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Coaster Enthusiast Conversations Ft. Matt
78 Plays8 days ago
Matt is one of Allison's local friends, who we met through one of our crazy weekend trips years ago and haven't looked back since! Matt has an engineering background, which influences his love of the hobby and his creative views of coasters. We talk about that, some of our past trips, our shared appreciation for the social side of Buzzed Bars, and more!
Matt's coaster Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nurbs_coasters/
A BIG shoutout to our Patreon subscribers! Much love to Chris, Jeff, Alexander, Chad, and Adam for the support! Check out https://www.patreon.com/c/InvertedCreative if you want to learn more!
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Transcript
Introduction of Hosts
00:00:00
Speaker
You are listening to the Inverted Creative Podcast. I'm Allison. I'm Jen. I'm Brian. I'm Mikhail. And I'm Nate.
Introducing Matt and Episode Theme
00:00:18
Speaker
Hi, Matt. Hi, Allison. Hi. Well, welcome to another Coaster Enthusiast Conversations episode. It's been a minute since I've done this.
00:00:29
Speaker
version of episode that I almost forgot the name of it. And I am slowly working my way through a my group of close friends and talking to them about their coaster journeys. And that brings us to Matt.
00:00:41
Speaker
Hi, glad to here. Love the Inverted Creative podcast. Glad I finally got on. Well, thank you. Long time listener, first time caller? Yeah, exactly. Um, to start off, I know I have a few basic questions I could ask, but I always think it's kind of fun to hear from my friends.
First Meetings and Coaster Journeys
00:01:02
Speaker
How did you and I meet?
00:01:05
Speaker
Because there's a story with that one. There is a story. So i think we officially like met and introduced ourselves on a right before we went to Hershey Park Memorial Day weekend in 2023.
00:01:18
Speaker
was like 4.30 in the morning or something. 4.30. Yeah. You just like moved up to Cincinnati. Jike asked me, hey, do you want to go to Hershey Park Memorial Day weekend with my friends Mike and Allison? Like, yeah, sure.
00:01:30
Speaker
Just agreed to go on a trip with people but I've never met. It's a great time. So that was our first trip together. But it turns out that we actually were at Six Flags Over Georgia July 4th week in 2022.
00:01:42
Speaker
I was with Jake and then you ran into Jake and met up a little bit. So we definitely saw each other, but we did not talk to each other that day. Yeah, and I think we we had like compared photos, like literally looking for if there was any photos of each other to prove that we were both there that day. Yeah, there was a photo that you took of Jake standing in front of a fan, like just having a blur on him. And like, I'm just off to the right of that photo, like just off out of frame.
00:02:08
Speaker
and don't know if i ever checked if I had a live photo going for that, but might have to go back and check that. I don't think you would still be in there, but. I don't think there's any photo evidence that we were there together in the same day. But like, I know I saw you.
00:02:23
Speaker
I do not recall seeing you at all. I'll be honest. No, that Hershey Park trip was wild. Oh, it was so wild. Yeah, I know. We all just fell in love Skyverse that trip and we're just like losing our minds over I remember you hit 400 on Talon that weekend. Me being like below 300, I was between 200 and 300 for almost six years.
00:02:50
Speaker
I was like, eight years, if hit 300. And then lo and behold, less than a year later,
00:02:58
Speaker
no thanks to Miss Allison herself dragging me on numerous dumb trips. Whoops. Whoops, thank you. It's been a great time.
Community and Friendship in Coaster Enthusiasm
00:03:06
Speaker
A lot of it started with a holiday world when I convinced you to join Buzzbars.
00:03:11
Speaker
Yeah. With some ah social lubrication going. Yeah. Hollywood 2024. Again, thanks, Jake. He got me into Buzzbars and met everyone and then we went.
00:03:25
Speaker
all throughout Friday ERT, then went up back to the party at the cabins. And of course, we Allison brought Urban Artifact, which who doesn't like Urban Artifact? Yes.
00:03:36
Speaker
um Just shenanigans going up the cabin and like she hands me a squeeze box and lets me get about halfway through it and tells me like, hey, like midnight, hey, you should pull your phone and join Buzzbars like right now.
00:03:48
Speaker
And I did. and the rest is history. A lot was like a bunch of the girls were all wearing Gravity Group shirts. dancing like a wobble or something and you're like this is awesome it's just funny it's just fun like how chill people are and like they're not afraid to be idiots or look dumb i think we're all decently so some of us are decently smart yeah some of us even start podcasts which is very weird it's been going pretty good i always like listening to it always excited when new episodes drops thank you every monday now
00:04:25
Speaker
I had a thought in my head of what I was going to say next, but I forget. um What's your count at right now? I think it's like 614. Are we still actually staying exactly 200 apart?
00:04:39
Speaker
Are we? Because you know what I'm at right now is 814. Let me look. 614. That's funny. It won't stay this way for long.
00:04:51
Speaker
Yeah, I realized I legitimately doubled my coaster count within the past two years, which is wild to think about. Yeah, it was crazy for me seeing like Memorial Day when we did that Pennsylvania trip and I hit 400 that weekend and where I am now. Yeah, you doubled it as well.
00:05:11
Speaker
Yeah. Moving to Cincinnati did wonderful things for my count. Cincinnati's pretty great considering yeah have Kings Islander up the road. You have Holiday World like three hours away. Cedar Point like three and a half hours away.
00:05:28
Speaker
Chicago's five hours away. You're pretty essential locations. Yeah. And that's five as well. Like when i when I did move here and I got a job where I don't have to work weekends like I had at my last job.
00:05:40
Speaker
Suddenly I had so much time for stupid trips. And that was how I got 130 coasters very quickly that year. Because just we're like, oh, that's a weekend trip away. Oh, that's a weekend trip away. And like his weekend trips become like, oh, Minnesota.
00:05:58
Speaker
Yep, that was a weekend trip. Yeah, long weekend trip to Montreal, Canada. Long weekend trip to Germany. oh yeah. And Poland. Yeah, yours was kind of a long weekend when you did Poland, Poland.
Adventure and Travel Stories
00:06:13
Speaker
uh yeah yeah left on thursday night got back tuesday night so like five days kind an extended weekend yeah extended weekend only i ended up only taking like 10 hours of pto oh wow probably because i've just been working long hours because there's just so much stuff to do but yeah i feel it like a five day trip and you had your bags for one and a half of those days. Maybe.
00:06:42
Speaker
yeah Love, love ORD. remember like, those of you who don't know, um A lot of the national flights from Chicago leave from terminal five.
00:06:54
Speaker
And so even if you're on like star Alliance or one world, you have to, you might have to transfer from terminal one or three or two to terminal five. And you can either a leave the secure area and take the train over and go to security again, or take a secure bus, which is quite a process. Um, yeah, we did that bus too.
00:07:14
Speaker
Yeah, ah we got like stuck just waiting for a plane to push back for 10 minutes. And like I was getting stressed. We're going to miss our flight. And while I'm on the bus over there, I'm thinking, there's really no infrastructure to get our bags over there.
00:07:26
Speaker
like It has to happen. like I know it happens. But like i don't see any baggage cards going between the two. There might be some underground conveyor vaults. I'm not too sure. But our bags did not get on the flight.
00:07:38
Speaker
I looked when we got into Krakow and like our flight left at like 515 and our bags were scanned in Chicago like 525. And like I kind of knew they were still in Chicago, but it took a couple of days to get them over to Krakow.
00:07:52
Speaker
Just in time for y'all to- Just in time Head back. Yes. God, that could have been just a comedy of errors where like they finally get your bags on the flight from Chicago to Krakow as you're going from Krakow and you just like pass. Right. And it's like now they're stuck in Krakow. Like now what?
00:08:07
Speaker
And now we get to add Polish to the mix. Joy. Man, that Poland trip was amazing. I'm so glad you guys came on that.
00:08:19
Speaker
I'm so glad I went to Poland is probably one of my favorite countries. Really? but i've been to I don't know. I just like walking around Krakow like it's just like the gar architecture in Krakow is gorgeous.
00:08:30
Speaker
Like everything I ate there was phenomenal. We went over to the mountains one day and like just the, I think the southwestern part of the country is just gorgeous. We're able to like some skilas up and do like and alpine slides and alpine coasters up there and just look around and seeing, looking out over the countryside and with all the mountains was just amazing.
00:08:50
Speaker
I know you guys had, you guys had little bit more time in Krakow than we did. We did. And I'm glad i we had some time to walk around because it is gorgeous. Highly recommend.
00:09:01
Speaker
Wish I could have done some more stuff like see Auschwitz and the salt mines, but. Yeah, I was going ask if I know you were looking into doing salt mines. It just didn't work. we We thought like, oh, we're going get like the call that our bags are here like any like any hour. And so we want to be kind of mobile. And so.
00:09:19
Speaker
Didn't really want to commit all that time to go down there. And we were. We never really had like a big chunk of time to actually go commit to going out there. And then we learned that like our bags didn't make it the first day. And so then we had to go buy more clothes that bought, you know, at it paid up some time as well. So never really got to go out there. But when I inevitably go back to Energylandia, will also try to dissolve mines in Auschwitz and see more Krakow.
00:09:46
Speaker
You could do a Mindoria. That's the- ah host And Mindori is one that has like Aquila and they're getting a- That's the Vakula family launch coaster.
00:09:59
Speaker
Yeah. The like indoor one. Yep. And I think they're getting like a Gershal or bobsled or something. I could be wrong. It's hard when you keep track all these new coasters.
00:10:10
Speaker
Yeah. And there's like, oh, my ah random roller coaster is from Sarkunyemi.
00:10:19
Speaker
and I cannot type. yeah Come on. This is great also very great content right now. Yeah. They have six six coasters there. Five.
00:10:35
Speaker
I also can't count. Okay, yeah. Crystal or Bobsled opened four days ago. Wow.
00:10:47
Speaker
Valter?
00:10:51
Speaker
Interesting.
00:10:56
Speaker
It looks fun. That is not a weird spelling, which is shocking for a Polish.
00:11:04
Speaker
yeah because they have another one there called Mroksnydwar. Polish for Dark Manor. You see letter combinations that like just do not make sense if you're an Englishman. Yeah.
00:11:16
Speaker
I tried to learn like hello and thank you in Polish before a trip and retained zero. Yeah, I know like Dubre kind of means good day. That's only Polish I know. We did try to learn one to 10 and like just kind of knowing what those sound like can help you kind of understand what's going on. So like we were in the Krakow airport and we could hear numbers being read off like, okay, those are probably flight numbers.
00:11:38
Speaker
But they're still really hard to pronounce. Yeah, I think we learned the difference between entrance entrance and exit. Yeah, there's like a letter difference. Yeah, there was like an E in it or something instead. Yep.
00:11:51
Speaker
I really don't know how I've survived Poland twice. I'll never know. know. We, uh, even like out in the mountains, like we were kind of got lucky that we always found someone who knew English, at least a little bit.
00:12:05
Speaker
Yeah. I don't think we ever really had like a major language barrier.
00:12:12
Speaker
can't think of any offhand. who I don't think we we did either. I feel like I came across language barriers more in Italy than in Poland, but also I know enough Italian to at least get by in a basic transaction.
