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Episode 152 - new szn soon
23 Plays10 months ago
This week on the premier comedy roller coaster podcast, Ben and Zach discuss the boredom of the offseason and answer listener questions!
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Transcript
Introduction & Air Time Humour
00:00:41
Speaker
I'm Zach and my butthole wants air time. I'm Ben and my, uh, Oh, and something else. Well, you can talk about it. That's fine. I don't think you and I are looking for the same things. And that's only because I
00:01:08
Speaker
And not that kind of high five. Rosebud. I was just saying it's only because I clearly stipulated exactly what I was talking about beforehand. Air time. And who's but who's butthole couldn't use some air time right now?
00:01:38
Speaker
right? Everybody's good. It's the off season. That's what I'm saying. People are out there getting hemorrhoids and nobody wants that shit. Don't get hemorrhoids. Get some air time. We're back.
Off-Season Travel & Holiday Critique
00:02:02
Speaker
It's February. Um,
00:02:06
Speaker
You're welcome. I don't know. Here we are. February's like. I like February because it's past all the it's like a classic winner, but it's past all the holiday bullshit and like holidays are fine. It's just.
00:02:24
Speaker
I don't like it. No, no, fuck. OK, right. OK, so here's the deal, right? We all got to go book a flight to see our families when it's the most expensive. Fuck that shit. Why don't we spread that shit out across the year? You know what I'm saying? But I mean, it's an August trip to see your family.
00:02:53
Speaker
But I mean, people do that. It's just more, it's more like, uh, you know, being home for the holidays, even if it's just yourself or your partner, your dog, whatever. Home is where you live. Yeah. So you can like drink a bunch of Agnog, watch Netflix with a Christmas tree in the same room. Exactly.
00:03:20
Speaker
enjoy yourself and like, here's the thing. I don't dislike Christmas or Thanksgiving, but they should be confined to the single day. Yeah. It's a lot of, yeah. And the same, okay. Halloween's my favorite holiday, but the same could be set for Halloween. Let's rope it back a little bit.
00:03:49
Speaker
Well, Halloween is Halloween now is like a, it starts in like, so it's like September 1st, which is fine. You got to balance out Christmas starts on November 1st. So I mean, shit, stores put their stuff out like before Halloween. They'll have the Halloween section. They got that little Christmas area now. Like Walgreens had that this year. Exactly.
00:04:18
Speaker
get an early start on your gifts, gift wrapping. I don't like it. I'm not for it. Fuck the holidays. Why don't we make February travel a normal thing? Go see your relatives in February instead. Yeah. The plane ticket is cheaper. That's true.
Experiencing Rome & Italian Cuisine
00:04:43
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, like I was in, so I had to go to Rome again and like,
00:04:48
Speaker
I know what that place is like a normal tour season. It's fucking insane. And there's like no one there right now. And it's pretty cheap to get there. I think even though I was expensing my ticket, like it was seven 50 round trip on a Lufthansa. That's what I'm saying. I got my own row. Although I did get
00:05:15
Speaker
go ahead. I did kind of fuck myself though, because, um, I didn't check the seat map before I, um, like before I bought the bigger seat and I didn't realize that the plane was only like a third full. So if I would have,
00:05:37
Speaker
just gotten a regular seat. I could have gotten like my own lay down row. Um, but instead I was in the extra leg room seat. So it had the, like the tray tables in the side, like, you know, like the seat dividers. So I couldn't lay, I couldn't lay flat, but it was still fun. I'm playing the world's smallest violin for you. I think my favorite thing to tell people
00:06:07
Speaker
Here's the thing, I'm not saying Italy's not cool. And I'm not saying Italians aren't friendly people or anything like that. It's just funny when I go like, yeah, I had to go to Italy for two weeks again. Fucking sucked, I hate Italy. It's like, what? That's like the one place that definitely gets that kind of response.
00:06:34
Speaker
It's Europe and it's also, I don't know what a lot of food. Yeah. And that's the thing. Like Italian food is it's a, yeah, the food is good. Um, but there's only like so much you can, like, there's only so many days and consecutively you can eat like breads and cheese and deli meats. And you know,
00:07:04
Speaker
bone broth and shit or whatever. I did have, I did have really good pizza though. Um, and pizzas, pizzas, one of those things were like, people are like, no, this is the best pizza. And it's like really hard to settle like what is officially like the best pizza. There's kind of like tiers of pizza, but I would say that this was probably the best pizza I've had in a really long time.
00:07:31
Speaker
Nice. Um, so that was nice. And also had some, uh, what was it? Like a lamb chop. And what was, I don't even remember what it was. It was good though. Some kind of go and describe, describe the pizza in great detail. This is a podcast after all. It was a carbonara pizza.
00:08:02
Speaker
Um, it was like flatbread style and I don't really remember much of it, but I do remember it was good. The thing about, so the thing about Rome too though is like, it's so touristy that you feel like you're in like a universal property.
Theme Parks & Humorous Scenarios
00:08:23
Speaker
Like especially in some of the very tourist areas you feel like you see,
00:08:30
Speaker
you know, like lines of people and there's even places that have like queue lines, like in front of the Coliseum, they have like queue lines. And so like subconsciously, I'm like, I know this is like an ancient, like artifact structure, but it feels like I'm in a fucking universal park right now. And this is just like a fake, you know, this is just like a facade that's like blown styrofoam and like the one outside of Mount Olympus.
