really? What? Oh my goodness. Yeah.
01:33:08
Speaker
that's, that's kind of that's kind of frustrating. I'm jealous, happy for her but jealous. So have you seen the POV for for minecart madness at all? I'm assuming you have? Yeah, I have. Okay, what is your opinion on it? um I think it's a really cool concept.
01:33:28
Speaker
Obviously it's hard. I feel like it would be cooler to like, see it off ride, like actually seeing, you know, the minecart go like off the track or whatever. Cause you know, the POV doesn't do it justice for that kind of ride. No, um it does not. I think the, that indoor section is very underwhelming. Um, it looks like there was not a lot planned in there, but everything else, it looks really good. It's definitely a short ride.
01:33:56
Speaker
but I feel and think it was planned like that, and you can't really do anything about it. it was definitely a i mean It was definitely planned as a family coaster, which would make sense. You don't want to have the the Nintendo Land met for kids and families to be too intense. So I'm glad that it is what it is. um i I do switch meaning about the the indoor section, though. That was a little underwhelming. But overall, I think it's a decent attraction. I would want to go ride it eventually.
01:34:27
Speaker
But I mean, that would. Yeah. Once the once the one in Super Mario Super Nintendo Land at Epic Universe opens up. and write it then Oh, yeah, that is true. I forgot that the one and that you're getting one of the universe. I remember getting a Super Nintendo Land. I forgot you're going to talk about area, too. Maybe I'm just imagining things, but I didn't have one point. There was a plan for there to be like a Zelda section of that as well. Because I remember hearing that. I don't think so.
01:34:57
Speaker
Legend of Zelda.
01:35:06
Speaker
OK. Oh, OK. So there was a so it's a rumor. It's not an actual thing. So there was a deleted video of the producer of the Legend of Zelda series.
01:35:24
Speaker
ah
01:35:27
Speaker
Yeah, Universal Studios recently uploaded and deleted a video showing the Legend of Zelda producer, Eiji Onuma, at its Orlando location, sparking further rumors that a Zelda theme park could be on the way. So basically he was there, but that doesn't say anything.
01:35:46
Speaker
Doesn't say anything. um and there's And there's been, and there was another rumor about two years ago that the Lost Continent at Iowans of Adventure was getting re-themed to The Legend of Zelda, which did not happen.
01:36:01
Speaker
um
01:36:04
Speaker
So it's just rumors floating around right now. I could definitely see. I i would expect to see Pokemon before we see Legend of Zelda come to come to me as a part. I mean, Pokemon is the highest grossing media franchise in the world for like the past 20 years or something like that. So more than Star Wars and and everything. But I'm getting. Yeah. Is that still the case? I don't know. Is Universal own Pokemon? own pokemon if they do.
01:36:33
Speaker
No, they don't. I mean, they don't own Nintendo either. They just have the rights to it. Nintendo is is half owners with um half owners of Pokemon and the other owners are Game Freak. And so I could totally see that Pokemon coming to Universal Studios, though. That's like such a big IP.
01:36:56
Speaker
ah Hold on. Biggest IP money makers.
01:37:05
Speaker
Yeah. Highest list of grossing media franchises at number one is Pokemon 98 or $99 billion dollars a year. Oh my God. That's that's nuts. That's that's ridiculous. So but yeah, I'm excited for for minecart madness. So probably built in house or but not at the same time. So YRCDB was like saying, it's like saying the beast was made in house. Yeah, it was made in house, but technically they went on to like build a company. So it's like, they kind of had their own thing and they, they, you know, see our universal can't make their own track because they don't have the manufacturing for it. So they have to go out and get a manufacturer to build it, but they just didn't list it or anything. I don't know. I don't know how it works.
01:37:59
Speaker
That's really strange. They should. Because I know, like, uh, Cannibal at Lagoon was technically built in house. I know if you listen to the last week's episode. Sorry, i go ahead. I said they're built in house, but technically the track and all of the things were made by um what's the company that made it? Gerstlauer? No. SMS? Hold on, let me get this. No.
01:38:29
Speaker
I'm just going to start guessing. You will not guess it. Our engineering, that's what it was. Oh, our engineering. OK, yeah, that would have been one of my last guesses.
01:38:43
Speaker
Yeah. And then you listen to last week's episode and Grizzly at.