00:12:28
Speaker
Yeah. The first mountain coaster we did, it was kind of, there was a tenant up there who did not speak English at all, but he could kind of like mime what to do. so we were able to yeah figure that out. But anytime we needed English, we were able to get it.
00:12:43
Speaker
i do I use Google Translate on my phone, like Google Lens for menus especially. Yeah, that helped a lot. There was ah like a sign on like one of the bathroom doors about it, like him just in Polish and Google Lens helped a lot with translating that.
00:12:57
Speaker
And it worked for me for churro flavors. At Legendia. Yeah.
00:13:07
Speaker
So how did you get into coasters?
Passion for Coasters and Community Benefits
00:13:11
Speaker
I feel like we got to start at the beginning. I feel like I'm one of the weirder, like I thought everyone kind of just, it was even Nikushka was kind of always into it, but I kind realized I'm maybe one of the weird ones who's been into it as long as I can remember.
00:13:24
Speaker
I think my first trip to Cedar Point was in August of 2002. And like, I barely remember seeing Dragstrom reconstruction. um apparently this is what parents told me that I didn't really want to write anything but then I saw junior Gemini through the trees like I want to write that and apparently just wrote it over and over and over again probably know the crap out of my mom but that's kind of how it started and then your earliest cred that you're aware of that is my that was my first credit was junior Gemini cute then
00:13:59
Speaker
going through some of the codes at Cedar Point, Woodstock Express, Cedar Manneride, Blue Streak, Iron Dragon. I always had this obsession with Magnum. like When I was younger, I would it i would just stare at Magnum for like hours. And we'd walk along the beach and just watch it.
00:14:15
Speaker
Never had the same passion like millennium fascination with Millennium or Dragster. But for some reason, Magnum always intrigued me. um This makes a lot of sense. It does make sense. I love Magnum.
00:14:26
Speaker
The signs are there early. um But I was kind of afraid of coasters up until about 2010, 2011. thousand ten two thousand and eleven um So ride them, really like them, but then be scared to ride the next one.
00:14:39
Speaker
I think the one that kind of like ended of that fear was, i think I'll be Wicked Twister. like After that, only was ever afraid to ride a coaster again. That would have been 2011.
00:14:50
Speaker
That one then also Manus scared the crap out and when I was younger, just because it was so loud and like that loop was huge. Good old B&M roar. don't know, like loud loud rides like Wiggetwister, Manus, Raptor, and Dragster like scared me more than most of the rides.
00:15:09
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah.
00:15:13
Speaker
What? So when did you start like counting creds? Like what jump started that for you?
00:15:23
Speaker
I think I probably started counting because I would keep track of like how many times I've written something when I was maybe even like 13 or something. And then I eventually made my Google spreadsheet when I was 14, when I had like 50. And so it was pretty easy for me to go back and figure out what I did. And then I just been maintaining that Google sheet for 12 years now.
00:15:43
Speaker
i still just use a Google sheet. Yeah, works out pretty well. I have LogRite too, but I try to make sure those two always kind of agree with each other. Sometimes like I've caught like missing creds in my spreadsheet because of comparing it to log ride and it can helps keep it correct.
00:15:58
Speaker
Checks and balances. Yes. I don't use log ride. I tried for a little bit, but there's like so much that I'd have to go back in the log that it just stresses me out. Yeah, started using log ride in like 2020.
00:16:13
Speaker
And I think that i somehow got got all of them.
00:16:19
Speaker
I mean, it was the pandemic. Like, I had a lot of time on my hands. Right. That's why I went through and, like, logged everything. Then I've been using a log ride to keep track as well.
00:16:31
Speaker
Yeah, I know. i was into coasters before I could actually ride coasters. Like, i kind of got over my fear mentally and planned and just researched a lot.
00:16:43
Speaker
So I knew what I was getting into. So I know, like, every crowd I've ever been on. Yeah. And I used to keep meticulous notes. remember when I was really young, like going on to Cedar Point's website and like finding like the original point of views they had on the website that you could like download that wasn't, this was like before YouTube was around. Right. Seeing like old construction photos from like Millennium and Dragster and what else is like Wicked Twister. Unfortunately, I don't think you can see those anymore, but they were really cool. 15, 16, 17, 18 almost two decades ago this point. Yeah.
00:17:15
Speaker
seventeen eighteen years ago almost two decades ago at this point yeah
00:17:22
Speaker
So yeah, um that was kind of the start then. you know you as I grew up, you know YouTube became more prevalent. You can find more. I was able to find more stuff on YouTube and learn more about other parks and other coasters outside of Cedar Point. And
00:17:39
Speaker
i it feels like a pretty straight progression for me. like And then you found friends who then introduced you to more friends who introduced you to coaster clubs. and So it goes.
00:17:51
Speaker
Yeah, i I don't remember how I met Jake. I met Jake at Hollywood Nights back in like 2017. And then we've been friends for a while. And then he introduced me to all the BuzzBars people. And then we're all friends.
00:18:04
Speaker
I think I remember him sending pictures of you at one point at King's Island, like with a monsoon front row ride on Orion or something like that. Yes, yes. It was with Jack too. Yeah. Okay, yeah.
00:18:19
Speaker
maybe like the second to last week at King's Island. It was like cold and rainy and we got a Zen ride in there.
00:18:28
Speaker
I kind of like, after they left, I kind of like just was lapping Orion and Diamondback that whole day. was a good time. Yeah, because I was good friends with Jake and Jack at that point.
00:18:41
Speaker
So there was just other random kid with them. It was you. Yeah. It's like, you see me like i Because I follow Jake, like the Buzzbars people were in my ah like Twitter feed at the time. And like I eventually saw, i think the first time I saw you, what would have been like, Stumble325 maybe? Okay.
00:19:03
Speaker
Seeing the music video from that, i feel like that's kind of how I realized like, oh, Alison's a person. I am a person. Yes. that That's someone who exists and is part of Buzzbars. Yes.
00:19:16
Speaker
And then like, i it was kind of weird to see how many people I knew like in Buzzbars. Like I followed Joey on Instagram and like, oh, he's in Buzzbars and like Jackson Buzzbars. And I feel like eventually I was going to join it. And sure enough, I did.
00:19:30
Speaker
Yeah. All the circles just converged. That's how it goes in this community. It's so, there's so many people, but everybody kind of knows of everybody. Yeah, that's one of the things I like most about this hobby is that it's in a pretty antisocial era right now, where a lot of people are having a hard time finding groups of people hang out with.
00:19:55
Speaker
The CodeSphere Enthusiast community is great, because You can talk to them online, but like the core of the hobby is hanging out in real life together, which I feel like it's hard to find hobbies like that now.
00:20:07
Speaker
And it's nice to have, you know, I know i have lots of friends in my hometown, Cincinnati, because of the coaster community and we see each other. Sometimes during the week, I was a couple weeks ago, Dustin.
00:20:21
Speaker
And Nate was like, hey, you want to go to brewery? Like after work? Like, yeah, sure. so it's nice to have friends you can hang out with. And I'm happy that I can have like a somewhat spontaneous in-person hangouts with people.
00:20:37
Speaker
yeah I think it would be much more difficult if I did not join the enthusiast community in Buzzbars. like I feel like I have more of a social group now than I ever did in Atlanta just because of coasters.
00:20:49
Speaker
Yeah, like that's one of big concerns graduating college was like, great, like these built-in communities are all going to go away. and then you join the culture community. It's like, oh, you still meet new people.
00:21:02
Speaker
People what like you meet people who move to Cincinnati and everyone knows each other and like their circle of friends just grows. Yeah, like we keep adding to our group chat. Yeah. Which is mostly Cincinnati people, but.
00:21:13
Speaker
Mostly, but yeah, like I think, did you hear Braden's moving up to Louisville? I knew he was moving, but I didn't realize it was still Louisville. Yeah, he's going to be close to us too.
00:21:24
Speaker
Yeah. Well, Adam. Yeah. Brayden, if you're listening, we might be adding you to a group chat soon.
00:21:34
Speaker
It will not influence you to be financially irresponsible at all. Don't you worry about a single thing. The bee means well. yeah The bee in his stupid little face.
00:21:47
Speaker
You know, i'm always hesitant to tell people about that story because like the more i talk about it, like just the worse it gets. But that's what fun. I went out to St. Louis to ride roller coasters and then we went to this obscure greenhouse in the middle of nowhere Kentucky to ride a Chinese power coaster.
00:22:09
Speaker
Oh, and it's called Happy Bee. And oh, it's one of the few coasters in America that was made by a Chinese manufacturer. And oh, it was my milestone. Oh, it was also my friend's milestone.
00:22:21
Speaker
Oh, we started a group chat with like the four of us that day. and since the bee was relevant, that became the profile picture for the group chat. And it just stuck. I like that absolutely nothing for that has changed.
00:22:35
Speaker
feel like no one no one really questions it. Like, what the hell is this bee? Would be a pretty valid question. And like, yeah, it's... Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. It's just obscure cred in Kentucky.
00:22:48
Speaker
We were at, oh yeah, we were at opening day too. Even worse. Did we? and We were at opening day, yes. Oh man. That does make it worse. Oh, and we got through the corn maze in like two minutes flat because of Jake.
00:23:01
Speaker
Yes. um I had a wasp ride on my foot for the happy bee ride. Did not like that. and Were there like seat belts or like some like shoulder strap or something you had to wear on that too I don't know. Okay.
00:23:16
Speaker
I don't recall because I was too busy trying to like get the bee off of my foot without sticking my foot outside the train, which I might have done at one point just to get them off of me.
00:23:29
Speaker
I was low-key having a panic attack during that ride. How memorable. Yeah. Yeah. Bees on you when you're walking in a roller coaster, not fun.
00:23:41
Speaker
It happened in Great Escape, too. Oh, really? Oh, yeah, I think that's right. i and never ran had a problem with a bee in a park. I was at Waldemere with my dad when I was, like, nine or something. Like, he got stung on a rain flyer, too.
00:23:58
Speaker
So, don't know, bees on coasters, apparently, that's an issue for some people. Also, Dollywood. Kind shocked that it's not bothering me. Like, I've not had a run-in with a bee at Dollywood, considering they seem to be everywhere in that park.
00:24:12
Speaker
Wasn't it, like, Verbolten had issues with bees a lot? Oh, maybe. Like, literally, or, like, I feel like of something at, like, BGW or something where they literally posted signs about bees on rides, and I'm like, no.
00:24:28
Speaker
I'm not too sure. I don't remember that too much. No. Great Escape was on the boomerang for me. and we were like, they were checking restraints in the station and a yellow jacket started crawling on me. And it was like going under the vest restraint and it was like on the bar. So I'm like trying to warn ride up. I'm like, don't touch the bar right there. You might put your hand on a wasp, yellow jacket, whatever it was. And I'm also, please get it off me.
00:24:49
Speaker
Like, whatever I don't care what you do. Just get it off me. feel we were in the station for a while because of that. Yeah, probably. Probably longer it should have been. Yeah, okay. It's coming back to me now. My bad. Sorry.
00:25:01
Speaker
No, it's fine. It was a good time. I did not particularly want to ride that with a yellow jacket under the vest on my shoulder. Very fair. Especially if it's a boomerang.