00:09:00
Speaker
Yeah, come on in. There's a roller coaster. I also think it's funny that it's. So. It's like they're Greek, right, like Nick and all of their Greek, but they have the Coliseum, which is their building on Americans not knowing history.
00:09:25
Speaker
Which is a pretty good bet. I know. It's just, it's just so funny. Cause there are other things too. Like they have, I mean, there's the, what do they call the, the, that arcade, the Parthenon or something, the Pantheon or Hey, it's Greek.
00:09:50
Speaker
Cheeseburger. Yay. Oh, I found something really problematic and roller coaster tycoon too. Um, did you ever play any of the scenario? Like the, do you ever play through the scenarios? Not all of them. Okay. So I gotta pull this up. I took a screenshot. I'm really curious now.
00:10:19
Speaker
Have you emailed Marciel Voss? No, but, um, so I, there's the, it's the Canyon, the Grand Canyon scenario. And the scenario is you have to, you have to build a park on limited land
00:10:38
Speaker
either side of this natural treasure. You do have the opportunity to buy neighboring land from the Native American Indians. You need to complete the objective to sustain the local town's population. And what's funny is like,
00:10:56
Speaker
There's like, it's basically the scenario is like the Grand Canyon. And then on the other side of the Grand Canyon, there's like teepees and like totem poles and there's like a little fire and stuff. And you're basically buying land from the Native Americans to build a roller coaster through their like village. Sounds about right. Especially given
00:11:26
Speaker
Um, England's understanding of the world. Yeah. We're building an amusement park here. So naturally I built a giant giga coaster that goes over the Grand Canyon and through some of the teepee structures and. You didn't draw an overlook where Cascade could DJ. Wait, what?
00:11:54
Speaker
Well, during the pandemic, Cascade, the famous DJ, played at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Oh, OK. There's a really cool video of it on YouTube, actually. Any of our listeners who are dance music fans, I would recommend it to. Absolutely.
00:12:20
Speaker
But that said, there is not a massive gig coaster going over him, unfortunately. Even though, as I understand it, the South Rim is all owned by. Tribal interests, I guess. Yeah. That'd be cool, though, although
00:12:50
Speaker
I know they built that viewing deck, that like glass ledge that like goes over the side of it suspended. And I know that was a big deal. Yeah. That's the one that Cascade played at. Oh, that thing. Okay. Yeah. He played on them. Like for this point of it, it was cool. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. I remember watching that during COVID.
00:13:20
Speaker
But anyway, speaking of potential meetups, somebody posted a picture of a kitty coaster on top of a Burger King in. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. In Niagara. Canada. Yeah, it wasn't it wasn't running when I was there last.
00:13:49
Speaker
Well, it just got me thinking, is there a more perfect place for your favorite coaster sucks meetup than a kitty coaster on top of a Burger King? That's true. Do you know is is is Marine Land even still open? I'm sure Marine Land still open. Everybody loves Marine Land.
00:14:20
Speaker
I was just about to say if they'd have been shut down, we'd have heard about it. Yeah, it's true. I mean, I will say that that Dragon Mountain is like still one of my favorite coasters. I mean, Dragon Mountain is pretty fucking awesome. It's like if the beast was good and an arrow. Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:47
Speaker
It's got the healers. It's got the tunnels and all of them are actually in the ground. Are you still there? Yeah, I'm here. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. All right, cool. Excuse me. But yeah, the helix is there. All the tunnels are actually underground.
00:15:17
Speaker
Dragon Mountain is the steel beast, basically. You know. Yeah, they. So I remember watching the POV of it from like. Rob Elvie in 2003.
00:15:40
Speaker
And what's funny is that that ride was built in the eighties and it took them like 20 years to finish that fake volcano. It wasn't finished when I rode that shit in 2008. They were still working on it. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was pretty much done when we were there in 2014, which is so funny. They just did. They would like put the money into that kind of investment so late after the ride was built, which kind of like,
00:16:10
Speaker
It's the same, it's like the same management style of lakeside in Denver, where every year the park looks like it's dilapidated, but they have such as minimal budget that they'll eventually get around to opening something that closes, but it might take like five years. Like they built that new Schwartzkopf coaster there. And I think it just opened.
00:16:41
Speaker
Uh, like late last year, like the last week or two, it was open or the park was open. That's kind of sad in a way, but also good for them for actually getting it open. Yeah. Is that your home park now, Ben? Yeah, technically it's like, I think both parks are like seven minutes away equally.
00:17:14
Speaker
That's awesome. But it's not though. It's like, Oh, so I got two amusement parks within seven minutes for me, but they both kind of suck. I mean, like it's cool, but it's not, it's not a place I go that often.
Tech Mishaps & Apple's Strategy
00:17:30
Speaker
I guess the question is more like what's their operating season. So they typically open
00:17:39
Speaker
Memorial Day weekend and they will run through like the end of September typically. And I don't know how they've been really since post COVID, but they don't really have a set close time. They kind of just close whenever the park fins out because there's been times where
00:18:02
Speaker
Like the latest I've ever been in that park was like midnight, but there's been times like peak season, like especially fourth of July weekend, where they'll keep that shit open till like 1 a.m. And it still has and there's still like quite a big crowd there. Interesting. I want to go there. I want to read that. Yeah, Wolf Dark Ride. Oh, at Village. Yeah.