01:38:51
Speaker
California's Great America that that was built by the King's Island construction team. So I guess technically built sorta in-house Depends on how you want to look at it.
Theme Park Construction: In-House vs Contracted
01:39:00
Speaker
Yeah Well, I know King's Island construction company became an actual company because the main Engineer or designer for it. She was his name I I remember it's not. I'm going to be hitting myself. Did they become a fuck? They don't mean streak. Din. Yes, Charles. Yeah, that was his name. Yeah, I thought they eventually became the dead corporation. Yeah, I suppose thinking. And then the corporation fell apart and they became GCI, if I'm not wrong. Or was it gravity? Kind of one of the two.
01:39:48
Speaker
Gravity Group and GCI both had menu, like their engineers came from but a mixture of people. So they're, they're just like their own company, but they had people from, now they had people from CCI and, um, Charleston company corporation, probably some others too.
01:40:06
Speaker
Okay, gotcha. All right. Yeah, I get those. I get that whole story mixed up. I don't ah remember it fully all the way. I remember half of it, but not not not enough of it. So. um But yeah, you said you'll be gi and then, you know, we'll be getting that at to Universal Orlando here in.
Visiting Universal: Timing and Tips
01:40:25
Speaker
less than less than six, no, a little over six months, because that's opening Memorial Day weekend. I'm not going next year. I mean, I want to go next year. I'm not going summer of next year. That's going to be an absolute pain in the ass with how many people are going to be there and how expensive that's going to be. Yeah. Do you have a universal pass? No, I do not.
01:40:47
Speaker
um um It's actually pretty interesting the way they made the tickets for that. So if you have a universal pass, like you're a universal pass holder, then you can buy individual um Epic Universe tickets. You can buy one at a time. But if you're not a universal pass holder, you have to buy a bundle. have So you'll get like one day in Epic Universe, and then you have two days at the other parks. Okay, that's not awful. Because I mean, if I were to go, I'd want to go to all three parks, you know?
01:41:18
Speaker
Yeah. And it's um a way to like, you know, get people, not have too many people in the Epic universe, but also ah like not detracting away from their main parks as well. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. I would do that. um I'm shooting for like November next year because it's after all the weekends, hollow weekends after Hollywood or nice. Oops. Sorry. Um,
01:41:48
Speaker
or Halloween Horror Nights. Hollywood Horror Nights is the L.A. park. um
01:41:56
Speaker
So I feel like it'd be slowed down kind of because kids aren't out of school yet. Really. I don't know. I feel like that'd be a good time. I know. I always go to Universal the week before Thanksgiving, but I also go for IAPA as well. So it just works out. That'd probably be a good idea. Yeah. That'd probably be a better idea. Do you get discount tickets through IAPA or no? Nope.
01:42:18
Speaker
No. Okay. All right. You get discounted tickets to the fun spots. Okay. If you show your badge, you can get an all day pass for like 20 bucks. Well, it's not bad. How do you, uh, don't you have to have somebody like get you into IAPA or to get you a pass or or no? Cause I know they're ridiculously expensive. Um, well,
01:42:41
Speaker
My tickets were not expensive because I'm a student. Student tickets are only 50 bucks. And you also have to be a member. So student memberships are 50 bucks. So it's technically 100 bucks to get in if you are a student. 50 bucks for the membership, 50 bucks for the expo ticket. But if you're not a member, if you're not a student, then it's $200 for the membership and then another $200 for the ticket. Jesus Christ.
01:43:09
Speaker
So if I give you some money next year, can you get me tickets for a hundred bucks? I'm not a student anymore. I graduated yesterday. Oh, yeah shit. Well, how do you prove that you're a student? They just have to have access to your To your email or no um So there's two ways Um, the first year I went, I was not in Ram. So I just submitted my transcripts, like, you know, unofficial transcripts and they're like, Oh, yep, you're a student. Um, but since I was with Ram, Ram actually paid for my membership. So they like a did all the things that way.