00:25:13
Speaker
Yeah. That would given me some ah some trauma. It would have been on one hell of a story, though. There already is hell of a story. I didn't need to make it worse. True.
00:25:27
Speaker
I know you just did a trip recently.
Insights from Missouri Park Visits
00:25:31
Speaker
Missouri, yes. Yes. How did that go? Tell us about that. We love trick recaps here. The Midwest, I don't know, most of America, most of the eastern part of the country was under, like, I guess it was like a heat wave.
00:25:47
Speaker
So it was really hot. We got to Six Flags St. Louis, California. The park was dead, crud around it maybe like two hours. um And we were just kind of done because we were just done with the heat.
00:26:00
Speaker
That park, I'm kind of shocked Shannon wants to make that their flagship park. Because I feel like it's going to take a lot of effort to clean it but clean that place up.
00:26:12
Speaker
yeah um I do like how it's on a hill. and I think it has some potential, but it's going to take a lot of work to utilize to see that potential come up.
00:26:22
Speaker
to go anywhere. What'd you think of Boss? Are you for or against Boss? Sorry, so that was not my first time writing Boss. Oh, okay. It was Jacob's first home of the park, my second.
00:26:33
Speaker
um I loved Boss when I wrote in 24. I was not the biggest fan this time, probably because i wasn't feeling too well for whatever reason. um
00:26:44
Speaker
So I refused to drop it because it was so good a couple of years ago. So I want to give another chance, but that layout is, it's great. And that ride is just, it's so powerful.
00:26:56
Speaker
I feel like there's not a lot of coaches like that anymore. I know some people want to RMC'd, I don't. I think it's really special the way it is. um still rank boss pretty highly. Jacob was not the biggest fan of it, but Agree to disagree on that one.
00:27:15
Speaker
i We are both huge fans of Mr. Freeze, though. I love Freeze. For whatever reason, I think the one in St. Louis is better than over Texas is. I think you just think it's more intense.
00:27:27
Speaker
Are they both reverse or no? I don't know about Texas anymore, but I know the one in St. Louis was reverse. Yeah, going up that back spike with the ground just disappearing from you.
00:27:41
Speaker
And you get like shoved forward because of the launch. Yeah. And you just get slammed in the in the pool out. like the The Gs in that run are just bonkers. Yeah. So good.
00:27:52
Speaker
I know. premiere That was probably Premiere's best run until Album Fury opened. Yeah. I would agree to that. Yeah. They they were knocked out of the park with that one.
00:28:03
Speaker
Hopefully that stays around for a while. um what That part has a lot of clones, and I feel like they need like a signature steel coaster to to really be something special.
00:28:14
Speaker
Not say that Batman isn't good, but it is a cloned invert you can ride almost anywhere in the country. And it is a little on the short side. um Mr. Breeze is almost 30 years old.
00:28:28
Speaker
Jeez. Yeah, 28. Yeah. twenty nine twenty eight yeah I feel like, yeah, that's like the best steel cushion in that park and it's a 20 year old premiere. Yeah. I was walking through it. I was kind of thinking like, I wish I could see this park in like 2000, 2001, like freeze was pretty new. Boss just opened up and like, just what was the vibe in that park at that time?
00:28:50
Speaker
And that kind of thing. And when hopefully when it didn't feel so, uh, abandoned, not abandoned, but. more yeah i know what you mean yeah i feel like with a lot i feel like with a lot of six flags parks or legacy six flags parks i guess um i wouldn't call it abandoned just like forgotten about forgotten yeah like they're not kind of how valley fair fell too yeah um you know american thunder is a pretty fun gci probably middle middle of the road it's fun for what it is nothing too too special um what is their big wooden coaster is it screaming eagle
00:29:30
Speaker
yes. I feel like that ride has so much potential. It's just, it's really rough and I feel like some of the hills are not profiled quite right. I would love to see them put some TLC into that ride and it could really become something special.
00:29:43
Speaker
But right now it's it ain't it, chief. Yeah. You know, the mine train's fun. Ninja's fine. Like, I don't think it, I think it's overheated. It's fine for what it is.
00:29:59
Speaker
It existed. Existed. They have boomerang. Again, fine. I feel like that's my whole opinion of the park. Fine. Fine. Next, so which would be Silver Dollar City, which honestly probably one of my favorite parks in the country. That was your first time there, right?
00:30:20
Speaker
First time to Silver Dollar City. It's kind of what prompted whole trip with Thunder Asian closing, and i really wanted to get to Silver Dollar City. Yeah.
00:30:29
Speaker
love that park i wish dollywood was that good but just like the the whole thematic cohesion throughout the entire park was probably one of the best i've seen in the us and i feel like the whole park is cohesive to the old city theme like even the the park maps on newspapers and you have the show schedule on the newspaper like little touches like that and Yeah, there are different lands, but I feel like all those lands are unique, uniquely fit into a Silver Dollar City.
00:31:02
Speaker
um
00:31:05
Speaker
I know in your part in the europe Parkland episode, you said you were not a fan of it. The layout, I kind of like it because it is kind of, you wander around through these like small paths. Remind me a little bit of Europa Park.
00:31:19
Speaker
It's just so easy for me to get lost in that one. but That's why I like it because you can get lost. Yeah. Like, I don't know, I like not feeling ah more immersed into it and finding passages kind of wander around and seeing like areas that I feel off the beaten path, which I think are harder in most US parks, but some of the issues are pretty great.
00:31:44
Speaker
um Wildfire, pretty good BNM. I love the the drop in the back row. I love Wildfire. And the setting that park is so cool with being like on top of a mountain or Dollywood, you're more like in like the valley in a mountain.
00:31:59
Speaker
So you get some really nice views up there. Even the parking lot, you can clearly see wildfire right off the side of it. um All I Run is my 600th coaster.
00:32:12
Speaker
Woohoo! Woo, yeah. I don't think that...
00:32:20
Speaker
It's all it's cracked up to be. it definitely feels like the natural progression after Texas Giant, as far as intensity goes, it doesn't I don't think it felt quite as intense or insane as more modern RMCs.
00:32:34
Speaker
The setting is incredible, and I was looking at some like videos from when it opened recently and like it was truly something special when it opened 2013 you know having three inversions and having that steep steep drop like i get why it was so um hyped up back then and it really is kind of a special ride that did a lot for for coasters particularly wooden coasters um i i do wish they didn't clear cut as many trees i wish there were more trees yeah there Wasn't that a recent thing too, the cut down there?
00:33:06
Speaker
Yeah. Like, what, the last two years maybe? Something fell on like Powder Keg or something. Thunderation maybe. get Something. And that was definitely like a recent thing. Like, you can watch older videos and there's a lot more trees around pretty much all the coasters, I think.
00:33:26
Speaker
Did out a little around a couple times. so i feel like I have a pretty good feel for that ride. It does feel out of control. um I think the steel wheels definitely do add to the to the ride a little bit. It is a little on the rougher side, but it's a different kind of roughness, if that makes sense. like Yeah.
00:33:45
Speaker
I'm just not a big fan of the rolls at the end. They always mess with my head. I can get that, but I do like just hanging from the train a little bit. it's one It's one of the few times where i feel like RMC actually does like slow down and just lets you hang through a roll.
00:34:00
Speaker
It is kind of more unique for that. I almost threw up after one of the rides, like it made me so dizzy. So now I've just, I've learned how I need to ride it. And basically when you get to the, I get to the rolls, I just tense my body up and close my eyes and I'm usually okay.
00:34:16
Speaker
they Adapt and overcome. Yeah. Yeah. i didn't have a problem with that, but it's fun. i don't I don't think it's the best ride in the park. I think the best ride the park is Time Traveler.
00:34:29
Speaker
And I am a little obsessed Time Traveler. Because that drop ah ah out of the station is great. And going through some of the inversions like sideways is so cool and something I've never done before. And I recently listened to your episode on Ride to Happiness. And like I need Ride to Ride to Happiness after Time Traveler.
00:34:49
Speaker
it It seems to be like everything I want time traveler. Everything i like about time traveler taken to the extreme. So I don't want to overhype Pride Happiness, but I think it has the legs to be my number one steal.
00:35:02
Speaker
Yeah. I'm like, we all know. Wait, that that's big words. I know your love of Voltron. Yeah. Yeah. But like... i
00:35:13
Speaker
Even like just going through the loop and like spinning through the loop, it's so wild, like the dive loop. And even though some of the turns where you're like facing the ground going around a turn is really unique. And I think some of my favorite parts were that like twisted twisted tail especially when you're on your side and you just get like thrown forward or backwards, and then the inversion right kind of underneath it as well. Then also that a little airtime pop and the second launch, no one no one warned me for that. But that's a killer airtime pop.
00:35:41
Speaker
Yeah. So i I definitely kind of see what I like about the Extreme Spinning Coaster, and I feel like Time Traveler has some dud moments in it that Ride to Happiness seems to have gotten rid of.
00:35:57
Speaker
And when Time Traveler hits, it really hits. And I feel like Ride to Happiness is just all the greatest hits of Time Traveler and then some more. So... Like, we all know what we like in coasters. And so we can kind of look at coasters and be like, hmm, that could be a contender. Yeah. I was a little skeptical of everyone hyping it up. And I thought Voltron would quite handily kind of retain its title.
00:36:20
Speaker
But after writing Time Traveler, write Happiness as a shot.
00:36:29
Speaker
I'm really excited to write that in ah whenever I go to Belgium. I feel like you're just going to keep thinking of time travel and find a way to do it next year. i am. Yeah, no, it's probably going to happen next year. so you're like I'm sure y'all have been talking about it already. We have.
00:36:44
Speaker
And I feel like Belgium is a pretty obvious next step. or Belgium is such a good country in general, but also good country for creds. i mean, yeah, that and, you Ride to Happiness and Condor both look incredible. Mm-hmm.
00:37:02
Speaker
And I know Conda also has the legs to go up pretty high my list, don't think it'll be quite as good as Ride Happiness. I mean, I think Conda settled at five for me. Really, really, ah really, really open this up to me, aren't you?
00:37:21
Speaker
I'm just saying I know we have similar tastes. No, we do. And hearing that you like Kanda more than Hyperion was like the ah real push to get me to want to go to Belgium. And then writing Time Traveler and then seeing what Ride Happiness is, like, I want to book flights to Belgium, like, now.
00:37:41
Speaker
But alas, I will wait until next June because I have some discipline. Some. Some.
00:37:53
Speaker
I'm looking at my list right now and I'm like, I have Conda at five and Hyperion at eight.
00:37:59
Speaker
Yeah. And i I'm kind of tempted to move Hyperion up to seven now that I'm looking at it. Sorry, do you want to finish SolarCity? Oh, yeah. Sorry. yeah Tangents. All right. Tangents. um fire in the hole really really well done i thought um i think overall i like a little bit better than blazing fury the one weird part was when you're at like the top right before the drops you can see the ceiling and that kind of took brought me out of the uh immersion a little bit which moderate detail but
00:38:35
Speaker
That should be a testament to how good the rest of the ride was. The drops are fun. i think the Blazing Fury drops are maybe a little little bit more fun. Then also has a splashdown, which Blazing Fury doesn't have, which kind of surprised me.