00:18:33
Speaker
Yeah. It's cool, but I mean, it's also just like a Sally dark ride with a bunch of, you know, light effects and stuff. I'm not expecting much, but still. Yeah. The car still had the guns on him. The what? I'm just saying eat the right type of salad. That's going to be a great idea.
00:19:02
Speaker
Yeah, but then you leave and then you're in the village and then you're just like, Oh, that park is kind of sad. I like every time I go there, I get kind of excited. Cause like, Oh shit. Yeah. Like, yeah, let's run an SLC and a arrow shuttle. And then like, it's got terrible operations. Um, they're owned by premier parks, right?
00:19:31
Speaker
Um, yeah, I think so. Well, I mean, but that parks also like a teenage babysitter kind of drop off place in the summer. So it's mostly kids. Unsupervised.
00:19:54
Speaker
It's got a history of lots of fights in the queue lines. Nowhere to go, but up, right? Yeah. I still remember like the funniest thing, the craziest and funniest thing I saw was, um, cause my old apartment overlooked Delish and I was just laying on the bed and I saw a fucking iPad fall off the SLC.
00:20:24
Speaker
That's insane. Because like the screen, you just could tell because it was like a giant screen and as it was falling, it would it was rotating. So, you know, it'd go from like light like a lit up screen to dark lit up screen to dark as it was falling. It was kind of funny. And the question is, who the fuck brings an iPad on a roller coaster?
00:20:56
Speaker
Cause I mean, seriously, who the fuck brings an iPad on a roller coaster? I mean, why do you bring an iPad to a theme park? Maybe to take pictures, but even then why bring it on a roller coaster? Boomers. It's funny how boomers love the iPad. They sure do though. Yeah. What about, um,
00:21:27
Speaker
The Apple fucking goggles. Holy shit, huh? Yeah. Well, so here's what's fucked up about it is that they, you know, they marketed as like, oh, you can have your screens in this 3D inversive and immersive environment. But I just found this out recently that you can't even like you can't use it to extend your MacBook.
00:21:55
Speaker
So like you're also you, you can use your Mac book, but it only gives you one screen. So if you were like, let's say editing video on your Mac book, you can't, um, you know, like have multiple screens, which to me I thought was the entire purpose of it. Like I thought it was supposed to be an extension of your Mac book.
00:22:17
Speaker
But apparently you can't do that. It's only for the native apps. Not right now, but in a, in a future update, you know, they will. I mean, hopefully, but it just seems like such, like such basic functionality to not include. Yeah. Cause otherwise original iPhone didn't include a video camera. Remember?
00:22:47
Speaker
Did it not do video? It didn't do video. Apple has always done planned obsolescence. Yeah. And ruled out like, you know, quote unquote obvious features because that's their business strategy.
00:23:11
Speaker
Cause why give you everything? If we know you'll come back paying for X, Y, or Z in a, in a year or eight months or whatever, you know? Yeah. Fucking Apple knows what the fuck they're doing.
00:23:36
Speaker
My, uh, current annoyance with, uh, Apple and basic functionality is you can't mute reactions in group texts. Oh, okay. Mr. Popular. Well, no, it's like, you know, somebody posts a picture and then everyone starts reacting to it with thumbs ups and whatever. And like you get buzzed every single time there's a react and it's so stupid. Yeah, I understand.
00:24:06
Speaker
I got a family group message, but like I said, fucking not all of us are you, Mr. Popular. I kid. I'm getting my next volcano bag ready. I would try to smell like.
00:24:35
Speaker
I feel like I'll just turn into a, I'll just be, I'll just get even more antisocial, which isn't good for a podcast. Not necessarily. I mean, we already kind of go scorched earth. So let me rephrase. I already kind of go scorched earth and you're an associated. So let me,
00:25:05
Speaker
go to the discord which by the way you can find the link to in the description of this very episode that you're listening to right now and join because it's awesome there's a lot of great people there and this is where you can ask us questions so
00:25:33
Speaker
Let's get through some of these questions. Ben, we've got a couple backed up for a while. Hold on. I got an interesting story real quick.
Animal Rights in Entertainment
00:25:44
Speaker
All right. Go ahead with your interesting story and then we'll get to the questions. So there's a article
00:25:55
Speaker
in Screamscape that says, PETA is apparently against carousels. I heard about this from Chance Rides. They want them to use non-animals, which to me just says, God damn it, PETA, get a new target.
00:26:18
Speaker
Also, as the vegan of the show, I'm going to go on brand and say PETA two is the way to go. Wait, what's PETA two? It's an organization with the same core values. People for the ethical treatment of animals, but they're not insane. Yeah.
00:26:49
Speaker
So PETA two all the way. There's also PETA people for the ethical treatment of extinct life forms. Interesting. I've not heard of that. I thought you had more to say. No, it's just PETA.
00:27:18
Speaker
I was trying to think of a funny acronym, but I'm lost. The. Oh, no, I was thinking my direction was like going towards NAMBLA, but. That's all right. Chance rides are probably not going to change what the fuck they've been doing for years and years.
00:27:48
Speaker
Well, could you just imagine a company like Chase getting that email and then like, uh, some interns like, Hey, um, Allison, some like company or something.