01:43:46
Speaker
So if I make some fake transcripts, then they can then I can. Do you think they'd fall? Probably make it work. If you had a convincing enough transcripts, maybe like. Get some AI to generate some. Make it like a local college and thenre then they're not going to be like, no, we're not going to call them in check, you know. Yeah, well, I think It was either through unofficial transcripts or that we, I had to send, I don't think I had to send my official transcripts to them, but I don't know. That's just, I think it was like four years ago that I did that. Okay. I might, I might do that next year. Pray to God, nobody there is listening. They're not listening. I'm doing this for fun and and nobody's going to listen to some 21 year old, uh, talk to, uh, talk, but talk to himself into a microphone for,
01:44:42
Speaker
couple hours
01:44:46
Speaker
Especially an hour and 43 minutes into this, specifically, somebody from IAPA would have to listen to this, remember this in a year's time, and then, yeah, that's not gonna happen. All right, we should be good. I think I'm overthinking a bit too much. I'd say we're good, so. But yeah, I'm gonna try ahead and, I'm gonna try and do that though. That sounds like a good idea. Go there during IAPA. So you were there this year, right? Yeah, I was there a couple weeks ago. How was it?
01:45:14
Speaker
um Honestly, it was really good. So I use IEPA as a, you know, I'm a student, so I use it more for li talking to industry professionals and getting internships.
IAPA and Industry Networking
01:45:29
Speaker
Um, so I'm actually one of the trade floor rules. Um, if you were a student, then you wait till the last day to talk to, you know, manufacturers or anything like that for internship opportunities, because the main thing about IAPA is for them to sell their products. So when you go up to, you know, the RMC booth, they're, they're here to sell an RMC roller coaster. So if you are like wanting to go up and talk to them, like you're being a student and you're just like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, then you're detracting away from their business.
01:46:00
Speaker
Gotcha, okay so But I really enjoyed it. I always enjoy going to IAPA. It was my fourth year going I've been all four years of my college career I It's always good to walk around um I had a there was a Universal meet-and-greet that I went to that they had at some hotel nearby so I went in there and there was a bunch of like um there were recruiters and then also like like managers and other things for different departments. um I think I talked to a lady that was, she was like the director of New Ventures, so she was in charge of creating the the Texas Park and the the new Hollywood
01:46:47
Speaker
hol Halloween Horror Nights, you know, standalone thing in Las Vegas. Yeah, it was really cool to talk to her, talk to another guy that he's worked at like four different universal parks. He's like, Oh, yeah, I worked at Universal Singapore for a little bit and then like Universal Japan. And then I came back over here and now he's working for the the new ventures thing as well.
01:47:09
Speaker
That's really neat. So is he fluent in Japanese? And then I forgot what they said they speak over in Singapore. What language it is. He might know the language. Oh, the other thing cool about that guy. Do you know what park he worked at? He worked at Music Park or what whatever that park in South Carolina that was only open for like a year. Oh, hot hard rock park. Yeah. Hard rock park. That's what it was.
Hard Rock Park: A Brief History
01:47:40
Speaker
Oh my God. Oh, that's so cool. That's really the, the, what was that one coast reset? Um, they had that floor list there if I'm not wrong. Yes.
01:47:58
Speaker
Uh, rock park roundabout or whatever they called it before it, they tore it, they moved it, but that, um, premier rise that had like the Ferris wheel, like lift Hill. He's like, Oh yeah, I worked that ride. I'm like, that's crazy. Wow. Oh yeah. Yeah. I see it now. Hold on. Yeah. This one it's got like the, uh, mini Cooper looking trains. Yeah.
01:48:30
Speaker
And then it got renamed to Freestyle Music Park. Yeah, I watched a whole documentary about it.
01:48:39
Speaker
Man, that this place, it was only open for... How do you only have a park open for two or three years? It wasn't even open for two or three years. It was open for half a year. It opened in, I think that's July, and then closed that year.
01:49:00
Speaker
Wow. Yeah, it's the park opened to the public on April 15th, 20 2008. But do following financial issues, it closed later that year on September 24th, man. So what day did the 2008 financial crisis happen or start? What day did the market crash in 2008?
01:49:31
Speaker
Um, it's about a year slowly declining and then a stock crash hit on September 29th, 2008. So right before the park or happened right after the park closed. Okay. Yeah. I need to watch a,
01:49:50
Speaker
I need to watch a ah documentary on that because I'm aware of it. I just haven't done for the full, the full research on it. That's, that's really cool. I'm jealous. So you just got all the, you got your fingers in every pie in the industry is what what I'm hearing. Yeah.