00:38:48
Speaker
I actually did get a little wet on Fire in the Hole. Fun ride. only did it once probably because you know it was like almost like a 45 minute line the entire day. Yeah. um It's really fun.
00:39:01
Speaker
And then Thunderation. Kind of the whole genesis of why went on this trip. As a pretty big fan of Adventure Express and mine trains in general, I really wanted to go to Thunderation before that closed. And it is a very special mine train and I'm sad that it's going.
00:39:19
Speaker
Just the way that i it starts. i really like how several our cities coasters start like halfway on the hill and then go down first and then go up and then kind of come halfway down. Right. Or some variation of that. Right.
00:39:36
Speaker
But just how much speed you pick up before that left hill is crazy. Like through the helix and then you go down even further and the like swooping turn and like it doesn't, it doesn't feel like a mine train. It almost feels more like of what Gemini or Excalibur should be, or I guess are like that caliber of coasters. Right.
00:39:59
Speaker
Um, I wish I'm going say this again. I wish there were more trees around it. I get why they were taken out, but trees would make it better.
00:40:10
Speaker
Um, I really wish I could have written that before time travelers will, because that seemed like it was really in the woods back there at the time. And I feel like that would have made it even better, but I'm glad time traveler was there.
00:40:22
Speaker
Um, a little rough, which like rougher than almost any other area of my train I've ridden. Um,
00:40:33
Speaker
But overall, i enjoyed it. We rode it a couple times. It never had a line, which I was kind of surprised considering it was closing. Yeah. with them I'm sure a lot of people are waiting until of the season. Yeah. I kind thought there'd be at least like a 20-minute line or something, but we walked on it pretty much any time we wanted to.
00:40:48
Speaker
Sad to see it go, but I kind of get why i trust Silver Dollar City will build a suitable replacement. I hope so. Yeah. I imagine it will. Yeah. I think it's probably my favorite Aeromine train. It does not hold a candle to Colorado Adventure at Fantasio Land, though. No.
00:41:06
Speaker
That ride is just cracked up. Not much can hold a candle of that ride. No. Like, that's better than Kosher's Twice the Size. i think you got a bruise on it on my last ride because I just, I was, like, the only person in, like, the back row and just being a little piece of spaghetti and flailing around. I, like, hit my arm on the side of a the car and got a bruise, I think.
00:41:28
Speaker
We love a good ah bruising coaster. It hurts so good. Mark up a good coaster. It gives you a bruise. you Yeah, I did that after our trip recently.
00:41:38
Speaker
Had a couple bruises on that one. Kondo gave me a big ol' bruise. If that's any the indication. Love that. Also, I guess then I also did Worlds a Fun that trip.
00:41:50
Speaker
Okay. Which really surprised me at how well themed that park was. Like the motif of kind of going through different worlds was shockingly well done for a legacy Cedar Fair park.
00:42:06
Speaker
And it was pretty consistent all throughout. I listened to an episode of the Kosher's Kings podcast lately, and they pretty much could not have described that park better than I could have. like I agree with almost everything they said. um I really hope that is the the park Enchanted wants to make their flagship because it really has the bones to do it way more than St. Louis does. Yeah, I agree.
00:42:31
Speaker
Yeah, oh we went through just through the park. We're like, wow, this is really well themed or really well landscaped, like through what the East Asia area maybe, be and then also through like Africa.
00:42:45
Speaker
just I'm shocked it was that well themed considering it. Yeah, I had the same thought when we went there. Yeah, mean, Ritalinup is- There's lot to this.
00:42:56
Speaker
Yeah, there is. And i really hope that, ah like that park has a lot of legs to go pretty far. And I really hope that Enchanted invest sees that potential investment appropriately, especially because, you know, Kansas City is not a small market. Like, I don't know how it compares to kansas to St. Louis, but it's not like Kansas City is a dying town or anything. Right.
00:43:19
Speaker
Yeah. the The ride lineup is pretty pretty good. Patriot's a fun invert. Mamba is really fun. whether not i don't know if I like it more than the Steel Force.
00:43:32
Speaker
I think Mamba hits the trims little lightly. Not quite not not as hard as Steel Force, but Steel Force bigger drops in the second half. And also like the setting Steel Force more when it's kind of down by the river and everything. So ah they're pretty similar. If you've ridden in Steel Force and you like Steel Force, you like Mamba.
00:43:49
Speaker
um Yeah, what'd you think about Zambezi? Zambezi? It felt very zippy, if that makes sense. Okay. It felt a lot faster and a lot whippier than I thought it would.
00:44:01
Speaker
um We were both surprised at how rough it was. Mm-hmm. Constantine was built in 2023. Kings of Island built Mystic Timbers in 2017. And Mystic Timbers is still pretty smooth, shockingly.
00:44:15
Speaker
um Zambezi Zinger is not. We rode it at like the weekend it opened. We did pass all the previews and it was already rough. Yeah, like it's not an unbearable rough. It's just like this is rougher than it should be for a coaster that's three years old.
00:44:28
Speaker
Yeah. Or I guess like a couple of weeks old when you rode it. Yeah. Those trains are not good. They're not that comfortable. And I feel like with the force profile of that, right? Like I can see those trains making sense if you had really strong airtime or something.
00:44:43
Speaker
But Zim Pizzi Zinger does not have that. Yeah. It needs a little give. It just kept tightening the whole ride. Yeah. don't know. feel like you lose some of the experience when when it just, it's that tight. Like yeah having restraints that tight...
00:45:03
Speaker
can't, you know, it can not be detrimental to the ride experience if the ride is intense enough. Like Skyrush. intermittent Yeah. Um, but for a ride that that's, that is that mild, I think having such restrictive restraints is, is a hindrance to it.
00:45:20
Speaker
Yeah. I do like it uses the terrain. I think if it had millennium flyers, it would be great. A hundred percent agree. I don't know if it can, considering how clearly it articulates in some of the transitions. They seem quite a bit tighter than most GCIs.
00:45:37
Speaker
So I don't know if it's, you can easily swap them out. I would imagine not, but, and if it had the, if it, I guess if it had the, let me imply restraints, even if you kept the seats and everything else the same, I think it would be a better ride.
00:45:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:55
Speaker
Those don't try to kill me. so Yeah. And I know Javi had an issue where it just kept getting. It didn't bother me that much, but it, you know, yeah, it's basically an intimate T-bar except not as well designed because it doesn't have a little like kink at the top.
00:46:12
Speaker
Yep. Um,
00:46:16
Speaker
we only wrote it once. I don't feel the need to rewrite it again. It's fun. It's cool. I,
00:46:23
Speaker
it's fun it's cool i Kind of weird how there's Titan Track in only a couple areas. I feel like that could help it maybe a little bit in some other areas.
00:46:37
Speaker
Maybe not. i don't know. I feel like the trains are the biggest hindrance in that ride. Yeah, I agree. um Speaking Titan Track, Prowler had Titan Track. Oh, yeah. I know a lot of people, I heard that Prowler was rough. And I didn't think it was that bad. And I actually liked the parts that were not Titan Track a little bit more.
00:46:56
Speaker
where Where is the Titan track on that ride? It's like after, so you go down the drop, you go up, and then you go under the lift hill, like, well, you under the lift hill where Mystic Timbers goes over. Then you go down the drop. The next section is Titan track.
00:47:09
Speaker
And then the little, like, S turns before the ah break from a Titan track. Okay. I know I rode Prowler a lot during ERT, but that doesn't mean I remember what it does.
00:47:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's pretty similar to Mystic Timbers. I could see why some people like it more. I do like the the raw feel that Wood Track has, and I didn't think it was that rough. um But I think like the Titan Track, because it's so smooth, you start to realize like how tame Wood Coaster profiling is.
00:47:38
Speaker
And it i don't just kind of feels like sitting on a couch instead of on a roller coaster. I feel like it kind of just detracts from the experience a little bit.
00:47:50
Speaker
and not say that I just love mystic. Yeah. I do think mystic timbers is better. It still feels like a wood coaster. And I feel like that kind of solidified in my mind that the pre cut track that gravity group does is like the best way to revitalize a wood coaster. It still feels pretty wooden, but it's pretty, it's still really smooth.
00:48:10
Speaker
Um, speaking of pre cut track, Timberwolf has some, it's pretty fun ride. It's a din. I don't, I don't like there's not much to say about it.
00:48:22
Speaker
We have a lot bar from that in our guest room. Cool. Don't know what to do with it. Sitting on the floor. Glad I wrote it. The part of the pre-cut track wrote great.
00:48:33
Speaker
That like what? 60 degree bank turned GCI added a couple of years ago. was fine. It's fun.
00:48:41
Speaker
There's some airtime. don't know. It's a din. Like what do you expect? It's not going to do much. Yep. There was one indoor, think it's a chance wipeout.
00:48:54
Speaker
I forgot what it's called, but that was really intense and I had a blast on that. So.
00:49:01
Speaker
I don't do that very often. I don't either, but i was with some a local and he said, hey, we need to ride this because it's I'm not going to say what it is. Just just ride it. and You'll see. You're just like, OK, OK. I feel like I've heard this stick before and then it got me on Cassandra, which I don't want to ride again.
00:49:19
Speaker
was a little nervous, but, you know, it was pretty great. So. Oh, God. I think it's not called Grandpa's Mansion. That's the walkthrough thing. in so dollars Yeah. um
00:49:31
Speaker
Something Sam's maybe? i have no idea. It was fun. There's probably someone yelling at me on listening to this, yelling at me like, it's this, it's this, it's this. i Yeah, sorry. Put it down in the comments. Yeah, please let me know.
00:49:45
Speaker
um And then, yeah we didn't spend a lot of time on Worlds Fun. I think Jacob was was feeling not great. And I'm kind of glad we left when we did because lo and behold, our flight got canceled. And I'm glad we were able to figure that out in the hotel room and not in the park.
00:50:01
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But I got back to Cincinnati just fine.
Travel Challenges and Spontaneous Trips
00:50:06
Speaker
So I was able to go see it on the next available flight or just next flight. I was supposed to in the 930. I guess I got in the 1115 to Chicago. And then I was on the same flight from Chicago Cincinnati. I was originally on. So it wasn't too bad for me.
00:50:22
Speaker
Yeah, we were accidentally in Chicago at the same time. Yeah. Because we were making sure we didn't need to pick you up from the airport. Yeah. I was relieved when I heard you were driving to Chicago. and It's like, well, as long as I get to Chicago, they can give me a ride back or at the very least I can run a car and drive back. it's It's like five hours. It's completely doable. Not bad at all.
00:50:39
Speaker
we would We would have thrown you in our backseat. Yeah. Would fine. Thank you. Yeah, that's Missouri. Yeah. St. Louis, it's going to require, i would like I would go back to St. Louis for city of St. Louis, not the park.
00:50:54
Speaker
It would take a lot to get me back to the park. Not a lot. I'm to go back for boss, but I think the park needs a lot of investment to make it what Enchanted Parks wants it to be.
00:51:05
Speaker
um i think World of Fun requires a lot less investment and I'd be... pretty excited to go back there if they got something big um pretty soon. And I can't wait to go back to Swadola City, especially seeing their construction for next year.