00:28:12
Speaker
wants us to stop like making animals. Here's the thing, what do you even replace it with? Like, how the hell do you replace a horse? Do you just just like a wooden block? Turn it into an onion. I get upset about that, too. Onions are living beings.
00:28:43
Speaker
But for real, what the fuck is wrong with PETA? And I'm saying this as the resident vegan of the show. Fuck you, PETA. What the fuck is wrong with you?
Theme Park Futures & Delays
00:28:57
Speaker
I'll speak for myself as a vegan, but I won't speak for those fucking assholes. I don't know what the fuck is wrong with those guys. I'm sorry. Those people of whatever
00:29:12
Speaker
gender or non-gender conforming beliefs they are. No shit. But fuck PETA. Holy shit. I didn't know Kotaland is getting a Vekoma. They're getting a bunch of shit, supposedly. Yeah, there's a bunch of track site or sitting out in the parking lot. Like I said, supposedly,
00:29:41
Speaker
I got pictures on our Instagram of a model of a infinity coaster. They announced it. I have a. Fuck, what was that 2022 when I went? I think it was even before that, I thought it was like during COVID. Yeah, they announced that one, but they also announced an infinity coaster. OK. Panel and drum.
00:30:13
Speaker
clever because it goes forward and backward. I want to see Kota land open, but I'm not super hopeful. I mean, if the tracks are sitting on the site, that's a good sign. It definitely seemed like they made the initial investments and purchased the rides, but they didn't have the money to like build them.
00:30:41
Speaker
Cause yeah. And I will say on the contrary, them having the tracks on site and just sitting in the parking lot is a really bad sign. True. Easier to resell if you need to. Yeah. They haven't built shit yet. So not only are there not any rides in place, there's not any park in place.
00:31:12
Speaker
in their promo video for circuit breaker. Um, it's funny too. Cause like one of the taglines is buckle your seatbelt, but I don't think those are the common restraints have seatbelts. So don't buckle your seatbelt. Let's hope your lap bar works. Hopefully hard. Buckle up your seatbelt and join the race.
00:31:44
Speaker
I also got to throw out here is February 8th and the national roller coaster museum and archives is not open. You didn't put a year on that as of the date of recording February 8th, 20, 24. So, I mean, look,
00:32:10
Speaker
It's only been 15 years since I've been keeping track and that I can date back to between all the research I've done and Sean Flaherty, a noted friend of the show and absolute great friend of the show. Shouts to Sean Flaherty. Go give his YouTube channel some love.
00:32:36
Speaker
I recently watched one of his like retro European coaster tour videos. Good little nostalgia. Yeah, that's the thing. Sean Flaherty. If you watch his videos that that will fill you in on all on all the background context you need for any episode of this show.
00:33:07
Speaker
Well, also to back when the coaster videos were more like a fun hobby. Correct. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, we have a great two part episode with Sean Flaherty and an additional episode. And you know what? Sean Flaherty is somebody who I think needs to come back on this show. So we're going to try to get him back.
00:33:32
Speaker
But definitely go check out his YouTube channel and his episodes here on this podcast, because he's got stories for days. Anyway, we have a shitload of questions been sent in the discord. OK, yeah. I think we should go ahead and clear out some some of these because
00:34:03
Speaker
A, I don't want to leave anyone hanging. And that's to say, we didn't forget about anybody in our Discord. And B, what's better than letting our listeners make some content for us? Right. I'm OK with that. So first up, our our fucking homie, Ribs and Bacon,
00:34:30
Speaker
He wants to know, do you think Six Flags or See Your Fair will sell any will sell any of their parks in the foreseeable future? P.S. R.I.P.S. Dan. I'll let you take the lead on this one, Ben. I mean, yeah, probably. Which parks? I don't know, because the thing is,
00:34:59
Speaker
You know, everyone always goes to the obvious like Dornie or Michigan's Adventure or Valley Fair or whatever. But if anything, I think those parks are safe because they have such a low operating cost. I would almost say it's going to be whatever park has the most valuable real estate. And it could be one of those parks that just takes everybody by surprise.
00:35:26
Speaker
Cause here's the thing, like, right? Like, like magic mountain, you can't downsize magic mountain because then people will just stop going. And that park has such a high operating costs. And even if they get those gates full of people, like it's still going to cost them a lot of money and they're sitting, I mean, I don't even know what that land would be worth. I don't think there's a way to look it up on Zillow, but, um,
00:35:56
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I'm not saying Magic Mountain will close, but I think it might be a big park and like maybe Six Flags America could go since they don't really invest all that much into that park. Yeah, I definitely feel yet. I think like I've been saying on this show for. I don't know, since the merger,
00:36:23
Speaker
we'll see no less than three parts going. My guess, like you were saying, it's gonna be based on the value of the real estate. So, number one, absolutely, by far, Knott's Berry Farm.
00:36:45
Speaker
It's a small ass park. Sure. It's the biggest revenue generator. Well, no, it's the highest attended park, but does that make it the biggest revenue generator? Not necessarily, you know, it's a small park and there's not a lot of room for expansion.
00:37:07
Speaker
But I mean, do you think they would just close? See, I, it's like, I agree, but I feel like knots is so grandfathered in at this point that I feel like if that one closed, that would be really shocked. But I also wouldn't, it wouldn't surprise me. It's only they can move it. That's what I'm saying though, is like, okay, you're talking about prime real estate in Orange County, California.