01:50:10
Speaker
Yeah. That was really great to talk to. He was the biggest yapper. Like he you we were talking to him for a solid like 45 minutes. It's crazy. I mean, I don't blame him. He has a lot of stories to share clearly. He's been to. Yeah. Did he say what he worked at Universal Japan?
01:50:37
Speaker
um I think I knew for sure that he was like a rides manager or like a director for rides at for, for the one in Singapore, at least. Okay. All right. The other ones, but I knew that one for sure. What language or what is the national language
01:51:08
Speaker
If I can type, I cannot of Singapore, ah Malay, uh, Tamlin and English and Singaporean Mandarin. So I think English is their official language if I remember. Oh, okay. Well, that would but that'd make it easier then.
01:51:34
Speaker
I've never looked up Universal Singapore. I don't even know there was a park in Singapore. Yeah, they have a really cool looking dueling of the coma coaster. So there's like it's like one of them is like a sit down and one of them is like I think it's an inverted coaster. Oh my God. It's like ah it's like on an island. That's beautiful. What?
01:51:59
Speaker
Yeah, Battlestar Galactica. There's like the human side and then there's the cyborg tribe side. It's really cool. Oh, yeah. I see what you're talking about now. Man, this park looks amazing. What? It looks so pretty. Yeah, they're trying to. I think it's. um Was it that one? No.
01:52:26
Speaker
I think it's Japan that has this mock, so you know, have you, do you know what rides they have at mock or, um, Europa park? They have this, it's a mock rides, like inverted, like, it's kind of like a powered coast. It's a powered coaster, but they have one at universal studios, Japan. It's like an inverted powered coaster. It's really cool. Interesting. What's it called? Um, let me look it up.
01:52:56
Speaker
And I think it is, or maybe it's not universal Japan.
Innovations in Ride Technology
01:53:06
Speaker
Because I know they have flying dinosaur. I know they have, ah they're not hyper being a hyper.
01:53:16
Speaker
um
01:53:19
Speaker
Roller coasters. They got hot. Yeah, Hollywood dream flying dinosaur space fantasy the ride and flight of the hippogriff The way don't never mind that's it gave me it gave me wrong wrong information. Oops the ride. It's universal Bay she that's what it is. Oh, okay It's called Jurassic flyers
01:53:50
Speaker
Beijing. Here we go. Coasters.
01:54:01
Speaker
It's a Jurassic flyers. Yeah. OK. All right. Coasterpedia. Um.
01:54:16
Speaker
And it is not going to give me pictures because of course not. Jurassic fly. I guess Google's going to have to help me out. Universal Beijing. Here we go. Images. Oh.
01:54:40
Speaker
That's interesting. So do do the seats spin like are like do they rotate or? Yeah, so it's meant, so you know, like, you know, some Disney rides, I guess that's, that's like the best way to explain like what it is. So like, you know, it moves along through its course and then it spins around. So you could, it shows you like places that wants you to like a show scenes and everything like that. I've not seen a POV of it, but I've seen like POVs of Arthur, which is the one at, um, Europa park. That one's really cool too. It's the same model. So it's meant to be more like, um,
01:55:16
Speaker
following along in a story, like a story driven attraction, rather than like an extreme inverted roller coaster, because it's a powered coaster. Okay. So it's more, it's yeah, story based, not thrill based. Makes sense. Okay. That's neat. I've never been, I don't think I've ever been on a powered coaster. and i Think about it. Just in general. I have. Which one? It's the one that
01:55:48
Speaker
Canada's Wonderland. What is it called? Thunder run, that's what it is. Oh, OK. Oh, I have been on a powered coaster. Dollywood, their kids.
01:56:04
Speaker
Not Firechaser Express. That's their Gerstlauer. Damn it, they don't have one. What was hold on, it's the one getting redone right now. um
01:56:25
Speaker
Dollywood coasters, hold on. Did the blazing fury. Yeah. Oh, blazing fury. I guess that is a powered coaster. I always forget about that one because it's not like when I think of power coasters, it's like really only mock rides that makes them.