00:51:22
Speaker
i don't know if it's like a big bear star ride or something bigger, but just the way it's going use the terrain looks amazing. And I cannot wait to go back next year.
00:51:32
Speaker
Yeah. I'm very curious what they're going to do. Yeah. Because they're adding a resort too, right? They are, yeah. I don't know where the property, but they built this,
00:51:46
Speaker
I don't want to call him an oil derrick, but it looks like some sort of like mine shaft kind of thing. And I don't know if it has anything to do with the ride itself, but there are footers that come off of the vertical side of it and that turn into like a tunnel.
00:51:59
Speaker
Interesting. So like, I don't, I'm really curious what this is. I think, you know, like a Vekoma multi-launch a la Big Bear is an obvious answer. But those footers are pretty big.
00:52:11
Speaker
And maybe that's just what the footers need to be for a big bear style ride in Silver Dollar City and the Ozarks. I don't know. um But it would not surprise if it's something bigger. like I don't know. I don't want to say a striker because I feel like that's what most... Wishful thinking. Wishful thinking.
00:52:29
Speaker
I'm not to get my hopes up. It'll be good. So to show you those amazing stuff. And I'm not going to go back. I'm always excited to go back to that park. Yeah, I know Mike always talks about their Christmas event. christmas christmas event and I feel like that's something I definitely want get to in 27. Yeah, if you like ah Christmas lights, then absolutely go there. Yeah, and just like the whole vibe of the park and how cohesive it is and everything. And i feel like that's something that maybe a little pet peeve that I have with parks, but I feel like
00:53:07
Speaker
Epic universe and Island adventure or like some of the themes are like interchangeable. And I feel like parks don't stick to the theme of the park as much as they stick to the themes of the lands in the park, but like each land in Silverado city belongs in Silverado city where I feel like you could put it Jurassic park into epic universe, rearrange land a little bit to make it, you know, with the portal, you know, layout.
00:53:35
Speaker
But there's no reason why like islands land belongs to the islands of adventure, not a universe, but all ends in similar city clearly belong in similar city and the park itself is very cohesive, if that makes sense.
00:53:48
Speaker
Kind of. Kind of. Not say that epic islands aren't cohesive, but I like those lands are not cohesive to the parks
00:53:58
Speaker
It's weird, like, why does Isle of Berk belong in Epic Universe with, like, portals to different universes? I don't know. This may be dumb, but this is my little pet peeve that I have with Epic Universe.
00:54:14
Speaker
Still a great park, though. It is, yes. The little right line up there is great. It's just you need more capacity, Universal. Yeah. In time. In time. There's definitely expansion plots, and I'm excited to see what they build.
00:54:27
Speaker
my My dream is for a wicked land with a fly type roller coaster through it. but Called Defying Gravity. Yes. A boy can dream.
00:54:40
Speaker
I just want the Legend Zelda area. That's been rumored. Give me Hyrule Castle. I'll be happy. I feel like Zelda was a little bit before my time, but know. That's something like about Universal is that even if you don't know the IP tool, you can still enjoy the areas. Yeah.
00:54:58
Speaker
I've never seen Harry Potter. i still like all the Harry Potter lands and attractions. In the podcast group chat that we have, um Nate discovered, and I think I just kind i kind of realized it, I've never actually seen Jurassic Park, the movie.
00:55:14
Speaker
What? I know, and I got absolutely roasted in our group chat for it, but I still love Velocicoaster, and I still know the theme. i mean, like, i think I've seen Jurassic World, i think I saw a Jurassic World after wrote Velocicoaster. Like, yeah, you can still understand the theme well enough, even without seeing the movie.
00:55:33
Speaker
Yeah. I have seen Jurassic World. I also further got roasted for that, that I've seen Jurassic World, but not Jurassic Park. Yeah, I think that's a little wild to me.
00:55:45
Speaker
Listen, I don't watch a lot of movies. This is why nate and I have a movie list of things that we need to watch. I think Jurassic Park should be ah near the top of that list because that is a pretty good movie. I'm sure it's already been added.
00:55:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:00
Speaker
No, the one that got added recently was a Princess Bride because I've not seen that. Jacob was telling me need to watch that too. Wait, have you not seen that either? i have not, no. We just need like one big movie night then. Absolutely. we'll watch Princess Bride.
00:56:14
Speaker
Let me know when. I'll gladly come. we will We will plan this out. Yes. When we're not doing a dumb trip, which seems to be way too often.
00:56:25
Speaker
i don't have any more dumb trips planned right now. Wow. Okay. Well, maybe not to say that there won't be some that pop up. Oh no, 100%. Yeah.
00:56:37
Speaker
How many of our conversations in our group chat have started with, so I had an idea? Too many, way too many. Or just like a so hear me out.
00:56:51
Speaker
So many. We've been on fun trips. We've gotten better at like saying maybe not quite that one. like that we were we were going pretty hard in Australia there for like a day or two.
00:57:03
Speaker
i'm so i still really want to go. It won't be next year. yeah But I really want to go. That would be a fun trip. Yeah. Because we have to do it on a year when we're not doing Buzzbars International stumble.
00:57:16
Speaker
28 maybe. Probably 28. But the new RMC is going to open in Belgium. I mean, we can do a weekend trip to Belgium.
00:57:28
Speaker
Nothing I haven't done before. see this this is what that group chat is like. It's yeah like, yeah, weekend trip to Belgium. No big deal. Hey, I don't have any plans for November yet.
00:57:39
Speaker
We can probably find cheap flights because, you know, I flew to Frankfurt for less than some domestic flights I've seen recently. and That's what happened for the Europa park trip. Like we had some flights that we were kind of looking at. We're like, you know, if they drop a below a certain point, we'll just go ahead and book them. And then they drop below that point like two days later. We're like, everybody book now.
00:57:58
Speaker
oh um I remember those Discord messages waking up like, book suits on U852 from IED to Zurich. We fully drove that price up temporarily. There was suddenly so much demand for that flight.
00:58:16
Speaker
That's funny. What was crazy is that I changed my flights a couple of times so I could go to Fantageland and then I had to change my flights again because the Air Canada flight from Toronto to Cincinnati got canceled and it was whole new deal.
00:58:31
Speaker
But every time I changed my flights, I got like $60 back because like I kept buying cheaper flights. So i paid maybe like $600 round trip to go to Europe.
00:58:42
Speaker
You profited off that trip. Oh, well. That's your grill math right there. Okay, okay, okay. So I tried to get on the Swiss Air flight and for whatever reason, I couldn't do it. And I kept hitting like book, book, book. And every time I had book, I got like a $70 flight credit.
00:58:58
Speaker
So I ended up like $400 flight credit that I should not have had. And I used that to fly to New England later that year. So i in a way, I kind of did profit off of it.
00:59:09
Speaker
but Not profit, but I was like $200 in the hole at that point. It was worth it. Totally worth it. Because that was for the New England stumble? Yeah. Oh, that was the time. Yeah, no one remembers that cabin crawl.
00:59:23
Speaker
yeah Yeah. I love how I feel like Tom was calling the... ah the new one, not the new one, the one at holiday world, like the second cabin crawl, like, oh yeah, we just all forgot about New England because we were so drunk.
00:59:34
Speaker
Yeah. That was, that was a night for sure. Yeah. Um, i don't remember it next.
00:59:44
Speaker
I remember some, and I remember a hundred percent whose fault it was that I got that drunk and it was Brambo. and the like Yeah, that's where I lost it too, I think, was his apple cider. I didn't even have the apple cider margarita. I had some of the drink that I was drinking before I was going to drink that one.
01:00:00
Speaker
I have some great videos you from that weekend that you probably don't remember. Oh, i no, I don't. there were I saw pictures of me in the Boulder Dash line that I do not remember. both i remember riding Boulder Dash twice at night. One of the times i had my hands up and like a branch hit my wrist and I had a cut there for like a week maybe.
01:00:22
Speaker
Battle Scars from Boulder Dash. Yeah. Amazing ride, though, in my top 10. That may be a hot take, but Boulder Dash. Yeah, I do not have it ranked that high. I was underwhelmed by Boulder Dash.
01:00:32
Speaker
Okay. I don't know. i love I love terrain wooden kushers, especially from CCI. Just the way that it hugs the terrain and like you'll go 500 feet and then the travel is kink and like hide the rest of the layout in the mountain.
01:00:48
Speaker
And there's like, you kind of go the hills are kind of rampy, but on those ramps there's just weird like little 15 degree turns that just catch you off guard. I love it. I love Boulder Dash.
01:01:00
Speaker
I think it was just overhyped for me. I could see that, but the layout for is just brilliant. I think, having, you know, being a CCI lover.
01:01:12
Speaker
and i will defend Boulder Dash for my dying breath. It's amazing and I cannot wait to go back. no Now I want to get into this. Tell us some of your hot takes. What are some my hot takes? Millennium Force is so mid, i don't even rank it. Rougarou's better. It is maybe top 10. Oh, I forgot about that hot take.
01:01:32
Speaker
I'm sorry on Millennium Force Lovers. I don't get it. Like, ever I come to this, like, there are a couple of years where it's like, this year is the year I'm finally going to get it. Like, i feel like i'm in the right headspace. I'm going to get it. I'm feeling the vibe of this ride. and then I ride it. Like, no.
01:01:48
Speaker
No. Why? It's not that good. Like, okay, I can get people thinking it's mid, but thinking Rougarou is better than that. Rougarou is so forceful and so smooth. Everyone just says Rougarou is beautiful. I know what you guys are on. That ride is butter smooth. It is not.
01:02:07
Speaker
you ride the back row, it's great. That sounds worse. I swear, Rougarou is, you don't bang your head as much in the back row. I should put that hot take ah for your episode art.
01:02:19
Speaker
That'll get people listening. I so like i i would rather ride Rougarou than Millennium Force. that I know. I'm pretty sure I heard that take and I posted it like in Discord or something. I'm like, shame this man for this take.
01:02:34
Speaker
I feel like multiple people have tried to shame it for that take and it never has stuck. it is it's It's just that egregious to me. I think like i may even like Gemini more than Millennium Force. That's better than Rougarou. Especially when Gemini is racing, you have like these fun drops that go through destruction. You get like the headchoppers and you have fun airtime moments and...
01:02:55
Speaker
And jank. And jank, yeah. don't know. Like, Gemini is so charming to me. Like, I hope it does not go away anytime soon. And its capacity monster, which Cedar Point needs. When they're both open. when they're Yes, I'll agree. It's way better when they're both open. Yes.
01:03:12
Speaker
Which I feel like may may have been a little bit more rare recently. But when I was growing up, it felt like was always racing. Yeah, I think so. With some exceptions. Like, I think it was there on a Halloween Saturday and like...
01:03:25
Speaker
The late 2000s and it was not racing and were kind of wondering like why like the the line is like an hour long. Why are they not racing? Why?
01:03:37
Speaker
But alas.
01:03:41
Speaker
Any other hot takes that hot I want to cancel you for?
01:03:48
Speaker
trying think of one. I'm not the biggest fan of Taron. I do think Taron's really good. And I have, like, looking back, and I think I'm warming up to a little bit. Like, I put it, like, right around Maverick. I'm still going to blame the jet lag for you.