00:37:38
Speaker
Exactly. Nothing to be said. Does the, here's the other thing though. Does the city have any like saying it? Like, I don't, I don't know. Like, is that park a landmark or anything? I mean, the city, I don't know, orange or Anaheim, but if it's an Anaheim, they're far more interested in Disney land.
00:38:09
Speaker
which does way bigger numbers like off the charts compared to knots. And like that whole thing about the Giga being scrapped or whatever. What is that? What is the plan? What if Cedar Fair kind of had an idea of what was going on? Cedar flags. Exactly. What if they kind of had an idea? You know what I'm saying?
00:38:39
Speaker
So here's the other thing too is so I'm just looking at the park on Google maps and there are more parking lots than there is theme park. Exactly. And the hotel and all those parking lots, all of that could be luxury condominiums. So I think
00:39:09
Speaker
I wouldn't be immediately concerned about knots, but I think they're, you'd be a fool if they weren't, if you didn't think they were not weighing their options with knots, you know? Yeah. Well, I think what they should do is apple tree early intervention.
00:39:34
Speaker
Oh, it's a rehab rehabilitate. Oh, it's like a childcare rehabilitation center. Cause I'm just, I'm just looking at all the, like the businesses around it. Um, there's quite a bit of open space. Like I wonder, man, they really need like a parking garage.
00:39:58
Speaker
I don't know why they don't do that. They could, they could build like a giant parking garage and then sell off some of their parking lots or let's see. Well, then the question becomes, do you think the new six flags has anybody that inept? Maybe. Well, here's, so, okay. So looking around, there's also a, so there is a mall, like kind of across the street.
00:40:28
Speaker
where there's a Chili's, a John's Incredible Pizza, a Walmart, an Asia buffet, a movie theater. I mean, that's like bigger than the theme park. But I also wonder if that mall makes more money than the theme park.
00:40:51
Speaker
There's also, uh, what's actually kind of funny between the, between soak city and like their big parking lot. Um, there's church of reflections and non denominational. Didn't wait. Denomin is that denominational? Yeah. Yeah. And that's got a big lot.
00:41:21
Speaker
And it only has two reviews on Google. And it's located inside of Knott's Berry Farm. It's weird that both reviews say just God is good and nothing else. Let's see what it is. Yeah. Five star. It just says five stars. It just says the review just says public holiday. God is good.
00:41:48
Speaker
Three photos. Hold on. Let's see what these photos are. Uh, it doesn't take me anywhere. What a weird spot for a church. Like it's literally inside of soak city. Well, maybe it's like when, like the silver dollar city in Dollywood. Yeah.
00:42:17
Speaker
Let's see. Yeah. The, um, Hmm. I feel like they could sell off soak city for a nice chunk of change. That's what I'm saying is like, I wouldn't expect knots to be hanging around like it is for so long. Yeah.
00:42:44
Speaker
Because I've got my eyes on this Asia buffet though. And the same thing goes for managing mountain because it's all housing developments around there. And that's exactly the reason the park was built. So like, I don't know, new company with a shitload of parks might want to sell off some assets that are worth a lot.
00:43:16
Speaker
I'm trying to find the one star reviews of this buffet. Oh, here we go. Terrible experience. Today is Christmas. I went to this restaurant happily, but the ribs I ate in the middle felt smelly and stale. Luckily, I didn't take too much. I kindly reminded them when I was checking out, but I laughed. I was laughed at.
00:43:39
Speaker
I had a problem with my mouth and almost got beaten because this was not the first time. When I went last week, the barbecue was not fresh. Finally, I was yelled at by their staff.
00:43:51
Speaker
Well, that's what I experienced today. I thought I'd forget it and never go again. The tragedy was that I had diarrhea when I came back. I don't believe I'm the only one who has eaten stinky food. Please also ask friends who have had similar experience and talk about it. We cannot allow this behavior to continue. But wait a second. Who goes back after they had diarrhea and stinky food? It sounds like this guy goes quite often.
00:44:21
Speaker
One review just says, in all caps, don't come here. Well, sounds like we've got a contender for the next. Your favorite coach sucks meat up. Please. This restaurant needs a food inspector ASAP. I bit into two bread stuffing with the jello sweet thing in the middle next to the corn chowder. They had mold.
00:44:47
Speaker
all three had all caps, all three had got mold, almost gave it to my daughter. We've been regulars for five years in this and never had this happen. All caps, my health and people health at stake. The best I did was a free meal and I stood up and left. Three stars.
00:45:10
Speaker
three stars. Like I said, sounds like a good contender for the next year. Favorite goes to six me though. I'm always down for a sketchy buffet. All right. So ribs also wants to know what six flags park seems like the least like a six flags park.
00:45:37
Speaker
Um, Hmm. Good question. Yeah. That's tough to answer. It's been a long time since I've been to a lot of them because they're all pretty good at being on brand. But if I had to pick one,
00:46:03
Speaker
Um, shit. I don't know. They've done a pretty good job of like smearing their brand over everything they touch. Maybe Fiesta Texas in that it's actually decent. I can see that because they don't have Fiesta Texas doesn't have like, they don't really do the ad wraps on the roller coasters and like the Schwartz cough hair gel everywhere.