01:56:43
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's fair. Yeah, that's I mean, it's old as shit, but yeah, that's a powered coaster. It is. I'm glad it's getting ready out it is a roller coaster or it's getting extensive maintenance, and I hope that RMC is doing it. Have you I don't know if fire in the hole. The new fire in the hole is good or not, but I've heard it is. I don't know. I've been on the old one. The old one is.
01:57:10
Speaker
a copycat of Blazing Fury. That's all you got to know. ops the so I don't know what the new one is like. I think I've seen a POV of it and it's just like an updated version, but it made sense for them to move um fire in the hole because the old fire in the hole was in this random section of the park and they built um like a, they have an entire like fire station-esque area. So that's where they moved it into the new area, because you know, fire in the hole seemed to like firefighters. Yeah. That makes more sense. That cost them $100 million. dollars Circling back to expensive roller coasters, $100 million dollars on a powered coaster redo. Holy shit.
01:57:55
Speaker
I'm sure I wonder how much of that went into the theming and stuff, though, over the actual roller coaster itself, because like it could have been that much. I saw POV out of it, and it is it's very updated with all their animatronics, and there's a lot of it. So I would assume at least 75 percent of it went to just the theming alone. It's also in a giant building. So they got that, too.
01:58:22
Speaker
Speaking of animatronics, did you see the Dark Universes animatronics, the new ones that they've got coming to Epic Universe? um I don't think I did see them. OK. For you and for those of you who have not seen it that are listening to this, just look up the animatronics for universe or for Epic Universe's dark Dark Universe. They are incredibly realistic. It's almost it's almost kind of scary.
01:58:51
Speaker
um those I'm sure you can find a video of it. Yeah, dark universe ah animatronics.
01:59:10
Speaker
Yeah, the monsters unchained the Frankenstein experiment. That is ah that is one of their rides coming in. They show like kind of a POV, not a POV of the ride, but they show like the animatronics and stuff and they are so, so, so realistic.
01:59:32
Speaker
The animatronic like they look I know they're real, but they look.
01:59:38
Speaker
It's wild, so check it out. It looks really cool. It does. I'm excited for it. Do you got anything else? I don't think so. That's all I have for now. Okay. Well, if you want to go ahead and shout out your socials, plug them, do whatever now. I'll throw them in the episode description as well. If you want to gain some more Instagram followers, now's your chance.
02:00:06
Speaker
I think my and Instagram and my Twitter are both SirPotato32, either underscore or without underscore. I don't remember. But you'll find it searching up SirPotato32.
02:00:20
Speaker
and Anything else? or or is that all Or is that all you got as far as socials go? Just Instagram and Twitter. All right. Fair enough. I don't really care about anything else, but thanks for having me. I really enjoyed this. It's definitely a lot longer than I was expecting, but that is not a bad thing. And there's always room to talk about everything. Yeah. I didn't I didn't want to keep you on here for. I mean, I would have been on here until till midnight for for reference at the night. Oh, one for those of you who are who are listening, it's not one in the evening.
02:00:49
Speaker
ah But yeah, I could sit here and talk to you for for hours, but I don't want to hold you up all night. So, um yeah, go check out- You can save that for future episodes.
02:01:02
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I'll definitely have you on again within within a year's time. um yeah Go follow down on Instagram and Twitter, as he just mentioned. Look in the episode description, it'll be down there as well. Go follow out my Twitter um and Instagram, um at LunarisIRL on Twitter. on Instagram. I've also changed my name on there, so if you just type in the so the single writer line, that will pop up now as well. um on or sorry yeah On Twitter, if you type in the single writer line, it'll pop up on there. And then on
02:01:39
Speaker
Yeah, on Instagram, it is this underscore is underscore at lunar says a bit more of my personal page. Go feel free to follow if you want to see more of my roller coaster trips and that sort of thing. ah Thank you again down for coming on. I appreciate it. Good to talk to you again. It's been way too long since I last talked to you. I mean, I talked to you briefly whenever you dropped by my house on your way to that concert in Cincinnati. But that was that was what a few months ago, month, month and a half ago, something like that.
02:02:09
Speaker
That was in August, I think. No, September, September, sometime like that. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Yeah, that was and that was not for long. That was like five, 10 minutes tops because you know, so well, it was good talking to you. I'll have you back on again here soon and we will see you all next time in the single writer line. See you.