01:04:01
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's fair. i think my whole i impression montage line is a little tiny because I was jet lagged out on my mind. I thought I was doing the big brain thing and trying to adjust my sleep schedule by waking up at like 4 a.m. Eastern time and like the four days leading up to the trip. I don't think that was a good idea. i felt like crap the first day. And that was your first ever time in Europe. First ever time. Oh, yeah That was ah quite an adventure. Like I landed at like 710 Frankfurt time before the sun even came up.
01:04:30
Speaker
Got through customs, got the train. That's all going great. I get to the Cologne train station and I go to the the platform and waiting for Regional Express train to come. And I see a train come in like seven minutes before my departure time. And so I get on it like it's the right type of train, it's at the right platform, it's at the right like section of the platform going in the right direction. And thought, like you know it's just kind of seven minutes dwell time.
01:04:58
Speaker
No, i went 20 minutes north instead of south. Oops. Well, jet lagged. And then I get on a delayed- thing ah Then I got a delayed Esplan train back to Cologne. But on that train, I get stuck in some underground tunnel for like 20 minutes and there's announcements in German, which I don't understand. And I'm trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
01:05:21
Speaker
I stay on the train because I didn't see anyone else leaving. And so I figured, yeah, we're just going to stick out, I guess. But eventually did make it. But that was quite my first, you know, quite adventure for my first, you know, like four hours in Europe.
01:05:39
Speaker
It was fun though. Like in hindsight, like it was, it was an experience.
01:05:45
Speaker
It was good. um I remember being good overall. Yeah. I remember I got to the Fantasialand like shuttle stop and like one of the Fantasialand like attendants, he wasn't with the bus driver, but he was go around collecting tickets, speaking German. He comes up to me and I said like Sproggen's English. like No, no English drive Fantasialand five Euro.
01:06:06
Speaker
Like Hey, get the job done. Great. I love this. So I had five euros cash, and fortunately. So I gave him five euros, he just gave me a pat on the shoulder, like, good, good, thank you.
01:06:19
Speaker
I thought that was funny. Did you experience the the parking guy at Krakow Eye? No, because we walked. Oh, okay. Yeah, we were just walking around Krakow. Because we had our, um like, a apartment hotel in Krakow. And so we were able to we check in there and we just walked to the cathedral. Then we saw the dragon, walked on the dragon like, oh, there's a credit over there. It went over to the, uh, the credit.
01:06:45
Speaker
So we didn't have to worry about parking. Okay. Is that where okay. Bye bye came from. Yep. Okay. Yep. That was from the parking guy in Poland. Okay.
01:06:59
Speaker
There is one park that we've been to together that we need to discuss. Okay. And that Leesburg. ah And what a perfect day that we had there. Look, that trip last year was incredible. And somehow the Leesburg day was probably the best day of that trip.
01:07:15
Speaker
Yeah, it was. I agree. And I got engaged on that trip too. Yeah. Okay, I should say best park day. Yes, yes, yes. Like, Hyperia ERT was really good.
01:07:30
Speaker
And it still is rent-free in my head. But... just Leesburg, like the weather was perfect. It was with a great group of people. The lines weren't that bad. Like the park is so charming. Just the landscaping and the placemaking that, uh, that, that park does just absolutely incredible operations are great.
01:07:48
Speaker
The ride lineup is great. I love Helix so much. Same. That's maybe, but that's another, I guess that's another hot take of mine is I think, um,
01:07:58
Speaker
That'd be a hot take. Helix is better than Stardust, like way better than Stardust. I don't about that, but I do have Helix in my top 10. Yeah. I mean, the the sequence from, I guess, like the the butterfly inversion all the way through the second launch is just like perfect and made me like cackle every single time. And then our nice matching hoodies, even though my cat ate mine.
01:08:27
Speaker
Ripped. I replaced it with a Hyperion hoodie. It's okay. He replaced your Helix hoodie with a Hyperion shirt. Yeah. I still wear the Helix hoodie every once in a while. I haven't been wearing it recently because it's been so hot. But it'll come out. Don't worry.
01:08:42
Speaker
I need a new one. Oh, no. Oh, no. I got to go back. no. I got to go back to Lisaburg. Oh, no. More Balder. More Helix. Oh, no. More Lisaburg Bonnen.
01:08:53
Speaker
More steak dinners underneath Lisaburg Bonnen. Because that was like a legit really good lunch. It was. Like, what, it was looking for like $30. I got like salmon and wine. oh yeah. had steak and wine.
01:09:07
Speaker
For a park food, it was really good. yeah Just all, what, nine of us or something like that at one table. which twitter Yeah. The waiter. for jep I don't know if I should say the podcast, but. we'll leave that off the podcast. Yeah.
01:09:26
Speaker
yeah no least least burgwood and also they were open late like way later than all the other parts of that trip like we were we were there till 10 but it did not feel like 10 since it's so far north the sun doesn't set to like 11 11 30 maybe midnight um maybe midnight um
01:09:49
Speaker
It'd be really cool to go there. Uh, I mean like the fall or something. Yeah. but You can actually get night rides on Helix. Cause I'd imagine those are amazing. I'm just, I'm dying to go back to Lisa Berg.
01:10:03
Speaker
and just started dating Groniland, not Groniland, sorry. Gothenburg was, was cool great too. That's insane. You didn't go to Groniland. No, I did not go to Groniland. I would love to go to Groniland, but have not.
01:10:15
Speaker
Um, you like our hotel we stayed at, you know, we said like we have a really, really flight. We're not going be able to make breakfast like, oh, do you want a brown bag breakfast that we can give you like a ham sandwich and like an hour or something um like 4 a.m. or something that just delivered to our room like, hell yeah, that's great. nice So we're good with the same hotel. as Yes. Yeah.
01:10:38
Speaker
Warrensburg. Something. Yeah. Some things like that. beds were so comfy. isn Something about beds in Sweden. so nice. I sleep so well.
01:10:49
Speaker
Yeah. Did not sleep very much that trip. Because it was like just go, go, go, go. Oh, yeah. 10 parks in 10 days. At least for us. Yeah. I mean.
01:11:00
Speaker
Eight flights or something. I didn't count on any park days, but it was a little crazy doing. So I only be Belgium.
01:11:10
Speaker
So i mean I guess we had the same amount of park days, except I did two more after you because I went to Europa. Yeah. So i mean yeah, I guess 12 for me then. Well, we did Wallaby, Belgium and Legoland before Emerald. Well, I did Wallaby Holland before Emerald.
01:11:26
Speaker
Yeah. So we did the same number park days. That's what I'm getting at. Yeah, it was a lot. Yeah. Indeed a lot. Wallaby Holland. It's nice park.
01:11:39
Speaker
I think Goliath is probably my favorite there. know. You like Untane more? Mm-hmm. And that's that's saying something for me because i I'm shocked not a big RMC person. Yeah, how much do you like Intamin? don't know. Goliath just didn't do it for me.
01:11:54
Speaker
I don't know. I just, don't know. something about the way Intamin does arise. i just love the feel of them. I love Intamin. Just not that one. Yeah, Yoy was indeed rough.
Coaster Design and Engineering Discussion
01:12:09
Speaker
who weaker rmc probably like the weakest single rail i've done single rails i've done yeah don't know i feel like our the i don't know rmc single rails have not aged well for me ah love fire runner i will say that okay because like a sun pilot was smoother than joy But I think like Railblazer and Wonder Woman at Fiesta Texas were a on the rough side too.
01:12:39
Speaker
Yeah. Rough-er side. don't want to say the rough, but for an RMC, they were rough.
01:12:45
Speaker
Yeah, I could see that. All
01:12:50
Speaker
right. I know we're kind of getting close to wrapping up, but since we are a creative podcast, what are some, what's some coaster content that you love to indulge in?
01:13:03
Speaker
aside from the inverted creative podcast oh well that's an obvious answer i know generally i like seeing people like i'm kind of enjoying more vlogs lately of people just enjoying our time at parks i don't know it kind of like i think sometimes i get jaded and we forgot like yeah we just do this for fun but that is why we do this and it's kind of fun to strip it back to to the basics of why we're doing this in the first place sometimes it's fun to just watch people have fun It gets me excited to go to new parks and stuff like that.
01:13:36
Speaker
Any ah creators you've been following a lot more recently? I mean, i obviously, a love ah Coaster Focus. Great stuff. I'm also a big fan Altura Ryan because I do like his vlogs, and i also like his problematic coaster series because it is a bit more like in the weeds and educational as an engineer. More engineering heavy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense that you like Altura Ryan.
01:13:59
Speaker
Yeah, he's definitely probably my favorite one. is there any other ones that
01:14:07
Speaker
I consistently follow. hi Not too much. I've listened to the Coast Tricking and Kings Radio. I've listened to a couple theme park podcasts like Drunk Riders and Drill Trills and Spills.
01:14:19
Speaker
I feel like we're all kind of in the same podcasting network. It looks like Buzz Bars podcast universe. yeah Most people probably listen to all them. don't know. Yeah. I don't want to...
01:14:31
Speaker
on TDR but you know they're probably the the most listened to out of all of them and I that's when I listen to the least because i they just feel scatterbrained to me yeah where you know like inverted creative and they're all skills skills a bit more structured and like focused coaster focused coaster focused yeah I try.
01:14:52
Speaker
and try to err on the side of professionalism. don't know. I like don't always, but I try. I like the deep dives you guys do, especially like the deep dive into just a roller coaster and like ride happiness. And there was a point where I was pretty into No Limits 2 and it kind of figuring out like how to make a coaster flow well and stuff like that. And thinking about like why do I like the coasters I do and kind of analyze some of the different tools that I've analyzed like music through because I was in band and it, you know, you kind of see some things rhyme with like what your directors felt to tell you to do, like, you know, don't give it all in in at the beginning and save some for the end, how I feel about roller coaster should be and that it should not give it all in the beginning and it should be get more intense than what goes on. So, you know, stuff like that.
01:15:43
Speaker
like ah you know It's kind of nice hearing someone like getting the nitty gritty about koshers and like that. Yeah, there's some ah nerdy topics planned for future episodes. Can't wait.
01:15:55
Speaker
And also that just made me write down a note. We should do a deep dive on like simulator games like Rollercoaster Tycoon and No Limits. Yeah, I i got i did a lot of No Limits during the pandemic. I never posted any of them on YouTube, but you know there are some of them that i'm actually kind of proud of and like That was a pretty, ah I had a flying coaster with some kind of and so heavily inspired by Flying Dragon at Universal in Japan.
01:16:18
Speaker
And put like an inverting, non-inverting loop on it and some weird like Fly to Lies and stuff like that. That's kind of proud of and stuff like that. Trying to make, you know, it's so fun trying to like push stuff and like what could this model theoretically do? Like the 40 coaster, the flying coaster.
01:16:35
Speaker
Or just trying to make a hyper-realistic, like what could a mock launch question look like? What could a GCI look like? being i' like Trying to make an old school B&M invert and stuff like that. And like how do you get the shaping correctly and playing with the roll cortices and splines to get it to work.