00:46:34
Speaker
Um, yeah, that park is like the least fucked up. I would go with that one. I guess I'm going to agree because I've only been to a handful in the past like five, six years. And that's like most distinctly its own. Yeah. Which is like disappointing because coming back to the merger,
00:47:04
Speaker
which I saw today is under scrutiny by the feds just to approve that like regular checkoffs, you know, so no reason to think it won't go through. But the SEC, of course, is going to want to cross their T's and dot their I's.
00:47:31
Speaker
But yeah, shame to think that like. Who knows? With the fate of a park like that's going to be, you know. Who knows? Well, how what about the inverse? What Cedar Fair Park feels the least like a Cedar Fair Park? Knots. Yeah, I'd go with knots.
00:48:05
Speaker
there's like the one or two very distinct like, Oh, Cedar fair features, but on the whole, yeah. No, pretty different. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be interesting to see what happens. That's for sure. All right. So, uh, definitely homie brand friend of the show.
00:48:33
Speaker
wants to know, how do you feel about live entertainment in the parks? Do you seek out shows, avoid them, pop in if it's loading and you're nearby? All right. So, I was always somebody who only went to shows.
00:48:55
Speaker
as a way to either escape crowds or heat. But after I worked in the entertainment department, my opinion on that changed. I saw how much work and talent goes into making those shows happen. And like I became a big nerd for like lighting and how the like logistics of the staging happens.
00:49:26
Speaker
Yeah. So like now I love going to theme park shows because I love to see like expensive fucking lighting and sound gear work. You know what I mean? Yeah. You're like, holy shit. That's like $30,000 worth of lasers right there. Wow. You know,
00:49:56
Speaker
Yeah, I guess I don't really seek it out, but I I guess like lately I my visits of parks are so brief that I typically don't even have enough time planned to really see shows. I always kind of forget about it. Well, I'd like to say real quick to piggyback off of that,
00:50:23
Speaker
In my experience at my home park in the last year, shows and the entertainment department at large has been drastically cut budget-wise. And I think that's been industry-wide because what's going to be the biggest cost? Labor.
00:50:47
Speaker
and where's the biggest labor shows. So like at Great America, they can have the grand music hall only run a show for six weeks from like mid June to like beginning of August or end of July.
00:51:08
Speaker
And at like Disney, they'll replace all their speaking characters with like costume characters and a prerecorded soundtrack. And like, yeah, sure. I love parks, but I'm happy to also use this small platform to highlight like, yeah, all of our friends that are in the entertainment departments that we either watch or don't, doesn't matter. They're a big part of parks.
00:51:38
Speaker
and a big part of absorbing crowds, regardless if you notice it or not. So shouts to them and like, hopefully parks can maybe get more on track with allocating budgets to that. Yeah. I wonder if they like, I mean, like how much do you think it costs to operate a show every year? Oh shit. Probably fucking.
00:52:06
Speaker
hundreds of thousands of dollars. Just think about like the labor. They're running four or five shows a day, plus they're doing maybe a nightly show of some sort. If your budget for the entire show is only a thousand. Huge chunks eaten up by labor, you know. And that doesn't account for like, oh, the set needs this or we need new gels for the lights.
00:52:37
Speaker
or whatever. I think shows should be more prevalent and entertainment cast members at whatever park should be paid fairly. Well, also too, if you're trying to get people other than theme parks, shows are a good way to do that. That's a great people leader. You can fit, what, 2,500 people in the theater for half an hour?
00:53:07
Speaker
That's a great way to clear up people that would be on benches or in line for a ride or can't ride or whatever, you know? Yeah.
00:53:18
Speaker
It's a great place to put people that isn't the line for the ride. So if you're a coaster enthusiast, you should also be for shows at the parks because that's going to put grandma and the baby and whatever in line for not in line for the ride. Because if there's not a show and all the benches are taken up,
00:53:46
Speaker
Grandma and the baby are going in line with the ride and they're walking through, because that's how theme parks work. Well, I wonder, has any park done something sad, like replace a live show with just like a projector and like a 60 minute video? Am I giving Six Flags too many ideas?
00:54:14
Speaker
I mean, they just have like a they have like a recording of the live show from five years ago and they just like play it on a projector. Look, Ignite had singers and dancers, but it also was kind of a show made to just be a big video screen. So do you remember Ignite? That was the
00:54:43
Speaker
I think so. I don't know if I really ever saw it. Um, it was around the same time that Cedar Point did luminosity. Yeah. The year after. Yeah. Which was not a bad show. Like it was kind of a good way to have an alternative kind of show style that was more interactive. Yeah.
00:55:12
Speaker
Six Flags didn't go that direction. I would certainly encourage any of our listeners who are curious to look it up on YouTube. Ignite Six Flags Great America. For any of our listeners who don't want the whole thing, PLDR,
00:55:36
Speaker
They spent over a million dollars tearing up Hometown Square at Green America to make a stage for a show that only ran for one season. Oh, that's right. They did rip up all that shit. I remember that. And if you don't want another show, but you're curious about the history, check out See the Carousel. I made it. I'm plugging it because there's no ads on that shit. Check it out.