01:16:53
Speaker
going to that kind of ties into your poster-y Instagram. Yeah, the non-uniform rational basis spline. so Please explain that for me. A non-uniform rational basis spline. I'm pretty sure it's on no limits uses to like actually make the the layout. So um back in grad school, I took a finite element analysis class and learning like CT continuity and making functions continuous, but it turns out that
01:17:26
Speaker
you can also make splines continuous using having the quote unquote acceleration of the curve be continuous. And there's various ways you can do that. um i don't know you have two in the weeds here, but you can just make a Bezier curve and do a bunch of like linear interpolations all throughout, but you lose control. And so the solution that is the best compromise for having like a really smooth curve and having local local control is the non-uniform rational basis line.
01:17:56
Speaker
Um, so you can adjust weights and pull stuff loads to track the, and still have these curves be C2 continuous for the acceleration is continuous through all, all these turns. And I'm like, very over my head right now. It is. I'm assuming most people would probably be really bored at that. And probably explained as good as I could or as well as I could. Um,
01:18:17
Speaker
But I love seeing the map behind Kuchers and like after you you, I watched this like video and read a little bit like splines and like, you can definitely kind of understand like the joints between some of these curves and like why arrow quote-unquote tangent radius design feels the way it does um because there's velocity discontinuity as you transition from like the curved and straight part of the track and that's where you get a little little a jerk forward and stuff like that so it's like trying to like go through it and try to like see like and like really analyze like what these coasters feel like is something i've i've enjoyed lately and i have not posted a lot because i've been just trying to enjoy parks and
01:19:00
Speaker
I don't like it was bit more of a bird than I thought it would, so I don't really post too much. Do you want me to link that account on You can. i don't i don't post on too much, but you can follow me if you want. and I kind of wanted to talk more about some of the math behind coasters, but I've never actually gotten around to it.
01:19:20
Speaker
That'd be good. Another future episode, potentially. It's really complicated. I don't think a lot of people would enjoy it because it would go way over their head. like mine yeah um and ah but i also feel like coasters and i i love science and and math and engineering and all that stem jazz and i feel like coasters are good way to get like young kids interested in that kind of stuff and it definitely contributed to me wanting to do engineering and i you know it's a pre
01:19:53
Speaker
It's a very like tactical way to see like physics how physics works and even into like control systems as you get further you know down the rabbit hole.
01:20:05
Speaker
Further into those more advanced physics classes. Yeah.
01:20:12
Speaker
Yeah, not me. And for everyone, I don't know, it's fun seeing how different manufacturers approach different challenges and different problems. Like, how Gravity Group made their pre-cut track while GCI did the Titan track.
01:20:26
Speaker
And RMC did the IBOX track, all trying to essentially solve the same problem of how do you make wood coaster smooth. Different values lead to different solutions. And that's something I think a lot of people see like there's one answer in engineering, but there's not like, put garbage in, garbage out.
01:20:44
Speaker
Hey, we that quote at work too. Sorry? We use that quote at work too. Yeah, I mean, fundamentally, you're you're looking at a ah value set and translating that into like design criteria and then finding
Historical Impact and Modern Concerns in Coaster Design
01:20:55
Speaker
a solution move from there. There's not one solution. There's but what what do you value in in your solution?
01:21:03
Speaker
And that's what you're going to prioritize. Gravity prioritizes keeping a wood coaster wood. And I think GCI valued making it, keeping maintenance costs low.
01:21:15
Speaker
making it really smooth. So it's it's a fun direction to engineering for for younger people, I think. And even as you get older and go through engineering, you start to appreciate them more. And like I started to appreciate B&M more for all the attention to detail they put into their rides.
01:21:36
Speaker
Do you still feel that way? I think B&M is overrated. I think they're underappreciated for the impact they had in the industry back in the 90s. Like, i was writing in Kumba a couple of years ago, and they were just so intense. And like, the the leap that it, you know, going from the Aero Loopers from a year ago, a year or two before that to Kumba, like, had to be insane for people, or crazy, not insane. Yeah, because that's a groan of Yeah, but going from these Aero loopers that had like coat hanger, they were designed with coat hangers to these B&Ms were designed with computers
01:22:17
Speaker
and fabricated to much higher tolerances, produced a much higher quality ride. And i it did come at a price, and you know, they were three times, supposedly they cost three times more per foot than Aero, but a interesting that parks are willing to pay for the quality instead of just the cheapest option.
01:22:35
Speaker
Right. which I think is like peak nineties, like when quality still kind of mattered instead of just what's the cheapest thing, which I feel like we're starting to get to now, maybe why being as smooth as it used to be. Yeah.
01:22:50
Speaker
know. I still appreciate what they do and like all their attention to detail and what they did for the industry, especially nineties going from, know, the sit down coaster, forest coaster, standup coaster, the invert, like every part worth their weight in salt has in an inverted coaster now or some form an inverted coaster rather than SLC. But like those started with the DNMs.
01:23:12
Speaker
That's wild to think about too. What? just did or when did slc start i thought it was like 94 like right after the bnm invert yeah that's kind of like crazy to think about that bnm inverts predate slcs yeah i don't have enough brain power to look that up on rcdb right now like even though hyper coaster is going from magnum in 1989. Oh, the Morgan hyper coasters were pretty refined just, you know, two to three years before Polestarian and Raging Bull came out.
01:23:52
Speaker
But i feel like B&M is still like the gold standard in like hyper coaster trains. Like I don't think anyone does quite as well as B&M does. Yeah. And those safety records is impeccable and, you know, they they pay attention pay attention to you capacity, reliability.
01:24:07
Speaker
Which I feel like capacity is kind of getting lost on lot of players in the industry right now. Yeah. Too many shuttle coasters. Yeah. I mean, so
01:24:22
Speaker
I don't want to blame social media, but I feel like shuttle coasters are more, ooh, look at this. The track just ends and you go forward and backwards. It's kind of clickbaity. It's clickbaity. Yeah.
01:24:33
Speaker
I feel like, like, even like the Toll Coaster some extent, I feel like they're starting to catch on more because they are more clickbaity. And have always been clickbaity. They are, but if, like... The capacity's good on them, though.
01:24:47
Speaker
The capacity's good on Toll Coasters. I mean, Siren's Curse, I still think, should have maybe been a little bit higher capacity, but I, you know, it's it's a clone Probably shouldn't have gone to that park, but you know what? Yeah. It's a good ride. I'm glad we have it somewhere.
01:24:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I probably would have preferred it at King's Island, but... I would have too. I mean, I felt like a tilt coaster would have been a perfect vortex replacement. It's not the same as Valargan, but it does it like a similar shtick, and you can get a lot of inversions in it, which would be a you know good placement for vortex.
01:25:17
Speaker
Yeah. Please no dive coaster. I don't want a dive coaster here. I don't Will that plot ever get filled? Probably not. I feel like that is like King's Island's Drakkenfire plot.
01:25:30
Speaker
It's going to sit there with rumors circling. It's going to be like this home to the next big world-beating coaster. And then we're going to get a big bad wolf. can I was about to say a family invert. We're going to get, yeah, the bat's going to close. We're go get the bat's revenge in like 2042.
01:25:49
Speaker
oh It's a little close to home with the ah the news today. Yeah, Koomba. Speaking of yeah me just glazing Koomba earlier, which that Hell roll, I'm going to miss them i wouldve missed that so much. That Zero D roll in Koomba was probably the best version of that park. Sorry, Iyengwazi.
01:26:08
Speaker
vnm just knocked it out with that ride yeah for context that news dropped today of the day of the day that we're recording so we're not releasing this for a couple weeks but yeah and i would honestly rather take kumbha over airy force there's other rides that do what airy force does but i feel like rides that focus on positive g's and those really fast transitions that kumbha does are more and more rare yeah i agree it's I mean, Kumba's a dying breed of coasters, and it it was like the OG, like standard B&M sequence of loop, dive loop, zero G roll, cobra roll, or batwing, whatever.
01:26:45
Speaker
Kumba pioneered that. Set the gold standard. did It did. It had that wraparound loop. the i think it was the first dive loop on a coaster. don't think it was the first yearage year of Jirol because I think the Batmans did it the year before.
01:27:01
Speaker
Cobra rolls were done the year before, but I feel like Kumba was probably the better Cobra rolls out there. And I'm sad to see it go. i I wish I could make it down there before it closed for good, but...
01:27:18
Speaker
I only it's going to happen. It is kind of telling how Six Flags dropped the ball with King Deca a couple years ago that lo and behold, I'm happy that we have two weeks notice of Rai closing.
01:27:30
Speaker
Yeah. It's better than nothing. it's better It is better than nothing. but I think also Busch Gardens might have learned from Scorpion when they gave it like a week notice and then they pushed it back a little bit. and i I'm curious what is going to replace it.
01:27:46
Speaker
Right. I'm not too sure what that means. And I, I heard a lot of rumblings that it had you with the sinkhole that opened it up back there and that compromised probably some of the footers back there, which I think it's reasonable.
01:27:59
Speaker
That's a real explanation. So I'm curious if that plot is even going to get, how much that plot is, can be reused.
01:28:06
Speaker
Cause if that's the case, it's not getting retract. Yeah. I'll be very interested to see their post was very vague. Yeah, and I don't have- Kumba's revenge.
01:28:16
Speaker
I don't have the most confidence in United Parks right now.
01:28:23
Speaker
Yeah. Unfortunately, i know those parks have so such good bones and I remember going to them in like 2011 and they were fantastic and I feel like they're just shells of their former selves now. Oh, 100%. I agree.
01:28:36
Speaker
i agree I don't know. I even, even I went Busch Gardens Tampa in 2018. It was still great. I feel like every time gone back, it's just degraded more and more.
01:28:48
Speaker
Yeah. Like, Aran Gwazi is great, but. The operations. The operations are bad. Like, this is a popular ride. It runs two trains. You only have like a couple, one, what, two sets, one set of drive tires in the station. That's why it parks so slow.
01:29:05
Speaker
Like, this is kind of predictable. Like, what what are we doing, guys? Yeah. The whole locker fiasco, which... Continues to be a fiasco. Like, what are you guys thinking?
01:29:19
Speaker
And of like, yeah, it's a great ride. And I feel like just the capacity of it would have been should have been enough to maybe not build it. Not build it, but like...
01:29:30
Speaker
You should have focused more on capacity with that ride. I feel like having a really high capacity coaster can save a mediocre coaster. A mediocre coaster being really high capacity can kind of be its saving grace because you it's still good for your weight per enjoyment ratio is, I guess it would be really low. Your enjoyment per weight ratio will be really high.
01:29:54
Speaker
like how you bring equations into this still.
01:29:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, what can I say? like it's just my way of but like expressing stuff. It's kind of like a standardized way to like explain
01:30:10
Speaker
some stuff. Right. says Makes sense.
01:30:16
Speaker
But
01:30:18
Speaker
I'm glad Iron Gwazi exists. I wish it higher capacity. I wish that park ran more. you know it It'd be fun to see that park actually run three trains and like Matu Kumba, but alas, no more Kumba.