00:56:10
Speaker
But yeah, they tore up all the fucking hometown square for that shit. Because, yeah, for some reason, Great America thought they were competing with Cedar Point. About 10 years ago, for some reason. Unbeknownst to anybody. What's that old method of like, oh, this works at a different park, so let's just copy paste it here. Yeah, I think what it was was that X-Flight. Yeah, Great America, Great America got X-Flight.
00:56:40
Speaker
And Cedar Point got that nighttime show. So then Cedar Point got Gay Keeper and Great America decided, oh, you steal our ride, we'll steal your show. But they fucked up. Remember, wasn't there like glow in the park too? Glow in the park was awesome and I will not hear anything but glow in the park was great.
00:57:09
Speaker
It was the best parade great America ever had. How long, how long did that one run? Very briefly, like 2008 to 2011 or 2012. I am slightly biased cause I drove mystery machine in 2007. No, 2011, but it was a great parade.
00:57:38
Speaker
great soundtrack made by one of the music directors of Cirque du Soleil and awesome floats with lots of LED lighting. Yeah, it was cool as shit. Is basically Six Flags trying to do Disney shit on a Six Flags budget, but it was really cool. Did you ever see that one?
00:58:08
Speaker
I don't think so. Oh, man. I'm pumped for you. Yeah, I don't remember. I mean, like, I remember seeing the pictures of it and stuff, but I don't think I saw it in person. Man, I'm sorry, because it was great. I mean, if you see the electrical Main Street Parade or something similar, if you see a parade at Disney at nighttime,
00:58:38
Speaker
It's going to be better. But for being right there, it was great. But I want to spend send a special thanks to our buddy, Brian, for sending that question because I love that shit. Oh, he sent in another question. Thank you, Brian. He said rope drop or close out of park.
00:59:04
Speaker
When I was younger, I wanted to stay the whole time, but now I'd rather do one or the other. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to agree with that. I'd rather rope drop. And sometimes like if I go to, if I need to go to a park for two days, I'll go the second half of the day and then stay nearby. And if I missed anything, go for rope drop, just the ride, like one or two things and then leave.
00:59:34
Speaker
That makes sense. Well, yeah, staying the whole day is a lot. I mean, I've done it like I did that at Busch Gardens when I went out last summer and that was that was a fucking endurance test. Yeah, like I can. But I get kind of miserable. And like, you know. Yeah.
01:00:05
Speaker
I turn into like, I just want to sit down. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. God, the best meal I had was I went to Popeyes near the one near Busch Gardens and just eating all that salt felt so fucking good. I bet you're in Florida and all dehydrated. Yeah.
01:00:36
Speaker
But yeah, I can't do a park all day anymore. Like our only brand was Sand. It's gotta be one or the other. And between the two, you're gonna get less crowds if you go for the opening.
01:00:55
Speaker
Yeah, lately though, the only problem if you go at rope drop is when you get to the park and like the main coaster doesn't open for like 45 minutes. That's always a bummer. I haven't experienced that. Where's that been an issue for you? Um, well recently I pushed gardens. Like I did like the park opened, but iron quasi didn't open for the first like 45 minutes.
01:01:22
Speaker
Holy shit. And so like I was just kind of standing there watching all of the other rides operate. And I was like, I wonder if it would have been better to like do everything else first, then come back to this. Um, but I wasn't sure like what kind of crowds they're going to be that day. Fortunately, not much, but
01:01:42
Speaker
Damn. That's always like my least favorite thing is like when you try to wait out a ride that's opening late and you see like everything else around you operating at like half, you know, half full trains. Yeah. You're like motherfucker. I could have been riding chikra. Well, again, big thank you to our homies for sending those questions. We got some more. Um,
01:02:14
Speaker
ribs back wondering what's more likely to happen? Six flags parks start to feel like Cedar Fair parks or Cedar Fair parks start to feel like six flags parks. Easy. Cedar Fair parks start to feel like six flags parks.
01:02:37
Speaker
Yeah. Cause the thing is when a park becomes a six flags park, it's more of like a, it's like a dirty like virus kind of thing because slowly you'll start seeing like ad wrappers on trains and like giant advertisements everywhere. That's the thing. Like you can tell a six flags park just by the fucking ads.
01:03:04
Speaker
Remember when we did that in like 2008 and it was supposed to be kind of the what? Got to be glued. How is that still a thing? Who the fuck is buying hair gel? Even through all these eras of all these eras of fashion and like hair gel is still a thing. I mean, those ads have been up now for like 15 years.
01:03:33
Speaker
Longer than that. I remember wearing that got to be glued shit when I was in middle school. That had been fucking two. Yeah. Yeah, I had the hair gel. I don't care. 2001. Yeah, we're old. We don't fucking care. But yeah, that's what I'm saying.
01:04:00
Speaker
It's gonna be Cedar Fair Park's film, like Six Flags Parks. No doubt about it. Let's see, our homie, uh, Bass W. Basswa. I'm, I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing it. Basswa. Gonna be Curtains for Skyline soon.
01:04:21
Speaker
their new family coasters are ripping themselves apart for a less oblivious pic. I don't know. We'll see on SMS much longer. Yeah. What, what is going on with Skyline? They can't open a fucking ride.
01:04:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not sure. And Marcelli, our buddy says, yeah, I can see both of those. I think SNS needs to hope that the access is a hit and that parks still want free spins. Oh, wait, hold on. Marcelli asked what my ride manufacturer will be the next to go out of business. And our other buddies were just replying to it.
01:05:07
Speaker
See, I would want to say SNS, but also, I mean, SNS seems to be like operating. They operate pretty lean already and they have so many rides all over the world with like their space shots and stuff that I feel like. Unless parks start taking those rides out, I think they're going to be OK. Like they could probably survive just on maintaining their portfolio. They have out already. Yeah.
01:05:37
Speaker
And I think their drop towers also seem pretty reliable too. But as far as like seeing new coasters from them, I don't think so. I also don't think the axis is going to take off. I mean, it's at least not in the form of like a major coaster, but like their small prototype, I could see them going in more that direction.
01:06:04
Speaker
like that little prototype would be perfect for like a small park. Maybe, but the capacity is going to be such shit. Remember when everyone was like, when everyone was like, Oh, like, where's the prototype going to go? And then the people who went to go ride it were like, no, like they literally can't
01:06:29
Speaker
sell it to a park because there's like no platform. Remember that? Yeah. And it's like, but how hard is it to just build a platform? I don't think that model is sellable. I don't think the public can write it.
01:06:50
Speaker
No, but I mean, they could retrofit it. They wouldn't sell it as is, but I think they've learned that lesson because that's what they did with, um, fucking XLC. Oh yeah. They sold the, uh, the exact prototype from on the desert retrofitted it with some terms. Remember how cool the prototype looked?
01:07:21
Speaker
Yeah, because it had, it had the full length vertical drop, which is, which looked pretty cool. And then, you know, he was fucking awesome though. Yeah. I mean, it looked cool. It's just, I mean, like the drop, but like that, the drop off the top hat was so much shorter because of that turn.
01:07:46
Speaker
It was, but still, that moment of airtime was fucking amazing. I wish I could write it again. Glad I got to go two times to ye once I visited King's Dominion. What did they call that prototype? Thrustair 2000? Thrustair, yeah. Which is basically Max Force now.
01:08:14
Speaker
So let's see, ribs asks, what is the most memorable ride? Wait, what is the most memorable ride out roller coaster? Ride out roller coaster. I. Yeah. I'm not entirely sure I understand the question. I'm going to try and interpret the best I can. All right. I'm taking this to mean like.
01:08:43
Speaker
The ride you have like the most fun riding, not necessarily like your top 10, the best air time, anything like that. You just enjoy riding it the most. It's the most fun. And for me, that's gonna be Viper at Great America. I have a great time.
01:09:13
Speaker
Even in its current form. Yeah, even with the pothole. Because I'll say pothole aside, still an awesome ride. Yeah. Yeah, it's still good. In fact, I actually kind of liked it with that is a little rough. But it was definitely shocking because that's one of those rides that really hasn't
01:09:40
Speaker
Even after all these years, it didn't really get rough until recently. And to where it actually felt like a completely different ride. Yeah. And I was upselling it. See, I was like, Oh no, no, no. Like, trust me, like this ride is, it's not rough. Like it's, it's still smooth and like we get on it. It's just potholes and roughness. I mean, it's still fun though. I think my fun ride is probably still Magnum.
01:10:09
Speaker
That was always like, if you're bored, take a handful of laps on Magnum. Well, that, uh, transitions really nicely into the next question from our other homie brand and huge shouts to, uh, Brian Marcelli and ribs and bacon for some questions. Brian wants to know Zen rides, where, when, and how many.
01:10:39
Speaker
I think the only time I've ever had a Zen ride is during the Batman the ride backwards commercial shoot. And even that, I don't think was technically a Zen ride because there may have been a crew of actors riding in the quote unquote first row. Zen rides.
01:11:08
Speaker
I've gotten a few got one on Magnum. Um, definitely have had them on Eagle. I would say probably the most Zen rides I've had on a ride is probably Eagle. Cause there are a lot of times you go back there and there's like no one in the station, especially if it was last hour. Yeah. I don't think I've ever had a Zen ride though. Cause I feel like I've always been with somebody. Oh yeah.
01:11:39
Speaker
Even with the answer I gave, I'm like, I'm not sure. The other thing about Zen rides on wooden coasters is that they usually run a little slower. Oh, I've kind of, I've gotten a Zen ride on boardwalk bullet and like avalanche. Avalanche always ran fast though. So that probably was fun.
01:12:10
Speaker
Um, you had any other Zen rides? I'm trying to think. I feel like I have like, um, actually, yeah, I had, um, I had a Zen ride on Tigris at Bush gardens and, um,
01:12:34
Speaker
Which is funny. Cause like, I remember that was my biggest, for some reason that was my biggest stress was like, I was like, Oh, I got to go to the very back and get on Tigress. Cause I don't want to wait in a long line. But the thing I got back there and as a fucking walk on, there's nobody on it. Um, Oh, I had a Zen right on Montu as well. Damn.
01:12:58
Speaker
Uh, both of the, uh, or no white lightning. And then the, that other fun spot coaster. Yeah. But I feel like that's pretty easy to do. Well, damn, you beat me for sure. I ain't done shit for sunrise. Well, I definitely want to thank
01:13:27
Speaker
Everybody for sending their questions. I'm feeling ready to wrap this up. How about you, Ben? Yeah, yeah, I'm feeling good. For sure. Well, glad to be back. We'll be getting back more into the swing of it. Thanks for listening. And until next time, your favorite character sucks.