01:30:31
Speaker
restaurant Yeah. sweet print
01:30:36
Speaker
I'm just more sad because I had a cat named Kumba yeah when I was in high school. So seeing that coaster go to is kind of sad. And I feel like that is probably one of the most iconic coasters. Like the interlocking corkscrews is, I feel, really iconic. Oh, yeah. It's probably one of the most like photographed spots on a coaster. Yeah.
01:30:55
Speaker
So I don't know. I hope that that gets preserved in some way. But I don't know. That'd be cool. Even if they completely scrapped it just to like leave those corkscrews. and the Yeah. Or they pulled like Alton Towers and put that like.
01:31:08
Speaker
In the front of the park somehow. Yeah. That'd be cool.
01:31:14
Speaker
have a walkway through it or something. Yeah. I don't know. i don't Tragic. I still don't think I've come to terms with it. Yeah. It's still very fresh. Yeah.
01:31:25
Speaker
I feel like I've... You know, we've been hearing rumors of it closing for, like, years now, and it's sad that it's real now. Yep. Park confirmed it.
01:31:39
Speaker
Yeah. don't know. Hopefully Matu hangs around for a while longer. ride is... like the, in my opinion, like the perfect invert. Just ah so good. The layout with the way he uses the the trenches and it's so smooth and all the inversions are just amazing.
01:31:54
Speaker
Well themed. I feel like if, if Montu goes, it's going to take a lot to get back to that park. Yeah. Like Arnigua's is great, but like being able to not wait a long time for Kumb and Montu were a big draw to that park for me.
01:32:09
Speaker
Yep. I agree. So, i don't know. hoping could get down there. i i was hoping I could get one last ride in mid to late September, but no.
01:32:25
Speaker
Yeah, about that.
01:32:31
Speaker
Unfortunate. Yeah. And I hope other coasters. And i I feel like older B&Ms are almost so iconic. Like, what's Cedar Point going to Raptor when that ride's timed? Oh, we were, me and Mike were talking about that today. Like, what coasters, or like what B&Ms might be next on the block. And i'm like, oh, Raptor is up there. Raptor is up there, and I think Rougarou is up there. Rougarou can, that's fine.
01:32:55
Speaker
Honestly, yeah, I'm not going to lose sleep at that ride closes. But what will you compare with Millennium Force to? Valraven. No, I do like Lenny more than Valor even, but.
01:33:07
Speaker
Wow, okay. Yeah. I guess Rougarou is 96. Yeah, 96. B&M had some bangers in 96.
01:33:18
Speaker
Batman. Head of Georgia. I think there's another. Oh, Mantua as well. Montu is 96 too. Montu is 96. BM's and like the sixes had a thing going on there. You had like Montu, Batman not over Georgia in 96.
01:33:34
Speaker
You had Tatsu and Goliath and over Georgia in 2006, which some of the best, you know, versions of that model. make ah sorry uh meiko in 2016 which is another really good version of the hyper coaster and flying dinosaur in 2006. and this year what tormenta i don't think it's going to be like i it may be the best dive coaster but i don't think it's in that same caliber of like you know all the other flying coaster to tatsu yeah it's interesting never looked at the dates like that
01:34:10
Speaker
And I just noticed that B&M's that years that ended in six, all bangers. Barracuda Strike? What's that with here? like As much as love B&M, feel like they have definitely lost their way. And I feel like this year has kind of like solidified in my mind that there definitely is something about yeah their their decline. I thought it was kind overplayed, but...
01:34:36
Speaker
I hope they can turn stuff around, but I feel like Vekoma now has their mantle. That's a weird sentence to say. Right. Like, yeah. Vekoma is now like the king. Yeah.
01:34:47
Speaker
Which is wild. Like 10 years ago, like I would be laughed off the face of the planet for saying that. Yep. Vekoma is going to take B&M's spot. Yeah. Lo and behold.
01:34:58
Speaker
Lo and behold. Yeah. Yeah. I remember like 10 years ago hearing like is Intamin done? Because they had you know they they had a couple of flops in the US and they weren't really building stuff. And then Karen came came around and kind of turned that around.
01:35:12
Speaker
Now Intamin, I feel like Intamin is, they're still my favorite manufacturer, but I don't they're a bad shape at all. No. But I feel like, you know, B&M or Intamin from 10, 15 years ago is now going to be Vekoma or Mach.
01:35:26
Speaker
Yeah. But long live Intamin. Intamin is still my favorite. After running Hyperion, it showed me why Intamin is still the best. and just
01:35:42
Speaker
Their drops, their airtime, their transitions, like the ride just feels so powerful and right than all the manufacturers do. There's a special sauce that Intamin knows, and i I think it's they actually understand the sequencing of their elements way more than most other manufacturers do.
01:35:58
Speaker
i think like when other manufacturers get it right, it's done by accident where Intamin, it's done on purpose. Because I think they do view the elements in the context of the entire ride and not just standalone things.
01:36:13
Speaker
What's that, Gestalt Theory or something? and i just I think of it more as like music. like Yeah. de like I heard that um if music is so one of the reasons the music is so appealing is because it repeats. And if you had a song that didn't repeat anything, it would be really unappealing.
01:36:32
Speaker
And like if you look at the voice layout, like the whole thing is it does something that it repeats it, but does it slightly differently. Even like Voltron, to some extent, kind of does that. Yeah.
01:36:45
Speaker
So I don't like...
01:36:48
Speaker
stuff like that and having like some like weird symmetries and the layout of like how elements flow together. i don't know. Intamin. Their pacing is always really good. Their pacing is great. like There may be some dead spots in the middle, but I feel like that's OK because I feel like you're not.
01:37:06
Speaker
I feel like we notice relative intensity, like jumps in intensity. I mean, intensity is like cabinet ASTM limits. And so like if you want to make something feel more intense, you have to proceed it with a relatively dull section of track. And I don't think it's actually a coincidence that a lot of people's favorite elements are like directly proceed um a relatively dull section of track. like The Mosasaurus roll is, I guess, proceeded by, comes right after little dull speed hill.
01:37:34
Speaker
The ending of Hyperion comes after a relatively dull middle hill. The best hill in El Toro comes after a little dull speed hill. It's all about a rolling launches for me, too. They're always usually after a little roll. Right. well Mm-hmm.
01:37:53
Speaker
It's like the anticipation of like, you know, it's going to hit, but like you're waiting for it to hit. And like, yeah, that's the reason why I think Sky vs. Drop hits so hard for me. It's like, I know this is going to like beat the crap out of me.
01:38:03
Speaker
I know it's coming and then it hits and like it's the release of that tension. Like that's like kind of getting back to music. Like every most artists like some form of attention release and roller goes are the same way when you kind of view it through that lens. I think it is kind of clear why some fish are better than others.
01:38:19
Speaker
Yeah. and why Intamin just knocks it out all the time. Because Intamin elements that they can build tension, and I feel like RMC doesn't build tension, but Intamin does.
01:38:31
Speaker
This may sound like bullshit to a lot of people, but I legitimately believe
Building Community Through Coaster Enthusiasm
01:38:34
Speaker
this for the record. This is the second one of yours I'm going to have edit, by the way. Oh, sorry. I'll stop. swear.
01:38:43
Speaker
Well, the cat is officially yelling at me to open the door, so probably need to wrap this up. Okay. Considering I said like an hour and we're at an hour 40. It's been fun.
01:38:54
Speaker
Any final words for listeners? Any advice? Any advice? People getting into the hobby? Say yes. Like, do that stupid trip with your friends.
01:39:06
Speaker
Like... It may seem dumb, but like I've met some of my best friends to this hobby and like saying yes to the Hershey park trip was trying pretty of benign at the moment, but it turned out one of the best decisions of my life.
01:39:19
Speaker
Meet people, find your people, hang out with them, find good people. Like it's pretty easy to find bad people, but good people are not to say that it's hard find in the community, but they were finding good people will make a life a lot better. Yeah.
01:39:36
Speaker
Find people that put heinous songs on the car when you're at a rest area. Find people that match your vibe. Don't take yourself too seriously. yeah Like, this is just for fun.
01:39:49
Speaker
Just remember that. Yeah. playing those songs in the car in the rest area to mess with ah Jake. That was how we knew you were good people. Yeah. Oh, thanks. Because we were just all dying. Pretty funny. That whole trip to the back, like the side roads of Pennsylvania. Driving from, i think it was like Lake Mount to Hershey Park was hilarious.
01:40:11
Speaker
Yeah. Like we we did similar thing to Javi when we were driving from like Krakow to Kredho through the mountains of Poland. Like we were playing... I don't think you were there for the karaoke night after your wedding, but Moo came on. If you ever heard Moo, you should look up Moo. We were playing Moo.
01:40:28
Speaker
I'm afraid. Tommy in the car. Funny. So yeah, like, don't know, playing weird songs that are just hilarious while you drive to a park is a vibe and highly recommend.
01:40:41
Speaker
Yeah, like those memories are... sometimes better than the coasters themselves. Oh yeah. Like a journey with the friends to get there. One of my core memories from that, uh, Europa park trip two years ago was being on the Autobahn trying to go like a hundred miles, like 200 kilometers an hour. Well, like, um, Frieda's playing in the background. Like we're all singing, can you take me higher? Just screaming at the gas pedal. There's a point where we're all like, bro, bro, bro, bro.
01:41:12
Speaker
Such good moments. like Yeah. It's really like, yeah, the Coasters are fun, but it's a journey and like the the people you meet along the way that are like the true reward of this hobby, I think.
01:41:24
Speaker
The f friends you made along the way. The friends you made along the way. Maybe the real coaster enthusiasm is the friends made along the way. This is true. That's actually very true. But thank you for coming on with me.
01:41:36
Speaker
Glad I was able to come on. Hope this is is good and not not just useless. No, absolutely not. You think I'm going to let an hour and 40 minutes of content go to waste? Oh, I hope not.
01:41:47
Speaker
I can keep going, too. This is fun. I'm sure. Yeah. Is this your first ever podcast? or Yes. Oh, nice. Well, welcome to the podcasting crew.
01:41:58
Speaker
who Glad I made it. Hey, look, Mom. I'm on a podcast now. you proud of me? Yeah, but I know we've been trying to schedule you for a few weeks now. I'm glad we finally got it to work out. I'm glad the microphone is working now.
01:42:15
Speaker
Yeah. I feel it's back to it's Braden's now. Yeah. um Yeah. Thanks for coming on. Hopefully ah people learn something from it. Hopefully.
01:42:26
Speaker
Hopefully you just have fun. Hopefully, I don't know. I want to get, hopefully I'm not some sort of like freak, like what that what's wrong with this guy? but you know. No, we we love Matt. I'm glad i'm glad to ah have you in my local crew here in Cincinnati.
01:42:42
Speaker
um I'm glad to be in that local Peru and I can't wait for more dumb, dumb trip ideas. More dumb trip ideas, more Sunday worship. Yeah. i love, i love sitting there about the board of plane and thinking, what am I doing? Why am I doing this?
01:43:00
Speaker
Then I come back and it's like, I'm so glad I did that. That was fantastic. When's the next one? real though, we need another one. Yep. Um,
01:43:12
Speaker
Yeah. Until then, hashtag keep thinking inverted. Something. And we'll see you all next time. Bye. Bye.
01:43:45
Speaker
you